My advertising class last year had a public relations professional come speak about her industry. Her number one mantra? Write hand written notes after you contact someone. I'm not going to lie, I was very cynical when I first heard this. Probably as cynical as you are right now. I thought to myself, how can writing a handwritten note make any difference? The truth is, it can.

As the leader of a company you have many responsibilities, but there is nothing more important than conveying your vision effectively (especially at an early stage startup). No matter how good you are at conveying your vision to your team, your customers or the media,Made to Stick can teach you how to do so even better and understand why you may have failed in the past.

I'd like to highlight two of the core concepts from Made to Stick that are key for any startup leaders out there.

Last semester, I set out to write my senior thesis for American Studies.  I’d been inspired by a song from the Broadway musical Avenue Q, in which snarky puppets sang about the joys of schadenfreude, or “German for happiness at the misfortune of others.”  Avenue Q’s fuzzy characters honed in on everyday examples of schadenfreude, like “football players getting tackled...CEO’s getting shackled.”  When I heard this song, I came to realize that schadenfreude wasn’t just found in such mundane experiences as seeing someone miss the train, but that it was actually a far more widespread cultural phenomenon and a key component within the realm of social media.

Yesterday I wrote about my perspective on some of the ongoing discussion from the community on changing the culture and improving the ecosystem. Unfortunately, most it is very broad and may not seem to directly apply to you. But YOU can do something. In fact there are a number of things YOU should do. And the best part is, they're easy.