The Long Tail/Anderson 26-40

33 Customers have shifted to less mainstream fare, fragmenting to a thousand different subgenres.

37 Culture has shifted from following the crowd up to the top of the charts to finding your own style and exploring far out beyond the broadcast mainstream, into both relative obscurity and back through time to the classics.

38 We are now a nation of niches.

39 Like venture capitalists, they spread their bets over a number of projects, investing in each one enough money to give it a fighting chance at becoming a hit. They expect that, at best, most of the projects will break even, and a few will flat-out fail. That means that the few that are hits must compensate for the drag of the others.

40…we ascribe disproportionate attention to the very top of the heap. We have been trained, in other words, to see the world through a hit-colored lens.

We are turning from a mass market back into a niche nation, defined now not by our geography but by our interest.

Never Eat Alone/Ferrazzi 120-121

121 Your goal should be to leave the encounter with an invitation to reconnect at a later time.

Deep bumps are an effort to quickly make contact, establish enough of a connection to secure the next meeting, and move on.

Your are looking, however, to make enough of a connection to secure a follow-up.

In two minutes, you need to look deeply into the other person’s eyes and heart, listen intently, ask questions that go beyond just business, and reveal a little about yourself in a way that introduces some vulnerability (yes, vulnerability; it’s contagious!) into the interaction.

..he’ll use two hands or clasp a person’s elbow to create instantaneous warmth. He’ll make direct eye contact and, in that fleeting moment, ask a personal question or two.

Winners Never Cheat/Huntsman 34-40

35 Bribes and scams may produce temporary advantages, but the practice carries an enormous price tag.

37 Once you compromise your values by agreeing to bribes or payoffs, it is difficult ever to reestablish your reputation or credibility.

…cheating and lying…eventually lead to failure.

38 In the Shinto religion, there is this teaching: “If you plot and connive to deceive people, you may fool them for a while and profit thereby, but you will without fail be visited by divine punishment.

39 There are many professions in which you can find examples of hollow values, but nowhere is it more evident than on Wall Street…

40 Trust is a greater compliment than affection. With integrity comes respect.

Make it a point to never misrepresent or to take unfair advantage of someone. That way, you can count on second and third deals with companies after successfully completing the first one.

All Marketers Are Liars 123-125

124 The problem is that once a consumer has bought someone else’s story and believes that lie, persuading the consumer to switch is the same as persuading him to admit he was wrong. And people hate admitting that they’re wrong.

Instead, you must tell a different story and persuade those listening that your story is more important that the story they currently believe.

…but a real story that is completely different from the story that’s already being told.

125 The best strategy would have been to go first.

The Long Tail/Anderson 23-26

24 Moreover, in each case those new markets that lie outside the reach of the physical retailer have proven to be far bigger than anyone expected—and they’re only getting bigger.

In fact, as these companies offered more and more (simply because they could), they found that demand actually followed supply. The act of vastly increasing choice seems to unlock demand for that choice.

Netflix, Amazon, and Rhapsody—sales of products not offered by their bricks-and-mortar competitors amounted to between a quarter and nearly half of total revenues—and that percentage is rising each year. In other words, the fastest-growing part of their businesses in sales of products that aren’t available in traditional, physical retail stores at all.

For the first time in history, hits and niches are on equal economic footing.

26 The vast majority of products are not available at a store near you.

When you dramatically lower the costs of connecting supply and demand, it changes not just the numbers, but the entire nature of the market. This is not just a quantitative change, but a qualitative one, too. Bringing niches within reach reveals latent demand for non commercial content. Then, as demand shifts toward the niches, the economics of proofing them improve further, and so on, creating a positive feedback loop that will transform entire industries—and culture—for decades to come.

Never Eat Alone/Ferrazzi 116-120

117 When sessions open up for questions, try and be among the first people to put your hand in the air. A really well-formed and insightful question is a mini-opportunity to get seen by the entire audience. Be sure to introduce yourself, tell people what company you work for, what you do, and then ask a question that leaves the audience buzzing. Ideally, the question should be related to your expertise so you have something to say when someone comes up and says “That was an interesting question.”

