The celebrated HBO historical drama Boardwalk Empire, set in Prohibition-era Atlantic City, is making its way through its second season, and I’m catching up, having recently finished watching the first season.

The well-funded period piece, with backing from Scorsese, Wahlberg and others, tracks the life and times of a character based on a real political boss of the time. It’s a compelling story, tinged with real happenings, heavily researched authenticity and complex characters. In short, it’s a great watch.

Having finished the first season, there are a few takeaways I found myself internalizing:

1. ‘You have to learn how much sin you can live with,’ said the lead character ‘Nucky,’ played masterfully by Steve Buschemi, in one episode. How much of it and what kind are life decisions worth making early and sticking to through your efforts to live a life you cherish.
2. Know what your asking price is — Whether it comes out or not, the most artful dealings are made by men in this series who know specifically what they want, what they’ll be willing to give up and what could be defined as success and failure. We could all do a better job of having clearer objectives and asks before walking into a meeting.
3. Have an inside man and treat him well — You won’t please most of the people, so it makes sensible strategy to keep close associates who are leaders of their respective communities. It can be a source for information, effective lobbying and essential insight.
4. You’re either moving up or coming down — If you’re in a competitive market, business, industry or organization, your political power, talent, awareness, impact or clout is either improving or falling. Those directions can change winds, but mostly, they’re trending in one direction. Know which one and act accordingly.
5. Freedom of expression gains never cease to amaze me — Any remotely accurate historical drama always leaves me thinking that everyone in the past was stupendously suppressed, in emotions, sexuality, gender, race, hopes, dreams, attitudes and anything else possible. The obsession with normalcy that came out of our country’s massive influx of immigration was frightening.

For the few of you who haven’t seen the show, check out the first season trailer below.

From this very compelling TED video from former MoveOn.org Executive Director Eli Pariser on ‘filter bubbles’ happening online due to personalized algorithms (i.e., in truth there is no one Google search, as nearly 60 filters dictate results)

“We may have the story of the internet wrong. This is how the founding mythology goes: in a broadcast society, there were these gatekeepers, the editors, and they controlled the flows of information. And along came the internet, and it swept them out of the way and allowed all of us to connect together and it was awesome. But that’s not actually what’s happening right now. What we’re seeing is more of a passing of the torch, from human gatekeepers to algorithmic ones. And the thing is, the algorithms don’t yet have the kind of embedded ethics that the editors did. So if algorithms are going to curate the world for us, if they’re going to decide what we get to see and what we don’t get to see, then we need to make sure that they’re not just keyed to relevance, but that they also show us things that are uncomfortable or challenging or important…”

More than a year ago, Steve Jobs spoke about the iPad and Apple’s broad role in touching publishing and journalism, during a broader interview at the D8 conference.

At 1:50 in the below video, watch highlights of Jobs talking about his relationship with news and follow the quote below.

“One of my beliefs, very strongly, is that any democracy depends on a free, healthy press…. Some of these papers — news and editorial gathering organizations — are really important. I don’t want to see us descend into a nation of bloggers myself. I think we need editorial more than ever right now. Anything that we can do to help the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and other news gathering organizations find new ways of expression so they can afford to get paid, so they can afford to keep their news gathering editorial operations in tact, I’m all for. What we have to do is figure out a way to get people to start paying for this hard earned content. So [the tablet industry] provides us an opportunity to offer something more than just a web page and to start charging something for that. I’m trying to get these folks to take more aggressive postures than what they traditionally charged for print because they don’t have the expenses of printing, they don’t have the expenses of delivery and to charge a reasonable price and go for volume. I think people are willing to pay for content.”

My colleagues Sean Blanda, Brian James Kirk and I learned plenty at the 2011 Online News Association conference in Boston, but we also did more touring and connected more with old friends and colleagues than last year. We even sneaked out to use the city's new bicycle sharing program and visit Fenway Park, among other sights. We were in Boston for the conference from Sept. 22-25. Photo by some lady who took the camera from her elderly father.

