It’s very rare that an individual makes an impact on the world like Steve Jobs did. Yesterday the world lost one of its most Jenius people, “one of the crazy ones”.

Steve Jobs is THE inspiration for everything the Jenius Factory stands for: beauty in simplicity, thinking about the end user first, build a company on small and talented teams, etc.

My admiration for Steve Jobs is at the heart of everything I do and I’m eternally grateful for the impact he made in my life and all of those crazies around the world.

When all was said and done, he started the greatest company in the world, got fired from his own company, and then returned to make it the most powerful and creative enterprise we’ve ever known.

He understood the entire ecosystem of what needed to be built even when we didn’t know it. He not only created beautiful products, he created platforms that changed the way we live our everyday lives.

He made everyone an artist, a writer, an entrepreneur, a designer, or a filmmaker. He democratized the arts while still honoring their craft by protecting journalism and the arts.

He was the true renaissance man of our time. His impact will be felt for years to come.

I’ve never met the man personally, but I had to fight back the tears when I heard the news. That in and of itself speaks volumes for the impact he created. Millions of people feel as if they lost a friend.

And we did.

Thank you Steve.

You definitely made a dent in the universe and an impression on our hearts.

It seems that the most successful product of our time is fear. It’s being sold everywhere in the news, newspapers, TV, and even in everyday conversations with loved ones.

Fear has been used to manipulate people since the beginning of time and it’s been the precursor to many religions, scams, placebos, prescription drugs, and countless other mass marketed, industry-based ideals.

Fear is once again creeping it’s ugly head in the form of world-collapsing economic meltdown. Money is no longer worth anything and industries are falling. Should we buy gold or silver? Should we buy $45,000 worth of dried beans to stack in our bomb shelters?

These stories of the end of times have also been with us since the beginning. I recently read an article from the 50′s that stated the exact same things that our news is ranting about today.

Will there be an end to all of humanity one day? Probably. After all, doesn’t everything have an end, a cycle? If we do come to an end, I’m sure it will be our own doing, but I digress.

I would like to propose that our economic collapse is nothing more than a failing industrial age. Just like the other ages that preceeded it, the industrial age is seeing its end.

Mass-marketing and mass-production are products of an industry that has only existed for the past 50 years, and I for one am glad to see it go.

In my opinion, it has led to the demise of families, the demise of individuality and taste, the demise of craftmanship, and the rise of the Jones’s.

The death of the factory system and the industrial age is going to look very painful just like it did in every other major economic shift, but aren’t you tired?

Aren’t you tired of an educational system that doesn’t work? Aren’t you tired of shopping at Walmart and eating food that tastes like plastic and that’s bad for you? Aren’t you tired of having over a thousand dollars worth of car payments every month?

The new age will be drastically different. Rich won’t mean “what you own”, it will mean “freedom of choice”. The new wealthy will be those that are smart enough to create lifestyles that afford them the luxury of making their own decisions on their own time.

We’ll start to see small tribes forming that allow us to find the groups that are just like us. No matter how weird or strange we are, it’s okay. The internet will help you find your peers.

Are you an eye doctor that also likes the novelty of the 20′s? It’s cool, there are tons of hipsters and individuals that would love the experience of that kind of office. Are you a paralegal that loves to collect Smurfs? There is no doubt a subculture and yearly tradeshow for that.

No matter how weird or temporarily painful this down economy may feel, take a breather. Be confident in understanding what might really be happening. An industry-based existence that is only 50 years old is on its way out. It came in powered by the ad agencies on Madision Avenue and it completely changed the way we lived.

But that way of living sucks.

We’ve got the best opportunity we’ve ever had to get back to being who we really are.

Don’t buy into the market of fear.

The majority of small businesses out there are in industries where the market is flooded. Remember the days when people knew you as the town physician, the baker, the handyman, the insurance guy?

Where did those days go? Now I have to choose between hundreds of doctors, bakers, dentists, repair shops, gas stations and coffeehouses. Now I go to the coffeeshop for young, hip, professionals. I go to the dentist with the portrait of Elvis Costello hanging on the wall. I go to the baker that has the closest outlook on life as I do, and a passion for the basics and latest trends.

Why? Because I can.

If I’m going to build a relationship with anyone, it might as well be with someone with the same outlook on life, worldview, and taste in music. After all, relationships are built by conversation, and I don’t really want to gab with someone about Lionel Ritchie.

But what does this have to do with business? Everything.

Once you realize that people have organized themselves into tribes, you’ll start to see more and more why a combination of a general business and a flooded market will leave you in revenue limbo.

Do you have a tribe behind your business? Are you a member of a certain passionate type of people?

Religious individuals are good at this, but even they have sub-niches. Tiny communities are good at this, but even the barber runs the risk of a young buck taking over “kids these days”.

