The clarion alley mural project

The clarion alley mural project

While walking through the city today we stumbled on an alley filled with murals.  Ironically one of the murals was featured on the cover of a book I've been wanting to get called Street Art San Francisco: Mission Muralismo.  It was probably my second favorite part of the day because I love seeing art out in the open for all to enjoy.  The Clarion Alley Mural Project (CAMP) was established in 1992 by a volunteer collection of six North Mission residents. The founders of the project were Aaron…

The boy and the sundae

The boy and the sundae

Many years ago, a 10-year-old boy walked up to the counter of a soda shop and climbed onto a stool. He caught the eye of the waitress and asked, “how much is an ice cream sundae?” “Fifty cents,” the waitress replied. The boy reached into his pockets, pulled out a handful of change, and began counting. The waitress frowned impatiently. After all, she had other customers to wait on. The boy squinted up at the waitress. “How much is a dish of plain ice cream?” He asked. The…

Outta my way I’m going to Starbucks!

Outta my way I’m going to Starbucks!

When Customers Become Walking Advertisements I don't think it is too difficult to create a company people will love and respect so much they will tell the world about it. Companies of course try to attract customers to get them in their door, but are some companies simply looking to get customers in the building, or are they looking to build relationships with their customers? I think you can build a relationship with your customers through your brand, transparency, serving the community it serves, customer service, quality products,…

The Unemployed Millionaire (book review & summary)

The Unemployed Millionaire (book review & summary)

Escape the Rat Race, Fire Your Boss, and Live Life on YOUR Terms I purchased this book from Amazon.com last week, and it sat on my coffee table until today. I can't remember the last time I've picked up a book and read it all within a day, but that is what I did with The Unemployed Millionaire by Matt Morris (I started it at a coffee shop this morning and finished it at home tonight). I think I liked it just as much as The 4-Hour Work…

John Mackey: the whole foods story

John Mackey: the whole foods story

Insights from The New Yorker Profile John Mackey, the co-founder and chief executive of Whole Foods Market The New Yorker has a long article on Mackey which was a very good read. Since it is so long, I've summarized what I found interesting from it below. I'm terrible at summarizing and in college never got into highlighting my textbooks. When reading I either found it all really interesting or all really dull, so it was either all yellow or remained all white. So, the fact that I have…

The wisdom of crowds

The wisdom of crowds

How Collective Intelligence Outperforms Individual Expertise How many jelly beans are in this jar? The crowd might know better than you do. I haven't had a chance to read Wisdom of Crowds yet by James Surowiecki, but an article in Building43.com was very interesting. It shows that collectively, a crowd/group's mind is better than your own when trying to solve a problem or answer a question. Check this out... So, although individually everyone was woefully inaccurate, collectively the group was incredibly accurate. A Proven Phenomenon Was this a…