SECRETS

SECRETS

Einstein: "The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible."
Da Vinci: "Leonard Da Vinci."
Edward de Bono: "There may be no reason for saying something until after it has been said."
Ross Perot: "It just takes one idea to live like a king for the rest of your life."
Bill Gates: "Iterate, saturate, obliterate."
Emerson: "What lies before us and what lies behind us are small matters compared to what lies within us."
Michelangelo: "I am still learning."
Machiavelli: "A prince should never flinch from being blamed for acts of ruthlessness which are necessary for safeguarding the state and their own person."
Henry Ford: "Whether you think you can do it or not, you are 100% right."
Mother Teresa: "I would much prefer that you make mistakes in kindness than perform miracles in unkindness."
Charlie Munger (billionaire): "Read and continually integrate permanently the best knowledge into your habitual way of thinking and evaluating."
Warren Buffett: "Continuous, candid, brutal self-correction."

Why your friends don't empower you

There are many reasons why your friends, perhaps even your closest friends and relatives, do not empower you (and, therefore, do not help you to get a better life). These are the first reasons that come to my mind:

1. They don't know what your goals are, or what you're trying to achieve (tip: list all the things you want to do at www.43things.com, then share the link with them)
2. They don't read books or useful websites, so they really have nothing to share with you
3. They know what your goals are, and they do read a lot of stuff, but perhaps out of a sense of competitiveness, they don't share information with you (because if you get ahead in life, then they feel they are left behind).
4. They know what your goals are, and they do read a lot of stuff, but they think: Well, he/she never shared anything with me, so why should I share valuable stuff with him/her?

The main reason, I think, is that friends often just do NOT know their friends' goals.

Take your case, for example. Think of all your friends. You may know their values, their interests, their past experiences, etc. But do you know their goals? Do you know what they are trying to achieve in life?

We are all responsible for communicating to others our goals.

Not only can we help one another, but life is just more fun when you are able to help friends or relatives achieve their goals!

The longest distance is between knowledge and action

I often tell clients that "knowing without acting on your knowledge" is exactly the same as "NOT knowing at all."

In fact, it's worse, because you lost time reading (or attending a course or seminar)!

Half a dozen people so far have shared with me their difficulty in putting their knowledge into action. They asked me, "At what point should I stop reading?"

I confess I've had that problem before too. It's only recently that I've realized that "life rewards action, not knowledge."

Similarly, a person can take a language course, yet if she doesn't practice it, she will RAPIDLY forget everything! I know from experience: I aced two courses in Spanish, and yet cannot say anything else but "Mi casa es su casa"!!

If you have the problem of not being able to act on your knowledge, you are not alone. It's such a common weakness that Edward de Bono, the creativity guru, in fact coined a special word -- operacy -- to encourage people to focus on developing that important ability. He wrote:

The idiom of education is that it is enough to build up the information base and that action is then easy. It is not. The skills of action are every bit as important as the skills of knowledge. That this is not recognised in education is a tragedy. For convenience I have coined the term 'operacy', which is derived from 'operate' and 'operational' and thus indicates 'the skill needed for doing'. I believe that operacy should rank alongside literacy and numeracy as a major aim of education.

Source: http://www.avec.com.au/esprit/concept.html

I think another word should be coined for "the skill needed to get desired results."

Let's use for now the word "resultancy."

In business, there is nothing more important than resultancy. You have to get the right results. The mission-critical results. If not, you won't survive.

This is why I created the Business Model Workout workshop (www.businessmodelworkout.blogspot.com). I used the framework, albeit in a premature format, to generate more than $100,000 in revenues in a few months for a a company a while ago, when I was still an employee. I used the framework again for three years, while I was running my marketing communications firm. This BMW framework works as a focus enabler that drives the entrepreneur to pay attention to the right performance indicators, and nothing else. No wonder this workshop is getting so popular, even with employees and people considering going into business.

But resultancy (the skill needed to get desired results) is not just for business people. Employees must master that skill also. In fact, anyone who truly cares about performance, should master resultancy.

And people -- at least the ambitious kind of people -- are beginning to realize the importance of resultancy. That's why coaches today, in so many fields, are becoming very popular.

A coach is paid to help you get the results you aim for. This is why coaches often will interview a potential client to see if he/she has "coachable goals."

The saying goes, "When the student is ready, the master appears."

