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
The Female Vision: Defining Women's Strategic Strengths
By Sally Helgesen, Julie Johnson
"We believe that what women see—what they notice and value and how they perceive the world in operation—is a greatly under-exploited resource in organizations. In this manifesto, we explore what the female vision is, what it has to offer, and why it matters—to women, to organizations and to the world. In this manifesto, we explore what the female vision is, what it has to offer, and why it matters—to women, to organizations and to the world."
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Blog / ChangeThis
How Time Pressures Shape Behavior (And Provide Clues to Solve Thorny Issues in Business, Health, and Society)
By Porchlight
"Determining the factors that drive decision-making, and applying such mindsets to complex problems enables innovators, program developers, and marketers to apply a new lens to understand how time shapes human behavior. This approach goes well beyond defining new product or service attributes. It offers a fresh mindset that demonstrates that human behavior is not just shaped by psychological wants and needs, but is also shaped by the situation. No matter whether you are a business, government entity, or non-profit organization, understanding the Time-onomic forces that shape behavior and define a situation provides clues to solve some of our most challenging issues in business, health, and society."
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Blog / ChangeThis
The Road to Pandora
By Porchlight
"For those who work in advertising, simply being fascinated with the future isn't enough. We have to glean insight from it and process it and wrap it up in a bright shiny message that sells this incrementally better future to the rest of the human race (or, at the very least, our target market), brought to you on behalf of Brand X. [. . . ] Of course this has never been an easy task. But today, for a number of reasons, advertising the future, and the future of advertising are more difficult and complicated propositions than ever. Because today, not only do advertising people have to fully understand and market the past, present and future of their brands, more than ever they must have a thorough grasp of the seemingly infinite changes that are shaping the future of their industry. This includes everything from the rapidly evolving media landscape to the constant emergence of new messaging delivery vehicles to the very ways in which creative and strategic ideas are developed, shared and created anew.
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
The Internet as Social Movement
By Porchlight
"All of this was difficult, amazing, perplexing, astonishing—but so was the laying of the railroads and the sending of telegraph signals across the ocean. And historians of technology like to point out that great fanfare and promises have greeted all sorts of new devices, from the radio to the fax machine. But even before former Grateful Dead lyricist John Perry Barlow penned his 'Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace' ('Governments of the industrial world,' it began, 'you weary giants of flesh and steel'), the internet was no mere fax machine. From the first, and in no small part because of its fervent supporters, it has felt less like a technology and more like a social movement—like communism, like feminism, like rock and roll. An ideology we could call webism. While the rest of us look up movie times, buy sweaters, and post jihadi videos, the webists proclaim the new age."
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Blog / ChangeThis
The Fallacy of the Great Idea
By Porchlight
"Many entrepreneurs feel that they cannot start a business without a great idea. They believe it will be impossible to succeed without a completely new concept, as the market will already be cornered by established businesses. Only by venturing into uncharted territory can they achieve their dreams. This is the fallacy of the great idea. [...] The simple truth is that it is quite possible to create a thriving business without a big idea. In fact, starting up with a tried and tested concept is very sensible. The real key to success is focus and brilliant execution. Yes, the world needs people with grand ideas who are willing to take big risks to further progress, but the world also needs small businesses creating jobs, and entrepreneurs should not be embarrassed about not having a claim on originality."
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Blog / ChangeThis
When Chaos Moves In, and How to Conquer It: The True Story of Entrepreneurship
By Scott Martineau
"Proponents of entrepreneurship love to celebrate the freedom and adventure of owning and running a company. Established business owners put on a smile, perfect their elevator speech about "being their own boss," and proceed to sell you their product or service. The media tells us story after story about the multi-million dollar opportunities grown out of a garage or dorm room. But few people tell the true story of entrepreneurship—the story of long hours, sleepless nights, endless worry, mental and physical stress, strained family relationships and non-existent social life. Instead, would-be entrepreneurs buy into a dream that few will ever achieve. Believing in a promise of more money, more time, and freedom from the corporate world, entrepreneurs ignore the less-than-encouraging small business statistics and take the plunge into ownership. That's when chaos moves in."
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Blog / ChangeThis
The White Space of Life
By Porchlight
"Most of my career has been in advertising, branding, and writing. Over the years, I've seen hundreds of ads, letters, proposals, and commercials. In the past, I would judge these creative renderings based on their message and intended audience—still not a bad consideration within the process. But now, as I begin passing judgment, I find myself critiquing something else: the white space. Does it have enough white space? I can't say it enough: I hate being crowded, and I really despise crowded letters, crowded ads, crowded 60-second spots. They try to say so much that I can't hear anything. Like the train, like the highway, like my closet, these communiqus and radio spots are all calling out in one accord, 'MORE WHITE SPACE. PLEASE!'"
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Blog / ChangeThis
THE FASCINATION FACTOR (and how you can use it to write books)
By Mark Levy
"One of the hats I wear is that of writing coach. I guide businesspeople in writing books. During a typical first session, my client isn't sure what their book will be about, but they take guesses. They tell me about what they think the marketplace wants, what they believe they can sell, and what might elevate them to guru status. They start tossing around premises. I stop them. Books indeed need readers, so thinking about audience is important. Books also help writers achieve career goals, so thinking strategically about how a book can advance one's business makes sense. But looking at those things too early leads to a bland book. Why?"
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
DREAM, DARE, DO!
By Porchlight
"Everybody has dreams regarding work, relationships, health and personal development... But what does it take to go from Dream to Dare and, eventually, Do? What are the secrets of real and lasting change? You know exactly how it feels: you are frustrated, angry and unhappy. It's time to make that change. It's time to improve your relationships, start your own business, get that promotion, lose that weight, get those abs tuned, stop smoking, see your friends more often, start saving for your kids education, start applying for a different job... etc,etc. Good luck! You will need it, because the odds are against you. Of all people who consciously start personal change, more than 80% will have returned to their old habits within two years. No wonder the world is filled with cynical people, that are still in the same job they have hated for over 10 years, still smoke 2 packs of cigarettes everyday and still spend too little time with their kids. It's time for change."
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Blog / ChangeThis
Why the Future of Business Depends on the Young World Rising
By Rob Salkowitz
"More than half of the world's 6.8 billion people are under the age of 30, and most of them live in countries where the per-capita income is lower than $1000 per year. Meanwhile, projections show the average age of the United States, Europe, Russia, Japan and even China pushing dramatically upward, with declining numbers of young workers struggling to support mushrooming populations of elderly retirees. As the old centers of the global economy face aging workforces and declining fertility rates, the future increasingly depends on tapping into the energy and ideas of the rising Young World."
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.