Jobs The Movie

Afternoon Folks!!

Took a few hours off to see The Steve Jobs Movie. Very good!!

That said it is not as good as the Social Network, however it was still an excellent history and VERY motivating. Definitely worth seeing.

You walk out feeling the need to achieve something really great!

It is mostly the early years and only one scene from this century when they introduced the iPod.

I guess Jobs 2 will deal with this century.

Rick Schwartz

Jaguar/Land Rover Found GUILTY of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking (RDNH)

Afternoon Folks!!

When will these CHEAP BASTARDS ever learn? I can also call them would be THIEVES which is a LOT worse. I'll let everyone else play nice. I will keep calling them out until this stops. Sorry to the politically correct. You don't play nice with people who abuse the process and try to STEAL! You stick it up their asses, never let them forget and let it serve as a lesson to the next PREDATOR.

As Michael Berkens has reported today, Jaguar/Land Rover is the latest to have been found GUILTY of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking (RDNH) on the domain name MountainRovers.com. Complainant is Jaguar Land Rover Limited (“Complainant”), represented by Jennifer M. Hetu of Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP, Michigan, USA.

Hope you folks are PROUD!!??

Another company run by CHEAP BASTARDS that has TARNISHED a brand forever! I am sure these idiots will be pissed at me, but they should be pissed at whoever internally signed off on this RISK to a Grand BRAND. If they worked for me, they would not see lunchtime. So let their anger flow! And why didn't they get a heads up by Jennifer M. Hetu of Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP?? Surely at this stage you would think.......

They join a growing list of BIG names like Procter and Gamble and what I called the "Biggest Management Shakeup in 100 Years" in being labeled thieves by the governing panel. Let's see if heads roll before the end of the year on this mess. The entire decision can be found here and it is quite the read. DomainNameWire labels it as a "Scathing Critique".

The attempt was so blatant, that the panel found for the respondent without the respondent even answering the complaint. A HUGE VICTORY for all!! But this is a really  GREAT case because there was no response by the domain owner and the panel still found Jaguar/LandRover guilty of RDNH. Jennifer M. Hetu of Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP, Michigan, USA got defeated by a ghost. How does a debacle like this unfold?

You can be certain I will have more to say about Jaguar and Land Rover and how they have soiled their brand. Cheap vs PRICELESS! Who is responsible there for this mess?? Who made that decision? Who approved it? Who?? Can you say SHAKE UP??!!

And I get to point to and USE Jaguar/Land Rover and Procter and Gamble to discourage the next CHEAP BASTARD that would rather STEAL than PAY!

Now as I offered Procter and Gamble, Jaguar/Land Rover can come here and respond or hide under their desks, think it is no biggie, then wait until the fallout happens. I will add them to the current list and repost. The Hall of Shame! The Scarlett letter. They OWN it!

Some say $100,000 fine would discourage this behavior.

CHUMP CHANGE!!

The price they pay NOW is far more serious and far more lasting. It's tarnishing a BILLION DOLLAR brand. The harm that was done was PRICELESS. It can't be measured, erased or fixed. $100,000 fine does not discourage and may even encourage. People losing their jobs over things like this is a much bigger price to pay but that is a small price to pay in comparison to the self-inflicted damage they have done. Their decision, whoever made them, whoever was involved in it should be fired. They risked the companies good name for what reason?? Folks should be able to see inexcusable a mile away.

MORE TO COME!

Rick Schwartz

 

Not Enough .Coms or Too Many Cheap Bastards?

Morning Folks!!

Business is looking to the 22nd Century while businessmen are STUCK in 20th Century thinking. Stuck! Their mindset is STUCK!

So when you are stuck, you complain. And so they do. But their complaint just boomerangs on them. They have to stop being "Cheap Bastards" and adjust to this century. Here is my key point and I have written about it since DAY ONE!

If you open a real world brick and mortar business there are EXPENSES. Recurring expenses. Stupid expenses. Un-needed and unwanted expenses. All those expense added together are expensive! So if these folks want to LEAP into this century the FIRST thing they need to do is get a piece of paper and list EVERY single expense they would incur just to OPEN a storefront. But since these guys are STUCK, virtually NONE of them will actually do that.  And it was CRAZY RICK that started that comparison in 1996.

The bigger the store, the bigger the prize. One .com can fulfil the work and needs of millions of storefronts. Amazon.com has how many storefronts? I guess SEARS was stuck. How much does it cost to build a big box store and furnish, man and insure it? How long does it take to build? The invisible ghost called Amazon is eating your lunch and soon it will be your dinner too.

