I dunno. I havent had it yet.

Its 1:30am as I sit in my hotel room. I should have been asleep hours ago, as I have three meetings tomorrow (well four). At 8am I have a phone call,  I need drive down from San Francisco to San Mateo to meet with Apture (I mention them only because they are now installed on my blog, and I think they are pretty interesting) by 10am, and then back to San Francisco for 1pm meeting. Not to mention the the dinner I am pretty excited about with Foodzie.

But this isnt a complaint post.

Earlier tonight I was watching Glee on the new Hulu desktop app. There was a point in the show where one teacher shows the Glee Club teacher a video of him performing in 1993.

“That was the greatest time of my life.”

Which got me thinking. What was my greatest time?

No answer found itself to the front of my brain, and it dawned on me.

I havent had a greatest time in my life…yet.

At first, this realization was followed by disappointment. Has it really been 37 years without a greatest moment? Does it mean my life has been boring and without merit?

But, quickly it hit me. I derive my drive from an intense desire to HAVE a greatest moment. I am comforted by knowing that my greatest moment is still out there.

Then I started to apply the concept to the friends around me. People that I am humbled to know:

Brad Feld: A very successful venture capitalist, what excites Brad about being an investor is helping people build the next big thing. Does he think every investment he (or Foundry Group) makes is in the next big thing? No, but watch where (and in whom) Brad invests his time…its a great indicator of what (and whom) he is excited about.

Frankly by definition being an investor is the belief that the greatest moment is still to be…

Gary Vaynerchuk: Gary wants to buy the New York Jets. Gary is going to be a dad soon. Gary, our generation’s Tony Robbins, is driven by passion and the desire to win. Ask Gary if he has had the greatest moment in his life, and he is liable to punch you in the mouth and yell “I want to own the NY Jets, dummy.”

Jason Fried: I met Jason at the BigOmaha conference after several failed attempted by Jeffrey Kalmikoff to connect us, and was literally awed by Jason’s mix of focus and adjustment when we talked about business ideas. He has a clear vision as to what works and how it works, but he is also quick to absorb data and guidance and apply it to his vision. I would almost be willing to bet dinner in Chicago that if you asked Jason what his greatest moment in life was, he wouldnt name it quickly. Im sure he is proud of 37signals and the work they have done, but I am also sure that he believes that 37signals will be a footnote to whatever he accomplishes in his life.

Jeffrey Kalmikoff: While I refuse to take free tshirts from Threadless, Jeffrey is still my friend. Did you know that Jeffrey used to be a pretty decent DJ? Or that he and Jake Nickell have spoken to MIT and Stanford and were on the cover of INC magazine? Probably not. Because those are things on the path to whatever it is that Jeffrey will one day achieve.

The list goes on and on.

What is it then? People that are focused on the future are more likely to be successful? That people who have had a “greatest moment” are doomed to look at the past?

Not sure thats it.

People who have had a greatest moment spend most of their lives trying to recreate that moment.

Their very motivation centers on the concept of re-experiencing that wonderful moment in time.  Therefore, failure hurts, because you have known true success.

On the other hand, people that have not had their greatest moment yet, are waiting for that moment.

Their motivation is focused on creating that moment. Knowing that the moment will come (and fear that it may never). Therefore failure is part of the process, because we have never known real success.

Maybe I am rambling because its now 2:30am and I can barely keep my eyes open, but chew on this:

If I have had my greatest moment, then I know the parameters that that moment exists in. Therefore, my drive is limited by that scope. I am comfortable working a job, or limiting what I think I can achieve, because I know that my success must occur in a similar way to how it did in the past.

But what if I add a bit of hope to my beliefs?

In hoping that the greatest moment in my life is yet to come, the scope of where my greatest moment lives becomes infinite. I become ok with change and error. I stop questioning my ability to achieve and I focus on what the success should be, because I have no idea where, when or how my success will manifest in the future; I just know it will.

My greatest moment in my life is coming and it will be amazing.

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As I was driving into the Lijit offices, I was thinking about this years SXSW conference, and how different it would be for me. I was thinking about the posts I had read from friends who were going and had gone before.

The difference for me this year will be striking (speaking vs. not-speaking, knowing people vs. not knowing people, how much hotter I am, etc.). Yet with all the growth I have done personally and professionally, some of my friends are still light years ahead of me in terms of accomplishment and recognition.

And thats ok.

I realized that what I love most about life is the realization that no matter how much I accomplish, I always have people around me to remind me that I have a long way to go. That, for me, the only thing that drives me is success and since there will always be someone more successful than me, I have a long way to go.

Which brings me to the raging debate about spec work.

(huh? Yeah, I know, but its how my brain works. Stick with me.)

I am not a designer. I can barely draw a straight line. But, I have been a business man, even played one in real life.

Here is how I see a basic logo development conversation (for 99% of the world):

Business guy thinks to himself, “hmmm, I need a logo. Im bored/tired/renamed my business/whatever, and it about time. I dont want to spend a ton of money on it.”

