No wisdom here. Just a good quote for hump day.
Author: blogginggazelle
“I live simply. I don’t own a house or a car or even a TV. The less I own, the happier I am.” – Derek Sivers
Derek Sivers is all about making meaning and much less about getting rich. He gave away the proceeds of the sale of CD Baby to charity.
Building a company is hard and expensive. It’s even harder if the founder has an expensive lifestyle to maintain. Entrepreneurs don’t start companies to get rich. They start them to make meaning. Getting rich is a pleasant side effect if that happens.
Read “Anything You Want” by Derek Sivers
“When a true genius appears in this world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him.” – Jonathan Swift
Change of any kind upsets the status quo. Those who create and control the status quo will not like it. They have a lot to lose. They employ lobbyists and attorneys to protect the status quo.
Competitors don’t always play fair. If you create value and manage to achieve success, you will be attacked in some way, right or wrong.
Just ask Herb Kelleher.
Consider the education “industry” where college tuition continues to increase at double digit rates at the same time innovators like Salman Kahn are giving it away.
Create value and your customers will find you.
“You don’t deal with egos. You use them.” – Steve Neumann
Sooner or later, you will have employees, a Board of Directors and perhaps investors. You will also have customers.
Everyone has an ego. Some people will force their egos into the relationship for reasons that are incomprehensible. And firing them is not always the answer or even possible.
The challenge is to figure out how to use a person’s ego to get the value of what they have to offer. Channel them into roles where their ego is an advantage. Isolate them from circumstances when their personality is detrimental.
If a board member is prone to outbursts during a board meeting, meet them for coffee ahead of time and preview the issues with them to gauge their reaction. If it’s going to be negative, you’ll know and they won’t hear it for the first time. On the positive side, this person will help you sell your idea if you include them in the conception of the idea (make it theirs).
“An economist is a man who states the obvious in terms of the incomprehensible” – Alfred A. Knopf
No one will know your technology better than you do and chances are few will care. The value of your idea is what it does for your customers, not how cool the software works behind the scenes.
Be clear about your value proposition. State it in terms of the problems you solve or the delight you offer.
“I don’t mind a handshake agreement as long as it’s in writing.” Vig Sherrill
Trustworthiness and integrity are important. But there are many reasons why a deal can go wrong.
Miscommunication is among the chief reasons.
Treating every agreement with a legal document causes all parties to be clear about the expectations, deliverables, and responsibilities. It doesn’t always involve expensive lawyers but there should be a tangible record of the agreement…
…especially when it involves money from friends and family!!!!
“Lifestyle business live off the community they serve. Startups build the communities they live in.” – John Morris
The difference between Ray Kroc and the original McDonald’s brothers is that Ray saw a way to grow and scale the business. In that way he created a company that now employs nearly 2 million people worldwide.
If you are creating value, see if there’s a way to multiply it.
“Expending energy trying to motivate people is largely a waste of time.” – Jim Collins
Unmotivated employees are looking for the least amount of effort to exchange for the money you pay them. It’s also a sign that they are not aligned with your core ideology. This is either because they don’t believe, OR that you have not communicated it effectively.
Either way, it’s time to get them off the bus.
“The object of living is work, experience, and happiness…” – Henry Ford
“…There is joy in work. All that money can do is buy us someone else’s work in exchange for our own. There is no happiness except in the realization that we have accomplished something.”
Do what you love and help somebody else in the process.
“Things are more like they are now than they ever were before.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower
To me this quote is about reluctance to change and looking back to the past.
The one competitor everyone has the is customer’s decision to do nothing. If I am actively managing a problem of some kind, it means I have researched potential solutions, chosen one and I invested time and energy into implementing that solution. That means the next solution has to outweigh the time and effort I put into my current solution; plus the time and energy to learn something new. Hence my decision to do nothing.
This is why you need to talk to me, find out how I am currently solving the problem, and understand what would entice me to try something new.
BloggingGazelle 