Cameron Woodward

Friends, not strangers.

If you’re like most marketers you’ve jumped onto Google, attached a bank account and pumped out advertisements about a service, product, store or project.

The Google magic works. You start getting lots and lots of traffic, while the thoughts of marketing glory bounce around in your head, you realize that traffic is making it to your site, but not a lot of new customers, just traffic.

You’re not alone.

Yearly, 220 Billion dollars of unmeasured advertising campaigns slip past marketers and go unleveraged and wasted.

To fix it you’ll do two things;

1.   Stop relying on marketing spend. When you do spend, track and measure.

2.   Make Friends. Facebook friends, Youtube friends, email friends…

You know this stuff already, but it’s hard to say no to the easier set-it and forget-it approach. Sadly friends, it doesn’t work.

It takes a lot of energy to make a new friend, but its worth it when they care (and buy) what you sell them.

Fake Poop is Awesome.

Søren Adam Sørensen is a hero of mine.

Immigrant. Entrepreneur. Maker of Magic. Dreamer of Dreams.

If you’re familiar with the Dribble Glass, or a host of other gags that made your childhood awesome like Black Soap, or the “Snake” Nut Can you’ve been pranked by Søren; better known as the founder of the S.S. Adams Company.

Sørensen opened up shop in 1906 with the introduction of “Cachoo” Sneezing Powder and from that single strange invention launched and built an empire of magic tricks and novelties. Seriously, who doesn’t love plastic gag poop, trick candles and fart candy?

There are so many notable products from the S.S. Adams legacy, but perhaps the most prolific is the famed “Joy Buzzer” invented in 1928 in the eve of the Great Depression. While 25% of Americans found themselves jobless; Sørensen was able to increase his staff and purchase a new factory made possible by the companies impressive product catalog.

Determination, tenacity, creativity and inventiveness allowed S.S. Adams to not only survive the depression, but  prosper through it.

If you’re worried that you’re going to fail or too afraid to make the jump to start that business idea you’ve always wanted to try, just remember that the S.S. Adams Company lasted for over 100 years peddling fake poo.

Lemming*

Our individual uncertainty is a surprisingly effective primer for amassing a following whom assume a collective certainty; it’s obvious that those who have the most friends and influence often have a seemingly unwavering sense of destiny, meaning and mission.

Where do these leadership qualities come from?

I think its a clear definition of goals mixed with pure unadulterated ego. 

We’re all lost. So, if you want to lead a following, it’s obvious that the trick is to convince yourself (and others) that you know perfectly well where you are (and where you’re going).

[It’s good to have values so you don’t lead you’re followers off a cliff, although, you wouldn’t be the first.]

*Lemming’s don’t actually jump off cliffs.

Community.

Certainly one of the greatest benefits of stepping out and doing real labor is the independence that only comes from rolling up sleeves and getting real work done your way: a new business, building a wacky and colorful book-case, or stepping into a new job promotion – self-sufficiency is thrilling.  

Entrepreneurship represents a tangible way to build a new culture, to realize that another world is possible and that financial, creative, and intellectual freedom are achievable if only we reach out to grab them; the first step is the hardest.

It’s easy to forget in the race for independence, as we’re gathered around with our families for Christmas dinners, that our freedom and liberties are displayed in the interdependence between ourselves and everyone else around - we’re all beautifully bound together.

It seems the meaning of life is to spend it with the person standing next to us.

How do you lose a life?

If you were to lie in bed all day, you’d most likely feel gross. You know, it’s that funny groggy feeling that makes you feel depressed – it makes you get up and do something.

Most of us have an internal mechanism that warns us when we’re wasting a lot of time participating in mundane routines – sleep, television, video games. You just get the feeling that enough is enough. Even if you don’t break away, you know somewhere in the back of your mind that you’re being a little bit gross.

The crazy thing is, we don’t lose the most of our life bingeing – we know it’s gross and we correct ourselves. We lose our lives in the precious time that we hardly ever take notice of – checking the blackberry, going to meetings, writing reports; this fake work almost always makes no real difference.

Stop being busy, you’re wasting your life. Efficient is completely different than effective.

Quick thought.

Never, never, never, never, never give up; but fail often and learn to love it. Success is built on the foundations of past disasters and learned from experience. 

And have fun, because hard work is not as hard as it seems when you mistake it for fun. We are going to die, all of us, dead as dirt - we might as well be dead now, especially if we’re walking though life miserably. Their is nothing to fear, we’re already gone - go, move, run, jump into dreams. 

