Subprime Foreclosures Illustrated

The New York Times designed this excellent chart to illustrate the subprime foreclosure mess.

The airline industry is stupid ...

Creating Infectious Engagement

The Stanford d.school is hosting a free mini-conference on Creating Infectious Engagement May 6th from 3:30 to 6. The event is open to the public and it is a great opportunity to connect with smart people and benefit from everything the Creating Infectious Engagement team is working on. I will be attending the Stanford Managing Teams for Innovation and Success Executive Education program June 1 - 6.

Our Stanford d.school class on Creating Infectious Engagement is holding a conference next Thursday May 1st from 3:30 to 6:00 that is open to the public.  We have some great speakers lined-up who will talk about what it takes to spread good ideas. Please RSVP to Joe Mellin at ciersvp@gmail.com if you will be joining us, as we need to plan for food.  The conference is in the new d.school space in building 524 in the learning theatre. A big thanks to Joe for designing this wonderful poster.  Please send it along to your friends!

NOTE for the Creating Infections Engagement class: I discovered this event in Guy Kawasaki's Twitter stream.  Lot's of streams (Twitter, Flickr, Blogs) feeding the rivers (FriendFeed, Facebook, TechMeme) which feed the ocean (national media) these days. Interesting stuff.

BIG Blog Post - Green? Say It!

Are you running a "Green" business? Are you building "Green" products? Is the brightness of your "Greenness" important to your customer?

Read the rest of this post over on the Business in General (BIG) Blog - a small business oriented blog I contribute to on a regular basis.

Elkhorn Rod and Reel

Yesterday I wrote about a great customer service story over on the Bplans Blog. Check out Great customer service makes a difference for Elkhorn if you are a business decision maker interested in great customer services stories. If you are a fly fishing enthusiast considering a rod or reel from Elkhorn Rod and Reel the story will probably be enough to get you to click that "Buy Now" button on the Elkhorn website.

Lessig On TED

The post Copyright Extremism Begets Extremist on Tim Berry's blog, Planning, Startups, Stories, pointed my browser towards a TED presentation by Stanford Professor Lawrence Lessig. Lessig, very eloquently, uses a series of historical stories to support his argument that existing copyright law is impeding creative expression in a digital world. Lessig did a good job of presenting the problem, a potential solution (CC), and hope that things will change in the future if history has anything to say about it (BMI).

Copyright law, like patent law, needs to be reformed. It's broken and it's stifling the creators. Given the importance of IP to our economy; you'd think this would be a higher legislative priority. Unfortunately, I think the legislative branch isn't equipped to keep up with the speed of the information economy. Reform will start at the source (the creators) and work it's way up through the system. Will? Has.

Trunk Monkey

I love the Trunck Monkey series of advertisements developed by Sean Sosik-Hamor and Subaru. Guaranteed to make you laugh a little. Here's a complete list of "monkey" videos.

Suburban Auto Group released a series of Trunk Monkey Super Bowl commercials for 2003 and 2004. The ad agency that produced these commercials is R/West. Although the Suburban Auto Group popularized the Trunkmonkey with their Trunk Monkey commercials, Sean Sosik-Hamor and the Subaru community were responsible for creating the concept back in 2000. -- trunkmonkey.com

Do you love what you do? Should you love what you do?

There's a good conversation going on over on the Planning, Statups, Stories blog. Tim Berry responds to the question "What's more important--passion or ability?" when it comes to selecting a career. Check out the comments section. A copy of my comment appears below.

It's hard to make a living doing what you love. Why? Because introducing the green stuff into the relationship often leads to relationship problems.

Love blinds, often making it difficult to mix business with pleasure. I think this is why most people keep what they really love far, far, away from the JOB. NOTE: A lot of people claim to be doing what they love but it isn't often the case. Everybody wants it so it's natural for people to claim they have it - it's in our nature.

