So much has happened over the past week and I have not had a chance to sit down in front of my computer and share everything but I just wanted to write this short post for now. The first and most important event this past week was the birth of my daughter on Thursday evening. She is healthy and beautiful and a ton of fun… by fun I mean a lot of hard work. My wife, myself and 2 other kids could not be happier.
I’ve got a lot to write about this week so when I have more than a few minutes to sit down and type, I’ll get started. In the meanwhile, I’m off to change my daughter’s diaper, again.
I used to find pennies on the floor all over the place and pick them. Lately, I’ve been finding nickels. Did the nickel replace the penny? It’s gotten to the point that stores aren’t even accepting pennies anymore. Office Max decided to take advantage of the situation by promoting their “penny sales” where you can buy some items for just one penny. Here is one video from Office Max claiming “we’ll take your pennies”:
To see more videos, visit Office Max’s Penny Site.
Besides being really funny and driving the point across at how devalued the penny has become, this viral penny campaign was a great way for Office Max to differentiate themselves from other stores. Between all of their videos, they got over a million views. Besides the videos, Office Max continued their campaign by trying to give out buckets full of pennies for free to people on the street and in malls. They found an opportunity that the rest of the world stopped accepting and started throwing away. There’s nothing like getting lucky by jumping on opportunity, especially the ones that most people don’t recognize.
Business Success Tips, in their August 14th podcast told a story that I thought was very appropriate to retell on this site:
There was a man who died and went to the afterlife where he could do no wrong.He always got what he wanted, people never said no to him and he would win every game he played.If he wanted a particular item, woman or anything else, he got it.After a while he got tired of everything and wanted a change.He went over to the angel at the gate and said that he was grateful that he was granted so much but he is tired of heaven and would like to try out hell.The angel responded to him, “Where do you think you are?”
Everybody thinks that they would be happy if they always got what they wanted but the truth is, if you are looking for constant material gratification, you will never be happy.True happiness comes from the entire process of getting what you want.It comes from successfully moving forward, working hard, getting past obstacles in your way and running through the finish line knowing that you got to where you are through your own efforts.
I was recently speaking to a father who was upset that kids these days are nothing like they were when he was growing up.He worked hard his whole life for everything he got and now he is very successful.His son on the other hand has always been given everything because he had a father who didn’t want his kids to suffer like he did.The father didn’t realize that by buying his son a car and the nicest clothes to give his son what he never had growing up, he took away any satisfaction that his son would have had in achieving everything on his own.The fact that his son is lazy is because he never had the chance or the drive to get a rush from doing something on his own.
Michael Phelps is the talk of the 2008 Summer Olympics.He won 8 Gold medals which is unheard of in the Olympics.Michael was not handed the Gold medals for showing up, he earned them by training for years to become the best swimmer in the world.When he won each event and then posed with his Gold medals, you could tell that his joy was not from the single events but from the years of practice finally paying off.
The bottom line is to remember that when you fail, hit a road block or feel like you’re not getting anywhere, continue to push through.If you push for long enough, you will be successful and the longer the journey, the better you feel as you cross the finish line.
Quotes can be very inspirational and motivational and to get lucky, sometimes you need a little burst or lift of each of them so I am going to start posting some quotes on Luck every once in a while to give you a little boost.
I never knew an early-rising, hard-working, prudent man, careful of his earnings, and strictly honest who complained of bad luck.
- Henry Ward Beecher
I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more luck I have.
- Thomas Jefferson
Luck is a dividend of sweat. The more you sweat, the luckier you get.
- Ray Kroc
Learn to listen. Opportunity sometimes knocks very softly.
When you start doing something new such as playing a sport and you enjoy it, you try really hard to get good at it.You practice day and night and play against the best people out there just so that you can work on your skills and improve.
Once you get really good at the game or whatever it is you are doing, you start to get looked up to by people who also want to improve their game.The better you get, the more people want to be like you.It is common that people in this situation start to get cocky and that can really ruin it all for them.Either because they start trying all kinds of fancy moves that they can’t possibly do and it throws off their game or even worse, they want to keep people’s perceptions of them up high so they stop playing their game out of fear that they may mess up and lose the respect and admiration of their fans.
