I’m going to tell you why I lack fear in business. It’s because I fear something so much. I fear the health and well-being of my family so much, and I mean I’m crippled by it. Hence, why, when you’re a grown-ass man and you get up during a vacation and go to some weird corner and pray for your mom to wake up. This really happens to me. I am so fearful of the health and well-being of the 10 to 15 people closest to me in my life. It is disproportionately the most important thing in the world to me that it just makes everything else so easy. The thought of losing all of my money is often so weirdly exciting because I know I have the talent to rise back up.

Money doesn’t mean anything to me. I want legacy, influence, and impact. I thought that would go away when I had kids, and it has to some degree, but not really. I think that’s how it plays out in other people’s lives right? You’re scared to die? Scared to lose, scared to try? That’s why I’m so in tune with my feelings. I’m all in. I dream of buying the Jets or having somebody say, “This is it. This was the guy. He was the best entrepreneur of this generation.” Then I think about that title being anointed upon me and then immediately getting a phone call and hearing that my mom died in a car accident. None of it would matter. I would be devastated.

Then I see how I feel and since I feel awful, well then why in the world would I get caught up in the money or the business? You only have one life. I live mine in the moment. I care deeply about every human interaction I have. In those meetings, I’m not thinking about business, or money, or success. I’m thinking about life. About what really matters. About the individual standing right in front of me. There’s definitely personal vulnerabilities that I have that I’m aware of, but boy, I am super not scared when it comes to business. I’ve been doing it my whole life. I’ve always been good at it. There is no reason to fear money or a meeting or a deal. Why does it matter? You can’t sell the unsellable. You can’t change the way the other person treats you in the moment.

You can’t change their perception, or circumstance or what they had for breakfast that morning that has put them in a bad mood. So why let it bother you? You have to deploy understanding, empathy and compassion. You have to be you, and not be afraid to fail. Maybe it’s my DNA, but I also think it’s a learned behavior. I’ve seen it happen with those around me and I’ve watched them grow. My assistant @tyler has become an absolute monster when it comes to his confidence. After having him work at Vayner for year and a half, he’s now shaking hands and doing deals with the biggest names in business. It just takes time. Confidence builds and reality set in. You lose your fear of not doing, not trying, not caring what other people think.

The success of any economy depends on Human capital – how an economy efficiently using its human capital for development and providing employability referred as demographic dividends. And every one talk about India’s demographic structure as key strength this strength is derived from the Marriage system in India. Let me envisage the demographics of various nations. Chinese their average age is 37 years and 72% of population is in between 15 to 64 years and China also one of the aging population . United states and other western nations countries did not became rich because of lucky endowment of natural resources or because of capital falling like manna from heaven .

Arena Stage in 2007, I came to my new job with a couple of preconceived notions about subscriptions. Perhaps it was in part a reflection that I am on the Generation X/Millennial cusp, but I was certain that the subscription model was outdated and ineffective. Reports from major performing arts organizations at the time seemed to indicate a trend of declining returns, forcing a feeling that immediate change to a staple in our business model could be warranted. In early 2008, Arena Stage along with a few other LORT theaters, began to test subscription alternatives in focus groups. In doing so, I was absolutely certain that the results would show at least one, if not several, attractive alternatives to subscriptions. I was wrong. Our work indicated that each option we put forth was less attractive to target single ticket buyers, multi-buyers and current subscribers than what we currently had.

I was so surprised that we conducted a second series of focus groups with similar results. Marketing and confused, after a few months, I concluded our market research indicated that the subscription model wasn’t outdated, but that our execution was flawed. With the help of Target Resource Group, we conducted a thorough audit of all subscription related practices, and started making significant changes in mid-2008. Simplified Pricing. Our previous subscription pricing strategies were incredibly complicated. I remember spending hours poring over pricing strategy, and at the end thinking that one would have to be a CPA to understand how our pricing model worked. We decided that in order to create an effective value proposition, subscription pricing would have to be clear and easy to understand.

Introduction of Dynamic Pricing for Single Tickets. In 2009, Arena Stage introduced dynamic pricing for single tickets, and we immediately started to see an unanticipated outcome. Focus on Retention and Customer Service. We were allocating too much resource on subscription acquisition, and not enough on subscription retention. We developed a "say yes to the customer" approach with our subscribers, thereby earning us "industry leader" marks on our most recent customer satisfaction survey conducted by Shugoll Research. Year to year benchmarks for customer service have increased steadily as we focused on providing our subscribers the best experience possible. Given today’s sad state of customer service at most establishments, we were determined that our customer service would be a competitive advantage.

