Recently, there was a case where a woman was fined $1.9 million for illegally downloading 24 songs. That’s $80,000 per song. Not sure where they got those numbers but if you ask me, she didn’t do even close to that amount of damage because chances are that she wouldn’t have bought those songs in the first place. I can almost guarantee though that she in one way or another influenced others to buy those same songs and thereby promoted the songs for free. Either through recommendation, discussing or singing the songs or even playing them in her car while giving someone a lift.

The music industry has the same opportunity now to offer their music for free with ads or branding in between songs and let the advertisers pay the difference. Just as Hulu is doing for TV shows, if they make it easy to watch legally, even with a commercial or two, people are willing to sit through the commercials. These people then go on to discuss the latest shows at the water cooler the next day.

The benefit to the music industry is that these same people that are not paying for their listening rights are the ones that are promoting the music to their friends.

C.C. brought up a very good point that if a child wants to download a song and doesn’t have a credit card, there is no chance for him to legally acquire the song. People will be less likely to pirate music if it was easier to download it legally in the first place.

Remember when we used to tape songs right off the radio and they had little bits of the radio announcer at the beginning and end of each song? Even when it was a top 10 at 10 songs marathon, there was still a little bit of speaking as the songs faded into each other. Fans shared their music with their friends and true fans went out and bought the tape (or CD) so they could own a good quality version of their own.

We are now in the information age where information and products are very often free. You can find almost anything online and companies are giving away advice and industry secrets for free, hoping that if you need specialized help, you will be back as a paying customer. The music industry needs to figure out a way to do the same. They can make their money off merchandising, concerts, ads and I’m sure thousands of other ways. The main thing is, they’re not doing themselves a favor by suing their fans.

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“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

–  Albert Einstein

Being new in town, my wife decided to help out some local organization by joining committees for their fundraisers. She was full of excitement knowing that she was not only going to be helping out her community but also, she will be able to share some of her ideas to make the events even more successful. They welcomed her onto the committees with open arms but to her surprise, they were unwilling to listen to any of her ideas. Even though they complained that they lost money of some events and would love to raise more money on others, they were determined to not only redo each of last year’s events but duplicate them completely and have the same people run each part.

My wife sent them an email saying that she was disappointed that she wasn’t involved more than just running errands that nobody else wanted to do. Here is the response that the committee leader sent to my wife:

Hi,

First of all, i apologize for not including you more in this.  Most of the year to year things, carry on from year to year, so the ones who have dealt with these things in the past continue to do them year to year.  Most of the committee does nothing more than helping to set up, dealing with the night of…I think because the core committee can do this with our eyes closed already, we didn’t bother to set up any “real meetings” with the rest of the committee.

“Who is wise: He who learns from all men.”

– Ethics of Our Fathers

When will people learn that if they want change, they will have to open their eyes and start doing things differently and most of all, listening to other ideas and points of view. If you never want to get lucky, go ahead and continue doing what you’ve always done with your eyes closed.Similar Posts:

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picture taken from news video at http://www.khon2.com/news/local/40518362.html

Last week during my stay in Hawaii, I was interviewed by Brianne Randle of KHON2, an affiliate of Fox News about homelessness in Hawaii and how it affects tourism. Apparently, there have been streams of discussions on expedia.com and tripadvisor.com about the homeless problem in Waikiki, which is discouraging tourism. Brianne pointed to a group of camping tents in an open field along the beach and asked if it bothered me at all and if it affected me as a tourist. I told her that before she told me that it was illegal and that these people were homeless, I was considering camping out for a night myself.

Media Spins the News, “you see it everywhere you go”

I spoke to Brianne on camera for at least five minutes discussing my thoughts on the situation. I explained that the homeless people on Waikiki Beach did not affect me but the only statement that they took out of the discussion was an out of context “you see it everywhere you go”. It made me seem like I was disgusted by the problem, which is very far from the truth. When I made the comment I was not talking about Hawaii, I was talking about the unfortunate reality that there are homeless people everywhere in the world.  I also told Brianne that the problem in Hawaii was made worse than it actually was because of the direction of the discussions on the travel site forums which gives the Waikiki Government a tremendous opportunity to join the forums and show all the positives about Waikiki so that it will retain it’s appeal to tourists.