Messing up and working to get even better is the best thing that you can do in that situation.Michael Jordan is a great example of this.He is known for missing more game ending shots than anyone else in the NBA.He also took more game ending shots than anyone else because he was not afraid that people would think any less of him.And because of that, people respected him even more.If you ask him, he will tell you how many game winning shots he missed in his career but he doesn’t know how many games he won with that last shot.Michael Jordan concentrated on his faults and worked on them without caring what anyone would think of him and that is how he kept improving.You might remember when he retired for the first time and then came back, he sucked.He was missing shots back and forth but that didn’t stop him, he worked harder than ever to get back his game.Another example is Tiger Woods who broke down his swing and rebuilt it 3 times even when he was at the top of his game.That all takes a ton of guts.
Act like a beginner and you will always be improving your game.
Have you ever shied away from doing something because you were afraid that people would not look at you the same way?Let me know in the comments.
I have been listening to a lot of podcasts lately between my 2 and half hours of commuting per day and any other times during the day that I am doing something that doesn’t require my concentration so I can pay attention to the podcast such as exercising and cleaning up. Most podcast that I listen to have at least one thing if not many things that can piss off and lose listeners. I don’t have a podcast of my own so I am a good candidate to give these tips since I am on the outside looking in and can see what some people with podcasts are blind to.
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Sound Quality: Obviously the best quality of sound is preferred but even with mediocre quality microphones; there are things to pay attention to.
1) Adjust the sound – Many podcasts have guests call in for an interview or for their expert opinion. This is a great way to provide great content and value to your listeners so make sure that their volume is at the same level as yours. There is nothing worse than listening to a podcast and having to turn your volume all the way up and strain to hear what the caller has to say and then getting an ear drum shattering boom from you as you give your take on the conversation. If you don’t want to go through the hassle of readjusting the volume for short comments, just repeat or summarize what the caller had to say before commenting back.
2) Same goes for music – If you play a music intro or some music to end off the show, make sure it is at the same volume level so that listeners don’t have to keep adjusting the volume. Don’t add to the hearing aid boom of 2020 which will be caused by the increase of portable mp3 players.
3) Start off at a low volume – this works great with music intros. Start off very low and start raising the volume until it is at your normal volume level. This gives time to your listener to readjust their volume without bursting their ear drums since the last podcaster that they listened to didn’t read these tips yet.
Advertising: Give us enough value to make the advertising worth listening to.
4) Don’t spend half the time advertising – Advertising is fine on a podcast, we understand that you have to monetize somehow but don’t go overboard. If you have a 10 minute podcast, there should not be more than 1 minute of advertising and even that should be broken down. Plugs are a lot better for the listener and much more effective. Personally, I usually look up most of the plugs after the show and ignore the advertising.
Personality: Even if you don’t have great content, people may fall in love with your personality.
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5) Have a personality – There are some podcasts that I hate because the entire thing sounds like a commercial. It is either monotone or some super energetic guy reading a pitch from a paper. My favorite podcasts are done by people who just speak. They have something to say and just say it as if it were a one on one conversation with the listener.
6) Be passionate – Passion is contagious. If you are passionate about your subject, you will create passionate fans that will listen to you no matter what you have to say. People want to be part of that passion. There is one podcast that I pushed off listening to for a long time because he had no passion about his topic. I ended up listening to it and it had great content but his podcast will always be at the bottom of my listening list for when I have nothing else to listen to. It is the passion that gets people involved and encourages them to call in comments and continue the conversation.
. Frequency and Length:
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7) Podcast often, but not too often – Your listeners depend on you for what you have to say but if you don’t podcast for a while, they will forget about you and possibly unsubscribe when cleaning up their subscriptions. Don’t podcast too often because, no matter how good you are, listeners don’t have enough time in their day to listen to everything and if they fall behind, you may lose them.
