Pop quiz

Two people went to work on their startup business.

 

Joseph got up early started at 8am and worked until midnight, he finished all the tasks on his to do list.

 

Mary slept in, was tired, got up mid morning flicked through the newspaper, had a few good solid hours in the afternoon and goofed off after 5.30pm. She did not complete all the tasks on her to do list.

 

Question: Which entrepreneur achieved the most in said day?

 

A)    Joseph

B)    Mary

C)    Cannot tell.

 

Answer: C

 

As entrepreneurs the most crucial mistake we can make is confusing activity with progress. The entrepreneur who achieved most is the one who made the most progress towards their end goal.

 

We should not confuse time spent with value created.

Social Networking – let’s get physical

Ok – so we’ve all worked out that we can now find each other on line. That there’s more people than we thought with similar interests, and that connecting with them can be mutually beneficial.

Now; get off line and get out there.

Get connected physically. Nothing beats facetime and smart social networking organizations are getting back to basics. Creating old school events like business networks such as Rotary have been doing for years. Old is the new new.

If you’re in Melbourne (which I am) get along to the Hive. The Hive is a new entrepreneurs network started by some savvy entrepreneurship students in Melbourne.

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Their premise is simple. Come along, hear some successful entrepreneurs speak, meet other entrepreneurs. Communicate, collaborate and corroborate. It’s free and valuable.

You can check it out here and here. They run a good show for some youngsters.

Business hygiene

We wake up in the morning. Stumble into the shower, have a shave (legs or face), wash our hair. We put on deodorant, brush our teeth, and head off to work.

We work all day.

We return home. We go to the gym or for a jog, return and shower again. Cook dinner, do the washing, tidy up the house, do the dishes, wipe down the sinks.

  

These are our daily tasks. Simple things which just become part of the fabric of living daily. They’re about hygiene and health.

                              

Our business also requires daily hygiene tasks. Tasks which must happen on a daily basis: Paying invoices, managing cashflow, ordering stock, doing paperwork, answering emails, returning phone calls, talking with employees and customers, planning our day,  reading industry related information……   ‘business hygiene’ tasks.

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Business hygiene tasks are not game winners, but they keep us alive in a business sense. Forget these and our business can catch some terrible diseases, maybe kill it.

 

The best approach is to get them into a routine we perform on autopilot. Just like brushing our teeth. Then we can focus on the fun stuff.

Exercise your mind

Really fit people seem to be good at all sports. Really talented at all the physical things they try. They seem to eat what they like at restaurants and yet remain svelte. How?

Here’s the trick. They don’t just play tennis, swim or jog. They do it all and more. They participate in many and varied types of physical activity and sport. So they exercise their entire body. They develop new motor skills all while refining the base they already have. They stay fit and get fitter.

Our brains work the same way. It gets fitter, stronger and more flexible the more challenges we give it. To just read about business and entrepreneurship only builds certain parts of our mind. Occasionally we need to stretch it in other ways. Read something different, watch a nature documentary, undertake some craft activity, do some gardening, go bird watching. Anything.

When we do this the interconnecting synapses in our mind will develop. We’ll then better cross fertilize our ideas and experience. We’ll open up the space for new solutions….

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So please click out of this blog, and do something you’ve never done. Your mind will thank you for it.

Have an opinion

Quite often it pays to be malleable, especially in a corporate environment. The powers that be only want to hear about incremental improvements that build on the status quo. Not change it.

Once we leave and get out there on our own. We must make sure do this:

Have an opinion, create change and go beyond the incremental.

Your school teacher was wrong

It’s not cheating, it’s collaborating

It’s Ok to draw outside the lines

Neat handwriting is not a pre-requisite

Touch typing is not a pre-requisite

You don’t have to all wear the same clothes

You can have a respectable job and wear jeans

Conforming does not necessarily lead to success

the ‘Soft’ – subjects are the most important

Talking is not evil, it’s the most important skill you ever learn at school

Having a contrary opinion is fine

You can have a future and be bad at maths

Being different is OK

Doodling on your paper is good for the mind

Daydreaming is fine

…add yours here….

School is vital to our learning. But just remember which bits to ignore.

Over reactions

Over reactions are omnipresent in humans. The best example is the sharemarket. It is rarely priced at ‘fair value’. The sharemarket sentiment is either overly optimistic or overly pessimistic. 

it seems that managers tend to over react

it seems that employees tend to over react

it seems that VC’s tend to over react

it seems that suppliers tend to over react

it seems that customers tend to over react

The funny things is that over reactions never solve the problem, and often compound them.

Isn’t it refreshing when one of the above has a balanced and considered response to the inevitable issues which pop up in any start up business.

Be refreshing.