Please sign the petition below to remove the statue of Jefferson Davis currently in Kentucky’s Capitol Rotunda, and replace it with a tribute to Muhammad Ali, “the Louisville Lip” and “the Greatest of All Time.”
I just heard from the Ali family: It is the Champ’s belief that Islam prohibits three-dimensional representations of living Muslims. Accordingly, I have adjusted the petition to call for a two-dimensional representation of Ali (a portrait, picture or mural) in lieu of a statue.
UPDATE (Tuesday, December 2, 2014)
In this interview with WHAS-TV’s Joe Arnold, Governor Steve Beshear endorses the idea of honoring Muhammad Ali in the State Capitol (although he disagrees with removing Davis). Arnold explores the idea further on his weekly show, “The Powers that Be.”
Click here to check out WDRB-TV’s Lawrence Smith’s coverage of the story.
And here’s my op-ed in Ali’s hometown paper, the Louisville Courier-Journal.
UPDATE (Saturday, June 4, 2016)
In the wake of the 2015 Charlestown tragedy, in which a Confederate flag-waving murderer united the nation against racism, all of the most powerful Kentucky policymakers — U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell, Governor Matt Bevin, Senate President Robert Stivers and House Speaker Greg Stumbo — called for the removal of the Davis statue from the Rotunda. Today, as we commemorate last night’s passing of Muhammad Ali, there is no better moment to replace the symbol of Kentucky’s worst era with a tribute to The Greatest of All Time.
UPDATE (Wednesday, June 8, 2016):
Great piece by Lawrence Smith of WDRB-TV in Louisville on the petition drive to replace Jefferson Davis’ statue in the Capitol Rotunda with a tribute to Muhammad Ali.
UPDATE (Thursday, June 9, 2016):
Excellent piece on the petition drive by Jack Brammer that was featured on the front page of the Lexington Herald-Leader.
Highlight of the article:
Miller said he has received a few “angry comments” on his call to honor Ali.
“One of them encouraged me to kill myself,” he said. “You can quote me that I have decided not to take their advice.”
UPDATE (Friday, June 10, 2016)
The petition drives continues to show the Big Mo(hammed): check out these stories from WKYU-FM public radio in Bowling Green and WKYT-TV, Channel 27 in Lexington:
UPDATE (Saturday, June 11, 2016):
Still not convinced? Check out this excerpt from today’s New York Times:
I interviewed some of my most successful, smart, and gorgeous girlfriends to find out how important it really is to them for a guy to pay attention to his image and style, and I thought you might be interested in watching what they had to say. The first of these three interviews is with Sara Davidson, business strategist and marketing maven.
Click here or on the image below to watch our interview. You’ll hear what turns her on and off, and the one thing a guy did that completely changed the way she looked at him (and as a result she couldn’t keep her hands off of him).
After you’re done watching the interview, make sure you take my style quiz to see how you rate on a scale of 1 to 10.
By John Y. Brown III, on Thu Dec 25, 2014 at 1:30 PM ET
Merry Christmas!
Younger days with my sisters and mom and dad. When everything was possible, days ran long and years seemed like an eternity. And Christmas was a monumental and defining event for how good a year it had been.
And Santa Claus was everything we wanted him to be –and was more real than family members we lived with. And chased around the yard between Santa’s visits.
P.S. This is a particularly poignant picture because tonight my sister Sandy told me this picture reminded her of how she remembered me during our childhood. Happy, engaged and very busy in my own unencumbered world.
I liked that a lot.
And hope the very same for every child. Especially mine…even though they aren’t really children any more. But hope they never forget how to be childlike and unencumbered.
===
A Santa Claus “Hail Mary”
Dear Santa,
I know that now is late in the Christmas game, so to speak, but wanted to reach out to you before midnight and just say “Hi” and wish you and Mrs Claus and the entire Claus family a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.
I know how hard you have worked and just want you to know how much I personally appreciate all you do. So, thanks and be safe tonight. It is really cold in some parts and foggy for the reindeer. Be careful!
Oh and by the way, I am sure you got my Christmas list earlier and I appreciate you taking the time to read it all. I know it was long.
I suspect at first blush after reading my long present list you probably thought to yourself, “Whaaaat?? This guy thinks he deserves all this?” LOL!! I wouldn’t blame you if you did. I probably would do the same thing if I were in your shoes. But let me try to explain.
