Seth’s post today on the tradeoff between risk and reward is spot on. I’m especially in agreement when it comes to that first jump (from point A to point B) – that’s the risk you should be focusing on.

The way I see it, by committing to that first jump – developing a plan, managing the plan, analyzing the plan, resetting the plan, etc. – then understanding it’s reward, the second jump (point B to point C) becomes less risky.

Yeah, there will be new minor risks along the path to point C but since you’ve already gone through this process and can reference previous actions and effects – see plan, above – the risk is reduced, while the reward remains the same.

And taking that first step is rewarding in so many different ways. You’ll become more efficient. You’ll understand your internal operations better. You’ll get to know your staff and their strengths intimately. You’ll even get to know your industry in finite detail (including customers, competitors, vendors, etc.).

As Seth closes:

Riskless is hardly worth your effort.

With the recent passing of Michael Jackson, I couldn’t help but think of the similarities between the King of Pop and Michael Vick – the incredibly talented, incredibly troubled football star.

On the surface, there probably doesn’t seem as if there are many similarities between the two, other than they are (were?) two incredibly gifted entertainers. But what about from a marketing perspective? How similar are they with regards to branding?

Both entertainers seemed to have followed a similar path to a point:

• Immensely talented at a young age
• Recognized talent on a larger stage
• Made an incredible impact on their industry
• Earned many lucrative contracts
• Faced legal issues
• Reputations tarnished in the public eye

This is the point we’re at today, and an inflection point for both entertainers. Michael Jackson’s legacy is now in the hands of his fans – how will he be remembered? No doubt his family and throngs of representatives are going to work to create a positive memory of the troubled star. But it’s out of his hands now.

With Michael Vick, it seems his opportunities are just starting. While his acts were condemned by the press and society (he received more jail time than another NFL player who actually killed another human being), he is starting to work on his image going forward.

In 20 years, how will we remember both of these entertainers? One brand is settling in, while the other is now just forming.

My buddy JR and I were at Tigin after a round of golf to watch the USA v. Egypt game. The more we watched Jay DeMerit play, the more excited we got.

At one point during the game, DeMerit calmly sized up his opponent, then provided a strong, crunching tackle. The opponent just lay there while DeMerit had gotten up and moved on. JR looked at me, with a huge smile, and said “That was an English tackle”.

With today’s Confederations Final against Brazil, I think DeMerit is going to be the key. The USA will probably want Onyewu to stay at home in defense, while DeMerit steps in to break up the play before Kaka and Robinho play a clever one-two.

I just finished the NY Times article on DeMerit this morning – great read. A few quotes that stuck out for me:

He will put his head where other people are not even prepared to put their feet.

- Aidy Boothroyd, Watford Manager

I understand where I am and where I need to go. It comes with being patient and waiting for an opportunity and not being daunted by the task ahead.

- Jay DeMerit

This guy, playing “Beat It” on his flute – great sound!

I guess it takes awhile, but you can now add bloggers as a legitimate source of information, at least according to the FTC:

The Federal Trade Commission…can go after bloggers – as well as the companies that compensate them – for any false claims or failure to disclose conflicts of interest.

So this will make bloggers, commenters, and those associated with providing “tainted” information even more responsible for their content. I would imagine having Google just push their pagerank status down a couple of notches would be enough to curb any kind of nefarious activities.

Maybe Google and the FTC can work out a deal here – the FTC tips Google off to “bad bloggers”, Google drops their pagerank down, and requires the addition of a “few” FTC advertisements on the bad blog.

Apple TV. (We’re slowly drinking the Apple Home Entertainment Kool-Aid).

We dumped cable awhile back. Sorry, I couldn’t rationalize spending so much money every month when we certainly weren’t getting that much out of it. And the service was terrible. It was all bad. Bad, bad, bad.

So, we cut the cable cord. I’ll be honest, it was much more difficult for me – while I don’t watch a lot of TV, I do watch a lot of LIVE televison. This does not (currently) exist with the Apple TV. So, I had to figure out a few things, but that was just a behavior change that took a few days to adjust to.

We now only pay for programs when we want to watch them. When we’re asleep, or traveling, or just not plugged into the TV, our bill isn’t being rung up. That’s the best part.

We’re still re-learning how to watch TV – there’s no me channel surfing if we’re not sure what we want to watch. On the flip side, I’ve picked up four new books – since I’m not sure I know what I want to watch, and that option is no longer there, I tend to pick up a book (or the iPhone) instead.

Baseball games? I’ve always been a fan of listening to games on the radio vs. watching them on TV (Miller, Krukow, Kuiper, Fleming, and even Ted Robinson – the best!). I do still miss the Sunday morning games on FSC, but I now head over to Liverpool FC for the important news.

Moving from the cable operator to controlling your own shows is kind of like becoming a vegetarian, or at least moving away from red meat. You can still enjoy it (food/TV) but you have to think a bit about what you want to consume (food/TV).

Anita Campbell, over at Small Business Trends, posted some very useful advice about taking the financial temperature of your small business.

But managing your business for financial health is about taking a big picture view of your business, as interpreted through the detail of your financial statements.

It’s the small business, financial interpretation of think global, act local.

Having previously run due diligence numbers on small companies during M&A opportunities, I can’t stress how important it is to “normalize” your financial picture. You can easily and quickly get lost when looking through rows and columns full of numbers for hours in trying to interpret your financial health.

Using ratios not only gives you a quick review of your financial health, but comparing them against industry averages certainly helps give you a great idea as to where you stand against your competitors / with your peers.

Seth Godin’s post today is a great lesson for anyone looking to start a brand, or re-brand their service and/or company.

Is it possible, in today’s world of rapid collaboration and transparent communication, using fear and fibs is still a viable management style?

A great compilation from a lot of great sources. Reading through the PDF, this one stands out for me (via John Battelle)…

The best kept secret in marketing is to invest your time in eliciting and responding to your customer’s feedback, even if it’s negative . It’s the secret to building a network of evangelists who keep on giving back to your business.

Why is this such a secret? Not a lot of folks put effort into talking with folks who have negative feedback, or at least, give off a negative impression. Our initial reaction is to hide, maybe even bury the feedback so other customers/competitors/employees don’t see it. We can find out a lot about our products/services/marketing from these folks.

Maybe it’s just a misunderstanding, or maybe something even more sinister. Either way, they are letting you know, which others might have dismissed. In other words, they are willing to contact you, and express their thoughts. Isn’t this the beginning of a conversation?

Isn’t that what most marketing professionals aim for?