Using Values To Evaluate Business Advice

http://youtu.be/wDGFv0D4pEw 

Starting out, Alicia Keys wanted to be a member of a group, and she disagreed at first with the advice to go solo. But when producers wanted her to focus on the pop market, she fought for an R & B niche and succeeded massively.

2  questions come to mind after hearing Keys’ account of her journey in the music business:

Why did she heed the early suggestion to go solo, which she did not want to do, yet resist so vigorously the decision to be produced as a pop music star?

A good argument can be made that it was easier to evaluate
and heed the early advice while changing her musical genre was connected to her values with with she was clear and resolute. Keys aligned with industry professionals who shared her vision. And the then aspiring singer’s musical direction was in harmony with the marketplace.

Note that there are other cases in which talented artists hang on to their principles, i.e., genre, despite changing consumer tastes… and listeners dwindle. And other musicians are sometimes so far ahead of the tastes of consumer listeners that there is no market for their brand of composition.

Dee Adams is the editor of MusicBiz Notes: A Guide for Beginners…
https://nichecreativity.com/music-biz-notes

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElFEtxtrM4M?feature=oembed&w=1200&h=675]

Entrepreneurship in Denmark

International pioneer and entrepreneur
After transferring to a new country, an aspiring entrepreneur
spent two years researching the marketplace and discovered one way to fill a need confronted by immigrant parents in a new land…

Startvaekst.dk
http://tinyurl.com/ng5wwh9

Takeaway
Immigrants or ex-pats face many challenges in moving to any new country.What are those issues? Analyzing the answers and the marketplace can provide the idea for a startup that fills a need.

Dee Adams is the author of Finding Your Niche: Discover…

Critical thinking means to evaluate…Someone forgot to do that beforehand

Check out this story in the EastBay Express, Accused of Stealing Teen’s Design, MLB and Oakland A’s Stop Selling ‘Stoaked’ T-Shirts, Sam Levin: http://tinyurl.com/phlzx5g

16-year old Ryan Frigo’s story is filled with takeaways including:

If the person who approved the use of the logo for the Oakland A’s made an honest mistake or coincidentally created a similar design, it still points to lack of business knowledge and careless research methods.

If the unauthorized use of Frigo’s design was deliberate, then it’s about lack of creative talent and ethics.

And if the person responsible for the new product idea was an independent contractor….yikes. Either way, companies dislike hiring anyone who exposes them to liability and bad PR.

But the corporate office also has blame in this story because rather than handle damage control right away, they ignored and ticked off a savvy teen with entrepreneurial training and his story ended up on the Internet, TV, and newspapers—more than 50 outlets, according to Frigo’s site. East Bay Express notes that the A’s sold about $2,700 in shirts before pulling the item from their site,

PR coverage for the designer…priceless…

Dee Adams is the author of Finding Your Niche: Discover a Profitable Idea for a Business at Home—or Elsewhere

References
www.stoaked.co/news.
http://tinyurl.com/lsduwgq

Contra Costa Times.com
http://tinyurl.com/nvueemx

Stephen Hawking & Ripley’s Believe It Or Not

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHycRMBDme0?feature=oembed&w=1200&h=675]

One major takeaway after watching, Eddie Redmayne discuss his role as the iconic scientist Stephen Hawking, and learning about some of the people profiled by Robert Ripley’s Believe It or Not is that Hawking and many others illustrate that innate ability or aptitudes are not erased because of major illness or other catastrophic health issu

Dee Adams is the editor of the eBook for aspiring entrepreneurs grappling with unexpected injury or illness. Changing YOUR work or Career:…
https://nichecreativity.com/changing-your-work-or-career/ ‎

References

American Experience
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/ripley/

Charlie Rose Interview
http://www.charlierose.com/watch/60497002

Factory Man

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suV4wR_v-Xc?feature=oembed&w=1200&h=675]

Most people know little about the furniture business and Vaughn Basset is not a “small business” owner but his story is an awesome example of David vs. Goliath in the entrepreneurial arena.

An instructive and inspirational example of problem solving for aspiring entrepreneurs in any industry grappling with the issue of stiff competition.
Basset had to figure out how to position his made in America furniture company to compete against a flood of cheaper overseas products that began flooding products made overseas that flooded the U.S market.

Author Beth Macy recounts how she literally had to trudge through muck to write the story of the tough colorful businessman with a sense of duty.

Author Beth Macy recounts in a laughter-filled talk how she literally had to trudge through muck to write the story of the tough colorful businessman with a sense of duty. But the impact on the town and the lives of workers is also a sobering result of the Basset furniture company’s hard times and successes.

Reference 
BookTV.org…About 90 Minutes
Beth Macy & Vaughn Bassett
http://tinyurl.com/mylu67f

2 Clues

Journalist Dana Goldstein, author of The Teacher Wars: A History of America’s Most Embattled Profession, appeared in a 15-minute interview this weekend on CNN. The brief segment included mention of major historical and current day socio-political issues that teachers confront regularly…

And take a look at the humorous blog post “Top 10 Teachers New Year Resolutions” by the Pensivesloth.com.  It recently went viral.
It was written by a fifth grade teacher with a masters in education.
Underneath the satire is a glimpse of working conditions for too many educators.

The Teacher Wars
http://tinyurl.com/m73tqjs

“Top 10 Teachers New Year Resolutions
Pensivesloth.com
http://tinyurl.com/lzlgkdp

Victor Borge Eats, Shoots & Leaves

http://youtu.be/lF4qii8S3gw

Few people would argue that English grammar is not exactly
the most riveting subject on the planet. But here are two instances in which different approaches to the creative process produced massive attention-getting classics in the book and entertainment fields. From Victor Borge’s memorable laugh out loud approach to learning Phonetic Punctuation, to a mega best-seller, Eats, Shoots & Leaves by journalist Lynn Truss.

Dee Adams is the author of Finding Your Niche: Discover…
*And she deliberately left out the comma in the post title to tick off the SEO police.

References
YouTube
Victor Borge-Phonetic Punctuation…4 Minutes

Review and Takeaway Lesson for Eats, Shoots & Leaves
Daily Writingtips.com
http://www.dailywritingtips.com/review-of-eats-shoots-and-leaves/

NPR.org
“Punctuation, Long Abused, Makes a Comeback”
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1843961

Historical Roots

The word unique is often used incorrectly because it means one of a kind. But the following venture, profiled in The Globe and Mail, can truly be described as such.

“East coast entrepreneur runs business out of 130-year-old lighthouse,”
http://tinyurl.com/no3rz4v

Takeaway includes…
Note the entrepreneur’s family history and prior link to the property in this informative account… So if you created a family tree or genogram, what interesting places, situations, work environments, avocations, talents or hobbies might inspire ideas?

Dee Adams is the author of Finding Your Niche: Discover…
http://wp.me/P3Kr4S-Uz

Reference
Lighthouse Picnics