A Friday series exploring Startups and the people who make them go. Read allIf the Shoe Fits posts here
Today is a mental health day.
(Try it; you might be surprised at the difference it makes!)
See you all tomorrow!
Option Sanity™ saves your time.
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.
As I’m sure you’re aware I love stories. I believe that stories are the best way to excite and engage people no matter the relationship and definitely the best way to teach.
Today’s story is from Arthur Bart-Williams, a client whose startup involves a masterful story-telling platform.
Arthur’s story is proof that a great idea is worth pursuing—even when there is a six year lag between first thought and market testing.
From Arthur…
I founded Canogle in late 2010. The name—from the words, “can” and “ogle” and pronounced kan-og-uhl—means to look without restrictions; to be fully immersed in and a part of a particular world.
Canogle is a platform on which to tell a story.
People love stories; stories about the natural world and places they visit and stories about things, happenings and the brands they love.
They want curated stories, but they also want commentary from their peers and the Canogle platform provides both.
The idea first surfaced in 2004 when I was honeymooning on Maui and Jess, my wife, was using a paper map to navigate and to note interesting sites.
She said she was paying more attention to the map than to the things around her and I thought someone ought to come up with a way to know about sites as you pass them.
By the time we got home, I was excited enough to write the first version of a business plan and convince my brother to develop a prototype.
Then life happened. We had a daughter, I co-founded Combase, which was acquired by ViaNovus and then by Sword Group, fielded a few of life’s curve balls and had another daughter.
I was inspired again while watching a Silicon Valley technology show called “Press: Here” in mid-2010 and decided to find out if anybody cared about my idea.
I told one friend about the project, her eyes lit up and she introduced me to her friend who introduced me to the Executive Director of the Muir Heritage Land Trust, which became our first beta.
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.
What do Wal-Mart, Dewey & LeBoeuf and NewsCorp have in common?
Cultural deficiencies manifested in bad judgment, lies and executive shilly-shallying.
What was not previously known until the Times report on the bribery scandal is that at about the same time Mr Scott began the offensive to improve Wal-Mart’s image in the United States, he also rebuked the company’s internal bribery investigation in Mexico for being overly aggressive. The investigation was soon dropped. (Wal-Mart)
“The [compensation] guarantees were extremely corrosive culturally because they were divorced from individual or firm performance, which shatters the whole notion of a partnership,” Mr. MacEwen said. “And they were promiscuously awarded.” (Dewey)
The negotiations were so tightly held that only Mr. Crone, Mr. Myler and Mr. Murdoch knew about them, said two company officials. The officials said that even employees who were typically involved in legal decisions did not learn of the settlement until it leaked in a newspaper. (News Corp)
What does Google have in common with them?
Cultural deficiencies manifested in bad judgment, lies and executive shilly-shallying.
The report, which was first published in its unredacted form by The Los Angeles Times, also states that the engineer, who began the project as part of his “20 percent” time that Google gives employees to do work on their own initiative, “specifically told two engineers working on the project, including a senior manager, about collecting payload data.” (Google)
I guess that question is answered now.
But I have to say, I find it sad to see Google all grown up and playing in the same class as Wal-Mart, Dewey and News Corp; I honestly thought they were better than that.
Sharlyn Lauby from HR Bartender, presents What Creates a High Performing Organization. Does social media play a role in developing high performance? This post explores the concept. I had a chance to meet Sharlyn recently at a conference, and she is the real deal!
Lolly Daskal is very passionate about the power of heart-based leadership, the value of personal integrity, helping people achieve their potential, and the importance of making a difference in the world. She’s also been a consistent Twitter supporter of Great Leadership. Here’s The Truth About Leadership, from her Lead from Within blog.
Wally Bock from Three Star Leadership presents Magical Bosses. Great bosses get results that often seem magical. But there’s method to the magic.
Last month’s Carnival host, Tanmay Vora, from QAspire Blog, presents Lifelong Learning: Lesson from a Cab Driver. “I once heard Tom Peters saying that if you are a business traveler, you learn the most not from the corporate executives but from the cab drivers. You really get a perspective about life. I experienced it first-hand!”
Jennifer V. Miller from The People Equation presents The KISS Model of Leadership Development.
Worn out by all the complex leadership development systems in your company? Jennifer Miller gives leaders a respite with a “keep it simple” approach to daily leadership development.
