Ryan Grepper’s Coolest is proof that necessity is the father of invention.

Not that his invention is a necessity and it won’t save the world or even a little bit of it, but it will make your summer fun easier.

The original galvanized metal cooler was patented in 1954.

Coleman introduced a plastic liner in 1957 and wheels were added a couple of decades later.

But nothing, including the fancy electric versions, even comes close to Grepper’s Coolest.

There are far more moving parts to manufacturing a complicated product such as Coolest, which Grepper seems to understand.

It’s also nice to see a “real” product from a twenty-something that while focused on fun will generate revenue through sales, not ads.

Obviously, others agree. Coolest has raised over $5.5 million dollars from more than 29,000 people—and the campaign still has 42 days to run.

Coolest is definitely a global business in the making.

I’m sure it won’t be long before he will have to choose between building a company and selling or licensing his technology.

What would you do?

Image credit: Coolest on Kickstarter

Would you jump in front of an object moving at 30 mph or better to take a selfie?

Would you do it knowing that not only you, but others could be seriously injured or even killed?

That’ what was happening at this year’s Tour de France.

What drives people to play this kind of Russian roulette and then brag about it?

I doubt they have a death wish or even consider that they might maim or kill someone else.

Do they have any understanding of cause and effect; action and consequences?

Is it “but me” syndrome?

Is it that they just don’t think?

Can they think?

I honestly don’t understand and would appreciate any insights you might have.

Image credit: Jose Been via Business Insider

A month after I started this blog in 2006 I focused on the magic found in silence; magic that allows you to think, dream and innovate.

Silence is a requirement to get to know oneself. In 2007 I wrote, “My own anecdotal evidence shows that while most people are uncomfortable with silence, others are actually terrified by it.”

Two years ago I cited Edward do Bono, a giant in the world of creative thinking, who believes that boredom is the springboard of creativity.

Last year research found that the constant time spent with today’s ubiquitous screens not only affects the brain, but also reduces capacity for connection, friendship and empathy.

Now, eight years later, people’s need for distraction and abhorrence of silence have been proved.

A recent article in Bloomberg Businessweek details an experiment just how far people will go to escape solitude.

Being alone with no distractions was so distasteful to two-thirds of men and a quarter of women that they elected to give themselves mild electric shocks rather than sit quietly in a room with nothing but the thoughts in their heads.

Is this you?

Flickr image credit: Alice Popkorn

How much can you learn from this video beyond the obvious?

The obvious lesson is that texting while driving can get you killed.

But there are more general take-aways that you can use in any business.

• The unexpected is good way to make a point.
• Being startled forces people to focus.
• A negative can be used to drive home a positive.
• Covert education through entertainment.
• Pictures are worth a thousand lectures.

What other lessons did you find?

YouTube credit: MadOverAds

A Friday series exploring Startups and the people who make them go. Read all If the Shoe Fits posts here

Stupidity is rampant; from the five billion dollar valuation of Cynk, which has no revenue, to these idiotic interview questions, which were recently banned.

Why would investors buy illiquid stock in a company with no revenues?

What does knowing how many piano tuners there are in the world have to do with being a productive contributor?

There was a time when both these scenarios would have been greeted with you’ve-got-to-be-kidding laughter, but times have changed.

Cynk’s valuation is the result of its claim to sell introductions to famous people.

The interview questions were Google’s, and, as we all know, Google only does smart stuff.

These examples prove that jumping on the wagon to avoid missing out or because an idea/action is sourced from/endorsed by a name brand isn’t always a smart way to go.

Blind stupidity is best avoided through individual, critical thinking.

In other words, that’s the best way to avoid being dressed like the emperor.

Image credit: HikingArtist

KG sent me a link to a post in the WSJ by Jason Nazar, co-founder/CEO of Docstoc, which was just acquired by Intuit.

It should be mandatory reading for every budding entrepreneur.

Why?

Because it tells the other side of what’s involved building something with just a four million dollar investment.

The “other side” is about the long days (and nights), the stress and the negative effects on family and friends.

All the stuff that is rarely mentioned and when it is discussed it’s either glossed over and minimized or rationalize to the point that most entrepreneurs shrug it off.

KG understands this well, because he is traveling the same road.

And while you may not be able to ask Jason Nazar questions you can ask KG in the comments and he’ll respond.

Among today’s most popular buzzwords is ‘transparency’.

Transparency is one of the most important underpinnings of ‘authenticity’ and ‘trust’.

Corporations large and small trumpet the transparency of their dealings—except financial ones.

(Individuals, too; they will describe in detail their thoughts, attitudes and actions, even their sex lives, but freak when the subject is their money.)

But some bosses believe that financial transparency is not only possible, but can lay the groundwork for an extraordinary culture.

Financial transparency means not just sharing all the company financials with all its employees, but ensuring they have the skills to understand them by explaining and discussion them.

It’s called open-book management and was documented in “The Great Game of Business” by Jack Stack and Bo Burlingham.

Mr. Stack and the managers bought the plant [International Harvester engine plant], renamed it Springfield ReManufacturing and turned it into a thriving collection of more than 30 businesses now known as SRC — thanks largely to an innovative strategy that came to be known as open-book management.

