Does anyone out there know of an entrepreneur / startup business which commenced as a ‘side project’ – but ultimately grew and thrived into a large successful business?
(successful defined as – financial enough for the founder to leave employment to run it – without a dip in income. Excluding sole traders)
Just curious.
What if email was invented before the telephone? It would have been viewed as a ‘reasonably’ innovative business tool. Better than traditional mail certainly. Also better than a telegraph message. We would have become quite reliant on it given the advantages it has over other forms of written communication.
Imagine if the phone came next, after email. Imagine the conversations we would have had as we spread this idea and new product virally…. just stop and imagine for a second what the conversation might have been like the first you were told about ‘the telephone’:
“There’s this amazing new service called a telephone! It’s a killer app. So cool. Each phone can be directly connected to another phone just by dialing numbers. Then, you can have a discussion with the person at the other end – in real time. A live conversation. No back and forth required. No confusion in what the written words mean. You can hear peoples emotion… It’s really great. You’ve got to get one. It’s so much better than email!”
So why are we emailing people when we can call them? Is it but covering, fear of direct conversation, laziness?
Startup blog says. Call first, communicate directly. Pretend the phone is the new technology.
It will take twice as long
It will cost twice as much
It will be twice as difficult
What ever we happening to be starting will take up more than we could have imagined. Which is why it’s worth doing. In all probability the end result will be twice as rewarding.
We ought stay the course.
We’re entrepreneurs – we’ll have different objectives. but generally we’ll want to do one of the following:
Build a business (revenue focus)
Change behaviour (social focus)
Introduce a new method (technology focus)
It’s important we know which ones apply. The we ought remain focused, and ask ourselves if what we are doing today leads to revenue, creates social awareness or drives usage of our technology.
Here’s a list of things which actually do matter:
Our diction and vernacular
Our personal presentation & dress code (Doesn’t mean a suit, but to wear what we wear well, have a sense of style)
The way we engage people and treat them
Our smile and attitude
How neat and organized our workspace is
Being on time
Our posture
Knowing our next steps every day
Making sure our technology is in working order
All these things and others, matter all the time. Not just the day you have to do it right, have the big VC presentation or the day you’re meeting your biggest customer.
And here’s why – they’ll become habit. Good habits. And when things are habit, they’re performed much the same way – time and time again.
If we do them well when it doesn’t matter, we’ll do them well when it does.
If we do what they do,
then we’ll become what they are.
“Being busy is a form of laziness – lazy thinking and indiscriminate action.”
Timothy Ferriss
Startup blog agrees, and adds – if we blame our employers for the above, there’s no locks on the door…. and we’re still being lazy.