Coach Davender

During a conversation I had this flash about the challenge of expressing an idea:

The inspiration comes all of a sudden, landing fully formed with a thud.  I can see and touch the fine details. It’s beautiful, like a ship inside of a bottle.

The challenge is to extract that ship from the bottle through the narrow, constricted neck using only the communication tools at hand, without breaking anything.

If I don’t quickly attempt to extract my idea, it dissolves into nothingness.

Inspiration only lasts a moment. If you don’t capture it right away, it’s gone.

For more information

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Direct link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/30845197@N00/278517705
Used under Creative Commons licence

Do you ever get that sinking feeling in your stomach when you say yes to something and then your next thought is “Uh oh. I’ve just made a huge mistake”?

That sinking feeling has happened too many times in my life: signing up with certain network marketing companies, certain friendships and relationships, accepting some projects, some clients, or some responsibilities.

If you know that what you’ve just agreed to do is not going to work or you suspect it’s not going to work, should you continue trying to make it work?

I resonate with this conversation between David Letterman and recently ousted “Countdown” host Keith Olbermann:

Direct link: http://www.cbs.com/late_night/late_show/video/?pid=Rnx_joyQRAnXCPb7Rg4STRQLSCe18gLn&nrd=1

This is not an easy question because it goes to the heart of the matter. Do you apply the emergency oxygen mask principle and take care of yourself first? Or, as Spock said, do the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one?

Even though each time I get this sinking feeling I kick myself because the last time I swore it was the last. But here I am, getting this same feeling again. Lots of questions swirl through my head:

- How does this commitment help me with my goals, projects and plans?
- What is the price I will pay for pulling out? Or for staying in if things go bad?
- What can I gain by staying in? Is there something I can learn, or people I can meet, or things I can do that I can transfer to my own projects?
- Why did I say yes in the first place? Were there expectations or assumptions I made that I did not properly confirm?
- Do I want to be the hero? The villain?

Commitment is a three step process:

1. Enrolment: where I say yes, but based on a lot of untested assumptions and unverified expectations. It’s like when I signed up to join the Canadian military based on glossy brochures. Looks good, but the only way I’ll find out if it’s for me is to say yes now.

2. Alignment:  where I figure out if this is for me. During the alignment phase, I’m verifying my assumptions and my expectations. I’m seeing if my values, my goals, my dreams and my beliefs match with those of the commitment I’ve just signed up for. This is why it is so important to have an “orientation” process at the beginning of a big project. This allows people to figure out if it’s for them. Some may drop out, others may join. That’s okay, that’s how the process is supposed to work.

3. Engagement: the moment things “click”, when passion and purpose align and the commitment shifts to a deeper level. If the alignment is solid, I should feel a close attachment to the success of my decision. I’m “all in”.

That sinking feeling is a missed shift, the realization that the outcome of the alignment process is “no”. Which means you have to do something, because supporting a commitment without the full engagement of the head and the heart is a certain recipe for disaster.

The only way to grow out of your comfort zone is to say “yes” to risky opportunities. You can only make decisions based on the information at hand at the moment. It’s up to me to do sufficient due diligence and to not let myself get carried away with the idea, but it will be imperfect information.

When you pull out of a commitment, there is always a price to pay. People will talk. Your reputation will take a hit. But the good thing is that with time, if you go up to bat often enough, your hits will outnumber your misses.

So there is no easy answer to that sinking feeling. Deciding whether to stay or to go is part of the process of commitment. But no matter what, there is no point in kicking yourself when you’re in an “uh-oh” situation. It can be an invaluable teacher.

Remember that commitment is a process, and then your next step will be the right one.

For more information

Related Posts:
Don’t Let The Black Swan Bite You In The Ass
http://blog.davender.com/2011/02/dont-let-the-black-swan-bite-you-in-the-ass/

The Way To Succeed Is To Celebrate Failure
http://blog.davender.com/2010/09/the-way-to-success-is-to-celebrate-failure/

It’s Okay to Say No
http://blog.davender.com/2010/01/its-okay-to-say-no/

Image: Johnny Shaw via Flickr
Link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnnyshaw/1578249429
Used under Creative Commons licence

 I love going to tech startup events. There’s something unabashedly optimistic about startup entrepreneurs which is very different from most other kinds of people, whether they’re in business or not.