Sometimes, if not most times, what happens outside of the sessions can be what’s most valuable about a conference.

I learned plenty the traditional way at the 2011 Online News Association national conference, held in Boston this weekend Sept. 22-25, but I surely got more out of reconnecting with friends and colleagues from other markets, even more than I remember doing at past professional events. It also didn’t hurt that I dove more into Boston than I have while visiting elsewhere for work travel.

ONA has been a national convener among news innovation conversations for more than a decade, and more locally, I’ve been involved with reviving the Philadelphia chapter of the group.

Full disclosure: this year, I was able to attend thanks to the very generous support of the Center for Public Interest Journalism at Temple University and the Wyncote Foundation. I was able to attend last year with similar support from the William Penn Foundation, which has additionally funded the Transparencity reporting project I have led.

After a few years co-running a sustainable niche news site, participating in the online discourse around news innovation and attending events like ONA and others from the Aspen Institute, the University of Missouri and, yes, our own BarCamp NewsInnovation, I felt like attending the event was just as important to talk shop with others doing similar work across the country as it was to catch up on a lot of in-session conversations that felt less relevant to where we are professionally.

Tourism and good, smart friends aside, below I share what I learned in a conference’s traditional way.

A Morning Conversation with Vivek Kundra

Kundra, who served in the Obama administration as the first federal Chief Innovation Officer, kicked off the conference.

Tweets and Takeaways:

• Shorter @vivekkundra: Let’s get the government out of the re-inventing wheels business. @eyeseast
• Why the cloud makes sense for government now: “In the 1960s the greatest innovation in tech was happening in government. In 1980, innovation moved to enterprise. In 2005, something big happened — all innovation moved to the consumer side.”
• Being able to, say, scan baby crib and see if it’s recalled only benefits parents w/access to that tech. $$$ creates tech divide  @AmyZQuinn
• Will data.gov survive the election? “It’s a one-way street,” he said.
• On @WikiLeaks, @VivekKundra cites “inherent risks,” but says “it shouldn’t have happened,” security was insufficient.  @EricCarvin

You Can’t Duck the Math: Entrepreneurial Journalism

B. J. Roche, Jeremy Caplan, Laura Frank and Jennifer Lord Paluzzi get set to start the session.

I was a little disappointed by this session and don’t think it much pushed forward the conversation, with little actionable advice or experienced details. That said, there were some small takeaways.

Tweets and Takeaways

• @Laura_Frank: try to be an ‘intrapreneur’ before you’re an entrepreneur. Now’s the time to pitch ideas within legacy orgs. @McKennaEwen
• “Be revenue promiscuous.” @meghannCIR
• When you start one site people pat you on the head and say, “Isn’t that cute.” When you launch six at a time, they take notice. @eyeseast

Below watch a video chronicling ‘five minutes in the life of ONA 2011.’

Five minutes in the life of ONA11 from Curt Chandler on Vimeo.

New Platforms for Longform Journalism

Panel (L-R): Tim Carmody, Mark Armstrong, Evan Ratliff, Joshua Benton

I’ve been interested in the movement to use tablets and even more read-friendly smartphones to return to longform roots, celebrated by this session.

Tweets and Takeaways

• Longform content movement is in some ways a rebellion to the shortening and speed of content online, says @jbenton
• Already an emerging vocabulary, in which #longform fits for 1-5k word mag-style pieces and ‘short books’ for longer, I think
• Mac Lion @arstechnica tutorial was free on site, still sold 3k in 24hrs at $5 Kindle ebooks, says @tcarmody
• We make ‘short books’ not ‘longform journalism,’ because offering something LONG isn’t a good sell says @ev_rat of @theatavist
• And how many of those are really read later? MT @alicyp: Pieces saved online to “read later” are only between 250-2k words. @hbillings

A Conversation on the Front Lines of the Arab Revolution

Friday ONA 2011 keynote 'A Conversation on the Front Lines of the Arab Revolution' panel, from left: moderator New York Times reporter Jennifer Preston, NPR social media star Andy Carvin, former Egypt Today editor Rehab El-Bakry, noted Middle East freelance journalist and blogger Issandr El-Amrani and American Islamic Congress outreach director Nasser Weddady.