…arrange your own dinner while at the conference.

118 …throwing a dinner of your own.

Often, creating your own forum is the best way to assure that people you’re looking to meet will be it in the same place at the same time.

119 host or your own conference within a conference.

120 talk with speakers before they’ve hit the stage.

…establish yourself as a information hub.

Pass key information along…

Winners Never Cheat/Huntsman 27-34

31 The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made. Groucho Marx

Americanism means the virtues of courage, honor, justice, truth, sincerity, and hardihood—the virtues that made America. The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price…the love of soft living and the get-rich-quick theory of life. Theodore Roosevelt.

33 Which rules we honor and which we ignore determine personal character, and it is character that determines how closely we will allow our value system to affect our lives.

Character is most determined by integrity and courage. Your reputation is how others perceive you. Character is how you act when no one is watching.

34 Tough negotiations, however, must be fair and honest. That way, you never have to remember what you said the previous day.

All Marketers Are Liars 115-123

119 Some senses count for more than others, but every sense matters.

120 You win when you manage to make your story coherent.

121 marketing has become an art. The essence of that art is your ability to use non-verbal techniques to make me a series of promises.

Copy someone in a different industry who’s telling a similar story. Discover the cues and signals she uses.

Remember, the best stories promise to fulfill the wishes of a consumer’s worldview. They may offer: a shortcut, a miracle, money, social success, safety, ego, fun, pleasure, belonging.

122 Because successful stories never off the things marketers are most likely to feature: very good quality.

123 The most important principle is this: you cannot succeed if you try to tell competition’s story better than you can.

The Long Tail/Anderson 11-23

16 People are going deep into the catalog, down the long, long list of available titles.

If the twentieth-century entertainment industry was about hits, the twenty-first will be equally about niches.

18…with online distribution and retail, we are entering a world of abundance.

20 Every retailer has its own economic threshold

22 You can find everything out here in the Long Tail.

What’s truly amazing about the Long Tail is the sheer size.

23 The biggest money is in the smallest sales.

When you think about it, most successful Internet businesses are capitalizing on the Long Tail in one way or another. Google, for instance, makes most of its money not from huge corporate advertisers, but from small ones (the Long Tail of advertising)

Never Eat Alone/Ferrazzi 113-116

114 listing who they were, what they did, their accomplishments and hobbies and the potential challenges the company faces.

The key is to work hard to make the conference a success for everyone.

115 But everyone’s success came from organizing a conference around its real function: an intimate gathering of like-minded professionals in an atmosphere that facilitates profitable relationships.

First, you should know that giving speeches is one of the easiest and most effective ways to get yourself, your business, and your ideas seen, heard of, and remembered…

116 The point here is that the opportunity to speak exists everywhere, paid or unpaid.

Study after study shows that the more speeches one give, the higher one’s income bracket tends to be.

As a speaker at a conference, you have a special status, making meeting people much easier.

Instant credibility.
Becoming a speaker at the conference. First, you need something to say:…develop a spiel about the niche you occupy

Winners Never Cheat/Huntsman 14-27

17 It is not our affluence, or our plumbing, or our clogged freeways that grip the imagination of others. Rather, it is the values upon which our system is built. Sen. J. William Fulbright.

22 Whatever the blinders may be, the right-wrong indicator light continues to flash all the same. We might not ask, but the compass tells.

23 Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience. George Washington.

26 There is no witness so terrible or no accuser so powerful as the conscience. Sophocles

27 Clear conscience prompts harmony. Socrates

All Marketers Are Liars 105-115

108 If I knew what you know, would I choose to buy what you sell?

110 Belief in the lie must not ultimately harm the consumer because if it does, you’ll run out of consumers and credibility far too soon.

110 Telling people that they’ve believed a lie for a long time is no way to make friends.

113 You don’t get to make up the story. The story happens with or without you.

114 But when a human being works with the consumer and takes independent action on her behalf, something changes.

Sometimes the interactions are nasty or rushed or even selfish. But when they’re genuine, they have an impact.

