Tag Archive for 'business'

Tires off the road

Published on March 15, 2010 in personal. Closed Tags: , , .
Roadworks
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“In a startup, you’re going to have moments when 2, sometimes 4 tires are off the road. It happens to everyone, expect it.”  Great advice from a friend and now advisor to my latest startup.  The way he said it, so matter of fact, really felt like he was giving us permission over the next few years to have crazy, shit hits the fan moments.  It felt good, but wow it’s hard to live by sometimes.  When the tires are off the road, it’s hard to not think the situation you are in is particularly bad, one that no one has ever dealt with before, and one that can’t be overcome.  Dramatic? yes. But it’s hard to get out of this train of thought sometimes.

This week we had a major hiccup on the development side.  Without rambling on or getting into specifics, I’ll just say this: shit hit the fan.  It sucked, it felt terrible.  It was definitely a 2 tires (although at the time it felt like 4) off the road situation.  It hit like a ton of bricks, and made me feel sick to my stomach.  All of the usual thoughts and fears coming rushing back, “what do I do next,” “What am I doing with my life.” “Is this another failure,” etc.  It’s actually amazing how quickly your balloon can be deflated.  There’s a sense of panic, a sense of desperation, a lot of frustration, a lot of fear.  It could consume you.  But then I thought back to the comment about tires coming off the road.  It happens.  It happens to everyone, in startups, in life.  Whew, deep breath, “sit, stay…” I stepped away and went for a walk, it was time for perspective.

First a reminder: There’s not a problem that can’t be dealt with.  And let’s be honest, this wasn’t really that big of a deal.  It can definitely be fixed, and fixed quickly.  Then I had to think, “this is it, this is one of those great entrepreneurial moments where your skills are tested, you gain experience and confidence, and you find solutions.”  Now here we are a few days later, and things have already been cleaned up a bit. Tires back on the road?  Not yet, but close.

So our advisor was right very quickly.  We had this moment about 6 days after he said this, and something tells me we’ll have plenty more moments like this.  I’d even say we’re lucky if we look back  and wish we had problems like this a year from now.  The problems should be much larger then. That’s a good thing.  Everyone has problems that sometimes seem insurmountable.  The goal isn’t to try and avoid them.  Instead the goal is to get more comfortable with each “uh oh” moment, to acknowledge your fears but not get overwhelmed by them,  seek solutions, solve problems, gain confidence and experience, and move on.

Similar:

My post on anxiety

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“It’s never as scary or as hard as you thought”

Published on March 9, 2010 in business. Closed Tags: , , , .
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1933.
Image via Wikipedia

I had breakfast with my buddy and great entrepreneur, Jason from Jackthreads yesterday.  I’ve written about Jason and his entrpreneurial path before, so I don’t need to rehash the story, but needless to say it’s been a lot of fun watching both he and Jackthreads grow over the last 3 years.  The last 4-6 months in particular have been very exciting. It’s a very fast growing company.  And as a result he’s been thrown in many situations that he never had to deal with before from large scale customer service to dealing with investors to negotiating offers to hiring and managing employees. As an entrepreneur I think it has always been his plan and hope to face situations like these because it meant things were and are going well, but it doesn’t make facing them any less scary.  So yesterday as we discussed the next big step for him, I asked how he felt about it.  He said “well just like everything else, we’ll just jump in and see what happens.  It’s never as scary or as hard as you thought.”

I’ve had many things in my life that I was scared to face as I know everyone does.  As an entrepreneur there have been plenty of things I just didn’t want to deal with, and honestly wasn’t really even sure I could deal with. But truthfully in every situation I feared  but ultimately faced, I have to say Jason is exactly right.  It’s never as scary or as hard as you thought.  Or as another friend likes to say “the monster under the bed is never as scary as we expected,” and most of the time it’s not even there.  It’s seem like fear (and what it does to us) is the only thing we need to fear after all. (yes a reference to FDR there)

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2009 to 2010 thoughts

Published on January 1, 2010 in personal. Closed Tags: , , , .
Bright Idea
Image by bitzcelt via Flickr

We are now less than one week away from the end of 2009, and the first decade of the 2000’s.  As I look back on 2009, there are a lot of great lessons, ups and downs, victories, and losses, but ultimately a significant amount of progress in my life.  Life it seems is really about the balance between  enjoying and appreciating who and what you have currently, and at the same time continually pushing for growth.   Simply said: be truly grateful for the present and think and act big for the future.  Easier said than done.