The lunchtime session was timely and interesting, hearing from those involved with the coverage of the Arab Spring.

Tweets and Takeaways

• It’s good to be reminded how relatively small my contribution to the world of journalism. ….Remarkably small. ….Inconsequential, really.
• At #ona11, in session on Arab Awakening, @acarvin warns of not romanticizing a “hot mess” of political transition. @paufder
• @acarvin sometimes the best sources are also the biggest activists @VOAHutch
• “I think of my Twitter feed as a sort of an open-source newsroom,” @acarvin

B.S. Detection for Digital Journalists

My buddy and strangely proud Canuck Craig Silverman presented with Huffington Post star Mandy Jenkins drew me to this session, which had some small takeaways of value and for which you can find their notes and slides here and coverage of the presentation here.

• New users w/o photos, dated updates and few or spam-centric followers are easy signs of less credible Twitter users: @mjenkins
• Image verification tools like errorlevelanalysis.com and regex.info/exif.cgi and tineye.com shared by @CraigSilverman
• “The best verification tool a journalist has is still the telephone,” says @CraigSilverman
• If you get tricked into spreading a hoax or false information ‘it is your responsibility’ to do your best to contact every person online who is continuing to spread that falsehood, said Silverman.

Making It Work with a Small Staff

Silicon Prairie Insider Managing Editor Danny Schreiber and my colleague Sean Blanda presenting at ONA. Yes, notice the local Harpoon beer we gave out.

My colleagues and I submitted three sessions to present at ONA and one was accepted, this one on working with a small staff, which Sean led on our behalf, with Danny Schreiber, who is the managing editor of Silicon Prairie Insider, not unlike a Technically Philly for the Midwest. They shared this sheet (bit.ly.com/small_staff) of their takeaways from their experiences.

Yes, we gave out beer, as depicted above, to note that small staffs have to develop good environments, and the people loved it.

Tweets and Takeaways

• Check out their brain dump sheet here.
• Video Sean Blanda handing out beer from local Boston brewery Harpoon

• best panel ever @harpoon_brewery
• Content departments and scheduling evergreen resources and features can make staff time more efficient, says @seanblanda
• Video of their ‘How large is their editorial staff’ quiz
• How much do you work? @seanblanda notes @technicallyM now limits to 40-50 hrs to fight burnout, @dannyaway says 70+ but says he loves it
• @AmyZQuinn @jerseyshorejen are understandably nervous for freelance rates. @siliconprarie pays $50 & we’ve limited freelancing due to costs
• Screenshot of @dannyaway @siliconprarie 400+ feed Google Reader account for leads, a ‘time suck’ that leads to insight, he said

I Screwed Up (And You Will Too)

My friend David Cohn, of Berkeley and Spot.Us fame, led this session and shared, with Denise Change of the Grand Rapadian, professional failures they had encountered and what they learned from it. Grab their notes here.

• Rule of the Internet: It is faster to try something than debate about trying something, says @digidave
• “The journalism community has begun to recognize failure as something positive. The journalism industry hasn’t.” @moniguzman

Below, watch a video interview collection around challenges various conference attendees felt were the most daunting for the industry, including what looks like a less than thoughtful addition by this reporter.

Other #ona11 Tweets and Takeaways from other conference sessions

• Journalists who add analysis to FB postings about stories get 20% better response. @kmingis
• Twitter doesn’t take down parody accounts like @BPGlobalPR. But will take down impersonators. @lheron
• 40% of Twitter users are just listening, using Twitter as a wire service – @EricaAmerica
• About 200 million tweets are sent every day, @ericaamerica said. @lheron
• General consensus in the room is you never delete a tweet, even if it is wrong. Clarify, be transparent. @PoppedCulture
• I attended briefly an un-conference called Tango with Django, which was a small kick-in-the-pants in us non-developer journalists about trying to learn some basic programming languages.
• The candidate voting guide is one of the dullest yet important things news orgs do. Could really use spicing up online. @kev097
• Some question came out of the annual awards show about whether enough independent and niche sites are being honored. I didn’t want to dive into that mess, though I did not that we at Technically Philly have never even thought about applying, despite doing some pretty substantial journalism projects.

