“If you act like your wedding day is the greatest moment in your life, it’s all downhill from there.” –Elizabeth Johnson

What looks like a throw-away line actually packs a lot of wisdom.

Any moment you consider the greatest moment of your life sets up the same downhill scenario.

If your college graduation is greatest, what comes next?

If you consider the founding of your company, product launch, revenue or even profitability the greatest day of your life what will its acquisition or IPO be?

If the birth of your children rates as the greatest, what will their graduation, marriage, and their children’s births be?

Instead of setting up a downhill move from your life highlights, you can open the future to more just by removing the ‘est’.

If they are ‘great’ moments instead of ‘greatest’ then you are setting your self up for ‘greater’ moments.

Isn’t that a better life scenario?

It is only when you are dying that you can choose the ‘est’ in retrospect.

And I’m willing to bet that you will be hard-pressed to choose just one.

SUBMIT YOUR STORY
(like this)

Be the Thursday feature – Entrepreneurs: [your company name]
Share the story of your startup today.
Send it along with your contact information and I’ll be in touch.
Questions? Email or call me at 360.335.8054 Pacific time.

Flickr image credit: Joe Shlabotnik

Your comments-priceless

Don’t miss a post! Subscribe via RSS or EMAIL

A Friday series exploring Startups and the people who make them go. Read all If the Shoe Fits posts here

After reading Alexander Haislip’s post, I scurried around and removed the “CEO” from as many profiles as I could find/remember.

Back in 1999 I started RampUp Solutions I called myself “founder” and I was happy with that, but I kept being told I should use ‘CEO’, so I did. (Hey, even smart people can give poor advice.)

However, I was never comfortable with the title because I’ve worked with dozens of CEOs and knew that I didn’t/couldn‘t do what they do.

Not only did not, but could not.

Now, thirteen years later, my gut reaction has been confirmed; not only the reaction, but the reasons.

Ask yourself: would you still be CEO if it were a $100 billion business or would you require what’s euphemistically called “adult supervision?”

Considering what passes for a $100 billion business these days you may want to add ‘sustainable’ to the description.

There is nothing wrong with bringing in a “real” CEO and learning the ropes—think Larry Page and Google—but assuming a title of which you aren’t really capable smacks of a five-year-old dressing up in mommy’s/daddy’s clothes.

Actually, I’m surprised I didn’t delete those three letters years ago when I shared some of the things I’ve heard CEO really means. Call it a major case of disconnect.

I hope Haislip’s and my post inspires you to find the time to expunge CEO from your social profiles and other places, including your business cards.

You might also want to take a hard look at other company titles, especialy on the executive level.

Option Sanity™ reduces pretension.
Come visit Option Sanity for an easy-to-understand, simple-to-implement stock allocation system.  It’s so easy a CEO can do it.

Warning.
Do not attempt to use Option Sanity™ without a strong commitment to business planning, financial controls, honesty, ethics, and “doing the right thing.”
Use only as directed.
Users of Option Sanity may experience sudden increases in team cohesion and worker satisfaction. In cases where team productivity, retention and company success is greater than typical, expect media interest and invitations as keynote speaker.

Flickr image credit: HikingArtist

Your comments-priceless

Don’t miss a post! Subscribe via RSS or EMAIL

Maybe because it is finally spring where I live, but my mind is skipping around topics like a butterfly (although I haven’t seen any yet).

Everywhere you go the tech world, especially startups, are scrambling to hire and moaning over the perceived lack of candidates. But finding talented engineers is a snap in comparison to finding women willing to commit to a convent. Being that it’s 2012, both groups have turned to social media to solve the problem.

Rather than leave the future of the convents to prayer and chance, Sister Elaine Lachance has turned to the Internet. She’s using social media and blogging to attract women who feel the calling to serve God and their community. “But I knew I had to go there, that I had to do it,” said Lachance, who turned 70 on Sunday. “You have to go where the young people are. And that’s where they are.”

Bend, Oregon is the backdrop of an encouraging story on jobs thanks to Gary Fish, who founded Deschutes Brewery in 1988.