I totally get the whole “naughty and nice” algorithm you use to decide who gets what kind and what quantity of gifts. I think it is a good system personally. At the same time I think we can both agree that there can sometimes be the occasional oversight with the current system and, perhaps, in those few cases when that happens, a closer look may be warranted.
Look, I will be the first to admit I did not get off to a great start this year. But I think it is important to look at how I trended upward at the end of the year and how promising that should be for next year. And if I felt, you know, disappointed with my presents tomorrow….how that might discourage me at a pivotal time when I am trending so positively with “nice” behavior.
I am not trying to make you feel responsible for my bad behavior next year if I get discouraged tomorrow after opening my presents. Not at all. I am just asking you to try to understand human behavior and to see how something bad — and totally unintended— like that could really happen. And how none of us would want that to occur.
Just think about it.Ok? That’s all I am saying.
And remember, the majority of reputable psychologists today would agree that a few isolated episodes of “bad behavior” doesn’t make someone a “bad person” or a “not nice person,” to use the Christmas parlance. We have leaned a lot from social sciences in the past hundred years since Christmas started and I think it is OK to take that into consideration.
Earlier this year when you probably gave me some pretty bad marks I want you to know that I wasn’t being “bad” because I wanted to be evil. I was just in a bad place personally and made some bad choices at that time. And that is all behind me now. Almost all of it. I swear.
Anyway, I have taken up enough of your time already. Heck, this is just a good luck and Merry Christmas note I wanted to dash off to you. Sorry for getting so longwinded. Just thinking out loud and wanted to share it with you because I have so much respect for you as a person.
I hope some of it made sense and you can see how Christmas presents need to be based not so much on a static “this year’s behavior” metric but also on a dynamic “next year’s projected behavior based in trend lines” (and detailed explanations like this one.)
I will also private message you some graphs I have put together to help illustrate my points.
OK, Santa!! Another great year coming up for all of us!! I can just feel it. Those graphs are on their way!!
Merry Christmas, Santa! And thank you in advance for always keeping such an open mind!! And being such an understanding and jolly old soul!!
Sincerely — make that “Love,”
Your good friend, John
By John Y. Brown III, on Thu Dec 25, 2014 at 12:00 PM ET
Some of the reasons I love my wife (and some of the reasons I thinks she loves me):
Last night Rebecca picked me up at the airport so we could eat dinner at our favorite restaurant nearby –and she got to the airport 15 minutes early and waited. But when I came outside from the baggage claim doors I couldn’t find her car anywhere and it was because Rebecca was parked and waiting for me instead at the “Departing Flights” level just outside Delta.
I went upstairs to the ticket counter level and found Rebecca, the sole car parked on that level with music playing inside the car. We hugged and Rebecca drove us to dinner. As we were walking inside I reminded Rebecca to lock the car door and she reached inside her purse but couldn’t find her car keys. Rebecca told me to wait at the door while she went back to the car to look for the keys. For about 12 minutes. Which felt longer to both of us because it was cold outside. When I asked her where the keys were she sheepishly admitted that it turned out they had been inside her purse all along.
Once inside we were about to be seated but Rebecca saw a friend and went over and talked to her and her son and introduced me to the husband. And after about 10 minutes Rebecca finished talking and we sat down and she looked at me with her enthusiastic eyes like she always does and I tried not to say anything but, of course, I did. “You know, sweetie, when you see someone you know at a restaurant it is probably best not to talk for such a long time because their food will get cold.” I was trying to sound helpful but really was just hungry.
“Oh, they were already finished eating. Didn’t you notice that?” Rebecca explained.
“Well, yes. In this instance. But I am talking more about as a general rule of thumb.” I clarified.
We had a nice dinner and then Rebecca had to drop me off back at the airport so I could pick up my car and drive home. But she forgot and missed the exit and after I pointed out she had missed the exit, she laughed and kept telling me the story she was in the middle of telling me and almost missed the next exit to turn around and go back to the airport for my car.
“Honey,” I blurted out, “I love this story but we really need to get this next exit right.”
“I wonder how I ever got my license?” Rebecca wryly chuckled.
I said that I wasn’t surprised she had gotten her license because it was pretty easy to get a driving license but that she was in luck to have someone like me as a passenger who could help her become a truly exceptional driver –and that in addition to “driving tips” I also offered free advice on things like the appropriate amount of time to talk to a friend you see at a restaurant among other things. “Try to think of me as a ‘life coach’ that you get for free.” I said and added “Aren’t you lucky? You get your very own free life coach with me.”
