Just 50 more laps

Someone that I know that works in car racing told me recently that if they had had just 50 more laps, they would have done even better.  I’m sure that the statement was absolutely true, but the reality is that the number of laps at any given track is determined months and years in advance of the race actually being run.  The statement made me think about the kinds of issues that all kinds of businesses face: trying to win based on the constraints that have already been set.

So how do you win if you can’t get 50 more laps?

everystockphoto

I use tons of stock photos in my presentations, so I was excited to find everystockphoto, which does not host any stock photos, but rather aggregates stock photos from various different services.  Please stop filling your PowerPoints with endless bullets and start using everystockphoto to tell your story with pictures — you can’t beat the price.

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Mark Cuban's success motivation

It’s just this simple: Don’t Lie to Yourself

Read the rest of Cuban’s post, become enlightened, stop lying to yourself.

QED

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Are Payless Shoes disposable?

I don’t shop in Payless Shoes, but I get that they essentially rip off uber-trendy designs and sell them ridiculously cheap.  Here’s something to consider: If you needed trendy shoes for a particular event and didn’t necessarily ever care about wearing them again, is it better to spend $14 at Payless or to spend a lot more?

I bet your answer is totally different depending on whether or not you’re male or female.

What to do when you can't earn a MBA

Rajesh Setty has published a free e-book entitled When You Can’t Earn an MBA. . .  Aside from the fact that you can’t use “an” in front of a word that starts in a consonant, the e-book is a worthwhile read.

Those of you that read this blog frequently have read a lot of my previous posts about MBAs and would encourage you to read this e-book if you’ve enjoyed (or violently disagreed) with any of my previous posts.

Link — e-book download

Link — Rajesh’s post explaining why he wrote it

Can't and won't

Seth Godin has a terrific post on can’t vs. won’t.  Here’s an easy lesson: take the last statement that you made where you said “can’t” and replace “can’t” with “won’t” and reevaluate the statement.

What if we were just honest about what we won’t do vs. what we can’t do?  I try to do this every day.

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You know these things, but you don't do them

Seth Godin’s absolutely right:

1. treat different products differently
2. treat different customers differently

Perhaps it’s just to simple.

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Can't access some of the saved content on Bloglines

So this really sucks.  It’s bad enough that Bloglines is not effectively pulling new posts, but now I can’t access some of the saved posts that I’ve got in various folders — this totally blows.

Summer employment

If you’re looking to work at Coors Amphitheatre-Denver this summer, allow me to provide you with some contacts:

• Security, usher, ticket taker, cleaning, or parking — Argus Event Staff (303) 799–1140.
• Concessions, bartending, or waiter — Aramark Concession (303) 846–3645.

Aramark and Argus are our 2 biggest subcontractors and employ the vast majority of the staff that work our events.  In addition both Aramark and Argus provide services at many other entertainment venues in the Denver Metro area, so they are great places to start if you are looking to get into the entertainment business.  I actually started working for Argus when I was in college.

What are you doing right now?

Excellent question.  We spend an awful lot of time dewinterizing the amphitheatre — think about the amphitheatre as about 100 times the work that you do in dewinterizing your house (if you live in a climate where you winterize and dewinterize).

We do the following (and this is a very abbreviated list):

• All of the plumbing and toilets get taken apart during the winter, so we get everything put back together, turn all the water back on, and make adjustments to ensure everything flows correctly and is at proper pressure.  For those of you that use urinals and have been splashed when you flush, you will appreciate the time that we take.
• We hand-inspect every seat in the building and replace broken parts, tighten bolts, replace springs, replace seat numbers, and do whatever maintenance is necessary.  For those keeping score, that’s 6,823 seats that we hand inspect and hand repair.
• Unpack everything that we stored for the winter.  Folding tables, folding chairs, box suite furniture, tents, equipment, vehicles; everything gets unpacked, cleaned, serviced, and ready to work.
• All of the signs get uncovered, cleaned, and repaired if necessary.
• We check every light bulb in the building and replace all of the bulbs that are burned out.
• Painting
• Cleaning

It takes a lot of work to get buildings the size of ours going for the season.

Big Champagne

If you’re in the music business and not paying a lot of attention to the data that Big Champagne provides, perhaps you should consider whether or not you should be in the music business.

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RSS competing with CDs?

Check out the post on The Work Better Weblog.  I think the artist and people that seek to have/purchase/sponsor artist content need to realize that although the labels tend to own all the rights to the songs, the stories about the songs, stories about the band, stories about anything are free game.

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