If you're familiar with Star Trek then you know of The Borg.  The Borg were a pseudo-race of cybernetic beings, half human - half cyborg, that were focused on capturing their enemies and forcing them to assimilate.  Assimilation consisted of turning their captured prey into a kind of half human - half cyborg type that only took direction from the mother ship. As they captured their enemies and prepared to turn them into Borg's they repeated "Resistance is futile" .  Why is it that many businesses treat their employees this way?

Are you afraid of the Big Bad Idea? Need an idea for that next product? How about an idea to bring in more customers or a new idea to present to your boss. Coming up with ideas isn't a problem for most.  In fact ideas aren't the problem at all.   Releasing the ideas is where the process comes to stop. For most, your ideas are killed even before they make it to the presentation.   The ideas you have are never allowed to see the light of day. That's because you've been taught, even conditioned to be afraid of the big bad idea.  Afraid of what will happen or what others will think. How many bad ideas have you released? Your ability to take ideas, release to the market, get feedback and improve is the path that will lead to that one good idea. Just like the Three Little Pigs, in order to beat that big bad idea you have to keep trying new things, new approaches, new techniques.  It's the process of releasing ideas,  getting feedback, improving, and allowing your ideas to change that will lead to good ideas. In my office I have a Michael Jordan poster that is a great reminder to me that failure is a key ingredient to success. It says, I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times I've been trusted to take the game winning shot..and missed.  Ive failed over and over and over again in my life.  And that is why I succeed. The art of coming up with that one brilliant idea, the one that launches your career to the next level, the one that increases sales by 40%, the one that puts you well on the path to entrepreneurial freedom, that one idea is proceeded by a bunch of bad ones. Join my free newsletter here photo credit

...it's your competition. "I've never used an iPhone" was the quote from Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein during a recent interview.  That makes him either a liar or a fool. The arrogance of not deeply knowing your competition is something that perhaps would work in the past, but today and into the future is a direct line to failure.  As an entrepreneur one of the most important things you can do is to understand who your competition is and what they bring to the market.  Whether you're a manufacturer, service provider or blogger you need to make it a pillar of your career to have the mindset of researching your competition.  Here are some reasons why... In sales you will be better prepared to sell your features/benefits over your competition In design you will be able to exploit the design weakness of your competitions products In marketing you will be able to position your product where others aren't and where others fall short In pricing you will be able to target your markets more competitively In support you will understand opportunities that your offering can utilize to reduce complaints In usability you will find nuances that no one can share with you, no matter how many videos, reviews or articles you read. Being an entrepreneur today is all about learning. You need to learn your about your competition, market and customer.  A lack of understanding in any one of those three areas is done at your own peril. How about you, do you research your competition? How? photo credit

If we look back through the years at the voice of companies and customers it would generally go like this.  For decades companies have had access to mediums to get their voice out there.  Radio, Television and print were all used by companies to announce their message. By sheer brute force companies would broadcast out and customers generally didn't have a voice. Sure a customer could complain, even boycott, but overall the power was with the companies. Then the Internet came along and the customer had access to a medium that was equally accessible by both company and customer.  For the first time customers had a voice, a channel, that could be amplified to the same volume as companies. Forums, blogs, user groups, reviews, videos, pictures and most recently social networks are being leveraged by customers to be heard across the world. Don't Filter Your Voice That bring us to the next stage of voice. That voice is yours.  Your voice as a business owner, entrepreneur or employee. I'm not talking about some voice that's filtered as though it went through the marketing department.  I'm talking about the unique, unfiltered voice that you use to talk with your customers.  Notice I said with and not at.  That's the next stage of communication and marketing on the Internet.  Business owners, entrepreneurs and employees communicating WITH their customers.  While we certainly have had several ways of doing this before the Internet such as the phone or face to face, none is more far reaching and cost affective than the Internet.

Here is something you should get in the habit of doing on a daily basis - learn something new. One of the keys to being a successful entrepreneur is continually learning new things. You have to teach yourself because for most of us the days of walking into the classroom and getting taught are over . So you have to take a proactive approach to learning. Follow blogs, read a newspaper, pick up a magazine, visit a website, interact on forums, engage in online learning, follow people on twitter or talk to someone in the office. If I asked most of you tell me one thing new you learned today I bet it wouldn't jump straight to your mind. If you thought about it enough you'd realize that there was a bunch you learned today, but at first thought it may take you awhile to recall. So going forward make it a point to recognize when you learn something and commit that to memory. One of the best ways to do that is to tell someone else. In telling someone that will allow you to recognize what you've learned and help you to memorize it better.