ActBrilliant!

After you send your support to Haiti , take comfort and find hope in Michael Franti's song

What About Innovation?

Arianna Huffington says that President Obama "spent a good deal of time in the days leading up to his State of the Union address, going over it with a fine-toothed comb, making changes and additions in longhand." If that's true, and I'd guess that it probably is, then every word was carefully chosen. That being said, check out the wordle of Wednesday night's speech.

I'm impressed by the way the words every, must, work and today stand out. In fact, as an orator and a speech writer, our President is brilliant.I hope he has a plan of action which will deliver on his promises. God knows we need jobs. Economist  Edmund Phelps, winner of the Nobel Prize in economics in 2006, told the World Economic Conference in Davos, Switzerland. that it's innovation  that creates jobs. I don't see that word in the wordle at all. Is President Obama aware of Phelps' work? New York City's Mayor Bloomberg seems to be.  He and the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) have launched several initiatives that are meant to encourage, educate, and provide guidance to individuals who have  ideas and want to develop them. In the past year, Bloomberg has announced  the NYC Next Idea 2009 contest; the Varick Street Incubator which provides low rent for startup companies; the Fashion Business Incubator, JumpStart NYC, which pairs laid-off Wall Street and media sector workers with start-up companies, the "Prepare for Success" workshop for early-stage startup companies and so on...  

A New Twist on New Year's Resolutions

I don’t usually make New Year’s resolutions, in the past few years, I’ve been pretty happy with my life.
And though I’m still happy, I think that there’s room for improvement. There are things I can change about myself and my behavior that should improve not only the quality of my life, but who I am as a person. That’s a pretty powerful place to stand.

Now, I don’t think that making a single resolution is a good way to go about it for me. Resolving to be  kinder, return e-mails, eat less junk, be on time, be more humble…I could go with any one of these, but nothing about them motivates me; in fact it seems like I would become my own nagging wife.

But while I was reading tweets, I came upon something that might work for me (and yes, I know this post is beginning to sound like an infomercial, but I promise I’m not trying to sell you anything. ) It comes from Chris Brogan. The way it works is that rather than making a resolution, you use three "targets" to guide your actions. Chris picked “Ask. Do. Share.” in 2006, and  “Seek. Frame. Build. Bridge.” in 2007. His explanation for choosing those is here. If you don't want to click over, here's his explanation of how it might work:

If you want to try the process, it works something like this: think of how you want to be successful in 2009. Then, try to think in even broader terms. Extrapolate on the broader terms, and find one word to hang the idea on. Meaning, don’t think as much “I want to lose 50 pounds and get back into my high school pants.” Try thinking “Fitness means I’ll be able to cover more ground.” From there, you can say “ground” might be your word. And then, when you look at that  word, you see how it can open you to even more meanings.

“Ground” can remind you to get fit so you can cover more ground. It can mean to be “grounded,” like someone who feels calm and at rest.Look for three words that will help you frame your challenges and opportunities for 2009. Don’t think about where you are this exact moment. If you’re without a job, setting a goal in 09 to get a job might not be very useful. Once you’ve got the job, then what? Instead, you could think about setting the goal of “Alignment,” where you ask yourself, “does this fit with everything else I intend for myself in this year?”Try setting your three words far out on the horizon, but such that they can lead you to your goals every day. Meaning, can you use the same word to get you started, but have it still be relevant when you’re almost at the big goal?

I think might mine for 2010 might be : Smart. Share. Celebrate.

Smart. Work Smart. Be Efficient. Get more done by doing less. Eat smart .Exercise Smart. Get the fuel and exercise you need to have the life you want, leave the excess for others. Think about living your promises before you make them. Saying “yes” costs time.

Share. Give love, laugh. Time to yourself, family ,friends. Share experience- both person to person (by actually spending time with other people) and through writing and conversation. Help. Contribute. Get back to people who call. Answer e-mails promptly.

Celebrate.  What Works. Spread Good.  Celebrate others. Learn from others. Champion others. Help others. Together we are richer than alone, don’t be alone.

I still have a few hours to go before I’m going to commit to mine, then maybe I’ll tattoo them to my right hand in 18 pt font so I don’t need reading glasses to see them.

Now the idea behind coming up with these words is to let them guide your actions. Chris made a schema to show what the paths toward achieving goals might look like:

I think putting my targets into this chart will take some work, but I’m going to see if I can figure out how to do it. I'm hoping that at this time next year I'll be as proud of how I've lived as of what I've accomplished.

Get outraged!

Yes, it's Sunday, there's football on TV, there are youth soccer games to go to, and the mall...then tomorrow it's back to the grind, whatever you need to do to keep food on the table and the rent paid.

But guess what's happening while you're doing that? Someone's making decisions that are changing the world that you live in. Their decisions may serve you, and they may not. If you don't lend your voice to the conversation then you're saying that you can't be bothered, or you don't care, or that you trust your government officials, their appointees and business partners to act in your best interest.

Oh, how I wish I thought that. Oh how I wish I could afford to think that. But people don't have jobs, people don't have equal rights, and rich men are sitting on their duffs (getting richer) while families are getting shoved out of their homes. What exactly am I talking about?

Remember those Investment banks that "we the people" helped to bail out? Well, here's how they're responding in kind (sic). Watch Representative Marcy Kaptur tell Bill Moyers about the treatment her constituents are getting from JPMC (which got a 25 BILLION dollar loan from us).

 

A Bank as Cool as Google?

A bank as cool as Google, that's pretty hard to believe; but, I think there may actually be one. And get this, it's Wells Fargo.  A friend sent me a link to Wells Fargo Labs at exactly the right time, just as I was getting ready to send out, "You-owe me's" from a long summer weekend.

