Umair Haque is Director of Havas Media Labs and author of Betterness: Economics for Humans and The New Capitalist Manifesto: Building a Disruptively Better Business. He is ranked one of the world's most influential management thinkers by Thinkers50. Follow him on twitter @umairh.
He wrote the following which I loved so much I simple copied it so you can enjoy it. It turned up just as I was thinking about this... so hurrah.
"I've had the questionable privilege of overhearing more than my fair share of Very Serious Conversations from the movers and shakers of the world.
And boy, have they been tedious: mostly, about eking out slightly sharper terms for deals for more yawn-inducing stuff (whether flicks, financial instruments, or kicks) that's destined not to matter. So here's a tiny hypothesis: maybe the real depression we've got to contend with isn't merely one of how much economic output we're generating — but what we're putting out there, and why. Call it a depression of human potential, a tale of human significance being willfully squandered...
Think the top 10 movies from last year - 7 of them sequels (Ed - Dan Sodergren)
If that's the best we can do, no wonder our economy is falling short of its potential — and no wonder our lives occasionally feel empty, even meaningless. (Even star quarterbacks married to Brazilian supermodels occasionally say to themselves, there's got to be more than this.) Hence, If we want to do better, I suggest it's time to get lethally serious about doing stuff that actually matters. So here are three questions to ask about yourself about what you're spending your life doing:
Does it stand the test of time? Ponder this for a moment: the vast majority spend the vast majority of our lives sweating, suffering, and slogging mightily over stuff that's forgotten by next quarter, let alone next year or next century. Call me crazy, but I'd suggest: mattering means building stuff that's awesome enough to last. Maybe not forever, like Giza's Pyramids — but surely more than a couple of months, before it's absent-mindedly tossed into the dustbin of history along with the rest of the flotsam and jetsam of the age of disposable plastic junk. I'd give you a handful of recent real-world examples, but beyond the labors of love a new generation of artisans are working on, whether microbrews, novels, or games, here's the hard truth: when it comes to the stuff our largest institutions are invested in, I can't think of any, so poor is our cultural performance at standing the test of time. (Just ask yourself: is anybody really going to be watching Mission Impossible 4 a century from now, except a handful of irony-soaked action-movie-worshipping 22nd century hipsters?). Of course, all that really means is that since nearly everyone seems to suck at standing the test of time, you've got a tremendous opportunity not to.
Which is what we are looking to do with our new venture - the new division of Great Marketing Works - we want more than anything - to make stuff which people love.
Does it stand the test of excellence? In most boardrooms, the first and last question asked is: will "the markets," financial and "consumer," like your latest shiny trinket slightly better than the next guy's? Of course, that's a perfect recipe for mediocrity: to have barely satisfied weary, oppressed, jaded "consumers" already trained to demand the bare McMinimum is to have furiously smashed the glass ceiling of the lowest common mass-market denominator — and little more. Here are some higher bars: do critics, scholars, aficionados, and diehard enemies pan it, or love it? Mattering means recognizing that everyone's opinion is not created equal — some count more than others, for the simple reason that some opinions are more nuanced, educated, sophisticated, historically grounded, and self-aware than others.
Which nicely ties into the work we are doing / thinking of doing with people like PeerIndex.
Does it stand the test of you? Sure, I can understand why the dudes and gals I've been overhearing in my little Manhattan adventure are so energized by the stuff they're "working" on — it feels exciting to be part of a buzzing milieu's in-crowd. But let's face it: on our deathbeds, the accomplishments that matter most to most of us probably won't be recounted thus: "In 2012, I sold another thousand copies of someone else's middle-of-the-road blockbuster to an overweening VP with really bad hair and worse manners at a giant monopolistic corporation that was destroying my grandkids' futures. Man, I lived." So while I too sometimes feel enchanted by the seductive power of glittering fantastic excess that seems to have mesmerized my little informal sample of Manhattanites, I'd also like to challenge them — and you — to consider the questions of mattering in a slightly more sophisticated, humane, considered way. It's one thing to work on stuff that seems sexy because it's socially cool and financially rewarding. But fulfillment doesn't come much from money or cool-power — all the money in the world can't buy you a searing sense of accomplishment.
Being human is never easy. But that's the point. Perhaps as an unintended consequence of our relentless quest for more, bigger, faster, cheaper, now, we've comfortably acceded to something akin to a minor-league contempt for the richness and grandeur of life unquenchably meaningfully well lived. Hence, call this post my tiny statement of rebellion. Hex me with all the bland management jargon in the world, zap me with all the perfect theories and models you like, but I'll never, ever accept the idea that triviality, mediocrity, and futility are appropriate goals for any human being, much less our grand, splintering systems of human organization.
We're all built differently — but none of us is here to not make a difference. So what are your three questions for getting lethally serious about doing stuff that matters?"
Tuesday, 31 January 2012
Thursday, 26 January 2012
A great start to a book...