The Media Spins Me Right Round, Like a Record

The reason I bring this up is to show how the media spins their stories to get whatever outcome they want. When Brianne asked me if the homeless problem affects me one way or the other, she may as well have asked “why does the homeless problem affect you as a tourist?” with the note that if it doesn’t bother you, she is not interested.

It’s Easy to Find a Source to Support your Story

For any story, you can always find sources to support any side of an argument. Even if 99% of the world feels one way, you can take the 1% who feels the other way and use them as your sources. You can also take the first 99% of people, cut and paste little pieces of what they say out of context and presto! You have your story supporting your original hypothesis.  Every book in Barnes and Noble has a quote from some publication on it making it seem like it is the greatest read since War and Peace.  There can’t be that many “best reads of the year”.

Mark Twain was quoted as saying “if you don’t read the newspaper, you are uninformed. If you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed.” He could not be more on the money.

Social Media is Taking us Back in Time

I love to tell the story of how social media is bringing us back to the days before mass media took over as our primary source of information. In the olden days, if someone wanted to get their story out, they would put together a pamphlet with their story on it and pass it around in the marketplace. Then someone else would come along and give out a pamphlet with their version of the story and maybe even a third or fourth person or more would do the same. People in the marketplace would be able to read multiple sides of the story and come to their own conclusions of what really took place. Along came mass media and started to deliver the “news” but it was from their perspective with their own biases and twists.

Blogs are the New Pamphlets

Today, we have access to thousands of blogs on any subject and no longer have to rely on mass media to “misinform” us. We can now read a few blog posts on any given subject and come to our own conclusions just as people did with pamphlets many years ago. By building up our own personal social networks and filling up our rss readers with what we consider reliable sources, we will become the most informed generation ever.

How do you feel about using mass media vs. social media to get informed? Please leave a comment.

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1.       I am only writing this because my wife tagged me and said that I had to and I would do anything to make my wife happy.

2.       I own a whole bunch of domain names but I can justify it since most of the sites more than cover their costs.

3.       I first logged onto the internet in 1995 and I had no idea what to do.  I accidently found a chat room for stamp collectors and was amazed.

4.       I wrote a thesis paper in high school about Homer Simpson.

5.       I walked (2.5 miles) home from school on my first day of grade 7 because I didn’t have a dollar to take the bus.

6.       I watched 9 seasons of Friends in 2 weeks.  There were no commercials so it was only about 21 minutes per episode.

7.       Until I got a Wii, my favourite game system was Intellevision II by Mattel.  I used to play Burger Time and Lock and Chase for hours.

8.       Most of what I know I learned online.

9.       A few months ago, I lost 23 pounds in 30 days. 

10.   Las Vegas was my favourite show on TV because on some level, I wanted to work in surveillance and security in a Las Vegas Casino.

11.   When all other kids wanted to grow up to be firemen, astronauts and garbage men, I had no idea what I wanted to be until I was 14, saw Renaissance Man and decided that I wanted to go into Advertising. 

12.   When I wrestled in college, my body fat was less than 10% of my weight. 

13.   I used to rarely eat breakfast but since I moved to Montreal, I eat it every day.

14.   I wish I knew what I know now when I was younger but I am glad that I at least know it now and can do something about the future.  Some people have this realization much later in life. 

15.   Since I moved to Montreal, I cut my weekly commute down by over 12 hours.

16.   In high school (I went to a boarding school), some of my friends and I convinced every student in the school on mass to wake up and go to a coffee shop  at 6:00 AM so that the school would be empty when the wakeup crew showed up.

17.   I am most creative in the middle of the night but I need to be rested enough to function to be productive.   A perfect schedule for my creativity would be waking up at 12:00 PM or later and going to sleep at 4:00 AM.  My productivity doesn’t follow the same schedule.