Similarly: "When the performer is ready, the coach appears."

But realistically, since not everyone can afford to have a coach, it is perhaps best to learn about self-coaching.

More on that later.

The longest distance is between knowledge and action

I often tell clients that "knowing without acting on your knowledge" is exactly the same as "NOT knowing at all."

In fact, it's worse, because you lost time reading (or attending a course or seminar)!

Half a dozen people so far have shared with me their difficulty in putting their knowledge into action. They asked me, "At what point should I stop reading?"

I confess I've had that problem before too. It's only recently that I've realized that "life rewards action, not knowledge."

Similarly, a person can take a language course, yet if she doesn't practice it, she will RAPIDLY forget everything! I know from experience: I aced two courses in Spanish, and yet cannot say anything else but "Mi casa es su casa"!!

If you have the problem of not being able to act on your knowledge, you are not alone. It's such a common weakness that Edward de Bono, the creativity guru, in fact coined a special word -- operacy -- to encourage people to focus on developing that important ability. He wrote:

The idiom of education is that it is enough to build up the information base and that action is then easy. It is not. The skills of action are every bit as important as the skills of knowledge. That this is not recognised in education is a tragedy. For convenience I have coined the term 'operacy', which is derived from 'operate' and 'operational' and thus indicates 'the skill needed for doing'. I believe that operacy should rank alongside literacy and numeracy as a major aim of education.

Source: http://www.avec.com.au/esprit/concept.html

I think another word should be coined for "the skill needed to get desired results."

Let's use for now the word "resultancy."

In business, there is nothing more important than resultancy. You have to get the right results. The mission-critical results. If not, you won't survive.

This is why I created the Business Model Workout workshop (www.businessmodelworkout.blogspot.com). I used the framework, albeit in a premature format, to generate more than $100,000 in revenues in a few months for a a company a while ago, when I was still an employee. I used the framework again for three years, while I was running my marketing communications firm. This BMW framework works as a focus enabler that drives the entrepreneur to pay attention to the right performance indicators, and nothing else. No wonder this workshop is getting so popular, even with employees and people considering going into business.

But resultancy (the skill needed to get desired results) is not just for business people. Employees must master that skill also. In fact, anyone who truly cares about performance, should master resultancy.

And people -- at least the ambitious kind of people -- are beginning to realize the importance of resultancy. That's why coaches today, in so many fields, are becoming very popular.

A coach is paid to help you get the results you aim for. This is why coaches often will interview a potential client to see if he/she has "coachable goals."

The saying goes, "When the student is ready, the master appears."

Similarly: "When the performer is ready, the coach appears."

But realistically, since not everyone can afford to have a coach, it is perhaps best to learn about self-coaching.

More on that later.

The longest distance is between knowledge and action

I often tell clients that "knowing without acting on your knowledge" is exactly the same as "NOT knowing at all."

In fact, it's worse, because you lost time reading (or attending a course or seminar)!

Half a dozen people so far have shared with me their difficulty in putting their knowledge into action. They asked me, "At what point should I stop reading?"

I confess I've had that problem before too. It's only recently that I've realized that "life rewards action, not knowledge."

Similarly, a person can take a language course, yet if she doesn't practice it, she will RAPIDLY forget everything! I know from experience: I aced two courses in Spanish, and yet cannot say anything else but "Mi casa es su casa"!!

If you have the problem of not being able to act on your knowledge, you are not alone. It's such a common weakness that Edward de Bono, the creativity guru, in fact coined a special word -- operacy -- to encourage people to focus on developing that important ability. He wrote:

The idiom of education is that it is enough to build up the information base and that action is then easy. It is not. The skills of action are every bit as important as the skills of knowledge. That this is not recognised in education is a tragedy. For convenience I have coined the term 'operacy', which is derived from 'operate' and 'operational' and thus indicates 'the skill needed for doing'. I believe that operacy should rank alongside literacy and numeracy as a major aim of education.

Source: http://www.avec.com.au/esprit/concept.html

I think another word should be coined for "the skill needed to get desired results."

Let's use for now the word "resultancy."

In business, there is nothing more important than resultancy. You have to get the right results. The mission-critical results. If not, you won't survive.