Anyway looking back on 2009 for me I can see a few personal lessons to carry forward:

1.) Talk about it.  I wrote about this back in July. This year, particularly in my relationship with Julie, this lesson finally sunk in for me.  Communication is not about finding solutions, it’s about connecting with someone else, and generally it makes everyone feel much better.  I think we  feel better when we open up to another person.  And generally it is much easier to find solutions (if that’s what you’re looking for) when you are feeling good and open.

2.) Don’t do something just because you think it will make you money.  Sounds very obvious, but man is it a hard one.  As I wrote about back in May, I learned this lesson the hard way, spending almost a year working incredibly hard on a concept because I thought it would be a somewhat easy way to make money.  I of course was wrong.  Building a business is a long process with lots of ups and downs.  If you don’t have more interest in the process beyond making money, getting through those downs is going to be rough.

3.) When it comes to business concepts or projects, there is a big difference between a good one in general, and a good one for you.  For me at least, just because something seems like a good idea does not mean it’s a good idea for me to pursue.  I again learned this the hard way, as discussed in this post. (I may reference this post more…)

4.) Plan for and demand time for thought.  Big ideas don’t usually happen when you are checking email, sports scores, listening to podcasts, watching tv, etc.  They usually happen when your mind is allowed to think, free of distractions.  It’s way too easy to get sucked into the flow of the day and the week, and not give yourself time to reflect.  The reflection time is really when interesting thoughts come forward. And by the way, I don’t think time for thought should be all about allowing the big ideas to come through either…it should be just for thinking as well.

5.) JFDI. I just wrote about this. This one is a biggie for me.  I’m really good at putting things off, especially tasks or situations that may make feel uncomfortable.  I’d rather just push them to a later time and date.  There are usually 2 consequences that stem from that approach 1.) Generally the situation / problem worsens with the delays 2.) you feel worse and worse about putting it off.  There are definitely situations where a bit of reflection is the right move, but 9 times out of 10 we know what action needs to be taken almost immediately.  Act and you’ll get more done and feel better.

6.) Be Optimistic.  Sounds simple, and I guess in theory it is.  But for me it can be a struggle.  There’s a voice in my head that is optimistic about things 70% of the time I would say.  The problem is the other 30% of the time it’s very pessimistic.  This voice sees the “bad” in my life as permanent and a direct reflection of who I am as a person.  That’s a hard one to deal with.  In making a conscious effort to notice this voice and brush it aside, it’s amazing how much better life looks day in and day out.  Again it’s not easy, and it seems to be a long process, but just noticing the downer voice is a big first step

7.) Be your biggest supporter, not your harshest critic.  Similar to #6 above, I’ve really become aware this year of the inner critic.  When that voice is strong in my head, things really feel hard in my life.  Nothing I’ve done means anything.  Nothing I’m working on will ever be good enough.  I haven’t treated this person correctly, or said this when I should have, or called this person in a reasonable time.  Certainly there are times where that voice needs to come through to make adjustments and teach lessons, but it needs to change its tone.  I’m looking for one that teaches, guides, and supports not criticizes.  First step is noticing the critic, something I did very well in 2009.

I skipped a few years with this tradition (last one was 2006, which looks very similar to this years), but think it’s a good one to continue going forward.  Happy and healthy 2010….

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How far are you willing to go?

Published on December 1, 2009 in business, future and personal. Closed Tags: , .
City of Columbus
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I’ve had the pleasure of having front row seats to watch my friend Jason develop his business Jackthreads (check it out, it’s a private shopping community) over the last 4 or so years.  Things are going very well for Jason now as his membership and revenue numbers continue to explode month over month.  More importantly he’s now able to work full time doing something he loves with customers and employees who also love what he’s doing.   The business is now drawing all sorts of interest from investors to partners to customers.  Everyone seems impressed by this thing that seemingly popped up over night.  I can tell you, it didn’t.

Jason took the long path here.  He started out 4 years ago with a totally different business model. He has had more than a few people tell him he was crazy, that his idea was off, that he had no business building something like that from Columbus, OH.   He had all kinds of jobs from bar back to sales consultant to selling towels just to sustain himself while he worked through this concept.  He burned through at least 5 different programming groups / teams and watched his development process drag on and on. He had to work tirelessly just to get someone to give him a chance to test his concept.   He had more than a few “what the hell am I doing,” moments.  There were more moments where quitting made more sense than going on.   Obviously, he chose to stick with it.

As an entrepreneur, you are going to have lots of “what the hell am I doing,” moments.  It’s a key part of the journey. In fact most cases are like Jason’s, where you must go through the grind of work and doubt until you finally see some traction.  The deciding factor ultimately is how you deal with those moments.  Do you stop as so many do, and as I have done?  Or do you push through as Jason did.  How many moments of doubt, how many “no’s,” moments of frustration, odd jobs are you willing to go through to see your idea to fruition?  How far are you willing to go?

