• Hemingway’s lesson to entrepreneurs http://bit.ly/tY4O4 #
• Reduce stress in your work life – go to work prepared to be fired http://bit.ly/20ggur #
• Companies and websites that have pop-ups on their homepage immediately lose credibility with me #
• It’s my first day without an employer. I’m enjoying this beautiful day an working from my porch! Life is good. #
• RT @pamslim: Startup folks, @BobWalsh just launched Startuptodo.com – http://bit.ly/xohFN <– This looks VERY cool #
• @pamslim Great! I will be signing up for startuptodo tonight. It’ll be interesting to see how it helps my new startup shortcuttochina.com. in reply to pamslim #
• @unmarketing Yes – @AnthonysPizza is a great example of a pizza joint effectively using wtitter in reply to unmarketing #
• Packing for Tucson – Leaving in about an hour #
• 4 Steps to Becoming a CEO in 1 Day http://bit.ly/27KNMN #
• RT @MattWilsontv: Getting ready for the #under30 rockstar biz series tonight. Pumped to learn more SEO! <– Me too! #
• Learning about SEO on the #under30 rockstar biz live stream then jumping in the car and driving to Tucson. #
• On the road to Tucson. Night driving rocks! #
• @reel2realtv I won’t!!!!! in reply to reel2realtv #
• In Springer, New Mexico. Thank god for this 24hr Shell station – I almost ran outta gas!!! Only 645 miles left to go! #
• @mrjoshthomas thanks for tweeting my blog post! in reply to mrjoshthomas #
• Las Vegas, New Mexico is not as cool as Las Vegas, Nevada #fb #
• In Santa Fe #fb #
• Why does Albuquerque suck so bad???? #fb #
• Finally made it to I-10 #
• Truth or Consequence at 4:30 am http://bit.ly/12g3q7 #
• Stuck at a Border Patrol check point :-/ #fb #
• Finally in Arizona #
• Rolling into Tucson blasting reggaeton to keep me awake – I’ve been driving since 8pm! #fb #
• Finally recovered from a 13hr overnight drive. Naps are nice. #
• @reel2realtv thanks for the kind words! in reply to reel2realtv #
• RT @MattWilsontv: “Hating your job intensely is not a business plan!” –@PamSlim #
• 10 quotes that get me motivated http://bit.ly/15FMtk #
• The new blog is up and running at ls-y.com: I’m making a break for it! http://bit.ly/3ih8o #
• Working outside on this beautiful day in Tucson #fb #
• Work less: Use software to your advantage http://bit.ly/16AauQ #
• Where is your office today? This is mine: http://twitpic.com/jq1uf and the view: http://twitpic.com/jq1w4 #
• I just cleaned out my inbox. There is no better feeling than acting on every actionable item in your inbox! #
• RT @danschawbel: REPORT: Job market won’t recover to 2017! http://tinyurl.com/y92eycp <– it’s a good time to start working for yourself! #
• What’s the best equipment-free workout? #
• @MattWilsontv I think that is a bug in Tweetdeck’s latest version. Facebook connect worked perfectly when it was first released in reply to MattWilsontv #
• @joanne1ee I take it that @missvalle told you that she finally made up her mind? in reply to joanne1ee #
• The anthem for today: http://bit.ly/TnFMm get at it!!!! #fb #
• @artbynemo Go get it! Cherry Creek Arts Fest is awesome. I hope to see you there! in reply to artbynemo #

I’m headed to Tucson tonight. It’s a 13hr drive. Wish me luck!

I’m really sorry! I have gone completely MIA for several weeks. Here’s what’s happened:

Vacation

I took a week off of work and took a road trip with my girlfriend to South Dakota. We camped every night and visited Wind Caves National Park, Badlands National Park, the Black Hills, Mount Rushmore, and Crazy Horse. It was an incredible trip to an amazing part of the country. Check out some of the photos on my Flickr page. I also just returned from the Telluride Blues & Brews festival. Also a blast, but not quite as relaxing!