Mike Henry and Chery Gegelman from The Lead Change Group, presents Are You Making Choices That Matter? “I grew up in rural North Dakota and would occasionally see movies about events that are a part of our history but were not a part of my reality: Movies about the civil rights movement or the Holocaust. Watching those movies would instantly trigger my adrenalin, raise my heart-rate and make every cell in my 5’2 body feel as courageous as David taking on Goliath. In those moments, I felt invincible and ready to kick some bully-butt…”
Mary Jo Asmus from http://www.aspire-cs.com/, presents What’s Best for Them? Managers everywhere are frustrated that their best employees aren’t moving ahead with the wonderful development suggestions they’ve been given. This post explains a simple way to change this.
Miki Saxon from MAPping Company Success presents Ducks in a Row: When Stupid Invades the Culture. What is going on; are people really getting stupider? No matter the arena, business, political, religious or role models in general, the operative question these days is ‘What were he/she/they thinking’.
Lynn Dessert from Elephants at Work presents Why does executive coaching take so long? The urgency to get it done quickly often produces poor coaching results. When your personal readiness and the coaching process are aligned, your goals can be reached.
Guy Farmer from Unconventional Training presents The Overlooked Leadership Tool. Leaders sometimes forget that their employees have a wealth of ideas to deal with challenges in the workplace. Discover a valuable tool to tap into that brain power.
Tim Milburn from TimMilburn.com presents How To Be A De-Motivational Leader. I wrote this post as a tongue-in-cheek look at what NOT to do as a leader. Unfortunately, I’ve noticed how many leaders do these exact things. Reading about de-motivational leadership is funny. Working for a de-motivational leader…not so funny.
Joel Garfinkle from Career Advancement Blog presents 5 Surefire Tips for Job Advancement .
Professionals who want more from their careers have to seize the initiative. Many of these individuals follow a series of intentional steps to career success to secure promotions.
Lisa Kohn of Chatsworth Consulting Group, presents What is your greatest strength? on The Thoughtful Leaders Blog where she talks about the importance of leaders acknowledging and building upon their strengths, and choosing to use them thoughtfully.
Mary Ila Ward from Horizon Point Consulting, presents Is Your Way the only Highway? In this post, the author discusses problems with the my way or the highway mentality and introduces ways for leaders to avoid stifling creativity and innovation in those they lead.
Chris Edmonds from Driving Results Through Culture presents Out-of-the-Box Thinking About Corporate Culture.” I discuss the unique “no-hour workweek” utilized at investment startup Betterment. They’ve found a terrific approach that honors the hectic, 24/7 pace of a startup and combines the realities of work/life balance – team members share the load, demonstrate trust & respect of each other, and don’t miss a trick. Very interesting culture”
Finally, we’ll end with a last second submission from my friends at Talented Apps: Mark Bennett from TalentedApps – presents The New Crucible of Leadership. The old ways that leaders got to be in their position are being slowly eroded. Is that such a bad thing?
That’s it for this month’s edition!
Welcome to the May edition of the Leadership Development Carnival!
For those of you that may not be familiar with the Carnival, here’s a refresher:
1. A blog “Carnival” is typically a collection of recent blog posts organized around a common theme, in this case, leadership development. Although there are lot’s of places a reader can go to get aggregated free content these days, my readers still seem to appreciate the monthly Carnival collection. Bloggers like them because it’s an opportunity to reach new readers.
2. I’ve been hosting the Carnival for a few years, and for the last couple years, have shared the hosting responsibilities with other bloggers.
3. I have a mailing list of over 60 leadership bloggers that I know and respect that I go to each month and ask for their best recent post. I usually get about 30-40 posts, that are sometimes organized around a theme.
4. I’m always looking for new contributors – if you are interested, send me an email with a link to your blog and I’ll consider adding you to the list. I’m at danmccarth at gmail dot com.
So here’s the May edition – no theme – just all good stuff!
Sharlyn Lauby from HR Bartender, presents What Creates a High Performing Organization. Does social media play a role in developing high performance? This post explores the concept. I had a chance to meet Sharlyn recently at a conference, and she is the real deal!
Lolly Daskal is very passionate about the power of heart-based leadership, the value of personal integrity, helping people achieve their potential, and the importance of making a difference in the world. She’s also been a consistent Twitter supporter of Great Leadership. Here’s The Truth About Leadership, from her Lead from Within blog.
Wally Bock from Three Star Leadership presents Magical Bosses. Great bosses get results that often seem magical. But there’s method to the magic.
Last month’s Carnival host, Tanmay Vora, from QAspire Blog, presents Lifelong Learning: Lesson from a Cab Driver. “I once heard Tom Peters saying that if you are a business traveler, you learn the most not from the corporate executives but from the cab drivers. You really get a perspective about life. I experienced it first-hand!”
