Insights

Taking sides

In politics, you'll often see parties taking the opposite sides not to stand for what they believe in but rather just to not be on the same side as their opponent. They are taking sides for the sake of taking sides. I'm all for doing things differently and going against the status quo as long as that's what you truly believe in. However, just because you don't agree with someone doesn't mean they are your opponents. There can be more than 2 sides in a fight.

Maybe we are heavily influenced by sports where it's always between 2 opposing teams or by the media that tend to over-generalize the demographics, we tend to believe that if you are not on the winning side then you are on the losing side.

I think that it's important to be able to take sides and make a stand for your ideology, principle or argument. Just remember that there can be more than 2 sides and the other sides aren't always your enemy.

Let's go on an adventure!

Do you know anyone who seems to be doing something new and exciting every time you meet him or her? These are the ones that try all the latest stuff, visit exotic places or attempt yet another seemingly impossible project. For most of us, life is pretty routine and bland. We do pretty much the same stuff over and over again every single day. Why not try to sprinkle some spice and inject a little fun into your life by doing something completely different and unexpected?

You could get your boss to agree to try a new tool to improve your productivity or plan a road trip over the weekend. You could also organize an charity event or start a club for your passion.

There's no one better to lead your life than yourself. You could go on an adventure or lead a boring life. It's your call.

Blogging is marketing

Someone asked if I'm using blogging as some sort of marketing strategy. The simple answer is yes. In fact, if you remember the picture below from REWORK, everything you do is marketing.

You might be blogging to talk about your personal life, to share your passion or to improve your writing skills. Whatever the reason may be, since your blog is public, you are directly or indirectly marketing yourself.

This is true for the other online presence you have like Twitter and Facebook. Marketing isn't just about the product. It's also about who made it, why it was made and how it was made.

I'll encourage everyone to start a blog because it's really free marketing. However, you need to realize that everything you post on it will affect not just your personal life but your professional life too. When it comes to marketing, everything matters.

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First and last impression

As demonstrated by Gladwell in his book Blink, we can judge someone with as little information as just looking at them. These snap judgments are the reason why the first impression is important.

When someone visits your blog, depending on the font you used, the theme's color scheme, your photo or the things you blogged about, they can and will form an impression of you. It will probably be a stereotypical assessment but since it might be their last impression, that will be what they think of you.

This is the reason why I'm very careful about things I do online. As I said before, the web never forgets so I wouldn't one someone to stumble on my rant on my blog and have the wrong impression.

Every online interaction someone have with you could be their first and last. I suggest you make it a good one.

Googling skills

If I'm interviewing someone, I would most definitely test their googling skills. The skill to look for information online, usually by using search engines like Google. Google doesn't only deliver facts from sites like Wikipedia, it also provides definition of words, perform calculations and even tell you how's the weather outside.

As a blogger, I use Google as a dictionary. As a programmer, I use it to locate references, documentations and examples of code. As a gamer, I find strategy guides and game related articles by googling.

If one day, for some reason Google cease to exist, my productivity would plummet. But until then, I'll keep on googling for everything and anything.

Complements

Complements or complementary goods are products that are consumed together and if either of the product's price increase, demand for both products will be reduced. A common example would be a computer and the Operating System (e.g. Windows) that comes with it. Because complements are consumed together, there is always this tension between the products to reduce the price of the other in order to increase demand. Dell would want Windows to be cheaper so it can reduce the overall cost of the PC while Windows would also benefit from cheaper PC which will sell more Operating Systems.

There are some products which must be consumed with another. These are called perfect complements and the simplest example would be the left and right shoe. The sales ratio between them is always 1 to 1 because you buy them in pairs.

In order to control the price and demand, many companies will try to control both ends of the complements. Twitter's recently bought Tweetie (a 3rd party Twitter Client) to do just that. A cheaper (free) and better Twitter client will allow more users to use Twitter.

Complements can be your best partner or competitor. If you are just starting out, embracing your complements is one way to improve the attractiveness of your product. Microsoft funded most of their XBox games for that very reason. However, Microsoft is also been known to destroy their complements by bundling complementary apps directly in their products.

Many people cited their reason to buying the iPhone is for the thousands of applications in the App Store. In this case, the iPhone and the applications are complementary. If you are still interested in reading more about complements, check out these articles by Chris Dixon.

Get permission first

While I was enjoying one of my favourite food Hokkien Mee, the owner came over and asked for my contact number. She says that they might be moving to another location and would like to keep me informed. I thought that was a brilliant idea and gave her my number. It might sound as if I just allowed someone to spam my phone but that isn't the case. She specifically asked for my permission to keep me informed about something I'm obviously interested in. Assuming she keep her end of the deal by not spamming me with unrelated stuff, this is a win win situation.

Traditional marketing approaches like advertising tries to interrupt as many people as possible. A better approach would be Permission marketing (a term coined by Seth Godin) which focus on building your permission base first before marketing to them.

This approach feels more personal for the customer and also more efficient for the marketer since they are marketing directly to someone who are interested in their product. And once you have a group of people who are willing to listen to you, you will have a better chance to turn them to a regular and loyal customer.

If you are running a business, writing a blog or starting a group, ask your prospective targets for their permission first before spamming them. They'll thank you and might actually listen to what you have to say.

Growing is for everyone

In a business, growth can come in different forms. You can grow your customer base, increase your production capability or you can expand into other revenue streams. Ultimately, a business aims to be profitable and growth is one of the ways to increase profits. As an individual, you will also need to grow not just in the physical sense. You can read books to increase your knowledge or invest in better equipment so that you can perform better in certain tasks. You could also explore uncharted territories to experience something new.

Like how companies strive to increase their stock value, you should also do what is required to improve your own personal value. Growing isn't just for kids, it's for everyone that wants a better life.

Features list

To decide if a product is better than the other, we normally compare their features list. But, if the products aren't in the same category, this doesn't work so well. This is why I think comparing the Apple iPad to laptops, iPod Touch or netbooks is pointless and irrelevant. When Apple entered the mobile phone market, they didn't care if their iPhone was lacking in features. Instead, they focused on what they thought was more important to a phone user. The iPhone isn't a phone for everyone but there was enough people that loved it.

After the App Store was added to the iPhone, you started to see the other mobile manufacturers attempting to match this feature by building their own. All of a sudden, the once-lacking-in-feature phone is now the one to beat.

I think the key to building a revolutionary product is to make your competitors' features list irrelevant. Invent your own category and if you succeed, your product's features list will then be the industry standard.

Price and cost

In the simplest form, we can describe both price and cost with this equation.

Price = Cost + Profit

However, this equation isn't exactly accurate. It shows that the price is somehow correlated to the cost, which isn't true in some cases. Regardless whether you watching Avatar with a 200+ million budget or The Blair Witch Project filmed with just 22,000, you are going to be paying the same ticket price at the cinema. Here, the price is uncorrelated to the cost.

Price is actually a function of supply and demand. But, cost will in one way or another determine the lower bound for the price. If you want to know more about the relationship between price and cost, check out this post from Chris Dixon.