I'm back. It's been a number of years.
Sunday, February 18, 2018
Friday, July 4, 2014
"Smart Ecommerce" -- In the future what you want or need to buy WILL FIND YOU
The Future of Commerce is “Smart Ecommerce” – But What
Does That Mean?
Change within an industry is at first predominantly
quantitative, followed eventually by qualitative. Search 100 years from now
will not be better links, just as the automobile, as Henry Ford famously
stated, was not a faster horse.
Ecommerce is dominated by a few huge global players,
Alibaba, Amazon, Ebay etc. Beyond a very short list of behemoth ecommerce
players, second tier players such as the Netlix’s of the world are substantial
but more niche players.
Ecommerce success today is driven by either size and
selection, coupled with price and convenience, or by vertical expertise,
private or special sales, or the like.
But just as search engines are predicted in the
future to become intelligent personal assistants that you take with you rather
than greater and more refined lists of links, so will the ecommerce leaders of
tomorrow be intelligent personal assistants as well which you take with you.
And like any great personal assistant, they will be
proactive rather than reactive.
Today, and this is a critical point, you have to
primarily go out and find what you want or need to buy. But in the future, what
you want or need to buy will come and find you. Including, increasingly when
you didn’t even know that you wanted or needed at all.
We term this “smart ecommerce”.
Smart ecommerce has many aspects and applications,
and is the focus on our world-leading technology ecommerce 2.0 startup, Media
2.0 (see description for link to company).
Predicting the future is, obviously, never a perfect
science. You’ve probably heard the famous saying, "We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters." from Founders Fund and Peter Thiel.
However, we can look
across history and across industries to see what disruptive change may look
like, and consider that in the context of major forces today, both generally
and within ecommerce.
One overriding
principle to keep in mind, going forward, is that while more than a few
companies – and investors – have lost their shirt in ecommerce, sometimes
falling prey to the “if you build it they will come” fallacy, the other
important consideration is that commerce in general has a high floor, because
there will not likely come a day when people do not need to buy things. And
while brick and mortar is far from dead, as the shift in commerce continues to
shift to the mobile, online and eventually also virtual worlds, ecommerce has,
although there will continue to be winners and losers, certainly a bright
overall future indeed.
So, what are the forces
within “smart ecommerce”?
First, as the term
smart commerce recognized, it is smart. It is smart in the sense that it is
personalized, and it is smart in the sense that it is learning and increasing
its capabilities and efficiencies over time.
So, today in ecommerce that
looks like, for example, algorithm driven recommendation engines. “If you liked
that, you may also like this” kind of thing. These can be extremely powerful
and lucrative, but in the forms in which they exist today they are stone age
tools in the history of ecommerce offerings to come.
Recommendations which
meet you out in the world become notifications. Here is a coupon for this, for
example, based upon your past preferences. Or the next book in the series you
are reading is now available for pre-order. Or the band you saw seven years ago
is coming again this summer to your hometown. Or the engagement ring you
received years ago is due for its next cleaning.
Or, a bit in the future
thanks to “The Internet of things” your car is texting you that it is past time
for a tune-up, and your refrigerator is signaling that you are low on milk (of
course for routine purchases such as milk, you’ll be autosetting your refrigerator
to purchase your milk for you (and other groceries) when they run low).
Learning involves
intelligence, which in the case of non-living things is artificial intelligence.
Search assistants and ecommerce assistants will in many cases in the future
likely be integrated together, if not one and the same. The Siri of today will
be your friendly, cooperative, highly proactive and – critically – super intelligent
assistant that learns what you want and when you want it. Of course, in the
future, learning your communication and interaction preferences, your
intelligent personal assistant will not only give you what you want – often before
you know you want it – but give it to you HOW you want it.
Now that’s
personalization. And convenience.
Ecommerce of the future
eventually becomes, increasingly, an extension of you. An extension of your
brain, and perhaps even an extension of your personality.
And perhaps part of
you. Let’s look at the rapidly growing area of wearables. These are devices you
wear on your body, or in your clothing, with sensors and computing power to
tell you, for example, your exercise information, or your medical information.
Someday it is hypothesized these will exist not only on you, but in you,
implanted or traveling in the body providing all kinds of measurements and
someday treatments or cures. Implants, temporary or permanent, in the brain may
also serve medical functions and potentially virtual experience functions and
other functions, possibly, which we can’t even imagine well today.
So, to keep things
simple for now, let’s say you’re wearing a smart watch of the not too distant
future which indicates that your hypertension is getting worse. This
information, with your permission, is relayed to your doctor who writes you a
new prescription. But not only that. The prescription is paid for by the same
gadget that placed your order (and/or received the doctor’s new prescription).
So wearables, or implants, and ecommerce could fuse as one.
In our company, Media
2.0, we’re working to perfect an additional revolutionary way in which
ecommerce can find you, rather than you finding it.
Content.
What if the content
locations for whatever topics you were most interested in also had the
Amazon-like qualities of market size, convenience and price ecommerce offerings
built into each content topic area? So, for example, because you are regular
reader about motorcycles, and own three, motorcycle related ecommerce offerings
related to both your specific reading and purchase history matched your interests
algorithmically. What if I know that you are consistently reading New York
Yankees articles from us and also that you go to
Yankee Stadium five times a year, have New York Yankees products in your home
and subscribe to several paid sports channels and a half dozen sports
magazines.
How valuable would this
combination of information be?
Pairing content and
ecommerce effectively together is not easy by a long shot. If it was it would
have already been done at scale. Let’s look at Amazon. They have some great
product descriptions, photos and reviews but they don’t have entire sites,
online magazines or blogs related to each type of product which you want to
buy.
Amazon is a trusted
site, but creating leading “destination sites” where the consumer returns over
and over and over again, continually, to constantly gain the newest and updated
content information that he or she likes to read, is an enhanced value
proposition under which circumstances of ecommerce sales, when additional
conditions are met, can thrive.
Historically,
continuing to the present, content monetization has often become a race to the
bottom, an attempt to capture the maximum number of eyeballs via the lowest or
mass common denominator. to monetize via AdSense, ad networks and the like.
But eCommerce is a
hugely higher potential revenue model than Adsense and Ad networks when well
done.