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Building for the long term

Published on August 30, 2009 in business and goals. Closed Tags: , , , , , , .
Tony Hsieh of Zappos
Image by jdlasica via Flickr

I’m a big Zappos.com fan.  I think every pair of shoes I currently own came via Zappos.com.  Their selection and service are amazing, and they make the shoe buying experience very simple.  But the thing I really love about Zappos (which I know has been discussed to death on the internet), is their company culture.

Today I was listening to an interview (yes, another mixergy interview) with Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, someone I’ve come to really admire.  In the interview he tells the whole story about the founding of Zappos, how he first got involved as an investor and then later on as CEO, and how the company’s legendary culture evolved.  I realized in listening to Tony talk, the key to their success, one of the key factors in the evolution of their famed culture, was the ability to think and act in the long term.  I think this is one of those things that you always hear (just like following your passion) but very few people have the courage to actually do it.  It’s clear that Hsieh and his team have a long term vision for the company, and they’re willing to allow it to evolve.  The thing about having a long term perspective is you can absorb short term costs such as their legendary $2,000 offer to pay new hires to quit, or their 365 day return policy because over the course of 5 or 10 years those policies will pay off big.  In fact in the interview Hsieh even says he could instantly add to the bottom line by shutting down their 24/7 call center, and most likely it would have very little effect on sales over the course of 6-12 months.  But the worsened customer experience would eventually eat into their most valuable asset (perceived high quality of service), and start to hurt sales.

The more books I read and interviews I listen to about people who do big, remarkable things, and I’d put Hsieh and his team’s work at Zappos in this category, the more I see the importance of thinking and acting with the long term in mind.

check out the mixergy interview

Bonus:

a recap of Tony Hsieh’s talk at SXSW 09

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NY Times article on unemployment leading to entrepreneurship

Published on August 25, 2009 in business and personal. Closed Tags: , , , , .

I enjoyed this article in yesterday’s times about people who have become entrepreneurs after losing their jobs in the most recent recession.  I guess this is really unsurprising, and there have been numerous articles about this of late, but it’s always nice to see.  It seems with each new downturn, there is a significant upturn in people turning to entrepreneurship.  There is no cheaper and better time to go out and be an entrepreneur as the cost of starting a business has come down to literally a few hundred bucks (including legal).  Even better is that the costs required to sustain a business have come way down as well, so the hurdle to sustainability is significantly lower for a vast majority of these entrepreneurs.  But something I hadn’t thought of until today…the one huge hurdle that remains, especially for older first time entrepreneurs, is health insurance.  The people mentioned in this article are used to good health care coverage provided by their employers.  As an entrepreneur not only are you on your own in terms of health care coverage, but it is WAY more expensive as an individual or small business.  I have to wonder how many people thought about pursuing a more entrepreneurial path, but had to turn back because of health care coverage.  I think that’s a shame..it’s clear to see that encouraging more people to go out and create is good for us all, so lowering and removing the health care hurdle could be a significant stimulus in itself.  (not making a political statement here, just an observation).  There can, should, and will always be hurdles to entrepreneurship.  I just don’t think health care coverage should be one.

Ny Times: Unemployment can lead to Entrepreneurship

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Jeff Bezos on Passion

Published on August 25, 2009 in business, links and personal. Closed Tags: , , , , , .
NEW YORK - MARCH 3: (FILE) Founder and CEO of...
Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Enjoyed this comment from founder of Amazon.com, Jeff Bezos on the role of passion in starting a business…

One of the huge mistakes people make is that they try to force an interest on themselves. If you’re really interested in software and computer science, you should focus on that. But if you’re really interested in medicine, and you decide you’re going to become an Internet entrepreneur because it looks like everybody else is doing well, then that’s probably not going to work. You don’t choose your passions, your passions choose you. One of the reasons you saw so many companies that were formed in 1998 or 1999 fail is that they were chasing the wave. And that usually doesn’t work. Find that area that you are interested in and passionate about–and wait for the wave to find you.–

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what to do next?

