The Hypocrisy of Ideas

No one owns an idea. We can own our perception of an idea, but not the idea itself. By our definition an idea is an epaphanic awareness of the alignment of known facts and life experiences that alters ones perspective on reality. The realization of an idea leads one into creative thinking which can then lead to the commercialization of their own point of view. You may think we’re way off base but in doing so you’re actually proving our point. In this case “idea” is the idea and we can both have different perspectives of what that is but it in no way changes that an idea is just an idea until someone does something with it. What is ultimately done will be a reflection of our own understanding and life experiences. For example, a wheel is just a wheel and no matter how you choose to utilize that wheel it will remain a wheel. You may see the wheel as a way to help you harvest crops faster; whereas I may see it as a way to prove I can finish a quarter mile faster. Either way we see it, the wheel is still a wheel. (If you’re seeing a correlation between application and perspective you should.)

The point to all of this is that many people don’t feel comfortable with Coworking because of how closely people work together and how they are encourage to freely trade ideas amongst each other. “They” have fears that people may steal their ideas. We obviously don’t believe that but not just because of the reason I’ve already explained. The true reason is that we believe in open collaboration. No two people will see a problem or opportunity the same so why not work together to optimize the results? Coworking is one of a million ways to find higher quality solutions cheaper and faster.

I’ll leave you with a couple quotes:

“Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives and mimicry, their passions a quotation.”

- Oscar Wilde

“In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.”

- Charles Darwin

The coIN What?

the coIN Loft is a Coworking space opening in Wilmington, Delaware in February 2010. Coworking is basically a place for entrepreneurs that typically work at home or local cafe’s to collaborate and grow. Not for you? Let’s challenge that….

You ever woke up at 7am like a home office gladiator, ready to absolutely tear through every shred of work you have and found yourself sitting on the couch watching Price is Right by 10:30am? That my friend is not what Coworking or the coIN loft is about! Coworking spaces hold entrepreneurs accountable and increase productivity. They don’t accomplish this because there’s a Nun with a iron ruler walking around whacking people when they aren’t getting work done. They keep people on track because of the camaraderie you have with the people around you. People respectfully push others forward and suggest better or more efficient business practices when they’re needed. In addition to that, there’s a bit of a competitive factor there as well. Let’s assume you’re a graphic designer and you’ve been trying to get a design job with the local Big Time Business for months. Just when you decide that maybe it’s not going to happen you notice an excepted proposal on your neighbors desk from Big Time Business. I wouldn’t recommend you utter your first thought but when you manage to swallow your pride you dig deeper and try harder to land your next potential design job. Furthermore, you now have the opportunity to work with your neighbor to perfect your pitch to increase the chances of accomplishing your goal.

Coworking is a beautiful model for entrepreneurs at any stage but start-ups will be the sweet spot of the coIN loft. My partner and I currently own a company called Verge Business Group, which acts as a tuning fork for early stage start-up companies to make sure consumers actually want to listen to the song they’re singing. We felt our efforts to support and perpetuate entrepreneurship in Delaware could be more substantial if we pursued the Coworking concept. We’re very excited to be apart of this 5 year old movement and truly feel it fits our forward-thinking personalities. Moreover, we hope to see the Coworking community meld together to work on the important stuff in our world together. There are Coworking spaces all over the world so it’s a matter of time before that vision comes true. Entrepreneurs that view the coIN loft as the type of place they’d like to join, won’t simply do it because we offer the space for $300 a month or the various free amenities. They’ll do it because they too want to be intimately involved in the important stuff in our world.

As we write on Twitter every morning….LET’S ALL BE FAMOUS!!

Why Execution Matters

Going to keep this pretty brief...here are two pretty powerful quotes from two awesome people:

"Well done is better than well said"

- Ben Franklin

"You can't build a reputation on what you're going to do"

- Henry Ford

In conclusion, words are just that, words, so I encourage everyone to take action because without execution all you have is an idea and be sure to not become another "frightened rebel."

The Misconceptions of Success

It seems many people believe that it takes a lot of luck to become successful. These people look at the ones considered to be a success, and think (1) there is no way I can become that, or (2) I am just not lucky enough to become that.

I want to now challenge these thoughts....

Ben Franklin once said, "Diligence is the mother of good luck." When I read into this saying, I come to the conclusion that people become successful not because of luck, but rather because they commit themselves to the hard work success breeds. Through commitment, these people move agilely through the challenges until they reach the level they want to achieve, and luck simply becomes an afterthought.

I want to encourage people to find their passion, and become committed.

