In general, startups are super hard. If this is your first startup, it gets more complex because of double-uncertainty – a) you don’t know whether your startup has legs and b) you don’t know whether YOU can pull this off successfully. As you are struggling through things, experts around you have a field day… Continue reading
The most meaningful competitive advantage is To scale your ability to care Caring at scale is a clear competitive advantage because so many people out there pretend to care. It probably would be easy to scale caring if you have a LOT of money. It would be easy, yes, but one should still decide to… Continue reading
In the world of social media, a network can mean a lot of things. Unfortunately, your network is not equivalent to the sum of all the friends, follower and connections across your social networks. That would be a fantasy. If we have to over-simplify, your network comprises of people who will care enough to take… Continue reading
As the old saying goes, time cannot be managed (it’s only 24 hours for everyone) but we can manage ourselves against it. For me, when you have a time management problem, it really is a symptom of a bigger problem – lack of leverage. So, the uncommon cure to the time management problem is NOT… Continue reading
Richard Farson highlights the following in his brilliant book – “Whoever makes the most mistakes wins.” Ask very successful people about their journey that led them to where they are and you will hear that most of them had a checkered past. Nothing happens in a straight line. We tend to forget the above and… Continue reading
Photo Courtesy: Brunkfordbraun on Flickr When you are not working, are your assets working? A simple way to get leverage in your life is to have your assets working when you are not working. For example, writing a “good” blog will serve as an asset. Engaging on Twitter with a “good strategy” can also serve… Continue reading
Photo Courtesy: Ekainj on Flickr The general tendency is to build. create, publish or ship. However, without a solid foundation whatever you build, create, publish or ship won’t get far. You cannot NOT have a foundation. You have one. It is your sum total of your history, accomplishments, relationships and your contributions to start with…. Continue reading
I was delighted to hear about Google’s acquisition of the innovative startup reCaptcha. I wrote about the business model of reCaptcha in a previous blog post in August 2008. Here is the link. Please read the previous blog post to get the background story: Aug 16, 2008 – Doing Good Via Spam Protection: The Art… Continue reading
When you are at the beginning of your career, you really work hard and for all that effort the “real value” that you add may not be that significant. This may not be a problem as people know that you are just “starting.” As you learn and become better at your job, it takes less… Continue reading
One option is to have simple goals. Goals that you can achieve easily. Goals that won’t make a big difference in your life or in the lives of others. Goals that really don’t matter. The next option is to have big goals – goals that can change you and more importantly – goals that can… Continue reading