Unleashing the Ideavirus

Unleashing the Ideavirus
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 www.ideavirus.com
Referrals.com is a business based around the idea of paying people to help with job searches.
Instead of just giving some headhunter the names of five friends who might be perfect for a
job (and having the headhunter collect a $30,000 fee if you’re right), referrals.com turns the
idea upside down. With their system, YOU send the job offer along to your friends, and if
they take the job, you get a check for $4,000.
If Referrals.com only attracts promiscuous sneezers, the business will fail. Why? Because the
very best people try hard not to listen to interruptions from promiscuous sneezers. The very
best people know that if someone can be bought, they’re not much more than a walking
billboard, and just as they ignore the billboards on the highway, they’re going to ignore the
most promiscuous sneezers in their midst. (Aside: If you’ve ever been called by a headhunter,
you know just how promiscuous people are willing to be in exchange for cash!)
Referrals.com is working very hard to turn powerful sneezers within very select, high-end
hives into people who, on occasion, are willing to sell out for a $4,000 payoff. These are folks
who might not hassle you just so they can make $5 or $10 in bonuses. But the idea of
becoming a headhunter and making $4,000 in exchange for sending a few emails is too
irresistible to pass up. This idea that even the powerful can become promiscuous for the right
inducement and in the right setting is a key building block to unleashing the ideavirus in an
organized way.
What a paradox. Powerful sneezers become less powerful when you buy them off. But
sometimes, promiscuous sneezers become powerful again when they get particularly
successful at it. It’s a cycle, with people switching off from one to another, always trying to
figure out how to be both promiscuous (read profitable) and powerful.

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