Because we have
demonstrated proof of concept and have world leading expertise in this area, we
become, post funding as we scale, a leading acquisition candidate for any
ecommerce giant who wants to add these lucrative ecommerce capabilities to its
offerings (and in the build versus buy equation, there are a lot of hidden
barriers to entry and the like which make buying rather than building a more
attractive, and cost-effective, option).
The Three C’s and Success (Competition, Challenge and Character)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lJ86ULDyX8
Chapter 2:
The Three C’s and Success (Competition, Challenge and Character)
(Go to The Laws and Secrets of Success: Delving Deeper than You've Been Told Before into the Mysteries of Why Some People Accomplish More Than Others, Are Happier, Better Liked, and Yes, Wealthier: Alex Hammer: 9781492870258: Amazon.com: Books for the complete story)
Most of us avoid or dislike obstacles, but not
the most successful.
Successful people realize that it is important, to
quote from Joyce Meyer, to use the hardships
in life to “make themselves better rather than
bitter”. This mindset is a critical difference
between highly successful individuals and those
less so. Successful individuals recognize and in
fact appreciate that life can be, and often is,
difficult, but that this is not something to be
feared or criticized but embraced. Less
successful people instead make excuses and
cast blame. If only they’d gotten better breaks
or not been mistreated. A victim mentality. By
contrast, successful individuals take
responsibility for their lives and the results in it,
and do not blame other people.
Competition
Successful people are often portrayed or
considered as ruthless. As competing with
others and taking whatever they can grab in a
win-lose proposition.
You’ve heard the expressions:
“Who did you step over (or sleep with) to get to
the top?”
“It’s a dog-eat dog world”
“No good deed goes unpunished”
Despite this conventional wisdom, this is not, in
fact, how most successful think and act.
Far from it.
You may not be used to thinking this way about
successful people, so it may sound a little
surprising at first, but consider this:
Successful people realize that the real
competition is actually with oneself. Others just
serve as a mirror, and a measuring stick, for us
to allow us to see where we are at and
improve. This is part of taking responsibility for
one’s life.
And for one’s success.
Life created each of us differently. An oak tree
will never be a better maple tree than a maple
tree. It will never be a better bird than a bird.
But if it takes advantage of its surroundings to
the maximum, plays well the cards it is dealt (or
can acquire), then it can be the best oak tree
that it is capable of being.
As corny as this may sound, successful people
realize that success involves being the best
“you” that you are capable of being. That is
why successful people are not jealous or
envious of other people. Envy and jealousy are
negative emotions emanating from a feeling of
lack. We wouldn’t be jealous of others unless
we felt that they have something that we do
not. It is this inner feeling of lack that gives rise
to a corresponding poverty or other form of
lack in the world – for as within, so without. By
contrast, gratitude is an expression of fullness
and wealth. How can you be grateful unless you
are already full and have a lot to give. The same
applies to all feelings of fullness or
completeness versus feelings of lack. For
example love versus hate (or apathy). Love is a
sense of I have enough for myself, and even
extra that I can give to you. Hate by contrast, is
a feeling of lack, you took something from me I
need, or you have something that I need, etc.
Apathy is much different than contentment.
Contentment is feeling that what I have is
enough, it is all that I need. Apathy is there is
nothing of value that can be gained nor to
share, and hence I have no interest in other
people.
Why feel bad that another type of tree has
some “desired” characteristic that you do not.
Or that something comes easier to another
than it comes to you. “Variety is the spice of
life” and successful people realize that is
important to focus on what you have, and
make the most of it, rather than what you do
not. This does not mean that one cannot nor
should not work on one’s “weaknesses” as well
as one’s strengths. Certainly we should seek to
improve in all areas that are important to us.
But to waste time and worry in comparison to
others when we each are unique and on our
own individual path in life is not something
which successful people are prone to do.
Competition in the World
And yet life does have a highly competitive
element. Seen from a spiritual perspective, this
involves the notion that the lower is always
subservient to the higher. From a carnal
perspective it can be expressed, for example,
through the notion of “the survival of the
fittest”, a “will to power” or a need to
dominate.
This is real, but far different than aggression.
While the successful are often viewed as the
most aggressive, they may instead, perhaps, be
seen as the most focused or determined. They
are certainly not easily swayed away from their
goals. In addition, not only are they NOT more
aggressive, but they are in fact most able to
withstand the intrusions of others. In short,
they have a balanced mood and temperament
that is not easily displaced, even within the
highly competitive challenges of the world.
Unsuccessful people become moody, angry and
upset. They strike out at others when they do
not get their way or seek to overtly dominate
them. Successful individuals, by contrast, stay
calm and professional and withstand the
strongest blows. They possess the centeredness
and inner confidence and calm not to be easily
ruffled. This is a major component of success.
Not responding when others are asserting their
will to power against you can seem like
weakness, but many times it reflects a superior
strength in that such a successful individual is
not allowing oneself to be distracted to become
engaged by the other who is generally less
successful. Successful individuals are calm
because they are confident. They are not
overwhelmed by the will to power intrusions of
others because they recognize the reasons why
they occur as being from a source of weakness
from the other.
The most successful individuals may well be the
most competitive but they are able to do this
largely, rather than through overt competitive
actions but through, interestingly, the self-
control of avoiding the competitive acts of
others. By not becoming engaged, and thus not
wasting valuable energy and resources,
including time.
Success by ignoring others!!
(So, now you know why the very successful
never return your calls).
In all seriousness, We all prioritize our
activities, and the most successful are primarily
engaged with others who are also most
successful, who share the same or similar
characteristics as themselves.
By making oneself inaccessible and
unassailable, the successful individual is free to
focus on one’s own goals without distraction.
They also, in avoiding stress and resource
draining altercations, retain the focus and
resources to directly confront competitive
challenges that occur that they must respond
to that are more serious.
We call this picking one’s battles.
Competition Tools in Society
Those who are high on the success chain have
five extraordinarily powerful tools at their
disposal. Business resources (including,
importantly, financial resources). Legal
resources (and by extension the courts),
political and government resources (executive
and legislative (so we’ll count this as two). And
the media. Focusing on these is a book onto
itself, but suffice to say that, given these
collectively, the highly successful individual is
not overly concerned, for the most part, in
regard to competition that may arise from the
average man or woman on the street.
I will make one quick note about the media.