New Business

Despite this taking up an ENOURMOUS amount of my time, I hadn’t written about it because of my job. Now that the business is live and the job is no longer a concern, check out www.shortcuttochina.com! This is a business I constructed with a good friend of mine, Derek, who is in Beijing. We provide help college students and graduates in the US identify internships in Beijing, assist them in the logistics of getting there, and settling in once they are there. It’s a ton of work, but it’s fun!

New Blog

Writing about being in an office, even if the focus is how to escape from it, is depressing. I wanted to focus more on the fun in life and focus on the unique opportunities that have been afforded to Gen-Y. For this reason, I started lifestyle-y.com (aka ls-y.com). Many of the posts that originally appeared on this blog have been ported to ls-y.com. This blog is going to transition into a so-called “personal blog,” giving me a podium from which to blabber whatever happens to be on my mind, rather than trying to keep a particular focus.  Check out lifestyle-y.com and subscribe to it. I guarantee that you will not be disappointed!

Quitting My Job

Yes, I did it! There were many factors that came into play, but Friday is my last day! Read about it at ls-y.com.

Once again, sorry that I have failed miserably at keeping up to speed with this blog, but I promise that it won’t happen again. ls-y.com is up and running and is going to be AWESOME. Be sure to also check out the blog we have at shortcuttochina.com. Derek has been doing a fantastic job of writing some really interesting posts. If you like what you see, tell your friends!

The 4-Hour Work Week, by Tim Ferris, is a great book.  It contains a ton of great time saving and relocation ideas.  Buy the book and read it. The problem with the book is that its entire premise is bullshit.  The author, Tim Ferriss, himself does NOT work a 4-hour work week, and he admits it.

Reason #1: Starting Point

First, Ferriss started from a financial position that is far beyond that which 99.99% of us will ever be able to achieve.  Tim Ferriss started the company BrainQUICKEN.  According to page 16 of The 4-Hour Work Week:

2002-2003 BrainQUICKEN LLC has taken off, and I’m now making more than $40K per month instead of $40k per year.

$40K per month?  Holy crap.  That is $480K per year – a lot of money.  Let’s assume he was smart and lived off of $100k per year (he used to live off of $40K per year).  That means he put away nearly four times the amount of money that he required to live in one year!  If you put four times as much money as you spend for a couple of years, you will be in a great financial situation.  You might even have enough time to quit your job and write a book.

Reason #2: Best Selling Book

Want the real key to a 4-hour work week?  Royalties.  Timothy Ferriss wrote a best selling book, and this is why we know who he is in the first place.  In his book, he does advocate passive income, but how many people are capable of writing a best selling book?

Reason #3: He Admits It

Tim runs a great blog.  But that aspect of his business alone requires more than four hours per week – not to mention the many other aspects of his business.  In fact, just managing the comments on his blog likely requires more than four hours per week.  Check out the video below (it’s long and can also be found here).

If you go to the 25:00 minute mark, he discusses comments.  In this case, he received almost 2,000 comments, which he admits, “is a lot for me to go through.”  Do you think he’s able to go through 2,000 comments in under 4 hours per week?  Maybe, but that doesn’t leave much time for anything else “work” related.  He even dances around the question of how long he works on his blog per week at 32:10 on in the video – some posts take him six hours!

He addresses his Twitter @replies at 35:30 in the video.  According to him he spends “10 to 15 minutes every day or two.”  There’s another hour per week right there.

Reason #4: The Obvious

The above video is 51 minutes long.  It likely took him at least an hour to put the presentation together (although he did say that he had used it in a previous presentation).  When you start with the time he spends on his blog, twitter, and presentations, and then add the other aspects of his business that he cannot outsource (such as policing his comments), there is no way that Timothy Ferriss gets by with a four hour work week.

