Sadly another example of jealousy came about recently in the Internet Affiliate Marketing space.  ShoeMoney had a great post regarding a story that makes you shake your head and you find yourself saying, ‘No Way?’… but sadly the facts are the facts….

No matter what industry you work in (i.e. Software, Finance, Insurance, Auto, Retail, etc.) you will no doubt come across this emotion at some point in time.  It will either be with people you work with, customers of your company, competitors of your company, or even friends and neighbors.  This type of immature behavior just shows how insecure people can be today, and sadly I think it happens way too much in the Affiliate Marketing space, and  society in general for that matter.  Don’t agree, look at all the Hollywood stars….  Many are still stuck in High School and will never grow up…. I just hope the Affiliate Marketing space continues to grow because at that point the true market forces will push people referenced in ShoeMoney post out where they belong…

Sometimes it’s easy to just sit back and ‘go with the flow’, or just accept what’s going on in your company or for that matter with your life.  Go to college, get that job and try to climb that ladder.  You may decide to work late hours thinking that that will help you but then you start to realize that things aren’t going as well as they could at your company.

Do you then try to make a difference or do you just sit back and accept that ‘it is what it is’?  The answer to that question may be heavily influenced on the atmosphere you work within because a lot of work environments say they are open to ideas and have an open door policy but yet the actions of senior management are just the opposite.  As it turns out your new idea may be immediately shot down, or worse yet ridiculed by those who say ‘We want ideas’.  What it really comes down to is if the idea isn’t ‘their idea’ they really don’t want to hear it.  It’s amazing how many companies operate in this fashion but it all comes down to control, power, and hubris of those above you.

Regardless of the environment you in, are you OK with proposing new ideas?  If your not maybe it’s time for you to look for a new job because isn’t life too short to work in an environment that drains you versus challenges you?

As Seth Godin points out “If you’re not uncomfortable in your work as a leader, it’s almost certain you’re not reaching your potential as a leader.”: http://bit.ly/AEFmp.

Some newspapers continue their massive downfall and it’s and yet the satirical newspaper The Onion continues to grow.  In addition some media outlets are simply not doing there homework with stories as they should which continues to embarrass the ‘traditional print media’ in ways it never has in the past.   Tech Crunch reported recently 2 newspapers in India reported that the Moon landing were a hoax and even took a fake quote in The Onion from Niel Armstrong as saying he was forced to change his story about the Lunar landings.

On one hand the newspapers are crying that their revenues are dropping like a rock because of the Internet (more specifically sites like Craig’s List and other free classifieds listing services), yet on the other hand they are simply not delivering a product (or providing information) that their customers want.  When you then continue to see examples like the newspapers not bothering to do their homework and do real reporting they continue to make themselves look foolish.

The Internet continues to bring many choices to consumers and the newspapers are going to have to work hard to get their customers back otherwise they will continue to fall.  Competition is a wonderful thing….

Earlier this week Mashable reported that the SEC (Southeastern Conference)  had issued a policy to ban all Social Media uses at any of it’s Conference Sporting events.  After large critisizm from it’s fans and Internet comments Mashable reported that the SEC reversed or softened it’s decision.  It now reads,

‘…Personal messages and updates of scores or other brief descriptions of the competition throughout the Event are acceptable…..’

At least fans can now still use Twitter and FaceBook to make updates to their status, and even share a picture of them at the game. It amazes me how many people still do not see the value of Social Marketing on the Internet.  Why I’m happy to see the SEC reversed their decision the fact they first made a decision to ban it shows they have no clue on the value of Social Media.  If a fan updates their status via Twitter or FaceBook and their followers see somthing intersting they are MORE likely to find information about the game on TV.  Ironically this will support thier ad revenues they are so despartely  trying to protect.   As Chris Anderson writes in his latest fascinating book, “Free: The Future of a Radical Price“, the more you fear something, the more likely it is you need to become it if you want to survive.  People need to realize the Web, and Social Media is here to stay and people/companies/organizations are going to have to learn to harness it’s power otherwise they will be left in the dust.

Shocking as this may seem to some but once something is put on the Internet it pretty much there forever.  Whether it’s a good article you wrote or something eventually regreted saying on someones blog it’s most likely going to be saved somewhere on a server even if you delete it.  I think every person has had a situation where they were not thinking clearly or were ranting about something and began to type feveroushly.   Look how easy it is to miss-interpret an email.  Haven’t we all done that?

