Some of you may remember the book, “The Black Swan,” that I have written quite a few blogs on in the past. The reason I have shared from Nassim Taleb often is his philosophical thinking about the world and investing is so insightful and unique that it makes for serious contemplation about the world in which we live.
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Our Instincts Are Social
As discussed in the X-Factor Blog, I attended and spoke at the Nerve Conference in Atlanta just over a week ago and had a great time! We listened to some interesting speakers and
had a fun spending time with our EO friends and meeting some young aspiring entrepreneurs. The breakout went well! The X-Factor content leads to such powerful discussions and opens us up to the possibilities of creating breakthrough opportunities for our businesses. -
A Grassroots Strategy
Many people look at growing a business as a task of how to reach the largest audience and make the most sales as quickly as possible. From my perspective, it takes time to grow a business and get a product or service out into the market. You can start big with lots of capital, or you can grassroots your product to a small group and let it manifest from there.If you have capital, and can spend it, go for it. Venture capitalists and other investor types tend to introduce a lot of control and other issues if it’s something they take an interest in. Grassroots is the way most of us will either make it or break it in the marketplace.
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A Connection Worthwhile
Did you ever wonder how a website that does nothing but allow you to display your life to all your friends and family and is free to use, could be worth around $11 Billion?? Facebook is. This valuation comes from the power of connecting…not just people, but things. When connectivity is increased, value goes up exponentially.
This could best be understood with the explanation of the “fax effect”. The first fax machine that was made cost exorbitant amounts of money during research and development, and was worth relatively nothing.
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Will Your Foundation Support Your Growth?
Some really great things have been happening on our visit to our India office. In addition to hiring 2 new developers, 1 tester and a designer, we shared a lot on improving our projects and engaged our R&D team in some awesome discussion on new products. Outside of the office, we broke off into 2 teams and Chris and I enjoyed our first game of Cricket.
A few days ago we had the pleasure of visiting a very unique community called Auroville. Auroville came to be in February of 1968 when some 5,000 people representing 124 nations came to India and participated in a ceremony. They each contributed soil from their homeland as a symbol of unity, that Auroville would be a place where people “of all countries are able to live in peace and progressive harmony above all creeds, all politics and all nationalities.” The place where they joined to perform this ceremony is in the picture below…and it is one of the most amazing things I’ve seen yet.