Reality: Semantics

Tim Ferriss likely didn’t consider his time giving the above presentation to the San Francisco Wordcamp work.  In the video, he calls his blog “fun,” not work, but with the caveat of “take fun seriously.”  Hmm, it sounds like he’s simply employing semantics: if you don’t call it work, it doesn’t apply to the four hour total!

Summary

If you want a four hour work week, make sure that you limit the crappy activities that you don’t want to do to only four hours per week.  Call these activities “work.”  Call everything else “fun that you take seriously,” even if it is your job.  Unfortunately, this might only be obtained by those who have a $40k per month income stream from an established product and a best selling book.  But Tim Ferriss does provide a great model for the rest of us to work towards.

Question:

If you love your work or job, do you consider yourself to have a “four hour work week” or less?  If not, do you think this is obtainable?

Productivity is the most important thing in your career; whether you are slaving away in an office or working for yourself, the more you get done, the less time you need to spend working.  Nothing will impact your productivity like properly managing your time. Before you can manage your time, you need to figure out how you currently spend it. I began using RescueTime two months ago to help me identify my timesucks and focus on making my time, particularly in the office, as productive as possible. RescueTime allows users to passively track all of their computer usage, and some of their non-computer time (this part isn’t 100% passive), and provides and easy to use and understand visual representation of the user’s time usage.

There are two versions of RescueTime for individuals. The first is free (the “Light” version) and the second costs $8 per month (”Pro” version). The upgrade to the $8/month option provides users with the names of the documents that are worked on and additional filtering options. I have opted to pay the $8 per month fee because seeing the names of the documents I’ve worked on is a huge help when slicing and dicing how I spend my time.

RescueTime consists of two parts: 1. a download for your computer 2. the website that provides the user interface.

The download is just 2MB and takes a few seconds to download and install on your computer. You MUST install this on all computers that you wish to track. I didn’t see anything mentioned on the RescueTime.com website regarding the use of one account to track time usage on multiple computers, but I have it installed on three of my computers and they all are tracked by my one account without any problems. Once installed, the only part of the program you will see is a small icon in the system tray.

Double clicking on this icon opens a menu which gives you two options:

Both options open up a browser window. The Dashboard will be the most utilized link. This is the interface that provides all time tracking information to a user.

The Dashboard can be configured to show data daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly as well as only for weekdays or weekends.

All time usage is broken into Activities, Categories, and Productivity Rank. Below is a line graph representing my time usage by day for last week.

The same information can be displayed as Activities by Rank.

The above chart is one of the most useful for me. It not only shows me where exactly I spend my time, but also what percentage of my time is spent in the top ten activities. I find this to be effective at showing my productivity for a given day or week, because when a higher concentration of my time is in ten activities or less, I tend to be more productive. I find that I am most productive when this number is above 65%. (Last week I wasn’t terribly productive!)

While the weekly or monthly charts show trends, I find the daily charts to provide the best data for managing my time usage while in the office. My days in the office tend to consist of similar activities, without an emphasis on certain activities on certain days of the week. Examining my time on a daily basis has allowed me to see that I often spend my mornings on non-essential activities, as well as right after lunch, while I am most productive mid-morning. On a weekly basis, my Friday afternoons are when my worst timesucks rear their ugly heads.

RescueTime allows you to assign a productivity ranking to each activity. These rankings range from -2, which is the most distracting, to +2 which is the most productive, with 0 being neutral. This is managed on the same page that allows you to select categories:

As you can see above, RescueTime tracks many programs and websites and sometimes double counts them (google.com vs. Google Chrome). The editing of categories for all of your activities can be very time consuming, so I tend to only edit the category assignments on activities which I spend longer than five minutes on per week (you’ll be amazed how many activities you spend less than five minutes on in a week!).

There are several other graphs and charts that you can add to your dashboard, depending on how you wish to analyze your time.

