Michael Karnjanaprakorn

I get a couple of inquiries from people applying to VCU Brandcenter about my experience so rather than re-writing each email, I’m publishing my answers on my blog.  Feel free to leave a question for me to answer or comments that will help these students make the right decision into the dark side.

Why did you chose the Adcenter over other programs?
At the time I applied, I didn’t want to go anywhere else that wasn’t ranked #1.  If I dedicated two years of my life somewhere, it would have to be the best program in the world.  And the M.S. degree was an extra benefit.

Do you feel like you gained something from VCU that you wouldn’t have from industry?
Yes.  After graduating from VCU, you gain more than just advertising skills.  In fact, I don’t even value the advertising knowledge that I picked up from VCU.  After working in advertising for 18 months, I left the industry completely.  The running joke is that I lasted longer in advertising school than in the advertising industry.

The reason I’m telling you this is because you develop creative thinking skills, public speaking, confidence, holistic thinking, creative problem solving, etc.. All skills that you can transform into bigger passions and pursuits.  Everything I learned from VCU has been applicable today.  I think combining branding + entrepreneurship + innovation + creativity is the way to go which is what I’m focused on right now.  Launching and building my own brands.

Do you think VCU’s program helped you get the job you wanted more directly?
Initially, VCU helped me get a great job straight out of school.  After I graduated, I landed a job at Naked Communications in London.  I was the first person they hired from the U.S. and I would have never gotten the opportunity if it wasn’t for what I learned at VCU.  Keep in mind that a lot of people that graduate from VCU get shitty jobs.  Or no jobs at all.  It really comes down to how much work you put into it.  I invested a lot.

Finally, any words of advice to someone choosing an advertising program at VCU or in general? (I’m specifically looking at the Creative Brand Management Program or Art Direction.)
Pushing VCU aside for a moment, the best advice I can give (which I wish someone gave me back then) is to figure out what you want to do in life.  It sounds a lot easier than it is.  I’m still figuring it out day-to-day.  My mission is to increase social innovation through creativity and entrepreneurship.  Within 5 years, I want to launch the coolest brand in the social space.  And I’ve started to do that through All Day Buffet (http://www.alldaybuffet.org).

Rather than thinking about a specific track at VCU, you should look at what you want to accomplish 1, 3, 5, 10, 25, 50 years down the road.  Does the Creative Brand Management Program or Art Direction track put you one step closer to what you ultimately want to do?  The two tracks you listed are polar opposites.  What a lot of people do is “find out what they like” which is why people hop from job to job to job with no vertical mobility.  It really comes down to your goals and what you want to accomplish.

If I had to do it all over again, I would have spent every waking minute in school working on launching a startup by the time I graduated from VCU.  But then again, it’s better late than never!

This is still kind of top secret but I just can’t keep it a secret anymore.  Alldaybuffet is producing a conference called “The Feast” around Social Innovation on Thursday, October 16th in NYC!!

There’s a buffet of GOOD things to choose from, we just want to get you full on GOOD! Our next project will be The Feast, a conference that will bring together the greatest creative, social and entrepreneurial minds. From do gooders to good doers, The Feast is an exploration and exchange by the greatest in social innovation. And this year’s theme will revolve around creative social problem solving.

Save the date and check out alldaybuffet.org/thefeast for more information and to sign-up for email updates.  We only have 150 seats and with some of the speakers we’re lining up, we’re expecting the conference to sell out fast. We’re also throwing some extra ADB flavor into the conference.  We’ll be playing match-maker and linking up people that should meet, music performances, and a crazy party!

Also, if you’re in NYC, make sure you check out GOOD WOOD.  Flyer below.

Good Wood, a Detroit based art show, has packed up and headed east, to Williamsburg’s 3rd Ward art gallery. Teaming up with alldaybuffet for the July 26th premiere, they’ll be adding a second layer of “good” to the show with an auction-cum-party, creating a collision of cultures and mediums for the greater good. 50 artists will be auctioning off one-of-a-kind custom skate decks to support Stoked Mentoring, an organization that mentors teens through action sports.

I just got a newsletter from SeamlessWeb (Thanks Matt) and even though I work in branding, communications, advertising, marketing; sometimes, the smallest things make the biggest difference.  And yes, I am going to post about seamless web to get the $100 in free food coupons.  And yes, I’m going to make all of you read about it.  And yes, you should post about on your blog too!

