Daily Intent

Santa Barbara, CA
“Ideas are eons away from products and products are eons away from a viable business.” –Dr. Yulun Wang, founder of InTouch Health.

Eons away. 

Have you ever had a great idea and never wanted to share it with anyone for fear of the idea being stolen?  It is your idea.  You don’t want anyone going off and building it out before you are able.  So you keep the idea to yourself.  You share it with only a few of the people closest to you and request even they keep it in confidence.  Then you wake up five years later and the idea is still an idea.  No serious product or even project has come out of it.  The only thing that happened in the interim is a couple more people in your sphere know about this “brilliant” idea.  

Santa Barbara, CA
Extra!  Extra!  Read all the commentary!  The results are in.  The notations are tallied.  We have a nice range of responses from the “Quarterlife Crisis” MSR written on April 30th.  I believe you will appreciate the perspectives and their points of reference.  Thus, I’ve left the names out and just included their age range.    May you find comfort in their wise words.  Should you feel compelled to respond, please don’t hesitate.

Santa Barbara, CA
Last MSR I wrote on the topic of The Quarterlife Crisis.  The responses were phenomenal.  I heard from people in their early twenties to their mid-eighties.  I thank each and everyone of you for taking the time to reply back and look forward to sharing in the coming weeks, with your permission of course, some of these learnings and perspectives.

To further divulge into this intriguing topic, it seems appropriate to focus in on the very American desire and emotional need to be different and unique.

To be different and unique in business, most particularly.  What does this mean?

Santa Barbara, CA
“I don’t really have much to confess, my life isn’t terrible, just not extraordinary.  I guess I am a product of my generation: being brought up to think I can save the world.  And I’m not doing that.” - Annonymous writer in response to the article “Welcome to Your Quarterlife Crisis.”

Santa Barbara, CA
A man passes away leaving his wife and young children without a male role-model.  The wife reaches out for male support for her children as there are no uncles around to aid in raising the kids.

 A husband walks out on his wife and child amidst an economic nightmare, leaving her to fend alone for her boy.  The boy’s female teachers think the world of him.  They want to see his dreams fulfilled.  They reach out for a male role-model.

A child grows up under an alcoholic mother and/or father.  The child is brilliant and ventures out into the world alone, a safer alternative than staying home.

Santa Barbara, CA
Yesterday, 10 entrepreneurs and myself were fortunate to spend 2 hours learning from an expert in “compounding creativity”.

Wayne Rosing is an executive outlier; it’s even fitting to call him an executive outlaw.

He is a man that wants world perspective changing results.  He thrives on grandiose ideas.  And he has the intelligence and unconventional managing know how to get it done.

Santa Barbara, CA
When studying economics, one of the first things you learn is how to carry out a cost-benefit analysis.  You learn to see things and analyze them from a perspective that compares whether the benefits of something outweighs its costs.

In the context of a purchase, its benefits are determined by the future owner.  The costs, too, are determined by the future owner.   The benefits can be any number of things including the emotions the object will bring about, the experiences the object will enable, or the people the object will attract.  Similarly, the costs are not solely the actual dollars expended, but the emotions, experiences and people foregone.

Santa Barbara, CA
746%. 

The white chalk stood tall and proud on the blackboard as I entered Dr. Neal and Nicole Barry’s Chiropractic office.  Without a back story, the three digits followed by a symbol meant nothing.  They had no effect on emotion.  They propelled forward no extra brain activity.  The white was solely lines striking through darkness.

Santa Barbara, CA
“Green”…

What emotion, idea, feeling, impression, and/or image does this word invoke in you? 

Do you think of nature, the “Green Movement”, a loved one’s eyes, a favorite color, a type of tea, or a green beer which you drank Wednesday in honor of the patron Saint of Drinking, O’Patty?

If you can see the image above, the Market Street Report’s header image, what effect does the green in the picture have on your eye?  Does it stand out?  Blend in?  Or accentuate?  Does it offer a feeling of nature into the city scape?

Santa Barbara, CA

Have you ever witnessed an upset?  Watched as the heavily favored team lackadaisically meandered through a game, while the “wunderdogs” played hard on every play, eventually winning enough points, having enough plays fall in their favor to win the game?

If you were a fan of the favorites, you walked away saddened, perplexed, and maybe even angry.  Your team was said to be the “expert” heading into this match.  They were the Goliath.  They had more experience.  They were bigger.  They were taller.  They were even said to be smarter than their opponent.  But something went terribly wrong.  There was a “failure of the expert”.