With 80,000 people surrounded by not much of anything — with no Interstate, no university, and the closest major city 160 miles away across steep and snowy mountains — beer has had room to make a difference. (…) “You have to thank Gary Fish for kind of creating that culture,” said Larry Sidor, a former brew master at Deschutes who left last year to open a brewery of his own this summer, CRUX Fermentation Project. “It’s been kind of a training ground, a spawning ground for the craft movement.”

I have to admit I don’t understand the willingness of people to hire strangers to do both everyday and more exotic “life stuff” for them, but doing so is more tsunami than trend.

We’ve put a self-perpetuating cycle in motion. The more anxious, isolated and time-deprived we are, the more likely we are to turn to paid personal services. To finance these extra services, we work longer hours. This leaves less time to spend with family, friends and neighbors; we become less likely to call on them for help, and they on us.

Finally, I was reminded that short-term thinking always comes back to bite when I read in January that teens were “showing their love” by sharing everything, including passwords; actions guaranteed to create mayhem as teen feelings shift.

Young couples have long signaled their devotion to each other by various means — the gift of a letterman jacket, or an exchange of class rings or ID bracelets. (…) It has become fashionable for young people to express their affection for each other by sharing their passwords to e-mail, Facebook and other accounts.

Fast forward to adulthood and that tell-the-world social sharing is still creating mayhem, although not because of changing affections.

After a few relationship-testing episodes, some spouses have started insisting that their partners ask for approval before posting comments and photographs that include them. Couples also are talking through rules as early as the first date (a kind of social media prenup) about what is O.K. to share. Even tweeting about something as seemingly innocent as a house repair can become a lesson in boundary-setting.

Enjoy today and have a memorable Mother’s Day tomorrow.

Flickr image credit: pedroelcarvalho

Your comments-priceless

Don’t miss a post! Subscribe via RSS or EMAIL

The controversy over Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson’s education as described by Rocky Agrawal in Venture Beat made me laugh. (For those interested, the reason for the firing demand says a lot more about the lengths an investor will go to get what he wants than about Thompson.)

The good thing is that things are changing. Even mighty Google that once hired only 3.7+ GPAs has changed how they recruit using puzzles to identify talent that might fall through the cracks—assuming it even got that far.

Probably the greatest value of higher education—all education, actually—is learning how to learn.

It’s knowing where to find information and how to assimilate, tweak and synthesize it

so it becomes useful in both the short and long terms; more value comes from learning how to focus and think critically.

Skill in the actual major has value for two to four years—less in technical fields that change with radical speed.

From that point on the value of actual degree content goes down 20% or more each year, whereas real experience goes up.

That means in five years specific degrees become meaningless, while specific experience holds all the value.

Moreover, those with the ability to successfully move from industry to industry, field to field, department to department, position to position sans ego and hype truly have a price above rubies—although they rarely think so.

stock.xchng image credit: GlennPeb

Your comments-priceless

Don’t miss a post! Subscribe via RSS or EMAIL

In case you haven’t read the profile of Joshua Kushner, founder of Thrive Capital, which closed a Series B investment in Instagram 72 hours before the Facebook acquisition, I’m going to share some of the smartest advice I’ve heard.

It’s just 7 words describing 3 actions, but those actions will save your company when it’s hottest or when events in the startup ecosystem serve up major distraction, like Instagram.

Like all Facebook-related news, the deal stirred up a media frenzy. Kushner was already back in his Nolita offices in Manhattan and left notes for each of his four teammates: “Heads Down”; “Stay Focused”; “Ignore the Noise.”

Sounds simple, but when stuff starts happening, whether internal or external, developers, marketers, sales people and everyone else can quickly develop severe cases of ADD.

Those seven words make a great mantra; one worth putting on the walls.

Just remember, Kushner’s advice won’t work unless it’s followed from the top down.

SUBMIT YOUR STORY
(like this)
Be the Thursday feature – Entrepreneurs: [your company name]
Share the story of your startup today.
Send it along with your contact information and I’ll be in touch.
Questions? Email or call me at 360.335.8054 Pacific time.

