If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas. ~George Bernard Shaw

Susan Lott, Fugent’s Training Expert, recently included that quote in our internal news letter. That is a great quote. We need to share more ideas. Everyone. Not just my team, my family, and your team but everyone. What is the best way to share ideas? Email, voice mail, conference call, Fugent meeting, billboard, airplane banner, megaphone, Facebook, Twitter or a blog? I have no clue. I guess it doesn’t really matter how you share an idea but that you just share ideas. We tend to keep our ideas inside, especially the good ones. We find ourselves saying things like, “if I tell Bob my idea he may go out and steal it.” Really? Bob has 65 things on his mind and 25 things that he needs to do yesterday.

We are really giving Bob too much credit. The ideas are not the hard part but executing on the ideas is. Sometimes it just helps to share and collaborate. Bob doesn’t want your idea but I am sure he wouldn’t mind talking to you about it. Bob may be just the person to help you try and figure your challenge/idea out. Bob could change your life. I guess I didn’t learn as much in kindergarten as I should have because I really need to share more ideas.

I recently read a book by Chris Anderson called FREE. The audio was free at Audible.com and the electronic version of the book was free at Amazon.com. Chris is smart and the book is thought provoking. I enjoyed both the electronic version and the audio version but I wanted more. I needed the hardback book. I needed the ability to reference, tag, tab and highlight the book. I paid $26.00 for a book I already had for free (in both the electronic and auditory formats). Chris created buzz about FREE and gave the book away for a month. Guess what? He got a premium from me. I paid more for his book then any other books on Amazon. No Super Saver option on that book but I didn’t care. I wanted it.

Sometimes free works but sometimes it doesn’t. Given a choice to pay $1.49 for a loaf of Aunt Millie’s bread or get a free moldy loaf, I chose $1.49 over the mental and stomach issues of free. Given the opportunity to have technology that I don’t use for free or something I pay for and generate millions from, I chose the paid version.

Sometimes Free technology is dangerous. It creates disincentives, is not as user friendly, does not do everything you want it to and sucks up time and energy. The next time your organization offers you free technology and zero support from the internal team or the vendor, you need to think about the lost productivity and revenue. You could be wasting millions by getting free. That is the most expensive Freebie I have ever heard of. Free still has a price.

Do you have a case of the Somedays? I hear the phrase Someday a lot. I hear it in my personal life, I hear it in my professional life and it always makes me laugh. I say it as well. I think we all do this to some extent. It caught me off guard today when my oldest son said “I’ll do that when I get bigger someday”. Really? The five year old has already started with the case of the Somedays. I hope that I am able to teach him that Someday is a curse. It is a bad way to approach our family, our business and our life.

It reminds me of the sign at the bar that reads “Free Beer Tomorrow”. The sign never changes and tomorrow never comes. Someday is a bad deal and like the Free Beer, it probably won’t come. Take a look at today and prioritize. Call the prospect. Research the competition. Learn the new technology that can help improve your business. Take a walk with the family. Call a loved one and let them know what they mean to you. Someday is a bad deal and today is the cure.

It is noon on a Tuesday afternoon and I just got around to driving back to Borders Book Store to find and buy my friend that book I wanted. I finally get to the store, park and walk in. Five people in the store, the store is well lit and the smell of coffee and new books are in the air. I think to myself, “this is an experience that Amazon will have a hard time replicating”. Now, where is the Business Section? Food, Fiction, Non-Fiction, Cooking, Bargain, Religion, History, Poetry, Travel, Wine, Children’s, Music and every other crazy category available. Hmmm, Business is not easy to find. After my fourth lap around the store, I realize that the great big sign marked “Children’s” is really only a word not meant to serve any direction to a single shopper. Business is in the Children’s section…great. Exactly my impression of Borders at this point – Children.

Now I begin to look for Seth Godin’s book, Tribes (a great, quick read). Ok. Seth is a marketing guy. Let’s find marketing, got it. There is exactly one book from Seth that was originally released in 2005. Good book but not Tribes. Interesting that the marketing guru has one book in the Marketing section? Ok. Small Business, let’s try that. Good, two more books from Seth but none of them are Tribes. How about Management, let’s try that. One more book from Seth that is not Tribes. At this point I begin to panic, I have now driven, parked, walked, done laps around the store, invested my valuable time and there is no sign of Tribes. Wait! One last hope – LEADERSHIP! Yes, I find Tribes in the LEADERSHIP section. To the register I go with my gift card and Tribes in hand. Ugh, no one is there. Ah, there is the tee shirt wearing cashier hiding behind the 600 calendar choices…it is half way through the year…who needs a calendar at this point anyways? He rings me up and $21.94 is the total. Crud, my gift card is for $20.00. I pay the extra and I am on my way. 58 minutes later I am back at my desk. That was an experience, one that I will not repeat anytime soon. Amazon time to order, 47 seconds and $8.37 cheaper.

Here is the point. Amazon is a Leader. They have a better experience (sans the coffee and book smell). They are open 24×7. They are cheaper. They are faster. How long do you have before your competition becomes the Leader? Are you becoming faster? Are you always open? How is the experience of doing business with you? You may be the leader today but what about tomorrow? Are you innovating and challenging the status quo? Borders is status quo and will be out of business in 10 years. We need leaders.

It is 830am on a Thursday morning and I just drove to a Borders Book Store to buy a book. I am a self-proclaimed Amazon junkie. I have not purchased a book in a book store for years. Everything gets sent to my doorstep with no shipping fees in two days or less by the post-office via my Amazon Prime membership. I order from Amazon at 5am, 10pm, it doesn’t matter. I received a Borders gift card as a Christmas present years ago and recently discovered this unused prize in an old envelope. I love found money. There is a book I wanted to buy for a friend so I decided to use my new found wealth today. Unfortunately, the store opens at 10am. Wow. 10am. Do they sell coffee? Or Newspapers? Or Books? Apparently only between 10am and 9pm and people that drink coffee, read the paper and buy books don’t do so until 10am.

It made me think. The world is changing. At 830 am, my expectation was that I could buy my book without even the thought of a time issue existing. It had been so long since trying to buy something from the book store that hours never occurred to me as being an issue. In the day of Amazon, 24×7 stores and very cool technology advancements, Borders is doomed to failure. How do you communicate with your customers? What are your office hours? Will you suffer the same fate that Borders eventually will?