Rebecca rolled her eyes, “I tried being your life coach and have retired .”
“Because I reached perfection?” I joked.
“Uh. No. Because I reached exhaustion” Rebecca said with a strained laugh.
I smiled self-confidently and added, “Well, I will still be your life coach.”
Rebecca dropped me off at the airport baggage claim so I could get my car. I gave her a quick kiss and then got out of the car and walked toward the parking garage as Rebecca drove off. I stepped through several bushes hoping to find a path to the entrance to the parking garage. An airport employee shouted, “Hey! There is no way to get into the garage through those bushes. You have to come back across the street and go inside and downstairs and through the tunnel.”
“Thanks,” I said. “I Knew that.”
After all, I am a life coach.
And this story, in a nutshell, explains the glue of our marriage. My happy-go-lucky wife who drives me everywhere while I offer advice that makes me feel she needs me. And she knows she doesn’t but listens anyway because she also knows I need to feel like she needs me. And she probably knew, as she pulled away from the airport, that I couldn’t get to the parking garage by walking through those bushes but didn’t say anything. Because she thinks it’s cute— and endearing –that her “life coach,” who she just dropped off after listening to his nonstop driving advice, doesn’t even know how to get to his own car.
One of the best books I have read on fitness and nutrition is entitled, “The 7 Principles of Fat Burning” by Eric Berg. This book documents how hormones truly affect our bodies and cause the resistance to lose body fat. It is a fascinating read that take the information that I will talk about today and expounds on it.
First things first, I am not an endocrinologist and I am not a registered dietitian. I like to think of myself as a problem solver, a MacGyver of sorts. Because in all reality that’s what we do as trainers, we solve problems with the knowledge base that we have, no matter how unconventional it is. With that said, there are a lot of theories out about how people lose and gain weight.
With the rise of obesity at an unparalleled high, people are trying to get healthy and lose body fat in record droves. From Atkins diets to the Zone diet, to the weird tropical fruit diet and my favorite the carrot stick and apple diet (holy cow!), people are trying to find the quickest way to lose weight. The fact is there is no easy way, if it were easy the obesity rates would not be where they are now. We would not be spending billions of dollars on medications that control weight related diseases. This is not an easy process by any stretch of the imagination. However when I look at weight loss books and these fad diets, I rarely see anything about a person’s hormones. When in fact it is your hormones that decide where and how much fat you store. That’s a fact. Throw the calories in vs calories out, out the window, your hormones are in the driver’s seat. Let’s take a look at them:
Fat Burning Hormones
Fat burning hormones are that will help you burn body fat,
Growth Hormone-released from the pituitary gland (brain), it travels down through and works in the liver. It has anabolic (building muscle) and lypolytic (losing fat) properties. A key function is building up collagen and cartilage. Without it your muscles fall apart. Stimulated by protein and intense exercise (not light exercise)
Insulin-like Growth Factor (IGF-1)– made by the liver and triggered by growth hormone. Function is to give the body fuel between meals and does it through releasing stored sugar and fat. Stimulated when the stomach is empty.
Glucagon-raises blood sugar by tapping into the fat reserves. Helps control blood sugar between meals and is stimulated by dietary protein and intense exercise
Adrenaline– main hormone that releases fat from fat cells. Triggered by exercise.
Thyroid Hormones (T3 and T4)– speed up the metabolism, increase the size and number of mitochondria (that is a good thing)
Testosterone– stimulated by exercise and countered by estrogen. This is a good thing, even for the ladies (in small doses).
Fat Storing Hormones
Fat storing hormones are hormones that when present will cause the body to distribute fat to certain areas.
Estrogen– released from the ovaries of a woman but can also be converted from testosterone. Can also be found in meats we eat because it is the most common injected hormone into animals. The very presence will nullify all effects of the thyroid hormones that maintain your metabolism.
Insulin– Most anabolic hormone in the body but also is at its highest following a high carbohydrate meal. Can push fat into the fat cells causing an increase in body fat. The main culprit in Type 2 diabetes.
Cortisol– The nasty stress hormone. Your body does not understand types of stress, it only reacts and adapts to stress. Whether that be stress from work, home or mental, physical, when it is stressed it will release cortisol. This will affect your body composition.
OK. Now without getting so technical with you, let’s look how we can turn off the fat storing hormones and turn on the fat burning ones.