Most of the people (there are exceptions) I know that have turned loves/hobbies into businesses regret it. Why? They turned that special thing they really loved into a JOB - it isn't fun anymore, it's work. It's the thing that puts food on the table. That, usually, comes with stress and external pressure. Other people start messing around with the thing you loved.

My advice to the entrepreneur.com reader - keep doing what you're good at, become the best at it, and find a way to leverage that success so you can spend more time doing what you really love. That way, you keep the green stuff out of the relationship.

-- Cale

Fortunately, and I'm not just saying this because Tim Berry is the President and Founder of the company I work for, I love what I do for a living. Or, maybe, I'm just claiming to love what I do for a living to make all of you jealous. You'll never know. I do however think the word "love" is getting tossed around here a bit too freely. Love, for me at least, is a word reserved for my wife, my kids, and my family. It's a powerful word that carries a lot of meaning. I don't really believe you can "Love" a car, your house, a hobby, or your job - really "Love" it. Or, maybe you can.

Craislist's Jim Buckmaster Interviewed // Refreshing

Jim Buckmaster, CEO of craigslist, did a fireside chat interview with BusinessWeek editor Jessi Hempel, at The Nantucket Conference. - Don Dodge on The Next Big Thing

Craigslist's approach to doing business on-line is refreshing. For example I loved Jim's response to this question.

Craigslist could generate hundreds of millions in revenue and be a public company. Why haven't you done this? "You can't serve two masters. You either have to serve Wall Street or customers. We chose customers. Sure, we could generate more revenue, but we have enough to support the things we need to do."

Unfortunately, Craigslist shines the way it does because their approach to business is rare.

Contributing to BPlans Blog

The Bplans Blog offers commentary on startups, small business, business planning and growth strategy.

positivesharing.com - brillant workspaces

Guy Kawasaki Interviews Kathleen Gasperini of Label Networks

Interesting perspectives on why young people (they don't like the "teens" label) like MySpace and Facebook in Guy Kawasaki's recent interview with Kathleen Gasperini of Label Networks - a research firm that helps brands like Apple and Pepsi keep up with the younger crowd. The interview pointed me towards the popular and expressive  MySpace Movie - funny stuff.

Entrepreneurial Proverbs

I totally agree - happens all too often.

Cool ideas are useless without great needs -- this is the classic engineers' entrepreneurial mistake (or at least I'd like to think so, since I've made it). Techies love tech, and a new technology can produce a lot of companies that don't really meet a need. Better to start with the need, and then see how what you know can produce a better answer to that need. - Entrepreneurial Proverbs [O'Reilly Radar]

Got 2 Extra Hours for Your E-Mail? - New York Times

Workplace efficiency in the age of instant messaging and always-on e-mail is something I've been interested in lately. The New York Times published a related article today.

Got 2 Extra Hours for Your E-Mail? - New York Times

"You have to be smart about how you use e-mail," said David Strom, editor in chief of Tom's Hardware Guide, a technology review Web site. "Otherwise you let it ruin your life."

Urinal Targets

I stumbled into this post on Seth Godin's Blog that caught my attention to the point where I actually looked at the Trackback log. Creative innovation like the Urinal Target (did I make that up?) is inspiring - it sparks the Entrepreneur in me. The product opportunities here are amazing to the point where I really should be keeping this stream of thought to myself. Procter and Gamble would make millions selling Urinal Targets in the U.S. alone. Can you see it? Or, should I say - can you hit it? [Pick your enemy] Urinal Target, Incredibles Urinal Targets, G.W.B. Urinal Targets, the possibilities are endless.

Did some more research and apparently the toilets in the Schipol Airport (Amsterdam) get noticed bit it stops there. Makes me wonder why somebody isn't selling Urinal Targets that can be applied to existing toilets.

Urinal User Interface Design

Amsterdam Central Station

Schipol Airport Pictures

Seven Steps to Better Presentations by Jeffrey Veen

Good stuff here.

Seven Steps to Better Presentations by Jeffrey Veen