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ChangeThis
ChangeThis is our weekly series of essays from today's thought leaders that are meant to evoke conversation by bringing forth new and unique ideas.
ChangeThis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Strive For Minimal Achievement
By Barry J. Moltz
"Failure is valuable only when we realize it is a normal part of the business process even when there always isn't something to learn. So it does not hold us back. The real fear and pressure in this whole process is not brought on by our competitors or other outside people. It mostly originates within us. The biggest fear we have is that someone in our position would have done better than us, made better decisions than us and would have built it faster and more profitably than we did. We believe that that we should be in a different place than where we are right now, and that we would be, if only we had made better decisions. Nonsense. In our business life, in order to move forward, past the fear, past the failure, yes past the success, we actually need to just let go. Letting go is the key to gaining true business confidence. Not by holding onto what people have taught you are the keys to success. Not by looking for the 7 steps. You need to let go of the idea that there is always something to learn from failure or that you can always build and duplicate your success.
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Blog / ChangeThis
The Freak Factor: Discovering Uniqueness by Flaunting Weakness
By Porchlight
"My experience as an individual, consultant, parent and leader indicates that efforts to fix weaknesses are ineffective. Furthermore, I believe that the goal of being well-rounded is both undesirable and impossible to attain. The purpose of this manifesto is to explain why I believe this and to offer a better alternative. [...] These examples from my life illustrate the three primary lessons of this manifesto. 1.There is nothing wrong with you. Weaknesses are important clues to your strengths. 2.You find success when you find the right fit. You need to match your unique characteristics to situations that reward those qualities. 3.Your weaknesses make you different. They make you a freak and it's good to be a freak."
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Blog / ChangeThis
The New Rules of Viral Marketing: How Word-of-Mouse Spreads Your Ideas for Free
By David Meerman Scott
"You and I are incredibly lucky. For decades, the only way to spread our ideas was to buy expensive advertising or beg the media to write (or broadcast) about our products and services. But now our organizations have a tremendous opportunity to publish great content online—content that people want to consume and that they are eager to share with their friends, family, and colleagues. Word-of-mouse is the single most empowering tool available to marketers today. I wrote this e-book so you can take advantage of the power of viral marketing too. In it, I share ideas that will help you create your own viral marketing strategies and campaigns."
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Blog / ChangeThis
The New Time Management: Simply Focus on the Fundamentals, and Toss Away the Tips
By Porchlight
"As working professionals across the world, we all want the same things when it comes to time management. We want to feel a certain peace of mind that comes from knowing that our affairs are in order and that we've not forgotten something that might jump up later to give us a nasty surprise. We also want to get as much as we can out of life, and to maximize the time we have to be alive. We share the belief that this time is limited, and we want to spend it in ways that are in line with our values and commitments. And we all face the same problem of having only 24 hours in the day."
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Blog / ChangeThis
It's Time to Evolve: Leading with Just Enough Anxiety in the 21st Century
By Robert Rosen
"In Prehistoric times, saber-toothed tigers and other wild animals tried to make primitive man their meal, before he made a meal out of them. Out of this anxiety-ridden society, a built-in coping mechanism was burned into our genes—the fight or flight response. In today's business world, leaders face a modern-day breed of saber-toothed tigers; burnout, corporate takeovers, diminishing finances, and other anxiety-producing events threaten our well-being and the survival of our companies every day. [...] When it comes to managing our anxiety, it's time to evolve. Anxiety is as much a fact of life today as it was for our ancestors. How we use it makes all the difference. If we let it overwhelm us, it will turn to panic. If we deny or run from it, we will become complacent. But if we use anxiety in a positive way, we will turn it into a powerful force in our lives. We will uncover the hidden driver of business success."
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Blog / ChangeThis
A Creative Manifesto: Why the Place You Choose to Live is the Most Important Decision of Your Life
By Richard Florida
"Increasingly, the place you choose to live will help determine your success in business, in finding a life partner, and in living a fulfilling life. In fact, it may be the most important decision of your life. I believe that we are in the beginnings of a shift as fundamental as the industrial revolution was over a century ago—one that will have as dramatic an impact on how people live and work. Furthermore, it will have a dramatic impact on where they live and work."
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Blog / ChangeThis
The Megacommunity Manifesto
By Porchlight
"Public, private, and civil leaders should confront together the problems that none can solve. Leaders everywhere no longer express as much confidence about the future as they once did. When they speak candidly, it often sounds as if they feel trapped in quicksand, unable to move forward easily. The methods and tools that helped them succeed in the past no longer work. The challenges they face—such as global competitiveness, health and environmental risks, or inadequate infrastructure—can no longer be solved by their organizations alone. And when they try to reach beyond the boundaries of their own corporation, government agency, or nongovernmental organization, there often is no clear pathway to success."
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Blog / ChangeThis
The 10 1/2 Commandments of Visual Thinking: The "Lost Chapter" from The Back of the Napkin
By Dan Roam
"Visual thinking is the future of business problem solving. Using our innate ability to see—both with our eyes and our mind's eye—gives us entirely new ways to discover hidden ideas, develop those ideas intuitively, and then share those ideas with other people in a way they are simply going to 'get.'"
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Blog / ChangeThis
Trust Economies: Investigation into the New ROI of the Web
By Julien Smith, Chris Brogan
"If You Build It, They Won't Come What happened to the early days? You built a baseball stadium, a store, a web app, and people flocked to it... now what? We are suspicious of marketing. We don't trust strangers as willingly. Buzz is suspect. It can be bought. Instead, consumers and business people alike are looking towards trust. We want our friends to tell us it's good. We want someone we know to say we should look into it. Marketing spend might start at awareness, but in the Trust Economy, communities are king, and ROI stands for Return on Influence."
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Blog / ChangeThis
Manners Matter: The Commonsense Approach to Business Etiquette
By Porchlight
"Manners matter, not just socially; we all know manners matter socially. Manners matter in business. Good social skills, in fact, are critical to the success of any business. Let's talk about the why and the how, but first, let's dispel a common myth: being polite doesn't make you a doormat. We've all seen the stereotype: meek and mild librarian/accountant gets walked on by everyone, running others' errands, never getting any respect, until one day, they explode in a rage, baseball bats and fists and profanity flying, and finally, finally, they get the respect they deserve and find true happiness in life. Let's stop pretending Hollywood represents real life."
Categories: changethis
The original idea behind ChangeThis came from Seth Godin, and was built in the summer of 2004 by Amit Gupta, Catherine Hickey, Noah Weiss, Phoebe Espiritu, and Michelle Sriwongtong. In the summer of 2005, ChangeThis was turned over to 800-CEO-READ. In addition to selling and writing about books, they kept ChangeThis up and running as a standalone website for 14 years. In 2019, 800-CEO-READ became Porchlight, and we pulled ChangeThis together with the rest of our editorial content under the website you see now. We remain committed to the high-design quality and independent spirit of the original team that brought ChangeThis into the world.