Likes to think

Every so often you read a cool story on a blog – here’s one.

It’s basically about a company called Zappos – and American internet shoe retailer. So engrossed are they, with the idea of blowing the customer away, that they go nuts for daft ideas. They’re not just about meeting expectations, but delivering well beyond them – they pay new employees to leave.

Go read it now!

A while ago, I wrote a post that distinguishes between evolution and revolution. I wrote this, because I’m constantly thinking about doing radical things, and know deep down it’s the only way to both enjoy life, and be successful it in.

The world isn’t without risk, be that in our personal lives or in business. So, why do we hide from them so often?

Then I wondered, is it because of visibility?

We all know, if we take a second to stop and think, that live is full of risk – just walking across the road, something we do every day (if you’re not glued to your car) is risky. But we go ahead and cross – why? We do it because, like the chicken, we need to get to the other side. We take these risks so often, that we come blind to their very existence.

Are you so blind to the risks you take each day, that when it comes to taking new risks – you get scared?

Take a risk, or money down the drain?

Some people associate risk with disaster, taking a risk equates to throwing money down the drain in some instances; but why?

All well run businesses work well, because they plan well. They think about what they are doing and invest in well thought out ideas. They play the game, they make the game – they disturb the norm. The experts do it differently, and they do it daily.

So, how do the not so well run business do it? Well, lack of planning for a start – bad execution, poor research, blind assumptions, or by ignoring the people who know – i.e. the customer or the shop floor sales assistant.

Are you so bad at planning, so miserable at executing your ideas that you get stuck?

Are you such a poor thinker, that you can’t ask the right people the right questions?

Are you such a dreadful listener that those around you can’t support you no matter how hard they try?

If so, what exactly is it you’re doing running a business? If you have these problems, and you’re not bringing in people to solve them – are you really going to be around for long?

You wouldn’t make big business decisions on the flip of a coin, but nor would the big innovators that you see today.

When you innovate, or create a revolution, or throw out the rule book, or write your own – you take risks. But what you don’t do is take stupid risks. You have faith in what you’re about to do, but that faith is not blind.

There’s only one way to take away the fear of change, and that’s to enjoy the rush.

Do something special, do something different. If not for your business success, if not to secure a new contract, if not to capture a large market share – do it because it’s fun.

If you need help, go to a theme park. Get on a rollercoaster that feels dangerous, but has been well designed.

That what you need to do – make it feel dangerous, but design it well.

I like my business articles, marketing factsheets, sales perspectives, customer focuses, employee motivation guides. So I end up looking around a large number of websites, and today I’ve had to stop.

Today, I’ve been doing some research for a project – which requires me to look into money spinners as it were. Quick bucks, easy money and risk free investments.

I’ve been in a few forums and read Spam about, well – here’s the spiel:

“How would YOU like to be in a home-based business, where you do NO Prospecting … NO Advertising … NO Selling …NO answering questions … NO Speaking to prospects …and make absolutely NO telephone calls? How would you like to discover a great home business in which you can make great income just being totally passive? It is a legitimate company and it is a real business run by real people.”

How absurd is that, I’ve read this – or allusions to, and paraphrase of, rubbish all day.

They’re all topped off with the ubiquitous:

“To discover this amazing opportunity enter your name and email address to receive your free report, without obligation.”

It’s not just Spam posts, Spam comments and emails that have 50 links to services and products you have never heard of. Their banner ads on and sponsored links on sites that aim to provide you with information about how to run a business.

The last banner I saw before writing this post said – “Turnkey systems with no selling”. I didn’t bother investigating that one.

They might as well say, “Enter the sweepstake, now!”

Getting money without work is, despite it being née-on impossible, there’s little or no point to it. A budding entrepreneur needs a drive to get stuff done (good point made here) – not to free load. Yes, we all like it a little easier sometimes, and most of us like to think of – If I won the lotto’ scenarios. Surely, though, the whole point is to chase the challenge?

There two related concepts are quite separate if you need them to be – in fact most people, especially in business, don’t bother thinking about the distinction.

Business thinking is about just that, thinking. Many business people are driven by panic and evolution seems to be latched on to this by some.

Evolution is the steady incrimination and change of something. That’s not to say that whatever is born of evolution is the best option – just the speed at which it goes. Or, importantly, the steps it takes.
Evolution requires steps, steady, well placed, firm steps. One step after another, without skipping – at least not making a habit of it.

Revolution is much more of a burst. Steps are leaped over, and resistance is almost always strong and determined. That determination is found on both sides of the fence, the call for and the augment against.

Many business people, quite rightly, get a bit shaking when talking about revolution. It’s high risk, and the potential for high returns doesn’t always mitigate the stress.

Here’s the thing though.

A lot of businesses seem to mistake evolution for revolution. They see the slow, small steps of change and start to get worried. They panic, and say, “No - leave it how it is”.

If you’re in business, and see opportunities for change, and you find yourself saying “no”; it might be prudent to think about whether said change is evolution or revolution. If it’s not radical, it’s not hard to dip your toes in, if it’s not an explosion of differences – it’s not too difficult to put things back how they were.

You don’t always have to fight the change.

I downloaded AVG 8.0 about a week ago. It’s great, easy to use and very quick.

I spotted however, that the new Link Checker that works while you search with sites like Google, Yahoo and MSN – doesn’t seem to do what I’d like it to do.

I’ve looked at the HTTP requests going to and from Google when I search, and it looks like AVG are checking nearly every single link on the search page. “Great” you might think, “fantastic, I can feel safer while surfing”.

From looking at the HTTP requests, it seems that each link is being followed (included sponsored links) with no change in use-agent requests, or the like. This means that it appears to be throwing artificial
clicks every which way.

Does anyone know more about this?

Am I worrying over nothing?

Or goes AVG, Google, Yahoo and MSN all handle data a little differently for these requests?
I’ve disabled the Link Checker for now – but that doesn’t stop the millions of other web users out there with AVG installed – from taking away AdWords credits and fudging my stats.

Anyone?