I went into the dressing room at the Prana store today to try on some clothes and noticed this whiteboard. What a cool idea. Start a conversation exactly at the moment when the customer is interacting with your product.

Sometimes, we make it all so complicated. Maybe we should just keep it simple.

In media vita – No, life has not disappointed me. On the contrary, I find it truer, more desirable and mysterious every year – ever since the day when the great liberator came to me: the idea that life could be an experiment of the seeker for knowledge – and not a duty, not a calamity, not trickery. And knowledge itself: let it be something else for others; for example, a bed to rest on, or the way to such a bed, or a diversion, of a form of leisure – for me it is a world of dangers and victories in which heroic feelings, too, find places to dance and play. “Life as a means to Knowledge” – with this principle in one’s heart one can live not only boldly but even gaily, and laugh gaily, too. And who knows how to laugh anyway and live well if he does not first know a good deal about war and victory.”

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In our society FAIL is a four-letter word.

Yet, when I gave my CU Commencement Speech, Dare to Fail, I was blown away by the conversation it started. So many people reached out with stories of their own failures and the powerful things they learned. Failure is in the air.

I want to pour some gas on the fire. I’ve been approached by a couple of publishers to write a book about Daring to Fail and what you can learn from it.

Have you failed? I certainly have. Over and over again.

What better way to start the journey than to use the wisdom of the crowd. People’s stories are so powerful. To start the conversation, leave a comment here, write a blog post, tweet it or make a video and send me the link, answering these questions.

1. Tell a story about a failure.
2.  What did you learn?
3.  How did it help you?
4. How has it helped you to help others?

Let’s make this a big, cultural conversation. One that a book can emerge from that can inspire all of us to stop being afraid of failure and to share it and learn from it.

Thanks for participating.

Posted via email from johnwinsor's posterous

Posted via email from johnwinsor's posterous

But, product design and marketing that’s built in the world of scarcity is being challenged by four disruptive forces: the expectation of transparency, the digitally connected workforce, the rise of the curator class and larger economic pressures.

These forces have changed the world of product design and marketing forever. Like it or not, people, from professional creatives to consumers, want to be more involved in a holistic way with brands. Yet, the tools built in the age of scarcity don’t work well in the new age of abundance.

These disruptive changes can be seen as a threat to what you do or, a powerful force to distance yourself from your competitors.

There is a new model of product design and marketing emerging. It no longer tries to control a brand but recognizes that it exists in the collective consciousness of culture. In this new model guidance and inspiration go much further than command and control.

How have you experienced the paradigm shift from scarcity to abundance?