Dear M.B.A.,

“Morons! I know there’s nothing out there. That’s why I want to build the railroad!”

Taken from Nivi of Venture Hacks

“Your mind is software. Program it. Your body is a shell. Change it. Death is a disease. Cure it. Extinction is approaching. Fight it.”

What matters

Your mantra matters: This is a certain ideal that matters to you. It can be as simple as “If we can, we must”. The point is that you can see this mantra in your life in all you do and all the decisions you make. This is your compass. When you create something, this mental model will be enshrined in your creation. Choose wisely, and focus.

Who you have great relationships matter: At the end of you life, when it all goes black you won’t be asking, how much money did I make? You will ask yourself two questions, “Did I live a joyful life?” and “Did my life bring joy to others?” As cliché as both those seem, I know these were the questions I asked myself when we did an exercise at Acton that simulated an instant death. It was peaceful, but all I wondered was, “how was my girlfriend?” “How are my parents?” “I hope they are alright and will be alright without me.” I also thought about whether I left a legacy with my life that mattered and made a difference.

What you think during this exercise will say a lot about your innate character. There’s no right or wrong, but it can give you some intrapersonal insight.

What you propose matters: When you propose problems and complain about things…those don’t matter…they just make you a whiny person. What you propose as a solution matters. What you do that ends with a positive outcome matters. Instead of saying you WILL do something…just DO IT. I know I run into this conundrum all the time. I’m making it a habit not to though. I know that I complain myself sometimes, but reflecting on a mantra like “just do it” will help you focus on taking action and getting to a solution instead of ever airing the complaint at all.

A new love —Design—

—Design— 

I’ve been reading the following:

inGenius – Tina Seelig

Glimmer – Warren Berger

Smart Thinking – Art Markman

Art of the Start – Guy Kawasaki

Repeatability – Chris Zook and James Allen

The Art of Innovation – Tom Kelley

AC4D Blog – Austin Center for Design

www.DesignThinkingDigest.com – Chris Bernard

Other DESIGN ILLUSTRATION BOOKS

I’m only beginning my journey into design, but I’ve learned a thing or two from the wealth of knowledge and inspiration held within the above books, blogs, and illustrations.

1) Design is distinctly different from style. Design is engineering with a heart. It is empathy. Design is creating solutions so the pain can go away. Style is font, color, layout etc. Design is like trying to use a scalpel. You have to focus and hone in on things other people never took notice of

2) Start Making. If there are any words that can describe the designer mantra it’s those two words. From jargon like Rapid-prototyping to ethnography, the world of design is one of iteration. Prepare for post it notes galore and notebooks full of observations and insights. Prepare for a world where you may have 58 imperfect models before you finally hit spark 59

3) Watch the world you create surround you. Watch for opportunity to arise everywhere. Distinctively, “design thinking” will shift your paradigm should you choose to accept it. Design thinking means looking at things with a fresh set of eyes. You won’t be afraid to ask the dumb questions. You won’t be afraid to ask why until you get to the root of the problem. Not only looking for opportunities, but making something of them. As referenced in point #2, start making and you’ll begin to watch the world find use and engage in your creation. I think that’s one of the greatest satisfactions in life…knowing that what you created makes someone’s life better.

After all there is “art” in Startup: Style

I think every entrepreneur finally graduates when from the school of hard knocks when they finally reach relative success with their first venture. Their nextt ventures aren’t easy per se, but successful entrepreneurs are 34% more likely to succeed again after a win.

This introduces “style”. When you win in the sport of business there’s a clear way you did it. Acton, in Austin, which provides students with an MBA in Entrepreneurship breaks down an entrepreneurs persona into three distinct characters: The bootstrap tortoise, the asset fox, and the MBA hare. Each one has its pros and cons, but more or less every spirited entrepreneur fits into one. Jeff Sandefer, a great Texas entrepreneur helped me understand one Friday morning at an Acton Energy Breakfast.

I used to think I was an MBA hare who just loved to get into hot industries, but with more and more reflection I find myself leaning towards the bootstrap tortoise. I still love looking at industry forecasts and understanding hot industries like nanotech, biotech, biomimicry, augmented reality, etc. However, I find my spirit yearning for a sense of full autonomy and a distinct set of values. That set of values gets compromised if you grow too fast or shift industries all the time. That’s my style. I want to be one of the old school entrepreneurs who sucked it up from day one and sold things out of my van for years until I got a break. I want to do that because those are the brands that have history and values. Those are the companies that outclass and out-innovate many others. They leave a lasting legacy. Nike, McDonald’s, Microsoft, dell, Wal-Mart. If you look at the leading fortune 100, they had many humble beginnings. That’s my style. I want to build a rock solid foundation and wake up to a constant workflow of something I love doing. I want to endure.