In addition, we allotted resources for special subscriber recognition efforts throughout the year, including a sneak preview of the upcoming season, complimentary artisan chocolates at specific performances and subscriber-only events. During the 2010-11 season, we introduced a concierge program for all new subscribers. Each new subscriber was assigned a personal concierge on staff, who was expected to make themselves available to answer questions, field requests or be helpful in any way. Concierges were reactive to inbound inquiries, but were also expected to be proactive throughout the year, offering new subscribers recommendations on local restaurants, parking, interesting tidbits about upcoming productions, and the like.

By concentrating on customer service and retention, we were able to increase our overall subscription renewal rate by 13% over three fiscal years. Eliminated Advertising, but Increased Direct Mail and Telemarketing. Prior to 2008, 25% of our subscription budget was allocated to advertising. After exhaustive efforts, we could not trace a single subscription purchase back to our advertising campaigns. Therefore, we cut all subscription advertising, and refocused those resources on direct mail and telemarketing. In doing so, we completely revamped our direct mail and telemarketing campaigns. In terms of direct mail, we would previously print hundreds of thousands of season brochures, and then mail them out in a few rounds of massive mailings.

Our brochures were 28 to 32 pages in length, and functioned more as a branding tool than a sales piece. We have eliminated our subscription brochure, cut our design costs by 60%, and have directed all of our resources to testing message and offer. For more information on our new approach to direct mail, please read "The Future of the Season Brochure." While retooling direct mail, we also invested heavily in telemarketing. If executed properly, many patrons actually view telemarketing as a service, as it allows them the opportunity to discuss the plays with a seasoned caller and to ask any questions they may have. As the economy worsened, we found that many potential subscribers needed personal interaction with a friendly and knowledgeable sales agent in order to make a commitment. Delayed the Introduction of Smaller Packages and Concentrated on Upgrade Strategies.

In 2009, we started to experiment with delaying the on-sale date of partial season packages in order to focus our efforts on upgrading subscribers to the full season. There was a fear at the time that our partial subscribers would become frustrated, and leave the company all together, but I was confident that our programming was strong enough that a delay would encourage subscribers to upgrade. The value proposition was clear — the only way to guarantee the absolute best seats in the house for our most popular productions was to purchase a full season subscription. By focusing on full season subscriptions and postponing the introduction of partial subscriptions, we were able to increase the percentage of full season subscribers by 14% from FY09 to FY12.

Expanding upon previous successes, in 2011 we launched a completely separate upgrade campaign alongside our renewal and acquisition campaigns. In addition to crafting and executing strategies that focus on renewals and acquisitions, we now also focus on upgrading subscribers throughout the year. These strategies have proven to be quite effective, and as of publication, we have upgraded more than 1,800 subscribers from smaller packages to larger packages in the current fiscal year. Relentless Dedication to Monitoring ROI. In FY12, we will spend almost 20% less on subscription expenses than we did in FY08 despite the fact that the number of new subscribers has increased by 166% during the same time. In addition to the above, it should also be said that the most important ingredient to any subscription campaign is programming. A subscription campaign is both a referendum on the previous season and an indicator on the amount of excitement in the marketplace for the upcoming season. In my time at Arena Stage, I have been extraordinarily lucky that our artistic team has consistently produced and presented exceptionally high quality work, without which, the aforementioned tactics would have only resulted in minor successes at best.

I love when other people post redemptions and mini-trip reports, so I wanted to join in a bit. 1: SQ Suites & JAL First – L.A. We each had leftovers from (my) Prestige and (her) Premier welcome bonuses, plus we had grabbed the ATT Access More card and had been using it to pay rent using Plastiq’s 1.5% promo. She earned a Southwest Companion Pass the previous year, so we had a year left of it. We also received mailers for the Citibank checking account 50k AA-mile bonus. This one was a bit crazy. We started planning this in mid-January, right after we got back from the last trip.

Trying to take advantage of a 4-day weekend in mid-February, I started looking for warm-weather destinations for a 6/7-night trip. We considered Hawaii and the Caribbean, but were pretty late to the party there. Plus, J products to those places aren’t great in many cases. We also looked at SE Asia, but couldn’t find anything good. Then I took a peek at Dubai/Abu Dhabi. There was nothing from LAX, but there was a crazy routing from SFO. We were 5 minutes from SNA (Orange County), where it’s arguably more convenient to fly to SFO than to drive to LAX. The crazy routing was SFO-CPH-IST-DXB, with 5h40m and 2h30m layovers.

This is not to mention the SNA-SFO positioning flight, which tossed in a 3h layover (wanted a lot of cushion because of separate itineraries). However, with the help of BA’s website, I was able to find us an AUH-LAX nonstop on Etihad for the ride back, so helped her stomach the whole thing. 164.23/pp. Not dirt cheap, but still not terrible, so we put the itinerary on hold while I transferred the points over from Citi. Interestingly, they never actually gave me an expiration date for the hold. The Citi transfer to SQ went through about a day later, and I called them back up to ticket the reservation.