Designer guys thinks to himself, “I love being an artist. I live to create. I dont just “do” logos, I create identity.”

Business guy: “sweet on the identity. How much will it cost?”

Designer dude: “$5,000.”

Business guy (after laughing so hard he is crying): “Thanks.”

And then business guy heads over to one of the “spec work” shops, and puts in a request for a logo, with a couple of requirements, and prices it at $500. A couple of weeks later, a logo is approved and used, and the business guy is happy. The “spec work” designer is less happy, but has $500, the “real” designer is totally unhappy, and blames everything: spec work, the business guy and the “spec work” designer (but not himself).

There is no questioning his pricing, or the value of his production, just that he got undercut by an “amateur.”

I think I get it.

Designers are being protective of their industry and their “art,” by railing against an activity that by design, reduces the amount of money they can charge.

At SXSW, Jeffrey is on a panel entitled “Is Spec Work Evil?” and the moderator, Jeff Howe wrote a great post called “Is Crowdsourcing Evil and Other Moot Questions …” where he wrote:

The demand for low-end design has ballooned in recent years alongside the profusion of start-ups and small businesses. Conveniently enough, so has the supply of what we might call “low-end designers” (amateurs, recent grads and the like). According to Forbes there are 80,000 freelance designers in the US alone. Most of these are, proverbially speaking, waiting tables. When someone matches demand and supply, well that’s kismet!

I agree that the market drives the business and the business practices. Take the hurt feelings out of the spec work debate, and you have an efficient marketplace driving costs down due to an overabundance of designers, coupled with the increasing number of small businesses and startups (which by definition, have no money to spend on huge design projects).

Is spec work “evil” (meaning detrimental)? Hell yes. It devalues the work of the designer and trains the business professional to accept a lower quality (but sufficient) work product.

But the problem is not with the companies that drive spec work, or the designers that participate in it, or even the companies that pay for it.

The problem is simply a result of an upside down economic model where the artificially high supply of designers is pushing the pricing downwards. Include the general efficiencies that are provides by the internet, and BAM! spec work is perceived as evil. Read Jeremiah’s post about how he views spec work from the business perspective, and you can see exactly this dynamic occurring.

I commented on Jeff’s post:

I am excited to listen to the panel and continue the conversation that we have had around these here parts (Its Boulder, we can sound Western…).

There is a constant fight for equilibrium between business interests and service providers, where businesses will always undervalue the esoteric value of intangibles, and service providers will always overvalue them.

There is not a service industry that is not touched by the concept of spec work or unfavorable (to the service provider) competitions. The canary has been dead for awhile, people just have named it.

Of most service industries, graphic design (and design as a whole) is probably the most disparate in perceived and actual value. How do you value “art”? How do you value “feeling”?

Businesses apply a value to everything. When I sold my company, when I agreed to accept a non-compete that had a value. The association of my name to the new company had a value.

The positive of the spec work revolution is that it forces designers to think: 1) am I talented enough to be charging what I am charging; and 2) what is the real value I bring to the table that can be counted by my client (the business) in dollars.

The negative is that designers are realizing that their perceived value is not equitable to their real value.

(There is also the reality of the economic abundance of designers makes it easy for spec work to exist. If I were a designer I would stop worrying about spec work and get more people to quit the industry.)

At the end of the day, being underpaid for valuable work sucks, which is what the specter of spec work brings. Want to combat it? Dont suck. Provide value. Set realistic expectations.

The only way to reduce the negative effects of spec work on the design industry is to make the supply of designers scarce.

Want to end spec work? Kill all the designers.*

* of course this is meant simply as an oversimplification of a complex problem. Please dont kill the designers. Perhaps take away all the stolen copies of Photoshop, or disallow internet access for designers at coffee shops, but killing them might just be a bit more evil than the perception of spec work.

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Everything I ever needed to know for business, I learned in strip clubs.

Over the years, I have spent my fair share of time in strip clubs. Mostly for fun, but sometimes for business, every strip club I have ever been to (no matter the physical location) tends to have the same formula.

A main stage for the feature dancer or the a rotation of dancers; a series of smaller tables with chairs (always on rollers); a private VIP area and a set of private rooms or stalls for the girls to perform private dances.

Most strip clubs seem to do relatively well financially, and other than Las Vegas, seem to stay in business regardless of economic times.

But, thats not what interests me.

Whats interesting to me is how the dancers themselves work. Each girl is a little mini-business and a entrepreneur in their own right.

In the past two years, I have gone to two separate clubs. One in Dallas and one in Las Vegas. Each time was for an extended period of time (Dallas was about 5 hours, and Las Vegas was about 3 hours) completely sober (yeah, dont ask…).

I spent the majority of my time in each one watching the girls interact with their customers.  (And to be completely fair, I spent my fair share of time with the dancers themselves.)

