Fast Change

Reading Fast Company magazine when it debuted in 1995 changed me forever.

I don’t think I’ve ever missed reading an issue from cover to cover. The speed, pace and writing of the articles was (and still is) unlike any other business magazine writing that came before it. While you may find some of the style now shows up in the pages of BusinessWeek, Wired, Harvard Business Review, Inc. and other business publications, Fast Company really did break new ground in terms of the topics covered, businesses featured and style of writing… and that’s why their competitors are trying to tap into that kind of energy and flare.

What we learn from Fast Company Magazine is that businesses are moving fast and things are ever-changing.

Yes, you can hear about a lot of the content that you now see in the printed version in many online spaces first. There’s no denying that the Web has forever changed the speed of information, but the magazine still touts impressive stories. The co-founder of Fast Company is Bill Taylor. Taylor (who no longer works at Fast Company) has authored two best-selling business book (Mavericks At Work and Practically Radical), is a professor at Babson College and a columnist for The Guardian newspaper. I had the pleasure of sharing the stage with Taylor last week at The Art of Marketing (which also featured Avinash Kaushik, Gary Vaynerchuk and Guy Kawasaki). While I had heard that Taylor was an amazing presenter, I was not prepared for just how good he truly is. No slides. No podium. Just him on stage, casually sharing stories about the rapid pace of business and the change that comes with it. Not only is his content eye-opening, but his presentation skills are flawless.

Watch this video…

Here’s Bill Taylor from March of this year talking about everything new business at an event called, Powering The People, put on by The Edison Foundation (he comes in about 3:55):