Blog of Ben Foden

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  Ben 5:25 am on February 23, 2010 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: family, future, inspiration   

  Freestyle Your Future 

  

  I freestyle my future every day. If I were to believe in fate, external things would choose my destiny.

  Have the great people in the history of the world left it up to god to carry them?

  Even the most devout religious people can not have felt this way.

  I refuse to believe that they would be pushed and pulled so easily. It is the strength of ones vision that pushes them — the people they need help from to accomplish it are caught in the current they create.

  Believing in fate is easy… if it is outside of your hands you dont need to try. You never have to pivot or try a new approach when circumstances dont line up perfectly, you just accept that you weren’t mean to have what you originally wanted.

  That’s horseshit. You owe your nieces and nephews, if not your children in the future, more.

  Is your legacy going to be stolen by external circumstances, or are you going to freestyle your own future?

  This short post is for my family who have helped me get where I am today and inspire me to always improve and never settle.

  In other news: go for a run. Excercise helps me unlock great ideas sometimes and maybe it will help you too.

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  Ben 7:20 pm on November 30, 2009 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: quality, threadcount, user experience   

  Does Your Product Have a High Thread Count? (Two Timeless Examples) 

  

  We are willing to pay a lot more for high thread count sheets because they touch our skin — they are something that is truly close to us on a regular basis.
  
  
  High thread count cloth appears nicer, feels better, and costs more per square inch than others and your product can too. It’s high level of detail should disappear to the naked eye making it appear cleaner and feel better than lower thread count products.
  
  

  Let’s compare two services, products, or even entire businesses so you can make a clear thread count comparison. Apple has a higher thread count than Microsoft, thus people are willing to pay a premium for Apple’s products and love them fanatically. Moleskine has a higher thread count than a wide range of competitors, thus people  pay considerably more for the quality of the paper and finish of the notebook and have self-organized a large community around it.
  
  

  It is no coincidence that these companies also have fantastic histories and excel at telling their story. High thread count is about maintaining a standard of integrity, consistency, and quality above all competitors over time. It comes down to that closeness with the needs and realities of customers, and getting along super smoothly with those pain points.
  
  

  • In the early years at Apple Steve Jobs encouraged the flying of pirate flags and was the relentless teller of his story of impending industrial and cultural revolution via the personal computer (see the classic 1984 macintosh advertisement). His vision continues to guide the thinking at Apple and continues to imbue their products with a sense of uniquely polished rebelliousness. “I am going to think differently. And it is going to be better.”

  
  
  

  • Unlike Apple’s sexy portable computers, the brand Moleskine defines quality paper notebooks. Moleskine consistently touts the exceptional authors and thinkers that used and cherished its notebooks throughout history: “Moleskine® was created as a brand in 1997, bringing back to life the legendary notebook used by artists and thinkers over the past two century: among them Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, and Bruce Chatwin” This story attests to their integrity, their commitment to more quality per square inch than others. Indeed they are the favored notebook of many of today’s great thinkers and the feel of putting pen to that nice paper is unrivaled.

  
  
  

  • This level of focus on the quality of the end user translates to devotion and allegiance with the brand. The high thread count products and services these companies sell allows them to command a premium price, and also to command fantastically organic word of mouth marketing by their many evangelists. These evangelists have created an entire range of websites, social networks, and even organize in person meets with strangers on the internet sharing only the love of high thread count. More and more convert to these businesses over their competitors every day and they provide exceptionally high lifetime value.

  
  
  

  In the same sense that it pays to build a personal brand as much as your business’ brand, it is becoming an imperative that you must build your own thread count to be as high as possible.
  
  

  Do you have high thread count?
  
  

  I know I’m not where I want to be. Yet.

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  Athol Foden is discussing. Toggle Comments

   
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    Athol Foden 10:03 pm on January 4, 2010 Permalink

    I have heard thread count used to measure the quality of a product, in real cases, and how it affects the brand value with higher prices, but this is a great metaphor too.
    In another sense, as I wrote in Brighter Branding, your brand is the golden thread that interweaves all your marketing and product decisions.
    Great article. Can we publish it as a Brighter Naming branding article too?

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  Ben 3:48 pm on November 12, 2009 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Entrepreneur Ideas, entrepreneurial enthusiasm, entrepreneurial spirit   

  Ways to Weather Dips in Entrepreneurial Enthusiasm 

  

  By: alexindigo

  
  If you have the goal of building something of your own (and who hasn’t?), then read on.

  You had a big idea and have completely fallen in love with it. The initial excitement lasts for awhile, but eventually the day comes when skepticism and doubts creep in. This usually happens for me on a bad day, unproductive day, rainy day, due to someone’s comments, or all of the above.

  It is nearly inevitable that your optimism will fade, and in fact it will happen more than once as there seems to be a cycle.
  
  
  
  >>Try This:
  
  

  • Eliminate irrational fears by noticing how short-term they are, i.e. this is a concern today, but is it only for today? Am I still going to be concerned about this tomorrrow?

  
  
  

  • Be mindful of the challenges that do persist and address them logically or at least acknowledge that you just don’t know how to solve them yet. It seems like 95% of the negative thoughts about my idea I have one day are quickly replaced by new optimism the next day.

  
  
  

  • If you are really down in the dumps, run a classic pro / con comparison and list the things the idea has going for it in Bold.

  
  
  

  • When possible, shift your logic from x “CANT, WONT, DOESNT work” to x “needs, requires, necessitates Y” to work.  Use the power of positive rewording to your advantage. (and it does lend a big advantage).
    
    

    The classic example: You are playing basketball and you have a problem shooting too low. You tell yourself “Dont shoot that low! Stop shooting so low! I cant shoot that low! etc..” and before you know it you have shot a complete airball that is a foot short of the hoop.
    
    Try “I will shoot higher. Next time I am going to shoot higher. I can shoot higher, and on and on”

  It really will be better tomorrow.

  Let me hear your thoughts in the comments.

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