Meeting people you admire, like Gary Vaynerchuk!
Today, ended up freaking awesome!!!
First, I got to go do one of my favorite things in the world, go karting at Gokartracer.com in Burlingame Ca. Reason enough to gush with happiness for me.
Then,, joy of joys, we went to In-N-Out (a California burger joint that has specialized grates at the door so that your drool is siphoned away (I am very likely making this up)).
To top it off the San Francisco 49ers beat the New York Jets, who’s favorite fan, and someone I’m a HUUGE fan of, Gary Vaynerchuk (and I think his brother AJ too) cruised into the In-N-out postgame for a bite before heading back across the continent.
Like a crazy teen fan I jumped up, went over and shook his hand, introduced myself, and then scampered back to my seat immediately. Why? Well, let’s face it,, the guy’s favorite team in the world just got beat by a team, that, until 2 weeks ago had been on the mediocre to crap list for a few years. Unfortunately, his team had been to the west coast 3 times this year, AND he follows them for each and every game (That is called being a great fan!) and lost every time. That’s just frustrating. Trust me, there’s no greater feeling than going into an opposing stadium wearing your team’s colors, and being able to walk out with your head held high with a win.
Anyway,, Gary was understandably dejected, so here’s the thing. Leaving there a while later (and knowing they’d only be there another 10 minutes, thus ensuring there wasn’t a flash mob of women, a la Casey Khane didn’t show up to bother him, I tweeted that we’d met).
Well, I got home not 40 minutes later, and there was a direct tweet from Gary.
THAT’S REPUTATION MANAGEMENT!! He was worried that he hadn’t provided the best front, and made sure to leave a positive impression. He needn’t worry, and as a matter of fact, I was shocked that he had. I have previously recieved emails back from Gary, and knew the quality of his word, (plus he gives away the best content on the planet,, thanks again for the google blog tip!) but he STILL bothered to check in and apologize for his mood.
Think about what you do next people,, just people you meet every day, do you go out of your way to treat them right? You’re not famous like Gary,, but even he works hard to monitor his image,,, so why aren’t you?!
note: this happened a while ago, and I’m only now posting it. (November 2008)
Come on klien,, really,, the helmets?!
How about the face that the money spent on helmets is ALWAYS recouped in sales after each race, or soon after. Racers tend to keep their helmets otherwise and they’re promotional/branding items (obviously Christian’s marketing prowess is unparalleled). You want to save money on racing,, require an onboard starter on the cars (gee, integrating it INTO the KERS systems wouldn’t be a good idea would it?) oh right,, yes it would. Require that they start at ambient temps, (keep the tire warmers, it only takes 4 people to put em on,, not 4 computers and 8 people).
Furthermore, costs are driven up by the money delivered by the sponsors (how else could they justify it). If you have 400 MILLION you can take it that far.
The new aero requirements won’t really decrease costs at all. As long as aero tweaks are allowed, it will remain a war of computers and engineers, want to take that out, or at least mitigate it,, require a body template.
Otherwise, go the NASCAR route and require spring/shock assemblies as a spec component (keep them in the current variety, don’t give em the crap the NASCAR guys have to fight with and silly bushings). Then one company will be responsible for a single part, safety can be improved on that one part, and innovation can increase in a linear manner. Taking that a step farther, require spec parts, have companies (stoking innovation) submit and allow 3 players in the shock category, then you’ll have choice (all teams have access to the components). OOh, a customer shock war, then let the companies innovate within their own realm.
You want innovation, allow more freedom in the KERS arena, knock it wide open,, then make it so there is only 1 required pit stop (and reduce the size of the fuel tanks,, by half!) Nahh,, that’d be too much green innovation wouldn’t it. That’s still around 600hp on a car that still weighs less than a fully laden Marlon Brando.
I still liked the CDG wing (I know, big yawn) but I bet that quickly it would evolve into something neat. Wanna promote aero innovation and make stuff look neat,, require no 2d surfaces, all things to have 3d bends (do that and we’ll see some wild stuff!).
Finally, lets get some serious innovation going,, release the “1 team livery rule” let’s look at some cool cars, for heavens sake, it took an act of Bernie and a unanimous effect to get Coulthard into a one off for his last,,, half a lap (sorry David, we all wanted to see you get a bundle of laps). It’s not like any race series does this to great effect (NASCAR) but then again (INDY) I guess you’ll have to look far and wide to find some examples (any other race series) and as long as your sponsors want it in the first place (trust me they do). Finally, they could give their graphic designers something nice for us to look at (Toyota I’m looking DIRECTLY at you!)
I hope some of these are enacted,, only because they’d increase the spectacle, lower costs, increase innovation, and improve the spectacle,, but then again,, that’d make sense.
Sorry about that.
Basically, much like actors,, they don’t go to college (typically) then they hang around with other people that think they know what they’re talking about all day, and then try and tell people what they think is right.
Yeah, Jensen probably doesn’t need 18 helmets in a year, but the revenue he can generate from that can and likely does defray those costs completely. Then again,, he could just wear one helmet all year, and then auction it at the end of the year.
We’ll see where this all ends up,, but here are a few decent ways to attack it if you’re listening Bernie.