Postcards From My Life

Dear Reader,

tl;dr

Thee points I took from the blog post “Everything I need to know about startups, I learned from a crime boss”

I learned to read at an early age – correction, I learned to love to read at an early age – thanks to my mom. The problem is that I read so much, I usually don’t pay close attention to it. This is great for fiction but not so great for business books and blog posts. So I am making an effort to read thing more deliberately. One of the ways I do that is to take notes as I read.. I’ve got 9 pages of notes in my notebook on Marketing White Belt: Basics For the Digital Marketer, which was the first book I read after deciding to do this.

I read way too many blogs to pull out my battered notebook every time, so I’ve decided to start blogging when I find an article that is interesting and give you three things I took away from it. (Future articles won’t have a pointless preamble)

Article:”Everything I need to know about startups, I learned from a crime boss”

1. I need to be more vocal.
   In the section “Closed mouths don’t get fed” the author makes an excellent point. I tend to take a “Field of Dreams” approach to marketing my own ideas like “Avoiding a Goat Rodeo” and Day Camp 4 Developers”. I’m going to find ways to be more vocal about it, ask for the sale while not being too annoying.
2. I am going to cut out projects that have been going on for more than a year and don’t show signs of either turning a profit.
   I have 1 project I do just for fun no matter if it makes a profit or not. Everything else has to be examined under the microscope of profitability. I’m not becoming a crass money-whore, it’s more a matter of time allocation. There are things I do for fun and things I do for money. If an activity doesn’t fit in one of those buckets, it probably needs to go.
3. I think too small.
   As much as I love DC4D (and it’s not one of the projects I’m reevaluating) I want to build something that impacts developers lives the way TED Talks impact entrepreneurs…and others. DC4D was started because I love helping developers. I’ve got to get it to the point where it helps more developers. I am not content in helping small numbers of developers, I want to help them all. My next steps with DC4D – and with other projects I am considering – will need to be big.

Until next time,
I <3 |<
=C=

Dear Reader,

No, this is not a SOPA rant, but it is related.

Recently, I attended a round table discussion on SOPA hosted by my Congressman, Rep. Jim Cooper. While the discussion was heated at time, I felt that overall it was a good meeting. I didn’t actually expect anything to get resolved, and I wasn’t disappointing. I did however, get to meet some new people here in Nashville that I hope will become friends.

One person I met, I will not say who, had something very interesting to say as we were shaking hands at the end. They said:

The problem is, we have a generation that doesn’t understand right from wrong.

I disagreed and said so by quoting my friend Jacques Woodcock from a previous event where he sagely said:

It’s not that people don’t understand that copying music is wrong, it’s that they don’t care. They don’t respect your copyrights.

(ok, I’m paraphrasing Jacques quote since I’m working from memory on it. Jacques, feel free to correct m if I got it wrong.)

It’s not that people are looking to steal stuff. If the material is made easily available and reasonably priced most people will buy it instead of trying to download it from somewhere. Most people want to do the right thing, but when they can’t, they are willing to violate the rights of a copyright holder, especially when they feel they are being treated unfairly.

Here is a specific case to prove my point. in 1995, Disney released “The Goofy Movie”. It was meh but my kids loved it. In addition to buying a VHS copy when they were available, we bought the CD sound track…which was equally meh. There was however, 1 song on the sound track I-2-I that was catchy. I really liked it, it got my toes to tapping. (Seriously, if you know me, don’t act surprised. I like Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez too. My kids are threatening to disown me.) :)

Fast forward 10+ years, the CD has long been lost. I don’t want to buy it again, just to get that one song so I do what everyone does, I go out to iTunes (and also Amazon) to find the song. Guess what, you can buy most the other songs individually for $.99 but I-2-I (mislabeled “121″) can’t be bought individually. So while all the other songs are reasonably prices, this one is effectively $10.

I don’t mind respecting copyrights but I seriously dislike being ripped off.

NOTE: I am not admitting to finding an alternate source for a song I have already paid for and legally own a license to, I’m just using this as an example.

