Inspired by a new tumblr called The Composites that uses law enforcement composite sketch software to crank out drawings of literary characters, I’ve decided to use this Friday Links to share some illustrations I’ve done of just a few of the authors we’ve linked you up with over the past year in our general manager Jon Mueller’s ongoing series of blog interviews. I have included a quote from each, and if you’d like to read the interview in its entirety you will find the link on the author’s image or name.
“Creativity is natural and abundant, the natural human state. We are creative beings. Being creative is not the hard part. The hard part is figuring out how to marry creativity to discipline so that the discipline amplifies the creativity, rather than squelching it. Truly great entrepreneurs do not just have a great idea (and often, they copy their ideas from others).” —Jim Collins
“Honestly, I’m not obsessed with the platform, I’m obsessed with the end result. If you can speak to your clients face-to-face or on the phone every day, I’m thrilled with that. [But] we’re more interested in texting than picking up the actual phone. If you look at the consumer, it’s changing. It’s kind of like saying if you have all of the bananas in the world and your customers are monkeys, why do you need to feed them different food? You don’t. The problem is the monkeys turning into a rhino. If you don’t have the proper food for that, you’re going to lose.” —Gary Vaynerchuk
“Enchantment is a higher form of persuasion. Persuasion implies a one-time transaction: I persuade you, you do what I want, hopefully you’re happy with the outcome. Enchantment is long-term: I enchant you, you do what you want which is, fortunately, what I want too, and you’re delighted with the outcome.” —Guy Kawasaki
“Brands have become an extension of human facility, whether it is psychic or psychological. The brands we acquire telegraph our beliefs and affiliations, and in doing so, they create intimate worlds inhabitants can mutually understand. I think that any knowledge of culture is impossible now without an understanding of the implications of ‘brand.’” —Debbie Millman
Today We Are Rich is a statement, a declaration of your abundance. There are two kinds of rich: Bank account and Rich In Spirit. The first kind comes and goes, frequently via the business cycle or disasters/windfalls of some sort. The second kind you build up by sharing what you have and making a difference. When you share, then, you are worth something to the world—either as a person or an organization.” —Tim Sanders
“We found in our study that being the most innovative is no guarantee for great performance. The great innovator doesn’t always win. You need to innovate, that’s clear, but only to a certain level (depending on your industry). Beyond that, other things matter, such as scaling innovation. The problem with being first (being very innovative) is that it’s only one side of the coin; you also need to execute, to deliver on your innovations, that’s the other side of the coin.” —Morten Hansen
“When we treat things as if they were free, they tend not to last, because there is no price mechanism to adjust our demand to supply. Hunters in the 19th century treated the buffalo as if it were free and in a span of a few years reduced a population of hundreds of thousands of buffalo to a couple of hundred. Newspapers today have more readers than ever. But if they do not figure out a way to charge their readers for what they read they will go out of business. Employment in the newspaper business has dropped 42% over the last 10 years … But without reporters and editors, the news will not be made.” —Eduardo Porter
