Frank the cat and her spotted belly
(submitted by babybearface)
State of the internet, 2012.
Quote from Bill Murray in the New York Times
Reporter: Did you ever think that the lessons you first learned on the stage of an improv comedy theater in Chicago would pay off later in life?
Bill Murray: It pays off in you life when you´re in an elevator and people are uncomfortable. You can just say, “That’s a beautiful scarf.” It’s just thinking about making someone else feel comfortable. You don’t worry about yourself, because we’re vibrating together. If I can make yours just a little bit groovier, it’ll affect me. It comes back, somehow.
As your business changes, your business model may not
I often read references to legacy companies that repeat the same mantra at all their trade conferences, thought pieces and future predictions: we need to find new business models.
Since I never went to business school, I’m sort of stepping out on a limb here. But it seems to me that a business model consists of one or several streams of revenue. The combination of these it what constitutes the business model. Therefore it isn’t necessary to have multiple (or even new) business models, in plural, but rather to try to change the ratio or composition of the revenue streams that your model consists of.
Whether I have the terminology right or not, I think there could be a benefit in thinking about the problem in a more granular way. Coming up with a completely new model, seems big and overwhelming. Finding a single, small, new revenue stream is manageable – although it doesn’t instantly solve the issue at hand. It is more or less the difference between making big changes slowly, and making small changes all the time.
When searching for a new business model for a company, one must also be honest about the possibility that there simply isn’t one. Constantly searching for a new model, almost like looking for a paradigm shift, is tiresome and difficult. If there isn’t a new model around the corner, it could also overshadow the work with changing the ratios and tweaking the existing revenue streams. Finding and improving smaller parts of the puzzle. The two aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive, although in practice I think they often are.
There are industries going through substantial paradigm shifts in terms of product fit and consumer expectation. Assuming that their business model can go through the same shift could end up being a wild goose chase. And it could hinder these industries from being temporarily sustainable as the market changes, yet again.
All Markets Are Not Created Equal: 10 Factors To Consider When Evaluating Digital Marketplaces | Above the Crowd | By Bill Gurley
A very solid walkthrough of parameters to consider when creating platform companies. I wish there was more blog posts like this.
I changed my Tumblr theme as the last one didn’t differentiate well enough between quotes and my own writing. Also added an AMA which could go either way, I suppose.
Wake up early. Show up. Learn how to think. Be genuine, but appear nice. Use envy for motivation instead of destruction. Do what you say you’re going to do. Ensure balance in every area of your life. Confront repressed thoughts immediately. Surround yourself with people who are better than you (but remember the thing about envy). Work out every day. Be good at what you do. Make money doing what you love. Have good friends. Never settle. This is my personal recipe for happiness and success.
I don’t think this is a general recipe for happiness (and it’s not intended as one either). But I do like the idea of defining the things that positively affect you in such a simple way. I think it would act as a subtle reminder if nothing else.
“In my world, you don’t get to call yourself “pro-life” and be against common-sense gun control — like banning public access to the kind of semiautomatic assault rifle, designed for warfare, that was used recently in a Colorado theater. You don’t get to call yourself “pro-life” and want to shut down the Environmental Protection Agency, which ensures clean air and clean water, prevents childhood asthma, preserves biodiversity and combats climate change that could disrupt every life on the planet. You don’t get to call yourself “pro-life” and oppose programs like Head Start that provide basic education, health and nutrition for the most disadvantaged children. You can call yourself a “pro-conception-to-birth, indifferent-to-life conservative.” I will never refer to someone who pickets Planned Parenthood but lobbies against common-sense gun laws as “pro-life.””
I completely agree with this quote by Thomas L. Friedman.