The future: global micro-brands
Walking the Via del Corso here in Rome, an American is exposed to all sorts of designers and boutiques that are uniquely Italian. You can find the same spirit in the Soho area of New...
Summer of ’05: we will miss you
The leaves on the ground and the Michigan football victory on Saturday aren't the only reminders that fall is upon us - there are also the roving masses of new and returning students here in...
Ideas floating in the ether
It's grey today in Michigan - someone owes me big for taking away a sunny summer day. In honor of a somewhat dour Sunday, I wanted to share a a somewhat dour (but hopefully moving)...
Are you reactive or proactive?
It occurs to me that most of the success I have had in life has been in spite of any discipline or focus on tasks. This is beginning to create problems at my new company,...
What is a Niche?
It's an entrepreneurial mantra: find a niche and fill it. Not so obvious, perhaps, is the definition of a niche. Over lunch today with my very inspiring friend Scotty, we were discussing a retail idea...
Desire
I was a bright-eyed 15 year old at the Detroit Auto Show in 1995 when a then-conceptual Audi TT was on display. "I will have that car by the time I'm 21," I told myself....
Who Calls Your Phone?
Joan Isabella's recent post about answering your phone struck a chord with me. I remember how much we spent buying and servicing our ridiculous Lucent phone system back at my last company, and not even...
Taking Responsibility
Obvious? Maybe. For me though, it wasn't clear until I'd screwed it up a few times: you have to take responsibility for everything that happens at your business. At times in the past, I've been...
Salesforce for cheap
I'm no marketing genius, but I know that certain products and services require repeat exposure to prospects before they will convert to customers. I've heard that the magic number is 6 or 7 points of...
Serial College Dropouts Anonymous
I was just part of a mass email from my buddy Tom, who is an awesome guy and also has an unreal golf swing. Here's the first paragraph: --- An unholy event has occured about...
The Extra Mile
You know that friend of yours who everyone wants to be around? That's my friend Johnny. Not only is his warm and laid-back personality magnetic, but he is consistently surprising me with those little extra...
Are You LinkedIn?
A few years ago, my co-worker Ryan and I were discussing fun business ideas over a sushi lunch. What if there were a way to leverage the connections of our first-degree relationships, for either business...
Your Summer Internship
A quick note: if you've made your way over here from thefacebook.com, look me up on U of M's campus. Another quick note: the new Coldplay album is unbelievably great. Anyways, its that time again....
Process. Product. Passion.
Ok, this is one of those "way out there" entries, but stick with me. It's good stuff. My friend Rob and I didn't start getting to know each other until about 3 weeks before he...
Entrepreneurship and Giving
I'm skipping classes this week. I even missed an assignment. And its especially bad because during spring semester, everything moves twice as fast. But... I'm in London for a Charisma Sciences seminar we're holding here,...
Reach out and touch someone
One service we provide at my company, Charisma Sciences, is phone coaching. Guys call us from all over the world and we used to just give out our cell phone numbers. This worked for some...
Communication: Part I
This weekend I was in Austin, TX, where Wayne and I were doing a seminar and workshop. The weather was absolutely beautiful, the sky in Texas is vast, and the sunsets were magnificent swirls of...
Rewind
Just got back home from seeing a band called the Stereophonics. I can't hear much out of my right ear. A bottle of wine I'd opened earlier has just enough left for half a glass,...
What a Weird, Wonderful World
Hi friends, my name is Jonathan. I'm thrilled that Jeff, Rich and the rest of the StartupNation crew have asked me to share my thoughts with the community. Jeff and Rich have at times been...