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After yet another round of protests disrupted hundreds of Tesla dealerships over the weekend, Elon Musk, the carmakers CEO/presidential sidekick, fumed on the social media platform he owns. In a series of tweets and retweets, Musk characterized those taking part in the demonstrations as paid protesters, sparking sympathetic replies on X, such as: How pathetic is your political party when you need to hire people to support it? Musk then went on to spend Sunday night orchestrating a rally for his political partys candidate in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race, during which he gave away checks for a million dollars to two voters, as previously promised. Much like Walt Whitman, Elon Musk contains multitudes. Acting hypocritically is not against the lawwhich is probably for the best, since nearly everyone is guilty of it in one way or another. What makes Musks double standard so egregious, however, is that he has presented no hard evidence of the allegation he broadly lobs at othersoffering payouts to affect a political outcomewhile flagrantly engaging in the very activity he claims to find so repugnant. (Not to mention its questionable legalitydespite the Wisconsin Supreme Court declining a request to stop Musk.) Ever since protests started springing up at Tesla charging stations and showrooms back in February, a response to DOGEs haphazard firing and defunding spree, Musk has claimed these protests are bought and paid for by shadowy forces. Its apparently inconceivable that citizens would object to having their Social Security payments threatened or cancer research disrupted, and organically decide to put pressure on the DOGE heads stock portfolio. Musk even implied that the tens of thousands attending Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortezs recent rallies are similarly paid protesters the Dems are moving around from one staged event to the next. This brand of political accusation is nothing new. During his first term, Donald Trump regularly accused the many hordes or protesters responding to his actions of being paid agitators. (Notably, the protests kept coming, despite the accusations.) The tactic extends back far beyond Trump, though. According to historian Kevin Kruse, segregationists claimed the high schoolers who desegregated Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957, had been paid for their efforts. If protest movements are meant to reflect the shared values of a diverse community with a common cause, such claims muddy the purity of participants and delegitimize their purpose. Among those aiding in the quest to cast suspicion on the staggering number of Tesla protests breaking out around the globe are Fox News and Joe Rogan, both of whom Elon Musk retweeted during a marathon griping session Sunday on X. But none of the evidence any of them have offered proves that a single protester has been paid to attend a Tesla demonstration. Indeed, the headline of the Fox News article that Musk tweeted on Sunday uses the words, Critics speculate, to frame its claims. What the accusations all boil down to is that Democrat-aligned groups such as Indivisible have become involved in the planning and execution of some of these protests. This is true, and those groups neither deny nor try to hide that. Seemingly because the truth does not sound nefarious enough, however, Musk and various media outlets instead claim these groups are leading the charge rather than connecting with already existing protest energy to make it even more powerful. Musk also contorts himself into logic pretzels to link these groups to 94-year old, left-leaning philanthropist George Soros, a longtime boogeyman for conservatives. (He also blamed Soros for hecklers showing up at his million-dollar giveaway on Sunday.) As for the allegations that these protesters must be paid operativesthey couldn’t possibly be sincere in their demonstrating outragethe smoking gun appears to be on an Indivisible web page offering reimbursements of up to $200 for any eligible expenses that local chapters incur during Musk-related protests. Keen observers of how money works may notice that a reimbursement is not exactly the same thing as a payout. Still, when an X user suggested that those supposed $200 payments to protesters are being funded by LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman, Musk jumped in to agree, claiming the probability is 100% that Reid is funding them. (Hoffmans response: The probability many, many people don’t like you? 100%.) While Elon Musk cannot seem to imagine a world in which left-leaning billionaires are not paying off citizens to engineer a political outcome, he is simultaneously paying off citizens to engineer a political outcome. (A win for Musks preferred candidate in Wisconsins special election Tuesday could affect abortion and voting rights in the state along with, uh, whether a Tesla dealership will be allowed to open there.) Beyond the million-dollar checks he handed out Sunday, Musk is offering $20 payouts for anyoneeven those out of state, he explicitly mentionswho will help get the word out for his candidate in Wisconsin. Musks cash infusion in Wisconsin not only represents a continuation of his $270 million effort to elect Trump in November, which also involved hefty giveaways, but its a test run for the primary challenges hes vowed to fund against any Republicans who cross Trump. The irony is, part of what the Tesla protesters object to is the Tesla CEO using his vast fortune to influence politics. Musk keeps asking whos paying to fund these protests, when the simple answer is: Its him.