Published on August 7, 2009 in future, goals and personal. Closed Tags: , .
The A22(T) near Summer Hill, East Sussex, England
Image via Wikipedia

I feel like this is a question I’m constantly asking,  and perhaps that is part of the issue, but I feel like I’m really at decision point on what to do next.  As I touched on in this post, I had a big project I was working on come to an end in May / June and since then I’ve been thinking a lot about the question: “what to do next?”  Now don’t get me wrong, my current situation is actually very good.  I’ve got a very good consulting gig working on a startup that is not short on energy, excitement, or capital.  It’s been fun to work with people who really passionate about what they’re doing, and it’s been nice to not worry about paying my bills.  It has been a great summer experience, and at the very least I’ve helped get an interesting concept off the ground and assist another entrepreneur in pursuing his dream, all while putting a little money in my pocket (I’ll share concept when it is live).  That’s a good thing, but truth be told I know that this is only another project for me. I know that 6 months from now I’d like to be back on my own, pursuing a concept, industry, niche I feel more personally connected to.

I know I’ve talked much about finding a purpose and pursuing a passion, but I’ve backed off that a bit.  There is something very heavy in telling yourself that you must find and work on your passion, your calling.  Especially when you’re like me, and you are interested and excited about all sorts of things.  How do you pick one thing when you have ten that seem interesting in front of you?  Add to that the weight of picking the one that is your purpose, and you end up stuck…as I have been many times before.  I will say though, I don’t really feel stuck at the moment.  I’m moving forward and picking up skills and connections that will help me down the road, but I still am in the same position of not knowing exactly what road I want to at least try and go down.  Simply put: I’m not sure what to do next.  I don’t want to carry all that pressure of finding my calling, and I don’t want to just go with the flow like a stick in the stream.  I want to go forward with something that is especially interesting to me, something that feels good, but I am not worried about it being “it.”  I just want to feel close personally to what I’m working on (I will not make the mistake again of investing time, energy, and money into something that I don’t care about, no matter how good of an idea it seems).

I do consider myself very lucky to still be in a position in my life where I can seriously ask this question, and at least feel like I’m in a position to pursue the answer.  My responsibilities are fairly light, and I’ve been at this long enough to have a good group of people around me who support whatever I want to do.  I look at the world and honestly feel that I could do anything.  I’ve always felt that way.  Or maybe deep down I don’t.  Maybe that is why I can never seem to answer that question because if I don’t answer it, then I don’t have to do it. OK now I’m just making things complicated.

Man this post seems like a giant circle, perhaps that is part of the issue here.  I think part of my answering this question is to write more.  I want to write here more.  I think I want to list things I know I don’t like / want.   I want to go back and explore my past writings, maybe even update my careerography, reach out to more people I admire, but what else?

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Inputs of Entrepreneurship

Published on February 25, 2009 in business. Closed Tags: , , , , , , .
Layfield is one of a generation of UK entrepre...
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I’ve been thinking and wondering a lot lately about what needs to come together to create a working company.  I’m not going to touch the issue of “successful,” company because that’s really impossible to quantify (at least for me), so instead I’m just going to look at what I think is needed to make a “working” company, defined as one that is growing, can meet all of its financial obligations, and support the entrepreneurs behind it.  As best as I can see it there are 4 inputs required to create a working company (all either provided or gathered  by the entrepreneur):

  1. time
  2. expertise (includes a network of contacts)
  3. money
  4. energy / passion
  5. **Luck

I struggled with putting energy and passion in this list because I think it is more important than any of those items, and it influences them all.  The odds are (and we always hear about this) the more passionate you are about what you’re working on, the more leverage you’ll have on everything else (time, money, expertise).  If you’re passionate, you will find a way to get all of those ingredients together.  In fact I would say that number 4 is more of the wildcard here.  It can make up for a huge defiency in any of the other items or all.  In fact I guess you could call passion/energy the leverage.  It helps you do more with less.

All of these are needed in some amount to get a company going.   If you’re extremely strong in one area you can make up for a weakness in other areas.  For example if you’re expert in building and managing sales teams, and your new business is in sales of some kind, it will likely take less time, money, and energy on your part to get things up and running.  If you don’t have any money, and you don’t have any expertise in the space you are hoping to work in, then you’ll need to devote a lot more time (and I hope you have the passion to drive you through it).

I added luck with a star because I think all companies need it.  The problem is you can’t really plan on good luck, you can only increase your odds of getting it through time.  The more time you’re able to buy yourself and your business, the more likely you’ll have some luck on your side.

I’m sure a lot of people will wonder where idea fits in all of this.  I”m learning that idea in most cases is not all that important.  It can really help people be excited about what they are working on, but I think mission can do more for making someone passionate.  The idea itself is usually just a starting point, a place to organize resources.  Rarely will the idea you start with be the one that works.  They usually evolve very quickly as more time, money, and expertise are added.