The 10 Fat-Burning Triggers
1. The Absence of Sugar
Sugar has the most impact on the metabolism because it causes the release of insulin and in the presence of insulin not only will fat be blocked from being used as a fuel but sugar will be converted to fat. To burn fat DON’T eat sugar. It doesn’t matter if its whole wheat or white bread these starches turn into sugar fairly rapidly. High fiber foods are acceptable because they slow the insulin response. Fruit: apples have a high sugar count but also high in fiber blunting the effects of insulin. Bananas, raisins, canned fruit; dried fruit have lower fiber and have a greater effect on insulin. When sugar is not consumed, glucagon is turned on. Sugar also decreases potassium in the body causing it to store more fat than sugar. Also excess sugar mixed with excess protein will impact insulin in a huge way.
2. Vegetables
Weight problems are often caused by a failing endocrine system (4 body types). Raw vegetables have qualities that aid in healing the body’s organs. High in fiber and low in sugar with healing properties. It is very common for people to have normal body fat but be 50-100 lbs over weight because of the fluid retention. This is why the BIA does not work properly on most people and why some can drop 20 lbs almost overnight. Potassium helps lower insulin and also needed to adequately hold protein in the body
3. Protein
A powerful fat burning trigger if not consumed in excess.
4. Essential Fatty Acids
Eating fat will help me burn fat? Yes it will! Eat foods high in Omega 3 such as salmon, tilapia, cashews and almonds. Your body needs these for proper brain function and hormone creation.
5. Skipping Meals, Reducing Calories or Letting Yourself get Hungry
When you skip meals or restrict calories your blood sugar decreases several hormones are released: cortisol which will turn the body’s tissues to sugar (muscle). Also creates cravings for nutrients it needs: sugar (sugary foods, high saturated fat foods). Here’s the rule EAT BEFORE YOU GET HUNGRY and NEVER SKIP A MEAL, ESPECIALLY BREAKFAST..
6. Gland Destroyers: Alcohol, Caffeine
Alcohol triggers insulin and also destroys the liver. 7 calories per gram for alcohol and most alcoholic beverages contain excess sugar or starches. Caffeine weakens the adrenal glands and liver and irritates the gallbladder. The liver has to detoxify the caffeine from the body causing it to weaken.
7. Water Retainers
A huge hidden source of being overweight is water weight!!!! Eating foods high in MSG will cause sodium retention and make one stay heavy. Artificial sweeteners (sugar alcohols, splenda, xyitol). Because they are sodium depleting this causes increased insulin and water weight. Counteract with potassium high foods (labels)
8. Exercise– DUH!!! High anaerobic exercise!!!!
9. Stress
Stress plays a huge part in the weight loss/gain game. When you become stressed your body releases cortisol and wants to use muscle tissue as fuel instead of body fat. This does the reverse of what resistance training would do, lowers your muscle tissue and increases your body fat percentage. Also some people tend to be emotional or nervous eaters, consuming more calories than is necessary.
10. Sleep
when you sleep your body releases growth hormone. At its peak serum concentration, about 4 am, your body can now build muscle tissue and lose body fat. This is the period of time where your body changes. A vital part of losing weight is getting enough adequate sleep. Research suggests that you need 6-8 quality hours of sleep to take the benefit of the growth hormone spike.
To sum all this wonderful information up, I would suggest that if you are trying to lose weight you should pay close attention to the 10 items listed above. These nutritional/behavioral habits may allow you to burn more body fat, build more muscle and allow you to achieve the body of your dreams.
By John Y. Brown III, on Wed Dec 24, 2014 at 12:00 PM ET
A Samaritan named John shopped long and hard one day at a large all-purpose consumer goods store. When he finished paying for his items he placed his several bags in a shopping cart because he remembered he had parked in the far back of the parking lot and was too lazy to personally carry the shopping bags that far all by himself.
The shopping cart made everything mucb easier and after John had placed the shopping bags in his car he looked at the empty shopping cart and felt tired. John then looked at how far away the entrance to the store (where he picked up the shopping cart) now appeared to be. John then decided to look around the parking lot to see if anyone was watching him and if he could get away with leaving the empty shopping cart in the back of the parking lot and nobody notice.
John decided he could and started to get into his car with a quickened pace. But something stopped him. A pang of guilt tugged at his heart which softened as he thought about some stranger having to push his shopping cart all the way back to the store entrance even though they didn’t even use it to shop.
