Who Should Vote?

Democracy is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder, and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequals alike.

— Plato

Most philosophers agree "one person, one vote" is the right policy in a democracy.

But who counts as a person?

You could say any individual affected by the government should count. But it's hard to say who is and who's not affected by the government. And would you let children vote? Probably not.

That answer's clearly wrong.

You could also say any adult citizen should count. But would you let POWs, felons, tourists, aliens, and the mentally incompetent vote? Probably not.

That answer's also wrong.

I'd go out on a limb and say any democratically competent adult should count. And I'd determine whether any adult were "democratically competent" by requiring her to answer, in writing, two questions:

Why did Americans fight the Civil War?

Why did Americans fight in the Second World War?

Philosophers call my preferred political system an epistocracy (episteme is the Ancient Greek word for knowledge.) An epistocracy restricts suffrage to the democratically competent, assuming good political outcomes depend on votes cast from knowledge, not ignorance. Philosopher Jason Brennan calls it "rule by knowers."

You might say, "Wait, the Founding Fathers rejected epistocracy!"

That's true; and they also rejected the Ancient Greeks' democracy, in favor of the Ancient Romans' republicanism.

Under the Founding Fathers' preferred system, citizens can vote to elect politicians, who act as a firewall against mob-rule. They defined a citizen as any wealthy white man.

But 230 years later, we have a democracy, the political system Plato called the "agreeable form of anarchy." We let nearly any yahoo vote.

Plato also warned: Democracies inevitably give rise to tyrannies when a populist autocrat can play to the mob's passions.

It's time for an overhaul—before we're led over the cliff.

Expanding Your Boundaries?

According to Bain consultants Chris Zook and James Allen, a company can grow profitably in two ways: by diversifying or by expanding the boundaries of its core business, or what they call entering adjacencies.

Their study of thousands of companies has led them to say there are six ways to enter an adjacency:

• Expand along the value chain (De Beers moved from wholesaling into retailing diamonds, for example).
  
  
• Use new distribution channels (supplement maker EAS moved from selling to nutrition stores to selling to Wal-Mart).
  
  
• Enter new countries (Vodafone expanded from the UK to Europe, the US, Germany, and Japan).
  
  
• Address new customer segments (discount broker Charles Schwab became an advisor to the super wealthy).
  
  
• Offer new products and services (IBM pioneered "global IT" and doubled its earnings).
  
  
• Build a new business based on an in-house capability (American Airlines created Sabre, which in turn created Travelocity).

From their study, Zook and Allen also conclude that companies which learn to enter an adjacency, then repeat their recipe again and again, grow at twice the speed of rivals—at a minimum.

How about you? Are you expanding your boundaries?

My new business partner and I, while our direct marketing agency is still in its infancy, have already added six new products and services to the four core offerings we opened shop with in January, including PR, video production and marketing research.

We're following advice you can find in Competing Against Luck, whose authors say customers never "buy" products and services, but "hire" them "to get a job done."

We're designing a menu based on jobs our customers need to get done. We might not grow at the pace of Charles Schwab or IBM, but we're trying—and learning a lot in the process.

I'll keep you posted, in any event.

B2B Events Get Hip

Expect more annual B2B events to market themselves like music festivals, according to Cramer.

Meetings once held in convention center halls and hotel ballrooms will migrate outdoors and to hip, alternative venues, offering inspired music and entertainment.

"Festivalizing" your B2B event means adding not only rad surroundings and music, but the other hallmarks of a big festival: frictionless registration, entry and wayfinding; a "choose-your-own-adventure" schedule; post-modern structures; exotic food and beverage; cause-related happy hours; playrooms and coffee houses; co-created artworks; social media extravaganzas; and event themes that celebrate coolness, community and creativity,

Festivalization's dual goals are "reinvigorating attendee bases and attracting millennial prospects, who prefer experiences, touchpoints and connections at events," Cramer says.

B2B event planners are riding a wave. According to Billboard, 32 million Americans attended a large music festival last year.

The Truth about Trade Shows

Last evening, I watched an old rerun of The X Files. The entire episode is a flashback to a time before FBI Agents Mulder and Scully are partners, and is set inside a trade show in Baltimore in the year 1989.

It was a kick to see how many everyday objects have changed in a quarter century. Men's suits. Women's dresses. Cameras. Computers. Telephones.

But not trade shows.

The imaginary 1989 trade show looked just like a 2017 trade show.

The truth about trade shows: they're lodged in the '80s. We still need them now, but we need them to deliver something new.

With buyers' ranks thinning, web content exploding, and pre-released products the norm, '80s-style trade shows are obsolete.

Yes, we still need to meet face-to-face, take the pulse, and wave the flag, but why "flash back" to do so?

Maybe it's time for organizers to flash forward, to think badgeless and boothless and begin to craft experiences matched to today's need to gather and do business.

The answers are out there.

Quiet Desperation

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.

― Henry David Thoreau

Last week, Steven Beck, a 61-year-old handyman who lived as a recluse in a foreclosed home in a Washington, DC, suburb, killed his dog and then himself, moments before his house blew up.

His act saddened neighbors, who suspected he was desperate.

Media lures us every hour to celebrate beauty, luxury, mastery, victory.

Self-help gurus tell us, "Professionals are amateurs who didn't quit."

But the Steven Becks tell another story. Some professionals quit, as well.

Vincent van Gogh completed 860 oil paintings and 1,300 watercolors and drawings before he died from a self-inflicted gunshot.

Ernest Hemingway completed 20 books and hundreds of articles and won a Nobel Prize before he died from the same cause.

Hunter S. Thompson completed 15 books and hundreds of articles before he died, once more, from a self-inflicted gunshot.

Thoreau called quitting "confirmed desperation."

If he was right, most of us are desperate; and some of us are confirmed in despair.

The easy success stories are "fake news."

The real news is: the 5 Signs of despair are easy to spot.

Learn what they are.

HAT TIP: Thanks to Susan Rosenstock for her work to raise awareness of the 5 Signs someone needs help. You can help with a donation now.