This is why I created the Business Model Workout workshop (www.businessmodelworkout.blogspot.com). I used the framework, albeit in a premature format, to generate more than $100,000 in revenues in a few months for a a company a while ago, when I was still an employee. I used the framework again for three years, while I was running my marketing communications firm. This BMW framework works as a focus enabler that drives the entrepreneur to pay attention to the right performance indicators, and nothing else. No wonder this workshop is getting so popular, even with employees and people considering going into business.

But resultancy (the skill needed to get desired results) is not just for business people. Employees must master that skill also. In fact, anyone who truly cares about performance, should master resultancy.

And people -- at least the ambitious kind of people -- are beginning to realize the importance of resultancy. That's why coaches today, in so many fields, are becoming very popular.

A coach is paid to help you get the results you aim for. This is why coaches often will interview a potential client to see if he/she has "coachable goals."

The saying goes, "When the student is ready, the master appears."

Similarly: "When the performer is ready, the coach appears."

But realistically, since not everyone can afford to have a coach, it is perhaps best to learn about self-coaching.

More on that later.

What is financial freedom?

Many people search for a way to achieve financial freedom, so it seemed logical to me to clarify what it means exactly.

I created mind maps HERE.

First, you have to define for yourself whether financial freedom means:

1. Freedom from being FORCED to work to pay the bills (usually, this is work that you don't enjoy, or find hard to do, or find boring to do)
2. Making a lot of money (say, one million dollars) per year

If you choose Definition 1, then you could search for your ideal career, one where you fully utilize your talent and have fun using it, while being paid a fair amout of money for applying it to a real need in the world.

If you choose Definition 2, then it's a bit tougher since realistically, not many people can become rich. But it's still possible. In my mind map, I drew three basic options: buy a franchise, start from scratch (the most risky), or join a network marketing firm like USANA (risky too, but at least, the product has been developed already).

(To be continued)

Why Google's AdSense works

One reason why AdSense works is that it combines "useful content" with "relevant ads."

For example, the people who make a lot of money with AdSense usually have a very good blog that provides a lot of useful information. Google then takes care of providing relevant ads, based on key words appearing on that blog.

What we can learn from this -- whether we are professionals or business people -- is that advertising is dead (or will be soon). What will work and make people rich, is the idea of giving valuable stuff to potential customers.

Now, what is the one thing that is valuable and that, when you give it away, you still have it?

That's right: KNOWLEDGE.

In 1998, I wrote an economics paper on "Intellectual Capital: the New Wealth of Organizations" (read it HERE).

If I were to rewrite that paper, I would use the title "Intellectual Capital: the New Wealth of Professionals."

This is a secret that most professionals have not yet grasped: the most valuable thing they have is their knowledge and they should GIVE IT AWAY ASAP.

Hiding your valuable knowledge, is like hiding money under the mattress. That's the one place where it will NOT earn interest!

To earn interest, your knowledge must be in somebody's head. Another human being must be thinking about your valuable knowledge, and must be wondering to himself / herself: "Hmm, this John (or this Jane) sure knows a lot of stuff... maybe I should hire him/her to help me solve my problems."

Here's a powerful sort of riddle you can play with, and I suspect that you if you think about it long enough, you will discover insights about wealth creation in today's knowledge-based economy:

"Is anybody willing to pay you $50 to hear you talk about what you know best, so that he/she can use your knowledge to improve his/her life? If someone is willing to do that, you're doing great. But if nobody is willing to pay you $50 to hear you talk for one hour, then is it possible that what you know has no cash value? If it has no cash value, why do you keep all that knowledge in your head?"

Hone business vs home business

The Cheap Revolution

"Affordable technology combined with global pools of smart labor form a Cheap Revolution."

The Cheap Revolution

"Affordable technology combined with global pools of smart labor form a Cheap Revolution."

Source: http://www.forbes.com/columnists/forbes/2005/1017/039.html

Forbes magazine's publisher was the first to write about the Cheap Revolution in his column. There's an amazing article on it in the current issue of Forbes, I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to know how technology will develop from now on, and how a careerist or businessperson can take advantage of that new trend.

The Cheap Revolution basically says that technologies are fast becoming cheaper, even corporate software applications like SAP and SAS. Corporations are now realizing that by turning to open-source software, they can save up to 90% of the technology cost.

Meanwhile, many top coders at companies like BEA, Sun Microsystems, Microsoft, etc. are leaving their corporate employers and setting up their own cheaper-software firms, to compete directly with their former employers!