Here is how it works for me:

• I sit down at one of the smaller tables (never at the stage. mostly because the dudes sitting around the stage are pretty slimy).
• I order a red bull (there is usually some sort of drink minimum);
• over the next 30-45 minutes, dancers will tap me on the shoulder and ask if they can sit down and talk. I tend to refuse (mostly because I want to get settled in, and to a certain degree have to get up the courage to interact).
• Finally, once I am ready and I find a girl that is attractive to me, I will accept the invitation to sit down.
• We talk for a bit, she dances for a bit, and then she usually pitches me on a private room, which I refuse, and she eventually moves on.
• Then the process repeats.
• Sometimes, a particular dancer and I will get along and she will either spend an inappropriate (remember she is there to work) amount of time with me, or kinda swing by periodically through out my time at the club.
• This seems to happen more often than one would expect, and through out the night, I tend to learn all about the dancer’s history, family, etc. In Dallas, I learned that the girl was a blogger and had spent time in Thailand working with Amnesty International on some sort of drug case. (I just remember it was very Midnight Express). Another dancer came from a family of dancers. Both of her sisters and her mother danced at a rival club, but since she was only 18, she couldnt dance in a club with alcohol.
• At the end of the night, I leave. After all, it was just a night at work for her, and usually, a night at work for me too.
• (if you are wondering, I used to get a lot more stripper phone numbers than I do now. Probably because I am sober.)

I have often wondered why one particular dancer over another would select me to engage with. Was there something in how I carried myself? Was it because of how I looked? What was it?

The process of customer selection by the stripper is really interesting. I spent a lot of my time these past two times at a club really watching the process.

1) Dancers seemed to be more likely to talk to a customer that had just walked in. Almost before he could get settled.

I imagine that this is due to the fact that new customers have the potential to have the most money. After all, if the dancers are good, most of the customers that have been there for a number of hours are probably tapped.

2) Dancers tend to approach the same type of men. This is more pronounced by the race of the dancer.

Each race of stripper tends to have a similar shtick. I know that sounds racist, but it really makes sense. If men are attracted to certain types, then those type of women will learn that they get the biggest reaction from those type of men, when they act in a certain manner.

For example, I seem to predominantly attract minority dancers. Sometimes a heavily tattooed white stripper will swing by, but almost never the “all-american” types. Makes sense given my general look and the tattoos.

When Asian stripper approach me, they often talk about how much they like a “big man,” Latino and Black strippers will comment on “how strong I must be,” and tattooed strippers, of course, talk about my tattoos.

3) Every action, including feigned interest, is designed to generate revenue.

There is not a single thing a dancer does that isnt designed to separate a customer from his money. A stripper looks at their time at the club as revenue/minute. When they arent hustling, they are losing money. Its that simple.

In New York City, the famed club Scores is a master at this. First of all, all cash is converted into “Scores Dollars” which is not a 1:1 direct conversion. Then, every 30min or so there is another Scores product to buy (Calendars, videos, tshirts, etc). Even drinks can be bought with the funny money. Also, you can only buy “Scores Dollars” in groupings of $10 or $20 (I think). But, nothing works out to a round amount, so you are either sitting on the sidelines, or buying more fake money. Ingenious.

4) Customers that are cheap or refuse the company of a dancer, will soon find themselves completely shut out.

I doubt there is a bulletin board in the back room that states “skip the dude in the black shirt with the tribal tattoo,” but there is an almost natural way that dancers mark a customer as a dud. It could be the drunk guy, or the extra touchy-feely guy. Or just the guy that doesnt seem to pony up enough cash quickly enough. But, it happens, every single time, there is some guy that just gets shut out.

5)  Customers that feel special will spend more money.

There is a real connection between how valuable a customer is to the dancer and the amount of attention given by the dancer. Have money? Continue to get smiles. Get too drunk? See the dancer move away. Pay for your friends? Get attention. Get your friends to pay for you? Nada.

It is a set expectation when you enter a strip club that you are entering a business establishment with unwritten rules for conduct and transactions. Want attention? Spend money. Its that simple.

So, how do I apply these five rules to business?

1) Dancers seemed to be more likely to talk to a customer that had just walked in. Almost before he could get settled.

Be attractive to new customers, but understand its easier to keep the regulars. Make sure that new customers immediately feel important.

2) Dancers tend to approach the same type of men. This is more pronounced by the race of the dancer.

Know your market. Explain your value in an easy way, that is understood by the market you are selling to.

3) Every action, including feigned interest, is designed to generate revenue.

Always be generating internal value. I used to tell people that worked for me that for every dollar I paid them, they should generate three.

4) Customers that are cheap or refuse the company of a dancer, will soon find themselves completely shut out.

Dont waste time on customers that will not generate revenue or internal value. ‘Nuff said.

5)  Customers that feel special will spend more money.

Make the right customers feel special. Have a VIP list. Be transparent about the value specific customers bring.

All I ever needed to know in business, I learned in a strip club.

Its really that simple. There is not that much different between a dancer in a strip club and a startup or huge multinational corporation. One just ends up with all your money at the end of the night, and the other gives you lap dances and covers you in glitter.

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