This advice matters to everyone: Favour action over all things.
For the uninitiated: This speach was given by a famous football coach in Australia during an AFL Grand Final (think Superbowl / FA Cup). With passion he emplored his campaigners to just get out there and do whatever they could. The end result being a victory – or the ability to say ‘at least I had a go…’
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9db1GgNtCKw]
As webpreneurs we all now employ offshore coders to develop sites using super cool resources like Odesk and Elance. The process is a simple one. But just like all things good, there are some catches. Here’s some advice from someone whose done, does it and occasionally avoids it.
The main thing you need is patience and very considered briefs. When there is a language barrier, ideas and words can be taken very literally.
Our experience is that some (not all) offshore IT practioners are indifferent with ‘visual’ requirements. Maybe it’s a cultural implication. And there are many things we’ve had done much better offshore, like finding creative solutions to technical problems. We’ve worked with some great creative bootstrappers. But it’s clear that more developed markets put a much higher value on ‘aesthetics‘. So we get all our rentoid visuals done locally, while we outsource alot of our backend work. It’s akin to a convenience store you might see in India, there just not quite as pretty as those in Australia and the USA. See below.
Western Convenience Store
Convenience Store India
Check out this vision from 1969 I found on youtube.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0pPfyYtiBc]
Sure the usability is different, but conceptually it’s pretty accurate – even with the touch screen. It probably seemed fanciful at the time, even ridiculous or pointless. But people with vision created the infrastructure that we rely on today.
Maybe your startup has it’s detractors, it might just be too much for people to comprehend. What you can be sure of is that plenty of the ideas which seem ridiculous now, will eventuate and become part of our everday lives. Our job as entrpreneurs is to ingore the opinions and invent the futre.
I’m sure there are examples of people who’ve been successful by simply being good at what they do. But there are more examples of world beaters who are ‘into’ what they do.
I’m into this blog. I love writing it. I did it with as much enthusiasm when 10 people read it each month as I do now when more than 20,000 do.
Some of my favourite entrepreneurs are really into what they do.
Branson loves music & flying.
Trump loves real estate & the deal
Steve Jobs is really into design & aesthetics
Lindsay Fox loves trucks and cars (he even has ‘truck driver’ as the title on his business card!)
Doug Warbrick loves surfing….
Doug and his surfing partner Brian started Ripcurl, the surfing company. They started making surfboards in the late 1960’s and shortly after made some the first surfing wetsuits the world has seen. In fact their first wetsuit was made from a rubber carpet underlay they pulled up from a floor with an old pre world war 2 sewing machine – great bootstrapping. He made the wetsuits so he could endure the harsh Victorian winter and enjoy the best waves of the year down there.
They just kept making really good surfing equipment. Which they also sold, 40 years on Ripcurl is now one of the three dominant companies in the Industry, valued at well over $500 million.
Ripcurl founders & store circa 1970, followed by curent retail outlet
Are you into your job, business or startup, or just passing the days?
The best innovations no less ‘ entrepreneurial success’ comes from people who are really into what they do.
Do, mistake, learn, improve, repeat.
Do, mistake, learn, improve, repeat…
Do it fast. Continue in perpetuity.
The key word is the first one – ‘Do‘. Unless we take action we remain largely philosophical about what might happen. It’s only when we act that we find out the truth and formula of startup success above can eventuate.
Really the title should say “people” – we don’t do business with customers, it’s the greatest lie of all time. People trade with people. But I just gave it that title so I could teach people this who stumbled upon this blog entry…
So here’s how we do it at rentoid.com
We have a live chat session with our people. Answer all their questions, assess their concerns and just get to know them. Tonight we are doing it at 7.30pm Aust Syd / Melbourne time.
Go here to log on: http://rentoid.com/live
You can see the startup blog author in action live and see if he (me) can deliver it all live. So tune in, tell your friends and get a shout out!
All our startups, businesses and brands have their people. It’s members, it’s customers. The humans that matter in whatever we do. So how do we connect with them? Not talk to them or worse, at them, but how do we really connect with them?
Here’s what we are doing at rentoid. We are having an coffee session in the CBD of melbourne (our home city) where members can come and grab an espresso and simply chat. If only 1 person turns up, that’s fine by us. Because that one person matters as much as the 250,000 others. In fact to them, they are the only person that matters.
The discussion will be whatever the people want it to be about. Not a contrived focus group. What matters is making a connection with them, being a group of people trying to help each other, breaking down the traditional corporate facade. Not having any gatekeepers. And quite frankly we can’t wait.
If you’re in Melbourne came and meet the rentoid team for a chat and an espresso on us before work. We can chat about startups, marketing, life and maybe even rentoid. We’ll be at Journal in Flinders lane. All the details are here.
When’s the last time you took time out to hang with your people?