Writing the new start to the second edition of my book - Make Your Passion a Success and these two quotes from legendary thinker Steve Jobs jumped out my mind at me.
So I popped one of them in the book as part of the foreward and here it is:
“Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes... the ones who see things differently -- they're not fond of rules... You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can't do is ignore them because they change things... they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.”
The second is just as wonderful (but not from an advert....)
Steve Jobs in interview for PBS' 'One More Thing' documentary, 1994
“ When you grow up you tend to get told the world is the way it is and your life is just to live your life inside the world. Try not to bash into the walls too much. Try to have a nice family life, have fun, save a little money.
That’s a very limited life. Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact, and that is - everything around you that you call life, was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use.
The minute that you understand that you can poke life and actually something will, you know if you push in, something will pop out the other side, that you can change it, you can mold it. That’s maybe the most important thing. It’s to shake off this erroneous notion that life is there and you’re just gonna live in it, versus embrace it, change it, improve it, make your mark upon it.
I think that’s very important and however you learn that, once you learn it, you’ll want to change life and make it better, cause it’s kind of messed up, in a lot of ways. Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.
So I popped one of them in the book as part of the foreward and here it is:
“Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes... the ones who see things differently -- they're not fond of rules... You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can't do is ignore them because they change things... they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.”
The second is just as wonderful (but not from an advert....)
Steve Jobs in interview for PBS' 'One More Thing' documentary, 1994
“ When you grow up you tend to get told the world is the way it is and your life is just to live your life inside the world. Try not to bash into the walls too much. Try to have a nice family life, have fun, save a little money.
That’s a very limited life. Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact, and that is - everything around you that you call life, was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use.
The minute that you understand that you can poke life and actually something will, you know if you push in, something will pop out the other side, that you can change it, you can mold it. That’s maybe the most important thing. It’s to shake off this erroneous notion that life is there and you’re just gonna live in it, versus embrace it, change it, improve it, make your mark upon it.
I think that’s very important and however you learn that, once you learn it, you’ll want to change life and make it better, cause it’s kind of messed up, in a lot of ways. Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.
Tuesday, 24 January 2012
About to write a new business plan - for a new division of Great Marketing Works
And read these articles - both really rather good.
One from Serial entrepreneur Adam Baker, who has raised both angel and venture capital, who gives us a true masterclass in business planning when he suggests that the key structure of a business plan should be:
• What is it?
• What purpose/inefficiency does it solve?
• Market opportunity
• Key business objectives/milestones
• Product differentiation
• Market conditions
• Competitors
• Customer universe
• Revenue models
• Marketing and PR
• Key people and headcount
• Top line three-year P&L numbers
And adds his extra steps when he crafts a business plan:
1. I always start with an elevator statement. I need to articulate my entire proposition in a single sentence so it is clear and obvious what we do, to everyone.
2. Next I use a single page to highlight key milestones for the next three years: engagement/users and revenue/number of customers I expect to have, ie a snapshot of your P&L.
3. Create an executive summary. This is typically one A4 page which starts with your elevator statement and highlights every facet of the business. The important points to cover are: business purpose, market opportunity, key business drivers and milestones, revenue, and P&L.
4. Detailed piece on your vision. What does your business look like today, next year and by year five? How big can the business be? How will you realise your vision?
5. Your product/service. What are your competitive advantages? What IP have you created or proprietary technology developed? List the five key features of your product or service that will win adoption for you.
6. Marketing & PR. How will you/are you taking the product/service to market? Demonstrate how you can get traction, what channels you will use and what your customer and user acquisition strategy involves. How will marketing support your monetisation strategy? PR is also important and is required for building and maintaining relationships and growth.
7. Revenue. How will you make money? What are your revenue streams? Don’t fudge this. Plug in numbers that will challenge you but you are genuinely confident of delivering. Never forecast based on what you think investors want to see. That is a sure-fire way to kill your business.
8. Management/founding team. Investors will almost always be sold on you and your founding team before they buy in to your business idea. A concise, well-articulated, detailed business plan with accurate revenue projections is the first step to demonstrating you are intelligent and understand your business and marketplace. However, a one-pager on you and key members of the team is important. Cover off work history/education but don’t make this boring. You all have personalities, show this off too.
9. Exit. Finish on how you think you’ll get a return on investment for investors, when it’s likely to happen and what it looks like (in terms of return) when you do. Remember, investors do not like lifestyle businesses. They want a return, usually with a multiple of at least 10 times what they commit. Show them how they can achieve this.
10. P&L. This isn’t a business plan, but a budget. Formulate a three to five-year budget outlining your income and expenditure forecasts in granular detail. This should also cover cashflow based on you receiving investment too, so an investor can clearly see when you break even, or run out of cash. Be realistic with it and attach this to the business plan.
Is this the formula to a winning business plan? That depends on you. No matter how great a business plan is, investors buy people. A solid, defensible business plan helps and should be used as your manual and point of reference when executing the strategy.