If you have tons of great content and just need to keep podcasting, here are 2 solutions: a) Start a second podcast – split your content into 2 or more categories and give them each their own podcast. People that love you will subscribe to your other podcasts and you won’t lose the first group of people who may get scared off because of too much content.
b) Edit your shows down – Edit your podcasts and only give 100% value instead of a whole bunch of filler.
8) Choose the best length for you and stick to it – It’s ok to be off by a few minutes because that is part of what podcasting is all about but don’t jump from 10 minute shows to hour long shows. Your listeners learn what to expect from you and will budget their time appropriately based on how much time they have at the moment. It’s a piss off when you have saved a 1 hour show for a long trip and end up with 10 minutes or have a short commute and your 10 minute show ends up being an hour. I won’t even go into the 3 hour long podcasts.
The Jazz: Make your podcast something special.
9) Jazz up the podcast – create regular features in your podcasts that keep people coming back or give listeners something to wait for. Joseph Jaffe has his “Winners and Losers” and Mitch Joel has his “6 Pixels of Separation”.
10) Create a catchy theme song – this can be for your entire podcast or even just for one of your mini features (as in tip 9). The catchy song will energize your listeners the second it comes on and it will have them humming or singing the song all day which can lead to some good word of mouth for your podcast. It keeps a subconscious hold on your fans.
If you have your own podcast (or if you are a listener like me), let me know what you think of these tips in the comment section.
When you are walking done the aisle of your local pharmacy and looking for medication to relieve a headache, do you ever consider where your money is going?
When buying Pharmaceuticals, you have a choice to buy brand names or the equivalent generic brand.Many things may pop into your head or may come up in your subconscious thought such as “this one is cheaper”, “this is what my parents always used”, “I liked the ad for this that I saw recently” however have you ever considered where the extra money is going that you would be paying for the brand name?
Brand Names (the inventors):
They invest millions or billions of dollars and many years in research and development to develop the drugs that help you and relieve your pain.
They work hard to give you the best product and use the finest ingredients to make sure that they surpass any FDA requirements.
Bottom Line:You are spending a little more money but you are helping the company continue to develop new drugs that may help you or your children out in the future.
Generic (the improvers):
They don’t spend any time at all in research and development.
They jump in the second a patent from a brand name drug expires.
They duplicate the brand name drug using the cheapest ingredients that the FDA will approve (they don’t have to go the extra mile for fine ingredients because they don’t have the invested time and money at stake).
They follow the leader by taking a product that works and making it cheaper.
Bottom Line: You save some money but you are not supporting development of new drugs.
It’s unfortunate but Inventors always end up with the short straw.They create something which the world needs but they spend all of their money, time and effort convincing the world that they need it.The improvers jump into a market of people who already know they need the product, they make a little change that improves the product and they reap the benefits.Just think, the person who invented the fax machine didn’t make it big but all the companies that sold fax machines once it became a staple everyone’s office did.
My take as a marketer and businessman is to give props to the generic guys because they are giving me the better deal but as a human being, I’d rather give the business to the Brand guys.I used to be a huge advocate for buying only generic because you get the same product for a lower cost but now I’m not sure.Leave me a comment: what do you buy and what is your thought process ?
This is my 100th post and I decided to look back at my past articles and give a quick summary of some of the many ways to “Get Lucky”.One of the downsides to a blog is that new readers miss out on old posts that get buried along the way by new content so I am using this article as a rundown of some of my old content and a quick refresher course for those of you who have been with me since the beginning.This article is made up of new content but each point has a link to a past article for more information.
Enjoy!
Take a Different Route – By taking the same route to work, school, the gym, mall or wherever you are going each day, you become immune to everything around you.You can commute with your eyes closed without a problem.The problem is that you lose out on any opportunity that may come up.By taking a new route, you will notice opportunity all around you.If you take a different route for a month and then take your original route again, you will notice little changes that you never would have noticed if you continued to take that route for the last month.Little things like seeing a store opening or closing down can give you ideas of what is happening or working in the community and can spark many ideas.
Learn From Your Failures – the most successful people are the ones that failed over and over again and did not give up.They are the Michael Jordans, the Thomas Edisons and the Abraham Lincolns of the world.Unlucky people give up when they see that something doesn’t work and they move on to the next activity or just write themselves off as “unlucky” and live with it.
