In order to be able to sleep at night, I had to force myself to come up with a filter I could use to narrow in on ideas that had sticking power (for me personally, not because the idea was necessarily more sound from a business perspective) so I could discard the rest.

Here is what I came up with.

The first portion is focused on making sure I have the vision and emotional commitment to the idea, and was borrowed from a book:

I must be able to bring all of these to anything I consider pursuing:

• A clear Conception of what I want, a vivid vision, a goal clearly imagined.
• A strong Confidence that I can attain my goal.
• A focused Concentration on what it takes to reach my goal.
• A stubborn Consistency in pursuing my vision.
• An emotional Commitment to the importance of what I’m doing.
• A good Character to guide me and keep me on proper course.
• A Capacity to enjoy the process along the way.

I then added to that list the following criteria that are more focused on the business dynamics of the opportunity:

• Fast to start and test
• Be able to start with little or no outside funding
• Payback of initial investment within 18-24 monthsBusinesses in which you “work once, earn many times” (initial sale leads to many repeat purchases and initial product/service creation can be leverage in multiple formats)
• Ideally automatic, recurring revenue
• Can be managed from anywhere – ideally web-based
• Something that I’ll still find fun 5 or 10 years from now and that other people think is fun too!

I hope someone finds this helpful.  It’s been a great filter for me, and it forces me to find ideas that will really be productive for me.

MRC

I’ve never heard anyone point specifically to 13 months as a benchmark before, but I like his line of reasoning. I can say that I completely agree with the idea that most people quit to early; before they’ve even had a chance to taste success.

The phenomenon that I see happen to people is that they decide multiple times instead of “deciding once”. “Deciding once” is one of the most important lessons I’ve learned in life, and unfortunately I can’t recall where I picked it up. Somebody deserves some credit!

By “deciding once” I mean to do all of your homework, weigh the risks and alternatives, get yourself to the point of making a decision - and then decide to decide once. Once you’ve made your decision, resolve to no longer let your mind scramble on whether you made the right decision or not - just move forward with all of your energy and 100% commitment. So much time and energy is wasted on reconsidering your decisions after you’ve made them; you are better off just deciding once and being done with it.

Now, I’m not suggesting that you foolishly go in one direction forever just because you decided to many years ago. You should set some sort of time frame and milestones that make sense to base an evaluation on (13 months?), and then commit like hell until you reach your evaluation point and then make another decision…once!

MRC

MRC

David Brooks recently wrote an article in the New York Times about Tiger Woods’ “Frozen Gaze”; his levels of concentration and mental toughness are legendary and have become the model that many athletes and business people aspire to reach themselves.  It’s an interesting read and an interesting glimpse into what makes him the top performer of top performers.

My favorite quotes are from his mother and father.  It should be noted that his mother is considered the tough one in the family.  Her words:

“Old man is soft,” Kultida Woods once said of her husband. “He cry. He forgive people. Not me. I don’t forgive anybody.”

And from Earl Woods:

“I’d say, ‘Tiger, I promise you that you’ll never meet another person as mentally tough as you in your entire life.’ And he hasn’t. And he never will.”

He’s probably right!

MRC

Obviously any company that wants to continue to grow and grow fast must find a way to get regular access to the good stuff that is in employees’ heads, and employee morale will only be improved if employees feel execs are listening.

At my company, we’ve recently started using the following tool:

https://www.employeesuggestionbox.com

I highly recommend it.  They’ve done a great job of capturing all of the basis systems and processes you need to solicit and review feedback.

Check it out - perhaps it will be a good fit for your company.

MRC

You don’t have to agree with all of them, but considering his track record, you should at least give them some thought.

MRC

A Couple of My Rules for Startups

Mar 9th 2008 2:13PM

My buddy Jason had a GREAT post about rules for startups. Read it, love it learn it.

Of course, anyone who has started a company has their own rules and guidelines, so I thought i would add to the meme with my own. My “rules” below aren’t just for those founding the companies, but for those who are considering going to work for them as well.

1. Don’t start a company unless its an obsession and something you love.

2. If you have an exit strategy, its not an obsession.

3. Hire people who you think will love working there.

4. Sales Cures All. Know how your company will make money and how you will actually make sales.

5. Know your core competencies and focus on being great at them. Pay up for people in your core competencies. Get the best. Outside the core competencies, hire people that fit your culture but are cheap

6. An expresso machine ? Are you kidding me ? Shoot yourself before you spend money on an expresso machine. Coffee is for closers. Sodas are free. Lunch is a chance to get out of the office and talk. There are 24 hours in a day, and if people like their jobs, they will find ways to use as much of it as possible to do their jobs.

