Ch.35 POTENT FASTLANE #2: INNOVATION I saw an inventor who repackaged vodka from boring clear bottles to colorful bottles with razzle-dazzle on TV. In fact, I received a skull-shaped bottle of vodka for my birthday. Vodka has been around for centuries, yet an entrepreneur took a stale product and added an element of uniqueness and differentiation. Sometimes it's that simple. My favorite example is the Snuggie, an oversized mass-marketed blanket with arms. The product concept has been around for years, but they took the idea, repackaged it, remarketed it, and wham, 40 million sold later, they had a block- buster.

Ch.44 summary • Tekel Syndrome sufferers are polygamist opportunists who opportunity-hop. • A weak business commitment commits you to weak assets. Weak assets do not accelerate wealth. • The most successful entrepreneurs lived and breathed their business with 100% commitment. • Successful business monogamy can lead to successful business polygamy, a diversification into many passionate interests and investments. • Save the "I have ten businesses" until after you sell one company for millions.

Ch.44 The Tekel Syndrome is a compulsion to scatter your focus across different projects and opportunities. It's also a symptom of money chasing versus need filling. You become a polygamist-opportunist when you invest your time in five other businesses. The idea is to toss as much shit on the wall as possible because something's gotta stick. Something's gotta make me some money! A scattered focus leads to scattered results.

Ch.43 summary • Consumers are selfishly motivated. Always target your messages toward the predisposition of "What's in it for me?" • Features are translated to benefits when you switch positions from producer to consumer, identify the feature's advantages, and extrapolate those advantages into a specific result. • A cheap and a premium price are value skews, implicitly conveying value and worth. • Don't allow your own perception of price to tarnish your brand to mediocrity.

Ch.43 summary • Polarization is a tremendous tool if your product targets a polarized audience-usually politics, minority opinions, and even sports teams. • Sex sells and always draws eyeballs. (But it can tarnish your brand image.) • Consumers make buying decisions based on emotions before practicality. • Il you can arouse audience emotions, convincing customers to buy is easier. • People like talking about themselves. You will have better success if you can incorporate interaction or "try before you buy" into your campaigns. • To be unconventional means to isolate and identify what is conventional, then do the opposite, or interrupt that convention.