Here’s the video for blog action day 2008.
[youtube=http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=nOnjMusOBfs]
Startup blog got involved last year – which you can read here. And I’m excited to do so again – it’s pretty cool that new digital media has given us a voice, best we use it.
Many entrepreneurs start their careers working for big business. There are many things we can learn from big business. One of which is Critical Thinking – the ability to analyse a set of circumstances and make a commercial decision.
Every startup has gaps. Gaps in strategy, gaps in the launch campaign and gaps in financing the venture.
Gaps that would usually be criticized in large conglomerate X during the mandatory ‘Critical Thinking’ session. If we want to get our startup off the ground , then we simply must ‘unlearn’ some of the things which we have leanred and adopted from our life in the large corporate sector. Critical Thinking is one of them.
What we need is Complimentary Thinking.
Pointing out the good and building on the parts that will work. Is what entrpreneurship is about. To criticise anything in the embryonic stage is counter productive. Critical thinking aims at protecting revenue – not inventing it. Critical thinking leads to finding a reason not to do something. Complimentary thinking builds on what we have, it finds a way to make things happen and accept imperfection.
Our ability to unlearn ‘critical thinking’ is really one of the important differences between being an employee and becoming an entrepreneur.
Silicon Beach Australia [siliconbeachaustralia.org] was formed with no plan, just a question:
“How can we bring the Australian technology community together?”
“Silicon Valley has a supporting ecosystem that makes Internet innovation thrive, so what can Australia do? How can our big island with the best beaches in the world, harness the passionate, intelligent individuals who care to do more?”
It’s a very cool initiative and hopefully something which will harness the intellectual capital our country is renounced for. Instead of losing it to countries who appreciate and embrace innovation.
One thing is for sure – it all starts with conversations. I was fortunate enough to be invited into the conversation yesterday for their 3rd Podcast to discuss a bit about rentoid, and all things entrepreneurship…
I was fairly candid with things like my corporate exit, business philosophy, the financial crisis and just the way I like to go about things. You can check it out by clicking here.
Here’s a photo I took in my local suburb of an outdoor campaign by TDK.
If you’re a Kylie Minogue fan you may recognise her… We’ll no, actually it isn’t her. Just a model with similar looks wearing an exact replica outfit from one of her famous video clips ‘Can’t get you out of my head’. (it comes into view at 1.10 mins)
At first I thought they we’re trying to ‘pass off’ as having good old Kylie on their side…. then I saw the tagline. “Believe your ears”
It’s a nice piece of outdoor advertising once you see the tagline – if you manage to miss the line… then things don’t quite work.
Radvertising or Badvertising? What say you?
I’ve raved before about being ‘eyeball worthy’ here, here and here. It’s actually not that difficult or expensive to do – but it can make a substantial difference to the perception or awareness of your business.
Here’s a photo I took of the local Yarraville Vet. – ‘Super Doggie’‘
It’s so cool. Firstly, I notice it every time I go past it. It says…
“We are into what we do”
“We care”
“We make an effort”
…and most important of all – it’s far more obvious than a sign on the door or a line in the yellow pages.
How are you creating visual awareness of your startup?
While dropping into Startup Camp in Melbourne last week I started chatting with Jonathon from Melbourne Angel Investors. I asked him just one question:
What is more important in their investments, the team or the concept / product?
His reply was a simple one and here it is:
We’d invest in an A Grade team with a B Grade product, but we wouldn’t invest in an A Grade product with a B Grade team.
Startup blog agrees. Though I did here that he was pretty ‘anti-tech’ as far as their investments go…
But the first piece of advice is worth adhearing to. Above all things build an A Grade team, be an A Grade entrepreneur.
And so again we hear that the people in your startup are way more important than the secret sauce. It is without irony that A Grade teams more often than not find A Grade ideas too.
If I could give one piece of advice for anyone who has reently escaped their cubicle of the large corporate scene to start up it would be this:
…and be quicker than they are.
if your startup is in the same industry you worked in…
Do the opposite of what you ‘were told to do’ within your large company.
To beat them you must focus on momentum. We most not do what they do, we must not compete on their level.
To gain momentum, we simply cannot behave the way they do.