18.   I had the song Runaway Train by Soul Asylum playing in my bedroom on repeat for over 2 weeks in grade 10.

19.   I once went to an all you can eat pizza buffet, ate close to 30 slices of pizza (they were smaller than average) and I couldn’t even finish my free small soda.  I was pretty sick the rest of the day and I think I even hallucinated a little.

20.   I went to Roger Clemens’ first game on the Blue Jays in Toronto where they gave out posters with a “K” to lift up every time he struck someone out and got it autographed by over 50 SkyDome employees from vendors to ushers.  The reactions were great.

21.   I stood in Times Square for 13 hours waiting to bring in 2001.  It was freezing but I had a great time.   It’s the kind of thing you have to do once but if you do it twice, you’re nuts.

22.   I’ve been to 43 states in the US, 7 provinces in Canada and a few cities in Mexico.  

23.   For my 21^st birthday, my friends tried to take me out to a bar or club but none of them could get in since they were under 21.

24.   I never wanted to live in New York but ended up staying there for what was 25% of my life at the time.

25.   My first job paid me $3/hour.  I worked all summer and barely broke $500.  

I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments, especially how you are taking advantage of this viral opportunity for yourself.  If you are new to my blog, please look around and share articles that interest you.

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The Biggest Loser

My wife enjoys watching “the Biggest Loser” because it makes her feel good that people are doing something positive with their life. There are cases of people who have been on diabetes medication all their lives and now can all of a sudden get off the medication because they no longer need it. There are people who can hardly walk up the stairs to their houses and now can run up staircases at work. The show is inspirational and we should all take a lesson from it. The lesson I suggest taking is a little different from what most people would think at first. My favourite part of the show is when someone is kicked off and they show him or her 6 months later after having lost an additional 100 pounds. The most inspirational part is seeing what people can do on their own if they are determined, not what people can do while being pushed on public television.

The Lesson: Do It For Yourself

So take that lesson from the show. You are not on TV and you’re not competing for a prize. Everything you do is for yourself, your health and your happiness. So get off the couch and start doing what you want to do instead of watching others do it.

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On a more positive note, I have a new design which I happen to really like.  What do you think?  Please let me know in the comments.

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I was once told that a wise man was not a man who knew everything, it was a man who knew where to find anything. At first I didn’t really care for that statement but as time goes on, I see that it is completely true.

I learned everything I needed to know.

Thinking about all of the skills I have developed over the last few years from business, management, marketing, web development and social media to name a few, my number one skill is knowing where to go to find out what I need to know. I taught myself most of what I know through necessity. In my last position at my old marketing firm, I started out knowing nothing and as each event and project came up, I would do some research and find out everything I needed to know to do a great job.

I would not consider myself an expert in any particular field but I am confident that I can always pull off expert results because whenever there is something I don’t know about, I know exactly where to go to find out everything i need to know.

The A/V Tech Failed.

Just yesterday I was visiting an organization where they were trying to set up a video conference with one of their supporters somewhere across the world. The A/V tech at the organization must have set something up wrong because the conference was working perfectly from the other side but on the organization’s side, the sound was not going through. The Tech refused to admit that the problem was on his side and continued to play around with all the wires. I offered to help but was told that he can handle it and didn’t need any help. I knew his assistant so I took him over on the side, opened a browser and typed in “troubleshoot” and the video conference system’s name into Google. The first result gave a list of things that should be checked if the sound was not working properly. At the end, it gave a phone number for support if all else failed. The answers were all there and it took me less than a minute to find them. The Tech gave up after an hour and a half and the conference was cancelled. He never ended up looking at the trouble shooting page.

Things change: Find a Skill that can last.

Information changes, facts can change, best practices can change and nobody in the world can keep up with everything. The only skill that will keep you ahead of the game is to always know where to look for your answers.  You too can get lucky just by knowing where to look.  Besides, you will also be saving yourself a lot of time.

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I find that there are so many things that I want to accomplish or start doing and my list is a mile long. If you have too many things to think and worry about or to try and change, you will not accomplish any of them. That is why I am introducing and following my new goal accomplishing system for 2009 and encouraging you to do the same.