Pay Attention to the Little Things– Don’t expect opportunity to just hit you in the head like a ton of bricks.It may but most probably will not.Pay attention to everything around you because a little flyer on a bulletin board may change your life.
Set Goals – Without goals, you are just floating through life and living from day to day.Set goals for yourself and give yourself purpose.Give yourself a reason to get out of bed in the morning.These goals can be anything including financial, such as early retirement, starting a successful business, raising good children, losing weight, changing a bad habit or disciplining yourself.
Narrow Down Your Goals – If you have too many things going on, you will never be able to devote enough time and resources to each project.Make sure that you focus on one goal at a time so that you can use inertia in your favor.Once you get the ball rolling, it gets easier and easier to keep moving toward your goals.
But Don’t Lose Sight of Everything Else Around You – even when you narrow down your goals, you must keep your eyes open to everything that is going on around you.It is sometimes the elements that you catch in your peripheral vision that get you ahead.No matter how focused you are, you must stay informed of your surroundings.For example, you may be starting a business and working off of a very detailed plan but then a new technology or trend comes around that can help you out.You need to know about it and be able to incorporate it into your plan.
Be Flexible – Times change, people, change, trends change.To stay on top, you have to be flexible enough to stay ahead of the change, to work with the change and adapt anything you have to that change.If you are running a business and not using the newest trends to your advantage, you will lose out.Today, it is the companies that are using social media to market their businesses that are winning.The losers are looking at social media as something that teenagers do to waste time.The winners are looking at that as a way to connect to their best audience and then even additional audiences.
Speak to Strangers – Be as social as possible.The more people you speak to, the more opportunities will come up.Everyone in the world has their own take on life and by speaking to as many people as possible, you can take their outlook and use it to your advantage.Their outlook with your insight can lead to all sorts of opportunities and innovations.If you want to develop a successful product, you need to know what other people need or want so that you can build something that will make their lives easier.
Use Social Networks – Social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Myspace, Twitter and many others can help you connect to thousands of additional people.The networks allow you to connect and stay connected to people around the globe, and allow you to learn from each other.They can also help you out with problems as they arise by writing a twitter or a status message to your network.With a well built network, you will have answers and solutions within minutes.
Create Value – The more value you give people, the more value they will give you.The bigger your network is, the more value you will get in return.By giving more value, people will give you more importance and help you out quicker.People are social creatures by nature and are always looking to help each other out.The value you give could be in the form of an educational blog, answering other people’s questions or lending a hand when needed.
Start a Blog – I believe that everyone in the world should have a blog.Everyone has some sort of expertise whether they believe it or not.Write about something that you are involved in, something that interests you or even keep an online diary of what you are up to.There are billions of people in the world and there are people out there that want to hear what you have to say.Besides, blogging has many advantages such as improving your writing skills, communication skills, computer skills and knowledge, network and discipline as well as it keeps you motivated and working toward your expertise and goals.I encouraged my wife to start a blog and I plan on encouraging my children as well when they get a bit older.
Become Financially Literate – No matter what your goals are, financial literacy is important.Just being able to understand numbers will open up so many new opportunities.When people find themselves in debt and don’t know what to do about it, it can get them down and throw them into a downward spiral leaving them miserable.Anyone can get out of debt, it just takes some effort to learn about what to do.Getting out of debt can become your goal and turn a negative into a positive.On the positive side, knowing numbers can let you make more educated decisions about buying stocks, getting into businesses or planning early retirement.
Go to Conventions – Go to as many conventions, conferences, seminars and tradeshows as you possibly can.There is a reason that there is a term “convention high”.It is because there are so many people in one place with a common interest and everyone is eager to share.You can get more socializing and networking done at conferences, leading to so many new ideas and opportunities.You may even find a new job or your ultimate calling.
Shut Up and Listen – don’t just talk to people and then wait for your turn to talk again.Make sure that you actively listen to what the other person has to say so you can benefit from his take on things.Everyone has something intelligent to say if you listen.