Have a blog?  Tell your readers about SeamlessWeb and we’ll send you $100 in free food coupons!  Just send an email to myseamlessweb@seamlessweb.com with a link to your post that talks about how sweet SeamlessWeb is and we’ll follow up with your discount codes within 48 hours.  Also- feel free to ask about discounts for your readers!

So, if you work in advertising, jump off your high horse and blog about SeamlessWeb.  They are awesome.  Crazy awesome…

Saw this on the subway this morning.  Are you fucking serious?  I’m assuming this was done by TBWA/CHIAT/DAY?  How do you go from doing great Absolut ads over the past decade to putting Kanye West all over your shit?  I’m the biggest Kanyeezee fan out there but this ad is just garbage.

It has the same look and feel as a Dave Chapelle skit.  You know, that low-budget, putting a skit together in a few hours feel.  Come on, this is Absolut.  It doesn’t really work when you millions to spend.  And especially when it’s really not that funny.

Look at what Kanye is wearing - the redneck’s tuxedo.  I mean, seriously, he’s wearing a jean shirt.  Kanye is probably the most stylish dude out there but it looks like he just got out of 1988.  What happen to the BAPE?

If you’re going to put a girl in an ad.  Especially one like this.  Make sure she’s hot.  How about this as a litmus test.  If she can’t make a Kanye West music video, she probably shouldn’t be in the ad.

The guy looks like a former Enron employee straight out of jail.  He’s probably a higher-up at Absolut that will probably embezzle millions from the company.  Next time, don’t put Mr. Belding in the ad.

They even have a website for this campaign and commercial.

Commercial is surpisingly not that bad so I’ll stop drinking my hater-aide.  But if you’re going to use Kanye West for something, make it good.  I mean, he’s only the biggest hip-hop cultural icon from the past 5 years next to Lil Wayne.  That’s like using Michael Jordan to do underwear ads.

Leave comments below.

Our next Cause for Drinks will be held on Wednesday, July 16th, 2008. Check out below for more details or sign up for the facebook event here.

Boston
Church
69 Kilmarnock St.
The Food Project creates fertile ground for new ideas about youth and adults partnering to create social change through sustainable agriculture.
hosts: Street Attack

Seattle
McLeod Residence
2209 2nd Ave
Amara partners with birth, foster, and adoptive parents to create and support stable, loving homes for vulnerable children.
hosts: Steve

San Francisco
Mr. Smith’s
34 7th St
Rocket Dog Rescue is a volunteer based organization serving the greater Bay Area, dedicated to saving homeless and abandoned dogs from over crowded animal shelters.
hosts: Dan and Janice

NYC
Lolita Bar
266 Broome St.
Green Guerillas turns NYC’s vacant lots into community gardens and farms that engage & feed people & become centers for art, culture, and education. Their Youth Mural Project partners community gardeners and young people to envision, design and create colorful murals.
hosts: Nikki and Jerri

NOLA
Hookah Cafe
500 Frenchmen St.
Rebuilding Together New Orleans preserves and revitalizes houses and communities, assuring that low-income homeowners, particularly those who are elderly and disabled, can live in warmth, safety, and independence.
hosts: Nathan and Alissa

DC
Local 16
1602 U St NW
Women for Women International provides women survivors of war, civil strife and other conflicts with the tools and resources to move from crisis and poverty to stability and self-sufficiency, thereby promoting viable civil societies.
host: Lyrict

LA
Cha Cha Lounge
2375 Glendale Blvd
JDRF Ride to Cure Diabetes is an adventure of a lifetime. Riders from around the world take on two challenges: raising the critical money needed to fund the research that will cure diabetes, and reaching a personal training goal that will prepare them for their destination cycling experience.

Want to host in your city?
Do you know a lot of people? We’re talking about over 1,000 friends on facebook. And not the person that has over 1,000 friends but really knows like 100 of them. We’re looking for people that have extensive networks and have a skill of bringing people together to host our Cause for Drinks Happy Hours in major cities across the country.