As I wrote before, talent will soon trump technology and capital.

Cheap Revolution

"Affordable technology combined with global pools of smart labor form a Cheap Revolution."

Source: http://www.forbes.com/columnists/forbes/2005/1017/039.html

Forbes magazine's publisher was the first to write about the Cheap Revolution in his column. There's an amazing article on it in the current issue of Forbes, I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to know how technology will develop from now on, and how a careerist or businessperson can take advantage of that new trend.

The Cheap Revolution basically says that technologies are fast becoming cheaper, even corporate software applications like SAP and SAS. Corporations are now realizing that by turning to open-source software, they can save up to 90% of the technology cost.

Meanwhile, many top coders at companies like BEA, Sun Microsystems, Microsoft, etc. are leaving their corporate employers and setting up their own cheaper-software firms, to compete directly with their former employers!

As I wrote before, talent will soon trump technology and capital.

The Cheap Revolution

"Affordable technology combined with global pools of smart labor form a Cheap Revolution."

Source: http://www.forbes.com/columnists/forbes/2005/1017/039.html

Forbes magazine's publisher was the first to write about the Cheap Revolution in his column. There's an amazing article on it in the current issue of Forbes, I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to know how technology will develop from now on, and how a careerist or businessperson can take advantage of that new trend.

The Cheap Revolution basically says that technologies are fast becoming cheaper, even corporate software applications like SAP and SAS. Corporations are now realizing that by turning to open-source software, they can save up to 90% of the technology cost.

Meanwhile, many top coders at companies like BEA, Sun Microsystems, Microsoft, etc. are leaving their corporate employers and setting up their own cheaper-software firms, to compete directly with their former employers!

As I wrote before, talent will soon trump technology and capital.

The Cheap Revolution

"Affordable technology combined with global pools of smart labor form a Cheap Revolution."

Source: http://www.forbes.com/columnists/forbes/2005/1017/039.html

Forbes magazine's publisher was the first to write about the Cheap Revolution in his column. There's an amazing article on it in the current issue of Forbes, I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to know how technology will develop from now on, and how a careerist or businessperson can take advantage of that new trend.

The Cheap Revolution basically says that technologies are fast becoming cheaper, even corporate software applications like SAP and SAS. Corporations are now realizing that by turning to open-source software, they can save up to 90% of the technology cost.

Meanwhile, many top coders at companies like BEA, Sun Microsystems, Microsoft, etc. are leaving their corporate employers and setting up their own cheaper-software firms, to compete directly with their former employers!

As I wrote before, talent will soon trump technology and capital.

The Cheap Revolution

"Affordable technology combined with global pools of smart labor form a Cheap Revolution."

Source: http://www.forbes.com/columnists/forbes/2005/1017/039.html

Forbes magazine's publisher was the first to write about the Cheap Revolution in his column. There's an amazing article on it in the current issue of Forbes, I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to know how technology will develop from now on, and how a careerist or businessperson can take advantage of that new trend.

The Cheap Revolution basically says that technologies are fast becoming cheaper, even corporate software applications like SAP and SAS. Corporations are now realizing that by turning to open-source software, they can save up to 90% of the technology cost.

Meanwhile, many top coders at companies like BEA, Sun Microsystems, Microsoft, etc. are leaving their corporate employers and setting up their own cheaper-software firms, to compete directly with their former employers!

As I wrote before, talent will soon trump technology and capital.

The Cheap Revolution

"Affordable technology combined with global pools of smart labor form a Cheap Revolution."

Source: http://www.forbes.com/columnists/forbes/2005/1017/039.html

Forbes magazine's publisher was the first to write about the Cheap Revolution in his column. There's an amazing article on it in the current issue of Forbes, I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to know how technology will develop from now on, and how a careerist or businessperson can take advantage of that new trend.

The Cheap Revolution basically says that technologies are fast becoming cheaper, even corporate software applications like SAP and SAS. Corporations are now realizing that by turning to open-source software, they can save up to 90% of the technology cost.

Meanwhile, many top coders at companies like BEA, Sun Microsystems, Microsoft, etc. are leaving their corporate employers and setting up their own cheaper-software firms, to compete directly with their former employers!

As I wrote before, talent will soon trump technology and capital.

The Cheap Revolution

"Affordable technology combined with global pools of smart labor form a Cheap Revolution."