Now, for the first time in history, you get to drop the professional speak. You finally get to forget about acting like someone that gets along with everyone. For the first time in business history, the death of mass marketing means you get to be exactly who you are and find the tribe of people just like you to serve.

This is both exciting and scary, but you’ll have to do it. Soon, you’ll have no choice.

As business owners, we have to look at the same problems that our customers, industries and competitors have been looking at for years, and see them differently.

In my line of work, I’m hired to examine a client’s business and industry, that they’ve been involved in for over 20 years, and to create something that they’ve never seen before.

That’s why true innovation is so invaluable. If you can train yourself and your team how to see things differently, the possibilities of creating something industry-breaking are endless.

The first thing you can do is put yourself in the shoes of your clients. You can take this literally and do like I do and strap a flip cam to your head and go through all the motions your customers do, or you can interview and observe them in the real world.

You can also look at what’s worked in other industries. Schlitz Beer hit it big a few decades ago by being the first brewery to explain the process of making their beer. Every beer was made the same way, but by being the first to educate people they were able to grab market share.

A few years ago, a lumber company borrowed this same philosophy and described in detail their process for kiln drying their lumber. Not only did they dominate the lumber business, but they made a fortune teaching other lumber yards their process.

Another way to see things differently is to continually seek out the problems people face everyday and see if you can tie them into your business. We all want the same things, be happy, healthy, wealthy, sexy, purposeful, etc. If you’re constantly focused on the needs and wants of people around you, innovation will show itself.

Looking at extreme users on both ends of your client spectrum will also give you insight on where you can find innovation, and often times visiting the exact opposite of what your competitors are doing will open up new doors for you.

Whatever your goals are in business, training yourself to see things differently will be an advantage for innovating in 20 year old industries that all of your competitors thought couldn’t be changed anymore.

The trick is doing it everyday.

There has been a lot of talk about company culture these days. It seems like the discussions over company culture are getting more and more frequent as companies turn to find more talent instead of people that follow rules.

The challenges companies are having are trying to find talent, attract talent and then keep talent.

To help, I found a list of simple rules from someone that has a little experience leading the culture of a large organization.

Here are David Packard’s 11 Simple Rules for Culture:

1. Think first of the other fellow.

This is THE foundation — the first requisite — for getting along with others. And it is the one truly difficult accomplishment you must make. Gaining this, the rest will be “a breeze.”

2. Build up the other person’s sense of importance.

When we make the other person seem less important, we frustrate one of his deepest urges. Allow him to feel equality or superiority, and we can easily get along with him.

3. Respect the other man’s personality rights.

Respect as something sacred the other fellow’s right to be different from you. No two personalities are ever molded by precisely the same forces.

4. Give sincere appreciation.

If we think someone has done a thing well, we should never hesitate to let him know it. WARNING: This does not mean promiscuous use of obvious flattery. Flattery with most intelligent people gets exactly the reaction it deserves — contempt for the egotistical “phony” who stoops to it.

5. Eliminate the negative.

Criticism seldom does what its user intends, for it invariably causes resentment. The tiniest bit of disapproval can sometimes cause a resentment which will rankle — to your disadvantage — for years.

6. Avoid openly trying to reform people.

Every man knows he is imperfect, but he doesn’t want someone else trying to correct his faults. If you want to improve a person, help him to embrace a higher working goal — a standard, an ideal — and he will do his own “making over” far more effectively than you can do it for him.

7. Try to understand the other person.

How would you react to similar circumstances? When you begin to see the “whys” of him you can’t help but get along better with him.

8. Check first impressions.

We are especially prone to dislike some people on first sight because of some vague resemblance (of which we are usually unaware) to someone else whom we have had reason to dislike. Follow Abraham Lincoln’s famous self-instruction: “I do not like that man; therefore I shall get to know him better.”

9. Take care with the little details.

Watch your smile, your tone of voice, how you use your eyes, the way you greet people, the use of nicknames and remembering faces, names and dates. Little things add polish to your skill in dealing with people. Constantly, deliberately think of them until they become a natural part of your personality.

10. Develop genuine interest in people.

You cannot successfully apply the foregoing suggestions unless you have a sincere desire to like, respect and be helpful to others. Conversely, you cannot build genuine interest in people until you have experienced the pleasure of working with them in an atmosphere characterized by mutual liking and respect.

11. Keep it up.

That’s all — just keep it up!

Stuck trying to figure out what to make next? Maybe you’re looking for something new to add to your company, products or services?

The recipe for discovering and making new things is simple. If you want to be inspired and effective with new “things” build a product that solves the simple problems that you have, find the people that are like you, and do your damnedest to enchant them.

With so many people in the marketplace, chances are the problems that you have are shared with a large enough population to support and finance your efforts. The trick is to be aware of your most pressing problems, identifying them, and creating a simple solution for them.