Whether they are meant to be there or not, real business lessons are buried within the made-for-TV, startup-pitch-event-turned-reality-show Shark Tank, and despite the raised eyebrows, I love the program.

A rotating crew of five potential investors, billed as self-made millionaires, hear quick pitches from would-be entrepreneurs of varying skills, interests and levels of experience. Sometimes deals are made; sometimes those entrepreneurs walk away with nothing, aside from a little exposure.

This is not the first time I’ve talked about the show: last fall, I wrote about what the Knight News Challenge could learn from Shark Tank.

I watched most of last season and all of what has come out so far this year. I’ve got to thinking there are a few lessons to be learned from watching. Updated: Tech Crunch has a newer post offering lessons for the show.

First, it’s the best reality show on TV because — though the drama is naturally turned up and the personality surely encouraged — it has the same quick-cut, digestible entertaining qualities of other programs, but it also has a taste of next-big-thing trends and dives into the American ethos of entrepreneurship with all the teachings of what works and what doesn’t.

Watch a clip from last season below.

So, yes, I’ve had some takeaways, some for pursuing investment and some, of course, for being the very unique experience of having five potential, competing investors sitting in front of you on national TV.

INVESTMENT PITCH LESSONS

1. Have a strong elevator pitch – Well, obviously, first and foremost, you should have down exactly what you aim to say: simply what your business is, why it’s unique, what needs it fills, how much money it has made, how it will scale to make more and why you’re the person to do it. Gabe Weinberg recently wrote on this and many other angles for your investment pitch.
2. Always offer your sales figures for the last calendar year — Or, if more relevant, in the last year or fiscal year, but the point is to have, ready immediately, how much in actual sales you made in a 12-month period. Projections are fine, recent numbers are cool, orders or forthcoming sales are great, but the first thing to say is what you’ve already done and that figure needs to be during a 365-day period.
3. Have existing sales — Don’t seek outside investment without sales unless you have a very clear, special circumstance, like intellectual property concerns for high technology, pharmaceutical, heavy machinery of the like. ….Even then…
4. Have a clear sense of why the investor needs you — Many of the entrepreneurs took for granted the idea that they were of value to the business being pitched, however in multiple pitches I watched the investors questioning that very idea. Have a rational, reasoned and succinct answer to why you are the best person on the planet to run or be involved in your business — other than just that you began it.
5. Don’t make an investment pitch as your last report — As noted above, you need to know what you want and what’s the least you’ll take and be able to walk away if neither is met. If you’ll take anything and show it and are unable to walk away, you can get yourself in a world of trouble.
6. What specifically will you do with an infusion of capital — You absolutely must be able to very specifically cite precisely what you’re going to spend outside investment on and it better be a very clear way to quickly grow revenue.
7. Investment money is for scale — When speaking to investors (not friends and family) you’re essentially trading a chance to grow your business big for an efficient return of investment. That means, outside investment is for a clear next step to growing quickly your business, as noted above.
8. Know your options for product direction — Startups are pushed lots of different ways, from direct to consumer sales for bigger yields, to private licensing for existing company for quicker payout, to distribution agreement with stores and more. Be well researched in which directions are possible, have a clear sense of which way you think you should go, but be aware of the other options.
9. Getting on store shelves is much easier than staying there — Products can be put on trial by a store, but price point, shelf placement and customer reaction dictate if it will stay there. As I learned, it all comes down to “gross margin per linear inch,” a phrase I now love.
10. Come with a clear direction in mind but be ready for others — Know how, where and why you want to grow your startup, but be willing (and eager) to get criticism and advice from investors who might offer varying directions.
11. Products scale, not services — Don’t go seeking investment for your service. Go seeking investment for a product-driven business or a service made unique by a product that supports it. Perception is that that’s a far safer chance to make a return on investment.
