David V. Lorenzo's Blog is now: www.careerintensity.com/blog

Biz Ed is a Must

The Donald has a post today about adding business curriculum to High Schools.  I happen to agree with him on this topic.  Practical business education would definitely help students hit the ground running. 

At the very least, offering business curriculum at that level would offer some basic skills for those who do not go on to college. 

Persistence as Your Personal Competitive Advantage

Eddie Cantor, a star of stage, screen, radio and TV from 1900 to 1960 said; “It took me twenty years to become an overnight success”. 

Let’s think about that literally for a minute.  If I told you today that your dreams would come true if you gave 100% effort everyday toward those dreams for the next twenty years, would you be able to do it?   

Let’s say that you could make a fine living, and you would be comfortable but you had to give 100% effort toward your dream each 8-hour workday, 5 days per week for the next twenty years.  Would you be able to sustain that type of effort to accomplish your most fantastic ambition? 

What about 10 years? 

Could you do it?

That is exactly what it takes. 

Persistence - Sustained effort in the face of adversity.  You will have incremental success along the way that will help to motivate you. Ultimately, the will to keep going will be one of the most critical aspects of your success. This fantastic quality will also help make you “lucky” as you enjoy your ride down the road toward success. 

Congratulations

USA Book News has announced the 2005 book awards.  The business list is below.  Congratulations one and all!

Business

Winner: The Leadership Integrity Challenge: How to Assess and Facilitate Emotional Maturity by Edward E. Morler, M.B.A., Ph.D, Sanai Publishing, ISBN: 0976864304

Finalist: Thinking Clockwise: A Field Guide for the Innovative Leader by Dennis Stauffer, MinneApplePress, ISBN: 0964042932

Finalist: A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age by Daniel H. Pink, Riverhead Books, ISBN: 1573223085

Finalist: High Impact Middle Management: Solutions for Today's Busy Managers by Lisa Haneberg, Adams Media, ISBN: 1593371586

Finalist: Green Weenies and Due Diligence: Insider Business Jargon - Raw, Serious and Sometimes Funny by Ron Sturgeon, Mike French Publishing, ISBN: 0971703116

Finalist: Kick the Dealer...Not the Tires by Mark Marine, MOTOM Publishing, ISBN: 0976887819

Finalist: 501+ Great Interview Questions for Employers and the Best Answers for Prospective Employees by Dianna Podmoroff, MBA, CHRP, Atlantic Publishing Group, ISBN: 0910627509

Thanks to Lisa Haneberg for the links.

Blog Readership Doubles

Marketwatch is reporting that blog readership has doubled in the past year.  Here is the money quote:

Technology is making it easier to ignore mainstream media advertising. Instead, consumers are using Web logs, mobile messaging, comparison shopping Web sites, and word-of-mouth to make buying decisions, according to Forrester Research Inc.

Data released Tuesday by the firm reported 10% of consumers read blogs at least once a week, compared with 5% a year ago. Really Simple Syndication feeds (RSS) are used by 6%, compared to 2% in 2004.

"Technology has given consumers an option to tune businesses out, and tune each other in," said Chris Charron, a Forrester (FORR: news, chart, profile) vice president, in a statement. "On the flip side, technology has given businesses an opportunity to gain greater customer insights at a lower cost," by monitoring blogs and Web sites and message boards "to uncover consumer insight and accelerate the innovation of products, services, and design."

This is certainly not news to the readers of this blog.  We knew this was happening.  This trend will continue to grow.

Thanks to Steve Rubel for pointing us to this information.

Significant Shift in Ad Buys

Broadcasting and Cable had an article last week about a significant shift in advertising spending.  New media is seeing an influx of ad dollars.  Here’s the money quote:

“Advertisers are shifting as much as 20% of their media dollars away from traditional media—TV, magazines and newspapers—and moving them to emerging categories, such as the Internet or movie theater ads.

Overall, the buyers said the TV-ad marketplace is flat, and they looked cautiously ahead to next year.”

I guess this is the place to be.  More and more people are reading blogs and spending time on the internet.  So far this has not resulted in a reduction in the cost of traditional advertising time.  Simple economics dictates that this will result in even greater defection from the traditional media and toward more economical alternatives.

Thanks to Steve Rubel for pointing us to the article in B&C.

Be Smart about E-mail

I hate it when people hit “reply to all” on an e-mail string.  I really hate it.  Achieve It points us to e-mail etiquette wisdom from eMarketer.  Here’s the money quote in the form of a graph:

Sometimes I think life was a little simpler when we just picked up the phone.

Don’t Let Others Steal Your Dream

Would you let someone buy your dream? 

Think about that for a minute.  Think about the thing that you want the most – let’s say it is a beautiful new Jaguar.  (If this isn’t your dream replace the Jag with something you really want but may appear out of your reach right now). 

A Jaguar is a really fast automobile and you will be the envy of all of your friends.  If you give up on the dream of obtaining that item I will give you $1,000 right now.  You get the $1,000 but you can never think about that car again.  I will talk to all the Jaguar dealers in the world and they will know that they are never to sell you a car. 

To make sure you keep up your end of the deal we are going to implant a chip in your right hand.  Every time you think about a Jaguar you will receive an electric shock.  As the frequency of your Jaguar thoughts increase, so will the voltage.  Would you agree to that deal? 

If buying a Jaguar was something you set in your mind as a goal you would never agree to that transaction. That goal gives you something to strive for.  It gives you hope.  It is your dream.

Here is the interesting thing:  We make those kinds of agreements with others everyday.  Every time we talk about a great idea with someone and they tell us that it will never happen - we have allowed that person to take away our dream.  They didn’t even pay for it.  They stole it! 

You can never let this happen. Don't listen to anyone who tells you you can't make your dream a reality.  This includes friends, relatives and espically co-workers. 

If you can dream it you can achieve it.

See Seth for Free

Seth is giving a preview of his new project at eComXpo. You can watch it live by clicking the link from Seth’s site. 

More on Education Value

FMF has another helpful post on the value of education.  Click here to read it.

Another Vote for Keeping it Simple

Mike at Guerrilla Consulting weighs in on presentation slides.  Here is the money quote:

“Richard E. Mayer, a professor at the University of California, studied the impact of multimedia presentations on human memory. He found that when irrelevant words and pictures were removed from such presentations, people experienced a 189 percent improvement in remembering the information.”

I hate wordy presentation slides.  If your slides are wordy, your presentation will definitely stink.