Flickr image credit: Chris m.

Your comments-priceless

Don’t miss a post! Subscribe via RSS or EMAIL

A Friday series exploring Startups and the people who make them go. Read all If the Shoe Fits posts here

Why is it that so many who offer good professional commentary ruin it by presenting it as black and white?

Nothing that involves humans is black and white.

If I describe a manager who screams, rants, insults, and belittles his people I doubt that you would want to emulate his style.

What happens when I tell you his name is Steve Jobs?

Nothing is black and white.

A recent Inc. article listed 8 Core Beliefs of Extraordinary Bosses, they are

1. Business is an ecosystem, not a battlefield.
2. A company is a community, not a machine.
3. Management is service, not control.
4. My employees are my peers, not my children.
5. Motivation comes from vision, not from fear.
6. Change equals growth, not pain.
7. Technology offers empowerment, not automation.
8. Work should be fun, not mere toil.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with the list, the concepts are good, but there is a lot wrong with the accompanying commentary starting with the adjectives.

According to the article bosses who don’t embrace these eight in the way described are average bosses.

More accurately, the descriptions of the actions and attitudes attributed to the “average boss” belong, by and large, to the toxic boss category.

Based on the categories Jobs is average, by the descriptions he’s toxic.

Tony Hsieh comes to mind as fitting the description of ‘extraordinary’, although I doubt you would hear him describe himself that way.

Apple and Zappos are both highly successful.

The take-away is nothing is black and white; things that look great at first glance need to be thought through before you embrace them.

Option Sanity™ helps think things through.

Come visit Option Sanity for an easy-to-understand, simple-to-implement stock allocation system.  It’s so easy a CEO can do it.

Warning.
Do not attempt to use Option Sanity™ without a strong commitment to business planning, financial controls, honesty, ethics, and “doing the right thing.”
Use only as directed.
Users of Option Sanity may experience sudden increases in team cohesion and worker satisfaction. In cases where team productivity, retention and company success is greater than typical, expect media interest and invitations as keynote speaker.

Flickr image credit: HikingArtist

Your comments-priceless

Don’t miss a post! Subscribe via RSS or EMAIL

A Friday series exploring Startups and the people who make them go. Read all If the Shoe Fits posts here

Long-term success is as much about attitude as it is about product.

How do you rate yourself on the following?

I believe that

• good information can come from nobody; bad information can come from somebody;
• values verbalized must be values lived;
• to be valid, a social contract can not embrace the concept of “but me;
• fairness comes from applying all rules evenly and equally, no exceptions;
• listening, especially when it’s something you don’t want to hear or from an unusual source; and
• it’s sometimes necessary to modify or let go of an initial vision and pivot in order to succeed.

What would you add to the list?

Option Sanity™ embodies fairness.
Come visit Option Sanity for an easy-to-understand, simple-to-implement stock allocation system. 
It’s so easy a CEO can do it.

Warning.
Do not attempt to use Option Sanity™ without a strong commitment to business planning, financial controls, honesty, ethics, and “doing the right thing.”
Use only as directed.
Users of Option Sanity may experience sudden increases in team cohesion and worker satisfaction. In cases where team productivity, retention and company success is greater than typical, expect media interest and invitations as keynote speaker.

Flickr image credit: HikingArtist

Your comments-priceless

Don’t miss a post! Subscribe via RSS or EMAIL

As many of you know, Nick Mikhailovsky, my long-term Russian business partner, is a successful entrepreneur and active in the Russian startup community. He introduced me to his circle and working with these Russian entrepreneurs is an ongoing pleasure.

I worked with Alex and besides loving the idea of AtContent I found his story of how to get hired as an expert team when you have neither expertise nor a team creative and hilarious.

These days Alex lives in San Jose; here’s the story in his own words…

One day Alex and Nikita agreed to create one of the largest and powerful information companies in the world!

To achieve this goal they understood they had to solve a huge problem. They looked at the traditional publishing industry – publishing houses, existing Internet services, newspaper websites, etc., and current solutions of legal distribution.

