It's too much work.

Have you ever heard that from someone?  Probably.  Some people want the world but they'd prefer to do as little as possible to obtain it.  And some people succeed this way.

But others thrive on the sense of accomplishment.  The feeling that they worked their ass off to accomplish what they did.  These people will never say "It's too much work."

They'll smile at the end of the journey, dust off their jeans, and start the next one.

Are you ready to start the journey, or is it too much work?

How many friends do you have?

Not Facebook friends or Twitter friends or Bebo friends or MySpace friends or Last.fm friends or LinkedIn friends.

Real friends.

Friends you stood in the corner with at middle school dances.  Friends you drove around town with on those cool summer nights.  Friends you had nights you'll never remember with in college.  Friends who joined you on your wedding day to celebrate the joy.

The gun's been fired and the race is on.  Whoever gets the most "friends" is the best.  Last one is a rotten egg.

What does having 54,342 friends get you anyway?

Many companies assume more of everything is better.

They use their websites to brag about how they have more employees than their customers, more client accounts than their competitors, and are on more top 100 lists than their competitors.

They have the biggest corporate campuses with the biggest offices and the highest paid executives.  They write more white papers than anybody else and they have more managers per team than anybody else.  They do more of everything in a bigger way.

But does having/doing more of all this mean these companies are better than companies who aren't obsessed with more?

Do more and bigger mean better?

Whole Foods took grocery shopping and stepped it up a notch.

Their store in Lincoln Park in Chicago has restaurants and cafes with multiple cuisines, a riverwalk, and outdoor seating.

I smiled as I descended the escalator from the parking garage into the produce section of the store.  Those peaches looked delicious.  I wanted to grab one and eat it right there.

In the past, I've seen people walking around, sipping wine from one of the cafes as they shop.

Every employee is smiling and happy to help.  From the lady at the fish counter to the two guys behind the meat counter to the guy stocking the yogurt.  They're all there to help.  And they want to.

There's grocery shopping and then there's Whole Foods style grocery shopping.  They've made an experience out of it.

Are you creating an experience?

Sometimes you don't realize you're out of toilet paper until you really need some.  That's a bad moment.  You look at the empty bar where the TP usually rests and you're about ready to scream.

If you had a time machine and could change one thing, you'd zip back to Sam's Club and buy a pallet of toilet paper so this would never happen again.

But you don't have a time machine.  Not yet.

Back in the day, companies would never reveal the look on their face when they see the empty TP bar.  But today, in this new way of thinking, companies are encouraged to play with open hands and no sunglasses.  Customers should see every look on your face.

What do you think?  Should they, even in the most embarrassing of times?

And more importantly, are you stocked up on toilet paper?

Yesterday, old white men ran most companies.  They ruled the board of directors, they ruled the executive team, they made every decision.

Yesterday, old white men decided what you wanted to buy.  They approved every radio ad, they spent billions on TV ads, and they waited for you to purchase.

Yesterday, everybody bowed down to the old white men.

Not today.

Today, men and women of all colors, ages, and expertise are running successful companies out of locations all over the world.  Men and women like you.

Today, there's more opportunity than ever.

Are you ready?

You might not think like I do.  I might not think like you do.  And that's totally cool.  The key is understanding that.

We get caught up in assuming that everyone else knows what we know and everyone else thinks like we think.  But everyone else doesn't.

Not everyone knows how to use Facebook.  Not everyone knows HTML.  Not everyone knows how to send out an email newsletter.  Not everyone knows how to edit video.  Not everyone knows what makes one video more viral than another.

Are we assuming everyone thinks like us?

Remember comment cards?  They were used when a company decided they wanted to hear what customers had to say.  Customers filled out a card, dropped it in the box, and hoped to hear back from the company.

Back then, it was a great way for companies to listen to customers.  A great way to keep them engaged.

These days, the Internet amplifies a customer's voice and a company's ability to listen.  But the concept of comment cards remains the same.

Are you reading your comment cards?

Mark is giving homelessness a name, one person at a time, through his blog Invisible People.

He talks with homeless people on a daily basis, learning about their lives, their hopes, and their dreams.

