So you want to launch a business...

My sentiments, exactly

I was truly impressed...

A friend recently sent me a link to a powerful essay on the state of the world of start-ups.  It is so powerful, and so carefully crafted, that I prefer not to offer you sound-bite tidbits from it.  Instead, I urge you to read it yourself - HERE. 

There is value in it for everybody in the start-up world: entrepreneurs, investors, dreamers, coders, and commentators.

And when you finish with that, you may want to re-visit "boring stuff that people actually need."

I personally find no reason to admire nor desire to emulate fortunes made in mindless electronic time-wasting and heartless financial arbitrage.  They are both selfish drains on the social and economic fabric of the entire globe.  

I prefer enterprises with actual hearts, rather than cheesy red icons.  

A new option - recreational entrepreneurship

They are everywhere - in dorm rooms, coffee houses, family rooms, basements, and even corporate cubicles. They enjoy regular meals and have a pleasant place to sleep, courtesy of a paying job or loving parents. But they read Techcrunch and dream of financial independence. Have laptop, can code.

They are the recreational entrepreneurs, and they are all participating in the web/mobile app lottery.

Recreational? Lottery?  

Let's examine this phenomenon more closely. The cost of entry is low. The range of payoff is broad, from nothing to millions. Hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of people are playing. That really does sound like a lottery, doesn't it?  And most of the players are not being paid for the time they spend camped in front of the computers with which they have a passionate relationship.That sounds like recreation.

Hobby farmers have no delusions about making any money, except perhaps on the appreciation of their land.  It's a way to re-connect with the earth.  Beach-combers with metal detectors don't really expect to turn up any pirate treasures.  It's a pleasant way to stay "in the moment." But part-time app developers tend to harbor the strong belief that their brain-child will be the next multi-million dollar acquisition announced by Google. They are inventing something of presumed value, in anticipation of a significant financial payoff. In that sense, they are definitely behaving in an entrepreneurial manner.

Before the 21st century and the internet, the closest thing we had to this form of behavior was exhibited by writers, poets, and graphic artists, all passionate, most toiling at some other profession in order to eat regularly while they waited to be discovered and published. But even when they did "make it," the payoff was relatively modest by comparison to those we see today. The "reach" was simply insufficient to generate millions of dollars in value; and they all knew it. They were working for their own satisfaction, not with dreams of financial independence.

My, how times have changed.

 

 

Fog in the cockpit

"When you can't see where you're going, it's really hard to end up in a good place. " 

- Dr. Obvious

But what if you don't even know what a good place looks like?  

Excuse me!? Doesn't everybody know what good, or at least better, means?

As it turns out, NO.

Harvard professor of psychology, Daniel Gilbert, in his provocative book Stumbling on Happiness, points out that we humans are really not very adept at predicting what will make us happy. For all the same reasons that we edit memories, says Gilbert, we edit our predictions about the future.  

The ivy-covered cottage with a white picket fence only looks good from a distance. Ivy, it turns out, is very bad for houses.  It crumbles the tuckpointing between layers of brick, and harbors all sorts of yucky creatures that will crawl into the siding and make a real mess. And white fences need regular painting. Even with that, the nails will rust and the pickets will eventually rot.

So, where does that leave a poor entrepreneur trying to live out her personal version of the American Dream?

Where does that leave any poor slob, valiantly struggling with what to do next?

Gilbert suggests that we turn to the experiences of others in similar circumstances, and study how things turned out for them. And that we resist the temptation to think that somehow we are "special," that things will turn out differently for us. The first half of this suggestion seems accessible to me. The second half is just silly, of course. How is it possible that I am not special, after all?  Rubbish!

In earlier posts I boldly stated that the sure-fire way to "get what you want" is to "figure out what that is." Now Gilbert tells me that I probably will not succeed in predicting with any reasonable certainty what will actually make me happy at some point in the future.  