The best part of the whole deal? We make it as easy as possible for you. We’ll provide our design skills for flyers, marketing support through our website and facebook, and the satisfaction of being part of a global network of doing GOOD. You’ll have a nice fuzzy feeling from helping others (not from being drunk).If interested, please email causefordrinks[at]alldaybuffet[dot]org with your name and city. We’ll respond with all the details on how to get started. Now you’l have a great response when people text you with what are you doing tonight? Cause for Drinks!

I used to drink Vitamin Water when I was hungover.  Not anymore!
Now I drink the purple stuff after working out.
What a change..

So, the first weekend of sobriety went down as a success.  I didn’t have one drink which I’m really proud of.
I’ve been getting tons of emails asking me tons of questions so I thought I would share my findings through my blog.

(*)  I’ve noticed a huge spike in energy levels.  I woke up every morning ready to tackle the day.  I knocked out all my house (apartment ) chores, worked on alldaybuffet projects, read a book, hung out with friends, passed out on the rooftop, etc.  It was great to get so much done!
(*)  Cutting out alcohol has increased my appetite.  I think it has something to do with not having constant influx of sugar in body (which is also the root cause of killer hangovers).  Cutting out alcohol has made me want to eat anything and everything in sight.  I’m going to spend this week controlling my appetite by feeding my sugar cravings with natural sugard from fruits.
(*)  Going out sober is not as bad as you think.  So, yes, being sober on July 4th sucked.  Especially since it rained in NYC.  But, going out to bars, clubs, lounges, etc sober wasn’t that bad.  I actually had MORE energy.  It was really weird.  I was more social, talked to more people, and importantly had a lot more fun.  My night didn’t revolve around drinking and getting drunk (no I’m not an alcoholic) which was very refreshing.
(*)  You don’t need a drink in your hand.  If you think it’s weird to not have a drink in your hand, take a look around the bar next time you’re out.  There’s a good amount of people that don’t carry drinks with them 24/7.  It’s usually the really drunk people that are double-fisting, falling all over the place, etc.  And I hope you don’t want to be that person.
(*)  Re-prioritizing my life.  It might be too early to make a bold statement like this but it’s really been eye-opening for me.  I really have a different outlook on my priorities and life without alcohol.  By nature, alcohol is a depressant.  There’s absolutely no way it can have a POSITIVE impact on anyone’s life.  Alcohol leads to laziness, apathy, bad decisions, hangovers, etc.  I realized that alcohol hinders everything I wanted to accomplish in 2008.  And the only obvious solution was to cut it out to take control of what I want to do.

If you’re thinking about cutting alcohol out your life, you should realize that there’s ALWAYS a reason to drink.  I had July 4th, San Francisco trip, my birthday coming up, etc.  Now is a better time than never.

As an exercise, list out all the people that you admire.  I’m sure the majority of them do not drink as much as you think.
Lastly, join me if you want.  Leave a comment and commit.
Or you can make a dinner bet with me if you don’t think I’ll follow through.
And follow all my day-to-day challenges on twitter.
Cheers!

Starting today, I’m going 30 days without alcohol.
Which makes the target end date August 1.
If you don’t think I can make it, I’m taking bets.
Felix was the first to sign up.
$100 dinner is on the line.
And to entice you to take this bet.
I have a lot of social functions coming up.
July 4th.
Cause for Drinks.
Behance and PSFK “We Like You” Party in SF.
The list goes on and on.

Frequently Asked Questions:

1.  Why am I doing this?
I really want to see what I feel like without alcohol.
I’m imagining tons of energy, productivity, etc.
Instead of the drowsiness, being tired, depressed, hungover, etc.
If cutting out alcohol has more benefits than drinking, I think I’ll cut it down a lot.

2.  Are you still going to go out?
Yes, I still plan on to go out to bars and meet new people.
I just won’t drink.
I’m imagining that I’ll probably go out to eat, exercise more, read more, etc.
I think life will be great if it doesn’t revolve around alcohol.

3.  How will I know if you don’t sneak a drink?
Because I’m honest.
And because I’m not an alcoholic.
I don’t NEED to drink.
I just drink because it’s fun thing to do with my friends.
If I sneak a drink, everyone will know because it’ll be in public.
I’m not the “come home after work and crack open a beer” type of person.

4.  Why make it into a bet?
Why not?  I’m doing it more for myself but since so many people think it’s an impossible feat for me, why not make it into a bet.