Often times people laugh at bums and think they did it to themselves.

Watch a few of Mark's videos and you'll hear the resounding theme that it can happen to anyone.  Some people are stronger than others and some care more than others.  But these people are as real as you or I.

So stop laughing.  And let's start helping.

I just watched Sarah Evans' video review of Gary Vaynerchuk's new book 'Crush It'.  I didn't realize she was reviewing a free copy of the book until the end of the video.  And of course her review was positive and she recommended the book.

I have no issue with the fact that she got the book free.  I'm familiar with Sarah Evans and trust her in that sense. (In fact, what she said about Gary's book aligning with 'Good To Great' is making me want to buy the book.)

My thought is that Sarah Evans appears to already be a fan of Gary Vaynerchucks thoughts.  She seems to be on the same wavelength with his ideas.  So of course she's going to like the book, right?

Would it make more sense for Gary to give free copies of the book to people who aren't his fans already?  People who don't know a lot about his ideas and methods? People like the Sally Arkansas' or the top CEOs of Fortune 500 companies (as Gary mentions in his video about the book here)?

I understand he probably chose Sarah because of her reach and influence.  But I wonder if giving a free book to Sally Arkansas would be more along the lines of his beliefs?

What do you think?

Being comfortable is generally seen as a good thing.  And in certain situations, it most definitely is.  Wearing shorts and a t-shirt on top of Pike's Peak is not comfortable and not a good thing. (Trust me, I know).

In some situations, though, being comfortable can be boring.  Especially for people who like to remain active and challenged.  The mechanics of a comfortable routine can wear such a person down and leave them antsy for something new, something exciting.

How about you?  Do you get antsy when you're comfortable?

Social media isn't Twitter or Facebook or MySpace or LinkedIn or Bebo or any of the other sixteen thousand social networks out there.

Social media is me telling you how freaking awesome Red Box is.  A dollar for a movie.  You get it from any Red Box and return it to any Red Box.  You could pay $5 for a Blockbuster movie (plus late fees) and have to drive all the way back to that one in the suburbs to return the movie.  Or you could just go Red Box.

Social media is you telling me how horrible that movie Bruno was.  You're not a big Sacha Baron Cohen fan and you couldn't take all the nastiness that movie spewed.  If you had to see one movie before you moved to Mars, it would be a movie about how bad Bruno was.

Social media is me asking Best Buy two days ago if the Adventureland DVD would be $16.99 in their stores like it was on their website.  I simply tweeted them.  And they simply answered my question by showing me their price matching policies.  (And yes, the DVD was $16.99 that night when I purchased it at a Best Buy store).

This isn't a sponsored post or conversation or paragraph or sentence or thought.

This is social media.

Complainers see complaining as the only solution to the problem.  If they whine long enough, the problem will get fixed.

Doers see action as the only solution to the problem.  If they do something about the problem, it will get fixed.

While both approaches might get things solved (although I firmly believe the latter will always be a more effective approach), there's another big difference between these two people.

Complainers don't actually care.  If they did care, they'd do something about it.

Do you actually care or are you just complaining?

Hills are a funny thing.  They're governed by gravity and Mother Nature.  They don't change often and when they do, it's a slight difference that occurs over billions of years.

They're a sure thing when you think about it.  A 10% incline is a 10% incline, no discussion.

But they're not.  Hills are entirely open to interpretation.

If you just walked 6 miles nonstop across a smoking hot desert, any hill is going to seem like hell.  Even if it's just a small incline.  If you live in the mountains and have hiked up and down your entire life, you're probably pretty used to them.  You're at the top while all your out of town relatives are still on the first third.

You really can make a mountain out of a molehill.  Or a molehill out of a mountain.

Are you ready for some hills?

The Jewel by me always has the baskets in the checkout lines, rather than at the entrance to the store.  When you walk in the store, you have to wander around the checkout lines looking for a basket.

By the time I start shopping, I'm already frustrated.  If an employee simply moved the stack of baskets to the front entrance from time to time, that frustration would be eliminated.

It's always the small things that matter the most.

Are you frustrating your customers before they start shopping?