The Eiffel Tower. Symbol for Paris. Icon of a nation.Forging 7,300 tons of steel into the tallest building in the world was an unprecedented feat, even for the experienced Gustave Eiffel. His masterpiece endured 127 years and is said to survive another three-hundred. Despite his architectural genius, the key for the tower's resilience was puddled steel.Unlike its brethren, puddled steel goes through a strenuous refinement process to eliminate impurities and make it structurally more …
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How to outsource your marketing to your customers
4:00 a.m. - "Steve Jobs was rushed to the ER just a few hours ago after suffering a major heart attack," posted on CNN's iReport6:25 a.m. - the respected mainstream site Silicon Alley Insider picks up the story and publishes it with the disclosure of being unconfirmed6:41 a.m. - Apple's stock price plummets 10%, equaling a loss of $9 billionJust to be clear–for $9 billion, you could make a round trip to the moon and then buy 2 Airbus A380 planes, the A.C. Milan soccer club, all Bitcoins …
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How to Shark Tank your business–without going on TV
Once the red light turns on, the cameras start rolling. It's go time. You have to make your plea, present your business with confidence, tell your story vividly, showcase your product, answer detailed questions and negotiate hard.If you succeed, you walk out of the room with a handshake and a couple hundred thousand dollars. If you don't, well at least you've been on television. And all of that happens within action-packed 20 minutes.Before websites, your business' pitch was 20 minutes, …
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Social Recruiting: How small businesses get ahead of big ones for once
Armed with nothing but a hammer, Anthony was the only one standing between the intruders and the orphans. Tonight, he would beat them to flight. Tomorrow, they would come again for revenge. Outnumbered, but putting up a fight, Anthony's face would be chopped with a machete.This is the story being told on Reddit to raise $2,000 for building a wall to protect the orphanage from the recurring raids. 24 hours later, readers from 46 different countries had donated $80,000; for the wall, guards, a …
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Boiler Room Zen: How close the deal without the pressure
"Nice guy? I don't give a shit.Good father. F*** you, go home and play with your kids.You want to work here, close.These are the new leads, the Glengarry leads…and you don't get them. Why? Because they're for closers." –Blake, Glengarry Glen RossNo one wants a boss like Blake. Maybe he was one of the reasons to start your own business in the first place. As bad a person as Blake is, he is right on one account. A business needs to Always Be Closing, no matter if you work for someone else or you …
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Barbie’s B-School: What a doll can teach you about business
"Little girls just wanted to be bigger girls."Sometimes, an unassuming statement can turn into the bedrock of an empire. Designers, salesmen and wholesale buyers turned away when Ruth Handler came up with her idea for a doll that looked like a grown woman rather than a baby girl. But instead of giving in to their logical arguments, she went straight to the source and asked more than two-hundred girls how they felt. The result: the most controversial 11.5 inches of plastic ever to hit the toy …
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What a gold digger can teach you about customer acquisition
"To find gold, you must think like gold…"That's what Old Ben kept mumbling to himself lately. People didn't mind, they thought he was crazy since years. And a lucky bastard. It never took him long to come back with a few nuggets to fill his stomach and his thirst.If people had paid closer attention, they would have heard the rest of his mumblings "…think like gold – or a lazy fish, since both prefer to linger where the current isn't strong." After all, Old Ben was neither crazy nor lucky, he c …
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Why ancient warfare is so important for modern marketing
Any army without them was facing a serious disadvantage.Equipped with nothing but a rope and stones, they dealt fatal blows over a distance of 270 yards. Their elite was able to aim not only for the face of their target, but a particular part of it. In addition to reach and accuracy, their projectiles, stones, were pretty much invisible when fired at 60 miles an hour. On impact, they would damage organs, shatter bones and kill even armored targets. Slingers were the deadliest snipers in …
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