Category: thoughts

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on Cube21 – Means, Ends, Sun Tzu, Art of War & Business

Starting Cube 21 – Means to an End, was inspired by a two hour History Channel special on Sun Tzu’s Art of War and how the lessons play out in three modern battles: Vietnam, Battle of Normandy/D-Day & Gatiesburgh.

First you should start off listening to Cube 21:

[audio:http://www.startingcube.com/cube0021focus-on-the-end-goal.mp3]

[Download mp3 – 4:48] One-Click Subscriptions for StartingCube: Zune : iTunes : RSS

Now for my reactions:

[audio:http://media.ansp.com/ANT0002on-Cube21-Means-End-Sun-Tzu-Art-War-Biz.mp3]
[MP3 – 14:52]

Business vs War

Business is not War

Businessmen who think of business as war gives business a bad name.

Breaking vs Building
Primary goal of war is to impose your will on a group.
The primary goal of business is to build something, or provide value.

Sun Tzu really pushes the use of deception to win a war.

Deception in a business is a destructive strategy; and is too similar to fraud or oppressive methods for acquiring wealth, not acceptable or good ways of building your dream.

Keep Your Eye on the Prize

It’s important to enjoy the journey, but the journey is not the destination.

Not every moment of building your dream shall be enjoyable, but the overall journey should be.

You have to have both parts, if you lose sight of either:
– journey
– destination
you have lost

The destination might not always be clear to an outsider, that is not a big issue, the goals must be clear and remembered by you.

To help with both elements, keeping written records of what you are striving for and what you have accomplished (or progress) can help.

One Trick Providers

There is power in focus on the part of an individual, but as a group, if everyone brings the same viewpoint & skills, then some people are unneeded.

You have to find additional resources to achieve your goals.

Might be a coach or outside consultant, or it might be a new book, podcast, training course.

Be intentional with what you input into your mind & who you spend time with.

Need an Outside Perspective?

We provide coaching and consulting for individuals and organizations who are striving to solve a public problem with a private solution.

Another place is to post your thoughts in the comments of a Starting Cube episode.

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on Cube 19 Media Earthquake

Starting Cube 0019 : Media Earthquake is a deep cube, but when I fist heard the clip I thought about two tracks of how information and ideas spawned by it could be taken:

  • business & organization
  • persona

Here I am going to look at some of the ideas from that cube that can be applied to your business, before we get into that make sure you have listened to Starting Cube 19 Media Earthquake

[audio:http://www.startingcube.com/cube0019media-earthquake.mp3]

[Download mp3 – 9:24] One-Click Subscriptions for StartingCube: Zune : iTunes : RSS

Now for my reactions:

[audio:http://media.ansp.com/ANT0001on-Cube19-Media-Earthquake.mp3]
[MP3 – 16:43]

1. News & Information Can Spread fast

The attached image to Cube 19 is from my neighborhood. If I wanted to, I could share this information moments after the picture was taken. If I want to broaden the reach of the media I create, I have to have people with influence spread it. Could be a cable news network, or individuals like Cliff Ravenscraft, or Paul Winkler. Two individuals & small business owners who not only have a good sized population that follow them, they also influence many influences.

One last key on making content spread fast: Don’t suck in the eyes of your audience.

 

It does not matter what a marketing professional things, other then their knowledge of the specific people you want to develop a relationship with.

 

2. We are more plugged in today then ever

The hosts of Tech News Today are not your typical individual when it comes to being connected to the internet or information. At the same time, the speed of information has increased even though not everyone has a smartphone.

Think of the people you spend time with. At least one is probably on facebook or twitter … on their phone. Because they get information quicker, big breaking news & stuff they are interested in, you get news faster.

Again, it’s networks of networks.

 

3. Avoid “Seems out of place”

When you have clients, to keep them, you develop some form of relationship with them. Don’t all of the sudden change how you act, treat them, or what you produce. Minimum the reaction will be one of “seems out of place”.

People like consistency in the relationships … even if the consistency is that of “fun, new, exciting and random”. The expectations of what others will get is very important.

 

It’s ok to do something different & really you should evolve over time, but the key is to make sure you communicate with the audience / clients /market about the vision, directions, and what is going on.