Monthly Archives: August 2011

29
Aug

Why what’s best for the person is ALWAYS what’s best for the company

Published by adil in Entrepreneurship, Productivity Reply

Tweet I often get asked, “What do you do, what’s best for the person or what’s best for the company?” Or, “What happens when what’s best for the employee isn’t best for the company?” In my mind, doing what’s best for each individual person in an organization is what’s best for the company at large. At least today. Here’s why. Times have changed If you think back in the days before America was discovered, on → Read More

25
Aug

Why we don't know what we want to be when we grow up

Published by adil in Entrepreneurship 2 comments

Tweet Someone mentioned a research study to me that demonstrated people are terrible at predicting what makes them happy. If you survey them, they’ll list what they think would make them happy, but they don’t actually know. In fact, Daniel Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness, talks about his research into what he calls ‘affective forecasting’ and how humans are so bad at it: “People make mistakes when they try to predict what will make → Read More

8
Aug

It’s a great time to start a company. Wrong!

Published by adil in Entrepreneurship 3 comments

3-legged stool of startup success

Tweet A lot of people liken the ability to raise money as a strong indicator of great timing to succeed as a startup. I can see the thinking behind that logic. At one time it was really hard to raise startup capital because the landscape was just so competitive. If you did succeed in getting funding, people thought, “Hey, you guys must be legit” because investors had their pick of the litter, so choosing you → Read More

2
Aug

The solution to premature commitment bias starts with a K

Published by adil in Creative, Development, E-Commerce, Entrepreneurship 5 comments

The solution to premature commitment bias starts with a K

Tweet As you may have noticed, I have recently found myself consumed by the problems facing technology entrepreneurship today.  In particular, it’s the amount of sheer waste that gets to me.  As I’ve mentioned before, the real tragedy here is all of the time that is wasted by really talented entrepreneurs and early employees.  Unlike money, time is non-renewable.  You don’t know how much you actually have, and you can’t make any more of it → Read More

1
Aug

Sweat parity and the success disequilibrium

Published by adil in Entrepreneurship 2 comments

Sweat parity and the success disequilibrium

Tweet Startups are a funny thing.  The amount you learn in the first 24 months after inception is enormous.  You discover all the best kept secrets about entrepreneurship that no one  teaches you about when you are first starting out.  One of my favorites is a thing I call ‘sweat parity.’  While some of us understand the concept intuitively, few of us ever talk about it.  So I’m setting out to change that.  Here goes: Do → Read More