9/3/07Today’s problems come from yesterday’s solutions

—Peter Senge The 5th Discipline

Status

•That old way of doing things is obsolete, but luckily, fear is making the record companies less arrogant. They're more open to ideas.

•So, what's important now is to find music that's timeless. I still believe that if an artist gains the belief of the listener, then anything is possible."

Status• At the end of their paid internships, the students took part in

focus groups that were closely observed by Steve Barnett, Rubin's co-head at the label, and Mark DiDia, whom Rubin brought in as head of operations, as well as by other Columbia executives. The focus groups may have been the real point of Big Red — Barnett and the New York executives, especially those who had been at Sony for years, wanted to try to take the pulse of the elusive music audience. "The Big Red focus groups were both depressing and informative, and they confirmed what I — and Rick — already knew," DiDia told me afterward. "The kids all said that a) no one listens to the radio anymore, b) they mostly steal music, but they don't consider it stealing, and c) they get most of their music from iTunes on their iPod. They told us that MySpace is over, it's just not cool anymore; Facebook is still cool, but that might not last much longer; and the biggest thing in their life is word of mouth. That's how they hear about music, bands, everything."

Status

•"Columbia is stuck in the dark ages. I have great confidence that we will have the best record company in the industry, but the reality is, in today's world, we might have the best dinosaur. Until a new model is agreed upon and rolling, we can be the best at the existing paradigm, but until the paradigm shifts, it's going to be a declining business. This model is done."

Status• Rubin sees no other solution. "Either all the

record companies will get together or the industry will fall apart and someone like Microsoft will come in and buy one of the companies at wholesale and do what needs to be done," he said. "The future technology companies will either wait for the record companies to smarten up, or they'll let them sink until they can buy them for 10 cents on the dollar and own the whole thing."

Balance

•3

•Three is a magic number,Yes it is, it's a magic number.Somewhere in the ancient, mystic trinityYou get three as a magic number.

•The past and the present and the future.Faith and Hope and Charity,The heart and the brain and the bodyGive you three as a magic number.

•It takes three legs to make a tri-podOr to make a table stand.It takes three wheels to make a ve-hicleCalled a tricycle.

•Every triangle has three corners,Every triangle has three sides,No more, no less.You don't have to guess.When it's three you can seeIt's a magic number.

•Trinity

malas

•108 beads

•1+0+8 = 9

•3*3 = 9

•36*3 = 108

•3*6=9

•9/3 =3

Tibetan Buddhists

•111 (3 “Ones”)

•108 of the traditional beads + 3 Colored Beads

•111 mantras = 1 round

Make Mantra

•Don’t make mission

•painful, frustrating

•result is mediocre

•direct result of “group” think attempting to satisfy the needs of another large group

Make Mantra

•Think Different

•Don’t make missions

Make Mantra

•A sacred verbal formula repeated...

Process to Mantra

•Mantra doesn’t just happen. It comes from repetition.

•It comes from verbalization

•It comes from learning from mistakes

•This comes from making mistakes

•This comes from implementing

Implementing

•First steps

•Blue Sky

•Brain Dump

•Late night thoughts

•Conversations

•Observations

Capturing Ideas

•New School:

•Methods

•Old School:

•Moleskines

Implement

• Entrepreneurship is a process of taking your ideas, goals, visions, and dreams,and combining them with strategy.

Process

•Convert ideas to something tangible

•Elevator pitch

•make it clear for yourself

•make it clear for your mom

Visualize

•What will your success look like?

•Are there other successes out there that are informing this picture (point of Our Band)

•products

•people

Fight Cogitation• Think Big

• something 10x better than the status quo

• Find Soulmates

• successful companies are started and made by at least two soulmates

• Polarize people

• Some will love it; some will hate it - both fine

• Lack of interest = Not Fine

you can do all this...

Define

•Marketing summary:

•“Who has your money in their pockets?• (ie define your customer and the pain he feels)

•“How are you going to get it into your pockets?”• (ie create a sales mechanism to ensure your revenue

exceeds your costs)

Define

•Be specific• the more precisely you can describe your customers the better

•Keep it simple• If you can’t describe your business in 10 words or less, you

don’t have a business

•Copy Somebody• Relate your model to one that’s already successful and

understood

Milestones•prove your concept

•complete design specifications

•finish a prototype

•raise $

•ship a testable version

•ship the final version

•achieve breakeven

Just setting goals without a genuine vision will likely lead to backsliding when the goals prove difficult to realize.—Senge

• a. you have to have vision

• b. your vision must be genuine

• c. you have to have goals

• d. your vision must have a deep connection to your goals

• e. achieving goals is difficult

• f. only a genuine vision will allow you to work through the difficulties to achieve your goals

• g. failure occurs when you don’t have a genuine vision