12. Know the size of your industry — Be researched enough to recite what annual sales are across your industry or a related one, be aware of units or other size scales. You need to be able to quickly prove that there is money to be made in an industry that those potential investors might not know well.
13. Know your cost to produce and the retail price — Those are two very important figures to know well in advance of asking for outside investment. Compare to other similar products, pay for user testing, have existing sales and do whatever else will get you to those numbers.
14. Have other investment to speak of and lessons learned – Before seeking outside investment, you should have used your own capital and that of friends and family. That’s where you start, and then have a reason why that money was successful and why you need more of it. If these tests of capital failed, getting more money from outsiders won’t look so wise.
15. Know the difference between a product and a company – Having a single idea or product or service is a fine start, but without anything more, when you seek an investment, that single sale needs to scale in a bigger way than if your idea is to build a robust and diversified business.
16. Licensing a product to an existing company can get costly — Let’s say you have a unique, cost effective way to better maintain the shine of motorcycle chrome, and you want to license the product to Harley Davidson. Assuming your product is good enough and connections strong enough that you meet with the company and get the deal agreed to, you just might be paying a hefty downpayment and pledging guarantee payments that will come from either sales or from limping away from the deal.
17. Gaining investment is not a success, it’s a tool — This is a concept that also came up in a recent interview I had with a scaling tech company in Philadelphia and is an important one. No one’s goal should be to get investment. Investment should be a way to get to that goal.
18. Know your competition — Be well versed in who is doing work similar to yours, directly or otherwise. Being unaware of relevant competition or simply ignoring someone who is can be a big mistake.
19. Having a mission is a wonderful plus, but it doesn’t replace needing to be able to talk business — Offering a reason that you’re motivated to make your business succeed, through social entrepreneurship or personal experience, can inspire an investor, or at least sell her on the idea that you’re determined to succeed. None of that, though, will replace the need to be sure about the business sense of your project. Inspiration doesn’t keep missions alive, the funding does.
20. Patents, trademarking and copyright matters more than almost anything you have – Unless you have sales to suggest otherwise, nothing you have is as valuable as the protection of an idea, product, brand or service to keep your sales your own.
21. Know the lingo but never be dependent on it – Every industry have its phrases and specifics. Know it. Talk it. Talk shop with others in your industry enough that when you encounter an investor who knows that industry, you convey the idea that you know it. But always be able to speak in comfortable, recognizable language.
22. Don’t take it personally — Women have cried, men have wined on the show. Be sure to keep your personal values and pride separate from a group of investors who could likely tear your plans apart.
23. Royalty guarantees are commonly at seven percent of profit per unit sold — When investing relatively large sums for a promising product with little in existing sales, the investors often asked for a product royalty on top of equity. The argument was that the invested money would have to go largely to awareness and less to scaling, so to better get a quick rate of return, royalty on unit profit was desired. The royalty rate varied but most often landed at seven percent, described as a common rate.
24. Evaluate your company appropriately — A surprising number of entrepreneurs came to the table without fully understanding that putting a price on equity in a company sets its evaluation; that is, if you’re offering 10 percent equity in your company for $10, you’re suggesting that your company is worth $100. That said, there’s some variation to evaluating companies, particularly startups and across various industries. Different methods include [A] multiplying your last 12-months of EBITDA by 2.5 or another multiple, [B] putting a dollar figure on all monthly users, [C] totaling full assets with a dollar figure and adding a calendar year projection. There are also startups like YouNoodle trying to get an algorithm to do the work or use resources from Inc. magazine or from CNN or perspective like here.

COMPETITIVE GROUP PITCH INVESTING LESSONS

• Ask for all potential offers on the table before negotiating — By simply asking if anyone else in the room would like to make an offer, you can improve the terms being offered from which to negotiate.
• Be confident, or at least look confident — The pack of investors swarm and cut down those who look nervous or uncertain.

