Here’s another business that I’d like to see become a reality.  Since I’ve been on Tim Ferris’ Four Hour Body diet, I’ve found myself eating salads all the time (oh, and I’ve gotten my weight down to 175 and kept it there for a few months… down from 210 pounds of fatness at my peak of rotundness!).  The salad procurement works great when I’m at work (Amazon has great salad bars, at fantastic prices… small salad with fresh salmon only $6.55!), or in Santa Monica (California Monster Salads), but it’s pretty hard to find a great salad when you’ve worked late and are driving home.  Usually, I have to settle for grocery store salads (smashed into plastic containers, made hours ago), or go without.

I know it’s hard to believe that a salad fast food store could make it — our country doesn’t seem to want that to happen.  But, when I’m in the salad-making line at one of the above, it just doesn’t seem like a person is really needed to throw the stuff into the bowl and mix it up.  Rather, I could pick my salad, make ingredient modifications (at the store, or via web/app), and have the container’d salad ready for me on arrival (or even better, in an Amazon Locker-like pickup system, where it’s kept cold and instantly available).

The salad store would only need an employee to keep the ingredient machines full, and clean, etc.  And to handle the payment collection (or locker loading/ordering).  Seems like the cost structure could be quite different than other fast food stores, and would really drive an almost always available healthy food option.

That’s it.  Someone, please make it happen.

Dave Schappell Idea of the Day

While I was on vacation, I had this idea.  Maybe it already exists.  But, if not, maybe one of you can build it and/or work on it at a Startup Weekend, or build a real business around it.

Feel free to ask clarifying questions and/or propose alternatives.

Idea: Email-Initiated and -Processed Discussions (that post straight to the web)

Scenario: I have a question that I’d like to get answered.  I e-mail several people, and probably get a reply.  However, it would be nice if that question (and the answers/discussions) posted directly to a webpage/service, where others could benefit (without requiring anyone to visit a website and/or register, if they don’t want to).  Or, they could e-mail a private reply.  Or, they could visit the site and interact there, if they’d like.  The idea is to give Disqus-like e-mail superpowers to recipients, to make it so much easier to post and share their knowledge.

So, what do you think?

I haven’t researched this, but I’d bet that the original business schools (and MBA programs) were meant to train/develop business creators, and not just business managers.  You’d expect that they’d attract the intelligent, hard-working risk-takers, since these people are forgoing short-term salary, in exchange for training and connections that will likely help them attain longer-term leadership roles and financial rewards.

But it’s my observation from my time at Wharton (and hiring MBAs from Harvard, Stanford, Kellogg, etc.) that the majority of MBA prospects are actually some of the most risk-averse people you’d ever find, and the great majority (95%+) will never start a business of any kind, understand little about the difficulty and risks involved, and yet will have strong opinions about how every business should and could be run if they were in charge.  Why is this?  My hunch is that it’s because MBAs have become a sure thing for that $150k salary at mega corp/consulting firm/investment bank.  The host of business school rankings and the like have attracted a new breed of cookie-cutter student.  I guess the term ‘business manager’ is right there in the MBA title, but it tells me that there’s room in the market for a new type of school, one that I’ll call the Entrepreneur University.

Here are some suggestions for how the Entrepreneur University / Startup Ninja School would work:

• There’s no accreditation — you’re on your own, startup ninja
• You don’t get a degree when you graduate — instead, you get a business (that you’ve created) and a network of like-minded EU graduates, who will help you succeed
• You’re required to pay for your own degree — no federal loans — go scrape the money together from friends, family, investors (in your future business), or convince the school to give you a scholarship.  Get used to fundraising — it’s hard, and you may as well learn about it early on.
• You can graduate whenever you want.
• There’s no set curriculum — you pick and choose the classes you need
• The faculty’s fluid — all teachers have in-practice experience (or are currently running their own business(es)
• The school gets a equity stake in your business
• No need for a career placement office
• No need for grades — fail all you want now, and likely fail later — most exams are actual work-related projects
• Plenty of guest speakers, but we try to avoid pundits — they have to be able to describe how they put their ideas into practice somewhere, and relatively recently

I just read a proposal at www.standardtime.com that is so logical that I’m sure it will never happen. Why not just leave the Pacific and Central regions on permanent Daylight Savings Time and the Eastern and Mountain on permantent Standard Time? That would leave the US with only two time zones, with a permanent two hour time difference, split in the middle of the country. And, for those of us who live in the Northwest, would leave us with daylight after 4pm in November… ahh…

I signed the petition… now I’ll just eagerly wait for “W” to sign it into law…

UPDATE (on May 4, 2010) — That still didn’t happen… but someone recommended this very handy calendar site, useful for calendars, moon calendars, holidays, the world clock and sunrise/sunset times.