Category:
E-Commerce
When meeting clients, I make one promiseto see the world as it could be. Thats not a bad message right now. Its a pretty weird world out there. The volatile political and socio-economic landscape can make us all feel like things are going to hell. And in the slightly less real world of marketing and advertising, thats even more the case. The challenges of any agency or client team continue to escalate. Instability abounds. Then theres the issue of client loyalty, reduced scopes, tighter timelines, and the not-so-secret plan of AI to take everyones jobs. And then the cynicism comes. As we know, misery loves company, so soonif you want to find itit can turn up everywhere. Youll see it in status meetings, LinkedIn posts, industry events, and coffee machine catch-ups. Quickly it becomes less funny. In the end, its just a deluge of boring negative energy. Thats why optimism is a way out. We need radiators, not drains, in our teams and our businesses. But lets be clear here, its not about smiling and hand clapping and whooping. Toxic positivity can be a nightmare, and will inevitably create a feeling of mistrust or emptiness from employees. Its about harnessing a belief and way of working that will refuse to allow the status quo to take hold or accept that things are inevitably going to be terrible. Active optimism Lets turn to the concept that I call active optimism. I see this as being willing to see what others dont, to learn, and to try new things. Its about fostering the growth mindset, which in turn allows people to be who they are and do things they never thought possible. Critically, as opposed to the cynics who are simply tiring to be around, active optimism creates a flywheel of energy that gathers people up and becomes a magnet for others. Now, dont get me wrong, a little bit of skepticism is sometimes useful. But in the world we face today, active optimism can be a powerful tool. And you can embed it into an organization. Practically, I define active optimism as follows: Taking responsibility Some days its hard to be positive. We have to deal with the truth and honesty. Sometimes, the truth isnt great. But we also know that our team needs us on our feet and to find a way forward. We need to take more responsibility for the environment, aspirations, and world as it could be. Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan recently made a plea to the writing community – to take more responsibility by Writing More Good Guys. In a world thats turning dark, taking responsibility is what a leader does. Adopting the we can if mentality Adam Morgan and Mark Barden in their brilliant book, A Beautiful Constraint talk about the power of using we can if as a starting point for finding a solution when faced with obstacles. Im obsessed with this approach. We spend so much of our time with challenges its so easy to default to its not going to happen. In many cases, that seems a perfectly reasonable point of view (back to that point about healthy skepticism). But the moment we use we can if weve started to create an answer. From there we can build a way forward. Try it, I promise it works. Implementing a reality distortion bubble My good friend, the brilliant Rob Schwartz, introduced me to this. Like some kind of Rebellion Base in Star Wars, you need something to keep the dark side out. When the chatter or negativity can start to rise, having you and your management team able to take time to live in this reality distortion bubble means you can help each other believe and keep moving. Far too many of us spend time with people coming up saying things arent going well. Even if they are. So it can sometimes feel like theres no good news, or that its only ever a problem. Sadly thats the job, which is why protecting yourself and your leadership team from it can be so useful. Now, as Ive mentioned before, this doesnt mean not dealing with the truth or putting your head in the sand. It does mean dont get taken down by these hits and occasionally give you and your team the opportunity to go into that bubble and think about the positivity in your journey to the world as it could be. Never wasting momentum A small win here, a positive meeting there. Grab them, socialize them, and understand why they went well. Learn and repeat. Negativity is toxic and can get into the corridors and crevices of a team very easily. But so can momentum. Surrounding yourself with the right people You want to spend most of your time with radiators, not drains. Were the sum of the people we surround ourselves with. Get the energy in the room and, where necessary, change the people, or change the people! It can be hard to be optimistic when fortune doesnt smile on you, and its even harder when you are surrounded by cynicism or negativity. Right now, many of us see a world and industry full of volatility and pessimism. But I believe for businesses, teams, and leaders, active optimism in seeing the world as it could be is the only practical course of action.
Category:
E-Commerce
If you own what furniture designer Edgar Blazona calls a pandemic sofaor almost any recently-purchased couchthere’s a good chance that you already want to get rid of it. Furniture sales surged during the pandemic, as people spent more time at home. That happened to coincide with a new low in furniture quality, as manufacturers continued to cut costs. (Supply chain challenges were especially bad during COVID-19, but quality arguably hasnt improved since then.) If your sofa is a few years old, or even newer, the cushions might now be sagging or lumpy. The frame might be wobbly and creaking. The fabric might be fraying or the leather peeling off. You might have spent $3,000, expecting your new sofa to last a decade or two; instead its already looking worse than the old sofa you replaced. Ive spent the last few years really studying why the sofas of today only last three to five years even at the so-called specialty retailers, says Blazona, who worked with large brands like Pottery Barn in the past. Now, he runs a small company called MadeRight CA that makes sofas designed for durability, trying to fight the industrys move toward semi-disposable furniture that quickly ends up in landfills. Furniture manufacturers have struggled to cut costs for years. When trade opened up with China in 1999, American furniture companies tried to compete with new imports and then started shutting down factories and moving jobs overseas. In North Carolina, the center of U.S. furniture manufacturing, the industry cut half of its jobs between 1999 and 2009. Some companies that were particularly known for making higher-quality sofas in the U.S., such as Iowa-based