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Beyond Excellence:
The "Berserk Standard"

Amazon has changed the world.
eBay has changed the world.

Craigslist has changed the world—put about a zillion nails in the coffins of newspapers, among many other Richter 8.0+ things.
Craigslist has more traffic than Amazon or eBay.
(Though a private company, Craigslist has a projected market capitalization in the billions.)

Amazon has 20,000 employees.
eBay has 16,000 employees.
Craigslist has ... 30 employees.

There is more than one way to skin a cat—even a thoroughly modern cat.

"Pragmatic" action?

Among other things, every (!!!) time you start a project, no matter how small, reach out to several S.W.P.—seriously weird people—for their views about what you are undertaking. Keep reaching until you find a couple of people who are so far out that they more or less speak gibberish.

It may indeed be gibberish, and probably is gibberish—but perhaps once or twice in a lifetime, it'll be someone and some approach that amounts to a blueprint for doing the work of 10,000 with 10, à la Craigslist vs. Amazon and eBay.

Never get seriously underway until you've surfaced a couple of ideas that score perfect 10s, or at least 8s, on the ... Berserk Scale.

At the least, you will have had your mind stretched, the best exercise regimen of all; at most, you may have taken a baby step toward inclusion in the history books.

NB: I've got two books beside me as I write this:

The Weather Channel: The Improbable Rise of a Media Phenomenon (Frank Batten with Jeffrey Cruikshank)
ESPN: The Uncensored History (Michael Freeman)

The idea of an all-weather channel and the idea of an all-sports channel were considered the fantasies of raving lunatics. It took both sets of "lunatics" forever to prove their points. Yet both properties achieved matchless popularity (user-addicts by the millions) and market values of several billion dollars each.

(Source of data re Craigslist, Amazon, eBay: Wired, cover story, September 2009.)

Tom Peters posted this on 09/08/09.

Comments

Don't forget USAtoday and CNN... --ski

Posted by SKI at September 8, 2009 9:13 AM

SKI, absolutely; both stories are wonderful!! And "60 Minutes"--years in the wilderness.

Posted by tom peters at September 8, 2009 9:18 AM

Of course, the birth of the United States of America meets that standard... as TP has often commented.

Posted by Stephen Garner at September 8, 2009 12:04 PM

"Berserk scale" - love this - especially condidering the Norse root.

All the best from Brighton,
Mark
http://integrationtraining.blogspot.com/

Posted by Stress Training Mark at September 8, 2009 4:32 PM

Turns out the lunatics REALLY ARE are running the asylum - just as I've always believed :-)

Posted by Trevor Gay at September 8, 2009 4:54 PM

wanted to turn up for work in a bearskin and biting the edge of my laptop but my boss told me to get on with that project update instead......

Posted by PaulH at September 9, 2009 2:08 AM

So the US will be the place to buy books, run your classified ads, get your weather and watch sports. And in China - here's part of a column from Tom Friedman.

"One-party autocracy certainly has its drawbacks. But when it is led by a reasonably enlightened group of people, as China is today, it can also have great advantages. That one party can just impose the politically difficult but critically important policies needed to move a society forward in the 21st century. It is not an accident that China is committed to overtaking us in electric cars, solar power, energy efficiency, batteries, nuclear power and wind power. China’s leaders understand that in a world of exploding populations and rising emerging-market middle classes, demand for clean power and energy efficiency is going to soar. Beijing wants to make sure that it owns that industry and is ordering the policies to do that, including boosting gasoline prices, from the top down."

Posted by zorro at September 9, 2009 9:33 PM

Living not far from Atlanta, I was especially fascinated a few decades ago when a guy whose family had been in outdoor advertising (billboards) decided to create the first television "Superstation." They called him "nuts" and a few other adjectives. Superstation WTBS not only succeeded, but he obviously followed that up with more innovations that -- to this day -- are mainstays of cable and satellite television. I have no doubt there were some "kooky" thinkers besides Ted Turner involved in the conception and birth of these billion dollar enterprises that people said were stupid ideas. Now you can even watch golf (ZZZZzzzzzzzz) 24/7 on cable. The reciprocal of "something for everyone" is that what you or I might think is a ridiculous idea might easily turn out to be a niche service or offering that goes straight into orbit.

You damn sure don't know until you try it, that's for sure. So don't let the naysayers talk you out of something that really feels exciting and right. If thinking about it keeps you awake at night and talking about it makes your skin tingle and your heart rate increase, that's a sign it could be something worth doing.

Posted by Dan Gunter at September 10, 2009 7:24 AM

Friedman assumes that the "reasonably enlightened" bit will stay in place when China becomes the #1 economy and #1 military power in, say, 2050. He's insane. (And, yes, I know how bright he is.)

Posted by tom peters at September 10, 2009 8:09 AM