We're now in a crisis of overproduction and choking from excess. Somebody counted 437 different mp3 players. And 20,000 brands of beer ... do we really need 437 mp3 players and 20,000 brands of beer? Michael Masterson's ETR reported that 95% of books out there sell fewer than 100 copies. I had no idea.

GreedBastards are romping through everyone else's flower beds to grow and sell their own flowers (genetically modified to germinate only one year and to die in 2 days to increase consumption). They've made marketing the art and science of manipulating people through deception and lies how to feel, think, and buy. "Food" companies hide the true ingredients or use deceptive names. Product marketing includes planned obsolescence to increase consumerism (new iPods every 6 months). Stores that issue high-interest store credit cards (17-25%) make more money from store credit card interest than actually selling products. That's the nature of GREED and a recent meltdown of it was trying to dump 14.5 trillion worth of derivatives in a matter of hours (after Bear Stearns hit an iceberg).

These Greedbastards are hell-bent on generating profits for shareholders even if it means crapping into our common water supply. Then the business magazine covers idolize these insane egomanical GreedBastards of industry using an antiquated industrial-age yardstick of success.

What does this mean to
the small-business owner:

1. The purpose of marketing is to understand the customer's jigsaw puzzle of life, and to create pieces that snap easily into HIS puzzle. When you do that, you will never have to sell again.

2. The fundamental reality is that you are marketing in a world of obscene excess to a spoiled consumer ("knows the price of everything but the value of nothing") numbed by 3,000 sales messages a day.

This is your new baseline:

1. Assume that they don’t need it.
2. Assume they don’t even want it.
3. Assume they have 100 other MoneyHoles.
4. Assume they don’t like your Sales&Marketing.
5. Assume they don't like Salesmen with white shoes.
6. Assume they go for a pee during TV commercials.
7. Assume they spend a fleeting second on newspaper ads.
8. Assume they don’t Trust you.
9. Assume they don’t even Like you.
10. Assume they may not even have the money for it.
11. Assume that—because of boredom and apathy of excess—it may take 9 kisses to turn a frog into a prince, and 2 out of 3 attempts will miss the mark.
12. Assume, that in small business, marketing is everything you do from the energy in your voice inflections on telephone to how your staff says "good morning" to coffee stains on your showroom furniture. Everything that, in one way or another, affects what your customer thinks of you.

Things will change? At the shareholder meeting of Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett's partner,Charles Munger finally exclaimed that "we are having convulsions that make Enron look like a tea party."
— Forbes, 2008/05/03 Seven Hours with Warren.