It Takes a Rube

Adele is a Lunatic

Ross — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 20:58:20 +0000

First, let me say, you cannot outrun a song from Adele. Try as you might, by the time you get to the next station, she’s there already. She has set up shop. Doesn’t make the station format. Rock, Pop, Country, Rumba. She’s there.

I find myself humming that song, Someone Like You and I’m not happy about it. I find the song offensive. Here’s why. That guy is in trouble with his wife no matter what. He could be completely innocent and he likely is but here comes crazy Adele, interrupting the family dinner at Chili’s.

“I heard that you settled down. That you found a girl and you’re married now.
I heard that your dreams came true. Guess she gave you things I didn’t give to you” she says without even saying hello.

“I hate to turn up out of the blue uninvited but I couldn’t stay away, I couldn’t fight it. I had hoped you’d see my face and that you’d be reminded that for me it isn’t over.” Needless to say, dinner is over. And that poor innocent bastard is in deep trouble with his wife. But he didn’t do anything!

Hey, thanks, Adele. You lunatic. That guy’s wife is going to kill him when they get home. And he didn’t even get his Awesome Blossom.

Steve Jobs

Ross — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 15:08:37 +0000

It’s hard looking at the brillant quotes from Steve Jobs over the years to find just one to sum his impact up. I think my favorite might be “I want to put a ding in the Universe.” That’s what many of us try to do. The following quote is about death. It’s odd how much Steve Jobs spoke about his own mortality. But it’s clear he used death as an inspiration to live and work.

“No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.”

-Steve Jobs

Tumblr Raises $85 Million

Ross — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 14:35:52 +0000

Blogging service Tumblr said it has raised $85 million, although the company has barely any revenue and the business plan is sketchy at best.

But it was the lack of revenue part that kept some major venture firms away from making the dea. Graylock Partners, investors with Facebook and Groupon, and Twitter-investor Insight Ventre Partners. Speaking of sketchy business plans…

Who else is at the table? Glad you asked. The Chernin Group, Sir Richard Branson, Spark Capital, Union Square Ventures, and Sequoia Capital.

There might be addition information in the Wall Street Journal but I don’t pay for that so go scratch.

Billie Jean

Ross — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 15:10:44 +0000

This is my kids friend Lucas. He’s a shy kid and plays lots of Michael Jackson The Experience video game. That’s the only explanation for a little kid to know every dance step to a 30 year old song. Who says video games aren’t good for kids?

Here’s what happened…

Ross — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 18:09:08 +0000

I changed.
I changed my thoughts.
I changed the people I paid attention to.
I changed my mind.
I changed my habits.
I changed my attitude.
I changed my clothes.
I changed my opinions about me and you.
I changed what I read, what I watched on television,
and what I listened to.
I changed those deep-rooted decisions about who I was
and who I would become.

It wasn’t easy, but it was just as simple
as the decisions I’d made early on.
I decided to be different and do different things
and then I kept deciding those new decisions
over and over and over again,
until they caught hold.
And then, all I did was hold on!

-Richard Bliss Brooke

Advertising

Ross — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 14:04:27 +0000

Doing business without advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark, you know what you’re doing but nobody else does.

Oooops!

Ross — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 06:15:52 +0000

Sooooo… I got an email from a business partner asking that I pay an open invoice. Nothing wrong with that. I forwarded the email to my partner with the addition, “I don’t like this guy.” Except I replied instead of forwarding the email. I told the guy that I didn’t like him based soley on him asking that I pay an open invoice. I suck. And now he knows. And I know. I suck.

A hero will emerge

Ross — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 19:12:37 +0000

You can't imagine how bad this place smells

This morning I was getting gas at the corner of Second Avenue and Houston when a man came up to me. I could tell by his face he was in serious need of help. “Do you know how to use this phone?” His outstretched hand revealed a Palm Treo. “A man left this in my cab this morning. I dropped him at 51st and 5th Avenue but I just saw this in the back seat now.

This was my chance. I leapt into action.I took the phone from his smelly foreign fingers. I unlocked it began to search. Looking for any piece of information that would lead me to its owner. Contacts, Calendar, then it hit me. Recent calls. And there was only one call I was looking for. “Home.”

I found it. Last night at 10:34 he called a number listed simply as “Home.” A 310 area code. California, Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, West Los Angeles. Poor bastard. The number rang for a moment and then a voice with a message loud and clear. “Your Verizon number has been disconnected.

Again, poor bastard. He had already reported his phone missing and had it shut off. Perhaps he couldn’t imagine a man of my moral fiber would come along. I don’t blame him. There are only a few of us.

“Sorry man. He’s beat. He already turned it off.” I tossed the phone back to the cab driver. Got back in the car and was on my way. Not quite feeling like a million bucks but damn near 600 grand.

In hindsight, perhaps I could have called his house from my working phone but really, I’m not looking to get involved in people’s lives. I know it wasn’t much but you have to start somewhere. Jesus turned water into wine. Clark Kent kicked that football really far in Superman I. Batman did whatever it was that Batman did when he first became Batman.

A hero’s road is long and winding. I just took my first step.

things that rule*

Ross — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 21:48:59 +0000

*continually updated. If something no longer rules, it will be immediately stricken from the list.

The Play Doh Parable

Ross — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 18:20:37 +0000

Joseph McVicker was hired in 1949 to head Kutol Products Company, an Ohio firm. The company’s best selling product was a moldable compound used to remove soot from wallpaper. The compound sold well until the introduction of vinyl wallpaper. Vinyl wallpaper could be easily cleaned with soap and water rendering Kutol’s product obsolete. With the need of Joseph McVicker’s signature product waning, a small adjustment was needed.

McVicker realized that the wallpaper cleaner also could also be repurposed as modeling clay. In 1955, the product in local daycares and schools. Within a year, the product was being sold in stores under it’s new name, Play-Doh. Joesph McVicker became a millionaire. In the film, How Do You Know, Paul Rudd’s character, George proposes that the McVickers’ story has always reminded him that we’re all “just one small adjustment away from making our lives work.”

The Play-Doh story is good advice. Joseph McVicker faced business extinction. But rather than turning and running, he made the small adjustment needed to remain relevant and his little dough came a cultural icon. How often do we forget that small adjustments often add up to big changes?