1/2 of the equation for killing most copyright violations out there is reasonably priced. $10 for 1 song is not reasonably priced. Attention big media, I am happy to honor your rights as long as you don’t abuse me. You don’t seem to have learned that lesson yet. People like Louis CK have proven that if you get it right, you’ll have to rent a truck just to carry all your money to the bank. (You guys in big media have got to seriously hate him for poking large holes in all of your arguments!) :)

Keep getting it wrong and I’ll remind you of this post in a year cuz you’ll still be bitchin’ about how copyright violations are gonna kill you. They aren’t killing you, your own stupidity is.

Until next time,
I <3 |<
=C=

Dear Reader,

When you get stuck, who do you look to? I’m not asking in the spiritual or existential sense, I mean, in real life, when you hit a problem, do you have someone you can ask?

A lot of you who read this are developers – mostly PHP developers. When you hit a wall programmatically, do you have a person you know you can turn to and ask for help? Or even just ask an opinion? If not, that should be a priority for you.

One of the great things about the PHP community is that the members are so giving. I have been a member of several communities revolving around programming languages and have to say that the PHP is by far the most open and giving. It is one of the great assets of the language.

In the past year, I started getting more connected to my local tech and social media community here in Nashville. I am nowhere near being a Social Media expert so I am always looking to add people to my list of people I can look to for help. Lucky for me in Nashville we have a lot of really smart marketing people who are willing to share what they know.

Harvey MacKay summed it up nicely in the title of one of his books, “Dig Your Well Before You’re Thirsty: The Only Networking Book You’ll Ever Need“. Start getting to know people now, even if you don’t have questions.

Until next time,
I <3
=C=

Dear Reader,

As part of my end-of-the-year process, I’ve been looking at how I spend my time. I’ve always fancied myself a “creative” but when I look at how I spend my time, a lot of it is spend sitting in front of a TV. I find myself Tivo surfing a lot these days under the guise of “winding down”. Watching re-runs of sitcoms takes a lot less effort than sitting down and reading a good book so I tend to be lazy and do that. One of my goals for this year is however to read more though. This means I have to cut something out. Given that “big media” has declared war on me by penning SOPA, I think this is a good opportunity to re-evaluate my support for them and their sponsors by reading more. (Yes, I am aware that most major book publishers are supporters of SOPA/PIPA…baby steps.) So I’m starting my reading list. Hopefully, I’ll post about each book as I read it.

• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
  Ok, I’m cheating because I’m about 25% through this one already. Like Marketing White Belt: Basics For the Digital Marketer before it, I am reading it “purposefully”. I am taking my time, and taking a lot of notes. So far, it is fantastic.
• The Cluetrain Manifesto: 10th Anniversary Edition
  I read it when it first came out but I’m re-reading it to refresh myself. This one is a great read. If you are in Social Media and haven’t read this book, stop what you are doing now and read it.
• EntreLeadership: 20 Years of Practical Business Wisdom from the Trenches
  This is at the top of my list to read next but I have to finish “7 Habits” first. This is another one I want to read purposefully.
• Brand Against the Machine: How to Build Your Brand, Cut Through the Marketing Noise, and Stand Out from the Competition
  I follow John on Twitter and he has some interesting things to say. When this book was released, the marketing echo-chamber went gaga over it. It looks like an interesting read and since Marketing is my hobby, I hope to learn a lot from it.

Reading inspires me to write, every time I read, I have to keep a notebook handy to jot down the ideas for new blog posts or chapters for “Avoiding a Goat Rodeo“. TV, on the other hand, just lets me veg out. I’d rather be inspired than just shut down, so for me this year, more reading.

Until next time,
I <3 |<
=C=

p.s., yes, those are Amazon affiliate links. Not the reason I wrote the post but if they bother you, go directly to Amazon and search for the titles.

Dear Representative Jim Cooper, Senator Lamar Alexander, & Senator Bob Corker

When it comes time to vote on SOPA or PIPA, don’t forget…

…we are watching.

Until next time,
I <3 |<
=C=

p.s. For more information on why SOPA is bad legislation, see my post “A Business Person’s SOPA Primer“