“Startup” has come to mean a very specific approach to business: an audacious idea which levages technology and capital to create something which is new, innovative and compelling. Add equal elements of fun, energy, optimism, and obsession and you start to get the vibe that happens in the Startup world.

I believe Startups have very important messages for all entrepreneurs, especially solos and micro businesses. Here are some things which come to mind:

1. Pursue your dream without regard to current circumstances. Although Startup entrepreneurs, like most people, obsess about finding the money to create their business, they see it as another take to be accomplished, not an obstacle. In the Startup world, what counts is the person and the idea. The rest will come if these two items are clear and compelling.
2. Business is communication. Startups are always pitching, speaking, writing. From the first moment, they are focused on how to communicate their idea to potential investor, clients and partners. Presentation competitions, whether for a one-minute elevator pitch or a seven-minute PowerPoint, are a central point of many Startup gatherings. I wish all entrepreneurs put this much effort into clearly communicating who they are and what they offer!
3. Disrupt the status quo. One of the first slides of any startup entrepreneur’s pitch deck is a deceleration of how they are going to disrupt their market: going behind, around, under and over their competitors to emerge as the new standard. Startups want to make the current way of doing things in their market obsolete.
4. Small is the new big. Startups start small, lean and efficient from the beginning. They want to grow in revenues without having to grow in team size. This is where the technology advantage really comes into play: quickly adjusting their focus to meet the constantly shifting sweet spot between what people are looking for and what the startup offers.
5. Startups think young. Although the startup world tends towards the under-30 crowd, it is more of a state of mind, the optimism of youth. I guess the advantage here is energy. You have to be in good health to keep up with a Startup entrepreneur!

There are many more messages that Startups can teach all entrepreneurs. And some lessons to avoid. In my local market of Quebec City I am pivoting my business to focus more on tech startups, with the not-so-hidden agenda to bring the best ideas, tools and methods from the startup world so you can apply them in your business, whatever you offer.

“Just as despair can come to one only from other human beings, hope too can be given to one only by other human beings.” -- Elie Weisel

When did we decide that Scrooges and skinflints should be in charge?

All around me I hear doomsayers predicting an economic collapse that will envelope the whole planet, insisting that we all have to tighten our belts (especially the poor and middle class), preaching austerity or exhorting the jobless to accept any job, even if it doesn’t pay a living wage or it crushes the soul.

The problems we face cannot be solved by politicians and CEOs. They have too much invested in the status quo to see it change. So they use the most potent weapon they have: to kill people’s hopes and dreams.

Crushing hope is the ultimate power trip, because hope is as elemental to human survival as air, water and food. However, if you let someone steal hope from you, it’s not that they now have it. It is that you’ve voluntarily surrendered it.

Hope can be renewed by developing a clarity of purpose, a commitment to action, and the confidence that comes with making a difference first for yourself, then for others.

Hope is the realization that you only have one shot at life, so you want to make the most of it. I believe each of us has the right to fully live our own individual potential, and with this right also comes the responsibility to help others fully live theirs.

If our “leaders” can’t get us out of this mess, whose job is it?

It is time for us entrepreneurs to step up to the plate.

As an entrepreneur we live on hope. To be willing to invest sweat and savings into building a future is borderline insane these days. But we do it, willingly and passionately. Because we see a solution to one piece of the puzzle, and then plow forward to make change happen.

If the 1% wants to preserve the status-quo by killing our dreams, then it is up to us solos and micro-business entrepreneurs to rekindle hope by igniting the imagination, focusing the resources and stimulating the massive action required to overcome the huge obstacles we face.

Humanity cannot afford to lose hope. This means that you and you and you and I must, at a certain point in life, stop investing our time and talents serving other people’s agendas, and start living our own. This is the calling of the entrepreneur.

I, for one, am not prepared to throw in the towel in despair. I take it on as my personal challenge to promote hope by actively living my full potential through how I’m building my business and encouraging others to live their dreams and passions through businesses of their own.

For more information

The article that sparked this line of thought:

“The wellbeing agenda isn’t navel-gazing, it’s innovation and survival”
by Pat Kane (guardian.co.uk)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/nov/13/wellbeing-agenda-navel-gazing-innovation-survival

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The economic slowdown has people looking for other ways of making ends meet. Lately I’ve seen an uptick in the number of network marketing / MLM opportunities. Just this month (November 2011) I’ve had three people approach me to pitch their opportunity.