WORDS OF WISDOM

• “Between an idea and a business is a hell of a long way.” – Kevin O’Leary, season two, episode five
• “Don’t cry about money, it never cries for you.” — Kevin O’Leary
• “Don’t ever be enamored by what something sells for. It’s more important what you get to keep in your pocket.” – Robert Herjavec

OTHER READING:

• How to evaluate your financial position — Some interesting, unique measurements of a business’s viability, like the very simple idea of dividing cash on hand by monthly expenses to get the number of months before you hit bankruptcy. That’ll keep you from focusing too much on sales, if overhead is skyrocketing.
• Real-Life Lessons From Shark Tank — Some good, broad takeaways
• Branding Lessons From The Star Of ‘Shark Tank’
• Business Lessons from ABC’s Shark Tank

Photo by Dan Victor

Nearly a year after launching, the team behind the NewsWorks community-driven online news effort from WHYY, the Philadelphia public media organization, shared its lessons. It was the third event from a revived local chapter of the Online News Association.

After an hour of beer donated by Boxcar Brewing, sandwiches from the Trolleycar Diner and pretzels from the Center City Soft Pretzel Co., I kicked off the night and introduced WHYY editorial chief Chris Satullo.

Satullo and Don Henry, two of the many leading faces behind the NewsWorks initiative, shared five tasks they got right and five tasks they got wrong. Text of them all and video of the first few below.

Me kicking off the night. Photo by Dan Victor.

What NewsWorks says it got right

1. Made ads behave themselves , focused on straightforward design — No obtrusive ads, Henry said.
2. Hyperlocal pages — The team was proud of their work in the northwest
3. Partnership network broadened our mix.
4. Changed the culture of the newsroom, provided ample in-house training.
5. Got the damn web site launched — Henry said there was no IA or strategy or staff in May 2010 and still launched in mid-November, “not so bad,” he said.

What NewsWorks says it got wrong

1. Missed change to fully leverage WHYY’s rich audio content — No early in-roads in podcasting, though movement has been made
2. Failed to dislodge perceptoion that site was principally ‘citizen journalism’ and hyperlocal
3. Membership strategy still needs work — Needing to fund and sustain bigger work
4. Social media were not the leading edge of our participation strategy
5. Got the damn web site launched — It was surely lacking a lot of what the staff hoped it could be, but it was a start.

Other takeaways from Q&A session:

• Having strong content partnerships early on is a big priority to recommend to others, said Satullo
• “In the time it takes to make the website you really want, it will no longer be what you want,” said Satullo.
• Just 13 percent of traffic to NewsWorks comes from visitors using the URL, much more from search and social, suggesting the site isn’t as widely known as it is useful, Satullo said.
• July and August saw 30 percent increase in readership, helped by “an earthquake, Irene and Arlene.”
• “People want something that tastes, looks and feels like NPR but is local,” Satullo said. “But if you really listen, NPR hogs up a lot of the average hour. We just have a few minutes at the top and a little at the close. It’s hard to blow the wheels off City Hall in less than 10 minutes.” Adding the daily NewsWorks Tonight show is WHYY trying to “make a bigger canvas to do that.”
• NewsWorks, which has a hyperlocal effort in northwest Philly, won’t be expanding until “this thing is sustained,” which involves growing membership around it, said Satullo.
• The site is tablet ready because it doesn’t use Flash, but the team is seeking a new mobile template to more friendly to smartphone users, said Henry.

Sales tactics to lead and those to avoid are seemingly peppered throughout the classic, star-studded, independent black comedy Glengarry Glen Ross from 1992 that I finally got to watch — after quoting clips for years.

“We’re adding a little something to this month’s sales contest. As you all know, first prize is a Cadillac El Dorado. Anyone wanna see second prize? Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize is you’re fired,” says the character Blake, setting the mood early on.

As you might expect, there are some takeaways to be had.

