Mentor Me

Marketing

  • The Technium: 1,000 True Fans

  • www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2008/03/1000_true_fans.php
  • Brandon Nakamura A creator, such as an artist, musician, photographer, craftsperson, performer, animator, designer, videomaker, or author - in other words, anyone producing works of art - needs to acquire only 1,000 True Fans to make a living. A True Fan is defined as someone who will purchase anything and everything you produce. They will drive 200 miles to see you sing. They will buy the super deluxe re-issued hi-res box set of your stuff even though they have the low-res version. They have a Google Alert set for your name. They bookmark the eBay page where your out-of-print editions show up. They come to your openings. They have you sign their copies. They buy the t-shirt, and the mug, and the hat. They can't wait till you issue your next work. They are true fans.

  • You Can't Innovate Like Apple

  • delicious.com/charhoehn/leadership
  • Brandon Nakamura “It’s not about pop culture, and it’s not about fooling people, and it’s not about convincing people that they want something they don’t. We figure out what we want. And I think we’re pretty good at having the right discipline to think through whether a lot of other people are going to want it, too. That’s what we get paid to do. So you can’t go out and ask people, you know, what’s the next big [thing.] There’s a great quote by Henry Ford, right? He said, ‘If I’d have asked my customers what they wanted, they would have told me ‘A faster horse.’’’... The vast majority of executives who say, “I want to be just like Apple,” have no idea what it really takes to achieve that level of success. What they’re saying is they want to be adored by their customers, they want to launch sexy products that cause the press to fall all over themselves, and they want to experience incredible financial growth. But they generally want to do it on the cheap.
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Psychology

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Community

  • Spend Less Time On Content - The Online Community Guide

  • www.feverbee.com/2009/02/content.html
  • Brandon Nakamura Content is grossly overrated. Spend as little time writing content as possible. It’s a deadly distraction. Every minute you spend writing an article is a minute you can’t spend finding others to write that article. Spend this time finding community members with a passion for writing. Build relationships with them. Encourage them to contribute. Never take full responsibility for content to ‘get the community going’. It’s difficult to step back from here without a visible difference to the community. Great content should come easily. It’s a reflection of the community. Your community members can write this.

  • Why People Stay In Your Community - The Online Community Guide

  • www.feverbee.com/2009/04/whymembersstay.html
  • Brandon Nakamura My friends are here. People don’t leave your community because their friends are there. To move, they would need to persuade all their friends to move. That’s too hard, so people stay (ala. Facebook). All my data is here. If you’ve uploaded documents, pictures and other data, you’re likely to stay in your community. People know me here. Less about friendships, but more about recognition. If people recognise your name, know what to expect from you. You’re not going anywhere soon. I have power here. Do you have special privileges in your online community? Moderation powers? Run a group? I have a mission here. They have a purpose or mission on the community. They’re working towards something. What’s their project on the community? I’ve customised my profile. Have they customised their profile? Avatar? Signature? Surprisingly, people that have done this are less likely to leave. I’ve contributed a lot here. Have you invested a lot in the community? Invited new members? Made 500 posts? Co-written an eBook with other members?
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Leadership

  • How To Rise Fast At Work: A True Story - Forbes.com

  • www.forbes.com/2009/12/21/rise-fast-job-leadership-careers-employment.html?feed=rss_popstories
  • Brandon Nakamura Why college doesn't prepare you: "From day one, Mark asked people questions about what they were working on, who they were working with and how they got their work done. It didn't matter if a person was junior or senior, administrative assistant or lead investor. He simply wanted to know what he could about what they did and the organization he was working for. Once he had a clear sense of all of the moving parts within the company, he began to see ways its operations could be improved. Making those improvements lay outside his job description, but he believed it made sense to fix what he could easily fix... Without being a natural networker and without competing, Mark had begun networking organically. People appreciated what he did because it wasn't based on self-promotion and because it genuinely helped them... Ted, on the other hand, had been asking his managers for more responsibility rather than taking on responsibilities organically and showing that he could handle them."

  • Gym Jones / Why

  • www.gymjones.com/knowledge/article/why-2/
  • Brandon Nakamura Climbing by myself taught me the honesty that no parent or teacher could ever instill. Until I started soloing I lied and stole but ropeless, hundreds of feet off the deck that lack of integrity weighed me down. It was always there. I learned the hard way that being dishonest with myself about my own capacities -- confusing the desire to solo a route with the ability to actually do it -- eventually leads to disaster. Happily the lesson didn't kill me but instead taught me integrity. From my experiences came confidence and ultimately self-reliance in many aspects of life. And although these lessons were often learned alone, in high places they could not have become part of my character without the help of mentors met along the way. Some led by example so I learned leadership. Others were better coaches than leaders. They were sometimes gentle, more often firm, their positive reinforcement meant nothing without the negative, they cajoled, coerced, and threatened, they pushed, pulled, reasoned, and inspired but mostly they opened doors. And having shown the way they left me to walk it on my own.
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Sethgodin

  • "If you knew what I know..."

  • sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2012/09/if-you-knew-what-i-know.html
  • Brandon Nakamura It's a very different thing to say, "If you believe what I believe, then this path would be obvious..." becauIt's a very different thing to say, "If you believe what I believe, then this path would be obvious..." because getting someone to share your beliefs is far more difficult than getting them to know what you know. Obvious is a good place to be if you can get there.se getting someone to share your beliefs is far more difficult than getting them to know what you know. Obvious is a good place to be if you can get there.
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Unity

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