The Art of Possibility

::TIP 2::
Inspired action is easier when we believe we can make a difference.

"And then small happened....
Enron (big) got audited by Andersen (big) and failed (big.) The World Trade
Center was a target. TV advertising is collapsing so fast you can hear it. American
Airlines (big) is getting creamed by Jet Blue (think small). BoingBoing (four
people) has a readership growing a hundred times faster than the New Yorker
(hundreds of people). Big computers are silly. They use lots of power and are not nearly as efficient as properly networked Dell boxes (at least that’s the way it works at Yahoo and Google). Big boom boxes are replaced by tiny ipod shuffles. (Yeah, I know bigscreen tvs are the big thing. Can’t be right all the time). I’m writing this on a laptop at a skateboard park… that added wifi for parents.
Because they wanted to. It took them a few minutes and $50. No big meetings, corporate policies or feasibility studies. They just did it.
Today, little companies often make more money than big companies. Little
churches grow faster than worldwide ones. Little jets are way faster (door to door)
than big ones. Today, Craigslist (18 employees) is the fourth most visited site according to some
measures. They are partly owned by eBay (more than 4,000 employees) which hopes to stay in the same league, traffic-wise. They’re certainly not growing nearly as fast.

Small means the founder makes a far greater percentage of the customer interactions.
Small means the founder is close to the decisions that matter and can make them, quickly.
Small is the new big because small gives you the flexibility to change the business model when your competition changes theirs.
Small means you can tell the truth on your blog.
Small means that you can answer email from your customers.
Small means that you will outsource the boring, low-impact stuff like manufacturing and shipping and billing and packing to others, while you keep the power because you invent the remarkable and tell stories to people who want to hear them.
A small law firm or accounting firm or ad agency is succeeding because they’re
good, not because they’re big. So smart small companies are happy to hire them.
A small restaurant has an owner who greets you by name.
A small venture fund doesn’t have to fund big bad ideas in order to get capital...."

written by Seth Godin http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2005/09/whos_there_the_.html