This post was written by DR. WHAW? Contributor Clay Schossow.
Here’s what I Didn’t Read While Hard at Work today, March 3. I’ve subscribed to several new blogs in the past week and am pleased to see they’re already churning out good content, so expect to see more from some of these writers. This post is definitely heavy on entrepreneur-content, but all of these are really stellar and I hope you check them out!
- There’s no room for The Idea Guy — Great, short post from David Heinemeier Hansson of 37signals and Ruby on Rails. I speak with a lot of young entrepreneurs about their businesses as they get ready to pitch it at the Carolina Challenge or are doing a presentation for their class or are actually trying to build something. Its surprising how many of the teams have an “idea guy” who maybe came up with the rough, initial concept, but isn’t really pitching anything else in. A startups most valuable resource is time, and you can’t have someone that isn’t dedicating time to building the actual product. Furthermore, that initial Idea that he/she takes credit for will likely be totally different by the time the company launches. Build your startup team around people who bring action, not just ideas.
- 25 Web 2.0 Applications to Grow Your Business — Neil Patel put together a great list of apps that every entrepreneur, social mediaite, or businessperson should check out. I use just about every app on this list, but also a few that I had never heard of and plan on checking out. I also liked this post, b/c I wrote a similar one about my digital entrepreneur’s toolbox a couple weeks back. It was nice to see some good overlap between the two.
- My Biggest Mistakes — Scott Berkun’s blog is a new one to me, but I’m enjoying it so far. He’s a very successful business author and consultant. In this post, he lays out eight of his biggest mistakes. It’s always nice to see someone successful let you know what they’ve done wrong, so you can try to learn from them. I know I’m doing several of the things on this list and hadn’t necessarily classified them as mistakes, but I’ll now pay closer attention to these activities and maybe make some changes.
- Alex Bogusky Interviews CPB Creative Directors — As I’ve done before, I’m breaking the “read” rule and posting something to watch. This is an absolutely awesome interview of two CPB Creative directors, conducted by one of the agency’s namesakes, Alex Bogusky. I really loved this video and think it’s one of the better advertising interviews I’ve ever seen. They cover everything from scaling the business to creativity to ad school to their favorite ads. I jotted down some notes from this one that I’m going to hold onto and maybe turn into a blog post. You won’t be disappointed!
- As Shops Transform, Marketers Must Adapt Too — Interesting read from the AdAge CMO blog. The author lays out the expected changes in ad agency culture over the coming years and then how marketers must counter those with their own adaptations. I’m a little shaky on a few of the agency changes he predicts, but think he nails the characteristics of a successful, modern marketer.
Goodnight, folks!
Tags: Clay, DR. WHAW?, Entrepreneur, Growing up, Marketing, Social Media