I love all this especially the bits about great marketing - as this is what I do. But my day was made even better with this article by Garry Tan.
Which starts with a great quote from Google founder and CEO Larry Page who said this:
"Even if you fail at your ambitious thing, it's very hard to fail completely. That's the thing that people don't get."
I've found that all too often, founders overlook this. The start-up landscape is littered with examples of less ambitious things people don't want. That's why on the first day of entering Y Combinator's start-up incubator program, each entrepreneur accepted is given a simple gray t-shirt that says: "Make something people want."
An even better mantra for start-up entrepreneurs, I propose, would be: "Make something a lot of people want a lot."
If you're going to create a product or service, consider these two simple things:
1. The severity of need addressed by your product or service.
2. The number of people who have that need.
The best—and often the most successful—ideas service a huge need for a huge number of people. These are highly profitable as Internet treasures. They practically sell themselves—and grow customers organically. They're viral because everyone who encounters them tells everyone else about this great new thing that makes your life better. The cost to acquire users can often be very low. Most of roaring wealth-engines we associate with consumer technology fit this scenario. VCs and angels jump out of bed in the morning with the thought that these ideas are out there to be funded.
The next-best sort of start-up ideas service a huge need for a smaller number of people. These types of ideas can be highly profitable as enterprise businesses. Because there are far fewer people who need this thing, you'll need to spend more time tracking down the people who need it.
This means having a sales force, with prices high enough to justify that sales force.
The next-best ideas service a smaller need, but serve a huge number of people.
These are profitable, and will likely throw off enough cash to be an awesome lifestyle business. Since they're less essential to customers, though, it can be tougher to make money running one. For most founders, this is still pretty phenomenal outcome, and one that can spawn further innovation that kicks a company into the best scenario above.
For investors, unless there's a clear way the small need now could become a much bigger need later, these types of ideas can be some of the toughest calls in the game.
The yet next-best ideas service a small need for a small number of people. Not to bear the bad news, but there just isn't enough firewood around to light this kind of blaze.
Often founders who tackle these types of ideas likely don't believe in their own skills enough to tackle something larger, so they try to go after something that is "manageable."
Paradoxically, these ideas can sometimes be absolutely filled with competitors, since everyone else tries to do these too.
The worst ideas are the ones that don't solve a problem, or create more problems than they solve. People neither want it nor need it. Zero times zero equals zero.
Many arrive on this path when they've focused too much on capabilities (i.e. "wouldn't it be cool if?") or what they want (i.e. to be rich, admired, successful), rather than what other people actually need or want. This is fixable, though. Just think about problems people have instead of cool tech or outcomes!
No matter what your assessment of the situation might be prior to launching your product or service, the tale of the tape will be determined during the course of execution: building it and getting users. Remember that your grand idea is worthless without it being manifest in the world. As CDBaby founder Derek Sivers said, ideas are a multiplier on execution. Should you find yourself with a low, zero, or negative multiplier on the idea side, the fix is simple. Change the problem you're solving. Address a different, bigger need that more people have.
It may seem obvious, but too many would-be founders embark upon the journey into the wilderness without this simple yardstick. Well, here it is: Go forth.
One from Serial entrepreneur Adam Baker, who has raised both angel and venture capital, who gives us a true masterclass in business planning when he suggests that the key structure of a business plan should be:
• What is it?
• What purpose/inefficiency does it solve?
• Market opportunity
• Key business objectives/milestones
• Product differentiation
• Market conditions
• Competitors
• Customer universe
• Revenue models
• Marketing and PR
• Key people and headcount
• Top line three-year P&L numbers
And adds his extra steps when he crafts a business plan:
1. I always start with an elevator statement. I need to articulate my entire proposition in a single sentence so it is clear and obvious what we do, to everyone.
2. Next I use a single page to highlight key milestones for the next three years: engagement/users and revenue/number of customers I expect to have, ie a snapshot of your P&L.
3. Create an executive summary. This is typically one A4 page which starts with your elevator statement and highlights every facet of the business. The important points to cover are: business purpose, market opportunity, key business drivers and milestones, revenue, and P&L.
4. Detailed piece on your vision. What does your business look like today, next year and by year five? How big can the business be? How will you realise your vision?
5. Your product/service. What are your competitive advantages? What IP have you created or proprietary technology developed? List the five key features of your product or service that will win adoption for you.
6. Marketing & PR. How will you/are you taking the product/service to market? Demonstrate how you can get traction, what channels you will use and what your customer and user acquisition strategy involves. How will marketing support your monetisation strategy? PR is also important and is required for building and maintaining relationships and growth.
7. Revenue. How will you make money? What are your revenue streams? Don’t fudge this. Plug in numbers that will challenge you but you are genuinely confident of delivering. Never forecast based on what you think investors want to see. That is a sure-fire way to kill your business.