Oddly enough, those are not completely contradictory notions.  What I think I want may not, in fact, make me happy in the future. I have no problem accepting that notion. However, it is, unfortunately, the only tool I have for directing my actions in the present. Like it or not, I must make some kind of prediction, no matter how flawed.

Even autonomy, mastery, and purpose, called out as true motivators by Daniel Pink in Drive, all have dangerous, evil twins. The flip side of autonomy is loneliness. Mastery at its pinnacle can transform into boredom. And a grand and noble purpose can turn out to be too grand. It can be a mountain too big to climb, leading to frustration or even despair.

Still, I have no choice but to decide, each and every day, what really matters and cling to my vision, imperfect as it may be. Recognizing its imperfection could certainly be useful, though.  Thanks, Professor Gilbert.

With my vision as my guide, I must commit to actions that can be reasonably expected to take me closer to my desired future state. Every vision and every action must conform to my personal set of noble principles. I must do right things, not just expedient things. And finally I must remain focused. Distraction is both wasteful and deadly.   

With the addition of Gilbert's cautions, the Four Useful Habits posted way back in 2009 are still valid for me. Perhaps they'll work for you, too.

I hope so.

Money - the universal scorecard

Daniel Pink, in his best-selling book, Drive, presents a solid case for re-examining many of the commonly held notions about motivation.  And he is not alone in asserting that time-honored cash incentive programs simply do not work as intended, and, in fact, may actually be counter-productive in many instances.  Specifically, Pink calls out autonomy, mastery, and purpose as "intrinsic" motivators, possibly even in the same power class as hunger and sex.

As I replay conversations with entrepreneurs I have known, I am called to re-interpret comments about the desire to "get rich" as a convenient wrapping for a deeper need - the desire for personal autonomy.  Autonomy, after all, is one of the "things" that riches actually deliver.  Simply to have money, after all, is not the same as to spend money.

People buy (as all great salespeople know) feelings, not products.  They may say that they want the high performance of a sports car; but they may really want the feelings of power and desirability that come from being seen in such a vehicle.  Likewise, it is easy to map an expressed desire for riches onto the more subtle feelings that riches can enable.

People, says Pink, also crave the feeling of mastery, that they are really good at something, and constantly getting better.  Well, earned money is certainly a handy scorecard for that one.  Most freshly rich people got that way by being really good at something, even if it was something illegal.  Bad crooks don't get rich, after all.

Finally, Pink points out that people tend to want to feel that they are part of something bigger.  He calls that "purpose."  Guy Kawasaki, in The Art of the Start, calls it "meaning."  And Jim Flowers (that's me) uses the word Purpose to encompass both Motivation (me-first stuff) and Meaning (others-first stuff). It turns out, oddly enough, that you can do a lot of good things for others if you have enough money.

So, where is all this taking us?  It demands that we look beyond the money.  As an aspiring entrepreneur, or someone working with entrepreneurs, it does seem like a good idea to pry open the hidden door behind the obvious cash factor, and figure out what that cash represents, what it might enable.  That's really where the drive is coming from.  And that drive is a key determinant of the MOXIE supply that will be available to fight through all the obstacles in the way of success.

Money is not a true motivator.  It's an enabler.  But it is a really handy scorecard.

How to Get What You Want - Part 2

"The best way to predict the future is to invent it."

Alan Kay

 

I posted How to Get What You Want - Part 1 way back in 2009.  Here's an excerpt...

Possibly the most challenging obstacle on the path to fulfillment and contentment is the requirement to figure out what the heck fulfillment and contentment look like.  Achievement is do-able, but the other two are elusive.  You can test my bold assertion quite easily.  Define those two terms for yourself.

When you boil it down, the secret to getting what you want is to figure out what that is, to have a clear vision of what success looks like.  Lacking clear visions of a better future, most of the people I meet seem to spend far more energy reacting to changing circumstances than in deliberately creating opportunities to transform their dreams into reality.

How to Get What You Want - Part 2 is even simpler.

ASK FOR IT!!!!

