Everything Good Has Already Been Invented: How Michael Cera’s Phone Can Teach Us To Compete
We want to create important, impressive, new things, but as we look around everything seems so crowded. So competitive.
Highrise, the company I run, was originally a software product created in 2007. It was one of the first web based CRM tools around. Now, the market is littered with competition. I took on a daunting task when Highrise spun off from Basecamp last year. So what do I do?
Michael Cera was staring at me through the reflection on the elevator doors
A couple years ago, after my daughter was born, my wife had a followup visit with her doctor. As we were coming out of the office, we found ourselves waiting for an elevator with another guy. At a sideways glance, he looked oddly like Michael Cera (Juno, Arrested Development). Instead of making an overt gesture to look, I glanced at the shiny surface of the elevator doors, and saw him staring at me :) Confirmed; it was him. There was a television production company on the same floor. When the elevator opened it was packed with people. So my wife, Michael, and I crammed in shoulder to shoulder. It was an odd bonding moment with this complete stranger and celebrity. As we neared the lobby he pulled out his cell phone and I noticed it was probably what you’d expect from Michael Cera… an old-school flip phone.
At first I would tell friends a quirky story of me “meeting” Michael Cera and his unusual choice of phones, but I realized the phone is also an important reminder of how to compete…
