Ego

I recently bought the book below. I have read this book before, and yet I felt the need to purchase it and add it to my library.

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Yes, I will read it again, but that’s not why I purchased it. In fact it was a $50 impulse purchase.

On close inspection of the photo above you’ll notice this hardcover version of the book has beautiful embossing and a soft silken fabric cover. It’s tactile and premium. This book was an ‘ego’ purchase.

We normally associate ego purchases with items which are on display: Fast cars, haute couture clothing, funky sunglasses, golf clubs, Euro design kitchens and bathrooms, flying first class et al. Places where our consumption choices are on display. However, The Prince by Machiavelli will not be on display – only in my house and head.

The lesson for start ups is this: Our ego can be leveraged in any category. Even boring stuff like books. We’ll often pay more (which I did, more than double) because our ego isn’t an external thing, ego is about self importance, whatever that means to us.

Let’s hope

That if we achieve our startup dreams. Our legacy is far greater than conspicuous consumption or a large trust fund for our kids.

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If you make bank, don’t become a jerk or ruin your kids.

The choice between opinions & objectives

Our experiences shape our views. Maybe even define us as a person.

We have opinions.

Occasionally these opinions might hold us back from the ‘discovery process’. The process which leads us to our objectives being achieved.

When our opinions conflict with our objectives we must choose. Choose which of the two is more important to us. Do we want to hold onto our opinions, or achieve our objectives?

It’s rarely a simple choice. Often one of ethics. Sometimes one of admitting fault, changing direction, making mistakes, or possibly stepping on others. There is no right answer, just an internal choice.

A starting point may be taking the course that will help us sleep at night when we’re 84.

Prosumer UNM2PNM

A certain chapter in ‘Join the conversation’ struck a chord.

Chapter 5 – The Rise of the Prosumer.

To me this is the most compelling change in the business environment. JJ contends that business was so decidedly one-sided; lop-sided in favour of the supplier; the manufacturer; the marketer – that they completely overlooked the producing element.

Well JJ and startupblog agree that things have changed. The business world is now moving quickly from ‘producing stuff’ – to ‘providing infrastructure’. Infrastructure is becoming so cheap – consumers simply make their own ‘stuff’. We’re starting to consume the factors of production, not the factors from production – Prosumers.

Smart start ups ought to be thinking about what infrastructure we can provide, rather than what goods we can produce.

Mind RAM

Our brains are computers. Just like computers we have both RAM and hard drive… even a bit of cache.

Everything humans build is a subconscious replication of organic machines. Which is why Articial Intelligence is moving in its current direction. It’s evolution baby.

So we need to command our brains the same way we do any computer. Hence, best practice is to only keep a few projects (programs) open at a time. If we don’t we’ll lose focus, get confused, freeze and have to be shut down! Just like all our PC’s do from time to time.

Every now again we need to assess our Mind RAM and just make sure we aren’t over stretching its resources. If we have to we should shut down some projects and focus. Just like our PC we’ll work faster – more efficiently.

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If we have stuff open in our minds (old projects, tax returns, a mental diary) then we have to shift this stuff to a hard drive – whether it’s a notepad or PC doesn’t matter, just get it out of the RAM. Anything we shouldn’t be thinking about is RAM baggage. A mental cleanout is a must for high performance.

The difference between ‘Innovation & Different’

While watching entrepreneurs pitch their business earlier this week at the Pitch Club in Melbourne Australia, and colleague and I were disappointed at what some people believe to be innovation.

   

Shannon from Shannon says and I agreed that what many people call innovation is simply – different.

Here’s a clear delineation of the two which is a startup blog mashup of multiple dictionary definitions.

Different: unlike in form, quality, amount, or nature. Distinct or separate. Unusual or differing from others.

  

Innovation: a creation, new device or process. The result of study and or experimentation which improves the desired outcome / usage of said device, process or creation.

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Sometimes we only need to understand the true meaning of our words to determine if we are ‘on track’.