I picked up a simple, challenging phrase from one of the world's great salespeople about 30 years ago.  He was referring to the magical process of changing a prospect into a client; but the logic applies to most any aspirational situation.  He said this...

"If you don't want it, don't ask."

If you really want the order, ask for the order.  Don't wish for it.  Don't dream about it.  Just ask.  Prepare the listener for the question, by providing the information required to make a decision that will favor you.  Ask politely, of course.  But for goodness sake, ASK.

If the answer is no, then you can change course.  If the answer is yes, you can move ahead.

An important corollary to this simple rule is...

Never negotiate with yourself.

What does that mean?  If, for example, you decide that the big client will never consider you because you are a small player and new to the market, then you have said the word NO in their place.  Golly gee, give them a chance to say YES.  

Oh, and the same goes for pricing.  The notion that your new business must under-price the established market leaders turns out to be baloney in many cases.  I can name several entrepreneurs who grabbed serious market share very quickly by positioning themselves as the highest price alternative.  They provided superior products and priced them accordingly.

So - figure out what you really, really want.  (Tougher than you think.)  Position yourself to deserve it.  (Good looks usually aren't enough.)  Then ask for it, with confidence and no apologies.

 

 

Sex, fear, greed, and glory

Why we do what we do...

Many years ago, a good friend, and great salesperson, introduced me to a handy rule of thumb. He told me that people tend to take action for only three reasons: sex, fear, and greed. We all, said he, do most everything in an attempt either to achieve or to avoid some feeling related to one of those prime movers.

Being a dutiful student, I proceeded to repeat this insight at the slightest provocation. My blissful, all-knowing state lasted at least 10-15 years.  I would re-state Marty's assertion (always crediting my source, by the way). Listeners would nod their approval.  Nice moment. Then one day the unthinkable happened.

I gave my speech; and one of the listeners, a distinguished college professor, asked a simple question.  "What about glory?"  Oops.  I had to admit, quickly and humbly, that he had hit upon a big deal.  Of course, people act to achieve the feelings associated with what we call glory.  I suppose I could have replied that glory was just emotional greed, but that would have been my inner salesman talking.

I have given this issue a decent amount of thought over the intervening years, and now I have my own tidy little system for explaining the various manifestations of the sex, fear, greed, and glory assertion. 

I find it useful to think about actions arising out of two complementary notions, Power and Purpose. To take any action, I need some set of reasons for attempting it (Purpose) and also the ability to execute it (Power).  

The specific reasons that define Purpose tend to come in two flavors:  me-first, and others-first.  Sex, fear, and greed can be loosely attached to the me-first flavor.  I now refer to them as Motivation, one of the two components of Purpose. Glory, on the other hand, is generally connected to the others-first flavor.  I don't observe much glory being attached to actions that benefit only the actor - notoriety, perhaps, but not glory. It's not that the actor cannot benefit; but there seems always to be some broader payoff required to generate real glory.  I now call that Meaning.  Taken together, my me-first Motivation for acting and the grander, others-first, Meaning of those actions define my Purpose in taking action.

On top of that, glory usually is attached to actions that involve significant risk to the actor, not just cost, but honest-to-goodness risk.  And my reading of history leans toward the conclusion that daring actors have and will risk much more for a glorious cause than they will invest in mundane personal gratifications that would fall in to the sex, fear, and greed categories.  Personally, I wouldn't risk my life for money; but I might well risk it to defend another person, or a powerful spiritual belief.

So, my friendly entrepreneur, the revised rule of thumb asserts that people (including you and me) take action for a complex set of Purposes, and that the most compelling Purposes include both me-first Motivation and others-first Meaning.  And - the greatest Meaning typically carries the greatest risk of sacrifice.

 

"When there is no peril in the fight there is no glory in the triumph."

Pierre Corneille

 

"Dedicate some of your life to others. Your dedication will not be a sacrifice. It will be an exhilarating experience because it is an intense effort applied toward a meaningful end."

Dr. Thomas Dooley