Archive for June, 2008
By Rajesh Setty on Mon 16 Jun 2008, 9:10 PM - 1 Comment
When you begin your career, typically there are many people who can (almost) do the same thing that you can do. As you progress in your career, the classic attraction (may be because of the “social proof” that exists) is to again join groups of people that go after popular and relevant stuff.
Problem is – most of the time, popular and relevant stuff has a short shelf-life.
Typical growth path
For most people, the career progression means growing along with the crowd. Chasing what is popular – meaning following the crowd and just being a bit better than the average. As you can see, the the less deviation you have from the crowd, lesser the premium. If you are in the typical growth path, then you are one among the crowd that brings a valuable offer that is relevant to the current marketplace – but not different enough for the marketplace to distinguish you. Since the marketplace can’t distinguish you enough, there is no reason for the marketplace to place a premium on what you bring to the table. Besides, if you go away from the marketplace, there are enough people out there who are offering the same thing you are offering.
Ideal growth path
The better career progression is where you start off being one among the crowd offering something valuable to the marketplace. However, as time progresses, you start distinguishing yourself from the crowd – but always being relevant and continuing to offer something valuable to the marketplace. As you can see, when you have deviated sufficiently from the crowd, your premium soars. In fact, your ultimate goal (from a career perspective) will be to be in the crowd of ONE – where you are offering something valuable and in parallel – significantly distinguishing yourself from others in the race.
Wish you a wonderful week ahead.
Posted under Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Fri 13 Jun 2008, 11:15 PM - Leave Comment
My teacher always says that “the same action can mean different things to different people”. So your work (hence your action) may mean something to you and you may be expecting that it means the “same thing” to your boss. It may not be true – in fact, in most cases it is not true. You can laugh at the following joke but there’s a quick lesson there too..
The Nurse
Two old gents and their nurse were sitting on the lawn of the nursing home enjoying the afternoon, when a little bird flew over and dropped a load on the bald head of one of the older men. The nurse got all flustered and said, “Don’t you go anywhere, I’ll run in and get some toilet paper,” and off she goes. The two looked at each other and one of them said, “Are we crazy or is she crazy? By the time she gets back with the toilet paper, the bird will be a half a mile away
Note: For other 35 posts in the same series, please visit my Squidoo Lens on the same topic. Here is the link:
Squidoo Lens: Smile Please
Posted under Smile Please.
By Rajesh Setty on Wed 11 Jun 2008, 9:03 PM - 2 Comments
A product is successful when it sells hundreds and thousands of units.
A product is insanely successful when it creates an industry around that product. iPod is one such product as there are companies (and there are divisions of large companies) that make products just around iPod.
A product is insanely-unbelievably-extraordinarily successful when companies try to design and roll-out products that are possibly used only by a small percentage of people.
Take a look at the two products that are in the Skymall catalog related to iPod
One of them is a case where you can secure the iPod and it can float along side with you in the swimming pool or wherever appropriate
|
 Second one is an iPod jacket that is water resistant up to a few feet in the water. I think just in case you need to listen to the songs when you are swimming under water. |
As you can see, these manufacturers thought that (what I think is a small percentage) the subset (people who will use iPod in swimming pools) of the entire iPod universe is BIG ENOUGH to go and create the adjacent products in that area.
Posted under Business Models.
By Rajesh Setty on Wed 11 Jun 2008, 7:31 PM - Leave Comment
How easy are you making it easy for people to get what they are entitled to?
Think about it. There are so many “Mail-In Rebate” offers that want you to do half a dozen things to get back what was promised. I am sure that the complexity of the problem precludes many people from completing the steps required – thus saving a ton of money for the merchant
Yesterday when I returned from North Carolina, I traveled by US airways and found that they now provide a way for flyers to text their information to earn “dividend miles”
Seems simple and clean – travelers are entitled to frequent flyer miles and all they need to do is send a text message and they are done!
Think about your own business and see what you can do it make it easy for your customers to get what they are entitled.
Good luck!
Posted under Uncategorized.
