Coca-Cola Coffee, Problemshifting, Clear's Big Pivot and Why You Should Skip The Hustle and Keep Your Day Job | Non-Obvious Insights #229

Dear Newsletterest,

This week's stories break down some widespread (and mistaken) assumptions: including the idea that "hustling" to propel your own career success is always good, that the world is struggling to produce enough food and that creators should be able to control how people consume their content. You'll also read about a Coke's efforts to launch a new beverage category and Clear's brilliant new pivot that makes a ton of sense. If you want to dig deeper into the stories, send me an email or join me later today for my live insights show online ...

Watch the show LIVE at Noon EST on YouTube >>

Why More People Should Skip the Hustle and Take the Paycheck

Entertainment (and other creative industries too) are filled with success stories of people to took big risks to find that "performance of a lifetime." What about the actor who stays in the same role for two decades? They aren't nearly as celebrated, which made this week's Vanity Fair story about Ellen Pompeo, star of Grey's Anatomy, particularly interesting. She has been candid about choosing to take the steady paycheck instead of chasing more creative acting roles. This is the sort of perspective you rarely get in the world of entertainment, and perhaps one that more aspiring actors (not to mention entrepreneurs) might learn from as well.

I became an entrepreneur five years ago after turning 40, but before that, I was working for someone else, loving my work and taking home a steady paycheck. The idea that you can't be empowered if you're taking the "easy" path of bringing home a steady salary misses the bigger picture. We should all try to find work we love. This doesn't, however, mean that you always need to be hustling or chasing the next thing. It takes an underappreciated kind of wisdom to be happy with what you have and realize how lucky you are.

Is Clear's New Direction the Smartest Brand Pivot Ever?

Like many frequent travelers, I haven't been to an airport in months - but when I was traveling every week, my Clear membership was a lifeline to help me speed through airports and save hours. Since the pandemic, the company has shifted their focus to also offer health checks and eventually track who has been vaccinated for Covid-19 (when one is finally available). Analysts are imagining this smart pivot will allow Clear to provide solutions to help make museums, restaurants, sporting venues, schools and many other physical spaces safer. It's about to be a much better time to be a Clear member.

Problemshifting and the Myth of Food Shortages

Every few months, there are stories about an impending food crisis. From the death of the humble banana, to the loss of fertile farming land to doomsday stories of outbreaks at food production plants, there are plenty of things to be afraid of. Yet the truth, proven by facts and data, is that the world is growing more than enough food to feed all of us, it's just in the wrong places, too expensive or inaccessible. Rather than worrying about not having enough food, a segment from NPR this week posed a different question: "can we produce enough food in a way that doesn't destroy the environment?"

This is a perfect example of "problemshifting." What if instead of trying to solve the PERCEIVED problem of a lack of food, we instead focused on the REAL problem of reducing the barriers that currently exist keeping food from reaching the people who need it most, by making that food cheaper, more accessible and produced in a more environmentally sustainable way. It's an important exercise to continually think not only about how to develop solutions, but whether we should be asking different questions in the first place.

Watch Netflix Content Faster or Slower on Your Mobile Device

I spend a lot of time writing my books (14 rounds of edits for Non-Obvious Megatrends!) - yet I know that despite all this attention, most people who bought the book will only ever skim or read part of it. I'm over it. This week, Netflix finally rolled out a controversial feature allowing you to watch shows at 1.5x or 2.0x the original speed. It's easy to understand why creators would hate this. Of course they want people to watch what they produced at the "right" speed. But this is going to be a losing battle. People want control. The silver lining is that ultimately it may give rise to cultural movements similar to the slow food revolution, where people take pleasure in the intentional slowing down of some experiences so they can savor them.

Coca-Cola Imagines the Future of Refreshment with "Coca-Cola Coffee"

Coca-Cola announced this week they'll be testing a new category of "refreshment coffee" which features a product that packs more than twice the caffeine of regular Coke. Coca-Cola Coffee is being promoted with the type of self-indulgent language usually reserved for fine wine as "a truly unique hybrid innovation that will pioneer a new category. It sips like a Coke and finishes like a coffee.”

It makes sense that the brand would want to branch out from sugary soft drinks, and coffee seems like a safe bet. Still, I can't help but be disappointed. I mean, with the legalization of cannabis, it seems there are so many other creative brand extensions they could launch. After all, who wouldn't try Coca-juana for breakfast? Or maybe it would be Coca-Cannabis ...

Watch the Non-Obvious Insights Show - Episode #229 Today at Noon!

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