The fallacy (but oft repeated mantra) that the
media is the watchdog of the other four (and
especially the other three, being the three
branches of government) is perhaps the biggest
fox guarding the henhouse delusion that keeps
the whole system working well together in an
integrated and reinforcing fashion.
The general idea of checks and balances is itself
a tool of the rich and successful to present an
illusion of opportunity (if not fairness) that
many may suspect in their heart of hearts,
especially if they are the cynical kind, is instead
a reinforcement of entrenched interests of the
status quo.
Want to see it even more dramatically. Add in
these two additional forces: police and the
military.
It’s easy to see, how it can appear at times, that
it a completely stacked deck. However, before
we consider these an abuse of power, we must
also recognize that being a nation of laws
serves us all (although perhaps to varying
degrees), as does having a judicial system,
media, police, etc.
It’s simply a matter of balance and fairness in
regard to how these institutions are used. And
when they are misused, they start to erode and
lose their power, because the masses of people
will not follow them when the trust level dips
below a certain point.
Some might see such a structure as an
argument for Social Darwinism or “might makes
right”. There is a fine balance here. Power
MUST be used for one to be successful but
when it is misused this violates the essential
principles of life and backfires. Understanding
the intricacies and nuances between effective
use versus misuse, is a, if not the, critical
determining factor between success and
failure. How is this distinction effectively made?
By character, which we will be examining a bit
further below.
In short, the successful use power effectively
but are not power-hungry. We’ll examine this
more below (in short, the adaptive use of
power aids all and reflects a sense of fullness,
while the abuse of power represents a sense of
deficiency and lack and thus becomes non-
constructive or destructive, depending upon
degree).
Competition and the Marketplace of Ideas
The world is a competition of ideas. More
powerful ideas (such as a car for
transportation) tend to replace less powerful
ideas (such as horse and buggy).
Or, to date, capitalism over communism.
Almost by definition, the successful possess
better (i.e. more successful) ideas.
It has been said (and I’m paraphrasing) “that
whenever two people engage in dialogue in
good faith, the one who is more certain will
wind up influencing the one who is less
certain".
Think of the power and implications of that
principle.
The world advances so good ideas must
advance. The world is complex so ideas must be
considered not only in isolation but also as they
relate to the bigger picture. The power of
learning is that it exposes us to better ideas.
And through understanding and experience we
can incorporate those ideas into guiding
principles and wisdom.
The most successful people clearly do.
Successful ideas can be incremental or
disruptive in their advancement. Fortunes are
made from successfully implemented disruptive
ideas.
Challenge
They’ve done studies involving taking bees into
space, and the bees die. They die because there
is not enough resistance to their flying. The
bees need the resistance to survive.
Resistance is critical to human beings as well.
We need to grow – everything in life grows or
dies, that is a fundamental principle in life (my
Dad termed it, “if you’re not moving forward in
life, you’re moving backwards”).
Or, as many have heard said, “that which
doesn’t kill us makes us stronger”.
When we exercise it hurts, but it hurts in a way
that is making us stronger. Muscles need to be
used to grow. The “use it or lose it”
phenomenon.
Perhaps the challenges of life, the
disappointments and hurts, are mental
exercise.
Successful people better accept life on its
terms, and adapt to it. They take responsibility
for the actions they engage in, the thinking that
gives rise to it, and the results that emerge.
Unsuccessful people live in “woulda, coulda,
shoulda”.
It’s been famously said that “if” is the longest
word in the English language.
This is not to say that every pain is to be
embraced.
There is helpful pain and non-helpful pain. The
helpful pain is a stretching or a discomfort that
is expanding our capabilities, our minds, our
hearts, our conscience, our will, our spirits and
our souls. The non-helpful type of pain is when
we torture ourselves with the things we tell
ourselves --“I’m not good enough”, “I’m not
strong enough”, “No one will ever love me”, “I
can’t accept…” etc.
Successful people understand this critical
distinction, and make it.
Successful people are compassionate with
themselves in addition to being compassionate
with others. Self-compassion, a form of self-
love, is the basis for being compassionate with
other people.
Another Joyce Meyer concept is that human
interactions can be like sandpaper, helping to
take away our rough edges. If you are not that
compassionate in life, or if it is a trait that you
are working on, consciously or unconsciously,
you may draw people into your life who will
encourage you or literally force you (although
we do have free will) to be more
compassionate. Perhaps you will have a special
needs child, who needs more of your heart,
devotion and care than you thought that you
were capable of giving. Perhaps a trusted friend
or relative will betray you, forcing you to either
forgive or remain bitter over time.
When you start to realize that others are
serving as a mirror for you so that you can
better understand yourself and where you are
at, then, to the degree that you accept this, you
can begin to become more compassionate with
yourself and with others.
This is the basis of emotional intelligence
leading to success that we examined in the last
chapter.
Remember those bees above. That must seem
like nirvana in those first moments, to go
through life with little or no resistance, and
while it might be helpful for a short period of
time - we all surely need to relax and recharge
our batteries at times - life has its fullness and
growth from challenge.
It is, apparently, the nature of the world in
which we live.
It is human nature, even by those who are
disciplined, to sometimes (or often) seek the
path of least resistance, and embracing the
challenges of life takes real maturity. Life can
seem incredibly challenging. Will we survive?
Will we prosper? Will we continue to prosper?
It has been famously said that time is the gift of
the universe providing perspective. We’re
mortal, and we’re reminded of that with time.
There is no success, in the long run (from all we
know so far) of cheating death in this world.
This is incredibly sobering.
The losses that we suffer in life bring us closer
to that ultimate loss, that inevitable loss. Our
death. And are a reminder that can bring
richness and meaning to what we experience in
our lives if we are open to having it be as such.
Ultimately, challenge is scary because it brings
us closer to our ultimate challenge, our
mortality, the challenge that we cannot
conquer.
We distract ourselves with the challenges of
the day and as we solve these successfully we
delude ourselves that we are ultimately secure.
But cracks appear – inevitably.
Successful individuals are better at accepting
the truth of situations more fully. We all
intellectually accept that we are mortal but we,
it seems, largely put it out of our minds. Some
people say that successful people are driven by
their fears. If we are driven by fears then our
level of success must be questioned, as what is
our quality of life no matter what we have
gained if we are captive to fear?
