Wealth Versus Worth
If you’ve ever traveled by motorcycle, you know stopping for gas can be time consuming. Dismount, take off your helmet and gloves, unzip your riding pants, dig your wallet out of your jeans, angle the pump perfectly to avoid squirting gas on the tank, etc. It can be cumbersome. But when I rode with Tex Earnhardt, I […]
That’s The Ticket
The date is January 28, 1896, a frigid Tuesday in the small English village of Paddock Wood. Walter Arnold is feeling frisky, so he decides to take his Benz for a spin. Normally, Walter is a law abiding citizen, but today, he’s got the need for speed. As he rounds the corner into a straightaway, he guns it. […]
Is Zillow A Ticking Time Bomb?
“A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person.” Jeff Bezos Last week I wrote an article about the failure of Zillow’s home buying program, Zillow Offers. I made the distinction between two business models – those that profit by enhancing lives, and those that profit by taking advantage. I argued that Zillow Offers was […]
Profit Is Not The Purpose of Business
Did you hear the news about Zillow? It finally admitted what I’ve been saying for years – its home flip business is a flop. Zillow’s stock price plummeted over 25% in 24 hours after announcing that its home flipping division (known as “Zillow Offers”) is taking such massive losses it is being discontinued. The company said it […]
Illusion of Technology
I’ve read hundreds of business books over the years. I remember when Dad gave me my first one, How To Win Friends And Influence People by Dale Carnegie. That book changed the way I did business, and probably changed the trajectory of my life. Because of my fascination with business strategy and love for “new idea” business books, in […]
Verbal Oatmeal
At the age of 12 I had become an incessant chatterbox, often to the irritation of my dad, Chubby. One Sunday afternoon in 1960 I was in Dad’s home office fumbling with some of the gadgets on his desk, rambling on about my Heathkit Ham radio. Chubby was quiet and focused, pensively writing real estate ads. Suddenly, with an absence of […]
Ask A Woman
Sara was a pretty good student at Florida State with a dream of becoming an attorney…until she took the dreaded LSAT to determine her aptitude for law school. To her dismay, she absolutely bombed it. So she got a job at Disney World, but that didn’t pan out. Then she took a stab at stand-up comedy, but […]
Prove Them Wrong
In 2007 Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia were roommates in San Francisco, and they had a problem…they couldn’t afford their rent. The roommates had met in college at the Rhode Island School of Design, so naturally they knew about the design conference taking place in San Francisco later that month. Hotels were booked up and attendees who hadn’t […]
A Mask To Loyalty
Lori Holden had the same fears most children experience growing up (meeting other kids, speaking in front of her class, trying new things). Her dad taught her that when she felt afraid, to assess whether it was a “healthy” fear or a “paralyzing” fear. Healthy fears keep us from being foolish. Driving too fast. Gambling money we can’t […]
The House You Should’ve Bought
A few days ago a friend sent me an article titled Americans Haven’t Been This Down on the Housing Market Since 1982. The crux was “how fast home price appreciation has rattled prospective buyers,” pointing out that a recent survey found only 29% of people think now is a good time to buy a home, down from 58% […]