The Philosophicals
Picking The Right Idea
Peter & I talk all the time about which idea do you pick and run with. We love innovating and since we happen to work with the IP of a number of the world’s largest and fastest growing companies, we constantly are exposed to amazing ideas. Our problem isn’t coming up with them, it is choosing the one to stick with.
I’ve always believed there are two types of entrepreneurs. Shotgun entrepreneurs take a large number of ideas and try many at once trying to see if they can get something to stick. They believe if you throw enough mud at the wall … eventually one of their ideas will come to fruition. Rifle entrepreneurs focus their energy on one careful enterprise at a time. I am very much in the second category. As a result I tend to be extremely cautious about the ideas I commit myself to. So first thing, if I am already committed, then I pretty much ignore all ideas even good ones.
If I am in the looking zone, I have a shortlist of four criteria that I use to select my direction:
1) Does it line up with my personal goals, beliefs and definition of happiness
2) What problem does it solve?
3) What trends play a role - what is the industry timing?
4) Who is on the team - are there people with success who have a vested interest?
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When you are considering a business opportunity, one of the most important issues to really ponder is timing.
You may have the very best idea on earth. It could solve a huge problem. You could have a great team with phenomenal support. But if the target audience are bank tellers, I would beg you to reconsider. Bank tellers are a dying institution. ATMs, and now online banking, are making them essentially obsolete. Peter showed me that I can even write a check through the Wamu website and they will mail it for me at no extra charge. No more stamps, addresses and numb tongue.
Tom has often told me that the dumbest man can make money in an up market, while many smart people loose their shirts when a trend dies. Now you may be a genius, but I’d still hedge my bet and pick an idea and a strategy that takes advantage of industry timing.
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“Just Like Air”
Happy Holidays you all! I’ve been doing some thinking about the meaning of things and a lot about the future of our industry. I’m so grateful you are part of our journey and love the relationships I have been developing through this blog. We love you all, you challenge us and you make us laugh. It has been a blessing.
The world is changing. How we view money. How we earn it. How we spend it. Does it rule our lives more or less than it did in the past? Can we change that by the way we choose to work and how we do it? The winds of change are blowing and many, many people are about to join this revolution we call business ownership. This is just the beginning.
I asked the first billionaire I met what it is like to have that much money.
His answer was “it’s just like air”
I must have looked confused because he smiled and he asked me if I knew any asthmatics. I nodded.
“During an asthma attack - what is the only thing that person is thinking about?”
“Their next breath” I answered.
He looked at me and said - “You have financial asthma. I never think about money, to me it’s just like air. It has almost no bearing on my life what so ever.”
I think about that all the time. That conversation significantly shaped my relationship with money.
Interview Yourself: Final Chance to Win
I am going to take the time to pick the winners on Christmas day. In case you think I am a workaholic, I am Jewish and it is the only day I can take all the time I want to read blogs without clients pinging me. So, bring it on folks, last call!
We are compiling a complete list of the respondents and do a brief promo of the top 10 most interesting responses! Please email me if you have not seen a link to your post below. I will keep adding them as they come in.
Peter & I will pick one lucky person with our favorite interview and one person who came up with the best original question not on our list and buy you each one book from my personal reading list.
Go check out the original post with the list of questions, then if you need some inspiration, you can see me lift my digital skirt.
Still want more? Below is a list of all the responses so far:
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Interview Yourself: Shane
So far we have some really funny, deep and practical answers and comments in response to the interview questions. Have you done it yet? Go to Interviewing You: the Entrepreneur and check out the questions, post the answers on your blog and link back to the post. We are giving away free publicity and your book of choice from my reading list to our 2 favorites. Don’t forget to ask a question at the end you would love to have everyone answer!
ok - my turn:
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This is a guest post from our friend, Jarkko Laine. Jarkko is Insanely Interested In Everything, and single-handedly starting an entrepreneurial revolution.
When I think of a billionaire the first image that comes to mind is that of Scrooge McDuck. An image of someone who has earned a big fortune through hard work, but lost the most important treasures along the way: his friends, family, and good will.
Next Gen Tech: A Cautionary Tale
Yesterday, my iPhone became the latest victim of a wave of buggy units. About 3 months after unboxing the phone I lost the entire bottom strip of touch sensitivity. For those of you who don’t have an iPhone, that means no call button, no email, no Safari, and no iPod. Add that to a number of other functions that are tied to being able to touch the bottom of the screen and you begin to see the picture: no bottom strip = gimped iPhone.
The Million Dollar Question
If you don’t keep score, how do you know when you are winning? Now there is your list of dreams, an indispensables road map to happiness. Some of us though, happen to like big neat targets we can obsess over. Like ONE MILLION DOLLARS.
Peter: Ahem…well, don’t you think we should maybe ask for *more* than a million dollars? I mean, a million dollars isn’t exactly a lot of money these days. Virtucon alone makes over nine billion dollars a year!
Shane: Really?
Peter: Mm-hmm.
Shane: That’s a number. Okay then. We hold the world ransom for…..One hundred..BILLION DOLLARS!!
I was reading the web when I saw a post by Cristian Dorobantescu from energybyte.com which asked these questions:
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family. finance. friends. fitness. faith.
Base your success on happiness, and you will fail.
Happiness is the most common answer to the questions “what do you consider success?” I cringe each and every time I hear it. You see, ultimately, you have no control over your happiness. Tragedy strikes and your spouse dies. Your happiness instantly diminishes. Are you less successful because the feeling is gone? Not in the slightest.
We need to base our sense of success and self-worth on more than a fleeting emotion. This is important in both life and in business. There will be amazing days and infuriating days. From personal experience, if you are in business to be happy, you are in for a tough journey. So, if it isn’t happiness, how should we define success?
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The Technician and the Entrepreneur
There is a revolution occurring. It is changing business, changing families, changing lives. Information technology is now providing people like you and me the tools we need to work from literally anywhere. In today’s new marketplace, the entry cost to running a small technical business has changed from capital to courage.
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