Movies: Multi-threaded Inspiration

I saw Blind Side last night. Since I had not heard much hype about this movie, I was a bit surprised that the first showing we attempted was sold out and the theatre was packed for the next showing. After seeing the movie, I get it. Based on the true story of a wealthy family rescuing a talented football player (Michael Oher, now a promising rookie on the Baltimore Ravens) from the Memphis ghetto, this was certainly a “feel-good” movie, but it seemed more than just that to me. The underdog has universal appeal in our culture, but this movie was also a reminder that being there for our next generation makes all the difference. The “feel-good” message revolves around the wealthy family taking Michael under their wing, but they never...

Hamburger Juggernaut

I cannot think of a business category more “tired” than fast food–especially hamburgers. Despite this, Five Guys, a fast-food franchise with a very un-glamorous name and simplistic business model, has managed to re-invent this category. Starting out about 23 years ago in the Washington DC area, Five Guys now has about 450 locations scattered across the U.S. and (by the looks of their Store Locator map) a bunch in Central America. I am not especially picky about food, but I generally do not eat hamburgers, and I never go to a fast food joint for a buger–or at least I didn’t until a Five Guys recently opened up in our nearest town. The burgers and fries are exceptionally good, but I am almost more impressed with the business...

It was a nark and dormy stight …

KO, so does mangling something already hideous make it less bad? Is this even creative? (A Google search just now resulted in only one other hit; I’ll let you decide whether it is more “impressive” for me to have composed this using my own imagination or by delegating that task to the other author.) Either way, the point is that creativity is in the eye of the beholder, and not every idea or business concept has to be a category-killer or insanely-great Jobs-esque accomplishment. (Those are really kewl,  but I should not be arguing with myself already.) The Business Geek gets a bit, um, geeky about business ideas, creativity and especially great execution producing phenomenal results with a simple elegance (which often IS...