The successful individual is at peace with
oneself and the circumstances in one’s life. He
or she has learned to come to terms with losses
large and small, understanding that challenge is
intrinsic to life, inescapable. In some way, the
successful have learned to accept the rules of
life from small loss to ultimate loss. In this way,
challenge takes on a new meaning. It is a
stretching of oneself to be better able to accept
what is, or some other framework that
generates acceptance and peace.
Challenge and the Law of Attraction
We examined in Chapter One the idea of self-
fulfilling prophesies. Angry people are
sensitized to look for angry and unjust
circumstances and find them (i.e. they help to
create them). By contrast, for example,
gratitude promotes richness and success.
How does this work in a little more detail? Well,
as I think of it, we’re all like tuning forks in
terms of what we attract and repel. Just as a
radio or TV station plays the message that
corresponds to that individual frequency or
wavelength, so experiences manifest
corresponding to the energy in our hearts,
minds and souls. Have you ever felt that
someone was drawn to you, or you to them, or
repulsed?
The outer is a manifestation of the inner, like a
mirror. Our experiences reflect to us how we
feel about ourselves (and correspondingly
about others). “Fruits of the spirit”, including
love, acceptance, joy, compassion, gratitude,
etc. REFLECT A STRONG SENSE OF INNER
COMPLETENESS, SATISFACTION AND
RICHNESS, TRUE WEALTH, etc. that become
manifested in the world in the forms of money,
harmonious relationships, health, etc.
THIS IS THE SECRET OF THE BOOK BY THE
SAME NAME, AND MAY BE, AS FAR AS I
KNOW, ONE OF THE POTENTIALLY
FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF THE UNIVERSE.
Life, and life experiences, are showing you what
you already hold or believe yourself to be.
Or, as has been said, “wherever you go, there
you are”.
Feelings have a stronger vibrational energy
than do thoughts, so how you feel about
something is a stronger predictor of the law of
attraction than what you think about it. If you
feel happy, content, grateful, joyful, etc. then
the law of attraction is working to your benefit.
If you wish for good things but your emotions
are out of whack then at best you are sending
mixed messages and again feelings are more
powerful. Powerful and successful feeling leads
to powerful and successful thinking, and you
can work on your thinking in addition to your
feelings for beneficial effect.
Successful people know, and utilize, that to see
success in the world, it starts first inside.
Character
Biology should never have been characterized
as destiny. But character may well be.
I like to say that “talent can take one to the top,
but only character keeps one there”. This is
because those who rise without character may
reach the top but are much more likely to fall,
quickly or after a period of time, than those
who do.
It’s a similar principle to lottery winners who do
not have a wealth mentality despite winning
great wealth. If the lottery winner can develop
a wealth mindset then they should be able to
keep, maintain and even build upon their
winnings. However, if they can’t, then they’re
simply a poor person who temporarily happens
to have a lot of money. That is, they have
retained the mentality of a poor person, they
think like a poor person, and as detailed earlier
as per the law of attraction, this inner feeling
and belief of poverty must manifest in the
lottery winner again becoming poor.
People with a poor person’s mentality at some
level don’t feel entirely comfortable being rich.
Perhaps they feel guilty. Perhaps they do not
appreciate the money as one might if acquired
in a different way (e.g. by years of labor and
sacrifice).
Back to character. I define love as wanting to
help those who can do nothing for you, and
character as has been famously said, as “doing
the right thing even when no one is watching”.
It’s human nature that we want to lie in bed
and do nothing (and still become rich). We
want (at least at times) to be petty with others
and be selfish. Character teaches us we can’t be
lazy. Character teaches us we can’t be mean.
Not if we wish to have a successful life.
We have to have the discipline to work hard
Even when we don’t feel like it. We have to
move beyond our personal feelings and look at
the bigger picture in terms of our words and
moods.
Character is destiny.
In a later chapter we’ll be discussing success as
determined by the strength of your network.
Do you think that successful individuals want to
hang out with you or be part of your network if
you have bad character?
Let’s put it this way. You know how hard you’ve
worked to get to where you are. Do you want
someone irresponsible, careless or carefree
dragging you down?
I defined character as doing the right thing even
when no one is looking. Many people appear to
do the right thing when others are watching,
for personal gain. Character runs a lot deeper
than that. It is an internalization of beliefs, and
attitude and drive that keep one on true north.
Character is destiny. Ask the successful people
you know.
Conclusion
Competition is real but largely a competition
with ourselves to be the best we can be.
Successful people realize that as we compete in
the world we are learning about ourselves and
the notions that we hold. Successful individuals
make effective use and take benefit from
utilizing powerful institutions but do so in a
balanced way to avoid negative consequences.
Life is a battle of ideas, both incremental and
disruptive.
Successful individuals realize that as we compete in
the world we are learning about ourselves and
the notions that we hold. Successful individuals
make effective use and take benefit from
utilizing powerful institutions but do so in a
balanced way to avoid negative consequences.
Life is a battle of ideas, both incremental and
disruptive.
Successful individuals realize that challenge
exists to make us “better rather than bitter”,
and thus is to be embraced rather than feared.
Sometimes life uses others to help smooth
away our rough edges or improve us in some
other way. The law of attraction is a powerful
force and translates our inner feelings and
beliefs into experiences in the world. This is the
great and powerful secret.
Character, perhaps more than anything else, is
destiny. The successful may rise through talent,
but require character as a necessity to maintain
and expand upon their success.
(This has been a single chapter excerpt from The Laws and Secrets of Success: Delving Deeper than You've Been Told Before into the Mysteries of Why Some People Accomplish More Than Others, Are Happier, Better Liked, and Yes, Wealthier: Alex Hammer: 9781492870258: Amazon.com: Books)
Most of us avoid or dislike obstacles, but not
the most successful.
Successful people realize that it is important, to
quote from Joyce Meyer, to use the hardships
in life to “make themselves better rather than
bitter”. This mindset is a critical difference
between highly successful individuals and those
less so. Successful individuals recognize and in
fact appreciate that life can be, and often is,
difficult, but that this is not something to be
feared or criticized but embraced. Less
successful people instead make excuses and
cast blame. If only they’d gotten better breaks
or not been mistreated. A victim mentality. By
contrast, successful individuals take
responsibility for their lives and the results in it,
and do not blame other people.
