Today’s post in the series of genius business ideas may not be a sustainable business model, but it covers a product I think today’s children would benefit from as adults. Market demand Parents want the best for their kids. They don’t want them needlessly hurt, especially by going down paths they know will create unnecessary pain and hardship. A friend suggested to me that many people have problems in relationships[…] Keep reading →

I just finished reading and enjoying an article on Bruce Springsteen in this week’s New Yorker. I recommend it, especially if you like the long New Yorker articles. This one is over 15,000 words. I’ve mentioned Bruce before. Growing up in the 70s and 80s in Philadelphia you couldn’t miss him. I remember a radio promotion on one of the stations I listened to quoting a fan yelling, I guess[…] Keep reading →

Following up a comment on my post on the What Works in X web page genius idea, I created a mind map as a rough outline for the site to illustrate it better. It’s only a rough outline, but I think a good start. Copying from my response to the reader’s comment I envision people at What Works in X sharing anecdotes of things they’ve done at a higher level,[…] Keep reading →

Society values originality and creativity in problem solving instead of getting the job done. I’ll illustrate how. Imagine you have a problem you need solved. For concreteness let’s say you need plumbing work done in your house, but it could apply to any problem, personal, professional, or otherwise. Say you ask two plumbers how they would fix the problem to decide whom to hire. The first plumber says “I have[…] Keep reading →

Following up on yesterdays’ genius business idea for a book series of successful solved problems in many fields, today let’s look at a web page doing something similar. Instead of making it just like a book, let’s take advantage of the web’s interactivity and let users create content. It’s based on the principles of the Art of What Works (the book I mentioned the other day) The product A web[…] Keep reading →

For the first genius business idea (the series I mentioned a couple days ago) I propose a book series based on the principles of the Art of What Works (the book I mentioned yesterday). The product A series of books like the “for dummies” and “for complete idiot” series, all with the same dimensions, cover design and color scheme, tone, writing style, etc called “What works inX”, like “What Works[…] Keep reading →

One of Columbia Business School’s most popular courses in recent years has been in strategy, called Napoleon’s Glance, named after a book by the instructor, Bill Duggan. Former students I’ve talked to rave about it. I was fortunate to do an independent study with him before his course exploded in popularity. Now it’s so successful I doubt he could devote that kind of attention to a single student. Despite the[…] Keep reading →

Many people who dream of starting businesses tell me their greatest obstacle is having a great idea to start with. I call this belief my number one entrepreneurship myth and wrote about it and productive beliefs that can help more than the myth. Besides the productive alternative belief that a good idea plus listening to your market succeeds more than trying to make an idea perfect, another counter to this[…] Keep reading →

The U.S. has “a dysfunctional patent system.” Those aren’t my words. They aren’t the words of an ignorant person either. They are the words of U.S. Circuit Judge Richard Posner, one of the nation’s most esteemed judges and faculty at University of Chicago. A patent dispute between Apple and Motorola prompted that description. Here’s an article from a couple weeks ago — Famous judge spikes Apple-Google case, calls patent system “dysfunctional”[…] Keep reading →