When no means don't know

"The business chameleon may change its colours but at the end of the day its fundamental form and instincts remain the same."
- Tim Wright, “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.”
The above quote is worth remembering whenever you approach somebody in your firm or a market with your groundbreaking idea. The more radical the idea, the more difficult it will be to get approval: your colleagues will hate it (more work); your supervisor will hate it ("Holy crap Batman, this is going to affect my bonus.") and the market will hate it ("Is it safe? What? Betty next door doesn't have one, I don't need it."). You could call these the 3Ms of Resistance: your Mates, your Manager and the Market. The letter below, written in 1829, is also worth keeping close at hand:

Dear President Jackson,

The canal system in this country is being threatened by a new form of transportation known as "railroads" . . . If the canal boats are supplanted by railroads, boat builders would suffer, and towline, whip, and harness makers would be left destitute . . . God never intended that people should travel at such breakneck speed.

Sincerely,
Martin Van Buren

Governor, State of New York, 1829


Martin tells the peeps about the future potential of railroads. 

PS. I've decided that this blog is not too cool for Google ads but I am getting bored shitless with them. Somebody please come up with something a bit more interesting, please. Even if you just replace the text ads with some cute 120x60 buttons or videos. Or how about ad blocks as CIRCLES ("portholes")? Something, anything.

PPS. Google is a bit of a strange phenomenon: it's a "cool," and much-sought-after place to work, yet many "quality" Web sites and blogs see it as being a bit too common. Go figure.