I’d say in my current situation I’m capable of providing some expertise, some money, and some energy…but my best contribution is my time.  Sometimes that really can be frustrating.  Without expertise or money to push things forward, you just need the time to experiment (and make a lot of mistakes).

When setting out to start a business, take a look at the list above.  What, at the moment, are you most capable of bringing to the table?  Are you OK with that?  Can you really give all that is required (especially in $$ or time)?

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I”m back / 4 hour workweek / startup

Published on January 28, 2009 in business. View Comments Tags: , , , .
WASHINGTON - MAY 03: Fitness legend Jack LaLa...Image by Getty Images via Daylife

It’s not that I stopped writing blog posts, it’s just that I stopped posting them here.  I find that I’m constantly writing out thoughts, but I struggle consistently posting them here.  Instead I usually will email them to a few different people to get feedback.  I realized today that I could simply edit those emails and start posting them here.  So the 3 of you that still check my blog…I”m back.

My partner Chris and I have been having some long discussions lately about working more efficiently (more work in less time).  He has been inspired by the 4 hour workweek (which I read a little over a year ago).   I think there are a lot of great thoughts in that book, but I really don’t think it’s likely you can start a successful business following all of his guidelines.  Chris and I have been back and forth on this.  Here is my latest email on the topic (sorry if it is a little jumbled).

I’ve been thinking about this,the slippery slope of trying to work super efficiently.  I’ll admit it is a struggle for me.  On one hand I get very excited about the idea of “getting 8 hours of work completed in 4 hours,” and I think striving to do that could really make some interesting things happen like better delegation / outsourcing skills, and being more relaxed.  But on the other hand I’ve been racking my brain thinking about “successful” entrepreneurs I know. By successful I mean those who have built a business that more than pays their bills, they have a great team around them, and lots of upside potential.  Some of these people I’ve known for awhile, others I met recently…but one thing I know for sure: they are all VERY active.  I realize that the 4 hour workweek is not about only working 4 hours a week, but really about delegating and confronting simple tasks as quickly and efficiently as possible.  Part of this approach is really about attacking email, encouraging people to cut down significantly on the time they spent writing and responding to emails.  I agree 100% here.  I think email must be controlled or it will control you.  But I think other things in the 4hww are just not practical for entrepreneurs.

Building a business to me seems a lot like building and maintaining physical fitness.  They are actually very similar…as most people want to be “fit,” but very few people (myself included) really do everything it takes to be fit.  When it comes to working efficiently vs not working there are parallels as well. There’s no doubt that you can truly “get a body like this with just 30 minutes of exercise, 3 times a week,” as they say in those Bowflex commercials.  The problem is very, very, few people work themselves hard enough in those 30 minutes for that to be true.  Even worse the way that is written I think most people assume then that exercising and getting fit should be easy, so they slack off even more, cutting their sessions to 2 times a week, then 1, then it’s a piece of crap in your basement.  They also get pissed and annoyed that they are not fit, despite doing what the commercial said.

I think the Tim Ferris mantra is like the 30 minute quote above.  It is absolutely possible to build a successful business with just 4 hours of work a week, or 4 hours of work a day.  The problem is that most people don’t know enough about entrepreneurship and/or their business to really effectively use those 4 hours of work a week / a day.  So if they do truly just work the 4 hours a day  / week, they don’t get enough finished to really make the business work, and it becomes a piece of crap in your basement.

I completely agree that most people (myself included) simply do not work efficiently, and don’t delegate properly.  But like exercising, you really can’t know what are key exercises to do in order to only workout 30 minutes a day 3 x  a week, until you spend a fair amount of time learning and doing lots of routines.  It means you’ll try a lot of crap that won’t help in order to find the ones that do help. Unfortunately in order to test a lot of things, it’s going to take some time.  So if you are only exercising the 30 minutes a day, it’s
going to take you a lot of days to get to a working routine.  That’s ok, if you’re aware of that and comfortable with that (most people aren’t).  Or you can try to speed things up a bit by spending more time. Yes you’ll have wasted time, but with good tracking and patience, you’ll get something that works.

It seems that in building a business or getting physically on track, the most important part at the start is showing up.  That sucks because you may waste a lot of time you think you don’t have, but it seems like the only way you can make the mistakes you need to make to learn the lessons you need to learn.

Furthermore people who are successful in either (being very fit or entrepreneurship) tend to do several things:
-enjoy it
-constantly grow, learn, and redevelop themselves / their routines / their business
-spend more and more time doing it, the better they get, despite being more “efficient” (which seems to kind of challenge 4hww a bit)

Maybe if you’re spending a lot of time trying to not spend time on the work / business you are in, you shouldn’t be in it in the first place?

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