What is your style? Why is it your style? Would you argue you could try for a quick IPO win and last as a company? I want to know!

11 ROUGH steps from idea to startup (from Running Lean by Ash Mauyra)

1) Write down initial vision

2) Share with at least one other person

3) Refocus on the main problem

             a) What is the pain?

             b) Who has the pain?

             c) How bad is the pain?

             d) How many people are in pain?

4) Answer if your problem is worth solving

            a) Is it something customers want? (must-have)
            b) Will they pay for it? If not, who will? (viable)
            c) Can it be solved? (feasible)

5) Understand the Problem

6) Define Solution

7) Build Teaser landing page (launchrock.com)

8) Once validated, move to building a minimum viable product

9) Batch test in small numbers to iterate  (5-10 people/batch)

10) Validate Qualitatively

11) Verify Qualitatively

OODA Loop for Decision Making

The OODA loop helps us process and respond to information coming at us very quickly. It is used when rapid, on the fly planning and decision are necessary.

Developed by the late Air Force Colonel John Boyd to simplify the rapid-fire life and death decisions made during aerial combat. Boyd’s simple but very powerful conclusion was that any conflict was a time-based problem. Whichever side could move through their OODA loop the fastest would have the upper hand. This is tricky.

Observe our situation closely. What is our relative position to the enemy, and how is their behavior going to impact us? Observation and situational awareness are skills that the SEALs spend a lot of time developing. The “Keep in Memory” game helps individual operators and team gather a lot of information quickly and accurately. Expanding our sensory awareness field to take in more information at a subconscious level is another valuable Observation skill. The SEAL sniper team observes an enemy sniper taking a bead on a US Army convoy approaching from the West.

Orient ourselves to the reality of our observation as fast as possible without making too risky or risk-averse moves. Orientation is the processing and analyzing of the observed information. This is where it is helpful to ensure that the biases and tendencies do not drive poor analysis. The SEAL sniper team orients themselves to the new information – they are not in a good position to take an effective shot at the enemy sniper, but don’t have time to move clandestinely to a new position. They are under pressure to take some action immediately or the enemy sniper will certainly get a few shots off with obvious implications to the oncoming US force.

Decide on a course of action. This is where the rubber meets the road. Depending on the complexity and stakes involved, this can be a simple choice or a complex decision after analyzing multiple courses of action. The sniper team decides to expose themselves and run like hell to a new position. They are aware that the action is high risk to them, but after processing it through their OODA loop this decision made the most sense. Not only would it interrupt the pending shot by alerting the enemy sniper as to their presence, but it will put them in a better position to take out the sniper should he remain in his position.

Act! Nothing happens until the action takes place. The sniper team moves out. The enemy sniper is alerted and high-tails it to a new location. The oncoming convoy is spared…the cat and mouse OODA loop game continues. The OODA loop requires time sensitive planning – planning on the fly. One reason SEALs are so effective at accomplishing complex and dangerous missions is that they use OODA loop and a time sensitive planning process. They don’t plan something to death, rather prefer to get busy and shorten their OODA cycle whilst seeking to outright sever the OODA loop of their enemies.

Copy, pasted, and distilled from Mark Divine of SEALFIT and Unbeatable Mind Academy.

Innovator’s Dilemma Quicklook for Startups

There are 4 types of disruptive innovation: 

1) new product

2) new technology to produce a product,

3) new way to distribute a product

4) new way to provide services.

The entrant can introduce a disruptive innovation along one or more of these dimensions.

Innovator’s Dilemma and YOU

There’s a reason why so many internet startups were able to use the concepts from the innovator’s dilemma. The internet provides an amazing platform to build disruptive products, and more importantly, create and leverage new distribution channels.

So, how should you think about the innovator’s dilemma? Here are four key takeaways:

1. Understand what is the source of your disruption. Is it a new product or a new way to distribute an existing product? This will help you understand whether you are really disrupting the market or just building an incremental product.
2. Pay attention to opportunities in new distribution channels. Zynga’s biggest innovation was taking advantage of Facebook as its distribution channel before the traditional gaming companies could say “Mark Zuckerberg”.
3. Start by marketing to the group of customers for which the incumbent in your industry has the lowest margin or the lowest interest to defend. Don’t go head to head on their most important customers. They will crush you.
4. Remember these lessons when you are at the top.

Figuring out how to compete in your market will take a lot of time and effort. Remember that these frameworks are just tools to help you think through the problem and will not provide you with a magic answer. You’ll have to discover it yourself.

This is a copy-and-paste job distilled from Uzi Shmilovici, CEO and founder of Future Simple, the company behind Base CRM from TechCrunch. Original article: http://techcrunch.com/2012/04/08/strategy-for-startups-the-innovators-dilemma/

 

 

Innovation and Entrepreneurship: The “Broken” Attitude

I believe innovation and entrepreneurship takes a completely different attitude. You can learn it, but it takes a bit of inspiration and a bit of inception. Someone has to plant the seed. That someone doesn’t have to be close to you. It might simply be a movie your watch or someone you watch on television. Regardless, the “broken” attitude must endure.