We had 5 nights to divvy up, and after some deliberation, we opted for 4 nights in Dubai and 1 in Abu Dhabi. In hindsight, we wish we would’ve had another day in Abu Dhabi. 500/night due to a military convention going on. But rooms at the Aloft Abu Dhabi were available for redemption at 4,000 Starpoints/night. 140, so that’s what we did. We spent our SFO layover in the Centurion Lounge. Food was great, and it wasn’t too crowded. The 10.5-hour SAS flight to Copenhagen was just as great as our previous SAS experience. Food, service, and seat were all great.

Layover lounge at CPH was the SAS Business Lounge, where we had some good soup and got in a little nap in their quiet room. Though, while the recliner chairs are nice for relaxing, they’re a little tough to sleep in. The 3-hour Turkish Airlines flight to Istanbul was fine. The seat was a big, comfy recliner chair, and the service was friendly. We weren’t hungry, so she didn’t eat, and I only tried to the appetizer of mezze, hummus, and tabbouleh, which was really good. We spent our IST layover at, of course, the famous and gigantic Turkish Airlines lounge.

This place makes you feel like you’re at a country club or something. A pool table, small movie theater, golf simulator, video games, a grand piano, showers, and more food choices than you can possibly try all spread over 2 floors. It was pretty fascinating to just walk through the whole thing. The final 4.5-hour leg on TK to Dubai was fine. We were exhausted at this point and full from the IST lounge, so we passed on the in-flight meal, which seemed to be roughly the same stuff as the previous flight. The seats, while lie-flat, are not very private, not all that comfy, and the 2-3-2 configuration is such a terrible idea. This flight also had the only service ding of the whole trip – we asked for coffee with cream and sugar – he brought black coffee.

No biggie – asked for cream and sugar – he took the cups back and brought them back after adding cream/milk – no sugar. He also seemed like he wasn’t thrilled to be there, so I left it alone. Dubai is unlike anywhere I’ve ever been, except maybe Singapore. It’s like the whole city was in a contest to see who could build the most high-rises. The DoubleTree there is a bit dated, but the Amex Plat gave me Gold with Hilton, so we got free breakfast, plus they bumped us up to a 1-bedroom suite. 15 coffee with gold flakes just to say we did it, but didn’t have time), the Grand Mosque, and doing a half-day desert safari, which ended up being the highlight of the trip. Was just a lot of fun.

The boarding time for our LAX-bound flight was 2-hours ahead of departure, which I thought was odd, but later realized was because US-bound flights go through immigration at AUH. As a nice surprise, they have Global Entry kiosks there. We made it through without rushing, but just for fun, my boarding pass ended up with the lovely SSSS, which gave me the opportunity to empty the entire contents of my backpack into security bins. We hopped in one of the business class lounges just to see, but it was nothing special. The flight was great. There was plenty to watch on their IFE. The "Solstys Style" seats weren’t huge, but they were plenty comfy, and we had chosen the honeymoon seats, which are great for talking and sharing food.

Service in my aisle was good, but meh for her side. The food, however, was amazing. I had a beef short rib with mashed potatoes, which was better than most restaurants I’ve had similar dishes at. She had salmon with rice and veggies and said that was also really good. I ordered a blue cheese and mushroom pasta later that was also delicious. 16 hours, this is still the longest flight I’ve been on, and I loved it. It’s enough time that you can eat, sleep, and watch movies without worrying about having to time your in-flight sleep schedule – I’m pretty sure I got over 8 hours total. SAS lived up to my previous great experience, and I would absolutely fly Etihad again. Would fly them if I had to, but would try to avoid them mainly because of the seats.

People get weird about being credited for throwaway internet comments, and it’s dumb. These Reddit posts aren’t a funnel for my own projects and don’t generate any revenue, so there’s nothing of value to steal from me. I’m skeptical that having gear be relevant to a noir game is a good idea. Having customizable weapons and gadgets that you can amass wealth to purchase feels extremely cyberpunk, and one of the defining features that distinguishes cyberpunk from ordinary noir is the tech and gadgets. When noir characters who have, as a character trait, extraordinary wealth, they almost always use that wealth for purely social purposes, not to buy James Bond gadgets or trick themselves or their allies out with military-grade weaponry.

100 around like it’s nothing helps them to get into high society events and mingle with the rich folk there, or to drop a week’s wages in front of someone to get them to divulge some secret information. That kind of thing can be useful for information gathering, but it’s an ability that they’ve cultivated by being wealthy for a long period of time, not an item that they wield or wear. Indeed, if your street muscle character put on a fancy tuxedo to accompany his rich friend to a gala, you would expect there to be a scene where he embarrasses said friend with his crude street mannerisms.