Morning Folks!!
There is a reason I have been writing online since 1996. It's called credibility. Street Cred. What gives you credibility? Time and accuracy. Is it different than 20/20 hindsight? You bet you ass it's different. One has value and one is just reading yesterdays newspaper. When you don't know the difference.....failure looms.
When you sit and plant seeds every day, some germinate. You don't even have to be Johnny Appleseed, but I like his measure. So since 1996 I have written with clarity and certainty driven by belief and passion. It's an 'All in' type of game for me.
I have always believed those words would pay dividends. Not even sure which way or form those dividends would come or shape they would be, but dividends none the less. They can find lots of matching words and thoughts today, but as a lone wolf it was a different landscape. But that has always been my calling. Blazing a trail where there was none. I think it started at one of my early jobs at K-Mart. Don Oran, where are you??
So Don is the manager in the Sporting Goods Department at K-Mart back in 1972 or so. He put me in charge of cleaning out the stockroom which was an upstairs hall about 100 feet long, about 15 feet wide and about 15ft tall with 3 level flat bins on each side.
When I first saw it, there was 'Zero Visibility'. That meant that it was so full, so overloaded, so messed up, that when they got a new shipment, the only way to put it in inventory was throw hard and high and hope the box found a hole and did no roll back on you. You had to climb over things and to get from here to there and who would even know there was a floor. Just cartons tumbled over other cartons.
So I began the process of sorting things out. Sleeping bags, fishing lures, rifles, shotguns, ammo, lanterns, coolers, and everything else you could imagine in a sporting goods department. An epic challenge.
But day by day I would come in and attack the 'Mountain'. Then a miracle happened one day. I was done. There was an aisle in the warehouse. There was a floor. The bins were full and sorted and it was perhaps my first real business accomplishment. They sure got their $2.65/hour worth of work out of me.
Of course sales increased because they were actually able to locate stuff. Sell more. Waste less time crawling and hunting. The District Manager was happy and Don Oran bought a black Corvette.
But I have gotten off the path of the reason for this post. Until now the net has been Commercial or Social and I have written about the 2 sectors and differences extensively. Now we have finally progressed to the time I am happy to announce a new category. One I saw many years ago but is just starting to blossom.
'Personal' is now the new category. Not really new for me and many of you, but new to the masses. It was an inevitable path but took many years to unfold.
Personal has value that can be limited but can also be unlimited. What's your name worth? RickSchwartz.com is priceless. Priceless to me. It can't be bought. I wasn't in the business early enough to get Rick.com. However I did get Dick.com and some think that is more fitting anyway.
Back in 1996 folks thought I was out of my mind to register my full name. But I saw a changing world where it would become very important. And now it is.
So I want to welcome the newest sector into the fold. Now the net is personal.
Have a GREAT Day!
Rick Schwartz
JamesD
“However I did get Dick.com and some think that is more fitting anyway.”
LOL, when you can laugh at yourself, you take the power away from those who would want to laugh at you.
Another great post, with another snippet of what brought you to where you are today.
KA
That’s the secret to Twitter marketing. On the flip side, anyone can go out there and destroy any shred of credibility you built over the last decades in relatively short time and a very small budget. It’s scary.
Paul
Rick –
I think as a society we’ve been headed towards the”Personal” category for quite a while, but no one (yet) has found a way to really monetize it.
/heads back to cave to register some domains…
Darryl
I had the though, in a sense you were like the”Google” of the stockroom sorting out search and sales queries from the customers in the shop. I will explore this idea more.
joe rahall
Very motivating post.
Thanks
Joe
Goran Duskic
I guess .me also recognized the same opportunity. Afterall, .me is all about personal. I registered my last name (late to the game for my name), plus I like the combination name@lastname.com :)
With Facebook and all the social media, it doesn’t suprise me”personal” is the new craze.