The 2009 New Year’s Resolution Goal System

The system is very easy and makes you wonder why you never tried something like it before. Here are the steps for the 2009 New Year’s resolution goal system:

Make a list of all of your goals.

1. Make a list of all of your goals for this year from major feats that you would like to accomplish all the way down to little changes you would like to make (like reading for 30 minutes instead of watching one of the TV shows in your routine). Try to come up with at least 12, one for each month.

Organize your goals.

2. Organizer all your goals in order of importance. The most important at the top and the least important (or the “it would be nice if I did it”) goal at the bottom.

Start working on your first goal.

3. On January 1, start working on your number one, most important goal. Work hard at it as if it is the only goal you need to accomplish this year. Each day in January do something that will bring you closer to your goal.

Evaluate your progress.

4. At the end of the month, evaluate how well you’ve done. Did you accomplish your goal? Did you get close? If not, what can you do to help yourself achieve your goal over the next 30 days? If successful, skip to number 6.

Evaluate your goal.

5. If you didn’t succeed, try and figure out why you didn’t. Was it too hard and should take longer than 30 days? If so, keep working on it for as long as it takes. Just make sure you evaluate your progress at least once a month and don’t give up.

Sometime you may find that the goal isn’t even right for you and that there are more important goals to focus on. If that’s the case, over the next 30 days, try the next goal on your list. It’s ok to decide that one or two of your goals were not right but if you find this happening with too many goals, try and figure out why and how you can make better goals that you can achieve.

Move on to your next goal.

6. Once you’ve accomplished one goal (or are comfortable enough with your progress), move onto your next goal. Work for the next 30 days to accomplish your next goal while maintaining your progress of your first goal (unless there is nothing to maintain since the goal was a one time thing).

Evaluate once again.

7. Go back to step 4 and repeat the steps over and over each month.

Keep doing this until next New Year and see how many goals you can accomplish. Next year try adding more goals and shorten the trial period. You can always assign different amounts of time to goals of different difficulty. Challenge yourself each year to see how many goals you can accomplish.

Over time, you will get better at disciplining yourself and maintaining your progress. Last year, without even noticing, I started using this system. If you look back to my first blog post, I wrote about starting my New Year’s resolution of blogging about “luck” on December 4^th. On December 31^st, I wrote about starting my next goal of creating personal financial statements every month, which I have also accomplished. Throughout this past year, I have started and accomplished many personal goals such as moving to a bigger place to live in a new city, quitting my job and starting my own company, spending more quality time with my family and many more. Looking back, it took about a month or so for each of them.

You will never accomplish all of your goals overnight but if you take baby steps and do them one at a time, you can be successful. Just remember, it takes 6 years to become an overnight success, so start working toward 2015.

Good Luck and Happy New Year!

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Idiocracy

The “not having kids” example reminds me of the movie Idiocracy where they show the difference between “educated” and “not so educated” people when it comes to having kids, which ultimately leads to the population of the earth. If you don’t know what I am talking about, Please watch this 3 minute video:

I am not telling you to go ahead, get married, have kids and start your business right now. I’m not even saying that you should do any of the above. What I am saying is that everyone has at least one thing that they are pushing off because the time doesn’t seem absolutely right. It may be making that sales call, asking your boss for a raise or asking someone out on a date.

The time will never be right so why not now?

The time will never be absolutely right because when you pass one hurdle, another comes along. In Idiocracy, first they want to focus on their careers, then the market is bad, and so on. Life is funny and it doesn’t always give you what you want when you want it (like Harvey’s does) but it does give you the opportunity to go out and get what you want. It may mean that you have to be a little spontaneous, you may have to improvise and you will have to rethink everything every step of the way but at the end of the day when you look back it will all be worth it.

You will regret not doing more things than you regret doing

Someone once told me and I happen to agree “you will regret not doing more things than you regret doing”. At the end of your life, you will look back and ask yourself why you didn’t jump on more opportunities.

Life is all about learning

Life is a learning experience. You will have to learn to deal with each situation that comes up and the more you learn, the more prepared you will be to face tomorrow. So, why not force yourself to learn as much as possible? You could get “lucky” and end up with everything you ever wanted.Similar Posts:

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