I personally like network marketing,having had a certain success with it. I started with the venerable Amway when I lived in Northern Alberta back in 1992 – which was a good deal then even as a customer, because the nearest real shopping was a four hour drive to Edmonton. I broke through the beginner barrier in 2002-2004, making a good supplementary income with Usana Health Sciences (Disclaimer: I terminated my distributorship with Usana in 2006 to focus on my coaching business). I also lost money with companies in telecommunications, nutritional supplements, business services and website storefronts. In three of those losing situations, the companies went belly-up. In one case in particular, the first commission check I received ended up bouncing.

I discovered what works in network marketing, and what does not. Network marketing is where I learned how to sell, how to work with a team and how to be a good sponsor, upline and team leader. I also learned how to deal with the politics, backstabbing and betrayals of uplines, crosslines and company headquarters. So I have a personal experience of the good, the bad and the ugly of MLM. And this has convinced me of the importance of performing a good due diligence before signing up.

Here are points that I look at when I’m presented with an opportunity. This list is more thorough than most you will find on the web, and at the same time not as thorough as it could be. Some of these questions might not apply to your opportunity, but if any of these things cause you to respond with “no” or “unsure”, definitely think twice before handing over your credit card.

Some of these points come from my own experience of what can go wrong. See if you can spot them!

(Full list after the fold)

Davender’s MLM Due Diligence Checklist

1. COMPANY MATURITY AND LEADERSHIP TEAM

When signing up as a distributor for a company, you are basically becoming a partner with them. After all, if you are going to invest time, money and your reputation building a distributorship, don’t you want to make sure they are able to deliver what they promise? So it makes sense to check them out.

1.1 Is the company in pre-launch or mature? The advantage of joining a company in pre-launch is that you get to be “first in line”, knowing there are few other distributors competing in your market. The disadvantage is that a startup doesn’t have the systems in place or the financial resources for the long haul. Companies in startup mode also will make changes to the distributor agreement and commission plan, sometimes not to your advantage (even if they spin it that way)

1.2 How do they accept payment? Always make sure you can pay via credit card, so if you get in a dispute with them you can request a chargeback from your card issuer. They must accept credit cards from their own merchant account and not just a PayPal gateway.

1.3 How professional is their web site? The Corporate web site (of the home office, not just the distributor replicated site) must be professional. If it is a generic WordPress theme with anonymous stock pictures, then be careful. Reputable companies will have photos of real people (employees, distributors, customers). Check out their ranking on Alexa.com – if traffic is going down then they are dying. If there is no ranking, or is not in the top one million sites, then either it is too early, or the company is dead. You can count on people you approach to at least Google the company.

1.4 Is the company private or publicly traded? If it is a publicly traded company then you should be able to get the financials. Does the company have a good positive cash flow? How much debt does it carry? What does it say in the SEC disclosure fine print? If the company is private, it is harder to validate their financial situation. You may have to contact the home office to request them (you can always try it). Remember, you want them to be able to pay the commission checks they will owe you!

1.5 Is this business legitimate? Check out the state/province corporate registry (if possible) to confirm the company is legally registered. Then search the trademark database and their website whois. Do they all point to the same entity or address? If they don’t, it’s not necessarily bad, but at least one of these should point to the company headquarters.

Check out the street address of the company headquarters on Google Street View. If the business name is not prominently displayed on the front of the building, or if the company headquarters is not in a business park or office building, walk away. If the headquarters is in a suburban (or rural) strip mall or a private home, walk away. If all they provide is a PO Box, walk away. You will want to do the same with their distribution center. If they subcontract distribution, I consider this a negative point, however make sure it is at least a reputable company (do the same due diligence on the distribution center).

Note that Googling the company name + “scam” or “review” will rarely provide vaild information on the legitimacy of the business, because either the company or other distributors are flooding the web with positive promotional articles using these keywords. You may have to dig deep in the results before you find something.

Similarly, I don’t put much stock in BBB membership or listings. However if there are complaints, walk away.