And I forgot to mention you will man your stores with a bunch of know nothings that don't have a brain and are probably too busy on the phone helping someone there that can't even buy  at the expense of the customer waiting at the register with cash in hand and ignoring you.

See the Internet's biggest bonus is not dealing with idiots. Get out of my way. I will pull it off the shelf, bring it to the checkout, swipe my own card and I am on my way. Why be frustrated with idiots?

But I got off the path. So they build and build and spend and spend and they fight a losing battle. If you sell a shippable product and that is your brick and mortar focus, the way you get unstuck, is by closing down stores. You have already branded yourself. If the Internet is not  your #1 hub and source of sales, you are doing something very last century and eventually it is going to cost you your business.

So not to spend some REAL $$$ when making your mark on the Internet and therefore being a cheap bastard, is your #1 mistake. PLEASE consider those startup costs. EVERY single penny. RECURRING BILLS, LIKE RENT AND INSURANCE AND GARBAGE AND EMPLOYEES AND ELECTRIC AND ALL OF IT.

Now go shop for a domain name and you will have an overwhelming choice of quality in the marketplace. Big difference between developing for the sake of it and a business transforming itself for greater sales, greater distribution areas and greater profits.

Let me make it really simple. When I go to a restaurant and the owner is a CHEAP BASTARD, I never go back. Ah...How do you spot a cheap bastard?

Well for a restaurant he serves and off brand ketchup for example. They don't serve real butter they serve some spread crap. The cream comes from a box and you add water. Now if they do this stupid cheap shit in front of you, can you begin to imagine the shortcuts they will take when buying their food?

So a stupid extension may have similar ramifications. A silly .com will do the same. If "to" is in your domain, you MUST own the version that as the number "2" in it as well or you have a gaping leap that lasts forever. The invisible tax you pay and think I am an idiot for even telling you about it. Wake up cheap bastard. You are so damn cheap that it is costing you more money than actually being a sport and doing it right.

Cheap bastards build on sand. They take shortcuts that end up costing more money. They are wired for failure. Like the saying goes, if you don't have the time to do it right the first time, how the hell are you going to make the time when you have to go back and fix it?

Rambling? You bet. This stuff is all connected. Do it right and you get rewarded. Do it on the cheap and it always costs more.

In 2010 we licensed out T.R.A.F.F.I.C.. A new formula was put in place with new shows around the world. Ticket prices were dropped from $1795 to $395 and many were comped trying to get folks to the shows. It was a rotten formula. If you cut your price by 75% you should triple your attendance and more. Did not happen. Instead only 1/3 showed up. Everything was done on the cheap and the product suffered and so did the benefits. The Hong Kong show they planned had to be cancelled. The prices were low and the formula was gone and so was the result. Fixing something that isn't broken can have devastating results and it did.

It drove me crazy watching what we built come tumble-down from the sidelines. But I bit my tongue and knew I had some rebuilding to do in 2011 when the deal expired. Not the way I do things. So I know about this stuff first hand. Doing it right gets rewarded and doing things on the cheap comes back to haunt. Change the formula, change the recipe and change the result. As I told Howard at the time, it was a bridge over troubled waters as 2010 stunk economically.

So until end users see the comparison and take it and actually weigh it seriously, domain values are still very CHEAP! So there is no excuse whatsoever to settle for an inferior domain name. No matter what the extension, inferior has great costs and not so many benefits. The invisible cost of lost sales will put the small guy out of business and cost the big guy MILLIONS and MILLIONS and MILLIONS because THEY were cheap bastards and don't have the ability to see things as they are. They had the dollars, had the budget, did not have the VISION and CHEAP won the day! Cheap Bastards FAIL!

UPDATE: As Michael Berkens has reported today, Jaguar/Land Rover is the latest to have been found GUILTY of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking (RDNH) on the domain name MountainRovers.com. So yesterday they could have been called "Cheap Bastards". Today they can be called "Would be THIEVES!" They tried to abuse the system because this multi-billion dollar company and their lawyers tried to short-circuit capitalism and try to hijack another entities domain name by an abuse of the system. Here is my take on that action! Complainant is Jaguar Land Rover Limited (“Complainant”), represented by Jennifer M. Hetu of Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP, Michigan, USA.

Rick Schwartz