The film, adapted from a 1983 play that won a Pulitzer Prize, shows the desperate, two-day plight of four real estate salesmen specializing in investment properties in retirement developments like Arizona and Florida. They’re getting squeezed by corporate to increase sales, represented by Alec Baldwin’s memorable, single-scene performance (watch a clip below).

Shot in Brooklyn, apparently subtly set in Chicago but including a New York Telephone sticker early on, was a critically-acclaimed box office bust that earned a Best Actor nomination at the Oscar’s for Al Pacino, who was joined by Baldwin, Jack Lemmon, Kevin Spacey, Ed Harris, Alan Arkin and other familiar faces. (Watch below a clip of Pacino’s famed monologue-laced sales pitch)

The film, dubbed ‘Death of the Fuckin’ Salesman’ because of its similar themes to Arthur Miller’s classic play and its coarse language, is an actor’s film destined to be a cult classic: well shot, smartly lit, full of monologues, a simple plot with deeper themes, filled with younger versions of top-flight actors. Yes, you know, all the reasons for it to not succeed financially.

My Takeaways:

1. “A man is his job,”says Shelley Levene, played by Jack Lemmon. Even if you don’t define yourself by your work, the very fact of choosing work that allows you to not be defined by it makes it a part of who you are. What we do, what we spend most of our time doing, surely says a great deal about who we are.
2. “It takes brass balls to sell…” says Blake, played by Alec Baldwin. The effort, confidence and savvy to sell damn near anything is an admirable, enviable and, often, loathsome toolkit.
3. ABC. Always be Closing — Those immortal words from Baldwin’s character are very nearly cartoonish in the movie, but the sentiment is real. Before entering any meeting, know what your ask is, what is considered a success. Because, my friends, as Toby Keith sings, “if you don’t know where you’re going/You might end up somewhere else.”
4. “You’ve never even been on a sit,” says Lemmon’s character, accusing Kevin Spacey’s bookish character of being unaware of the real challenges of sales.  Two things on this point: one, there is a clear sense that any entrepreneur, any red-blooded American, really, should have some sales experience; and two, well, gosh, Brian Kirk and I use this phrase ‘going on a sit’ from time to time just because it sounds so god damn cool.”
5. Appearances matter — This, of course, is nothing new, but the movie’s humor comes best when the real estate agent characters are deploying any mechanism of treachery to fool potential clients into believing any number of lies (the properties are moving fast, deadlines are rapidly approaching, their operation is very established, etc.). Picture Jack Lemmon in a phone booth on a rainy night asking his lead on the other end of the call to hold on a minute, as he shouts to a fictional secretary named ‘Grace’ to get his nonexistent plane ticket ready. Lies are, ultimately, bad for business, but the point is clear. In most cases, you are who you present yourself as. You probably do good work and know your industry well, but do you look like you do?
6. Tell a story, get familiar, speak with passion — Lying or not, succeeding or not, even these small-time real estate agents are always doing these three things. (1) They have a story arc for why what they’re selling is the right fit and what now is the right time. (2) They are getting and remembering names and details to develop a connection and making that ‘no’ even a touch harder. (3) They are speaking like what they’re talking about matters.
7. Have a deadline, always have a deadline — In the movie, every character is always leaving, so, yes, we need to make the deal now. It’s all hogwash, of course, and the lying isn’t necessary, but understanding that without a deadline of some kind, getting the movement you want is always going to be harder is paramount.
8. Make people explain themselves — This fits into a classic of journalism: shut up and let your interview speak. We too often bail each other out or simply misunderstand each other when we impatiently finish people’s sentences or thoughts, when, rather, it’s better to wait someone out. In sales, a sense of directionless from someone else, is an opportunity to create direction for you both. Details are like family, you love them, but they don’t always need to be around. Bring them up when they’re beneficial or focus on the overall meaning or broad vision otherwise.
9. Ownership of the upperhand goes round and round – Throughout the movie, the cast of characters is always attacking someone else, only to find that vitriol coming back hours later. It was a combative, competitive work environment of one-upsmanship. It didn’t seem like any of the characters were aware that he would surely be in a different situation soon. That’s a lesson everyone should remember. Give help, because you’re surely going to need it soon.
10. “You never open your mouth unless you know what the shot is,” says Ricky Roma, played by Al Pacino. Perhaps one of the better, less known quotes of the movie, Pacino’s character scolds Spacey’s for bluffing without knowing the context and screwing up a deal. The big takeaway for me is that — while, clearly, lying is bad business, despite its common usage in the film — going hard on a sell, bluffing or not, is only the right bet when you’ve done your research. Know who, why and how this is the person to sell on this subject. Otherwise, it’s easy to get burned.

