"Leadership is the initiation and direction of endeavor in the pursuit of consequence. Anything else is criticism from janitors." Royal Alcott

"If you mean to profit, learn to please." Winston Churchill

"Work is the price paid for reputation." Baltasar Gracian

Today's image: Everlasting in blue by kimtojin. Beautiful. Thanks for sharing.

Warm up that Plan B: If you're in the ad-supported measured media dodge best to get something real ready now and on hot standby. The economy is not coming around. Ted Forstmann, one of the brightest guys in private equity, says we are in a credit crisis "...the likes of which I've never seen..." [The Credit Crisis is Going to Get Worse by Brian M. Carney, via WSJ here]. Also in the article, Ted shares some wisdom from Warren Buffett, once telling him about the three "I"s in every cycle...1. Innovator 2. Imitator 3. Idiot. My sense is the Idiots will continue to be obsessed with the numerator, blamestorming - making excuses, delegating blame to the business cycle and other external forces. No matter, their "getting better" strategy is past its best used by date. The Idiots will create opportunity for a fresh new cycle led by Innovators. The Innovators will get busy, focused on the very serious business of getting dramatically different and, in the process, change the denominator. For those playing along at home, Ted is Farid's boss. Hint: "The source of Google's competitive advantage is learning by doing" so says Google chief economist Hal R. Varian. Read more Google, Zen Master of the Market via NY Times here. Bravos to Ted for telling it like it is and congrats to Brian on the get with kudos for a piece well done.

Buzz: Wal-Mart gets a new logo (Blue w/orange sunburst) and loses the hyphen becoming Walmart. FireShot - the Firefox screenshot extension, very cool. More info here (thanks to Dave Winer for the tip).

If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much room: Dave Winer leads the league (again). He bows TechJunk [related blog]. If you want to stay on the absolute leading edge of tech, get this into your reader. Bravos to Dave!

Bonus: GuruFocus. Stock picks and market insights gleaned from the truly rich (e.g., the major player wealth including Warren Buffet)

Congrats & cheers: Lisa Lambden & Michael Rosenblum to be married next month. Michael blogs about it here. Public Radio Programming Directors Association bows new site. Radio programming ace Dave Wellington joins Clear Channel, new skipper at WWDC and WCHH. (thanks to Lee Arnold for the tip). The 2008 Women to Watch winners including Sandy Constan, Nancy Hill, Charlene Li, Maureen McGuire, Kavita Vazirani, Mary Beth West and Vivi Zigler. More via Ad Age here.

Grapes: More good values in red under $10. Penfolds, Koonunga Hill, Shiraz Cabernet, 2006 (Australia). Dona Paula, Los Cardos, Malbec, 2006 (Argentina).