Work Hard – If you ask any successful person how they got lucky, they will tell you that they worked really hard.Alan Bond once said “I’ve always worked very, very hard, and the harder I worked, the luckier I got”.Work through the pain, the failure and the bad times and you will succeed.
Be an Optimist – Optimists are luckier that everyone else because they always see the positive in everything.You give them lemons and they’ll make you lemonade.By keeping your spirits high, you open yourself up to more opportunity.The pessimists don’t even try to succeed because they predict that they will fail.Henry Ford said “Whether you believe you can or believe you can’t, you’re right”.Anything is possible if you believe in yourself.
Learn to Cooperate– One of the greatest things about the internet today or web 2.0 is that it encourages cooperation.To get ahead, you need to cooperate with other people.The world is not based on competing individuals racing to the top anymore.It is all about sharing and providing value to others.Bill Clinton, the Former President of the United States said “The characteristics of all successful communities: broadly shared, accessible set of opportunities, a shared sense of responsibility for the success of the common enterprise, and a genuine sense of belonging.”
Take Blame – Take the blame when it is your fault.The best way to learn is by making mistakes and learning from them.If you blame your failures on other people, you lose out on the opportunity to learn from them.Stop blaming your parents and teachers from years ago for problems you are having today.Grow Up, take responsibility for yourself, learn from the past and become the best “you” possible.
Take Advice from Experts – Only take advice from people who have already successfully done what you are planning to do.Too many people take advice from their family and friends that have never attempted or accomplished what they are setting out to do.If you take advice from them, you will end up exactly where they are.
Think of the Future You – Every action has a consequence.Whatever you do today will affect yourself in the future. For instance, if you have some money you can spend it or invest it.If you spend it, it will be gone but if you invest it, you will have the money and more (interest) later on.The same goes for time.If you use time productively, you will be better off in the future.It may be learned or practiced skills, it can be exercise to keep your body healthy or it could be sleep to make sure you function the next day.
Get Rid of Bad Habits – Bad habits can keep you down and hold you back from new Luck that can come your way.Some bad habits to try and kick are procrastination, sleeping too much, eating the wrong foods and not being social.
Discipline Yourself – Discipline is very important in reaching any goal.Without it, you will fall of the track somewhere and not know where to get back on.Set up guidelines and goals of what you want to get done and make sure they are reasonable.Then force yourself to do them every single day.If your goal is to put $1 per day into your savings account, put $1 in each day instead of $2 to cover the next 2 days or $100 to cover 100 days.Doing this builds discipline and will help you in the long run.If you force yourself to put exactly $1 per day, you are likely to keep to it forever but if you put $100 at a time to cover the next while, you will eventually give up and stop.
Keep Up With Change – Be an early adopter and stay up to date with the changes in the world.With change comes new opportunities to get lucky.The internet brought along the opportunity to do business globally 24/7, even while you sleep and also give off the image that you are a large company even if you are just one person.It also made learning anything at all accessible to anyone who wants it.Every new online service brings more opportunity that you can cash in on or take advantage of if you keep up with the change.If you don’t keep up with change, other people will take all of your opportunities.
Face your Fears – The only way to get passed your fears is to take them head on.Once you face them, you will realize that there probably wasn’t that much to fear in the first place and you will have another skill.If you hide from your fears, you are hiding from new opportunity that can be waiting for you.
Ask Questions – Don’t be afraid to ask questions.Anytime you don’t know something that people are talking about or you hear a word or concept that you’ve never heard before, ask about it.You may look stupid or ignorant but if you don’t ask, you will be missing out on any opportunity it has to offer.The longer you wait, the worse off you will be.
Google Everything – Asking questions is great when you are with people in a class or a social setting but if you are at a computer, just Google it and then ask someone for clarification if you need it.Pretty much anything you need to know can be found with a good Google search.Learn how to use the Internet.
Take Baby Steps– Some goals look so far away and impossible to reach but the truth is that success does not happen overnight.It takes a lot of work and one little step at a time until you come close to success.I decided on my birthday last year that I was going to become financially free and be able to retire young.It has been a long year full of great lessons and I came to realize that I am definitely on my way but I still have a long way to go.
