I have been a big fan of Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die
by Chip and Dan Heath. It is engaging and practical and a worthwhile read. I have found myself recommending it lately. Great resources on their website as well.
I am looking forward to digging into their new book Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard
. As part of the inevitable book launch, they have been producing articles and blog posts fast and furious. I came across this one on Van Halen from Heather Hamilton and her excellent One Louder blog. Turns out that the brown M&M’s were used as a signal to make sure their contracts were read and understood.
I never did get to see Van Halen in their prime (pre-Hagar). Since I grew up in Chicago, we will always have that summer of 1984, Jump and the Chicago Cubs. I did get a chance to catch DLR at the House of Blues in Hollywood for a New Year’s Eve bash a few years ago. No doubt DLR is a party. Great time and great show. I still truly think that “Panama” should be the national anthem of Panama.
Fast Company: Business Advice From Van Halen
Heather Hamilton: As suspected, David Lee Roth is a business genius.
Hide your craziness behind a beautiful smile. And don’t worry, that’s all you need.
~ Paulo Coelho
Happy Friday!
Recently my trusty Creative MuVo mp3 player has been having a tough time with AAA battery life. I use this player for working out and long runs because I know that I will inevitably crush one of my iPods — and that just can’t happen. It is simple and holds an hour plus long playlist. The now constant battery changing is cumbersome. In service since at least 2002, if not earlier, it has had a good solid run.
About a week ago, I found myself in Staples with a large-ish reward coupon. Recycling ink cartridges there really does add up. So I took a chance on the Eclipse MP3 CL2, a 4 GB “old” iPod Shuffle knock-off. I have to say that I am pretty impressed with my impulse purchase. It is a nice little player for workouts. USB connection and a rechargeable battery. 4 GB memory put the old iPod Shuffle to shame. Worth checking out.
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I have blogged a bunch on Gist over the last year. The Seattle startup has some nice traction going for it. It seemed pretty clear to me from the beginning that Gist would be a great CRM and/or Sales Enablement tool for the small to mid-size market. Check this nice blog on that at this link: Gist as a small business CRM tool.
More of my take on Gist can be found at: 12Sided, The Blog: Gist Posts
Interesting color profile personality test. Check it out.
USA Today: Favorite colors test shows CEOs are different; take the test
Interesting weekend read at the Wall Street Journal on a bond-trading specialist from Cantor Fitzgerald that wants to treat casinos like the stock market.
WSJ: Whether Bonds or Touchdowns, They’re Still a Gamble
Great read on customer service over @ Inc. Great way to improve product and process simultaneously. Would your organization obsess like this? Maybe you should.
They say, “Why would you pay an engineer $150,000 to answer phones when you could pay someone in Arizona $8 an hour?” If you make the engineers answer e-mails and phone calls from the customers, the second or third time they get the same question, they’ll actually stop what they’re doing and fix the code. Then we don’t have those questions anymore.
Inc. The Way I Work: Paul English of Kayak