ChangeThis
The original idea behind ChangeThis came from Seth Godin, and was built in the summer of 2004 by Amit Gupta, Catherine Hickey, Noah Weiss, Phoebe Espiritu, and Michelle Sriwongtong. In the summer of 2005, ChangeThis was turned over to 800-CEO-READ. In addition to selling and writing about books, they kept ChangeThis up and running as a standalone website for 14 years. In 2019, 800-CEO-READ became Porchlight, and we pulled ChangeThis together with the rest of our editorial content under the website you see now. We remain committed to the high-design quality and independent spirit of the original team that brought ChangeThis into the world.
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Blog / ChangeThis
How To Fascinate: Why Your Brand Should Do A Shot Of Jgermeister
By Sally Hogshead
"If you're under age 45 or so, there's a good chance that you've tried Jgermeister. However the odds are low—quite low—that you actually enjoy the taste. And that's okay. Few people do. Very, very few. I'll wager that most of the people who make Jgermeister don't like the taste of Jgermeister. Yet the brand continues to grow at an astonishing rate. If so many people actively dislike the taste, how does the company manage to sell 83 million bottles a year? With sales increasing up to 40% per year since 1985, Jgermeister is the most popular drink nobody likes. Many companies successfully advertise products and services that consumers don't necessarily need (bottled water, luxury cars) or even enjoy (backache pills, oil changes, burial plots). But here's a brand that manages to sell an extraordinary volume—at a premium price point, no less—of a product that people don't even want, and more to the point, actively dislike."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
How to Read a Business Book
By Todd Sattersten
"The problem? 11,000. That is the number of business books published in the United States every year. Placed one atop another, the stack would stand as tall as a ninety-story building. Recommendations reduce the noise. Suggestions from friends and colleagues are best, because they know you and your circumstances. Reliable media sources that regularly review business books, like The Wall Street Journal and BusinessWeek, are also a great source for slimming the pile. Blogs, tweets, and Facebook statuses can be just as valuable. Online booksellers offer customer reviews on their product pages, and physical bookstores have helpful employees who can help you find a book Worthwhile as they are, recommendations merely reduce the size of the pile. Our next step is to determine which book is right one."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Found In Translation: The Case for Pictures in Business
By Dan Roam
"Twenty-five years of helping business leaders around the world develop ideas has taught me three things: 1. There is no more powerful way to come up with a new idea than to draw a simple picture. 2. There is no faster way to develop and test an idea than to draw a simple picture. 3. There is no more effective way to share an idea with other people than to draw a simple picture. While good speaking is engaging and inspiring, we need to recognize the limitations of our words. Let's be clear: there's nothing wrong with words. What's wrong is that they're not enough. This is where pictures come in. Whether drawing them, looking at them, or talking about them, pictures add an extraordinary amount to our ability to think, to remember, and to do."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
The Laws of the Econosphere
By Craig Thomas
"I call the environment in which we live the Econosphere. It is the world created by and governing of human decision making, and it is our home. It provides for us and nurtures us. It reacts to and informs our every interaction and, if we understand it, allows us to optimize the use of our life spans moment by moment. This environment is not, however, one made of oxygen and hydrogen, oil and steel, high mountains and low plains. Rather, the Econosphere is our social environment, where we work, live, raise our families, and govern ourselves. We need to start thinking about the economy as a holistic, natural system. To those who are inclined to see it, it is breathtaking choreography on a global scale with billions of performers, each one in character, playing his or her unique role so that the entire ensemble shines. The Econosphere provides for us, yet it is also of us."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
The Myth of Overnight Success
By Barrie Bergman
"Most of us are seduced by the idea of overnight success. We want to believe the myth that success is easy to come by. But success in business takes time, energy and hard work—lots of all three. Personally, I've never met an overnight success. I've met people who've done something well for a long time and were suddenly discovered. Then everyone assumed they came out of nowhere, that their fame happened overnight. But the real truth is that it takes a long time to be an overnight success."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
The Best Communicator in the World
By Jon Wortmann
"I hear people every day offer very valid excuses why they don't try to improve how they communicate. Some people think it's too hard. Others don't know where to go for help. The most repeated excuse from people at work and in their personal lives that could be so much happier with some focused, intentional new habits: 'I don't have time.' Every single one of us can communicate in a way that makes it easier for people to like spending time with us. If you feel shy, nervous, or afraid, you're not crazy, you're not alone, and today is the day you stop letting ugly communication damage your relationships. Authentic communication can become as natural as breathing—when you pay attention to a few essential aspects of what connects people."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Brainwashed: Seven Ways to Reinvent Yourself
By Seth Godin
"Years ago, when you were about four years old, the system set out to persuade you of something that isn't true. Not just persuade, but drill, practice, reinforce, and yes, brainwash. The mission: to teach you that you're average. That compliant work is the best way to a reliable living. That creating average stuff for average people, again and again, is a safe and easy way to get what you want. Step out of line and the system would nudge (or push) you back to the center. Show signs of real creativity, originality or even genius, and well-meaning parents, teachers and authority figures would eagerly line up to get you back in line. Our culture needed compliant workers, people who would contribute without complaint, and we set out to create as many of them as we could. And so generations of students turned into generations of cogs, factory workers in search of a sinecure. We were brainwashed into fitting in, and then discovered that the economy wanted people who stood out instead. When exactly were we brainwashed into believing that the best way to earn a living is to have a job.
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Beyond Sink or Swim: The Case for Accelerating Leadership Transitions
By Michael Watkins, Doug Soo Hoo
"Given the magnitude of the overall organizational impact, it is surprising how few companies invest in helping their precious leadership assets to succeed during transitions—the most critical junctures in their careers. A few companies (GE, for example) explicitly train their managers how to take charge. More common are "on-boarding" programs that introduce outside hires to the strategy, businesses, and culture of the company. While useful, such programs seldom provide systematic guidance on the process of managing a successful transition. And the vast majority of companies do not provide any support at all. Why do so many companies leave their people to sink or swim?"
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
The Creativist Manifesto: Consumer or Creativist?
By Olivia Sprinkel
"I believe that the most significant choice that we can make in today's society is to be a Consumer or to be a Creativist. [...] This default way of being is now so entrenched that 'consumer' is the default label for people. And in terms of public services, which are provided by the taxes that we pay, we are just service users—we consume services. So what's the alternative? To be a Creativist: To reclaim the right to our individual identities; To play an active role in shaping, in creating our lives from the inside out; To fulfill our need to create which is part of all of us."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
The Wow Factor Is You
By Frances Cole Jones
"The 'Wow Factor' is you. The knowledge that you've done the research, considered the risks, paid attention to every detail. It's the calm that comes from no-regret living. The confidence that says, 'I have something to offer.' Unfortunately, however, we rarely access our Wow Factor. We talk ourselves out of contributing with the one of the 3 mantras of self-defeat: 'I'm sure it's been done before.' 'It's a great idea, but it's just not me.' And, everyone's favorite, 'It'll never happen.' (There's a reason why you don't see these phrases on bumper stickers.)"
Categories: changethis