Learn Another Language – By learning another language you increase your opportunity by being able to communicate with a huge amount of new people.When you travel to countries that speak that language, your trip will be a lot more meaningful when you are able to communicate with anyone on the street.You can also make business contacts in other countries and translate documents.
Do the Impossible – Once again as Henry Ford said “Whether you believe you can or believe you can’t, you’re right”.Don’t look at something and write it off as “impossible” right away.Sometimes you have to take yourself out of the box to see how it is possible.Just think, the Japanese invented the square watermelon.
Use Tech Support and Customer Service to your Advantage – Tech Support and Customer service are usually free additional services that come along with a product or service.Take advantage of them and have them help you through any situation because they are there to make sure you are as happy as possible with their product or service.I learned almost everything I know about web hosting through my Host’s tech support.Make sure that they show you how to solve a problem so you can learn from it and take care of it yourself next time.Also, when given a choice, buy a product or service that has the best support attached to it.That is why I love American Express.
Follow the Leader– You don’t have to invent something to be successful, you can just emulate what some other successful person has already done.For example, you may not be successful opening up a poutine (a delicious French Canadian dish of fries, cheese and gravy) stand in your local mall but you will be successful if you open a McDonald’s franchise.McDonald’s has a system and if you follow it, you will be successful.
Be Realistic – Don’t expect everything to just fall into place and for you to be successful right away.Things don’t always work as you planned and don’t always happen as quickly as you would hope.If you are realistic, you will have a much easier time on your path toward your goals.
Take a Loss – There are times when even the best idea and the hardest work just don’t get you anywhere.There are also some things that are not in your control.You have to know how to take a loss and move on if you want to get lucky because once you move on, you open yourself to new luck and opportunities.Just learn from the experience.You can buy a stock for instance and think it is the best stock in the world and then watch it drop.Most people find it very hard to drop the stock before they end up losing everything.Just ask anyone who owned Enron.
Stay Motivated– To get lucky, you need to stay motivated all the time.This is not an easy task but there are some tricks to stay on track.What I have found to work best are to hang out with people that have similar goals and interests, read as many books and blogs as you can on the subject and listen to lectures and podcasts on the subject.As long as you are constantly learning, you will stay motivated.
Open your Eyes to see the Forrest and the Trees– Some people get so focused on a goal that they lose sight of why they had the goal in the first place.Make sure that you always know why you are doing something.There is a great video of 2 teams passing a basketball around that everyone should watch to see how easy it is to miss something if you are too focused on something else.
Clear your Head – It is very hard to work with an overactive mind that is full of every task you have on your plate.Write everything down and clear your head so that you can focus on the task or goal at hand.
Look for the Good in Every Situation – Sometimes something can happen that will look like bad luck but is just good luck in disguise.You have to look for the positive in every situation because your dream job may come as a result of a blown interview somewhere else.
Don’t Give Up – Too many people give up right before they are about to hit success because they have unrealistic expectations of how long it should take to be successful.It takes years of hard work before you can become an “overnight success”.Keep trekking on and you will be successful.
Make People Happy – It doesn’t take much to make people around you happy.It could be a smile, a kind word, a tip for good service but small gestures go a long way.If you make people happy, they will want to be around you and will go the extra mile to make you happy.
Share Your Luck– If you enjoyed this article, please share it with others by submitting it to your favorite social media site or clicking one of the sharing buttons below.I would also love to read some comments about your thoughts on this post.Thanks.
This is my 99th post and I’m really excited about reaching the big 100 as it’s a huge step for me.One year ago I didn’t even know what a blog was and now, not only did I build my own blog but I am reaching 100 posts with a nice readership.Because of this I want to celebrate by increasing my readership even more and having an Entrecard give-away.
Here is the gist of the give-away:
I will be giving out:
At least 10 Entrecards to the first 100 participants.