Then hit some forums, online groups, local hangouts, and wherever else people like you would be conversing. After you’ve developed a working prototype of your solution ask people to try it out and give you feedback before you spend the serious money to develop and ship it.

Rinse and repeat and you’ll have a recipe for making new and remarkable things.

An interesting thing to always remember about clients and customers is the fact that they’re irrational.

As much as we would like to think it’s smart to give them logical reasons for buying from us, we have to remember that people love to be entertained, they love to be cool, and they love the unexpected.

We’ve all justified a car purchase, a new iPod, or sleek new jacket saying it would lead to more business, it would be better on gas, or it would save us time, but let’s face it… We bought them because they were cool.

How can you appeal to what people really want?

How can you make insurance, real estate, banking, accounting, or going to the dentist, cool?

Remember to always have logical data to support your cause, but always understand that it’s the illogical things that make people buy.

As with all things in life, business is coming full circle.

With the Internet being all the rage in business an interesting thing is happening. The Internet has made business so transparent that we’re going back forty years and abiding by the small town rules.

If you’re building a business and someone goes online and gives you a bad review it’s exactly like Bill’s second cousin saying that you’re corn meal was bad.

In a small town forty years ago, you couldn’t treat anyone badly or you lost business, integrity and referrals. More recently businesses feel like there are too many fish in the sea to worry about individual customers.

Now, companies are finding that survival means abiding by the small town rules again.

So the challenge then becomes, “how do I simultaneously look ten years into the future and forty years in the past?”.

The answer is understanding and leveraging the new rules of business with the old rules of the past.

This is a beautiful time to be in business.

Now that my book’s manuscript is complete, the editing process is in full swing. The great feedback that I’m getting is helping me really get down to the core of what this book needs to say and accomplish.

It’s now time to really think about the publishing or business model that would best suit this book. It’s developing into a difficult decision because never before have we had so many options for publishing and so many channels that allow for self-publishing. (not to mention this is my first book)

Throw in the fact that I didn’t write this book to make money, I wrote it to make a point, and the motivation to pick the model shifts from what most authors normally choose.

Free

The first model to consider is the free pdf and ebook model. This model lets anyone download it absolutely free. It’s free to read and share. The pros of this model mean that the ideas I want to get out there have a better chance of spreading faster. It might mean that my influence becomes greater and I make money from a passionate audience later.

The cons of the free model are that people don’t always value free. We’re used to paying for the things we own and if it’s free, the chances are greater that it gets pushed to the side with all of the other free ebooks. We all tend to place more value on the things we pay for.

Free + Hardcover

The next model I’m looking at is the free ebook and option to buy a hardcopy. Seth Godin wrote his now infamous book, Unleashing the Idea Virus, and released it against the publisher’s wishes as a free e-book online.

It spread like wildfire and then something interesting happen. They all wanted a hard copy because they didn’t want to read it on the screen. He ended up making more money from the book he gave away for free then the one he published traditionally.

The challenge with this model is, when Seth wrote this book people didn’t have Kindles and iPads, and ebooks were a new thing. The ebook market is now flooded with books anyone with a computer could write.

There is hope however for the hard copy because there are still people out there that prefer a hard copy book. This model would allow me to spread the ideas for free, but give the purists a real option for reading traditionally, highlighting and making notes.

Self Publish a Hard Copy

Another model I’m exploring is the self-publishing of a hardback for sale. I love digest sized hardcovers because they are easy to hold, fast to read, and are easily carried and shared. They’re not bulky like traditional books.

Companies like Lulu offer options for self-publishing, printing, and selling your book on Amazon. It would be nice to make this book “legit” with an ISBN number and the option to buy it from a reputable source.

This is nice, but upon further investigation services like these are sometimes available because people are too lazy to seek out better options themselves. I realized that I can publish, print, get an ISBN number and sell it on Amazon for about 10% of what they offer as their service.

Shop to Major Publishers

Shopping the book to major publishers seems like a really bad idea. Most authors believe that if they could just get Harper Collins or Wiley to pick their book, all would be private jets, bestseller lists, and Oprah spots. I could really care less.

The truth is that new media channels have put the squeeze on publishers and they only bet their remaining money on sure things. It would be nice to have access to a new audience for my ideas because my personal audience isn’t as big as I would like to make the ideas in this book spread. But the fact is that I could use the book on my own to start changing lives now, and not have to wait years on a chance to sign with the big guys.

I’m just not sure if major publishers are necessary anymore for authors like me.

I’m learning a lot through this process and it’s really fun to geek-out on possible business models for the book. I’m sure I’ll end up picking a unique option in true “Jenius” style. In the next few months I’ll be exploring different strategies, marketing, and platforms.

Bottom line

I want to use this book to make an impact. I’ll be looking at ways to get it to as many people as possible and helping them implement the ideas to make their lives and businesses better. It’s gonna take a lot of work and hustle, but I’m game.

Maybe I’ll even make some great new friends along the way.