entrepreneurship Archives - Page 197 of 235

Prosumer UNM2PNM

Posted on March 2, 2008 by Steve Sammartino

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

Posted on March 1, 2008 by Steve Sammartino

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.

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.

Quote – Larry Page

Posted on February 28, 2008 by Steve Sammartino

Larry Page said:

There is a phrase I learned in College called ‘having a healthy disregard for the impossible’. That is a really good phrase. You should try and do things that most people would not.

….squint to see Larry….

Chances are we’ll still fail to do the impossible most times.

If we don’t try we are certain to fail every time.

Slow is the new fast

Posted on February 25, 2008 by Steve Sammartino

WAS (fast)	IS (slow)
Fast food, take out	Slow food, cooking, dinner parties
‘Super’ market, processed food, discounts, shelf life, conveniencve	Growing vegetables, farmers market, gourmet food, butchers, real ingredients, less packaging, joyful inconvenience and hence quality
Get rich quick, money making schemes, flipping –shares & property assets, asset accumulation	Passion jobs, wealth in doing, not keeping score, grand designs, experience accumulation
Instant coffee – isolated ergogenic aid	Café latte, macchiato, espresso cappuccino – discussion and social facilitation.
Cheap, more, value	Premium, less, gourmet,
Doing more, expectations	Taking time, internalizing
Ladder climbing, competition, job hoping	Ladder building, collaboration, sabbaticals
Long hours, skipping meals, avoiding exercise, financial objectives, excuse making	~~Work (no such thing)~~ ‘life’ balance, not skipping anything worth doing. Late on purpose.
Spending less on more	Spending more on less
Pay rates, fringe benefits, promotional opportunities	Mind growth, real flexibility, independence

This is some, not all…. but all follow the path. Feel free to add ‘some’

What path is your start up on? The slow path or the fast path?

*reader warning. (none of the above refers to doing reacting slowly in your startup. Just the ’real’ trend of getting our lives back)

This ain’t no disco

Posted on February 25, 2008 by Steve Sammartino

This is where we work…

As a follow up to my office space blog entry here’s a web site that can do a far better job of displaying cool offices than I can. aintnodisco.com

Click to check it out.

What to delay & what to fast track

Posted on February 21, 2008 by Steve Sammartino

Start up blog mantra:

Delay expenditure

Bring forward investments

Know the difference between the two. If unsure, ask.

Office space

Posted on February 20, 2008 by Steve Sammartino

Which space would we rather work in?

This..

or these?

* click to enlarge

(the leggo dudes don’t look very happy to me)

Sure some of these spaces are less efficient (read cost more). But it doesn’t have to be that way…. in any case, how cost efficient is an uninspired and bored workforce whose only thought is getting to the punch clock on time?

When our startups leave the kitchen, it doesn’t mean we need to act like the company we left.