So, there it is.
If you want to stay updated with progress, you can follow me on this blog and my twitter (http://twitter.com/mikekarnj)
I’ve never really used my twitter account but here’s a perfect reason to start.
If you want to jump in on the bet or even go 30 days without alcohol with me, drop me an email or leave a comment below.

Here’s the most recent picture of me.
At the Behance office.  A little hungover.
Taken on July 3rd and 3:45 PM.
Let’s see if I look healthier on August 1st.

Wish me luck!

Back to the discussion about business models…

“A business model is the method of doing business by which a company can sustain itself — that is, generate revenue.”

There’s the traditional ways of sustaining your business/startup.  You can create a product or offer a service to customers or other businesses.  Yawn.  You can facilitate transcations like Ebay or Amazon.  Yawn.  You can offer a subscription model like Basecamp or Netflix.  Yawn.  Or you can create a whole new business and revenue model. Cool.

I read an excellent article on HBS called “A Manifesto for the Next Industrial Revolution” by Umair Haque.  It’s worth a read if you get a moment because it talks about revolutions and challenging the status-quo:

Organize something. Why does Google insist that it’s goal is to “organize the world’s information”? Because it’s figured out one of the deepest secrets hidden at the heart of 21st century economics: markets, networks, and communities can organize economic activities radically more efficiently than firms.

The revolution needs revolutionaries. Today’s investors, boardrooms and entrepreneurs are looking for value in all the wrong places. Facebook’s game of musical chairs won’t solve big economic problems - and neither will making token investments in greentech.

I checked out some more stuff that he wrote and it’s truly fascinating.  On the site, bubblegeneration, there’s a whole post on new business models for web 2.0.

Each time a clip is downloaded by a 3 customer the performer gets paid 1p. With a potential audience of 3.2 million, the most popular clips from contributors could make thousands of pounds worth of cash.  Rewarding people for the act of sharing information, creating meaning, and adding value.

But if the 2.0 crowd really wants to help accelerate this implosion, it’s got to focus as much or more on economic innovation - new business models - as it does on technological innovation.

I agree with a lot of points in the post.  As we are innovating with technology, we aren’t innovating with business models.  We’re still doing it the same way it’s been done since the beginning of time!  With technology, it’s possible to change the game.  I know there are sites where you get paid for content but I still don’t think it’s had that much success like Paypal or Ebay did in the past.  If I have to hear that another website will be “Ad Supported” I will throw my laptop out the window…

I’m going to deviate what I usually talk about - branding, entrepreneurship, social change, music, etc - to talk about stereotypes. Yes, I know, it’s a pretty touchy subject but I had an interesting chat last night at dinner about Asian-American males in culture.

The main theme… Asian American males are demasculinized and portrayed as asexual by mainstream media and pop culture.

I couldn’t believe it. One of my friends at dinner told me that an Asian girl went out on a date with him (he’s Chinese) because she felt sorry for Asian males because they have it “so hard.” I took a step back and said WTF?! I decided to dig deeper and did some Google searches when I got home and came across a plethora of articles on the subject. One of my favorite articles, “The Words of Asian American Men” had some great insights.

When I was growing up, I was very much influenced by what I saw, and more importantly what I didn’t see, on television. Whenever I saw an Asian American man on television, he was inevitably a kung-fu master who could kick ass but he couldn’t speak English, or a computer geek who could figure out algorithms but couldn’t figure out how to get a date. And for myself, I really think I internalized a lot of these images. All three panelists emphasized the need to change Hollywood’s depictions of Asian Americans, viewing mainstream media as the primary source of the stereotype. In this way, the asexualization stereotype is no different than anti-feminist socialization that promotes gender roles for young girls; in both cases, the images are designed to control those who are principally “The Other” in American society.

Ain’t that a bitch? As an Asian-American male I can relate but it got me think about how that happens? I went through a mental list of all the Asian-American celebrities in my head. First, there’s William Hung. The Korean guy from Lost. The Survivor winner. Jackie Chan. All of them fit underneath that stereotype. Not cool. Doing more research, I came across another great article on AsianWeek titled “A Threatened Manhood?”

“It’s definitely harder for an Asian male to date a white female than for Asian females to date white males,” Kim says. “Asian males are not portrayed as masculine, whereas Asian females are stereotyped as submissive, exotic.

