I just finished reading Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, Chip Heath and Pat Heath’s book that examines why some ideas “stick,” while others die. If The Tipping Point was about how ideas spread, Stick is about why those ideas spread and why we remember them.

If you’ve heard that urban legend about the guy who wakes up in an ice-filled Vegas bathtub facing a note that tells him to call 911 because his kidneys have been stolen, then you’re familiar with the sticky story.

Made to Stick is filled with examples of bland stories that have been made intriguing. Along the way, you learn that, according to the Heath brothers, all memorable stories are simple, unexpected, concrete, credible, emotional and (contain elements of a) story.Recommended.

Other books this month: The Alienist: A Novel, The Brand Gap: Expanded Edition, Brand Portfolio Strategy: Creating Relevance, Differentiation, Energy, Leverage, and Clarity, Rain Making: Attract New Clients No Matter What Your Field and Rubicon Beach: A Novel.

Charlie O’Donnell, CEO of Path 101 posted this image on his blog. I laughed, a little… Just days before I had had lunch with the founder of one of the first – if not the first – naming firms During our conversation, he mentioned he had met with Bimbo maybe 20 years ago and the execs there didn’t understand why they might have a problem with their name in the U.S.

These days, the Mexican brand is the third largest bread maker in the world nad the market leader for flour-based products in the Americas. In Interbrand’s yearly survey of the leading global brands, Bimbo has consistently been mentioned as a leading Latin American brand. Now, Bimbo trucks thunder down the streets of Broooklyn

I wonder if their success is due to that cute little bear, the growing power of the Hispanic market in the U.S. or the provocation that is the Bimbo name.

I’ve ridding my email box of all the newsletters I get via email. It’s a Sissyphian task. I kept missing important emails from clients and friends and I figured, time to tame the email beast.

If you want to read some strategies on emptying your email box, you could start with this post on Inbox Zero at 43folders.com and EmailZen at ZenHabits.org

Steve at Micropersuasion takes a look at how Timothy Ferris reached #1 best seller status not only on Amazon, but on the NYTimes and Wall Street Journal – simultaneously (go Tim!).

Steve suggests the following lessons:

• Go where bloggers go


• Be there with a message and a story that will appeal to their interests, not yours


• Build and maintain those relationships through your own blog too

Tim himself posts on his own blog what he did to make it happen.

The one thing neither Steve nor Tim mention is: Tim plays to win. If you read about him and dig a little deeper, you can tell he is very serious about succeeding.

A nice little download that I found while searching for quotations on the idea of “home.”

Macleod’s quote:

The bars of West Hollywood and New York are awash with people throwing their lives away in the desperate hope of finding a shortcut, any shortcut. And a lot of them aren’t even young anymore; their B-plans having been washed away by Vodka & Tonics years ago. Meanwhile their competition is at home, working their asses off.