The basic rules are

• Know and teach the rules: every employee should be given the measures of business success and taught to understand them
• Follow the Action & Keep Score: Every employee should be expected and enabled to use their knowledge to improve performance
• Provide a Stake in the Outcome: Every employee should have a direct stake in the company’s success-and in the risk of failure

Ari Weinzweig and co-founder Paul Saginaw wanted that kind of inclusive, engaged culture when they started their company and used open-book to anchor their growth.

Zingerman’s Delicatessen, a tiny sandwich shop near the university, into a group of nine businesses that, three decades later, has 650 employees, 18 managing partners and combined annual sales of $50 million.

That’s called success and has been recognized as such and emulated a la Tony Hsieh.

Wayne Baker, a professor in the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, turned it into four case studies. Bo Burlingham featured Zingerman’s in a book called “Small Giants,” which is about companies that “choose to be great rather than big.” And the owners and employees of more than 1,000 companies have attended ZingTrain seminars to learn more about the Zingerman’s model.

While their approach is definitely a success, not everyone likes or wants the involvement.

Former staff members talk about the frustrations of having to placate difficult customers, as well as the stress of being “Zingy” throughout a long shift. “It is exhausting to work somewhere where you feel like you have to improve what you do constantly,” said one former worker at Zingerman’s Roadhouse.

Others love it.

Krystal Walls, who works in the mail-order business and has two children and a third on the way, said at the training session, “I have never worked anywhere where I was trusted or respected like this.”

When their little deli first succeeded they were offered substantial buyouts, as well as the opportunity to franchise, but none of those options allowed them to pursue their vision and make a difference. The company pays its people well and provides full health benefits.

“Employees who are stressed out financially, wondering how to pay for their kid’s allergy meds, or their rent or auto insurance, are not going to be able to do their job well,” said Mr. Saginaw, who has been lobbying in Washington for the last year for an increase in the minimum wage. “We’re comfortable with the notion that there’s such a thing as enough. Others may be wealthier than we’ll ever be, but I wonder if they’ve lost a certain amount of joy in their work.”

Flickr image credit: Carl Collins

Five years ago I told you how reading a story by Trevor Blake in Inc led me to terminate a 10+ year “friendship” because of the constant negativity.

Even worse, being exposed to too much complaining can actually make you dumb. Research shows that exposure to 30 minutes or more of negativity–including viewing such material on TV–actually peels away neurons in the brain’s hippocampus.  “Typically, people who are complaining don’t want a solution; they just want you to join in the indignity of the whole thing. You can almost hear brains clink when six people get together and start saying, ‘Isn’t it terrible?’ This will damage your brain even if you’re just passively listening. And if you try to change their behavior, you’ll become the target of the complaint.” the part of your brain you need for problem solving,” he says. “Basically, it turns your brain to mush.”

I recently terminated another long-term friendship for the same reason.

In the original post I ended by saying, “…I’d done the right thing in severing the relationship—even though I did it years later than I should have.”

Obviously I didn’t learn the first time or I wouldn’t have waited so long.

There’s an old saying, “the first time you [whatever] is experience; the second time it’s a mistake, but the third time it’s stupidity.”

I had the experience; now I’ve made the mistake.

Hopefully I won’t hit stupidity any time soon (or later).

Anonymous email image

Today is a celebration of our freedoms—freedom from fear, hate, intolerance—and from other people’s beliefs.

What responsibility does leadership—business, political, religious, community—bear in fostering hate and intolerance?

I’m not talking about race or gender issues, but the prevalent attitude that I’m/we’re-RIGHT-so-you-should-do/think-our-way-or-else.

It’s not the “we’re right/you’re wrong” that bothers me, but the “do-it-our-way-or-else” that shows the intolerance for what it really is.

During my adult life (I missed being a Boomer by a hair) I’ve watched as hate and intolerance spread across the country masked by religion, a facade of political correctness or a mea culpa that is supposed to make everything OK—but doesn’t.

Various business, political, religious and community leaders give passionate, fiery talks to their followers and then express surprise and dismay when some of those same followers, in the name what their leader preaches, steal trade secrets, plant bombs, and kill individuals whose only error was following their own beliefs.

No longer are we entitled to the pursuit of happiness if our happiness offends the person next door or someone living at the other end of the country.

What a person chooses to believe is their business.

It becomes mine only if they try to force me to think/act/believe the same way.

Have a wonderful, safe and tolerant holiday.

Flickr image credit: Alice Popkorn

Spending time with entrepreneurs is always enlightening.

I was at lunch with a group of them when talk turned to the current “media bashing,” as one person called it, tech was getting over the lack of diversity.

“Jason” said focus was critical in a startup and it was achieved best when the founders hired their friends and friends of friends.

He went on to say that while he understood the importance of diversity in a large company, focus was rarely a byproduct of diversity.

I asked if he considered focus to be as important for investors.

He said of course and went on (and on) explaining why it was even more important with investors, since they usually comprise the startup’s board.

Most hung on his words, since Jason was the big name that day (personally, I found him arrogant and patronizing).

I asked Jason if he would be surprised that research showed the greater the similarities between investors the less likely the success of their portfolio companies—success being an IPO.

They found that the probability of success decreased by 17 percent if two co-investors had previously worked at the same company—even if they hadn’t worked there at the same time. In cases where investors had attended the same undergraduate school, the success rate dropped by 19 percent. And, overall, investors who were members of the same ethnic minority were 20 percent less successful than investors with different ethnic backgrounds.

Conversation more or less died after I shared the URL with them.

They were too busy reading and then we were out of time.

Flickr image credit: Steve Voght