7. No offices. Open offices keeps everyone in tune with what is going on and keeps the energy up. If an employee is about privacy, show them how to use the lock on the john. There is nothing private in a start up. This is also a good way to keep from hiring execs who can not operate successfully in a startup. My biggest fear was always hiring someone who wanted to build an empire. If the person demands to fly first class or to bring over their secretary, run away. If an exec wont go on salescalls, run away. They are empire builders and will pollute your company.

8. As far as technology, go with what you know. That is always the cheapest way. If you know Apple, use it. If you know Vista… ask yourself why, then use it. Its a startup, there are just a few employees. Let people use what they know.

9. Keep the organization flat. If you have managers reporting to managers in a startup, you will fail. Once you get beyond startup, if you have managers reporting to managers, you will create politics.

10. NEVER EVER EVER buy swag. A sure sign of failure for a startup is when someone sends me logo polo shirts. If your people are at shows and in public, its ok to buy for your own folks, but if you really think someone is going to wear your Yobaby.com polo you sent them in public, you are mistaken and have no idea how to spend your money

11. NEVER EVER EVER hire a PR firm. A PR firm will call or email people in the publications, shows and websites you already watch, listen to and read. Those people publish their emails. Whenever you consume any information related to your field, get the email of the person publishing it and send them an email introducing yourself and the company. Their job is to find new stuff. They will welcome hearing from the founder instead of some PR flack. Once you establish communications with that person, make yourself available to answer their questions about the industry and be a source for them. If you are smart, they will use you.

12. Make the job fun for employees. Keep a pulse on the stress levels and accomplishments of your people and reward them. My first company, MicroSolutions, when we had a record sales month, or someone did something special, I would walk around handing out 100 dollar bills to salespeople. At Broadcast.com and MicroSolutions, we had a company shot. Kamikaze. We would take people to a bar every now and then and buy one or 10 for everyone. At MicroSolutions, more often than not we had vendors cover the tab. Vendors always love a good party :0

These are all off the top of my head. But they have worked for me so far.

If you’ve ever read any books on starting a company, or asked an investor for cash, you’ve no doubt been reminded that your business should have a competitive advantage.

But what exactly is a competitive advantage?  Are there different kinds?  Are some better than others?  Do you really need one to have a successful business and make a good living, or only if your looking to shoot your company to the moon in the next three years?

Hiking in Boulder got me thinking about these things!

Since we moved to Colorado about seven months ago, I try to hike the trails at Chautauqua Park about twice per week.  For me, it’s the best form of exercise in the world and does more to make me feel stress-free than just about anything possibly could.  I didn’t expect it to provide business lessons as well!

This Saturday I hiked the Royal Arch Trail, which is a pretty tough hike that has some steep inclines that tend to be pretty icy and slick.  I learned a while ago that if you want to make it up during the winter months, it’s a good idea to have YakTrax on your shoes for extra traction.

This weekend was a perfect example of why.  With my Yaktrax on, I easily made it up the mountain while watching just about everyone else on the mountain stumble and slip along, and in almost all cases, stop and turn around before they reached the top of the mountain.

I had the competitive advantage, and beautiful views were the profits I enjoyed!

Now when I hike for exercise like I did this weekend (versus out with company to enjoy a more leisurely hike), I try to make a point of not getting passed by anyone when going up the mountain.  Since I had the competitive advantage this weekend, you’d think that wouldn’t have been a problem.

That’s when I started to understand that there are degrees of competitive advantage.

On this particular hike, a man that was a good ten years older than me and who didn’t have Yaktrax on, passed me towards the top of the trail.  I couldn’t believe it!  This guy was wearing regular tennis shoes and was slipping on almost every step, but he was in such good shape that he eventually went right by me. 

His competitive advantage was better than mine.  At least for the time being.

If you’ve ever done any winter hiking, you know that going uphill on the snow and ice is much easier than going downhill.  Well, on the way down, I passed this guy like he was standing still, and watched him fall three times over a fifty-yard stretch. 

My competitive advantage proved to be more sustainable over the long term!

To any normal person, this would have just been another hike.  But I LOVE business, so this is the way my brain works.  Strange, I know.  But look at what I learned:

1. It’s great to have a competitive advantage.  You can still be successful and reach some nice profits without one, but it’s much more of a struggle and has much more risk of falling down before hitting your goals.
2. There are degrees of competitive advantage - some are better than others.
3. Sometimes competitive threats aren’t what they seem.  Business is more of a marathon than a sprint.

Not bad for a hike in the woods!

MRC

This is a link to notes from an interview with him - fantastic stuff:

http://undergroundvalue.blogspot.com/2008/02/notes-from-buffett-meeting-2152008_23.html

MRC