Best birthday ever!

Thanks to Sam's INCREDIBLE thoughtfulness I had pretty much the best birthday ever.

Those of you who know Sam know he's the kinda guy who makes things possible. That means it's really, really, really, really fun to work with him. I never know what's gonna happen next... Anything is possible. Sam's constantly putting together new deals and bringing new people and ideas to the table...

Like this morning when I thought I had a 10:00 meeting with Sam and Acar. I walked into the office, sat down and heard somebody say, "Maxwell, you've got a call on line four."

I picked up the phone and heard a voice I recognized... "Happy Birthday Maxwell, it's Seth Godin."

[LONG PAUSE FOLLOWED BY HUGE SMILE] "Hi Seth."

I was completely blown away. Sam had put the whole thing together and arranged for a special birthday call with one of my heroes.

If you asked me to write a list of the five human beings on the planet I'd most like to have a conversation with, Seth Godin would be high on the list. Why? Because I'm a marketer. My passion is creating products and services and offering them to the world. That's what I do at Penguin, and that's why I'm so excited about all the stuff we have in the works for you guys. I find meaning in my life through my work, and I really believe that I'm on this planet to bring products and services to the world that wouldn't exist if I weren't here. Marketing is the "bring to the world" part. Long story short: I love marketing, and Seth Godin is my favorite marketer.

In the past five years I've read hundreds and hundreds of business and marketing books, and I've forgotten almost every word in almost every one of them. But I THINK about the ideas I learned in Seth's books EVERY SINGLE DAY.

I've read Seth's books in print form, and I've listened to each of these same books in audio format at least half a dozen times. I talk about the ideas in the books all the time with my friends and colleagues. I even purchased a copy of Purple Cow for everyone at the Penguin office earlier this year. The bottom line is this: you can't go on a first date with me without going home with a copy of one of Seth's books in your purse.

So, when I picked up the phone this morning and Seth Godin said, "I just wanted to call and wish you a happy birthday and see if you had any questions for me," I was completely and utterly stoked.

We had a great conversation.

We talked about the plans for the new Penguin site, and Seth gave us some great ideas for our new VIDEOS section which (as I've mentioned before) will invite users to submit their own demo videos of all 5000 of our products. User contributed video is gonna be a huge part of the new Penguin site... so get your hair cut and dust off that video camera... we'll be calling on you to submit your own outrageously entertaining demo videos of your favorite tricks in a few short months!

We also talked about Seth's hot new company, Squidoo, which helps people create "lenses" to the web. "Lenses" are focused windows into other people's expertise. Instead of going to a search engine (dumb computer) and sorting through a big heap of sites (21,700,000 results for "Magic Tricks" in Google) until you find what you're looking for, you can go to Squidoo and in two seconds find a "lens" that wil instantly help you contextualize the sites and information that are available to you. A good lens will obviously have links to the best resources in the area of the web you're exploring, but it's the contextual information (presented by someone who's an old (or young) pro in the area) that makes all the difference. That's how you can go from novice to expert yourself in the blink of an eye.

Penguin Magic is going to start getting a LOT more involved in the stuff going on at Squidoo. We'll be creating "lenses" on our areas of expertise--magic retail, magic marketing, and training DVDs (production). Be sure to check out Squidoo and create your own lens (or two). It's fun.

The last thing the King of Viral Marketing did was give me a recommendation for "the best Thai Restaurant in Vegas." Seth said he comes to Vegas a couple times a year, and whenever he's here he makes sure to eat at "Lotus of Siam"... he said "it's the best Thai Restaurant in the world". Gazzo tried to bring me to Lotus of Siam about six months ago, and he said the same thing... "it's the best Thai Restaurant in the world." We knocked on the door, but they were just closing shop. Gazzo got hired for a permanent gig in Key West the next week, and I never went back to try the restaurant.

But, when the King of Viral Marketing gives you some word-of-mouth... you've gotta take the advice. Sam, Acar and I went directly from Penguin over to Lotus of Siam and had an incredible birthday lunch.

The rest of the day was filled with fun (and a great haircut by Brannon), but it was the AM call from Seth that had me smiling from ear to ear all day. Thanks Seth! And thanks Sam for making it happen. But, most of all, thanks to both of you for being the kind of people who make things possible.