8. Management/founding team. Investors will almost always be sold on you and your founding team before they buy in to your business idea. A concise, well-articulated, detailed business plan with accurate revenue projections is the first step to demonstrating you are intelligent and understand your business and marketplace. However, a one-pager on you and key members of the team is important. Cover off work history/education but don’t make this boring. You all have personalities, show this off too.
9. Exit. Finish on how you think you’ll get a return on investment for investors, when it’s likely to happen and what it looks like (in terms of return) when you do. Remember, investors do not like lifestyle businesses. They want a return, usually with a multiple of at least 10 times what they commit. Show them how they can achieve this.
10. P&L. This isn’t a business plan, but a budget. Formulate a three to five-year budget outlining your income and expenditure forecasts in granular detail. This should also cover cashflow based on you receiving investment too, so an investor can clearly see when you break even, or run out of cash. Be realistic with it and attach this to the business plan.
Is this the formula to a winning business plan? That depends on you. No matter how great a business plan is, investors buy people. A solid, defensible business plan helps and should be used as your manual and point of reference when executing the strategy.
I love all this especially the bits about great marketing - as this is what I do. But my day was made even better with this article by Garry Tan.
Which starts with a great quote from Google founder and CEO Larry Page who said this:
"Even if you fail at your ambitious thing, it's very hard to fail completely. That's the thing that people don't get."
I've found that all too often, founders overlook this. The start-up landscape is littered with examples of less ambitious things people don't want. That's why on the first day of entering Y Combinator's start-up incubator program, each entrepreneur accepted is given a simple gray t-shirt that says: "Make something people want."
An even better mantra for start-up entrepreneurs, I propose, would be: "Make something a lot of people want a lot."
If you're going to create a product or service, consider these two simple things:
1. The severity of need addressed by your product or service.
2. The number of people who have that need.
The best—and often the most successful—ideas service a huge need for a huge number of people. These are highly profitable as Internet treasures. They practically sell themselves—and grow customers organically. They're viral because everyone who encounters them tells everyone else about this great new thing that makes your life better. The cost to acquire users can often be very low. Most of roaring wealth-engines we associate with consumer technology fit this scenario. VCs and angels jump out of bed in the morning with the thought that these ideas are out there to be funded.
The next-best sort of start-up ideas service a huge need for a smaller number of people. These types of ideas can be highly profitable as enterprise businesses. Because there are far fewer people who need this thing, you'll need to spend more time tracking down the people who need it.
This means having a sales force, with prices high enough to justify that sales force.
The next-best ideas service a smaller need, but serve a huge number of people.
These are profitable, and will likely throw off enough cash to be an awesome lifestyle business. Since they're less essential to customers, though, it can be tougher to make money running one. For most founders, this is still pretty phenomenal outcome, and one that can spawn further innovation that kicks a company into the best scenario above.
For investors, unless there's a clear way the small need now could become a much bigger need later, these types of ideas can be some of the toughest calls in the game.
The yet next-best ideas service a small need for a small number of people. Not to bear the bad news, but there just isn't enough firewood around to light this kind of blaze.
Often founders who tackle these types of ideas likely don't believe in their own skills enough to tackle something larger, so they try to go after something that is "manageable."
Paradoxically, these ideas can sometimes be absolutely filled with competitors, since everyone else tries to do these too.
The worst ideas are the ones that don't solve a problem, or create more problems than they solve. People neither want it nor need it. Zero times zero equals zero.
Many arrive on this path when they've focused too much on capabilities (i.e. "wouldn't it be cool if?") or what they want (i.e. to be rich, admired, successful), rather than what other people actually need or want. This is fixable, though. Just think about problems people have instead of cool tech or outcomes!
No matter what your assessment of the situation might be prior to launching your product or service, the tale of the tape will be determined during the course of execution: building it and getting users. Remember that your grand idea is worthless without it being manifest in the world. As CDBaby founder Derek Sivers said, ideas are a multiplier on execution. Should you find yourself with a low, zero, or negative multiplier on the idea side, the fix is simple. Change the problem you're solving. Address a different, bigger need that more people have.
It may seem obvious, but too many would-be founders embark upon the journey into the wilderness without this simple yardstick. Well, here it is: Go forth.
10 Questions worth asking
Think that success means making lots of money? Think again.
Pictures of dead presidents have never made anybody happy. And how can you be successful if you're not happy? And buying things with that all money isn't much better. A new car, for instance, might tickle your fancy for a day or two–but pride of ownership is temporary.
Real success comes from the quality of your relationships and the emotions that you experience each day. That's where these 10 questions come in.
Ask them at the end of each day and I absolutely guarantee that you'll become more successful. Here they are:
1. Have I made certain that those I love feel loved?
2. Have I done something today that improved the world?
3. Have I conditioned my body to be more strong flexible and resilient?
4. Have I reviewed and honed my plans for the future?
5. Have I acted in private with the same integrity I exhibit in public?
6. Have I avoided unkind words and deeds?
7. Have I accomplished something worthwhile?
8. Have I helped someone less fortunate?
9. Have I collected some wonderful memories?
10. Have I felt grateful for the incredible gift of being alive?
Here's the thing. The questions you ask yourself on a daily basis determine your focus, and your focus determines your results.