Any other takeaways from other fans of the film?

Even on the beloved and excellent TV comedy 'Always Sunny in Philadelphia,' native Rob McElhenney doesn't employ a Philly accent.

I have a friend who went to college where he did for, really, one leading reason: the accent.

Sure, he found a nice campus at a respected university with a good reputation and a big price tag, but, ultimately, he sought colleges in and around Boston because he loved that accent.

Boston, most might say, is a culturally distinctive city of 650,000 in a region steeped in history, plagued by all the problems dense places face and respected for its future.

Boston and its portion of New England surely has a lot going for it — in Philadelphia, it’s the city we probably most often compare ourselves to in terms of college graduate retention and sustaining of life sciences business — but I argue one of the strongest, most meaningful reasons for its success that no one seems to talk about is, yes, those broad As of the Boston accent.

So I’m here to argue that one of the greatest ways to continue to bolster Philadelphia’s reputation is to expand its cultural exportation through movies, music and TV, highlighted by that accent that the rest of the country rarely can identify.

Hear a podcast on accents, particularly around the Boston dialect below.

Listen here.

Spurred by the Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Mark Walberg crew that came to prominence over the last decade who made moves like ‘Good Will Hunting’ and the ‘Departed,’ the Boston accent (and the debate over accuracy and authenticity) blossomed and other cultural norms grew in cache in the minds of some, like my friend.

My friend had never set foot in Boston before he decided he wanted to go to college there. Philadelphia culture that is most often exported — like sports and street food — is identifiable but harder to recreate elsewhere, say, over a college application.

What famous people speak in a Philadelphia accent (maybe TV commentator Chris Matthews, as noted in this good post on the ‘overlooked Philly accent’)? Because there are certainly examples most Americans could point to for the Boston accent, from those actors to statesmen like Ted Kennedy.

I’m not suggesting everyone go out and start speaking with one, but, as Philadelphia does start doing a better job of attracting new talent and retaining college graduates, those native accents built over generations are going to become rarer still. It has its faults and many have actively removed the accent, but it’s a part of the fabric and cultural identification with the city that few, if anyone, out of the region knows.

Philadelphia hasn’t, for a mess of reasons I haven’t yet worked through, captivated the minds of enough writers and directors to, when movies are set here (which happens with an increasing and fair amount of frequency) address and include the Italian South Philly quick pace or the colloquial-laden nasal spew from the riverwards.

Why that is, I’m not quite sure, but even in moves like ‘Rocky’ or ‘Invincible’ (starring Walberg) that are meant to dominate locality, I haven’t caught any attempt at the accent.

So on Youtube, people sure have tried:

Real Househusbands of Philadelphia

Philly Tawk

Mid-Atlantic dissection Part One

Here is a video featuring 35 accents in English, including Philly’s, though it’s certainly a subdued one.

A BBC documentary on the contributions from black Americans to the English language, highlighting ‘the Philadelphia ghetto.’

Colloquialisms:
jawn — a pronoun for ‘thing’
hoagie — from Hog Island, they say
There are words like jawn and phrases like nahmean
eHow talks about

H/T Tech Dirt.

Economics of abundance: “Find the scarcity that abundance creates.”

All of this fits into the news (and many other industry) fracturing conversation. Which might have led leaders to take more serious predictions, like this prescient one from 1994 about the future of tablet computer.