Avoiding Bogus Testimonials
Recent news reports Re: the practice of writing bogus reviews for profit or to damage the competition is not new.  For example, last year I interviewed a successful author who in answer to my question about the state of the industry revealed how a lot of time was spent unsuccessfully trying to remove blatantly false and negative reviews posted on Amazon.

A Few Alternatives
Every library has a slightly different system for accessing book reviews.  For instance, you can go to the website of the main San Francisco Library and using their card catalog, type find summaries and possible links to reviews from Library Journal or the New York Times.  Another option is to use the library’s database Booklist. But be aware that using the database requires a little more work: skill with keyword searching.

Selected Book Review
databases include:
Booklist
Novelist
Literature Resource Center
Literary Criticism

Consumers being duped has been the focus of the controversy but entrepreneurs, at all stages, are consumers too. For example, buying and relying on a how-to book or hiring a service or product provider based on questionable testimonial can wreak havoc in the pre-or start-up stage for starters. As mentioned in Changing Your Work or Career…, a situation that can put someone out of business.

Consider the case of the mom inventor who hired a company to develop molds for her new children’s safety product. She paid the supplier tens of thousands of dollars, but what she received was so poorly made it was unusable.  Fortunately, her husband went into their garage and rebuilt the product, but not everyone has that kind of backup plan…skill set or aptitudes.

Relying on service and product evaluations from nonprofit organizations is one avenue but perhaps the most important lesson in all this is that research requires more than merely reading online testimonials.

The level of time and energy spent on buying decisions will depend on the answer to the following question: what are the possible consequences, financial and otherwise, if you are basing your decision on faulty information?

Although I have focused only on one industry in this post, a practice can be found in many industries. On an upbeat note, the shady practices should create more business for those organizations with ethical business values. And perhaps create new opportunities for would-be entrepreneurs who want to enter the little known field with a better approach.

References

Fake reviews Amazon’s Rotten Core
Forbes.com
http://tinyurl.com/9gzr29o

Midwest Book Review
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midwest_Book_Review

Bay Area Consumers Check Book
http://www.checkbook.org/

Consumer Reports.org
he http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/index.htm

New York Attorney General
Announces agreement with 19 Companies
http://tinyurl.com/q4ym3r5

Bogus reviews practice expected to increase
http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/216131

Mark Pendergast
If ever there was an example of how social, cultural, and political issues can influence the evolution of a seemingly simple business product, it’s the hour-long-presentation by journalist Mark Pederast on the history of a famous bottle of soda.

Serious subject matter, frequently humorous, an inside glimpse on simple yet brilliant marketing know how, and the sometimes lack thereof.

References
Book TV.org
Video           about one hour
http://tinyurl.com/ntyhtab

Mark Pendergast.com
http://markpendergrast.com/

Aptitudes in Action + Marketplace Smarts

Fish Flops Featured in major Korean Newspaper!
http://news.mk.co.kr/newsRead.php?year=2013&no=967527

You can’t make a living with art. Sez who?
The designer behind the Fish Flops company and the footwear sold at
Nordstrom is 15-year self-taught artist, Madison Robinson,
who says she “works” at it.
Her story offers several important lessons:

• Fish Flops evolved into a business from an authentic expression
  of the artist’s interests and background. Innovative touches and
  whimsical nature designs combined into a fun, colorful, quality
  functional product. And with a memorable name to boot.

• At the very least,  Madison’s aptitudes may include foresight, structural
  visualization, color discrimination, and memory for design and observation.
  But merely having certain aptitudes is not enough.  You have to work at it!

• Art and business are separate fields and combining the two requires an additional set of business and marketing skills, which many aspiring artistic entrepreneurs frequently overlook.

• Small children often have innate business abilities, so more parents
  might want to start listening more closely to those rich fertile minds.

References

National Business Report
http://nbr.com/2013/09/09/teen-entrepreneurs-million-dollar-bright-idea/

Fishflops.com
Illustrations used with permission
http://www.fishflops.com/index.php

Shop Nordstrom.com
http://tinyurl.com/mnxpnbg

Houston’s Chronicle’s 43 Most Fascinating People of the year list.
Madison is the second person on the list posted December 9, 2013.
Chron.com
http://tinyurl.com/q8udwbs

Update 2014!
Madison Nicole introduces her new line of shoes at a recent store appearance
fb.me/2Trt4BTJA

Johnson O’Connor Research Foundationhttp://www.jocrf.org/Understanding_Your_Aptitudes.pdf

Lessons for Aspiring Entrepreneurs  

 da Vinci Imagination

The chocolate chip cookie seems to be the only thing da Vinci didn’t invent while dreaming up ideas for everything from robots to flying machines using nature for inspiration.