Competition
Successful people are often portrayed or
considered as ruthless. As competing with
others and taking whatever they can grab in a
win-lose proposition.
You’ve heard the expressions:
“Who did you step over (or sleep with) to get to
the top?”
“It’s a dog-eat dog world”
“No good deed goes unpunished”
Despite this conventional wisdom, this is not, in
fact, how most successful think and act.
Far from it.
You may not be used to thinking this way about
successful people, so it may sound a little
surprising at first, but consider this:
Successful people realize that the real
competition is actually with oneself. Others just
serve as a mirror, and a measuring stick, for us
to allow us to see where we are at and
improve. This is part of taking responsibility for
one’s life.
And for one’s success.
Life created each of us differently. An oak tree
will never be a better maple tree than a maple
tree. It will never be a better bird than a bird.
But if it takes advantage of its surroundings to
the maximum, plays well the cards it is dealt (or
can acquire), then it can be the best oak tree
that it is capable of being.
As corny as this may sound, successful people
realize that success involves being the best
“you” that you are capable of being. That is
why successful people are not jealous or
envious of other people. Envy and jealousy are
negative emotions emanating from a feeling of
lack. We wouldn’t be jealous of others unless
we felt that they have something that we do
not. It is this inner feeling of lack that gives rise
to a corresponding poverty or other form of
lack in the world – for as within, so without. By
contrast, gratitude is an expression of fullness
and wealth. How can you be grateful unless you
are already full and have a lot to give. The same
applies to all feelings of fullness or
completeness versus feelings of lack. For
example love versus hate (or apathy). Love is a
sense of I have enough for myself, and even
extra that I can give to you. Hate by contrast, is
a feeling of lack, you took something from me I
need, or you have something that I need, etc.
Apathy is much different than contentment.
Contentment is feeling that what I have is
enough, it is all that I need. Apathy is there is
nothing of value that can be gained nor to
share, and hence I have no interest in other
people.
Why feel bad that another type of tree has
some “desired” characteristic that you do not.
Or that something comes easier to another
than it comes to you. “Variety is the spice of
life” and successful people realize that is
important to focus on what you have, and
make the most of it, rather than what you do
not. This does not mean that one cannot nor
should not work on one’s “weaknesses” as well
as one’s strengths. Certainly we should seek to
improve in all areas that are important to us.
But to waste time and worry in comparison to
others when we each are unique and on our
own individual path in life is not something
which successful people are prone to do.
Competition in the World
And yet life does have a highly competitive
element. Seen from a spiritual perspective, this
involves the notion that the lower is always
subservient to the higher. From a carnal
perspective it can be expressed, for example,
through the notion of “the survival of the
fittest”, a “will to power” or a need to
dominate.
This is real, but far different than aggression.
While the successful are often viewed as the
most aggressive, they may instead, perhaps, be
seen as the most focused or determined. They
are certainly not easily swayed away from their
goals. In addition, not only are they NOT more
aggressive, but they are in fact most able to
withstand the intrusions of others. In short,
they have a balanced mood and temperament
that is not easily displaced, even within the
highly competitive challenges of the world.
Unsuccessful people become moody, angry and
upset. They strike out at others when they do
not get their way or seek to overtly dominate
them. Successful individuals, by contrast, stay
calm and professional and withstand the
strongest blows. They possess the centeredness
and inner confidence and calm not to be easily
ruffled. This is a major component of success.
Not responding when others are asserting their
will to power against you can seem like
weakness, but many times it reflects a superior
strength in that such a successful individual is
not allowing oneself to be distracted to become
engaged by the other who is generally less
successful. Successful individuals are calm
because they are confident. They are not
overwhelmed by the will to power intrusions of
others because they recognize the reasons why
they occur as being from a source of weakness
from the other.
The most successful individuals may well be the
most competitive but they are able to do this
largely, rather than through overt competitive
actions but through, interestingly, the self-
control of avoiding the competitive acts of
others. By not becoming engaged, and thus not
wasting valuable energy and resources,
including time.
Success by ignoring others!!
(So, now you know why the very successful
never return your calls).
In all seriousness, We all prioritize our
activities, and the most successful are primarily
engaged with others who are also most
successful, who share the same or similar
characteristics as themselves.
By making oneself inaccessible and
unassailable, the successful individual is free to
focus on one’s own goals without distraction.
They also, in avoiding stress and resource
draining altercations, retain the focus and
resources to directly confront competitive
challenges that occur that they must respond
to that are more serious.
We call this picking one’s battles.
Competition Tools in Society
Those who are high on the success chain have
five extraordinarily powerful tools at their
disposal. Business resources (including,
importantly, financial resources). Legal
resources (and by extension the courts),
political and government resources (executive
and legislative (so we’ll count this as two). And
the media. Focusing on these is a book onto
itself, but suffice to say that, given these
collectively, the highly successful individual is
not overly concerned, for the most part, in
regard to competition that may arise from the
average man or woman on the street.
I will make one quick note about the media.
The fallacy (but oft repeated mantra) that the
media is the watchdog of the other four (and
especially the other three, being the three
branches of government) is perhaps the biggest
fox guarding the henhouse delusion that keeps
the whole system working well together in an
integrated and reinforcing fashion.
The general idea of checks and balances is itself
a tool of the rich and successful to present an
illusion of opportunity (if not fairness) that
many may suspect in their heart of hearts,
especially if they are the cynical kind, is instead
a reinforcement of entrenched interests of the
status quo.
Want to see it even more dramatically. Add in
these two additional forces: police and the
military.
It’s easy to see, how it can appear at times, that
it a completely stacked deck. However, before
we consider these an abuse of power, we must
also recognize that being a nation of laws
serves us all (although perhaps to varying
degrees), as does having a judicial system,
media, police, etc.
It’s simply a matter of balance and fairness in
regard to how these institutions are used. And
when they are misused, they start to erode and
lose their power, because the masses of people
will not follow them when the trust level dips
below a certain point.
Some might see such a structure as an
argument for Social Darwinism or “might makes
right”. There is a fine balance here. Power
MUST be used for one to be successful but
when it is misused this violates the essential
principles of life and backfires. Understanding
the intricacies and nuances between effective
use versus misuse, is a, if not the, critical
determining factor between success and
failure. How is this distinction effectively made?
By character, which we will be examining a bit
further below.
