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Archive for January, 2010
Next time someone is stealing one of your dreams…
Sunday, January 10th, 2010Sometimes people get it wrong. Here is a list of some of the most famous “predictions gone bad” regarding the introduction of various forms of technology. I am sure you have seen a couple of them before but there are some wonderful eye openers in there. As entrepreneurs knowing who to listen to and who to ignore is a powerful skill that we all need to develop.
1. “The Americans have need of the telephone, but we do not. We have plenty of messenger boys.” William Preece, Chief Engineer at the British Post Office, 1878.
2. “Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?” H.M. Warner, Warner Bros 1927.
3. “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” Thomas Watson, Chairman of IBM, 1943.
4. “Television won’t be able to hold onto any market it captures after the first six months. People will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night.” Darryl Zanuck, 2oth Century Fox, 1946.
5. “The world potential for copying machines is 5000 at most.” IBM executives to the eventual founders of Xerox, 1959.
6. “There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.” Ken Olsen, founder of mainframe producer Digital Equipment Corporation 1977.
7. “No one will ever need more than 637kb of memory for a personal computer. 640kb ought to be enough for anybody.” Bill Gates, Microsoft 1981
8. “Next Christmas the iPod will be dead, finished, gone, kaput.” Alan Sugar, British Entrepreneur 2005.
Next time someone is telling you all of the things you can’t do – make your own decision. Now I am not saying that you should ignore all other people, but learning to follow your dreams, listening to your intuition and believing in yourself are fundamentals to truly to successful entrepreneurs.
Of course, sometimes as entrepreneurs we get it wrong. For all of the predictions that have been proven wrong there are many more that have actually been proven to be true. The difference is giving it a go. Most people don’t. In my book anyone who “has a shot” and is brave enough to give something a go, have already proven just how successful they are.
Self Empowerment Pledge – UPDATE
Saturday, January 9th, 2010Further to my earlier post, the author of the “Self Empowerment Pledge” is a man by the name of Joe Tye. He is a specialist Values Coach based in the USA. Take a moment to have a look at his site. Joe has some great tools and advice that really resonate with my own beliefs. Clearly he is a smart operator with real integrity. Congratulations Joe and we hope to see you in Australia sometime soon.
Sometimes we just have to be a little brave…
Saturday, January 9th, 2010A great friend of mine works for Jet Blue, a budget airline in the USA. In September they ran a sensational special offer. For a flat USD $599 passengers enjoyed unlimited travel anywhere in the Jet Blue network for the entire month. Wow, what a bargain. Most airlines wouldn’t be brave enough to make an offer like this, but I am sure the entire industry stood up and took notice when Jet Blue announced it.
Now when you think about it from JetBlue’s point of view they sold hundreds of thousands of their “All You Can Jet” tickets, generating millions of dollars in upfront revenue and they got enormous word of mouth publicity from their offer. And lets not forget the customers, those lucky enough to get the $599 tickets have a sensational deal. The perfect win/win scenario that is the stuff that legendary businesses are made of.
To make an offer like this you need to be brave and smart. I am sure that the team at Jet Blue are both. In these challenging times it is really the brave and the bold who often get the most amazing results. We need to be smart enough to think up new ideas and be brave enough to give them a go. Interestingly enough Jet Blue entered the North American market when all experts said there was no room for another budget airline. They have been consistently profitable, even in the midst of the GFC. We can all learn a lot from them and other similar brave and bold companies around the world.
Now is the time to throw out what doesn’t work and it is a time to try ideas that may be considered a little unorthodox. The best part of the modern business landscape is that if you can come up with a great idea, that is a little out of the box, and you are brave enough to give it a go, the power of social media will kick in and word of mouth marketing will spread your idea like wildfire.
Never before has there been a time that consumers are screaming for new things to buy and new ways to spend their money. Even in the midst of tough times, the new they are looking for is value. Offer this however you can and they will support you, even if it means buying more upfront to save over the long term. Another perfect example of this is Costco – the new discount supermarket in Australia. You can save a motza but you have to pay a membership fee and be prepared to buy toilet paper in lots of 100.
The lesson here is that fortune favours the brave, so be brave in your business. Be bold. If you try an idea and it doesn’t work, it’s not a failure it just means you are one step to closer to an amazing idea that generates a lot of money for your business, so keep trying.