The Renaissance painter was known for 12 different fields. For instance, many people are unaware that the painter of the Mona Lisa was a musician, too, and a sought after engineer.

More than 13,000 pages of da vinci’s journal notes and drawings point to an ability to visualize images in his mind, an innate aptitude called structural visualization, a term coined by researchers at the Johnson O’Connor Research Foundation.

Among da vinci’s other aptitudes, he likely had Ideaphoria, which means he could create a rapid flow of ideas. And his aptitude was at so high a level he couldn’t focus on any one project for long. A circumstance that many people with high creative energy experience.

da vinci had a reputation for procrastination and not finishing projects.
Not attributes one wants if the goal is to start and grow a business.

There are many modern day da Vinci’s with an interest in business ownership. Understanding their own Ideaphoric nature is key to choosing the right venture.
Failure to do so will only cause restlessness and unfinished business.

References

da Vinci Illustrations
http://www.leonardoda-vinci.org/Flower-Studies-large.html

History
University of Technology Sydney
http://www.leonardo.uts.edu.au/about.html 

Museum of Science & Industry
http://www.msichicago.org/scrapbook/scrapbook_exhibits/leonardo/index.html

Johnson O;Connor Research Foundation
http://www.jocrf.org/index.html

New Kindle Content
Preview  on Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0084Q3YO6

More tips, stories, review questions, & resources.
Available free through Amazon’s lending library.

What’s the most important aptitude a nurse should possess?
The answer may give you pause if you recall the recent news story in
which a brother donated one of his kidneys to his ailing sister.
The day of the transplant, a nurse accidentally threw the organ
because she thought it was medical waste.

Based solely on a review of the news reports, it seems that there
was a failure to institute a rigorous checklist policy or standardized set of steps, which would be reviewed during the surgical process.

That crucial missing element is not a mistake at the nursing level, but the administrative level as well.

With the Obama health-care bill will come many small-business opportunities to enter various kinds of health care ventures.

Ensuring that one has the right aptitudes, proper training, skills, and knowledge reduces the likelihood of mind boggling errors that make the national news reports.

Answer: According to the Johnson O’Connor Research Foundation, the answer is Graphoria, the ability to handle paperwork with ease. One who is detail oriented and skilled at handling records in an efficient manner.

References
CBS News
How Could a Nurse Throw
out A Kidney Before Transplant?
http://tinyurl.com/l4gq6lq

Understanding Your Aptitudes
http://www.jocrf.org/Understanding_Your_Aptitudes.pd

In Depth with Ben Carson, M.D.
Early into last month’s three-hour C-Span interview , you will hear during the first 30-minutes of the segment, Dr. Carson discuss learning styles, but actually, the viewer is watching someone tap into their learning style to solve a probe.

It’s an insightful look at the mindset of a surgeon before he received his medical degree. Dr. Carson recounts how he nearly flunked out of medical school but tapped into his innate ability to strategize to avoid failing at a goal he’d dreamed of since he was a little boy.

During the final 15 minutes, during Q&A, the term structural visualization is not used, but it’s being referred to when the physician responds to a caller by explaining how issues of interpersonal relations may be problematic for people with spatial learning styles.
He also referenced a book he would recommend to aspiring entrepreneurs of any race, the story of A.G. Gaston, Green Power. 

References
C-Span
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/313840-

A.G. Gaston Book
Back in Print After 45 Years
Bizjournals.com/BizTalkBirminghamBlog
http://tinyurl.com/lo2omfc

Owning a specialty clothing venture or testing the audio of musical compositions by using one’s car stereo are ordinary business activities. But not so, if you happen to be Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, the Grammy-winning co-founder of The Roots, a music historian, author, entrepreneur, and the musical director for NBC’s Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

Engaging in commonplace business activities gives one pause when the clothing company specializes in hoodies. And when being stopped on the road and searched by police under the assumption the car is stolen is a repeated occurrence.

Democracry.org featured an hour-long segment with Ahmir Thompson, as he discussed his middle-class upbringing and experiences today.

Takeaway Lesson: African American music, culture, history, and marketing strategies dominate in today’s world, yet the intersection of civil rights with creative and entrepreneurial issues affects minorities on a daily basis.

References

DemocracyNow. org: https://www.democracynow.org/2013/9/2/questlove_on_police_racial_profiling_hip. Note: The Democracrcy.org content contains some adult language and video scenes.

New York Times Book Review: Mo’ Meta Blues: https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/26/books/questlove-publishes-his-memoir-mo-meta-blues.html