The Wisdom of Crowds

If you get the chance read Howard Greenstein's article at blog.inc.com on "The Workforce of Crowds". The premise of the article is the backbone of our new Coworking venture, The coIN Loft and our seminar series Community Innovation Project (November 5, 2009, University of Delaware, 42 Amstel Ave. Newark, DE. 19716)

How could your company use the collective intelligence of a crowd to move forward? Leave a comment!!

2010 Web Strategy

The following article is from www.baekdal.com

2010 is now only a few months away, and that means that many companies are now in the process of planning next years strategy and budget. So what should your web strategy be for 2010?

Here is something to think about...

The Use Economy

In 2010, the internet will move into the "use economy", as opposed to the "find economy" of the past.

Focusing your strategy around building a website that can be found on Google and present your entire product catalog as a visual stunning and engaging presentation is a thing of the past.

You can't use a campaign. You can't share a product catalog. You cannot make a package a part of your stream.

People do not share or discuss a newspaper or a blog. But if you write a really good article, then that is certainly sharable. Just as you cannot share a shoe campaign, but you can share that one shoe that all your friends talk about.

In the "use economy":

• Content is atomized.
• It's part of a stream
• It about on-going interactions
• It's a part of people's existance

A traditional website doesn't solve any of these challenges, and as such your web strategy for 2010 is not about a website.

It's not about the content either

The biggest change in a use economy is that the focus of your attention is not even about the content itself. Your content plays a very important role in that it functions as the motivator. It is what gets people interested in using it.

But the real value is in the use itself. What do people do with it? What kind of reactions does it create? How do they share it? What kind of conversations does it start? And most importantly, how does it make people feel?

That is the point of the use economy. This is what your brand should be all about. It doesn't matter if it's an article, a pair of shoes, or a cup of coffee.

You web strategy for 2010 should be about people, and interacting with them directly.

Checklist

What to do?

• Focus on how people can use your content or products
• Get people talking
• Help the communication along
• Focus on the long haul, instead of short term interactions.
• Focus on increasing sales via the energy created by your existing customers (i.e. the energy of your existing customers is what persuades new-comers to buy your products)

Where to do it?

• Use every channel that makes sense
• Move your content to those channels (don't use Twitter just to link to your website)
• Support people's environments
• Move your store into their world. If people talk about your products on Facebook, why not also allow them to buy it directly from there?

First time experience:

• Design your social channels in ways that makes it easy to find out what else you have to offer
• Make it easy to take the first step (just being friendly and open goes a long way)
• Encourage first time user to act.

The bigger picture:

• Use your website as the hub for all your activities.
• Show people everything you do, and where you do it.
• Centralize the bigger picture, but de-centralize your network.
• Make sure your internal workflows actually work.
• Make it easy to manage your social universe.

Things not to do:

• Forget your website as a platform
• Forget the technology (people don't care if what you use)
• Forget about creating a package/campaign
• Don't put anything between you and your customers.
• Do not lose your patience. It takes many months to reach critical mass. It takes time to learn what people care about.

In 2010 everything online is about people, communication and using that to your advantage. It's not a platform, it's not a thing, it's not a system, it's not about CMS, it's not about IT, and it's not even about website design.

Going Viral?

A virus only lives if its host continues to live. It's sole duty is to reproduce and spread to other hosts. Viruses by nature are built to weaken and eventually kill the host if they themselves are not eradicated, weakened or made dormant. To remain viral a virus must stay true to it's nature and continuously spread; however, fundamental problems exist as the notion of "going viral" is applied to business strategy.

In the true sense of the phrase, "going viral" doesn't seem to be a very reliable means of continued success. When living out it's manifesto the virus will repeatedly encounter two different scenarios:

1. Hosts will increasingly become immune as anti-viruses are produced. (competition)

2. Virus will reach maximum penetration, leaving itself no other place to spread. Eventually it

will die off as a result of it's own success. (unbalanced growth)

If one intends to achieve continued success as a viral business, they must take a step backwards to become the creator of viruses; not the virus itself. Viruses are made of DNA and RNA. A RNA virus is more effective in this case because it uses the DNA of the host to replicate itself. In other words, create thing's your "host" or prospective consumer will except, use and help spread. Once your virus is being spread on it's own, step away and allow the host to regain its strength or simply stop marketing your "thing" to them. At this point, you should focus your energy on producing a new RNA virus that will be compatible with your previous creation. Doing this will allow you to effective target the hosts that except and replicate your virus the fastest while leaving the rest of the population open for growth.

At this point we would love to leave you with a fantastic, life altering conclusion but unfortunately we couldn't come up with one. Hopefully we made a compelling argument for an alternative "viral" model. Check back with us soon....maybe we'll figure out a way to write a blow your mind conclusion for this entry.