1.6 Is the company the original manufacturer or do they resell products and services from another provider? If the company manufactures and ships its own products, they have every incentive to ensure quality service and to stay in business. However there has been a proliferation of “virtual companies”, especially in telecommunications, energy services or consumer discounts, which simply resell products or services from other providers. Being simply a sales channel for the original producer, these companies have less incentive to stick around if the going gets tough. The original provider can also terminate the distribution agreement with your company for any reason. And you definitely don’t want to see the exact products you are selling be also easily available on the shelves of your neighbourhood store.

1.7 Can you respect the leadership team? Google the names of the founder, CEO and senior company officers, which should be prominently available on the corporate web site. Dig deep (to at least page 20 or 30 of the results). If they don’t have that many results, then this is a possible warning sign. Check out their LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter pages. If they are not on LinkedIn in particular, walk away. Are these people you can respect? Are their experience or qualification claims valid? Are they connected to people you can respect? Can you visit the home office in person and speak to the company president or at least the VP responsible for distributor relations? Is there a VP specifically responsible for distributor relations?

1.8 Are they licenced to operate in your country/state? This is especially important for business coming from abroad. Who holds the business licence? It should be a legally owned subsidiary (and not a private person). They should have a local corporate office in your country. Can the products be legally imported into your country or state without restrictions? Do they have valid tax numbers and business numbers for where you live?

2. COMPENSATION PLAN AND COMMISSIONS

2.1 Is the compensation plan clear? You should be able to easily obtain the compensation plan, either directly on the corporate web site or from the person who approached you. It should be easily summarized on a two-sided page. You should be able to repeat back the main features of the compensation plan to the person who presents it to you, even before you sign up.

2.2 What investment is required? Today (2011) your upfront investment to become a distributor should be no more than $500, but more than $0. You want people to have to invest something to ensure they will take the responsibility seriously. The yearly distributor renewal should be no more than $99 (actually below $50 is more reasonable). What is the minimum monthly personal order you need to stay qualified for commissions? Will you personally consume this amount?

Make sure to read the distributor agreement before signing anything. Bonus points if you give it to your lawyer and there are no objections. What are the conditions under which the company can unilaterally terminate your agreement? What happens if you change your mind? Or you wish to terminate?

2.3 How do you generate commissions? The bulk of your commissions should be from product/service sales you generate yourself, plus a percentage of the sales the distributors you sponsor make. When I was active in MLM, the trend was to pay on “balanced legs”. But it’s very difficult to keep legs balanced. Today at least part of your commission should be on global volume of your downline. Also look how deep you get paid. If they claim you get paid “to infinity”, look at the fine print. If you get paid to at least five levels the plan is probably legit. Avoid matrix systems (where you can get paid just for occupying a space and doing nothing) and breakaways (where the company removes the top performing distributors from your downline). Both stack the deck against you.

If you are paid a “bonus” (also called a “training bonus”) for each distributor you sign, consider this to be illegal. Some jurisdictions consider this to be a sign of a pyramid scheme, and companies have been shut down, and distributors arrested.

Watch out for “Sales Volume” (SV) point systems. They should closely track the actual retail (or at least the wholesale) price across all the whole product range. Sometimes companies adjust SV downwards depending on your country, so you could lose out twice, once on the SV and again on the currency conversion.

Can you estimate how many customers/orders/ sales volume (in dollars) you need to get your first commission check? To get a monthly check of more than $500? A weekly check of more than $500?

2.4 How do they pay you? How they pay you gives you an insight into the professionalism of the company. Weekly payments are preferred to monthly. Avoid payments by a company-issued debit card or prepaid credit card, which often come with very high usage fees. You should receive a check (computer-printed) or direct deposit. Send it to a separate (personal checking) account at your own bank which you use only for your business. Also check the currency conversion rates to make sure they fairly reflect the open market rates.

3. PRODUCTS AND SERVICES OFFERED

3.1 What are the products and services offered to your customers? Are they consumable products or monthly renewable services? Remember that if you have to get a new customer for each sale, then you cannot build a sustainable business.

3.2 Is the company positioning coherent and consistent? If the company offers a variety of products or services, how are they connected together? A nutritional company that also offers telephone service is probably suspect. Has the company made major pivots recently (an energy distribution company that becomes a web advertising company)? At a minimum, if you cannot communicate a coherent positioning, you will have a lot of difficulty presenting your offer to potential customers.