Now this is not to suggest that my friends are deadbeats whom I have to nag to pay me back;in fact quite the opposite is true. They keep asking "How much do I owe you?" and I keep promising to send them each an e-mail, and I keep not doing it.

Why? Because I'm inclined to say something like, Just give me a $150.00 and we'll be good, and that won't do for my friends, even if their share is $152.27. These are folks who like details, not round numbers; they thrive on knowing where their every penny gets spent.

And, so to my rescue comes Wells Fargo's Settle Up ; checkout the demo. (Note: It's still in BETA) I hope that this is a glimpse of the kind of services that banks of the future will provide. It sure beats what I now get from my other banker who keeps calling me and begging me to come in to sit down with an investment analyst. If they can't do it over the phone or over the web, they can't have my business.

How to complain in a 2.0 World

Once upon a time ago if a big company mistreated you, or your things, your options were limited. You could call and complain to someone who has no power to make change. You could write a letter or an e-mail, and if you were lucky, you'd get an apology or a gift certificate for a free cup of coffee or something. No matter what form your interaction took, you probably ended up feeling powerless against the monolith that had done you wrong. Well, there's no reason to feel that way anymore...

Ladies and Gentlemen,I introduce you to musician Dave Carroll and the Attack Video. It's been viewed more than 2.5 million times as of this writing. Enjoy!

Get Your Own Personal Networking Assistant

Does the idea of having a personal networking assistant on Twitter sound good to you? If so, check out Mr. Tweet. He makes recommendations based on who the people that you follow, follow, on who they RT, etc..

Mr. Tweet is free to use and seems to be on the money most of the time as far as I can tell. He also offers a service (free as well) that sends a tweet to those you've just started to follow I didn't leverage this option thus far, but I do think it's a great idea.

Check it out, let me know what you think.

The Heroes of This Economic Crisis?

A few weekends back I did only two things, I walked the beautiful beaches of the Jersey shore (they were packed even though it was April), and I watched the C-Span coverage of George Washington University forum on the "Panic of 2008". I actually watched it three times. I then asked some friends to watch it too.

On the program well-spoken, intelligent minds like Dennis K. Berman, Deputy Bureau Chief of Money and Finance @The Wall Street Journal; Rob Cox, U.S. Editor of Breakingviews;  Daniel Gross, Senior Editor@ Newsweek,  Jesse Eisenger, Senior Writer @ Condé Nast Portfolio , Arthur F. Burns Fellow in Financial Policy Studies @ GW and others discussed our current economic crisis- how we got here and what the world might look like when it finally ends.

"This (referring to the current economic crisis) is our generation's World War II," is a claim one of the panelists made. I think he may be right. I know that many of my contemporaries can point to an enemy, I'd rather not.

Another panelist said,  "I don't yet see any heroes in this crisis." One of my friends who watched the program (and who asked that her name not be posted here because she doesn't have time to engage in a public debate, should one ensue)  says that she does.

"The heroes are you and me. The people who keep going to work each day. The people who don't give less when their pay is cut. The people who keep doing their best when there's no raise in sight. The people who agreed to take unpaid time off so that their coworkers' jobs could be saved. The people who are going the extra mile to save their companies."

Do you know these people? I do. I've interviewed some of them. Take, for example, the employees of Gannett, most of who went on furlough without complaining; or the members of the Yonkers Firefighters local 620, or the folks at EMC who said "happy to do it" when their CEO told them they'd be taking a 5% pay cut until the end of the year; or the CEO of Starbucks who is paying himself minimum wage,

But it's not just the folks at the big companies. 30% of small business owners are currently working without being paid.

Let's hope that these sacrifices are not made in vain. That both individual citizens and financiers will take a closer look when they use their credit, accept or make a loan. Let's hope that reforms will be made so that borrowers are made to understand their repayment plans. Is it too much to ask to want investors to understand what they're investing in?

When we came out of other wars, we had to reexamine who we were. We had to rebuild, to create something better than we lost. Are we  doing that now? Sometimes I think yes. Other times I think everyone's trying to rush back to doing "business as usual". That scares me. It makes me think we're being lazy. We are all capable of much more.

Free is Smart

Getting something new and useful,  without spending a dime, rates with me. And if a vendor or merchant is smart, it will rate for them too.

After all, the word "FREE" invokes a desire in me that an unfamiliar  product's features and benefits rarely will. And if I like what I try, the vendor wins a customer who would have otherwise ignored an advertisement.

Want to see how this works for you? I found an offer for a free sample of Aveda shampoo on the web today. They ship it free of charge and, though they request that you fill out a survey, but it's not required, which turns me on even more.

Here's the link, check it in out.

KLUSTER goes to the White House- Your voice can go too!

I am a HUGE fan of Kluster. For anyone not familiar with Crowd Sourcing, it's the tool to use. It's also fun. You can help entrepreneurs name products, start or participate in collaborative brainstorms, evaluate opinions in numerous ways, and so on...

And guess what? Ben Kaufman, who founded Kluster, is one of twenty young entrepreneurs going to the White House to talk to the Prez. And he's using Kluster as a tool to gather opinions from people like you.

So go to Kluster's White House page and have your say. You can bet Kluster founder Ben Kaufman won't hold back on presenting your comments.

Had a Google Fight yet?

Have you tried GoogleFight yet? It's a fun little way to compare how many hits two search terms get.

For people who make their money marketing products or services (or paying for their products or services to be marketed), it's a cool tool.

For me, it's fun; I tried to guess the winners of these.

Chocolate Vs. Sex

Jonas Brothers Vs. U2

Kickboxing Vs. Zumba

Conan Obrien Vs. Jimmy Kimmel

Porn Vs. Viagra

I got more than half of them right. Let me know if you come up with any that are fun!