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Beyond Excellence: The "Berserk Standard"

Written by: Tom Peters

Article Overview: Amazon has changed the world. eBay has changed the world. Craigslist has changed the world—put about a zillion nails in the coffins of newspapers, among many other Richter 8.0+ things. Craigslist has more traffic than Amazon or eBay. (Though a private company, Craigslist has a projected market capitalization in the billions.)

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Beyond Excellence: The "Berserk Standard"

Amazon has changed the world.

eBay has changed the world. Craigslist has changed the world-put about a zillion nails in the coffins of newspapers, among many other Richter 8.0+ things.

Craigslist has more traffic than Amazon or eBay.

(Though a private company, Craigslist has a projected market capitalization in the billions.)

Amazon has 20,000 employees.

eBay has 16,000 employees.

Craigslist has ... 30 employees.

There is more than one way to skin a cat-even a thoroughly modern cat.

"Pragmatic" action?

Among other things, every (!!!) time you start a project, no matter how small, reach out to several S.W.P.-seriously weird people-for their views about what you are undertaking. Keep reaching until you find a couple of people who are so far out that they more or less speak gibberish.

It may indeed be gibberish, and probably is gibberish-but perhaps once or twice in a lifetime, it'll be someone and some approach that amounts to a blueprint for doing the work of 10,000 with 10, à la Craigslist vs. Amazon and eBay.

Never get seriously underway until you've surfaced a couple of ideas that score perfect 10s, or at least 8s, on the ... Berserk Scale.

At the least, you will have had your mind stretched, the best exercise regimen of all; at most, you may have taken a baby step toward inclusion in the history books.

NB: I've got two books beside me as I write this:

The Weather Channel: The Improbable Rise of a Media Phenomenon (Frank Batten with Jeffrey Cruikshank)

ESPN: The Uncensored History (Michael Freeman)

The idea of an all-weather channel and the idea of an all-sports channel were considered the fantasies of raving lunatics. It took both sets of "lunatics" forever to prove their points. Yet both properties achieved matchless popularity (user-addicts by the millions) and market values of several billion dollars each.

(Source of data re Craigslist, Amazon, eBay: Wired, cover story, September 2009.)

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Home > Entrepreneur-Advice > Tom Peters > Beyond Excellence The Berserk Standard
Article Tags: amazon, billions, blueprint, coffins, craigslist, ebay, gibberish, lifetime, market capitalization, more than one way to skin a cat, nails, newspapers, private company, richter, skin a cat, traffic, zillion

About the Author: Tom Peters
RSS for Tom's articles - Visit Tom's website

Tom & Bob Waterman coauthored In Search of Excellence in 1982; the book was named by NPR (in 1999) as one of the "Top Three Business Books of the Century," and ranked as the "greatest business book of all time" in a poll by Britain's Bloomsbury Publishing (2002). Tom followed Search with a string of international bestsellers: A Passion for Excellence (1985, with Nancy Austin), Thriving on Chaos (1987), Liberation Management (1992: acclaimed as the "Management Book of the Decade" for the '90s), The Tom Peters Seminar: Crazy Times Call for Crazy Organizations (1993), The Pursuit of WOW! (1994); The Circle of Innovation: You Can't Shrink Your Way to Greatness (1997); and in 1999 a series of books on Reinventing Work: The Brand You50, The Project50 and The Professional Service Firm50. In 2003 Tom and publisher Dorling Kindersley released Re-imagine! Business Excellence in a Disruptive Age; the revolutionary book, an immediate No.1 international best seller, aims to do no less than reinvent the business book through vibrant, energetic presentation of critical ideas.

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