One tool that is helpful, but only mediocre at serving its purpose, is the “offline” time tracking tool. This senses when you are idle for about five minutes and then asks you what you were doing during that time. You can select three options to be displayed, in addition to “none of your business, don’t log this time.” I have selected “Meeting,” “Phone call,” and “Non-work,” but these fail to embody many of my trips away from my computer.

Another MAJOR shortcoming of the RescueTime program is that it doesn’t allow you to separate your tracking by time of day. Because I use RescueTime on my home and office computers, I would like to be able to separate the work I do between the two locations, but still combine it to analyze it as a whole. To achieve this, the developers could implement a filter that only displays activity for a week during the hours of X and Y on weekdays and then a filter that shows “everything else.” I think we are unlikely to ever see this filter, however, because the majority of RescueTime’s products are focused on enterprise users, most of whom would have no use for this filter.

RescueTime is a fantastic tool that doesn’t take much time to employ. When you first install it, don’t even bother looking at the Dashboard for the first three days; the website needs time to collect user data. Users may wish to use different user names for work and home to allow them to breakdown the time they spend at both locations – this will double the cost if you wish to track the names of the documents you work on, and will be a pain if you ever work from home. A huge improvement would be to add an iPhone app. It would be great to be able to check how much time you have spent working on a specific Excel model at any time. An iPhone app could also let you add activities on the go and track the location of those activities. It would be fanatastic to track how much time you spend grocery shopping or be able to review how much time you spent at each bar on the pub crawl last weekend. Lastly, the tool is only useful if you take the time to analyze how you are spending time and use the data to readjust your time usage accordingly.  The tool itself is passive; you must actively implement productivity changes.

Once you get started using RescueTime, you can embed the charts into any website.  I have mine embedded on the Time Management page of this site.

Give the free version a try.

A couple of weeks ago I received a call from a very distressed friend.  The environment at his office had been spiraling rapidly downward for several weeks.  He was concerned because it had gotten to the point where his boss was loudly discussing firing employees over the phone with his office door open.  Talk about a hostile working environment!

My friend was clearly stressed and asking for advice.  I told him the single best piece of job advice I had ever received: Go to work every day prepared to be fired.

His response: “What the hell?  Why would I do that? I’m depressed enough about my situation!”

I clarified my comment: don’t go to work expecting to be fired, go to work prepared to be fired.  These are very different approaches.

Expecting to be fired means that you anticipate the next time your boss stops by your desk he’s delivering a pink slip.

Prepared to be fired means that if your boss does deliver a pink slip, you smile and walk out, knowing that it doesn’t matter anyways.

How do you prepare yourself to be fired?  There’s two different, but not mutually exclusive, ways to prepare yourself.  The first is financial preparedness and the second is mental preparedness.

Financial preparedness

• Get your finances in order.  It will provide peace of mind and assurance that you know what you can live off of if your employment situation changes.  I have found the website Mint.com to be very helpful in personal financial organization.
• Save money.  This most obvious thing to do to prepare yourself for losing your current job.  It lets you know that you will be able to pay your rent and buy food.  However, some of us simply cannot do this.  You may be saddled with student or credit card debt.  If this is your situation, be smart and start paying down your debt rather than saving money.
• Review your current expenses and prioritize.  What are you spending money on that you don’t care about?  What can you spend less on?  Start with recurring monthly expenses.  Do you really watch HBO and Showtime, or cable for that matter?  Do you need that tanning salon membership or can you attend the YMCA rather than the fancy gym that costs $200 per month?  Next, review daily items.  Can you eat dinner at home more often or bring your lunch to work? Could you drink regular coffee rather than your Starbucks latte?  (I recommend cutting it out altogether)
• Consider what you can sell.  You could sell the second TV, your stereo you use once a month, or downsize your car.  Figure out what you could sell those items for and tally up the total.  That amount could likely get you farther than you realize!  You can even enter these amounts into Mint.com.
• Figure your minimum monthly living costs. After cutting out the unnecessary items and downgrading the extravagant ones, how much will it cost you to live per month? For those in debt, figure out what your minimum monthly payments.  Keep this number in mind and review it often.  It will likely shrink as time goes on and you realize how little you really need.