Prompt: Write the rules.

I want you to write an essay on the meaning of your life. 

It has to be eight pages, and no more than thirteen. Make sure it’s double spaced and in Times New Roman with 1” margins with a header ½” including last name and page number – you need to site 6 outside resources, make sure that you indent sources 5 spaces and that resources are included in a works-cited page. 

If you misspell 4 or more words you fail, if you break the formatting guidelines you fail, if you question why these guidelines are important, you fail. 

Stupid right? 

Since the time we’re old enough to go to school we’re spoon fed compliance, obedience, guidelines, and road-maps. We’re graded on how well we’ve followed instructions, graded on listening intently, not arguing. 

Don’t challenge the paradigm. Don’t break the status-quo. Follow.

It’s a shame and a sham. 

No doubt, we need followers – but there sure are a lot of followers. The people who make a difference write their own rules.  

I’d much rather write the rules. 

If you want, write an essay on the meaning of your life; write it however you want; no rules.

The weathermen are wrong.

It’s a good idea to set goals, its an added layer of accountably and a measurement to help get over the hump and succeed. 

Smart companies set goals at work too. Sometimes they’re called balanced scorecards, internal goals, or forecasts. They’re helpful in lots of ways; they push teams and give them something to work toward.

Although, when the pressure mounts to live up to the forecasted goals with the deadline soon approaching - the team freaks, and a crisis in management sets in, time is wasted. The work never gets done, the team is scurrying to fix imaginary or unattainable goals.

We all want progress, it’s wired in us. Sometimes in our never-ending desire for growth we try to make it rain in the summer. If goals are putting you into a crisis, try a goal range. Make progress, don’t break your organizational systems and cry wolf.

Prune the crisis time-wasters, systems build efficiency, imaginary crises break systems.

The Mesh

I was surprised when I found a package at my door-step. I was especially surprised when I opened it up and found a nice little letter from Seth with a fresh and shiny book, The Mesh: Why The Future Of Business Is Sharing by Lisa Gansky.

So I’ve been reading, and the first thing to know is that Lisa is incredible. Gansky was the co-founder of GNN the first commercial website and portal (in the 1990’s portals we’re the ‘way of the future’, then, Google came.) she sold it to Aol in 1995. Then, she co-founded another disruptive company, Ofoto an online photo company that was acquired by Kodak in 2001.

That alone, is impressive.

But to the book! - The Mesh is a simple book about a big idea. Like never before, the world is connected with open or shared networks. Not only are we sharing more information about ourselves on facebook, we’re also starting to share our resources like cars, bikes, clothes, tools and knowledge. If you’re starting a business, or watching the market - it’s obvious that things are changing, drastically. Gansky argues that our old market prospered on the fact that stuff became cheap, and then credit became cheap and so we filled our lives with crap - and not things we actually care about or need. 

The Mesh is the trend that is pushing our highly connected and ever-more-open society into offering more services that can be shared within a market, community, or value chain. 

Netflix. Kickstarter. Crushpad. These are Mesh businesses, and they are the vanguard of the next huge companies. 

The open web is spilling into our offline world.

The Mesh offers dozens of great concise case-studies, and has practical examples of how successful companies are implementing Mesh thinking.  If you’re getting ready to start a business or want to get a glimpse of where business is heading, this book is for you.

Oh, and if you’d be so kind. I would love if you recommend me in the tumblr directory here.

No Rules, not even biology.

There was a recently posted article in the New York Times and the gist is this,

A thin line separates the temperament of a promising entrepreneur from a person who could use, as they say in psychiatry, a little help. Academics and hiring consultants say that many successful entrepreneurs have qualities and quirks that, if poured into their psyches in greater ratios, would qualify as full-on mental illness. 

While I agree that entrepreneurs sometimes have some marbles loose, I also know some incredibly level-headed business minds that have built good strong companies. 

I’m finding the real truth in doing work that matters is not insanity (although it may help) but rather a formation of goals that you are set on achieving. 

There’s no doubt, if you’re building a start-up (or doing anything that’s worth-doing) it may well make you go crazy, but before you take that plunge - ask yourself what you want to be, what you want to have, and what you want to do. 

Before needing to be manic, a college graduate, or know the best business tactics; you need to decide what your purpose and success is - when you’re a person with a purpose, you’ll be unstoppable. 

No one is born to be remarkable, or born an entrepreneur. It’s your choice to be outstanding and do work that matters. 

You don’t need permission from evolution, teachers, parents, bosses - the rule is simple, you do it now.