With the growth of Twitter that becomes even more evident, and potentially dangerous.  Last week a Google employee tried to delete a Tweet she made regarding a comment she made on a satirical blog (BBSpot).  As TechCrunch wrote, while the comment was about Apple being removed from Google Searches and was by most clearly meant to be funny.  However, it apparently had the potential to be taken out of context and viewed as offensive to some.  Even though she deleted her comment on Twitter apparently you can uncover removed tweets by using Twitter Search and therefore Wha-La…it’s on the Web forever.

As many have said before, ‘think before you speak’, but now you need to remind yourself to think before you write something on the web (i.e. Twitter, Facebook, etc.).   Becuase unlike our memories today that can be short due to information overload if we can’t remember what we said it’s probably in a database somewhere in the world…..

Today’s economy and business climate is tougher than ever and yet it’s amazing to watch, and sometimes experience, how some companies flourish during these times, others do OK, and yet some are falling apart.

Well respected business author Jim Collins has written another great book called “How the Mighty Fall, and Why Some Never Give In” which discusses that topic in detail.

In one section of the book title, ‘Hubris Born of Success’ is so true it’s scary.  Many times companies grow too fast and their success many times leads to arrogance and complacency which in turn leads to ignorance.  Good employees start to leave becasue they see the lack of leadership and that, along with the ever changing business landscape, begins to eat away at the growth of a company and many times starts the decline of a company.

I have experienced this first hand at a few companies and it is amazing how many people unfortunately do not see what is obvious to others.   Not all companies who fall victim to this decline will go away, but they clearly will never grow to the level they once obtained.  In my opinion the free market system will take over and entreprenuers will create new companies which many times will surpass previous leaders.

While in Grad School our Economics professor has study the writings of Joseph Schumpeter and his classic theory of Capitalism, Creative Descrution.  This theory basically states that long term economic power will come from fierce competition due to entreprenuers and their creativity uses of technology.   There are countless examples of this today as new companies rise and others who fall asleep at the wheel become obsolete or lose market domination.  In the music industry the 8-Track once dominated, but then was surpassed by cassette tapes, which then feel to CD, which has once again been surpassed by MP3 players.

This year, major newspapers have closed because of this creative desctruction as upstarts like Craiglist have turned their Billions in revenue into Millions for the latter.   People may want to entirely blame Craigslist for the newspaper industry decline but they are only a peice of the complex puzzle.  That revenue shift has been spread across the thousands and thousands of people who use the service every day.  Yes, Newspapers  revenues have been hurt by this free site, but consumers would not use it if they did not find value in it’s service.  The fact that it’s free versus classifieds which cost $50 to $100 or more only makes sense that it will gain wide spread use.

As the web continues to grow and entreprenuers continue to inovate they will create shifts in business models like we’ve never seen before.  These changes will create new jobs, but also foster long term economic growth.

It’s amazing how many companies are going thru a lack of Leadership at this critical time.  GM and Chrysler are in serious trouble because they did not have strong leadership with vision.  Ford isn’t out of the woods yet themselves but they at least made the tough decision to put themselves in a position where they didn’t need Government loans to keep them afloat.

Today the Chicago Sun-Times joined it’s competitor to announce that they too were headed to bankruptcy.  Countless people have warned the Newspapers they had better wake up to the new forms of competition otherwise they were in serious trouble.  Just last month the Rocky Mountain News of Denver, CO shut it’s doors after being in business for over 130 years!  Why did these large companies who have been around for a long time end up in this situation?  A lack of leadership and poor decision making is the main reason!

In just about every industry there continues to be a lack of leadership and those that do not have it will clearly not survive.  What allowed a company to be successful in the past may not work in the future, especially when you factor in our ever changing environment and world wide competition.  Individuals make up companies and they must realize that what got them to be successful to date may not work in the future.  Marshall Goldsmith wrote a great book entitled just that, ‘What Got You Here, Won’t Get You There‘ . If you get a chance to pick it up, it’s one of the best books I’ve ever read.

The good news is those who chose to use good vision and decision making will come out of this economy  stronger and become the next leaders.

I heard Micah Baldwin speak today for the first time after hearing quite a bit about him.  He has an interesting background and is clearly one of those guys who says what he feels and thinks, and in doing so does not hold back.  Rare, but good as he you can tell it’s just who he is.  He had one of the best quotes I’ve heard in a long time, ‘Failing is not an end point.’

When you really sit back and think about it, it’s so true.   We all fail at times, and for some we fail a lot.  Some call failures, ‘learning opportunities’ and I would have to agree.  As tough as it is to do, you simply have to learn from the situation and move on.   Life is too short and we need to do something while we can.  Micah presentation today had similar themes to Seth Godin latest book, ‘Tribes‘.  One of the better quotes from this book is, ‘The one path that never works is the most common one: do nothing at all.’  If this book doesn’t motivate you to get your butt in gear to do something I’m not sure what will.