They understood the publishing and content distribution market had problems with tracking content copies, copyright and legal distribution.

They decided to create a new technology service which would revolutionize publishing and content distribution.

At that moment, neither Nikita nor Alex had a job (they retired), no team, only $1500 in their pockets, fantastic idea and a coffeehouse between their homes where they met every day and ordered glasses of water.

They understood they should start with something and decided to become a partner of AnyChart (the company has a developer’s office in Irkutsk) by creating a Microsoft Silverlight based visual stock component for them.

Nikita called them and said, “Hey guys, we can do it for you because we have a great team with Silverlight experience which you don’t have.”

The AnyChart guys answered, “Deal! But please show us your team!”

The problem was that Alex and Nikita had no team and nobody in Irkutsk knew Silverlight platform…

But they found the solution; they decided to call all the programmers they knew and ask them to play the roles of members of this great Silverlight team!

After two day of phone calls Nikita and Alex found not only actors but really good programmers who wanted to learn Silverlight and work with them to build a great company!

So, during that one week of October Alex and Nikita got the contract with AnyChart, built a first team with Dmitriy and Aleksey (they still work with Alex and Nikita) and started to build future IFFace and AtContent.

SUBMIT YOUR STORY

Be the Thursday feature – Entrepreneurs: [your company name]
Share the story of your startup today.
Send it along with your contact information and I’ll be in touch.
Questions? Email or call me at 360.335.8054 Pacific time.

Flickr image credit: AtContent

Your comments-priceless

Don’t miss a post! Subscribe via RSS or EMAIL

A Friday series exploring Startups and the people who make them go. Read all If the Shoe Fits posts here

Who do you want to hire?

The person who passionately wants to work for a startup or the person who passionately wants to work for your startup?

Think about it.

Who will contribute more?

• The person who always wanted to work in a startup; whose passion is engaged by the mere thought of working in the startup environment; or
• the person who craves the solution your startup proposes even if she never recognized the problem; whose passion is engaged specifically by the idea of contributing to that particular solution no matter where it is done.

Some experts will tell you that it is the drive to work in a startup—any startup—that is most important.

I disagree.

Just as the person who joins a company for money will leave for more money the person who joins because it’s a startup will leave for a sexier startup.

But the person who joins because of a deep, driving passion to be part of that specific solution will stay and fight the good fight long past the time that Hell freezes over.

Option Sanity™ engages the deeply driven.

Come visit Option Sanity for an easy-to-understand, simple-to-implement stock allocation system.  It’s so easy a CEO can do it.

Warning
Do not attempt to use Option Sanity™ without a strong commitment to business planning, financial controls, honesty, ethics, and “doing the right thing.”
Use only as directed.
Users of Option Sanity may experience sudden increases in team cohesion and worker satisfaction. In cases where team productivity, retention and company success is greater than typical, expect media interest and invitations as keynote speaker.

Flickr image credit: HikingArtist

Your comments-priceless

Don’t miss a post! Subscribe via RSS or EMAIL

Branson says, “Do well by doing good.”

Gandhi said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.”

The women of Water Valley, Mississippi have embraced both attitudes.

But why limit your entrepreneurial energy to just a business when you can save a town at the same time?

What does it take to change the world or at least your little corner of it?

Desire and belief.

A passionate desire to push the change and a deep belief that you can make it happen.

What isn’t required is a no-holds-barred, do-anything-to-make-it-happen desire that rejects input from others and stomps on their ideas.

Because no matter how brilliant you are; no matter how amazing your vision; no matter how deep your belief and passionate your desire…

You can’t do it alone.

SUBMIT YOUR STORY

Be the Thursday feature – Entrepreneurs: [your company name]
Share the story of your startup!
Send it along with your contact information.
I’ll be in touch.
Questions? Email or call me at 360.335.8054 Pacific time.

Sxc.hu image credit: merlin1075

Your comments-priceless

Don’t miss a post! Subscribe via RSS or EMAIL