These old milk crates hold my records just fine. These old vinyl records sound, smell, and feel better. Kids love kids books, no matter how old they are. These eyeglass frames are back in style. This old bike rides great gets me to where I need to be. This bottle opener is 50 years old, made of solid iron and opens bottled drinks. This plastic pickle barrel is now a rain barrel. This other plastic pickle barrel is now my composter. These old canvases can be whitewashed and re-stretched to make new art. This old picture frame looks great with a coat of paint. This table from the 60′s is still stylish and solid. This old quilt keeps me warm. This old beat up jacket also keeps me warm. This old trusty car can haul everything I need and my friends. This old boombox fills my garage with music. These old apothecary jars are now terrariums on my window sill. This old high school locker stores my gardening tools. This old tool chest keeps my tools organized. These old wood floors just need a sweep to look great. This old pair of jeans my comfortable weekend jeans. This old t-shirt fits me great. These old cufflinks work are beautiful. This old farm hat keeps the sun out of my eyes. I could move 3 more times and reuse these same storable, flat cardboard boxes. This fake Christmas tree is 40 years old and can go another 50 years. These old potters hold my plants. This old license plate is now a birdhouse roof. This old hammer works just as good (or better) than a new one. This old leather satchel helps me carry my daily things. This old armchair is my favorite. This old sailboat was handcrafted and works great. These old wooden fishing lures still catch plenty of fish. This old wool stocking cap is toasty in the winter months. These coffee cans hold my bolts + screws. This glass milk bottle stores my cold press coffee and another holds my coins. This old cardigan is now chic again. This old rope can be used for almost anything. These old books can last 100 years. This old camera is solid and trustworthy.

There’s a new generation of consumers out there. The younger demographic is being drilled about recyclability, sustainability, reuse, material choice and impact. This now 30 year old mentality is even re-educating and updating into the older generations. The hoarding generation of depression and post-depression era is over. So is the buy-and-toss days of the Gen X and Gen Y. I have hope for the new generation. Hope that our educational system and the leadership of green pioneers can instill a new thought process and direction on consumer choices.

If you make a product, it’s time to first think of it’s longevity. The cream will always rise to the top. If you combine a good product with honest marketing you can’t lose. My grandfather will only buy Craftsman brand tools because of the lifetime guarantee on them. However, I don’t know if he’s ever even had to return any of his Craftsman tools. They make a great and durable product as is. The lifetime guarantee is just gutsy, smart, comfort marketing thought up decades ago. This new generation of consumers will  know the difference, they can sniff out your planned obsolescence and most will want no part in it.

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There are some universal assumptions about ghosts (whether you believe in them or not.)

1.) Some folks believe in them / some do not.
2.) Some people claim that they can see them. (These people probably ate paint chips as a kid.)
3.) Ghosts need a place to haunt
4.) Ghosts have unfinished business.

Here’s the paradox: So if  a ghost haunts a particular location due to unfinished business, (presumably) to spook you and get you to leave for good. Then, if they actually achieve their goal of  spooking everyone away – what would they do? Just hang out? They’d just be hovering around, rattling cupboards, making ooOOOOooo noises…? It’s the same paradox as the “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” Does that ghost actually exist? Would your business need to exist? Customers can always choose another option.

Sure, maybe some ghosts aren’t intentionally trying to spook you, maybe they’re just having a bad day. Maybe they only wanted to make contact for some reason. Ghosts are trying to spook you in some way or the other, they’re trying to not be bothered, they’re trying to get you to never come back to that place ever again. If a company creates enough ghosts of their own, they scare away all of your business.

Your customers are making a choice, they’re using your service, buying your product, shopping at your store for a fragile reason. If you have apathetic or rude people working for you and making contact with your customers, you’re scaring them away. Never to return again, all the while telling people that your business stinks. It’s the same as a little kid saying “I’m not going back in there that place is HAUNTED!” The people you have representing the point of contact to your company need to understand that without the customers, they’d be out of a job. They have an opportunity with every call, every email, every interaction to win over a customer for life. It’s really not that hard. If your company has a pesky ghost and they finally get customers to never call in again, never ask questions, frustrate them or get them to never point out a service aspect that needs fixing, then the ghosts have won.