100 Entrecards to a random 10 participants.
500 Entrecards to 2 participants with the best Luck related articles linking to me.
1000 Entrecards for 1 random participant.
I will write a post with the winners of the 100, 500 and 1000 Entrecard prizes with links to your sites.
The random winners will probably be chosen by someone else such as my wife or kids to prevent any biases unless I find a better way such as using random.org .
Write a post on your blog and link it to any of my articles.
Leave a comment on any of my articles (something meaningful).
Share my 100th article (39 Ways to Increase Your Luck, coming tomorrow) with your favorite Social Bookmarking site (StumbleUpon, Digg, etc…)
Then email me at luckortunity at gmail dot com to let me know that you’re done.
This contest will end on September 1st and I hope to post the results and give out the prizes soon after that.Just one last note, I will only give out the 1000 Entrecard top prize if I there are 100 participants in the contest and the 100 Entrecards prizes if there are at least 50 participants.
In my last post I wrote about people fighting change by signing a petition to get Facebook to drop their new interface and go back to what everyone is already “used to”.This article is going to describe the five basic types of consumers when it comes to adopting new products or change:
Innovators – This very small percentage of consumers see opportunities and jump on them.They look around to see what they can do that will start the change and they get it done.In 1941 the Bulova Watch Company showed the first ad ever on TV before a baseball game.This had never been done before and it had people talking all the way through the game and for months and probably even years afterward.They led the way for future advertising on TV.
Some modern examples are Facebook, Twitter and other interfaces that allow people to “Join the Conversation” as Joseph Jaffe would put it.
Early Adopters – This is a small group of people who want to jump on anything new that comes out.They love change and live for change.They always know about what is new and what will be coming out soon.They are on lists to try things out and participate in many beta launches of new products and services.It takes time to keep up with all of the change but they also reap the benefits.By adopting early on, they have a first crack at all the luck and opportunity that comes along with it.These are the companies that took advantage of advertising on TV once they saw that it has been done.They are not afraid to jump on the bandwagon.
Some modern examples are companies that are using “new” Social Media to communicate with their customers like Starbucks, Nike, Google and AOL.
Early Majority – This is the group that waits to see how things are working out for other people that have already adopted the change.They wait for the next version of the iPhone to come out before buying it.They want to see actual reviews of anything that they are going to jump into.They make what they think are educated decisions.This group still has a chance to pick up on some luck and opportunity that the change offers.
Late Majority – This is the group about the same size as the early majority that waits until the “majority” of people have made the change.They see the results and they wait a little more.These are the people who look at a stock go up for months to be certain that it is a good buy and then buy it only to watch it drop.These people miss out on a “majority” of the luck and opportunity that the change offers.
Laggards – The laggards are the people who hate change with a passion.They have a routine and have been doing something for so long that they don’t want to change.The only way that they change is when they are forced to.For example, people who had VHS players and refused to get a DVD player.Eventually they had no choice but to give in if they wanted to continue renting movies.
The laggards lose out on any potential luck or opportunity because everything is already used up.Just look at TV advertisers these days, nothing can compare to Bulova’s first commercial.Today, people forget about the commercial they watched several seconds ago.
As Richard Wiseman used in his example about luck, look at an apple orchard.The Orchard is full of apples, enough that you will be able to take all you can handle and not even make a dent.Along come the innovators and eat to their hearts delight. When the Early Adopters come along, there are a few apples missing but there is still enough for them to enjoy as much as they want.The Early Majority comes next and can also have as many apples as they want but they just have to look a little harder or climb up to higher branches to get them.The Late Majority doesn’t have much of a choice of apples but they can probably find a few if they look hard enough.Finally the laggards show up and find nothing but a whole bunch of apple cores scattered around.
I used to be a part of the “late majority” before I starting working on increasing my luck.I used to say that there was no point in changing so why bother.I liked to get by doing the absolute least possible.I would just float through life. Then I saw the luck and opportunity that change offered and I jumped into the early majority and even the early adopter for some things. I hope to join the innovators sometime soon.
This self improvement blog is full of advice on how to increase your luck and improve your life. You can start off by reading 40 Ways to Increase your Luck.
