Here's to the Crazy Ones

I was clearing some space on my hard drive this evening and ran across an old Apple video that I had saved. It was the very first commercial from their "Think Different" campaign: "Here's to the Crazy Ones." I watched it once again and decided it was just too inspiring to meet the fate of the trash can. And while not nearly on the same level as Henson, Ghandi, and Picasso, the video reminded me a little why we got in to this business in the first place.

During the latter half of last week I was on the west coast doing a workshop for a new client and dropping in on a few of our existing ones. 

Because our clients are all over the world we have lots of phone calls but don't actually meet with them that often in person. When we do, I walk away, without fail, more energized than ever because I realize every person we work with has gone somewhere out on the proverbial limb, whether it's just a few inches because of strong executive support or right on the edge because they are running markets and acting for the good of the company, not to just play it safe and collect their paychecks each month. 

Companies come in all shapes and sizes and one corporate culture can be vastly different from another. But all companies have problems to some degree with corporate politics and information spin which can have a negative impact on business processes like financial forecasting, project management, and risk mitigation...All the things we talk about where prediction markets can have a positive impact. 

So here's to the rebels of corporate life who don't quite fit the mold and are introducing prediction markets and other tools inside their organizations to promote reality-based decision making. Much respect.