Jennifer V. Miller from The People Equation presents The KISS Model of Leadership Development.
Worn out by all the complex leadership development systems in your company? Jennifer Miller gives leaders a respite with a “keep it simple” approach to daily leadership development.
Mike Henry and Chery Gegelman from The Lead Change Group, presents Are You Making Choices That Matter? “I grew up in rural North Dakota and would occasionally see movies about events that are a part of our history but were not a part of my reality: Movies about the civil rights movement or the Holocaust. Watching those movies would instantly trigger my adrenalin, raise my heart-rate and make every cell in my 5’2 body feel as courageous as David taking on Goliath. In those moments, I felt invincible and ready to kick some bully-butt…”
Mary Jo Asmus from http://www.aspire-cs.com/, presents What’s Best for Them? Managers everywhere are frustrated that their best employees aren’t moving ahead with the wonderful development suggestions they’ve been given. This post explains a simple way to change this.
Miki Saxon from MAPping Company Success presents Ducks in a Row: When Stupid Invades the Culture. What is going on; are people really getting stupider? No matter the arena, business, political, religious or role models in general, the operative question these days is ‘What were he/she/they thinking’.
Lynn Dessert from Elephants at Work presents Why does executive coaching take so long? The urgency to get it done quickly often produces poor coaching results. When your personal readiness and the coaching process are aligned, your goals can be reached.
Guy Farmer from Unconventional Training presents The Overlooked Leadership Tool. Leaders sometimes forget that their employees have a wealth of ideas to deal with challenges in the workplace. Discover a valuable tool to tap into that brain power.
Tim Milburn from TimMilburn.com presents How To Be A De-Motivational Leader. I wrote this post as a tongue-in-cheek look at what NOT to do as a leader. Unfortunately, I’ve noticed how many leaders do these exact things. Reading about de-motivational leadership is funny. Working for a de-motivational leader…not so funny.
Joel Garfinkle from Career Advancement Blog presents 5 Surefire Tips for Job Advancement .
Professionals who want more from their careers have to seize the initiative. Many of these individuals follow a series of intentional steps to career success to secure promotions.
Lisa Kohn of Chatsworth Consulting Group, presents What is your greatest strength? on The Thoughtful Leaders Blog where she talks about the importance of leaders acknowledging and building upon their strengths, and choosing to use them thoughtfully.
Mary Ila Ward from Horizon Point Consulting, presents Is Your Way the only Highway? In this post, the author discusses problems with the my way or the highway mentality and introduces ways for leaders to avoid stifling creativity and innovation in those they lead.
Chris Edmonds from Driving Results Through Culture presents Out-of-the-Box Thinking About Corporate Culture.” I discuss the unique “no-hour workweek” utilized at investment startup Betterment. They’ve found a terrific approach that honors the hectic, 24/7 pace of a startup and combines the realities of work/life balance – team members share the load, demonstrate trust & respect of each other, and don’t miss a trick. Very interesting culture”
Finally, we’ll end with a last second submission from my friends at Talented Apps: Mark Bennett from TalentedApps – presents The New Crucible of Leadership. The old ways that leaders got to be in their position are being slowly eroded. Is that such a bad thing?
That’s it for this month’s edition!
Unless you’ve been off-planet you’ve probably noticed that it’s election time again and if you think it’s been bad so far, well, as the man said, you ain’t seen nothing yet. That said, I thought a little levity now and then would relieve the tedium of listening to both sides lie over the next six months.
Aesop, he of the famous Fables, has a wonderful insight that certainly explains many of those who hold office—past, present and, sadly, future, “We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.”
Plato did a great job of explaining the difference between those who run and those who vote, “Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.”
Clarence Darrow summed up how many of us feel today when he said, “When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President; I’m beginning to believe it.”
While Mark Twain, in his inimitable style, handily summed up the Legislative Branch, “Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress; but I repeat myself.”
Finally, Milton Friedman succinctly sums up everything, “If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there’d be a shortage of sand.”
As you may have guessed there is no unifying theme today; just some very interesting stuff.
According to the media today’s college grad wants to either start a company or work in a startup, but is that really true? An article in the The Brown Daily Herald says otherwise, but obviously, the external media probably knows more than an internal college paper.
Of the 67 percent of Brown graduates who entered the workforce after graduation in 2011, 20 percent — 171 students — worked in either consulting or finance. Teach for America was the top employer of graduates, followed by Google and Goldman Sachs.
