Zane Safrit

The Myth of Startup Failure

Eric Shannon's penned some thoughts at the noise-to-signal blog (great blog) on How "Why Startups Fail" Fail or The Myth of Startup Failure. It's worth the read. Here's two points I loved:

2. The market outpaces the startup's ability to execute.

Things generally move pretty slowly. Consumers move even slower, and consumer loyalty is built through great experiences over time not through early availability. First mover or early advantage is overrated. Google was late to search, Flickr was late to photosharing, Facebook was late to social software....Take your time, build something valuable, and then go to market.

4. The market takes too long to develop.

If the market takes too long to develop, there is no market… it doesn’t exist.

Some more:

If the entrepreneur finds themselves in a situation they can’t control it’s almost certainly because they put themselves in that position —

“It’s not just how fast you run the race that matters. It’s how fast the race is run. When it comes to startups, speed wins.” That’s just ridiculous.

Thanks, Eric.

Walk the line

Tim Walker at Business Insight Zone asks What's the Straight Line:

What’s the straight line from here to there?
If you aren’t following it, what’s preventing you?

His blog post lists all the things we see, I've done, to avoid moving forward. The list and reasons are silly, really. I guarantee they're still being done, sometimes by me. I'm getting better at seeing the pattern develop. I can head it off more often now at the pass, so to speak.

Sometimes, it's from mental fatigue. UNC's b'ball coach Ol' Roy Williams had a great qoute about fatigue: Fatigue makes cowards of us all. ( Being a lifelong Duke fan doesn't keep me from tipping my hat to him on that one.)

Sometimes, it's not seeing that first step and where it will land.

Sometimes, it's fear of getting out of my comfort zone.

I do know that mapping the unknown into doable steps replaces the uncertainty of where I'm going with the certainty of the first steps I can take right now.

And then I'll see where I'm at.

Here are the resources I use to get back and walk the line:

* Notepad with me at all times. I carry a  notepad with me, even in the house, as I never know when/where I'll have a solution come to mind. I recommend the moleskine for it's simple functional design and its different sizes. It may sound pretentious. It's not. I've tried other notepads. And they don't last or work as well. Use what works for you.

* JOTT. Jott replaces the notepad when I'm in the car. I have it's number speed-dialed into my cell phone and (using hands-free calling) I call JOTT, dictate my to-do's and they're waiting for me at my computer. Then I can start immediately on the list.

* Basecamp. I've used the wiki Basecamp for 2 years now. I get more value out of it every month. It's simple, easy, cheap. Powerful. I use the to-do lists and  milestones now to prepare my week on Sunday. It includes email reminders and the dashboard features shows what's due and...what's overdue. And there I can turn to it anytime I lose focus or find myself distracted. I find the to-do list for the day's milestone. And start working it.

* Balance in Life. Walking away from a persistent problem generates the best results. The operative term is persistent. That requires me to persist in finding a solution. When no more paths to a solution can be walked, I walk away. Go to bed early, go for a walk, go for a run, eat..., hang with my family (though sometimes it drives my wife crazy  when she sees me looking at her but my attention is verrrry distant...). Inevitably, a solution will come when I relax and walk away from the problem at this point.

Neither individually, nor collectively, do these resources assure I reach my goals. They do raise the likelihood I'll reach them faster. And at the same time, they assure I'll fail faster, too. But regardless, I have a system that keeps me on track, on target and it's one where I gather my lessons learned along the way. And that means more success, fewer and shorter-lived failures.

And I can pay full attention to my wife and family. That's what it's all about.

A fib or an affirmation?

A recent study showed that students projected their GPAs by up to .6 points. And then went on to achieve that score in the coming year.

So, is it a fib or an affirmation?

Are they projecting an as yet unmanifest talent?

Is it the power of attention, the power of affirmation?

And what would you do if you encountered this as yet unmanifest achievement in the response of a candidate interview for your company?

I'm not lying; I'm telling a future truth.

Note: You'll be able to tell with the CIDS interview methodology from The Smart Interviewer. CIDS stands for Chronological In-Depth Survey. And your candidate's chronology of success will tell you if he/she is prone to telling future truths when you survey him in-depth. I've used it with 100% success. It helped me avoid 1 bad hire and insure 3 good hires.

Airlines' Idea of Innovation

All kidding aside, the airline industry faces some tough challenges. One of the greatest challenges they face now is the spiking price of fuel.

As with all new challenges a company must face, it's innovation that will bring a solution.

So, the industry and their leaders have been innovat'n in private now. And they've reached a solution. Reduce the number of flights. That's right. Their solution, right out of, and consistent with their history, the what's-in-it-for-me school of management is to...reduce the number of flights.

YES! It's so obvious, right. And besides industry analysts, ahem, the ones that recommend analyze their stock say this is the thing to do, too. It's hard to say if the idea was theirs or their investment bankers. Either way, they think it's ....brilliant!

What's it mean for us, the customer?

There would be fewer daily flights in cities of all sizes, fuller planes throughout the day and much more inconvenience. There would be fewer non-stop flights and longer layovers between connecting flights. And travelers who have long avoided flights at 6 a.m. or 10 p.m. might well have no other choices. -USAToday.

Could any of us imagine travel being any more unpleasant than it is now.

Well, now it's not so hard.

Decisions like this by the airline industry make me think the challenge for the airline industry is less about gas prices and more about leadership, vision and the ability to innovate.

Let's spend next Christmas together via a webinar. We can share powerpoint slides instead of gifts. That'll save us money for family's health insurance.

One great way to build employee evangelists

Steve  Farber shares the story of Kineticom and their employee awards. I don't know the company, Kineticom, that's behind the awards. But in looking at them on Steve's blog you'd get the clear sense that this is a company of passionate, funny, fun-to-be-with, dedicated, engaged, creative...world-creators.

As Steve asked, consider doing this at your company? Just a thought. And if you hesitate after seeing these awards, then ask yourself why.