The Yin: If your entire business is dependent upon one source of traffic, one advertising medium, your business is a train wreck waiting to happen.
The Yang: If you are really, truly proficient at the use of one source of traffic, one form of advertising media, you can always cherry pick lucrative advertising opportunities and make money, regardless of what is going on in the market.
Subscriber Nick Neilson defines the two fundamental approaches to business as:
Arbitrage vs. Alchemy
Arbitrage means:
Had breakfast with a friend this morning, not even one hour ago. We’re chitchatting and I ask, “How’s your parents?”
She rolls her eyes and tells me this story.
“When Michael Jackson died my mom went into mourning. My mom applied for temporary disability at her job so she could mourn Michael Jackson’s death, and has spent the last four weeks laying on the couch under a blanket.
One of my students hit the skids financially, dropped out of Roundtable (my highest level coaching group) and just sort of vanished for almost 2 years. He had come to a 4 Man Intensive, gone through the Bobsled Run and come to one Roundable meeting.
He was mostly working in the real estate business, which as you know started to slide in ’07. He was raking in cash for awhile. But then he started missing payments and then disappeared.
All I knew was he was having money troubles…
I had no idea.
Just got this amazing email from him the other day, wanting to get back in the groove and asking us to work with him on a payment plan.
Richard from Florida. Here’s his amazing story:
Out there in the vast ocean called the Internet is a sea of people you want to become your customers. How will that happen for you?
—> Facets of Customer Development:
I’m writing this from far northern Wisconsin where the summer days are long, the morning air is cool and the nights are so brisk that in the deep woods you hear no insects at night. Only silence, occasionally interrupted by the call of a loon on the lake.
I’m with my 10 year old son Cuyler and we’re doing the father son thing for a couple of days.
We’re sleeping in a tent and let’s just put it this way…. in the wee hours of the morning, if nature calls, a battle ensues.
A battle between the warmth of the sleeping bag and the discomfort of my bladder.
I have resigned myself to the reality that the bladder always wins in the end :^>
My morning commute – from bed to library, where I write – is about 18 feet. Beats 18 miles, believe me.
But there is one disadvantage (isn’t there always a potential disadvantage with everything?):
There’s a famous play called “Waiting for Godot” where two men wait for a guy named Godot to show up. While they’re waiting, they eat, sleep, converse, sing, play games, exercise, swap hats and argue.
Anything to avoid facing the fear that Godot might never show up.
Somewhere in their conversation they sort of admit to each other that neither of them really knows the guy and they might not even recognize him when he shows up.
China was my first “communist country.”
One typically associates the word “communist” with gloomy, despairing scenes in the former Soviet Union or East Germany – people standing in long lines holding ration cards, and workers laboring under cruel, despotic tyranny.
China is, in fact, a beautiful place, and I certainly did not leave with that dreary impression. Everyone was very polite and hospitable. The scenery was exotic and the food was delightful. It was an unforgettable experience, and I highly recommend China as a place to visit.
But make no mistake: China is not a democracy. There are “official views” on certain things, which shall be held by everyone:
My tech-savvy next door neighbor Elizabeth sent me an article about Consumer Watchdog who is deeply concerned that “Google knows more about you than the FBI.”
Google knows every mental itch you’ve ever tried to scratch in the last 5 years. Heck yeah baby…
Dude, Google knows more about you than your WIFE.