John knew that was wrong and felt called upon by the Lord to act righteously and not self-servingly. At that moment, John the Samaritan locked his car doors with his remote car locking device and grabbed the cart with a convicted grip and pushed his shopping cart all the way to the store entrance where he stopped to see if anyone had noticed his charitable deed.
No one appeared to be looking at Samaritan John’s good deed at that moment so John decided to wait for someone to eventually turn up who would notice and publicly affirm his righteousness. A kind faced elderly woman passed by John pushing her shopping cart back to the store entrance and locking it into the shopping cart que. Samaritan John smiled benevolently at the woman as if to say, “Look at me. I am doing that too. I am one of the few good people at this large all-purpose consumer goods store, just like you. We are pretty great, huh?”
Samaritan John didn’t say this out loud because that would be committing the sin of pride. He just thought it and quitely returned to his car full of shopping bags, unlocked his car door with his remote device, and drove home whereupon Samaritan John transcribed the parable of his good deed today and posted it on Facebook. Not to boast, of course. But so that others might learn from his good deed and do good too.
By John Y. Brown III, on Tue Dec 23, 2014 at 12:00 PM ET
I would like to know who the asshole is who bought his true love all the things listed below one Christmas and then put in a song to brag about.
He makes all the rest of us look bad.
And the fact this song gets sung over and over this time each year only rubs it in.
I mean, come on! Even if we guys got all this for our true loves, where would you put it all? And don’t you think by January you would be bored and tired of almost all of them, except maybe the golden rings?
Besides, I am guessing by the 13th day of Christmas, this guy declared bankrupcy, was charged with kidnapping 12 drummers, 11 pipers, 10 lords, 9 ladies and 8 maids, and was institutionalized or sent to prison.
I know having all this stuff sounds good. But do you really want to be with a guy like that?
Just think it through.
12 Drummers Drumming
11 Pipers Piping
10 Lords a Leaping
9 Ladies Dancing
8 Maids a Milking
7 Swans a Swimming
6 Geese a Laying
5 Golden Rings
4 Calling Birds
3 French Hens
2 Turtle Doves
1 Partridge in a Pear Tree
By Erica and Matt Chua, on Tue Dec 23, 2014 at 8:30 AM ET
When I decided to take a trip around the world with my husband I never thought that we would have a constant, often unwelcome third wheel: guilt. In my mind it is impossible to do third world travel and never feel even a twinge of guilt about the fact that your traveling in a place where your daily expenditure, even if you’re on a budget, is often equivalent to a month’s salary (or more) for the average resident of the country your visiting.
It is impossible to avoid history, politics, the morality of tourism and the complications of charity while visiting developing countries. In fact thinkCHUA and I often can’t help but wonder if third world travel is one of the most selfish things you can participate in. Enjoying the wonders of impoverished nations at dirt cheap prices then writing home to our family and friends about our adventures. Sounds pretty selfish and makes me wonder about my role in it all.
Are some of the issues, such as begging that I find so hard to face, actually my fault? Are the children selling me bracelets, postcards and flowers exploited because so many people fall victim to their adorable smiles and disarming requests for “one dollar, you buy something, one dollar.” Do the adults that send them out to peddle their goods and pester tourists really mean ill or are children just better salespeople because their efforts are more fruitful? Is the answer to say “no” to the children and if so, have you ever done it? Because it’s not easy, it is so hard to tell a grinning child that you won’t part with just a dollar for their benefit. Or to tell a leg-less man that you won’t give him a few dollars as he drags himself along the sidewalk by his hands.
Traveling responsibly requires that we make an effort to know more about a country than simply the location of its monuments and the bargains in its bazaars; it charges us to have a better understanding of the reality of peoples’ lives. The only way to learn more about a country and it’s culture is to experience it on the ground, which is where the “catch 22″ comes in. We have enjoyed our time in developing countries immensely and would recommend it to anyone, but from my experience it is difficult to avoid the guilt completely no matter how responsible you are.
“Power lies in the growth of awareness.”
Herbert de Souza, Brazilian human rights activist
I also have to remember that travel is about seeing the world with open eyes, stepping outside your comfort zone and taking the bitter with the sweet. The more I travel, see and learn about the world the more I realize how little I know, how many more places there are to travel to and how much there is to see and learn. This awareness is arguably the most important part of this entire journey. Without my intense feelings of guilt and my confusion about what is the “right” thing to do about it this trip would simply be a sightseeing adventure. However, it has been much more than that and it will change me and how I see the world forever.
