Miah's Journey

What is marketing according to Brad Feld? - Focus on becoming a thought leader in your space. Talk everyday with your customers, perspective customers, partners, and the world about why you do what you do and why you think it is important.

Peter Theil Thinking

In a recent Business Week article about Peter Thiel called Free Radical there are some good insights and things to think about.

• Peter works every day to reshape the world and focus on solutions to problems other people overlook.  Do you?
• The future is not an abstraction.  It's something we are all participants in, helping to create and forge and shape.  Are you participating in it?
• When he started Paypal the business side of the company was secondary to the vision.  When you look opportunities are you trying to solve a big problem or looking to make money?
• In reference to education - People can't do anything entrepreneurial or innovative or even non-profit - anything that's not safe and well-paying - because they have this mountain of debt.  And so education is something that has become a retardant to technological innovation and progress, even though the common perception is the exact opposite.  Do you fall into this category?
• Peter states: "Only 35 out of 535 members of congress have any background in science or technology.  That's why I believe the government thing is hard to fix - the people there don't actually believe these are important problems.  Maybe the answer would be to change the other 500 people and replace them with engineers.  But then you're not really talking about a practical option."  How do we get more science and technology people into congress?

Some good things to think about and questions to try and answer...

 

 

Are you taking a chance on yourself?

A good article in the NY Times.

Passion

Are you passionate about what you do?

or do you and the people that you work with have the attitude described by Seth Godin below:

"People who don't care, selling products to people who care less."

Are you Present in the things you do?

Fred has a great post about being present. 

My favorite lines: 

Being present in a relationship, whether it is with your kids, your spouse, or anyone important in your life is hard work, particularly for overstimulated type A personalities like me and many of the people who read this blog. 

Around that time, I attended an offsite of a larger private equity firm and there was a organizational psychologist who gave a talk on work life balance. He said something I'll never forget. He said that you have about ten to twelve years to connect with your kids and then they turn into teenagers, tune you out, then turn into adults and build their own lives. I thought about my kids who were five, three, and a baby and realized that time was short and I needed to be present in their lives in every way that I could.

What is a career to you?

I want it to be a portfolio of jobs, roles, and opportunities that can provide income, skill development, experience, and flexibility.  Instead of planning a career, focus on developing skills and pursuing opportunities.  - Hat tip to Pmarca blog.

Without Pursuing Dreams Life is Mundane

Dalio Principles - Are you chasing your dreams?

Customer-Care Actions You Can Take to Build Sales

These are taken from John R. Graham's article in the May 21, 2010 CNY Business Journal.

• Contact customers when it's not necessary.
• Let them know how much you like working with them.
• Ask them what you could do to make working with you easier.
• Tell their story to others.
• Pass along leads.
• Do something a little extra.
• Make suggestions for improving their operations.
• Pass along helpful information.
• Lend a hand.
• Utilize the power or recognition.
• Be candid when asked or your opinion.
• Show your loyalty.
• Don't cut corners.
• Come to a customer's defense when you hear criticism.
• When something hasn't gone well, let them know what you would like to do about it.
• Respond reliably

Resources for starting and growing a business

• Score - www.score.org
• Small business adminstration - www.sba.gov
• Small business development centers - www.sba.gov/aboutsba/sbaprograms/sbdc
• Women's business centers - www.sba.gov/aboutsba/sabprograms/onlinewbc
• Export Assistance Centers - www.export.gov

Steve Nash's Playbook

• "The entrepreneurial stuff is exciting to me for the same reason that basketball is exciting.  It's collaborative, creative, educational, experiential.  All those elements are in play." - Steve Nash
• "I wasn't one of those kids who was told since ninth grade that he was going to play in the NBA.  It was long-term goals broken into short term goals.  How to get from the bottom to the top.  Those fundamentals transfer to anything." - Steve Nash
• My intention is to e creative, learn, work with great people, build a cool business, and change the game."  - Steve Nash

I like the way Steve Nash plays basketball and thinks about business.

Ideas for creating a great culture from Inc. Mag.

Inc magazines June 2010 issue has some great articles about creating company cultures and how important culture is to the success of a company.

• The art of work - Bill Witherspoon - Sky Factory
• • Share Information - Secrets corrupt culture
  • Give everyone equal footing - great ideas come from everybody
  • Make decisions as a group
  • Serve each other - in search of a return favor, selfless - both are important but selfless is more powerful
  • Share the rewards
• Return Path - CEO Matt Blumberg
• • Investor presentation let investors know that their number 1 stakeholder is employees, number 2 is customers, and number 3 is the shareholders
•  "We want a place people are proud to come to everyday" - Robert Wood Johnson IV - New York Jets Owner
• The Great Game of Business - Jack Stack
• Zappos - "Do what is best for your customers"

What can you do

It has been awhile since I have posted to this blog.  I read and heard some things that were pretty inspirational to me and wanted to share them today.

• I watched the Biggest Loser tonight and was inspired in the amount of weight lose that the candidates achieved in 16 weeks.  What can you do in 16 week?  I believe you can do anything that you put your mind to and in a short period of time you can significantly change your life if you put your mind to it.
• Another quote from the Biggest Loser - "Stand up and finish what you started."  If you get knocked down or fall down always get up!!
• If I were able to live my life again - Hat Tip to Ben and Josh
• "I do stuff. I respond to stuff. That's not a career — it's a life!" - Steve Jobs - DO STUFF
  

Additional good info:

• 8 Steps to starting a start-up

A Family or a Calling, Failure, Success, or Neither

From Ben's recent blog.  Below is a short paragraph from it.

First, let's review Michael Lewis's distinction between a "career" and a "calling":

A job will never satisfy you all by itself, but it will afford you security and the chance to pursue an exciting and fulfilling life outside of your work. A calling is an activity you find so compelling that you wind up organizing your entire self around it -- often to the detriment of your life outside of it.

I want both!  I believe that you can create and obtain the things that you want.

Failure, Success, or Neither - Seth Godin

Bill Gross: Failure Is OK, As Long As It’s Quick, Inexpensive & You Learn

A good post...

Good Questions from Seth Godin

This is perhaps the greatest marketing strategy struggle of our time:

Should your product or service be very good, meet spec and be beyond reproach or...

should it be a remarkable, memorable, over the top, a tell-your-friends event?

Good Questions from Seth.