3.3 Are all the products and services available where you live, right now? The availability and legality of products and services can vary a lot according to city, province/state and country. If not, what is the delay? If the reason is regulation, then walk away, because you have no control over it. Does the product or service meet all of your local safety and approval regulations? If you are building a distributor network in hopes that the products will be available some time in the future, be prepared for many of the distributors you signed up to walk away once the product is available.

3.4 Are the products or services competitively priced compared to the open market, especially for non-distributor customers? Are the savings interesting enough to get people to switch? What is the product return and refund policy for customers? Can customers sign up at no charge to buy from you, and can cancel at any time without penalty?

3.5 Are the products shipped directly to the customer? You want to avoid having to carry any inventory (which needs to be rotated and accounted for), and especially having to hand-deliver product.

3.6 Is it something you personally would buy and fully use even if there were no company attached to it? Is this something you are personally excited about because of the intrinsic quality of the product or service? What is the reputation of this product niche? Can you be proud of what you offer?

4. TEAM AND REPUTATION

4.1 Do you like your sponsor? Does he/she have experience building a team? If not, who is the active upline who is doing the training and opportunity calls? Attend one of the trainings or calls. How many levels up do you have to go until you reach someone who earns the equivalent of a “full-time” salary? Do you like your sponsor and your upline as people? Do you see them as colleagues you can easily approach for help, advice or encouragement? Really trust your gut here.

4.2 Do you like your team? Do distributors work together as a crossline team? Or is their strict upline/downline discipline? One is not worse or better than the other, it mainly depends on your personality style and values. I personally prefer crossline collaboration.

Also, consider that every other distributor is a competitor at the same time. Are there too many distributors? What is the resolution policy if someone approaches a prospect you’ve approached? Or if you (knowingly or unknowingly) approach someone who has been approached by another distributor? Is your local market saturated with distributors? You can make money operating a Starbucks, but do you want to be the fourth shop on the corner?

4.3 What is the reputation of your company and your product line? Does the company already have a reputation (good or bad)? Or your product or industry? For example, if you offer nutritional supplements, many people have already made up their mind about nutritional supplements marketed via direct marketing, so trying to change their mind to switch to your offer would be a waste of time. Similarly, getting people to switch from an established telecom or energy provider to your service is made more difficult if they already have preconceived notions. Sometimes money savings is not enough of an incentive. Do you have the skills to navigate past people’s prejudices towards your product category, the industry, the marketing channel or even towards you?

5. FINAL GUT CHECK

5.1 How does this opportunity fit into your current business? If you are already promoting your own services as a self-employed professional, how does this opportunity fit into your current offers? Or is it something completely disconnected from what you’re doing now? Can it damage your positioning? Or help it?

5.2 Is there a potential conflict of interest? Are the offers of this MLM similar to those of one of your current suppliers? Is there a potential conflict of interest if a prospective client comes to see you about your primary business, and then you steer them to your MLM as a customer or distributor (a kind of bait-and-switch)?

5.3 Is this something you can be proud to be doing? Look at yourself in the mirror and say out loud “I am Mr. (company name)” (or Ms.) How does it feel? If you feel any hesitation, think twice. Is this a field you are naturally passionate about? Would you do it even if there were no money? If you are only doing it for the money, think twice, because it will be a while before you see any serious cash.

5.4 Are you serious? Are you ready to commit the next 12 months, at least one day a week, to building your new business? Are you willing to invest $5K to $10K over the next year, including going to the annual convention? If the answer to these two questions are “no” then back out now. You can’t do this on the cheap. And it can be a while before you generate a return on investment.

You never have to sign right away. Step back from the table and the glow of possibility, and take the time to do your due diligence. If the opportunity is a good one, you can say yes at almost any time and the opportunity will still be good.

I AM an entrepreneur.

Following a dream, pursuing an opportunity, taking charge of my own destiny.

Bringing something of value to society, making a job for myself and for others, and creating wealth that benefits my family, my community, my country, my world.

One of a movement of millions of entrepreneurs and innovators who made this country great, and who will keep our economy going…and growing.

What I am because many people have helped me along on this journey.

THEREFORE I WILL

Tell my story, sharing my successes and failures, so that others taking the entrepreneurial path can learn.