Mental Preparedness

• Your job doesn’t define you.  You’re a banker?  No you’re not.  You’re a person who is employed as a banker.  If you no longer working in banking (or whatever line of business you work in), you are still you!  You may find that your circle of friends changes slightly, but this is probably a good thing because you will be ridding your life of leaches and time consumers.
• You have marketable skills.  No matter what you are doing now, someone, somewhere, working in an industry you’ve never even considered, needs your skills.  You will be able to find a job, but it may not resemble the one you have now.
• Don’t let pride kill you.  You’ve built a career in your line of work, but we already established that your career or job doesn’t define who you are.  Starting a new job in a new industry is an adventure, not a failure.
• What’s the worst that could happen??? If you get fired, what is the worst thing that could happen?  You end up flipping burgers part time? You need to sell your house or move into a smaller apartment?  So what?!?!? You can use this time to start the business that you always wanted to run, take Chinese classes, learn to cook, and look for a new job.
• Look on the bright side.  Bartending could be a blast.  It might be nice to work road construction for a few months.  You’ll get to be outside and those guys just stand around most of the time anyways.
• Give it a try.  What skill do you have that someone would pay for?  Can you tutor a high school student in math or a foreign language?  Can you paint a portrait or construct a marketing plan?  Can you balance a checkbook or cook?  Can you use Twitter or Facebook?  Spend some time and post some ads on Craigslist or Elance.  You may be surprised that people will pay you for your services!  Maybe you can even use this as an opportunity to make some extra money – money you can save in case you do end up unemployed.

Going to work prepared to be fired will make your job a far less stressful experience.  You may even find that you are more productive at work as you no longer care about office politics or fighting your coworkers to maintain your job at the expense of your dignity.

Following the above recommendations also serves the purpose of helping you consider how much money you will need to make as an entrepreneur to allow you to quit your job.

Always have a plan, prepare yourself and never fear being jobless again.

I have recently been considering trading-in my car, which I purchased new, for a used SUV.  Yesterday,  I was reading Ramit Sethi’s blog, I Will Teach You to be Rich, and came across his post on why to buy a new car versus a used one.

Initially, the thought of buying a new car versus a used one flies in the face of my own reasoning.  I have thought that it was common knowledge that a new car loses value as soon as you drive it off of the lot; but this post made me reconsider the validity of this logic.

Ramit’s main reasons for buying a new car were simple: “Reliability,” “A decently-nice-to-pretty-nice car,” and “Insurance.”  His argument is that there is more value in a new car than a used car.  This should be pretty easy to verify.

The car Ramit bought was a Honda Accord, but my analysis addresses the more common Honda Civic.  I went to Kelly Blue Book and looked up a 2009 Honda Civic 4-door EX-L Sedan in the Denver Area:

So to purchase a new 2009 model Honda Civic EX-L Sedan, one would ostensibly need $21,470.  To purchase the same car in a 2008 model in excellent condition with 15,000 miles from a private party, one would only need $17,240, a savings of $4,230 or 19.7%:

If one were to buy the same car in “Fair” condition, they would save almost 30%!

Kelly Blue Book takes new car information one step further and estimates resale value:

According to this graph, if you buy a new Honda Civic, you will lose 39% of its resale value in the first year, 8% in the second, and 5% in the third and fourth.

Edmunds.com presents this data in a slightly different fashion:

While this data is addressing the different respective model years (completely different cars) what it shows, is that for the most recent full model year, 2008, one would lose approximately 19% in the first year.

I cannot think of a single investment, other than a new car, that someone would willingly purchase with the knowledge that they are going to lose 19% to 39% of their principal in the first year!  (I know a car is not an investment in most peoples minds, but it should be treated as one.)