Source: http://www.forbes.com/columnists/forbes/2005/1017/039.html

Forbes magazine's publisher was the first to write about the Cheap Revolution in his column. There's an amazing article on it in the current issue of Forbes, I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to know how technology will develop from now on, and how a careerist or businessperson can take advantage of that new trend.

The Cheap Revolution basically says that technologies are fast becoming cheaper, even corporate software applications like SAP and SAS. Corporations are now realizing that by turning to open-source software, they can save up to 90% of the technology cost.

Meanwhile, many top coders at companies like BEA, Sun Microsystems, Microsoft, etc. are leaving their corporate employers and setting up their own cheaper-software firms, to compete directly with their former employers!

As I wrote before, talent will soon trump technology and capital.

The Cheap Revolution

"Affordable technology combined with global pools of smart labor form a Cheap Revolution."

Source: http://www.forbes.com/columnists/forbes/2005/1017/039.html

Forbes magazine's publisher was the first to write about the Cheap Revolution in his column. There's an amazing article on it in the current issue of Forbes, I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to know how technology will develop from now on, and how a careerist or businessperson can take advantage of that new trend.

The Cheap Revolution basically says that technologies are fast becoming cheaper, even corporate software applications like SAP and SAS. Corporations are now realizing that by turning to open-source software, they can save up to 90% of the technology cost.

Meanwhile, many top coders at companies like BEA, Sun Microsystems, Microsoft, etc. are leaving their corporate employers and setting up their own cheaper-software firms, to compete directly with their former employers!

As I wrote before, talent will soon trump technology and capital.

The New Biziness!

Thanks to the power of the Internet (and, in particular, Blogger, Odeo, Payloadz, Paypal, Skype, YouTube, etc.), people today can do business DIRECTLY with one another.

"Business" is fast becoming what I call "Biziness." It's all about one person ("I") interacting and exchanging stuff with another person.

Another way to put it is: Every cashflow begins with a conversation. Holistically speaking, the more people you talk to and network with, the more you can give them information, emotion (positive, one hopes!), value and money. The more you can receive from them, also.

www.ecademy.com is an example of a network that allows you to do precisely that. There's LinkedIn too, of course.

Does your past equal your future?

Yesterday, we gave yet another Ideal Career workshop to a group of women who were motivated to discover and pursue their dream career.

Above are the two diagrams I used to illustrate a point: We all have to decide whether our past will equal our future.

When it comes to career management or job searching, most people make the mistake of just working on and looking at their resume. The resume IS the past. Working on the resume is like staring at the rear-view mirror. Sure, it's good to know where you've been, but it is CRITICAL to look at where you're going and where you WANT to go.

If the future is just a replication of the past, why live? Why work if it's just more of the same? It's in our human nature to want to learn and grow and realize our full potential. One author put it this way: "Life is to be understood backward and lived forward."

The diagram with the black windshield shows the case where a person is continually repeating the past and has no idea of what his/her future is like.

The other diagram shows a person who is beginning to question his/her life and where it is going. This is a good sort of questioning as it leads to discoveries about ourselves, our interests, goals and priorities in life.

Important findings about your career

Here's a summary of an article in the March 2006 issue of Harvard Business Review on "Managing Middlescence":

Midcareer employees – those between 35 and 54 – make up more than half the workforce. One in 4 has managerial or supervisory responsibility.

In June 2004, Concours Group conducted a survey with Harris Interactive of more than 7,700 U.S. Workers, and found that people in this age group...

• Work longer hours than their older and younger counterparts, with 30% saying they put in 50 or more hours per week
• Only 43 are passionate about their jobs
• 33% feel energized by their work
• 36% say they feel they are in dead-end jobs
• More than 40% report feelings of burnout

Midcarer employees are the least likely to say that their workplace is congenial and fun or that it offers ample opportunity to try new things.

As a group, they have the lowest satisfaction rates with their immediate managers and the least confidence in top executives.

Only 1 in 3 agrees that top management displays integrity or commitment to employee development, and 1 in 4 often disagrees with the organization's policies on important employee matters.

One in 5 is seeking opportunities in other organizations, and a similar percentage are looking for a major career change. But 85% believe that career changes are very difficult these days. Family and financial pressures outside work make them conservative in their career choices, and many cannot afford moves that would involve cuts in pay or benefits.

Is your career at risk?