This stereotype has to change because in reality, there are a ton of “cool” Asian-American celebrities out there like Chad Hugo from The Neptunes, Nigo who created BAPE, and filmmaker Justin Lin who is trying to change the stereotypes through movies such as Better Luck Tomorrow and Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. And to end this point, I’ll leave you with an “Ode to Smart, Strong and Sexy Asian American Men” which was written by my friend Melody (who was also at dinner last night).

I’m tired of hearing people diss on my smart, strong and sexy Asian American brothers out there. And I there are enough people who complain or write about it. There are not enough, however, who pay homage to these extraordinary men. So here I profess my love to them. No Long Duk Donging or Fu Manchuing allowed here!

It must be hard, my Asian American brother, being told that to be a “real man” you must be big, brawny, and not too booksmart (as streetsmarts are infinitely sexier). Every time you go to the movies or turn on the television, the leading men, the heroes: none of them look like you. And when you do see someone who looks like you, you see Long Duk Dong or Fu Manchu. You cannot speak English, but if you do, your tongue must be a little warped at all times, as you hardly ever speak sans accent, even if you, the actor, have lived in America and spoken English all your life. You are the stingy and racist Korean grocer, the stingy and racist Indian 7-11 owner, the nerdy and sexless egghead, the horny foreign exchange student who wants nothing but White American girl ass, the cold and heartless killer from the Hong Kong Triad, the kickass but goofy (and totally unsexy) cop (who must be teamed with a “real American” because he cannot possibly be American with that accent of his!), the good guy master martial artist (who still never gets to kiss the girl in the end).

You are more than a stereotype! Where are my sexy Asian American ER doctors, my powerful and witty Asian American Practice lawyers, my funny and attractive Asian American Friends? Smart, strong and sexy ones, you must thank your lucky stars for Bruce Lee, who took on Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and fought with fists of fury, but even he could not win the battle against Hollywood.

So rare is the occasion that I see you, my smart, strong and sexy Asian American man, that sometimes I forget you exist. But you do, you do! I swear, you do! But when I think of the hero, the first image that pops into my head is that of a white man, probably of Eastern European descent, muscles rippling with every step as he strides towards me from the big screen, a little bloody after having killed off a hundred bad guys in order to rescue me. The white, Eastern European guy is interchangeable with a Wesley Snipes or Denzel Washington type, or even Will Smith. You bet your bottoms they get at least a kiss at the end. But when the incredibly sexy and incredibly sweet Jet Li gets Aaliyah to be his Juliet, he can’t even get so much as a smooch. What’s up with that?

Fret not, the movies lie! They forget to show images of your honeyed skin, toasted to a deep bronze by the hot sun, droplets of sweat glistening upon your furrowed brow, as you moved from field to field, using sophisticated Japanese irrigation techniques so that your crops and harvest would be lush and bountiful. You worked day and night, night and day, saving up your money to send for your wives and children, but you had to have patience because you were lured here by false promises of freedom, equality, opportunity, and wealth so it took longer than you expected. Still you persevered. They forget how you toiled in the sweltering heat and the freezing cold, laying down the railroad tracks, always assigned the most dangerous jobs because you were brave, you were strong, and they were scared! Your strong arms, your sturdy backs, you helped to build this country!

Yellow peril, they called you. They were threatened by your diligence, your intelligence, your strength. It was your body, my smart, strong sexy Asian American man, that raised America from dust and dirt to wealth and riches, and even if this country’s history is quick to forget you, you remain emblazoned in the hearts and minds of we who choose to remember, we who dare not forget how our fathers and brothers suffered for this country. We do not forget the purple hearts that hang from the tattered uniform you wore when this country forced you to fight two wars, one in Europe against the Enemy and the other at home to prove your American-ness to a government that hated you. Few can fathom the inner turmoil you faced when America herded you and your family to filthy internment camps so you Japs wouldn’t be able to instigate a “5th column” uprising. To prove them wrong, you fought valiantly, but still the bravery of the Japanese American 100th Battalion/ 442nd Regimental Combat Team has received little attention.

How dare they call you weak? I promise you, you are stronger and sexier than anyone gives you credit for. She (or he, I suppose) is a fool who does not find intelligence sexy. Genius makes my temperature rise, so if you are smart, be proud of it! We won’t hold it against you any longer. Nerdy or not, I adore you.