These questions force you to focus on what's really important. Take heed of them and rest of your life—especially your work—will quickly fall into place.
On that note I best get to doing numbers 3 and 4.
Pictures of dead presidents have never made anybody happy. And how can you be successful if you're not happy? And buying things with that all money isn't much better. A new car, for instance, might tickle your fancy for a day or two–but pride of ownership is temporary.
Real success comes from the quality of your relationships and the emotions that you experience each day. That's where these 10 questions come in.
Ask them at the end of each day and I absolutely guarantee that you'll become more successful. Here they are:
1. Have I made certain that those I love feel loved?
2. Have I done something today that improved the world?
3. Have I conditioned my body to be more strong flexible and resilient?
4. Have I reviewed and honed my plans for the future?
5. Have I acted in private with the same integrity I exhibit in public?
6. Have I avoided unkind words and deeds?
7. Have I accomplished something worthwhile?
8. Have I helped someone less fortunate?
9. Have I collected some wonderful memories?
10. Have I felt grateful for the incredible gift of being alive?
Here's the thing. The questions you ask yourself on a daily basis determine your focus, and your focus determines your results.
These questions force you to focus on what's really important. Take heed of them and rest of your life—especially your work—will quickly fall into place.
On that note I best get to doing numbers 3 and 4.
Thursday, 19 January 2012
Some one asked me about my thoughts on SOPA last night...
And as if often the way my reply was bullish.... at least that what's I thought they said it was.
For a much longer and much more beautiful answer - see Seth Godin's post below.
Why not ban digital cameras?
Kodak declared bankruptcy this week. Legislation to ban digital cameras could have saved this company, a “jobs creator,” pillar of the community and long-time wonderful brand. One wonders why they didn’t make the effort? Would you have lobbied for that bill?
A friend tells a story about Kodak. Apparently, they had 59 buildings on the site that made film. As the film business started to shrink, the obvious thing for Kodak to do was to shrink as well, to reduce overhead, to become more nimble. The CEO said, “look out at those buildings and answer this question for me: How many steps are involved in making film?”
The answer, of course, was 59. Slowly shrinking wasn’t an option. The overhang was too large, it was going to take a leap, not a gradual series of steps. And that’s why the future is uncomfortable for most successful industrialists, including those in the media business.
It’s interesting to note that the only people who are in favor of SOPA and PIPA are people who are paid to be in favor of it. And creators (authors like me and Clay Shirky and Scott Adams) aren’t. While the folks at the “Copyright Alliance” pretend to be looking out for the interests of independent filmmakers and authors, the fact is that the only paying members of their lobbying group seem to be big corporations, corporations that aren’t worried about creators, they’re worried about profits. Given a choice between a great film and a profitable one, they’d pick the profitable one every time. Given the choice between paying net profits to creators and adjusting the accounting…
Anyway, back to the future:
The leap to a new structure is painful for successful industries precisely because they’re successful. In book publishing, the carefully constructed system of agents, advances, copyeditors, printers, scarcity, distributors, sales calls, bestseller lists, returns and lunches is threatened by the new regime of the long tail, zero marginal cost and ebook readers with a central choke point. The problem with getting from one place to another is that you need to shut down building 59, and it’s hard to do that while the old model is still working, at least a little bit.
Just about all the people who lost their jobs in Rochester meant well and worked hard and did their jobs well. They need to blame the senior management of Kodak, the ones who were afraid of the future and hoped it would go away. There are more pictures being taken more often by more people than ever before–Kodak leadership couldn’t deal with their overhang and was so in love with their success that they insisted the world change in their favor, as opposed to embracing the future that was sure to arrive.
Please understand that the destruction of the music business had no impact at all on the amount of music available, and little that I can see on the quality of that music either. Musicians just want to make music, thanks very much, and they’ll find a way to make a living gigging in order to do so. The destruction of the film business in Rochester is going to have very little impact on people’s ability to take photos. The destruction of the New York publishing establishment will make me sad, and they/we should hustle, but it’s not going to have much impact on the number of books that are written.
Before we rush to the most draconian solution we can think of to save the status quo, I think it’s worth considering what the function of the threatened industry is, and whether we can achieve that function more directly now that the future is arriving.
Now - that's how you answer that one :)
For a much longer and much more beautiful answer - see Seth Godin's post below.
Why not ban digital cameras?
Kodak declared bankruptcy this week. Legislation to ban digital cameras could have saved this company, a “jobs creator,” pillar of the community and long-time wonderful brand. One wonders why they didn’t make the effort? Would you have lobbied for that bill?
A friend tells a story about Kodak. Apparently, they had 59 buildings on the site that made film. As the film business started to shrink, the obvious thing for Kodak to do was to shrink as well, to reduce overhead, to become more nimble. The CEO said, “look out at those buildings and answer this question for me: How many steps are involved in making film?”