"Always stay calm" sounds like good advice. In theory. But if you're in Africa, and you see a tiger coming out of a bush and staring at you like as if you were his meal for the evening, panicking would be a good idea. PANIC can give wings to your feet as you try to run away like an Olympian sprinter.

Same with career management. Most people take it easy, too easy! And that's why they won't have a career soon.

Here's a number that should scare anyone: 3,000,000,000.

This is the number of new workers entering the global workforce. They come from China, India, the former USSR and other places. They are smart, they are hungry, they are educated and skilled -- and most importantly, they want YOUR job.

And we're not talking about call center jobs. That's old news. We're talking about engineering jobs, knowledge-intensive jobs like accounting, tutoring, coaching, medical analysis, etc.

Thomas Friedman has written extensively about this threat (it's an opportunity for Indian and Chinese workers, but a threat to us North Americans) in his best-seller The World is Flat. Anyone who cares about their career and wants to have a future in the new economy, should read the book.

Above is a diagram that can help you to evaluate your strategic positioning within your company.

I will write more about it, but if you want to read a great book on how to prepare for competing professionally in the new economy, the book A Whole New Mind by Dan Pink (www.danpink.com) is a great read. I highly recommend it.

Web media empowers people like you and me

From the James Bond movie Tomorrow Never Dies (1997):

(Media baron) Elliot Carver: Good morning, my golden retrievers. What kind of havoc shall the Carver Media Group create in the world today? News?

Newsman: Floods in Pakistan, riots in Paris, and a plane crash in California.

Elliot Carver: Outstanding!

---

Tomorrow may never die, but mass media does. Today, an ordinary person can "own" a daily, a radio station AND a television station. He/she can broadcast to the world whatever he/she wants.

A "television station" like YouTube, developed at a cost of US$11.5M, can be used free of charge by anyone to upload a video (and, in fact, an unlimited number of videos).

Odeo is the radio station, and Blogger is the daily newspaper that anyone can publish.

I've been using Blogger for a long time, and have adopted Odeo and YouTube only recently. Their combined power is just awesome! I highly recommend to knowledge professionals that they start using it in order to get familiar with how they work and how they can tilt -- dramatically -- the playing field to one's favor, either in one's career or business.

Instruction, not information

5:00

The Internet is getting more and more powerful. By extension, it is giving people (ordinary folks like you and me) more and more power.

But will we make good money from it?

I think it depends on whether we focus on INFORMATION or INSTRUCTION.

For instance, if we think of the Internet as an information medium, then we might not make a lot of money. Information is no longer power.

But if we think of the Internet as an instruction medium (a sort of global blackboard through we can teach stuff to other people), then we might make some money.

Knowledge is power, so when you transfer knowledge (power) to people, they are more willing to pay for it.

Free services like YouTube allow smart people to share their knowledge to a potentially limitless audience.

Limitless audience! That's the key to wealth, methinks!

The challenge, of course, is: How do you package your valuable knowledge, experience, expertise, etc. into a 10-minute YouTube clip that people will want to watch and possibly pay for?

(Note: some YouTube video clips you create can be public, whereas others can be private -- i.e. only people you email will have the secret URL enabling them to view your video clip).

From Brand You to YouTube

6:00

Management guru Tom Peters (www.tompeters.com) often writes about Brand You, or the necessity for professionals and careerists to aggressively promote their unique value proposition to (potential) employers and clients.

Before the advent of YouTube (which allows you, free of charge, to "broadcast yourself" on the Web), the return on investing time, effort and money into creating your "Brand You" was fairly small.

After all, without a mass media, how can it be profitable to create your Brand You and disseminate it to key audiences?

YouTube changes all this, and shifts power dramatically to talented professionals, who now have a powerful medium through which to broadcast their unique value proposition (UVP).

Unfortunately, professionals who did not work on their UVP will not find YouTube very useful.

The analogy is this: YouTube is like a giant radio broadcasting station. It will make you famous and rich IF and only IF you have a good song that people like. After they hear your song, they might go to the music store (online or offline) to buy your CD.

By the same token, a radio station cannot help singers who don't have talent.

The bottom line is that services like YouTube will proliferate in the future. It is therefore more important than ever for professionals to ask themselves: "What is my unique value proposition?"

Without the answer to that critical question, the Internet will not be useful to one's career. Which is sad, because the Internet is arguably the most powerful career-boosting technology ever invented.