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The other day I noticed a subtle pattern and subsequent parallel. Cities and industries are a lot like the the universe. The image diagram above shows my interpretation of it. Attractive inward growth to an industry > more compression & growth > peak growth with a compression limit and gyration > then, the inevitable BURST. It’s how our universe was formed. It’s the “big bang” in 4 convenient icons.

The city I grew up in is over, it funneled > compressed > burst. The population has flatlined and over the past decade it’s even started to decline slowly. My hometown is just 20 minutes outside of the  nearest city proper. We were on the fringes of city civilization 30 years ago, it was the wild frontier of housing. Big homes & yards for cheap! Build whatever style/model you wanted (if you didn’t mind being 20 minutes outside of the metropolitan proper.) My city grew and grew, funneling people in until it reached a functioning capacity. It stayed like this for 15-20 years and then the utopian suburbia fringe wasn’t so utopian. The burst was imminent. There was an attractive new fringe, and thus a new generation set out, 20 miles (further) in every direction, to a new suburban frontier. The same will happen to those towns, but it will take another 25 years.

Industries are no different. Some of the larger industries are even on a similar 20-30 year bloom > grow > burst lifecycle. When an industry is born it moves fast. New products, new offshoots, new competitors pop up over night. Before the web a company could milk the 30 year product cycle before it truly burst or the industry came up with new, slow direction to get behind. Online things move a lot quicker but similar parallels can be seen, just in a shortened, micro timeline.

Are you a city fiscal planner? Organic yogurt maker? A log supplier? An auto maker? A video game franchise? The peak compression warning signs are easy to spot if you can accept that they exist and react to them. Try and pinpoint where your company is in the lifecycle, then ask where your company is in terms of the diagram. Maybe it’s time to evolve drastically before you flatline for too many years and go out with a whimper. If you saw the burst in my diagram as a bad endpoint you’re probably in a stagnant industry or a pessimist. The burst can mean a completely different thing. The burst can be that you blew up and revolutionized your industry’s sector, launched a new line of game-changing products, approached some new marketing tactics, or like our universe did, maybe you burst into a whole new fresh galaxy altogether – so which one did you see in the diagram?

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I normally wouldn’t post such a personal topic, but I feel this one is pretty important. Drinking alcohol and summer go together like, well, mint juleps and porches. I sometimes catch myself using alcohol, caffeine or a night out for what I’ve thought was to reward myself, when really, as I’ve come to realize – to procrastinate. It’s just not worth it anymore. As I get older, a night of tipping back brews takes its toll on me. Combining an entrepreneur’s already sleep deprived schedule with a night of drinking and then a wasted day of feeling like crap, just isn’t worth it. I need to be (and prefer to be) operating at 100%.

So you you have ask yourself next time you’re pondering a night out, do I truly deserve a night out? Could I be doing something more productive for my family, business, or friends? Do I even have the money to waste on drinking? When I ask myself those questions I usually arrive at the same conclusion  – it’s not really worth it.  Instead of using drinking or drugs it to subconsciously procrastinate, set a larger, more rewarding goal. I understand that entrepreneurs thrive and create success in small victories, but when it comes to over-rewarding, sometimes drugs, alcohol and caffeine can overtake and hinder even the smallest of goals you’ve been trying to accomplish. It took me 4-5 years to realize that the old adage of getting enough sleep, exercising and eating right goes a long way in helping craft success.

Reasons to celebrate: You sell your company for millions or launch a new product to glowing reviews and orders are pouring in!

Reasons not to celebrate: Sending a bunch of emails out or making it through a day of 5 meetings.

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