Next, Tien Tzuo, CEO of Zuora, shares great career wisdom from Larry Ellison, Marc Benioff and Scott Thompson, the CEO’s of Oracle, Salesforce.com and Yahoo
Larry Ellison, Oracle founder/CEO: “Sometimes, you need to piss off the boss.”
Marc Benioff, Salesforce.com founder/CEO: “Break the glass ceiling in your head.”
Scott Thompson, Yahoo CEO: “Your job is to make people successful”
Those who favor a meatier subject should read new research from Michael C. Jensen, the Jesse Isidor Straus Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus, on the impact of integrity in the real world.
Behavior that lacks integrity leads to value destruction. This paper analyzes some common beliefs, actions, and activities in finance that are inconsistent with being a person or a firm of integrity. Each of these beliefs leads to a system that lacks integrity, i.e., one that is not whole and complete and therefore creates unworkability and destroys value.
How do the magazines treat your personal information when you subscribe? Do you have value to them beyond the price of your subscription? That’s what a reporter wondered, so she did an informal test to find out.
“It is revenue-producing for a publisher to collect subscribers’ information and sell it,” said Paul Stephens, the director of policy and advocacy at the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a consumer group in San Diego. “It’s just information that is very valuable to advertisers who want to target individuals based on their interests.”
Now that you’ve eaten your meat and veggies here’s a goody for dessert. It’s the best version I’ve seen of images set to Billy Joel’s We Didn’t Start The Fire. Turn up your speakers, go to full screen and enjoy!
A Friday series exploring Startups and the people who make them go. Read allIf the Shoe Fits posts here
You’re a founder and you have a vision.
You tell people about your vision with an eye to recruiting them as investors or employees or customers.
While it’s important that your vision be enticing it’s more important that it dazzle with its clarity.
Clarity is not easy, which is why elevator pitches and tag lines are so difficult to do.
Most people start with a highly embellished description and work to reduce/clarify it.
The reverse is often easier.
Start with a truly bare bones version, such as this description of a restaurant.
“We buy food. We fix it up. And we sell it at a profit.” – Celebrity Chef Mario Batali**
Then add embellishments slowly, one at a time and get feedback with each iteration.
But avoid getting all the feedback from the same audience.
Each time people hear it they add knowledge and reference, and context to their unconscious database, so in time they start interpolate and filling in the blanks just as you do.
Hence you need to constantly refresh your audience to achieve viable feedback, but that unconscious database is the bane of working with anything over the long haul,
The point of all this is to remind you to clarify your vision before you start to sell it.
Option Sanity™ is plain-spoken and direct. 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.
**Hat tip to Wally Bock for the Mario Batali quote.
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.
“In many ways, it’s not my generation’s fault that Japan has so much debt,” he said. “But blaming others won’t get us anywhere. We just need to find a way forward. It’s the responsibility of all of us born into this age.” –31 year old Naomichi Suzuki, the youngest mayor of the country’s most rapidly aging city.
You could do much worse than incorporate Naomichi Suzuki’s attitude into your company culture, life and as an integral part of your MAP.
Organizations and individuals spend inordinate amounts of time and energy assigning blame and indulging in recriminations.
At times it seems they want apologies more than solutions.
Look not just around you, but also in the mirror, and you’ll find at least one such active situation (say thanks if it’s only one).
Assigning fault is necessary in certain circumstances, usually when specific legal and societal laws are broken by specific, identifiable individuals.
Assigning responsibility is most productive when used as a learning experience, again for specific, identifiable individuals.
Solutions that move the situation forward are where time, energy and resources should be focused, but for some it’s more about them than solving the problem.
“Supporters of the defeated Ms. Iijima [the losing candidate] dominate the city council, blocking proposals and hurling criticism at the young mayor.”
The question all individuals must answer for themselves is what’s most important,
Entrepreneurs face difficulties that are hard for most people to imagine, let alone understand. You can find anonymous help and connections that do understand at 7 cups of tea.
Crises never end.
$10 really does make a difference and you’ll never miss it,
Today is a mental health day.
I founded 
What do Wal-Mart, Dewey & LeBoeuf and NewsCorp have in common?
Unless you’ve been off-planet you’ve probably noticed that it’s election time again and if you think it’s been bad so far, well, as the man said, you ain’t seen nothing yet. That said, I thought a little levity now and then would relieve the tedium of listening to both sides lie over the next six months.
As you may have guessed there is no unifying theme today; just some very interesting stuff.
You’re a founder and you have a vision.
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.
At times it seems they want apologies more than solutions.