From my experience traveling in the developing world it is more often positive for everyone involved than it is negative. As I mentioned a huge part of making the experience positive is awareness. The awareness of my guilt is in actuality a beneficial part of third world travel and sharing my stories and experiences on this blog is helpful for me and in raising awareness about these issues. As Herbet deSouza says “Power lies in the growth of awareness.” So, my hope is that by sharing my thoughts and anecdotes from our journey I will at least in a small way raise awareness about the triumphs and struggles of the developing world.
By John Y. Brown III, on Mon Dec 22, 2014 at 12:00 PM ET
I have always had mixed feelings about Louisville (and Kentucky) being able to support an NBA franchise. I have wanted it to be true that we can support a professional basketball team– but understand from close up, from our ABA days, what a daunting reality that is.
Over the past 40 years my attitude has been a lukewarm, “Well, maybe we should try and see. If it doesn’t work, it is better to have tried and failed than to have never tried and never known for certain.”
But recently, and for no particular objective reason I can point to, my opinion about Louisville and having an NBA team, have lurched a bit. Only a little –but enough to move from a lukewarm and hopeful “Maybe we should give it a try” attitude, to a convinced and confident “We must try” and “We are ready as a city” attitude about Louisville having an NBA team.
I think now is the time. And I think if we are sincere about being a “Possibility City” there is no better way to prove it than by bringing an NBA team to Louisville. And having it not only succeed finically but thrive as a team within the NBA.
After all, “possibilities,” if not acted on, are just missed opportunities.
Is Louisville more of a city of missed opportunities or a city of possibilities realized?
That is the real question we as Louisvillians need to be asking ourselves –daily. Followed by the next question: What are we doing to make sure the latter is true?
Nothing that could happen in Louisville over the next 3-5 years would signify more convincingly that we are a city that is a good steward of possibilities than becoming home –not just to an NBA team —but the next great NBA team (ideally deep with former UL and UK players). Of course, I think this team should be “Kentucky” named like the “Kentucky Colonels.” We would need our state–not just the city of Louisville–to support this team, if we were serious about being successful. Perhaps, too, there should be several games a year in Lexington and N.KY to help underline the point the team belongs to the state not just one of our cities. But the onus and primary sacrifice (and benefit) would be on Louisville.
That is my humble –and, yes, somewhat daring –opinion. But if you don’t dare, possibilities die. And this possibility deserves both our daring and our commitment. Before it dies a final death. And we don’t have another 10 or 20 years to waste before that happens.
Welcome to the era of business model proliferation.
Our obsession with scalability is getting in the way of unleashing the potential of the 21stcentury. We are so fixated with scalability we have taken our eye off of delivering value at every scale including the most important scale of one. The Industrial Era did that to us. Reaching the mass market takes precedence over delivering value to each customer. New customer acquisition trumps delivering value to existing customers. It’s not only business that is obsessed with scale. Our obsession with scaling a national education, health care, and government system has also taken our eye off of delivering value to each student, patient, and citizen. We have been talking about the idea of mass customization for years while we continue to hang on to business models that were designed for scale more than for delivering customer value.
The Industrial Era brought us the reign of the predominant business model. Every industry quickly became dominated by one business model that defined the rules, roles, and practices for all competitors and stakeholders. We became a nation of share takers clamoring to replicate industry best practices to gain or protect every precious market share point. Companies moved up or down industry leadership rankings based on their ability to compete for market share. Business schools minted CEOs who became share-taking clones of one another. It was all about scale. Bigger was always better. So what if the predominant business model doesn’t serve everyone’s needs? So what if it doesn’t even serve existing customers well? Scalability and share taking became about protecting the predominant business model by preventing the emergence of new business models. Incumbents do everything in their power to erect regulatory and legal moats to keep new business models out of the market.
You know the scalability frenzy is out of control when iconic entrepreneur, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, proclaims;
“For us, products don’t get interesting to turn into businesses until they have about one billion users.”
No wonder entrepreneurs are obsessed with scalability. Everyone wants to be the next Mark Zuckerberg. Entrepreneurs always fall into the scalability trap of trying to imagine what it will take for a model to reach large numbers of customers before they have demonstrated that they can create, deliver, and capture value for only a few. Over many years of mentoring entrepreneurs I have observed them, particularly tech entrepreneurs, spend too much sweat equity and startup capital focused on developing code and a beta version of a web platform before they have a clear value proposition and a testable business model concept that can withstand initial customer contact.