In short, the successful use power effectively
but are not power-hungry. We’ll examine this
more below (in short, the adaptive use of
power aids all and reflects a sense of fullness,
while the abuse of power represents a sense of
deficiency and lack and thus becomes non-
constructive or destructive, depending upon
degree).
Competition and the Marketplace of Ideas
The world is a competition of ideas. More
powerful ideas (such as a car for
transportation) tend to replace less powerful
ideas (such as horse and buggy).
Or, to date, capitalism over communism.
Almost by definition, the successful possess
better (i.e. more successful) ideas.
It has been said (and I’m paraphrasing) “that
whenever two people engage in dialogue in
good faith, the one who is more certain will
wind up influencing the one who is less
certain".
Think of the power and implications of that
principle.
The world advances so good ideas must
advance. The world is complex so ideas must be
considered not only in isolation but also as they
relate to the bigger picture. The power of
learning is that it exposes us to better ideas.
And through understanding and experience we
can incorporate those ideas into guiding
principles and wisdom.
The most successful people clearly do.
Successful ideas can be incremental or
disruptive in their advancement. Fortunes are
made from successfully implemented disruptive
ideas.
Challenge
They’ve done studies involving taking bees into
space, and the bees die. They die because there
is not enough resistance to their flying. The
bees need the resistance to survive.
Resistance is critical to human beings as well.
We need to grow – everything in life grows or
dies, that is a fundamental principle in life (my
Dad termed it, “if you’re not moving forward in
life, you’re moving backwards”).
Or, as many have heard said, “that which
doesn’t kill us makes us stronger”.
When we exercise it hurts, but it hurts in a way
that is making us stronger. Muscles need to be
used to grow. The “use it or lose it”
phenomenon.
Perhaps the challenges of life, the
disappointments and hurts, are mental
exercise.
Successful people better accept life on its
terms, and adapt to it. They take responsibility
for the actions they engage in, the thinking that
gives rise to it, and the results that emerge.
Unsuccessful people live in “woulda, coulda,
shoulda”.
It’s been famously said that “if” is the longest
word in the English language.
This is not to say that every pain is to be
embraced.
There is helpful pain and non-helpful pain. The
helpful pain is a stretching or a discomfort that
is expanding our capabilities, our minds, our
hearts, our conscience, our will, our spirits and
our souls. The non-helpful type of pain is when
we torture ourselves with the things we tell
ourselves --“I’m not good enough”, “I’m not
strong enough”, “No one will ever love me”, “I
can’t accept…” etc.
Successful people understand this critical
distinction, and make it.
Successful people are compassionate with
themselves in addition to being compassionate
with others. Self-compassion, a form of self-
love, is the basis for being compassionate with
other people.
Another Joyce Meyer concept is that human
interactions can be like sandpaper, helping to
take away our rough edges. If you are not that
compassionate in life, or if it is a trait that you
are working on, consciously or unconsciously,
you may draw people into your life who will
encourage you or literally force you (although
we do have free will) to be more
compassionate. Perhaps you will have a special
needs child, who needs more of your heart,
devotion and care than you thought that you
were capable of giving. Perhaps a trusted friend
or relative will betray you, forcing you to either
forgive or remain bitter over time.
When you start to realize that others are
serving as a mirror for you so that you can
better understand yourself and where you are
at, then, to the degree that you accept this, you
can begin to become more compassionate with
yourself and with others.
This is the basis of emotional intelligence
leading to success that we examined in the last
chapter.
Remember those bees above. That must seem
like nirvana in those first moments, to go
through life with little or no resistance, and
while it might be helpful for a short period of
time - we all surely need to relax and recharge
our batteries at times - life has its fullness and
growth from challenge.
It is, apparently, the nature of the world in
which we live.
It is human nature, even by those who are
disciplined, to sometimes (or often) seek the
path of least resistance, and embracing the
challenges of life takes real maturity. Life can
seem incredibly challenging. Will we survive?
Will we prosper? Will we continue to prosper?
It has been famously said that time is the gift of
the universe providing perspective. We’re
mortal, and we’re reminded of that with time.
There is no success, in the long run (from all we
know so far) of cheating death in this world.
This is incredibly sobering.
The losses that we suffer in life bring us closer
to that ultimate loss, that inevitable loss. Our
death. And are a reminder that can bring
richness and meaning to what we experience in
our lives if we are open to having it be as such.
Ultimately, challenge is scary because it brings
us closer to our ultimate challenge, our
mortality, the challenge that we cannot
conquer.
We distract ourselves with the challenges of
the day and as we solve these successfully we
delude ourselves that we are ultimately secure.
But cracks appear – inevitably.
Successful individuals are better at accepting
the truth of situations more fully. We all
intellectually accept that we are mortal but we,
it seems, largely put it out of our minds. Some
people say that successful people are driven by
their fears. If we are driven by fears then our
level of success must be questioned, as what is
our quality of life no matter what we have
gained if we are captive to fear?
The successful individual is at peace with
oneself and the circumstances in one’s life. He
or she has learned to come to terms with losses
large and small, understanding that challenge is
intrinsic to life, inescapable. In some way, the
successful have learned to accept the rules of
life from small loss to ultimate loss. In this way,
challenge takes on a new meaning. It is a
stretching of oneself to be better able to accept
what is, or some other framework that
generates acceptance and peace.
Challenge and the Law of Attraction
We examined in Chapter One the idea of self-
fulfilling prophesies. Angry people are
sensitized to look for angry and unjust
circumstances and find them (i.e. they help to
create them). By contrast, for example,
gratitude promotes richness and success.
How does this work in a little more detail? Well,
as I think of it, we’re all like tuning forks in
terms of what we attract and repel. Just as a
radio or TV station plays the message that
corresponds to that individual frequency or
wavelength, so experiences manifest
corresponding to the energy in our hearts,
minds and souls. Have you ever felt that
someone was drawn to you, or you to them, or
repulsed?
The outer is a manifestation of the inner, like a
mirror. Our experiences reflect to us how we
feel about ourselves (and correspondingly
about others). “Fruits of the spirit”, including
love, acceptance, joy, compassion, gratitude,
etc. REFLECT A STRONG SENSE OF INNER
COMPLETENESS, SATISFACTION AND
RICHNESS, TRUE WEALTH, etc. that become
manifested in the world in the forms of money,
harmonious relationships, health, etc.