The goal of every marketer is to create a purple cow, a product or experience so remarkable that people feel compelled to talk about it. Remarkable goods and services help ideas spread—not hype-filled advertising.

If you can build your entire organization around delivering a particular story, you’ve dramatically increased the chances that this story will actually get told.

The Long Tail/Anderson 9-11

10 When “The Long Tail” was published in Wired in October 2004, it quickly became the most cited article the magazine had ever run. The three main observations---(1) the tail of available variety is far longer than we realize; (2) it’s now within reach economically; (3) all those niches, when aggregated, can make up a significant market—seemed indisputable, especially backed up with heretofore unseen data.

11…it’s clear that the story of the Long Tail is really about the economics of abundance—what happens when the bottlenecks that stand between supply and demand in our culture start to disappear and everything become available to everyone.
Our growing affluence has allowed us to shift from being bargain shoppers buying branded (or even unbranded) commodities to becoming mini-connoisseurs, flexing our taste with a thousand little indulgences that set us apart from others

Never Eat Alone/Ferrazzi 110-113

111…no better place to extend your professional network and , on occasion, get deals done.

…smart employees and business owners of all stripes—spend 80% of the time building strong relationships with people they do business with.

112 …are setting up one-on-one meetings, organizing dinners, and, in general, making each conference an opportunity to meet people who could change their lives.

If you’re the ball, you walk (or roll) into a conference, event, or an organization, and you blow it apart. With a dash of bravado and ingenuity, you lease positive impression in your wake, create friendships, and achieve the goals on your agenda.

Think of it as a well-coordinated campaign to further your mission.

Help the Organizer (Better Yet, Be the Organizer)

113 I’m really looking forward to the conference you’re putting together. I’m interested in helping make this year be the best year ever, and I’m willing to devote a chunk of my resources—be it time, creativity, or connects—to make this year’s event a smash hit. How can I help?

…how powerful it was to know, in advance, who would be attending.

…meet two people who were assigned to them from the guest we knew would be attending.

The Long Tail/Anderson 1-9

2 In short, although we still obsess over hits, they are not quite the economic force they once were. Where are those fickle consumers going instead? No single place. They are scattered to the winds as markets fragment into countless niches. The one big growth area is the Web, but it is an uncategorizable sea of million destinations, each defying in its own way the conventional logic of media and marketing.

5 The era of one-size-fits-all is ending, and in its place is something new, a market of multitudes. This book is about that market.

Increasingly, the mass market is turning into a mass of niches.

7 So the trick to trend-spotting is to ask them.

8 98% rule. In a world of almost zero packaging cost and instant access to almost all content in this format, consumers exhibit consistent behavior: They look at almost everything. I believe that this requires major changes by the content producers—I’m just not sure what changes!

9 However, when that space doesn’t cost anything, suddenly you can look at those infrequent sellers again, and they begin to have value.

The onesies and twosies were still only selling in small numbers, but there were so, so many of them that in aggregate they added up to a big business.

Never Eat Alone/Ferrazzi 108-110

110 Turning a conference into your own turf and setting goals ahead of time is what turns a casual conference attendance into a mission.

They provide a forum to meet the kind of like-minded people who can help you fulfill your mission and goals. Before deciding to attend a conference, I sometimes informally go so far as using a simple return-on-investment-type thought process. Is the likely return I’ll get from the relationships I establish and build equal to or greater than the price of the conference and the time spent there.

111…no better place to extend your professional network and , on occasion, get deals done.

…smart employees and business owners of all stripes—spend 80% of the time building strong relationships with people they do business with.

112 …are setting up one-on-one meetings, organizing dinners, and, in general, making each conference an opportunity to meet people who could change their lives.

If you’re the ball, you walk (or roll) into a conference, event, or an organization, and you blow it apart. With a dash of bravado and ingenuity, you lease positive impression in your wake, create friendships, and achieve the goals on your agenda.

Think of it as a well-coordinated campaign to further your mission.

Help the Organizer (Better Yet, Be the Organizer)