Ramit addresses one other aspect of purchasing a car: the cost of ownership.  Edmunds displays this in an easy to understand, year-by-year comparison:

This chart shows, once again, that a buyer will save $2,698 (31%) in the first year by buying a car that is one year old.  While this doesn’t address financing, the financing number would need to be more than double the above estimate in order to make a new car more attractive.  This is unlikely to be the case, based purely upon the model year (your own creditworthiness is another matter).

This data makes it clear that a car buyer can save up to $6,928 (savings on purchase price + maintenance costs) by buying a Honda Civic that is just one year old and in “Excellent” condition from a private party.  In this case, most cars will still have a factory warranty to address any major & unforeseen problems, not taken into account in the above analysis (the types of problems most new cars will have too!).  Not to mention, they will often look like a brand new car.

If you’re considering a new car, forgo the new car smell and buy a one-year-old vehicle.  You will be immediately saving yourself well over 20%!

When buying, be smart and avoid bright colors, unpopular options, after-market stereos, and high levels of customization.  This will ensure that you have the highest resale value of your vehicle.

(Note: the Honda Civic retains its value upon resale better than nearly all of common car models I researched.  If you are considering a different make and model, you will likely save even more by buying a one year old car.)

What if there were only 100 Twitter users? It would look something like this. At least I am in the top 5% of Twitterers… (via Gizmodo)

Two days ago, a friend and I climbed the East Slope trail of Grays Peak.   At 14,270 feet in height and a trail that is 7.5 miles round trip, it’s supposedly the easiest 14er in Colorado. My friend, Anthony, and I did the entire trip in about four hours. It was not too bad, except for the expected effects of altitude (difficulty breathing) and climbing (sore legs).

The best place, hands down, to get information regarding climbing 14ers in Colorado is www.14ers.com.  The website provides information on the trails and routes for nearly all of the 14ers in Colorado.  It not only includes maps, but photos of the mountains with routes drawn on them.  I highly recommend checking out this website before you set out to climb a 14er!  (I also recommend checking with friend or guide who has previously climbed the mountain you plan to climb).

There were quite a few people on the trail and about 30 people on the summit when we reached it.  Fortunately, the summit is HUGE.  There is more than enough space to spread out, hang out, and even have a picnic.  One could even camp up there if they were dumb brave enough.

Two things things I learned from climbing Grays Peak: 1.) Use trekking poles 2.)Wear gloves.

In several areas, the trail was covered in snow and incredibly slippery.  I witnessed several people slip and fall on the snow.  I was constantly reaching out and grabbing rocks to keep my balance.  Trekking poles would have been a great help in these spots.

Although the East Slope of Grays is relatively unexposed, it was still windy and cold above treeline.  The first part of your body to get cold is your hands.  I will definitely wear gloves next time I am at that altitude.

The hike itself was pretty easy, but I have lived in Denver for over four years.  We passed several people who were clearly hurting from the altitude.  Many were carrying nothing more than a single half liter water bottle!  I carried a 2 liter Camelback and an extra 1-liter bottle of water – I finished both before we returned to the car.  On the other hand, on our way up, a man who appeared to be 50 came running down the mountain.  We later spoke to a pair of guys coming down the mountain who said they saw him running up to the summit!

I guarantee some of those unprepared people we passed experienced AMS (Acute Mountain Sickness aka altitude sickness).  This can be very painful, consisting of coughing, headache, and disorientation.  Don’t risk AMS and be sure to go prepared, in shape, and with plenty of water. (AMS is not caused by dehydration, but both are often simultaneous.)

Grays is easy (if you are smart and go prepared and in shape), fun, and a great starter for anyone wishing to bag their first 14er of the season.  Do it!

