Jan 7 2013: Hi Tzippi, I was interested too. This text seems to be from the book Adrift and is an account from Steven Callahan in the 1990s?. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=3nmIoSY6AZ4C&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Mar 14 2012: I wrote a simple rap poem which strangely our clients love. Makes me think business poetry is the way forward. Why not put it on brochures. Plus it's more fun writing it. I didn't find this talk ground-breaking but I also don't care. It's a nice thing to listen for the heck of it. I don't do nearly enough of it. Here's my rap about our company, the Sussex Innovation Centre:
I hate my new job and I shouldn’t be here, I gotta get rich and I got this idea, I can’t make it real cos my heart’s full of fear Will nobody help me and give me a steer? I heard of a place and it’s just over there, They break all the rules till you’re a millionaire, Their mission’s to find the idea of the decade Wait till they hear cos they’ll love what I made They’ve done it for years. They’re my perfect mentor, I’m driving my car to the place called the Centre, They’ll help me with money and sales and all that My job will be history and I’ll be a fat cat.
Apr 21 2011: Great comments. I wonder about whether most teachers are creative thinkers in the first place. Working with entrepreneurs now, they are mostly risk takers which is not rewarded specifically in mass education (a reason I left teaching for now). How can we overcome that conflict I wonder?
Apr 21 2011: peer endorsement better Scott? Other customers count as well or only known peers? I tend to make choices based on that too but I know it's hard for startups with no customers. Trying to help them is a bit of a nightmare in this area sometimes. I agree about celebrities and their 'paid for' thing.
Apr 14 2011: I like the specialness of nations. Maybe we could rebadge them as 'tribes' rather than disband altogether? An evolution instead of start again approach. I'm from the tribe called Australian in that case. My tribe did a good job rebranding the wine industry there to great effect (30% rise in sales). (Caveat - other factors as well but lots of Government initiatives to unite the clans internally).
Apr 14 2011: Good point Gareth. Perhaps expert endorsement is better, particularly for new ventures. I am also slightly concerned about a celebrity for a) their cost and b) overshadowing the newly forming brand.
Mar 22 2011: In Montessori schools (attended by the Google founders interestingly), maths is taught using colour. Instead of black pens, coloured pencils are used (eg: red, green, etc as the child prefers).I went to a Steiner school and we learned maths by running the school canteen for a week. We had to work out cost, profit ratios. We had to survey customers to see how much they'd spend and what they'd buy. We had to budget at the supermarket and finally report our 'week end' accounts to the teacher. Fantastic fun. We did fractions when assessing 1/8th of a pizza for example. We costed a pizza and aimed for high profit. Great fun and also taught teamwork, customer focus, business skills and MATHS! This was in the late 1970s and early 80s so there's so much teaching like this but not in the mainstream...why re-invent the wheel, I say?
Oct 18 2010: The passion and attention generated in these threads illustrates the point that brands can build fierce loyalty or equally hatred. Whichever way I look at this, it's got my vote for impact. And don't shoot the messenger - if some comedy writer stood up and said this, I wonder if there'd be such passionate opposing threads.
PS Insulting each other's intelligence? A bit 1600s, no?
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I hate my new job and I shouldn’t be here, I gotta get rich and I got this idea, I can’t make it real cos my heart’s full of fear Will nobody help me and give me a steer? I heard of a place and it’s just over there, They break all the rules till you’re a millionaire, Their mission’s to find the idea of the decade Wait till they hear cos they’ll love what I made They’ve done it for years. They’re my perfect mentor, I’m driving my car to the place called the Centre, They’ll help me with money and sales and all that My job will be history and I’ll be a fat cat.
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PS Insulting each other's intelligence? A bit 1600s, no?