We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming for four videos that I consider formative in my own approach to business. If you don’t get the hullabaloo around this web muckety-muck, I hope this hour will shock you into action.

Update: The videos seem to not show up in RSS/email. Please make sure you click through to the website to view.

Michael Wesch on the social paradigm

Professor of cultural anthropology Michael Wesch gives the fastest primer in the verbose and often rambling history of Web 2.0. Succinctly: “We’ll need to rethink everything.”

Further: Michael blogs about Digital Ethnography

Seth Godin on the marketing paradigm

Seth Godin is the reason I do what I do. The web is changing the way people and businesses coexist, so marketing can’t still follow the old model of the “TV-Industrial Complex”. Your job as a business person is to help the people who need you. It’s all very zen.

Further: Seth blogs. Duh.

Gary Vaynerchuk on the brand paradigm

This talk has a little bit of an inspiration message, but the content matters too. Gary is the most engaging speaker I’ve seen since Tony Robbins. He talks about how you can be a part of this whole web thing if you’re willing to work your ass off. The opportunity is massive and underestimated.

On a personal note, Gary is a total sweetheart (despite being a crass Jets fan).

Further: Gary video-blogs at GaryVaynerchuk.com

David Heinemeier Hansson on the business model paradigm

David suggests, you know, charging people for stuff. The perception of the web as free of charge shouldn’t concern you if you sell things people genuinely value. This talk specifically covers web startups, but is implicitly useful for any business interested in extending to the web.

Further: David blogs at Signal vs Noise

I hope you find these videos useful. I’m a voracious consumer of smart business videos/talks/articles, and these are the four that rose to the top. If you want more of these brought to your attention on my blog, say so in the comments below and I’ll keep bringing you the best I know of.