I picked up this book at the recommendation of a friend of mine. He told me that it was absolutely mandatory that I read this book immediately because I am in the process of starting a business. The “Laws” outlined in The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, by Al Ries & Jack Trout, are interesting and have a few gems, but the book is definitely outdated. Originally published in 1993, Ries and Trout identify many fledgling companies and predict their ultimate downfall. For instance:

Microsoft is the leader in personal computer operating systems, but it trails the leaders in each of the following major categories: spreadsheets (Lotus is the leader), word processing (WordPerfect is the leader), and business graphics (Harvard Graphics from SPC Software Publishing is the leader).

[…]

There are ominous signs of softness in Microsoft’s strategy. The Economist reported in early 1992, “Mr. Gates is putting together a range of products, based on a common core of technology, that will compete across virtually the whole of the software industry: from big computers to small ones, and from operating systems in the information engine-room to graphics programs that draw every picture for executives. Nobody in the software industry has yet managed a venture of that complexity – though IBM has tried and failed.

When you try to be all things to all people, you inevitably wind up in trouble. “I’d rather be strong somewhere, “said one manager, “than weak everywhere.”

Clearly, Microsoft is now the leader not only in spreadsheets (Microsoft Excel) and word processing (Microsoft Word), but also nearly all facets of the user interface of personal and business computers. Additionally, Microsoft is a significant player in servers, mobile smart phones, search engines, among many others. Google didn’t even exist at the time 22 Laws was written, but brand extension has worked remarkably well for Larry Page and Sergey Brin.  (One could argue that Microsoft and Google created their own categories.  If that is the case, I believe the “line extension” argument would still be  voided.)

This example identifies a core weakness in the book: it was written before the rise of the internet age. Prior to the internet really taking off, marketing was a completely different animal. It cost a lot of money to market any product. It cost a lot of money to develop and launch a product (take a look at Inc Magazine’s feature “The Day My Industry Died” to see a few examples of how the cost of business has plummeted since the early days of the internet). Lastly, it took a lot of money and time to grow a company. It was difficult to have the explosive growth that was experienced on a large scale late last century and early this decade.

While the book is a quick read (I read it in its entirety on a flight from Denver to Minneapolis), I will save you the trouble by listing the laws here and adding some salient commentary.

The law of:

1. Leadership
2. The Category – Create a category you can be first in. Focus on categories, not brands. People are defensive of their brand. People are more interested in what’s new, not what’s better.
3. The Mind – Brands play on perception rather than product. Always use a simple, easy to remember name (maybe why orkut hasn’t caught on in the USA?).
4. Perception – You can become an “expert” quite easily; simply manipulate people’s perception of you.
5. Focus – Own a word in the mind of the prospect. Get others to use this word.
6. Exclusivity – Using a competitor’s “word” only entrenches them.
7. The Ladder – You will tend to have one half of the market share of your next biggest competitor and two times the market share of your next smallest.
8. Duality
9. The Opposite
10. Division – Categories begin with a focus, but then break into segments. (Computers into personal computers, portable computers, workstations, etc.). It’s best to be first to enter a segment, but be prepared to wait for the market to catch-up.
11. Perspective – Having a sale on your product can ultimately decrease sales by leading customers to perceive the normal price as too high.
12. Line Extension – See my comment on Microsoft. This law has been disproven.
13. Sacrifice – Three things to sacrifice: product line, target market, and constant change. Keep selling the same narrow product line to the same customer base and don’t change it.
14. Attributes – Don’t copy the attributes that make your competitor’s product successful (cavity fighting toothpaste), find your own attribute and dramatize it (whitening toothpaste).
15. Candor
16. Singularity
17. Unpredictability
18. Success – there’s a difference between predicting the future and taking a chance on it.
19. Failure – Be willing to admit failure and move on. Many mistakes aren’t worth fixing.
20. Hype
21. Acceleration – If confronted with a fad, dampen it to ensure that your product has longevity (Barbie vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)
22. Resources