The “broken” attitude means looking at the world in a completely different way. It means being empathetic. You get a real feeling of angst when you see something that doesn’t work the way it should. Seth Godin put it best in his GEL 2006 talk.

This “broken” attitude means you can spot opportunities that no one else sees. From their perspective the status quo works just fine and it couldn’t be any other way. Your job is to spot patterns that just could be made 10x or even 100x better if things were different. Like DNA, small changes make a big difference. The DNA that separates humans and apes are really very few. Yet with thumbs and a larger brain we gained the ability to take control of our world and use our intelligence to create tools and technology.

In addition to the “broken” attitude, entrepreneurs have a sense of responsibility. Entrepreneurs don’t just spot the problem. The problem means something to them and if they don’t fix it, then it’s their fault for doing nothing. That deep sense of responsibility to solve a problem is truly what separates entrepreneurs.

Rick Gross: From Project Blue Light to Project Millionaire

Today is about Team Building (which is essential for a successful startup) Whatever problems come your way, if you have a good team, you will all get through it, adapt, and succeed.

Rick Gross’ biography is nothing short of a mouthful and if there’s a theme throughout his professional career, it is “challenge”.

He was one of the tiniest boys in high school. Hell, he graduated at 120 pounds. Knowing this, I don’t think anyone would believe that he was a member of the Special Forces and one of the first members of Project Blue Light, which was a precursor to Delta Force.

What he learned from his Special Forces experience and entrepreneurial journey was distilled to myself along with 30 other young professional and ROTC students in today’s AYC Leadership Luncheon Series hosted by Lt. Colonel Kopser and John King http://www.austinyc.org/event/ayc-ut-rotc-leadership-luncheon-series/

The Carrillon out of the AT&T Executive Center provided a delicious buffet as well.

Back to the point though: Practical wisdom & How to from a guy who has really BEEN THERE and DONE THAT.

His preference can be controversial to some: “My preference is to avoid external investor financing and when necessary — minimize it! I prefer internal or self funding – it is ok to start small, make it work first! We internally or self-funded Texan Media, Taran, Vindicator Technologies and Vo-Mack. I have an MBA 

As a combat engineer who passed both HALO and Scuba school sequentially, he literally got bored after he retired from the military in 1980. Nothing could give him the same challenge as being in Special Forces, except starting his own company. Since then he has flipped 2-3 companies. He won’t admit he has money to burn, but he’s living comfortably to say the least. He told us a few of his practices today.

————————-

Team Building: 

Talent is overrated – When you find a new employee, make sure you set the expectations high and make sure they deliver. Performance REQUIRESdeliberate practice. No matter how talented or knowledgeable they are, if they can’t finish, then either they change or change companies. He worked with the “best” PhD’s at MIT and Stanford and they couldn’t get anything done, so they were let go and he was put at the helm. After the hard years, the company was successfully acquired.

Intelligence – Avoid the talker or the “smartest guy” in the room. Once the talking is finished, someone still needs to make it happen. Fortunately, no one is indispensable. That “smart guy” can be let go, and will be missed for…less than a day.

Money and Knowledge – Larry Chiang would agree with this: “they are very similar, and too much will make you do stupid things” (1up for street smarts)

Responsibility & Empowerment – “it is hard to be responsible when you aren’t empowered.” Empower your people. It means you are their to coach them, and build trust. Your job is to give everyone a direction, and resources they need to get to an end goal however possible within certain parameters. You WILL NOT micro-manage, because that builds distrust and disrespect from top to bottom. 

Business Plan – The Executive Summary means everything, because clarity is power. The plan is not only for investors, but for employees! The rest is just “good to have”. 

Sales – Know why a customer buys – generate leads first (if possible aka sell-design-build), because it is far easier to raise money when you have market pull on your side. Test the market and ADJUST not only the product, but the approach (positioning). Having a tangible product or solution means everything…NO MORE FLUFFY IDEAS.

Extra tip: MORALE BOOSTER

Rick Gross says he never gives straight up cash bonuses on a check as a reward for excellent work or going the extra mile. Instead, he gave out cash that can be turned into a very memorable experience, and he did it in front of everybody. For example, he’d give an employee $150 to bring their spouse or family to a nice dinner. They can remember the experience, the handshake, the pat on the back, and the office applaud. The best gift I heard he used to give to excellent employees was a Rolex watch. He didn’t cheap out on the watch either. He wanted to make sure that everyday that man or woman put that watch on, it was a point of pride and they remembered everyday how special they are. VISUAL REWARDS! —> status matters!