New School/old school, cont’d from yesterday…
Jeff Olson, an old acquaintance of the three of us, used to express that old view years ago:
“We could be selling automatic nose-pickers. With this business model, it doesn’t matter what we sell.” Then he’d add, “So long as it’s good enough not to be bad.”
Not so today. People expect remarkable products. Big difference.
Last, there’s a new focus of entrepreneurs today. A Yahoo survey last month found that today’s entrepreneurs seek FIRST something that has meaning for them. Money comes later on the list.
Here’s the new order today:
Old order: money first, meaning and everything else, second.
New order: meaning first, money and everything else, second.
This is exactly what hundreds of my students tell me today – those who stay in even though they’re not making much yet say they do because of the kick they get out of helping people, and a deep belief in the value of the product.
Plus, the 95% drop out rate tells me that the promise of money alone is not enough to keep people in,
This new order of meaning and money seems quite natural – especially for the 40+ set who have spent the last 20 years+ working to ‘pay the bills’.
I really like the order in this new world. Maybe it’s my generation. 