By Rajesh Setty on Wed 11 Jun 2008, 6:59 AM - 3 Comments
Distinguishing oneself is not easy for anyone and it is not a one-time thing. If you are distinguishing yourself by the kind of expertise you have and if that expertise is in demand, soon others will follow suit and commoditize. If you are distinguishing yourself by writing a book and the theme of the book is gaining traction, soon others will follow suit and there will be many books on the same topic.
Distinguishing yourself is a lifetime project and as you succeed in this project, the standards for continued success get higher. That is part of the deal. You just have to get used to it.
Whatever it is that you are offering to the world, if it is unique enough the marketplace won’t know that such an offer exists. In fact, let your offer better be unique otherwise you will be in a rat race right out of the gate. Since your offer is unique and the marketplace does not know that such an offer exists, it is your responsibility to raise awareness of the need for an offer such as the one you are offering.
In other words, you make a bold promise and have enough accomplishments to prove that you have the structure to fulfill that promise. That is the first step. In parallel, you engage in activities that will help the marketplace see that there is a need for listening to your promise.
Yesterday I was at North Carolina and while coming back, I picked up the airline magazine. I found an advertisement from Charlotte-Douglas International Airport (actually there were many advertisements from the airport) that talked about their Business Valet and Curbside Valet parking services. This is not available in all the airports. Charlotte-Douglas knows that and wants to ensure that “we know” that such a service exists. So when there is a need, it is in our awareness that we can use their valet service.
That was a simple example. You can extend this to yourself by asking the question:
What activities should I be engaged in to increase the awareness for the need for my offers to the marketplace?
All the best!
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Note 1: For links to the other 186 entries in the “Distinguish yourself” series, please visit my Squidoo lens on the same topic:
Squidoo Lens: Distinguish yourself
Note 2: The first 25 entries in the series have been packaged in a ChangeThis manifesto that was published on September 07, 2005. You can download that manifesto here:
ChangeThis Manifesto: 25 Ways to Distinguish Yourself
Note 3: My latest manifesto on ChangeThis was published on August 8, 2007. Today it is ranked #40. I am overwhelmed by the support for this. Thank you. Here is the link:
ChangeThis Manifesto: Making the Most of Your Time: Going Beyond To-Do Lists
Posted under Distinguish yourself, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Sun 08 Jun 2008, 10:24 PM - 3 Comments
A mini saga is a story told in exactly 50 words – not 49 or 51 but exactly 50 words.
Why write a mini saga?
There are several reasons. For the reader, the benefits are simple – whether the mini saga is good or bad, it only takes a minute to read it.
There are multiple benefits for writing a mini saga. Here are a few benefits
1. Expands your creativity
“I didn’t have the time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead”
– Mark Twain
Constraints expand creativity. When you are forced to think of the various parts of the story within 50 words, you have to put your imagination to serious work. Writing something long is easy. When you have to put everything in 50 words, you have to “leave behind” a lot. Deciding what NOT to include (and still bring forth everything you wanted to) requires a lot of creativity.
2. Stretches your thinking
OK you decide to write a mini saga. What will you write about? That question alone is enough to stretch your thinking. Your story can be about anything but if it has to be narrated within 50 words, then the choices are limited. You don’t have an option but to “stretch” your thinking in your question for a “good” plot.
3. Enhances your discipline
Trying to convey an idea in less than 50 words is hard. So, imagine trying to write a story in 50 words. You need a lot of discipline to make it happen – deciding what to write about, what to include and what to leave behind.
Here is a Squidoo lens with 25 mini sagas I have written over the last two years.
Squidoo Lens: Mini Saga
Enjoy and have a great week ahead!
Posted under Main Page, Uncategorized.
By Rajesh Setty on Thu 05 Jun 2008, 9:53 AM - 1 Comment
Thank you for reading this blog, some other blog and thank you reading anything that you think will help. You might be reading a lot and thinking about what you read and discussing it with your friends. This is all good but without action none of this is good. Bronowski captures this brilliantly in this sweet quote.
“The world can only be grasped by action, not by contemplation”
- Jacob Bronowski
Posted under Quought for the Day.
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