The answer, of course, was 59. Slowly shrinking wasn’t an option. The overhang was too large, it was going to take a leap, not a gradual series of steps. And that’s why the future is uncomfortable for most successful industrialists, including those in the media business.
It’s interesting to note that the only people who are in favor of SOPA and PIPA are people who are paid to be in favor of it. And creators (authors like me and Clay Shirky and Scott Adams) aren’t. While the folks at the “Copyright Alliance” pretend to be looking out for the interests of independent filmmakers and authors, the fact is that the only paying members of their lobbying group seem to be big corporations, corporations that aren’t worried about creators, they’re worried about profits. Given a choice between a great film and a profitable one, they’d pick the profitable one every time. Given the choice between paying net profits to creators and adjusting the accounting…
Anyway, back to the future:
The leap to a new structure is painful for successful industries precisely because they’re successful. In book publishing, the carefully constructed system of agents, advances, copyeditors, printers, scarcity, distributors, sales calls, bestseller lists, returns and lunches is threatened by the new regime of the long tail, zero marginal cost and ebook readers with a central choke point. The problem with getting from one place to another is that you need to shut down building 59, and it’s hard to do that while the old model is still working, at least a little bit.
Just about all the people who lost their jobs in Rochester meant well and worked hard and did their jobs well. They need to blame the senior management of Kodak, the ones who were afraid of the future and hoped it would go away. There are more pictures being taken more often by more people than ever before–Kodak leadership couldn’t deal with their overhang and was so in love with their success that they insisted the world change in their favor, as opposed to embracing the future that was sure to arrive.
Please understand that the destruction of the music business had no impact at all on the amount of music available, and little that I can see on the quality of that music either. Musicians just want to make music, thanks very much, and they’ll find a way to make a living gigging in order to do so. The destruction of the film business in Rochester is going to have very little impact on people’s ability to take photos. The destruction of the New York publishing establishment will make me sad, and they/we should hustle, but it’s not going to have much impact on the number of books that are written.
Before we rush to the most draconian solution we can think of to save the status quo, I think it’s worth considering what the function of the threatened industry is, and whether we can achieve that function more directly now that the future is arriving.
Now - that's how you answer that one :)
10 Things Entrepreneurs Will Fail At
On a day in an office with no windows - two great things happened:
I finally got a definition of entrepreneur which I like:
"Entrepreneurship is the pursuit of opportunity without regard to resources currently controlled."
And this article made me smile.
The writer, James Altucher is an investor, programmer, author, and entrepreneur. He is Managing Director of Formula Capital and has written 6 books on investing. His latest book is I Was Blind But Now I See. You can follow him @jaltucher.
The top 10 Things Entrepreneurs Will Fail At:
1. You will lose some customers. Not everyone will be happy with your product forever. Or, not everyone will be happy when you stop paying them bribes. Or arranging their sexual escapades. Whatever. In my first business I started to lose HBO as a client. HBO! I had worked there. Heck, I had hired my own business and then left! And then the people who I had hired to take my place had their own agendas. I was backstabbed. It happens. Deal with it. You can’t keep every customer forever. Which is why you have to every day list potential customers, call new ones, come up with new ideas and products. Every day. If you didn’t today and your spouse is waiting for you to come to bed then she or he is going to have to wait a little longer before they can cuddle with you. That list needs to be finished.
2. You will lose some friends and family. You’re spending so much time on your business that inevitably you will not be able to match all of the expectations of the people who love you. At that point you have to make choices but don’t forget that running a business you have responsibility to not only friends but employees, customers. your future family, and investors who put their hard-earned money with you.
3. You will lose the faith of investors. Not all of the time, and hopefully not at the end, but there will come a time when the investors question you. This is normal. Answer their questions. Be honest about mistakes, about what you learned from them, about what you expect in the future, and then move towards that future. Vaultus was the first business for which I ever raised money. My business before that had been profitable from day one and we turned away all money. So, of course, I wasn’t qualified to run an unprofitable business that had raised a lot of money. First they asked me to step down as CEO, then they asked me to step down from the board, then they removed me from the company website. Was I upset? Of course!
4. Your idea. Your idea might be a bad idea. I was taught in school that the best thing an entrepreneur can do is “focus”. This is not totally accurate. Yes, focus on your business but you may have to totally change ideas, tweak ideas, mate ideas, transform ideas at different points. I can relate to this as going through this process right now! Will Great Marketing Works survive, will the public sector crash even more, am I doing things that are even scalable in a good marketplace?
5. You will fail some of your employees. Employees are there for many reasons. Money. Potential career advancement. Exploitation (not a bad thing, they want to learn all they can from you so they can then start their own business). Sex (lots of it happens AT the workplace. And I do mean physically AT the workplace. Note I capitalized it twice). Sometimes they won’t always get what they want. Sometimes you won’t always get what you want from an employee. It’s ok to let these employees go as quickly as possible so they find what they are looking for elsewhere.