Flexsteel, also eventually started manufacturing in Asia instead. As the pandemic put new pressure on supply chains, and the first Trump administration’s tariffs went into effect, brands tried to find new ways to maintain their margins. [Photo: MadeRight] Because increasing the retail price of a finished sofa is a harder sell to consumers, companies focused first on cheaper materials. “In the world of sofas, the best place to hide these new, more expensive costs is by changing the materials inside,” says Blazona. One change, he says, is that brands have started using the cheapest possible cushions. To nerd out a little: One design choice manufacturers have is the foam density, or the weight of a cubic foot of the foam that’s used inside cushions. (Density shouldnt be confused with firmnesshigher-density foam can be either soft or hard.) The best foam has a density of 2.5 pounds and can last more than a decade. Many furniture brands now use foam with 1.8-pound density, which Blazona says lasts three to five years instead. In between are options for two-pound and 2.3-pound foam, which lasts a little longer. Crate & Barrel, for example, now sells sofas with 1.8 and 2.0-pound foam density cushions. Pottery Barn uses 1.8-pound foam. Even Room & Board, an employee-owned company known for making higher-quality furniture, started using 1.8-pound foam. “It’s a very shortsighted approach, in my opinion,” Blazona says. (Most brands don’t advertise these numbers, but Blazona gathered the stats on competitors by asking their customer service reps.) [Photo: MadeRight] Companies have also cut corners in how frames are madeusing particle board instead of plywood or hardwood, for example, and brackets instead of better-quality joinery. Many also now use cheaper textiles, like “genuine” leather that’s made from scraps mixed together with glue, or fabric that easily pills or stains. Customers, unsurprisingly, have noticed. In one recent post on Reddit, an interior designer talked about how they’d relied on CB2 in the past until they bought a sofa and the back fell off when it was delivered; when the company sent a replacement, the center of the couch sank “within days,” and the customer decided to give up and return it, forgoing another offer of a replacement. In the “Buy it for Life” subreddit, commenters often recommend buying vintage sofasnoting that their parents and grandparents had much better furniture, even when it wasn’t especially expensive to begin withand spending more on reupholstery rather than buying something new. When he started MadeRight CA, in 2021, Blazona says he visited old-school sofa makers to study how they worked. Small differences matter: the pattern of a fabric, for example, affects how it stretches over a cushion. Traditional sofa makers carefully adjust patterns so the tailoring is correct. “Thi prevents problems like wrinkles from forming where you sit, which we industry peeps call ‘butt puddles,'” he says. “I spent years trying to mass manufacture, and what I learned was that mass manufacturing does not make for better upholstery,” he says. “Yes, it speeds things up, but it certainly doesnt make for better quality upholstery. Old school tailoringscissors, stretching, and pullingis what makes a well-made, beautiful, hand-tailored sofa. Combine that with great materials, and you get quality that lasts a long, long time.” MadeRight uses high-density foam, kiln-dried wood frames reinforced with corner blocks, and each piece is upholstered by a single person. The company also works with customers to customize the fit of each piece, which is made to order. “Selling a sofa only to have it returned six months later because it wasn’t comfortable is a big waste for everyone involved,” Blazona says. The company also has a showroom in the Bay Area, where customers can try out different sofas while Blazona carefully observes how they sit. He walked me through how this “Sit Fit” process worked virtually. That included asking how much I liked to sink into a cushion, and then asking my height and weight so he could calculate the best cushion density and the size of the back cushions so that I could sit comfortably. He asked how much I wanted my furniture to look pristine (answer: I’d rather be comfortable as possible), because the cushions can also be adjusted to show almost no wrinkles. He also walked, in detail, through how the sofas are made. The company sent me a sofa to try out, which I’ve been using for three months. Of course, it’s too early to say if it will last a decade. I also can’t compare it to other makers that have a reputation for high quality, since my only other loveseat is a 1950s piece from Denmark. Still, the early signs are encouraging. I work remotely, and I’ve been working from the MadeRight sofa for hours each day (sorry, ergonomics); it still looks and feels exactly like it did the day it arrived. The frame feels solid; the cushions, a perfect balance between soft and firm, can all be flipped over to keep them going even longer. The sofas are relatively expensive. The Venice sofa, for example, currently starts at around $3,000 for a 72-inch version. One similarly-sized option from Room & Board costs $1,799. But if MadeRight’s model truly lasts longer, the cost over time could be better. [Photo: MadeRight] Blazona is also thinking about how to further extend the longevity of each piece. The standard cushions are expected to last 10 years, and the premium cushions can last up to 15 years; flipping and rotating the cushions increases that time. When they do wear out, or if they’re damaged by a major spill, you can send back the covers and the company will make new cushions for the cost of materials. “Why have a frame that lasts a lifetime, and fabrics that last nearly forever, but not be able to replace any part of the sofa, like the cushions?” he says. Modern shopping habits pose a different challenge. If some consumers now think of furniture more like fast fashionbuying based on the latest TikTok trends, and quickly replacing furniture even when it isn’t worn outthe longevity of a couch won’t matter. (Ultra-cheap options, like a $23 “sofa” from Temu, aren’t helping.) But plenty of other people are tired of trying to do the research to buy a new couch every few years, and don’t want to repeatedly spend thousands of dollars on something that might not last (and that might end up in a landfill because it can’t be given away). Customers often now come to MadeRight because they’ve gone down an online rabbit hole of cushion research, Blazona says. “Durability seems to be all we hear about these days,” he says.
Category:
E-Commerce
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