My brother-in-law, this dude, is a financial wiz and we often get into deep discussions on tech company finances. Well, he gets into deep discussions with me, I really just try to keep up and nod and agree.

A few days ago we were shooting emails back and forth about the amount of cash Apple now has ~ $97 billion.

So I got to thinking, what would happen if Apple decided to just stop doing anything, no more producing products or software, no more advertising, etc. Instead, they just let their employees F around until the money ran out.

My bro took the challenge and started running the numbers. He came up with an excel spreadsheet that laid out his assumptions and the data looked pretty close to what I was imaging it would.

I then took that data and gave it to my friend @radrice who I’ve seen put together really nice infographics, and bam, he sent back this:

A leader doesn’t have to be told that they’re the leader. I can’t stress this enough.

Too many people think that they have to be told that they’re a leader before they start acting like one.

A common definition of leadership is:

Leadership is a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal.

That’s a good enough definition. No where in there does it say, “because someone told the individual that they were the leader.” Yet that’s how most people view leadership.

“Well I’m not the manager.”

“I was never put in a position to make that decision.”

“I’m not his boss.”

“That’s your job.”

“My title doesn’t have ‘manager’ in it.”

A few weeks back, there was a controversy on the Washington Wizards basketball team. The team from all vantage points wasn’t playing very hard and their record and results were reflecting that.

One of their bench players, a guy that hardly ever plays, had enough and let the entire team have it. His basic message, “If you don’t want to play hard, then get off this team.”

The reason this was a controversy was because this guy wasn’t a star. He wasn’t even a starter. We’re used to the Michael Jordan’s and the Tom Brady’s being the outspoken leader, the one to kick everyone in the butt and rally the troops.

A lot of people were critical of this guy, saying he wasn’t qualified to call anyone out because he can’t even get in the game. Everyone else is out there competing and he’s just riding the bench.

But that’s a load of bullsh&t.

Anyone on a team can step up on a be a leader. Anyone on a team has the right to call people out, to demand better, to speak their mind.

In fact, they say when Tom Brady got his shot in his first real game, even though he was essentially a nobody, he commanded the offense from the first snap. He didn’t wait until he proved himself to speak up.

Final point: The best way to become a leader…is to become a leader.

Do you want to rise through the ranks at your company? To be recognized as a leader and put in a leadership position? Then start leading. Today. Don’t wait for permission.

Begin the begin.

Received this email from Apple on Monday. Either they’re going to be holding off on the iPad 3…or they’re going to piss off a lot of people that buy the iPad 2 for Valentine’s Day and then a week later hear there is an iPad 3 coming out. Hmmmm….

Love this office.

Last week I went to a school in Roswell, Georgia, to teach a middle school class about entrepreneurship. This was through Junior Achievement’s “JA in a Day” program. I sit on Junior Achievement of Georgia’s board, and “JA in a Day” is a great program.

So I spent half a day with a class of about 30 kids ages 11 and 12. I taught four programs during my three hours. JA runs these all the time and you get assigned topics ahead of time. The last time my Engauge colleagues participated they were assigned ‘economics’. Needless to say, I was thankful I got the topic of entrepreneurship and not economics (sorry, Jomo).

Kids that age are incredible. Full of energy and promise and wide-eyed and…did I mention full of energy?

I asked the kids in my opening talk if they knew any entrepreneurs. About five or six of them raised their hands and I asked them who they knew and what they did. One of the kids knew an insurance broker that had started his own company. He said those words, “insurance broker”. I think I learned what that meant when I was in my early twenties.

The kids were told to come up with team names. Clearly these guys wanted to win :)

Interestingly when I asked them to name famous entrepreneurs, Bill Gates was yelled out far more than Steve Jobs. And later when there was a quiz question with clues about an entrepreneur, I read one about a technology entrepreneur and the first guess was Gates, not Jobs. I definitely grew up with Gates as “the guy”, but I thought for sure these kids would have looked to Jobs as that since Gates stepped down as Microsoft’s CEO in 2000. When some of these kids weren’t even born yet.

But I was glad for the opportunity to talk about the ridiculous amount of good that Bill Gates does in the world.

Teaching this class about entrepreneurship, albeit for only a short period of time, got me thinking. I wonder what the world would be like in ten years if instead of kids getting a half day once a year (if that) learning about entrepreneurship, they had semester long classes about starting companies and building a business. I gotta think in a scenario like that, we’d have a hard time finding enough people to work at all the companies in the marketplace, instead of having atrocious unemployment rates.

And I know, there isn’t a “B side” any more.  But there was when I listened to Out of Time originally, around 1991. I’m talking about the more obscure songs on that album, not the popular ones like Losing My Religion.

Songs like Low. And Half a World Away. 

And Texarkana and definitely Me in Honey. Especially Me in Honey.

And even Country Feedback if you’re getting really deep.

Just had to say that.

More now on the Google+ search controversy. You know, the one where Google is giving their social network higher billing than others (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) in their search results. Yes, its a big problem.

Here we have a former Googler pointing out just how much Google has changed to even consider a move like this (link):

When the former Googler worked at Google (through a couple of years ago), doing something like this would have been “unthinkable,” the former Googler says. Realizing that Google is now willing to do it, the former Googler says, was a “sad day.”

And then we have the head honcho basically telling anyone that isn’t on board with this new direction can take a hike (link):

“This is the path we’re headed down – a single unified, ‘beautiful’ product across everything,” Page said, according to PandoDaily. “If you don’t get that, then you should probably work somewhere else.

I’d say that’s a pretty firm line drawn in the sand.

I hope you know what you’re doing, Mr. Page.

Here’s the problem with the state of marketing today

How do you successfully market your company?

You meet your customers where they are, at the right time with the right message. In a consistent, relevant way.

How do you do that?

You test, learn, try new things, fail because that’s what’s required. You experiment. You innovate. And you always do this, not just today and then its back to the status quo.

Who makes the decision to do this?

The CMO.

Who has the shortest tenure of any executive in a company today?

The CMO.

Why is that?

Because if they don’t show results TODAY, they’re fired. Usually in less than 18 months.

What’s the biggest deterrent to experimentation and innovation?

Being afraid of being fired and having to show results TODAY.

#endofstory

It’s so energizing to work with people that are excited about what they’re doing. People who start their day psyched to see what’s in store for them. People who are wide-eyed and eager for new challenges.

I feel bad for people that aren’t wired that way or aren’t in the right situation to expose that part of themselves. Everyone should figure out their passion and then find a job that allows them to do it.

Yesterday I was able to spend my day with a new Engauger who couldn’t seem more thrilled to be starting this chapter of her career with us. And at the same time, while we were in Ohio, almost our entire office in Atlanta was showing their enthusiasm and excitement for a potential new client.

Everyone should be as lucky as I am to work with such inspired and contagiously energetic people.

#thanksguys

According to Jack Dorsey (you know, one of the guys that invented Twitter), Twitter isn’t actually social.

What about “social”? Not so much, Dorsey said. Twitter is a way to learn about what your friends are doing, but more than that it’s a way to learn about what other people who are relevant to you, from all over the world, are doing.

“We definitely see social as just one part of what people do on Twitter,” Dorsey said. “We think of it as an information utility and a communications network.”

Why does that sound familiar? Oh yeah, I said that in March of 2010 and people were freaking out. Turns out people are kinda passionate about what you do and don’t call a social network.