Here’s a nice little insight by from Seth Godin on the truth about networking.
[youtube=http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=OujgPgNCLvk]
In short it’s about helping others. It’s about the quality and value you provide them – not the number of people you know.
Dig the glasses Seth…
Since we’ve been going through a massive growth spurt at rentoid – I’ve been thinking about the skills which matter. The skills which will take us from start up – to business. That stuff that happens after we’ve proved our concept and people are getting involved in what we do. And here’s my conculsions:
1. Project management. We must get the stuff done we’ve been talking about with our customers quickly. They haven’t got time to wait for us to get our act together. We must deliver our promises, or lose them forever.
2. Leadership. Keep the team inspired and motivated, while maintaining the culture we believe in and have already created. Just because we are starting to achieve our goals doesn’t mean we need to invent systems, create paperwork and lose trust for each other. This is where we prove there is another way to do things in business & life.
3. Maintain Momentum. Go ‘back to back’ in sporting parlance. The ability to maintain public interest and is difficult after unpaid national TV coverage. We’ve got to keep the tap running, keep communicating and getting coverage. This is where communication frequency becomes way more important than communication depth.
Another great way to keep ’em talking about rentoid?
We make sure we deliver on all the stuff we said we’d do – refer point 1.
Meet Trev.
Trev is small.
Trev doesn’t like going much faster than 120km per hour.
Trev only fits two people and two bags.
Trev can only travel 150km before he needs a recharge.
But Trev is efficient. He only costs 1.1cents to recharge per kilometer. Trev makes petrol look silly.
Here’s the thing. Trev is only possible because of advances in mobile phone battery technology. A classic case of technology transfer. The question entrepreneurs should be asking is what technology can we utilize from industries adjacent to us?
You can read more about it here.
The ability to make decisions is crucial. Maybe it’s why we escaped our cubicle – to make our own decisions. But this insight doesn’t stop us from occasionally facing moments of indecisiveness.
Here’s what to do – Outsource it.
Not literally, but metaphysically. We should ask ourselves what our most revered and respected entrepreneurs would do. And just do that. Done, decision made.
The fact is we know what they (Insert favorite entrepreneurs name here: Branson, Jobs, Brin, Bezos ?) would do, because we’ve read so much about them, we’ve seen them in action, so we know exactly how they’d act. And often, the have the courage and conviction we strive for.
So when in doubt, just be them.
If you could offer entrepreneurs one piece of advice what would it be?
Start up blog’s is this: Don’t die wondering.
I’m sure all 20,000 monthly startup blog readers want to hear yours. Add them to the comments or email them to me and I’ll post them on an upcoming blog entry with your name / blog beside it.
According to startup blog….Based on lyrics, some which will require some interpretation.
Bonus song: We want your soul – Adam Freeland
Bonus info – Some you might not know – great I’ve done my job. All are available for purchase on itunes, or free on many on-line download sites if you are that way inclined.
What to do next – get your hands on them, create a playlist, burn a CD, put on your MP3 player and listen to your future and get excited.
Suggest your songs in the comments.
Here’s a meme from the Cluetrain Manifesto guys. It was written some 9 years ago and still rings true. The predictions herein are still evolving today, and yet some corporations still haven’t got it.
Start ups out there; invest 5 minutes with the ideas below, embrace them and you’ll be well ahead of the game.
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