Credits

When you visit one of the casinos on Las Vegas Boulevard these days you’re not going to find many machines that you can slip a quarter into. Rather, you’ll find that you need to buy a card loaded with credits. This reality does many things. It keeps your hands cleaner. It makes it easier to track your comps. It also makes you forget that those “credits” on your card are dollars.

Excuse the Yogi Berra style quote but, when you don’t feel like you’re spending money, you’re not afraid to spend it.

We’ve seen hybrids of this model with iTunes and Sony’s PS3 marketplace, but many of these successful implementations have happened around non-tangible goods. And when they have been tied to tangible goods they’ve come in the form of gift cards.

But…

-Most stores market gift cards for you to give to someone else.

-Stores that offer Gift Cards also accept other forms of payment such as cash or credit.

-Items that can be obtained through gift cards are still listed in “dollars.”

If stores were to switch to credit loaded cards only, my question is:

-What tangible goods could be sold under this principle?

-What price points would be too high where consumers would become uncomfortable with not being able to compare goods?

-Would the lack of accepting cash or credit ultimately destroy a business?

-Would this be seen as being deceptive? Or would a “comps” program make it worth it?

-If competitors started to copy this format would it become irrelevant?

Opportunity is still there.

The Recession is Irrelevant

What's more valuable to you, your money or your time?

Hypothetically there is no limit to how much wealth a person can amass, but based on our current understand of the concept of "time" the quantity you will ever have is limited. The stock market is down. Your 401k is down. Perhaps even your salary or job altogether is down. Despite all of this, you still have exactly the same 24 hours a day that you had yesterday and as you will have tomorrow.

So what are you doing to make the best of it? If you're working on a startup, are you investing your free time into making it better? If you've got a side project are you getting up an hour earlier to make sure it progresses? If you've got a family, are you devoting the attention to them that both you and they deserve? Balancing your goals and desires in life is so much harder than balancing your checkbook. But you're doing yourself a disservice if you're not maximizing the chrono-capital you've been given.

I hope that everyone who reads this takes a moment to consider how detrimental this recession really is to them. There's a reason that people do their best when times are the worst. It's because they have to. If you're one of the lucky people who hasn't been hurt too badly by the economy (IE you have a job) then realize that there are thousands of people right now who are using this time (and the cheap resources that come with it) to invent, enhance, or disrupt our world. If they are willing to do it while going broke, then how can you not put just as much time and effort into making your own genius come to life?

The Recession is Irrelevant.

Also...some further encouragement from your friend Gary V:

Image Courtesy of msdlists.com

Too Little Too Late. The Death of the Big Three.

The U.S. automotive industry has been a frequent subject in the news lately in regards to its request for a bailout from the U.S. taxpayers. It seems that we may be on the path to reject this request and I am of the opinion that decision is the right one.

My heart goes out to the families of people whose careers are vested into the economy of the big three, but I’ve come to the conclusion that we CANNOT bail out anymore industries. I’m actually very regretful that the country already has pledged to do this for the banking industry. Not just because of the mismanagement of those funds we will most certainly see, but mainly because of how much this act will stifle our nations ability to innovate and grow faster than the rest of the world.

In the 1970s my family decided to move away from what was then the Soviet Union and come to the United States. Among the MANY reasons they had for doing so, one of the major issues was with the system of government at that time and how it greatly suppressed innovation. If you took company A or company B, or worker A and worker B, each entity had the same mindset. If they were to fail or produce less, their counterparts would make up for it. If they were to produce more and bring some kind of superiority to the marketplace, the government would distribute it elsewhere. So what you have in that situation is essentially a psychological handicap on being better. If you know you’re not going to be rewarded for doing some well, efficiently, and smartly, then it is likely you WON’T do it.

It would be ignorant of me to say that the plan to bail out Detroit would be a step in the direction of communism, but what I can say comfortably is that taking that action will without question not make that industry a better one. By granting these companies a stay of execution we will be extending their poor business model and stopping other and possibly better companies from springing up and taking their place.

In the end we have to remember that the demand of vehicles will not change regardless of whether the bailout happens or not. There is a specific demand right now and too many producers of vehicles for that demand. Someone is going to have to either go away or find a way to make vehicles that are great enough to raise the desire for new automobiles. That increase in innovation and efficiency is ONLY going to happen when we wipe the slate clean and start over.

Again, I don’t mean to promote the loss of livelihood for such a large group of people. They are in an unfortunate situation and one that they were put in by a poorly managed global powerhouse. My hope is that the Teslas of the world grow fast enough in popularity so that those folks with automotive experience have a new and better place to provide for themselves and their family.