I don’t buy into Philip Rushton’s racist bullshit about the inverse relationship between brain power and penis size. How, exactly, did he carry out his oh-so-scientific research? It must be annoying to hear people who don’t know you (and have most certainly never looked in your pants, and quite possibly never into the pants of any Asian man) comment on the size of your penis. “I heard Asian men have small dicks.” Yeah? Well I’ve heard that Asian men have big dicks. What’s it to you? Anti-miscegenation laws tried to keep Asian dicks from White vaginas. They were so scared of your sexiness that they had to create laws to assuage their own foolish fears. And after it became painfully obvious that these laws were racist, these nasty little rumors began to spread about the kind of package you were packing. (We won’t even get into the hypersexualized Black man; that’s a story for another day.) All sorts of different men have all sorts of different penis sizes, but some people act as though a man’s penis size says something about him. Does it make him any more or less of a man? Please. It’s not so much the size of the boat as it is the motion of the ocean, and Asian boats are no different in size than any other boats. There are yachts; there are cruisers; and of course, there are some canoes. Stop being so presumptuous. Rule 1: Don’t knock it ’till you rock it. Rule 2: Even after you rock it, do remember that a lady/ gentleman never kisses and tells. Didn’t your momma teach you not to believe everything you hear?

But hear this: I love my smart, strong and sexy Asian American men, and I will continue to pay homage to them, my friends, my forefathers, my brothers, my lovers.

So, yes, William Hung is wack.

So, all my research in my spare time has been 100% dedicated to entrepreneurship.  Now that I’ve jumped to the other side (business rather than branding), I’ve realized that coming up with the idea is the easy part - seriously, it’s like 1% of the equation.  It’s the other 99% - relentless dedication and perspiration that makes ideas happen.  And yes, Diddy and Jay-Z (maybe J. Dupri) are my favorite entrepreneurs.  They run shit.

With that said, here’s some things I’ve realized over the past couple of months…

1)  Management team is just as important as the idea. I’ve talked to a lot of analyists at Private Equity and Venture Capital firms and this has been a recurring theme.  They want to know that the entrepreneur has assembled an all-star team.  I’ve even heard stories of companies getting funded with NO IDEA at all.  Kind of makes you question the value of “innovative” ideas huh?

2)  “Everything has been done before.  It’s all about execution”.  Heard this quote in a meeting the other day and thought it was brilliant.  We’re always obsessed with doing something different.  How many times have you been in a meeting and heard “XYZ did that before.  We can’t do that.” Everything has been done before!  It really comes down to how you execute it which makes it successful.  And honestly, most new ideas are just improvements of old ones i.e. facebook improving myspace improving friendster.

3)  Developing a killer business and revenue model is the hardest part of the whole damn thing. Within the past 3 months, All Day Buffet has taken off exponentially.  It’s truly exciting but as our team has brainstormed ways to make it more sustainable i.e. revenue and business model that will keep it running, we’ve realized how hard it is.  It’s not as easy as coming up with a million dollar idea and having buckets of money pouring in from the sky.  With that said, I’ll dive deeper and share some insights on business and revenue models.

According to Idris Mootee, “a business model is the creation and distribution of economic value within a business system and it also involves what capital investment is needed and how a business sustains itself.”

A business model is a conceptual tool that contains a set of elements and their relationships and allows expressing the business logic of a specific firm. It is a description of the value a company offers to one or several segments of customers and of the architecture of the firm and its network of partners for creating, marketing, and delivering this value and relationship capital, to generate profitable and sustainable revenue streams.

Pretty simple.  After identifying the unmet need (as brand strategists, this comes naturally to most of us) but figuring out how to monetize that is where it gets extremely tricky.  If you’re launching a website, there’s a bunch of ways to monetize it:  subscriptions, ad revenue (which I advise to stay far away from), affiliate, etc.  But it gets even more tricky because websites like twitter have absolutely ZERO revenue.  Other VC’s have written about everything from freemium (offering something for free and charging for premium features) to the economics behind getting people to pay for anything at all.  Getting a consumer to go from “free” to $1/month is just as difficult as getting someone to go from $1 to $2/month

As you can see there are tons of things to think about when you’re an entrepreneur.  This is just the start of it.  For the next post, I’ll share the new business and revenue model ideas for the future of alldaybuffet.

Have a great weekend!