2. Alcohol, war and the Web are three things that make us more of what we really are. That's kind of scary when you think about it.
3. Luck is still regularly confused with talent. Talent is still regularly confused with money. What never changes is this: You know it when you meet it.
4. Passion isn't dead, it just smells funny. (Tip of hat to Zappa.)
5. Once upon a time a CEO had to know about selling, distribution, finance, marketing, (often) manufacturing and, of course, how to make money. Today, a CEO can be wildly successful with (almost) no knowledge of any of those things. What we now call companies used to be called product development.
6. Once upon a time CEOs were taught that shareholder value was the only thing. Thankfully, that's over now. (My favorite recent story is here.)
7. When we all learned in Economics that people knew what made them happy, we couldn't have been any more wrong.
8. The two best pieces of life advice to come out of social media: Don't read the comments. Don't feed the trolls.
9. Email is the new snail mail.
10. When I total up the Web, with its incredible access to knowledge, entertainment, and community on one side and Gamergate, revenge porn, Silk Road, trolls, bullies, scams, sexting, government abuse, misogyny, hate, theft, wasteful start-ups and social media self-destruction, I'm not sure if we are ahead. Truly.
11. And speaking of self-destruction, Twitter is the closest thing social media has to Russian Roulette. If you spin the barrel long enough you will lose. If there is a weakness in your game it will find you out. Bet on it.
12. My friends who have truly awesome networks would never think to share them on LinkedIn.
13. Time is the ultimate luxury good. And God had it right; creation is the best work available.
14. What if we all build businesses but have nothing to sell? (Tip of hat to Emerson.)
15. The Web is fast becoming the Nodes. The smartest and most capable eventually become the tollkeepers. Robber Barons exist in every generation.
16. The most diluted term in business is "genius." At every company I visit I am introduced to a "rocket scientist" or "brain surgeon." I often agree; there are brilliant people everywhere. Which makes me think that the most diluted term in business is "genius."
17. Beware of self-anointed "Visionaries," especially at cocktail parties.
18. We survived paradigm and pivot. Now comes nexus. I recently read about a company that stands at "the nexus of Russian Digital Marketing, Big Data Analytics and eCommerce." There is a business school professor reported to be "exploring the nexus between business, philanthropy, and social change." A former Microsoft marketing executive is helping to launch a company at the nexus of "marketing and digital entertainment, philanthropy and lifetime experiences." This too shall pass. Me, I have been at the nexus of my snow shovel, my driveway and 7 feet of snow for the past five weeks.
19. Blog posts with numbers in the title do better. Weird.
20. Always remember that Chilean sea bass with buttered haricot vert was, before clever marketing, Patagonian toothfish with green beans.
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