6. You will fail at keeping stress levels low. Sometimes the stress is too much. I’ve heard about three heart attacks in the past two months.
7. Sales. You can’t win them all. Sometimes your competitors will underprice you. Sometimes they will trash you behind your back. Sometimes they will have a nephew who is making the decision and there’s no way for you to know that. And sometimes they are just plain better than you. You have no idea.One time I was pitching Tupac’s manager on doing the post-memoriam website for Tupac. I had a CD-ROM (yes, a CD-ROM) demonstrating my work. Only problem is: I had never used a Windows machine before. Only Macs and Unix machines. So I didn’t know how to open the CD Drive. He just sat there without helping me and said, “You don’t know how to use a computer and you want to do Tupac’s website?” I mentioned to him that I had been thrown out of graduate school for computer science. He then laughed me out of his office. I was humiliated.
After losing a potential sale there’s a few things you should do:
* Call the decision maker and say, “Just for my own learning, is there anything we could’ve done better?” Then take sincere notes.
* Then ask, “Is there anything else we can do for you. Any other way I, personally, can help you succeed at your job.”
* And conclude with, “Well, it was a real pleasure going through the process and learning about your business. Please call us if you need anything new.” And check in every month after that. Send monthly updates of customers you are winning, new products you are building, etc.
But, if you are being laughed at all the way to the elevator the best you can do is just swallow your pride and tell yourself to learn that when you are ready, learn how to open the CD-ROM drive on a Windows machine. And, perhaps, blame someone else. But that was hard for me to do in this case.
8. Communication. Some people are just simply going to disagree with you. Some people you work with might disapprove of that button in the center of the box you insisted go there before the box was delivered. Some investors might not like you personally. Your landlord might not like you and might want to kick you out. You’re just not going to be able to charm everyone like you are used to.
9. Raising Money. I just saw this happen: great idea, great people, revenues, and profitable and…the company in question could not raise money from professional venture capitalists. Were the VCs stupid? Of course they were! Everyone is “stupid” who doesn’t hand over their hard-earned money for you to play with. But, it’s their choice. And it’s hard to raise money. So you have to always make sure you have a “Plan B”. I’ve seen Plan B work remarkably well in several instances in the past few years, particularly companies I invested in pre-2008 that then had to make it through 2008-9 without any venture capital help. How did they do it? In general, Plan B involves getting to break even as quickly as possible. Getting rid of product categories that don’t make money, and usually switching to a service model where you charge for a specific service, and only use employees to create that service who will make you profitable. The spread between what your employees cost and what you charge is how you pay your lofty salary and office space.
And again, just like in the above for “Sales” you keep in touch with everyone, you send updates. You make sure that everyone is aware of achievements. You throw a big Christmas party and you invite me (don’t worry, I won’t come, though but I’m a bit insulted you didn’t invite me and you know who you are) and as you grow go out there and raise money again. Someone once told me, “When your business is ready for it, the money raising will be easy.”
10. Yourself. You will certainly fail yourself during the process. You can’t do everything. You can’t get everyone to like you. You can’t get everyone to buy your service. You can’t stay in top shape. You can’t. You can’t. You can’t. Well, sometimes you can. But most of the time, you can’t. Because you can’t control the world around you. Give up control. Learn to be flexible. Every day come up with new ideas for your customers, new ideas for your product. If you aren’t doing it, then who is? Who will have the passion you have?
And in the meantime, while juggling all of that, you have to keep your health up. Or else you will fail more. On this note therefore I go to the gym and get out of the office with no windows.... :)
I finally got a definition of entrepreneur which I like:
"Entrepreneurship is the pursuit of opportunity without regard to resources currently controlled."
And this article made me smile.
The writer, James Altucher is an investor, programmer, author, and entrepreneur. He is Managing Director of Formula Capital and has written 6 books on investing. His latest book is I Was Blind But Now I See. You can follow him @jaltucher.
The top 10 Things Entrepreneurs Will Fail At:
1. You will lose some customers. Not everyone will be happy with your product forever. Or, not everyone will be happy when you stop paying them bribes. Or arranging their sexual escapades. Whatever. In my first business I started to lose HBO as a client. HBO! I had worked there. Heck, I had hired my own business and then left! And then the people who I had hired to take my place had their own agendas. I was backstabbed. It happens. Deal with it. You can’t keep every customer forever. Which is why you have to every day list potential customers, call new ones, come up with new ideas and products. Every day. If you didn’t today and your spouse is waiting for you to come to bed then she or he is going to have to wait a little longer before they can cuddle with you. That list needs to be finished.
2. You will lose some friends and family. You’re spending so much time on your business that inevitably you will not be able to match all of the expectations of the people who love you. At that point you have to make choices but don’t forget that running a business you have responsibility to not only friends but employees, customers. your future family, and investors who put their hard-earned money with you.
