I think it looks like this: Attitude Approach Goals Strategy Tactics Execution We spend all our time on execution. Use this word instead of that one. This web host. That color. This material or that frequency of mailing.Big news: No one ever succeeded because of execution tactics learned from a Dummies book.Tactics tell you what to execute. They're important, but dwarfed by strategy. Strategy determines which tactics might work.But what's [...]

In the age of rapid cycles and connected data, how long are we going to have to settle for dumb software?Here's the detail screen from iCal. If I write a long text to go with an appointment, the only way to see the whole thing is to hit "edit."  But I don't want to edit it, I just want to see it.If I try to schedule an appointment for 2 pm, it requires me to not only hit the 2, but also select pm. I have never once had a meeting at 2 am. Shouldn't [...]

I think it's dangerous and often fatal to put free on top of an existing business model. Things fall apart.People look at the free revolution and say, "oh, that could never work. If I gave x, y or z away for free, I'd fail." They're right. They will fail... If they keep the model the same and just give away stuff for free.The way you win is by reinventing the model itself. So, for example, lululemon doing giant free yoga classes in New York. The more [...]

What we do in the long run, over time, drip by drip, affects the market so much more than an angry reaction or urgent event.Smoking a pack a day for twenty years is a great way to be sure you'll die early. Far more likely, in fact, than getting hit by a car. And yet it's so easy to talk to our kids about cars...Delivering out of the box remarkability day after day counts for far more than one hit or one misstep. When we teach people about our story [...]

We try so hard to build the first circle.This is the circle of followers, friends, subscribers, customers, media outlets and others willing to hear our pitch. This is the group we tell about our new product, our new record, our upcoming big sale. We want more of their attention and more people on the list.Which takes our attention away from the circle that matters, which is the second circle.The second circle are the people who hear about us from [...]