THIS IS THE SECRET OF THE BOOK BY THE
SAME NAME, AND MAY BE, AS FAR AS I
KNOW, ONE OF THE POTENTIALLY
FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF THE UNIVERSE.
Life, and life experiences, are showing you what
you already hold or believe yourself to be.
Or, as has been said, “wherever you go, there
you are”.
Feelings have a stronger vibrational energy
than do thoughts, so how you feel about
something is a stronger predictor of the law of
attraction than what you think about it. If you
feel happy, content, grateful, joyful, etc. then
the law of attraction is working to your benefit.
If you wish for good things but your emotions
are out of whack then at best you are sending
mixed messages and again feelings are more
powerful. Powerful and successful feeling leads
to powerful and successful thinking, and you
can work on your thinking in addition to your
feelings for beneficial effect.
Successful people know, and utilize, that to see
success in the world, it starts first inside.
Character
Biology should never have been characterized
as destiny. But character may well be.
I like to say that “talent can take one to the top,
but only character keeps one there”. This is
because those who rise without character may
reach the top but are much more likely to fall,
quickly or after a period of time, than those
who do.
It’s a similar principle to lottery winners who do
not have a wealth mentality despite winning
great wealth. If the lottery winner can develop
a wealth mindset then they should be able to
keep, maintain and even build upon their
winnings. However, if they can’t, then they’re
simply a poor person who temporarily happens
to have a lot of money. That is, they have
retained the mentality of a poor person, they
think like a poor person, and as detailed earlier
as per the law of attraction, this inner feeling
and belief of poverty must manifest in the
lottery winner again becoming poor.
People with a poor person’s mentality at some
level don’t feel entirely comfortable being rich.
Perhaps they feel guilty. Perhaps they do not
appreciate the money as one might if acquired
in a different way (e.g. by years of labor and
sacrifice).
Back to character. I define love as wanting to
help those who can do nothing for you, and
character as has been famously said, as “doing
the right thing even when no one is watching”.
It’s human nature that we want to lie in bed
and do nothing (and still become rich). We
want (at least at times) to be petty with others
and be selfish. Character teaches us we can’t be
lazy. Character teaches us we can’t be mean.
Not if we wish to have a successful life.
We have to have the discipline to work hard
Even when we don’t feel like it. We have to
move beyond our personal feelings and look at
the bigger picture in terms of our words and
moods.
Character is destiny.
In a later chapter we’ll be discussing success as
determined by the strength of your network.
Do you think that successful individuals want to
hang out with you or be part of your network if
you have bad character?
Let’s put it this way. You know how hard you’ve
worked to get to where you are. Do you want
someone irresponsible, careless or carefree
dragging you down?
I defined character as doing the right thing even
when no one is looking. Many people appear to
do the right thing when others are watching,
for personal gain. Character runs a lot deeper
than that. It is an internalization of beliefs, and
attitude and drive that keep one on true north.
Character is destiny. Ask the successful people
you know.
Conclusion
Competition is real but largely a competition
with ourselves to be the best we can be.
Successful people realize that as we compete in
the world we are learning about ourselves and
the notions that we hold. Successful individuals
make effective use and take benefit from
utilizing powerful institutions but do so in a
balanced way to avoid negative consequences.
Life is a battle of ideas, both incremental and
disruptive.
Successful individuals realize that as we compete in
the world we are learning about ourselves and
the notions that we hold. Successful individuals
make effective use and take benefit from
utilizing powerful institutions but do so in a
balanced way to avoid negative consequences.
Life is a battle of ideas, both incremental and
disruptive.
Successful individuals realize that challenge
exists to make us “better rather than bitter”,
and thus is to be embraced rather than feared.
Sometimes life uses others to help smooth
away our rough edges or improve us in some
other way. The law of attraction is a powerful
force and translates our inner feelings and
beliefs into experiences in the world. This is the
great and powerful secret.
Character, perhaps more than anything else, is
destiny. The successful may rise through talent,
but require character as a necessity to maintain
and expand upon their success.
(This has been a single chapter excerpt from The Laws and Secrets of Success: Delving Deeper than You've Been Told Before into the Mysteries of Why Some People Accomplish More Than Others, Are Happier, Better Liked, and Yes, Wealthier: Alex Hammer: 9781492870258: Amazon.com: Books)
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Technology Convergence - How VC's and Larry Page are "Going Big or Going Home"
Larry Page is driving the future of Google towards Moon Shots
Thinking big: Larry Page talks moon shots
Self driving cars
Wearable computing
Google Glass
Worldwide Internet/WiFi access
Loon for All - Project Loon - Google
Healthcare longevity research
WTF Is Calico, And Why Does Google Think Its Mysterious New Company Can Defy Aging? | TechCrunch
What Does the Future Dominant Company Look Like?
Google, Amazon, Facebook and Microsoft increasingly compete against each other. Are they Content Providers? Advertising Platforms? Search Engines? Social Networks? Hardware Providers? Ecommerce Platforms?
The more complex the world becomes, the more we need integrated systems that are highly personalized and (self) organized to guide us.
Gaining efficiencies in this competitive landscape by differentiating signal from noise is the "killer app".
"Going Big or Going Home"
A brief illustration:
Our startup, Media 2.0, is at the nexus of content and ecommerce. As Amazon has demonstrated (as well as others such as Netflix and eBay) commerce of the future (and today) is driven by content, sophisticated recommendations, trust networks, user generated content (including reviews, think about this: Would Facebook exist without user generated content? What else is it?), personalization, efficient distribution, social signals (including social networks) etc.
Why we claim we are the future of ecommerce - Investor FAQ
But this is only the beginning of the transformation of ecommerce (and commerce generally) via trusted content.
Those who "Get It" Write Their Own Ticket
Look at Google. Google's Search is, most essentially and fundamentally, an ecommerce engine driven by content - specifically search content, mediated by Paid Search, AdSense, AdWords and the like. Google "creates" its search content by organizing information from the world to meet user's queries.
Ecommerce and Content are like the famous classic Hershey's commercial. "You got chocolate in my peanut butter. No, you got peanut butter on my chocolate".
