Avoid Meaningless Words
By Tim Berry
From Seth Godin’s post Meaningless, published today… There are words that now have no meaning at all… ‘Well’ and ‘so’ have been doing this work for a long time, but add to that the more syllabic words like ironically, literally, and hopefully. And don’t forget all the adjectives, beginning with ‘very’ and ‘really’ that (ironically) make something... Read More »
Planning Is Telling Stories and Making Them Come True
By Tim Berry
You could call this synchronicity. A few years ago I was reading Seth Godin’s All Marketers Are Liars at about the same time that I caught Harvey Cox talking about the power of stories as truth telling in all major religions. I paused to think about the importance of stories in so many different modes... Read More »
Understand the New World
By Tim Berry
My Friday video this week in six years old now but still important. This is what is slowly and steadily replacing advertising. Here’s a quote: There is good news around the corner — really good news. I call it the idea of tribes. What tribes are, is a very simple concept that goes back 50,000... Read More »
Stories as Business Strategy
By Tim Berry
Stories are the oldest and probably the best way to communicate ideas, truth, and beliefs. Stories as business strategy can be extremely powerful. Think of the key stories that are foundational in the great religions. Or think about the stories behind the phrases “sour grapes,” “the fox in the henhouse,” and “the emperor’s new clothes.”... Read More »
Truth is a Believable Story
By Tim Berry
I grew up believing that facts, like research, numbers and percentages, told the truth. I believed in objective, verifiable truth, based on fact. I distinguished that from mystical religious truth, based on faith. I was a mainstream journalist for almost 10 years in the 1970s. Every professional journalist believed in objective verifiable truth based on... Read More »
What Really Happens With Idea Adoption
By Tim Berry
Seth Godin has a good post today on idea adoption. He calls it you’re not a slot, you choose a slot. It’s an important point: Individuals choose a slot based on what sort of leadership or risk or followership behavior makes them happy right now. Early adopters and nerds like to go first. But some people... Read More »
Thinking of Quitting? Don’t Let Survivor Bias Ruin Your Life
By Tim Berry
You may have missed Alyson Shontell‘s piece asking an answering the question When You Should Quit Being An Entrepreneur? I marked it when it first appeared earlier this year, then left it in the back burner. If you’re an entrepreneur, especially if you’re engaged in a startup and not yet rolling strong and on your own,... Read More »
Turn the Negative of Worry into the Positive of Planning
By Tim Berry
Worrying is a waste of time, stress, and effort. It ties knots in your soul. Forget the worry. Turn that energy into a positive: planning. I just read Seth Godin’s brilliant small post, from last weekend, asking In When is it okay to start worrying? With apologies to Seth for quoting the whole thing (but... Read More »
3 Posts on Stuff We Know But Frequently Forget
By Tim Berry
Does this happen to you? You read something, love it, realize you sort of knew it, but this author puts it in a new context, new light, or new list, so that it’s very useful to you just to see it again? I found three of those this week in three blog posts: Donna Fenn... Read More »
On Confusing Numbers with Truth
By Tim Berry
In Folk wisdom and proofiness on his blog yesterday, Seth Godin concludes: Data is not information, and confusing numbers with truth can help you make some bad decisions. Well said. Read More »
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