frankly speaking

Disrupting Hollywood

I took my five-year old to the movies today. I spent $30 combined on tickets and two small popcorns. Here’s the problem, I really don’t have a problem paying that much for a movie, but I know a lot of people that do.

Maybe not this year, and probably not next, but at somepoint, the movie business is going to become more broken that it already is. The masses simply won’t be able to afford to pay $50 to see the next blockbuster. Something has to change.

The technology for that change is already in place. Broadband penetration reaches most rural areas these days. With a couple clicks of my mouse in fact, I could have simply avoided paying the $30 and streamed the movie right from my laptop to my big screen. But, I consider myself somewhat ethical, so I paid to go see it.

Here’s the point - Hollywood needs to realize that there’s a much bigger market potential by streaming first run movies directly into people’s homes rather than forcing them to get a babysitter for their kid, pay for parking, pay $10 per ticket, $30 for snacks and an untold amount of patience for having to sit in a dark auditorium with complete strangers.

To their credit, some movie executives have realized the value of allowing their customers from getting first run movies directly in their homes. Recently (while it was still in theaters) I was able to watch “Margin Call” from the comfort of my home. Sure, I paid my cable provider a premium for watching the movie - a cost I would happily pay for first run movies in the future.

This idea isn’t unique at all; Mark Cuban first floated it a couple years ago (and to his credit, most movies from his production company are streamed via cable companies while they’re in theaters). All someone needs to do is convince the rest of the Hollywood execs of how much they can benefit (read - profit) by taking the same approach.

Tags: Start-ups

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Date: 01.01.12 Time: 16:06 PM
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Making Goals More Manageable

Setting goals this time of year has become pretty cliche. That said, very few people who don’t set goals for themselves rarely do anything of significance in their lives. With that in mind, I think we can all agree that it’s important to set some sort of goal for yourself, no matter how big or small.

I set a lot of goals last year - 10 in total. I didn’t accomplish all of them, but I got to most of them. As I wrote earlier, some of them forced me to change, while others forced me to become better.

This year, I’m changing my approach a little. Thanks to my friend Dave (read his post here), I too have decided to focus narrowing the list of things I want to accomplish. Instead of focusing on 10 or even 5 things I want to do, I’m drastically cutting down the number of goals I want to accomplish.

This year, I’m focusing on 3 things in my personal life, and 1 thing in my professional life. The key obviously, is when I accomplish these things, I want to do them really, really well. I want to focus on the details and make sure that come this time next year, I can review the things I set out to accomplish and say to myself, “Damn, I really nailed that.”

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Date: 12.27.11 Time: 16:15 PM
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Reflections on 2011

2010 was not a good year for me. I’ll spare you the details, suffice to say that the year ended with a thud. My professional life was spiraling out of control fast, so fast in fact that it was beginning to affect my personal life. I was unsure of where I wanted to be and where I wanted to go.

What a difference a year makes.

I’ve spent the last few days reflecting on 2011 and specifically reviewing all of the professional and personal goals that I set out to attain. I can’t say that I checked every one of them off the list, but I came pretty damn close. I can say that at the end of this year, I’m heading in the exact opposite direction as I was heading in at the end of 2010.

So, what changed?

During the first few months of the year, I consciously rededicated my life to living up to ethics and morals that were taught to me while growing up, regardless of what it would cost me. I made some some changes in my personal life that resulted in unexpected positive outcomes in my professional life.

I know this post is pretty cryptic and it was kind of meant to be that way. The point of it is to say that when you focus on change, and most of all changing for the right reasons, it can result in positive things that you never thought possible.

I’m also trying to say that no matter where you are in life, you can always make a decision to change. Whether things are going well for you, or your back is up against the wall. You have the power to change. The outcomes that result will not always be favorable, but the key is to learn how you got to those outcomes and adjust as necessary.

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Date: 12.11.11 Time: 12:44 PM
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