The two flow naturally together, but in unobvious ways, just as peanut butter and chocolate is not necessarily an intuitive combination. But unlike chocolate and peanut butter, you cannot just slop content and ecommerce together and expect them to be successful. An idea that is relatively simple is far from easy. Just the opposite, you can quickly and easily lose your shirt if you do not understand well what you are doing, falling into the terribly expensive pitfall of "if you build it, they will come".
In the video above we discuss creating destination sites across mobile and other platforms, and a few of the other important key principles in regard to utilizing content and ecommerce together successfully.
There is a lot more to tell, which is one reason that this domain is still in its infancy.
A Common Link
As per Marc Andreessen, "software IS eating the world". EVERY business is becoming a software business, or at a minimum a technology business, and being disrupted as this occurs.
But every business is becoming a content business as well. Look at social media as but one example. Can your business survive much less prosper without effective content today?
Some people study companies. Some people study stocks. I look at the macro and micro level, including studying those who most "get it" in the areas in which I am involved:
My 7 page interview with David Cohen:
Industry Leaders of Tech 2.0 Interview David Cohen: "Look for us to continue to pile up unfair advantages for our companies"
My 7 page interview with Brad Feld:
Industry Leaders Interview Brad Feld - "Fundamentally, it’s about being open, honest, direct, respectful, and humble"
(and many many more)
This post is just to whet your appetite. There is so much more of importance to discuss.
But I'll leave you with this:
Technological convergence
"Technological convergence is the tendency for different technological systems to evolve toward performing similar tasks. Digital convergence can refer to previously separate technologies such as voice (and telephony features), data (and productivity applications), and video that now share resources and interact with each other synergistically.
Telecommunications convergence, network convergence or simplyconvergence are broad terms used to describe emerging telecommunicationstechnologies, and network architecture used to migrate multiple communications services into a single network.[1] Specifically this involves the converging of previously distinct media such as telephony and data communications into common interfaces on single devices."
Jeff Bezos is a genius because he understands how seemingly unrelated businesses are, in fact, related. Larry Page is a genius because he is betting, and betting big, on what is next.
The World's Most Successful VC's and How They Discover "The Next Big Thing" First
Are you?
Go big or go home. That is your only real choice today.
I've come up with a saying that "the Universe expands or contracts opportunities based upon our ability to receive them."
That is your ticket to "The Laws and Secrets of Success".
Thinking big: Larry Page talks moon shots
Self driving cars
Wearable computing
Google Glass
Worldwide Internet/WiFi access
Loon for All - Project Loon - Google
Healthcare longevity research
WTF Is Calico, And Why Does Google Think Its Mysterious New Company Can Defy Aging? | TechCrunch
What Does the Future Dominant Company Look Like?
Google, Amazon, Facebook and Microsoft increasingly compete against each other. Are they Content Providers? Advertising Platforms? Search Engines? Social Networks? Hardware Providers? Ecommerce Platforms?
The more complex the world becomes, the more we need integrated systems that are highly personalized and (self) organized to guide us.
Gaining efficiencies in this competitive landscape by differentiating signal from noise is the "killer app".
"Going Big or Going Home"
A brief illustration:
Our startup, Media 2.0, is at the nexus of content and ecommerce. As Amazon has demonstrated (as well as others such as Netflix and eBay) commerce of the future (and today) is driven by content, sophisticated recommendations, trust networks, user generated content (including reviews, think about this: Would Facebook exist without user generated content? What else is it?), personalization, efficient distribution, social signals (including social networks) etc.
Why we claim we are the future of ecommerce - Investor FAQ
But this is only the beginning of the transformation of ecommerce (and commerce generally) via trusted content.
Those who "Get It" Write Their Own Ticket
Look at Google. Google's Search is, most essentially and fundamentally, an ecommerce engine driven by content - specifically search content, mediated by Paid Search, AdSense, AdWords and the like. Google "creates" its search content by organizing information from the world to meet user's queries.
Ecommerce and Content are like the famous classic Hershey's commercial. "You got chocolate in my peanut butter. No, you got peanut butter on my chocolate".
The two flow naturally together, but in unobvious ways, just as peanut butter and chocolate is not necessarily an intuitive combination. But unlike chocolate and peanut butter, you cannot just slop content and ecommerce together and expect them to be successful. An idea that is relatively simple is far from easy. Just the opposite, you can quickly and easily lose your shirt if you do not understand well what you are doing, falling into the terribly expensive pitfall of "if you build it, they will come".
In the video above we discuss creating destination sites across mobile and other platforms, and a few of the other important key principles in regard to utilizing content and ecommerce together successfully.
There is a lot more to tell, which is one reason that this domain is still in its infancy.
A Common Link
As per Marc Andreessen, "software IS eating the world". EVERY business is becoming a software business, or at a minimum a technology business, and being disrupted as this occurs.
But every business is becoming a content business as well. Look at social media as but one example. Can your business survive much less prosper without effective content today?
Some people study companies. Some people study stocks. I look at the macro and micro level, including studying those who most "get it" in the areas in which I am involved:
My 7 page interview with David Cohen:
Industry Leaders of Tech 2.0 Interview David Cohen: "Look for us to continue to pile up unfair advantages for our companies"
My 7 page interview with Brad Feld:
Industry Leaders Interview Brad Feld - "Fundamentally, it’s about being open, honest, direct, respectful, and humble"
(and many many more)
This post is just to whet your appetite. There is so much more of importance to discuss.
But I'll leave you with this:
Technological convergence
"Technological convergence is the tendency for different technological systems to evolve toward performing similar tasks. Digital convergence can refer to previously separate technologies such as voice (and telephony features), data (and productivity applications), and video that now share resources and interact with each other synergistically.
Telecommunications convergence, network convergence or simplyconvergence are broad terms used to describe emerging telecommunicationstechnologies, and network architecture used to migrate multiple communications services into a single network.[1] Specifically this involves the converging of previously distinct media such as telephony and data communications into common interfaces on single devices."
Jeff Bezos is a genius because he understands how seemingly unrelated businesses are, in fact, related. Larry Page is a genius because he is betting, and betting big, on what is next.
The World's Most Successful VC's and How They Discover "The Next Big Thing" First
Are you?
Go big or go home. That is your only real choice today.
I've come up with a saying that "the Universe expands or contracts opportunities based upon our ability to receive them."
That is your ticket to "The Laws and Secrets of Success".
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