Serial entrepreneur and Y Combinator co-founder Paul Graham says it well:
“As long as you can find just one user who really needs something and can act on that need, you’ve got a toehold in making something people want, and that’s as much as any startup needs initially.”
I always advise entrepreneurs to take a minimum viable business model to the market before thinking about scalability. Start by uncovering the job someone is trying to do, figure out how you can get the job done better, and demonstrate it. Entrepreneurs skip this step at their own peril. Develop a business model prototype and test it with a few people. If the business model prototype works, then and only then, start working on what it will take to scale it to reach more customers. It takes successful entrepreneurs three, four, sometimes five tries to get a business model right. Why worry about scalability until you land on one that works for the customer? Focusing on scale too early leads to too many elegant solutions too far removed from real customer contact resulting in too many dead ends.
Institutional leaders are even more obsessed with scalability than entrepreneurs. They fixate on protecting their current scale and assess all new customer value creating ideas through the lens of their current business model. If opportunities to create customer value in new ways are distracting to the organization or would cannibalize current business they’re routinely dismissed. The questions asked and metrics applied to evaluate new opportunities are more about scalability and fit, than about creating new customer value. The baseline for evaluation is the current business model. Market making opportunities are routinely screened out or ignored for more predictable share taking opportunities to increase scale. This is why CEO’s are so hungry for merger and acquisition opportunities. It’s all about scale, not changing the customer value equation. New business models force institutional leaders to rethink scalability.
We live in an era that screams for less share taking and more market making. Market makers don’t accept the idea that a predominant business model has to dictate the industry landscape. They create a new market with a different playbook. We have access to more enabling technology than we humans and the stubborn institutions we live and work in know how to absorb. Today, it’s possible to unleash an infinite number of exciting business models to create, deliver, and capture customer value. Today’s consumers refuse to accept that there is only one predominant business model in every industry and that they have to take or leave its offerings. Consumers now demand personalized experiences, products, and services.
Consumers are bringing the era of the predominant business model to an end. Business models don’t last as long as they used to. Predominant business models are crumbling all around us. The new strategic imperative for all institutional leaders is R&D for business models as a core competency. It was easier to be a CEO in a world constrained by a predominant business model. In a world defined by business model proliferation CEOs have the trickier task of both pedaling the bicycle of today’s business model while leading the exploration for a steady flow of new business models. If they don’t there is a market maker out there who will.
It’s time end our obsession with scalability. There are too many consumer, student, patient, and citizen needs left unmet by predominant business models in every industry. There are too many new business model concepts stuck on white boards and in consulting decks. We are still allowing predominant business models to slow down and block the emergence of new business models that can better meet our needs. It’s time to move from the era of the predominant business model to the era of business model proliferation. Let a thousand business models bloom.
By John Y. Brown III, on Fri Dec 19, 2014 at 12:00 PM ET
For the first time I just had the urge to post something on Facebook –but resisted doing it. Because —and this is so weird for me to type — because it seemed “silly.” I can’t recall that ever happening to me. Ever!
I don’t know what this means …but I fear it means something. That something unusual is happening to me. Something pivotal. Like that first deep raspy cough you notice before pnuemonia sets it. Or like the feeling when a fever breaks and you know you are going to be okay.
I feel like this disinclination to post something absurd and pointless on Facebook may well be the first “deep cough” or “fever break,” so to speak, indicating the beginning of the end of my mid-life crisis.
I mean, of course it is true that the trajectory of a mid-life crisis can’t go up and up forever. At some.point it has to decline and resolve itself. After all, the “crisis” part of the term “mid-life crisis” suggests a downward spiral. So, you kmow, one more reason the upward trajectory thing can’t go on forever.
If this is true I am going to start acting more maturely in all kinds of ordinary situations. People won’t recognize me and others will wonder if I died or moved out of the country or was buried alive by someone who had to spend a lot of time around me.
Others may wonder if I am finally starting to grow up and act my own age. And if this “grown-up acting thing” really takes hold of me, still others may simply conclude that I have come down with pnuemonia. Or that my fever has finally broken.
I don’t know what I will do with myself.
Or maybe this means I am going to start really getting into Instagram?
Blog this!