3. You will lose the faith of investors. Not all of the time, and hopefully not at the end, but there will come a time when the investors question you. This is normal. Answer their questions. Be honest about mistakes, about what you learned from them, about what you expect in the future, and then move towards that future. Vaultus was the first business for which I ever raised money. My business before that had been profitable from day one and we turned away all money. So, of course, I wasn’t qualified to run an unprofitable business that had raised a lot of money. First they asked me to step down as CEO, then they asked me to step down from the board, then they removed me from the company website. Was I upset? Of course!
4. Your idea. Your idea might be a bad idea. I was taught in school that the best thing an entrepreneur can do is “focus”. This is not totally accurate. Yes, focus on your business but you may have to totally change ideas, tweak ideas, mate ideas, transform ideas at different points. I can relate to this as going through this process right now! Will Great Marketing Works survive, will the public sector crash even more, am I doing things that are even scalable in a good marketplace?
5. You will fail some of your employees. Employees are there for many reasons. Money. Potential career advancement. Exploitation (not a bad thing, they want to learn all they can from you so they can then start their own business). Sex (lots of it happens AT the workplace. And I do mean physically AT the workplace. Note I capitalized it twice). Sometimes they won’t always get what they want. Sometimes you won’t always get what you want from an employee. It’s ok to let these employees go as quickly as possible so they find what they are looking for elsewhere.
6. You will fail at keeping stress levels low. Sometimes the stress is too much. I’ve heard about three heart attacks in the past two months.
7. Sales. You can’t win them all. Sometimes your competitors will underprice you. Sometimes they will trash you behind your back. Sometimes they will have a nephew who is making the decision and there’s no way for you to know that. And sometimes they are just plain better than you. You have no idea.One time I was pitching Tupac’s manager on doing the post-memoriam website for Tupac. I had a CD-ROM (yes, a CD-ROM) demonstrating my work. Only problem is: I had never used a Windows machine before. Only Macs and Unix machines. So I didn’t know how to open the CD Drive. He just sat there without helping me and said, “You don’t know how to use a computer and you want to do Tupac’s website?” I mentioned to him that I had been thrown out of graduate school for computer science. He then laughed me out of his office. I was humiliated.
After losing a potential sale there’s a few things you should do:
* Call the decision maker and say, “Just for my own learning, is there anything we could’ve done better?” Then take sincere notes.
* Then ask, “Is there anything else we can do for you. Any other way I, personally, can help you succeed at your job.”
* And conclude with, “Well, it was a real pleasure going through the process and learning about your business. Please call us if you need anything new.” And check in every month after that. Send monthly updates of customers you are winning, new products you are building, etc.
But, if you are being laughed at all the way to the elevator the best you can do is just swallow your pride and tell yourself to learn that when you are ready, learn how to open the CD-ROM drive on a Windows machine. And, perhaps, blame someone else. But that was hard for me to do in this case.
8. Communication. Some people are just simply going to disagree with you. Some people you work with might disapprove of that button in the center of the box you insisted go there before the box was delivered. Some investors might not like you personally. Your landlord might not like you and might want to kick you out. You’re just not going to be able to charm everyone like you are used to.
9. Raising Money. I just saw this happen: great idea, great people, revenues, and profitable and…the company in question could not raise money from professional venture capitalists. Were the VCs stupid? Of course they were! Everyone is “stupid” who doesn’t hand over their hard-earned money for you to play with. But, it’s their choice. And it’s hard to raise money. So you have to always make sure you have a “Plan B”. I’ve seen Plan B work remarkably well in several instances in the past few years, particularly companies I invested in pre-2008 that then had to make it through 2008-9 without any venture capital help. How did they do it? In general, Plan B involves getting to break even as quickly as possible. Getting rid of product categories that don’t make money, and usually switching to a service model where you charge for a specific service, and only use employees to create that service who will make you profitable. The spread between what your employees cost and what you charge is how you pay your lofty salary and office space.
And again, just like in the above for “Sales” you keep in touch with everyone, you send updates. You make sure that everyone is aware of achievements. You throw a big Christmas party and you invite me (don’t worry, I won’t come, though but I’m a bit insulted you didn’t invite me and you know who you are) and as you grow go out there and raise money again. Someone once told me, “When your business is ready for it, the money raising will be easy.”
10. Yourself. You will certainly fail yourself during the process. You can’t do everything. You can’t get everyone to like you. You can’t get everyone to buy your service. You can’t stay in top shape. You can’t. You can’t. You can’t. Well, sometimes you can. But most of the time, you can’t. Because you can’t control the world around you. Give up control. Learn to be flexible. Every day come up with new ideas for your customers, new ideas for your product. If you aren’t doing it, then who is? Who will have the passion you have?
And in the meantime, while juggling all of that, you have to keep your health up. Or else you will fail more. On this note therefore I go to the gym and get out of the office with no windows.... :)
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