Posts by Larry Cornett
Hiking Maggie’s Peaks Near Lake Tahoe
My oldest son, Nick, flew home to surprise us with a visit a few days ago. He’s been missing our mountains, forests, and the hikes we always take as a family. So, yesterday, we drove to South Lake Tahoe to a trailhead near Emerald Bay. Xander is home for the weekend from college, too. We…
Read MoreLeadership and Career Coaching
If you’ve discovered this old website of mine, you may not know that I’m now a Leadership & Career coach. You can learn more here: Invincible Career website Invincible Career newsletter Invincible Career podcast
Read MoreTaking some irons out of the fire
For a long time, I’ve had too many irons in the fire. If that idiom doesn’t mean anything to you, here you go. But, I’ve been juggling my consulting projects, my writing, marketing, and a number of seedling startup businesses for years. It’s just too hard to make serious progress when your focus is spread…
Read MoreTime to dust this blog off
Well, it’s been a long time since I have posted here. I tend to spend more time on my business blog (Brilliant Forge) and Twitter. But, I have decided that I need a place to share thoughts and activities from my personal life. In the past few years, I’ve also learned that a great way…
Read MoreI regret buying a BMW more with each passing day
There was a lot to love when I bought this car: Great handling, lots of power, very comfortable, and a boatload of high-tech features (e.g., a heads-up display, nav system, fancy seats). But, things started to go wrong towards the end of the warranty. Very expensive things. That has been the biggest issue: Any repair…
Read MoreA Design Challenge – Need a Logo for a New Design Conference
I just wanted to let you all know about an upcoming new design conference called “Warm Gun: Designing Happiness“. I’m an adviser working with Dave McClure (500 hats) on it. Today I posted info on Brilliant FORGE about a logo design contest for the conference. This is a great opportunity for a talented designer or…
Read MoreFarewell Yahoo! The Time Has Come to Move On
As you may have heard through the grapevine, after 4 years of an incredible roller coaster ride with Yahoo, the time has come to move on to other opportunities. I am bootstrapping my own stealth (for now) startup. In parallel, today I’m launching a consulting practice to provide advisory services to other startups and more-established companies. After over 8 years in the big corporate worlds of Yahoo and eBay, I’m excited about taking everything I’ve learned from my experiences at those two great companies and returning to the entrepreneurial world.
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When Companies Behave Like Incumbent Politicians
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, but it is disappointing when a company starts behaving like an incumbent politician. There are those who firmly believe that incumbents are heavily influenced by campaign contributors and special interest groups; often forgetting the needs of the constituents who they are truly supposed to represent. Similarly, there are established companies that lose focus on the very customers who made them successful. With their drive to maximize revenue and profitability, instead they find that slowly over the years they start spending more and more of their time catering to their advertisers. This is sadly ironic, given that those advertisers are only interested in the eyeballs and wallets of those very customers. Lose the audience, lose the advertisers. Read full article…
Read MorePredicting the Death of Big Entertainment Venues
I have always loved live entertainment events. Concerts, comedians, music festivals; you name it. But, I have noticed an interesting shift over the past couple of years. I no longer have the patience for large venues. With the increasing quality of home entertainment systems and faster broadband pipelines, the entertainment decision is becoming harder. Do you go out for an event and endure skyrocketing ticket prices, challenging commutes and parking, standing in line, and crowded venues? Or, do you simply stay home and watch an event in HD with surround sound on the comfort of your living room couch? Read full article…
Are You Creating a Sanctuary for Your Customers?
I dropped in on Barefoot Coffee yesterday to enjoy one of their fabulous Cubanos and noticed they had remodeled. It still feels cozy there, but it lost a bit of its independent spirit. I’m going to miss their quirky chairs. But, they still pull a great espresso drink and they still create nice latte art. And that, with a number of other touches, make Barefoot one of those sanctuaries that you seek out when you want a great cup of coffee that doesn’t come from the faceless corporate chains. I have a similar experience in one of my favorite dark little coffee houses in NYC, Caffe Reggio (image in this post). The funny thing is, I will go considerably out of my way to visit these places, when I could simply grab a drink at a place like Starbucks. Easy enough, since there is one within every quarter-mile radius. Read full article…