"What men want is not talent, it is purpose; in other words, not the power to achieve, but will to labor. I believe that labor judiciously and continuously applied becomes genius." Bulwer-Lytton

"Research is an organized method of finding out what you are going to do when you can't keep on doing what you are doing now." Charles Kettering

"As soon as true thought has entered our mind, it gives a light which makes us see a crowd of other objects which we have never perceived before." Francois de Chateaubriand

Understanding the merchant.

On the day job one of the missions is to help media sales organizations improve their performance. A key segment of revenue is local direct. As a practical matter producing local direct requires the participation of local merchants. Some insights...

1. Merchants buy for a living.
2. When merchants buy right, price right, display right (visual merchandising), when sales associates suggest and sell right then the sku flies out of the store.
3. The most interesting subject in the world to the merchant is their business.

The first and third points are self evident but too often ignored. The second point involves the black art of proprietary calculus.

Bonus: Reality check. My thanks to programming ace Lee Arnold.

Totally cool waste of bandwidth: New York subway map of the internet.

Today's image: Green Path by chefranden. Wonderful shot. Thank you for sharing.