Strive to mentor an aspiring entrepreneur.

Make my voice heard by those who make policy decisions that affect me and my business.

Appreciate and celebrate my accomplishments and the accomplishments of my fellow entrepreneurs.

Give back to the society that helped me to be successful.

Build a Stronger America. [And a Stronger World.]

– From The Kauffman Foundation BuildAStrongerAmerica.com

For more information

The Kauffman Foundation is the world’s largest foundation devoted to promoting entrepreneurship as a powerful tool to develop individuals, communities and the country as a whole. I found it very inspiring to hear stories of how people of many different backgrounds share a common passion of being an entrepreneur. I’m partnering with Quebec International (our local economic development agency) to bring a Kauffman program here to Quebec City, with the goal to jump-start our local tech startups.

http://www.kauffman.org
Twitter: http://twitter.com/KauffmanFDN

As a solo, I sometimes look with envy to people who work in bigger companies. They have all kinds of resources, so their web site is up-to-date and professionally designed, they have cool business cards with a snazzy logo. If they are a coaching company, they do their events in upscale locations, or offer theme cruises or trips to foreign lands, or hold free events which attract hundreds and hundreds of people.

When I started out with my first business sixteen years ago, I fell right into this trap. It was a technology consulting practice, so to succeed I needed to project an image of success right from the start. I borrowed too much money (which the bank gladly handed to me by the way since my credit at the time was spotless) so I could rent an “A”-class office in the technology park and fill it with custom-made furniture. That adventure ended badly, and all that’s left is the office chair I’m sitting in right now and the brass name plate somewhere in my storage boxes.

Do I really want the baggage of a huge overhead, the stress of always selling to make sure I cover my bills at the end of the month?

Keeping it simple means figuring out what you do best, what is the unique gift that you bring, then discarding all the rest. The French word comes to mind: “épurer”, meaning going to the essence, making something pure. It’s like what makes the “iPod shuffle” series of music players so successful. No screen, minimal buttons, it just plays music.

Bigger is not better, especially in today’s economy. Small is the new Big. It is also the main advantage of being a solo: nimble, quick, low-overhead. We can test out ideas cheaply and quickly, then build on what works.

It takes courage to show who you really are, unadorned by the make-up of fancy business cards or a flashy website or cool offices in the best part of town. It is also our greatest advantage, because business that is based on a relationship of personal trust is much more resilient than one based on discounting and flash.

Stop trying to compete with the Big Dogs. You can’t win on their turf. Instead, do it your own way, and you will attract people who value you as a person, not you as the showman.

Keep it simple. Focus on your strengths. Amplify what makes you special. Small is the new Big.

For more information

This post was inspired by a passage in Jason Fried’s book “Rework”
http://37signals.com/rework/ (see the end of the free PDF sample)
http://www.amazon.com/Rework-Jason-Fried/dp/0307463745/

“Small Is The New Big” by Seth Godin
http://www.sethgodin.com/small/

Image Credit: Roberto Zingales (CyboRoZ) via Flickr
Direct link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/filicudi/3966095552
Used under Creative Commons 2.0 licence

Thank you Mr. General Evaluator.

Jeff Bezos’ presentation style is an obvious carbon copy of Steve Jobs. But that seems to be the tendency for all tech CEOs.

The script was well written. He delivered it with good voice control and adequate pauses. Excellent visuals, well-timed.

What was very distracting to me was his constant pacing back and forth. I wanted to go up there and nail his shoes to the stage! He could have used the stage better to emphasize his points and make the reveals more impactful.

He looked a bit too much at the prompter. This contributed to a “nervous” vibration to his voice, which came through in some of the gestures which were wooden or just slightly off the timing mark. It also took away some of the presence which is the hallmark of the Jobsian style.

I would have liked the pace of the presentation to be a bit quicker, and a bit more punch in his voice control, hitting the adjectives that convey the coolness and passion around the product.

Jeff obviously practiced A LOT for this very important speech. He is not quite at the level of Steve Jobs, but he has the potential to get there.

Overall, well done. I think Jeff will sell a couple of Kindles with this pitch.

For more information

Toastmasters International: http://www.toastmasters.org

Toastmasters District 61 (Quebec/Eastern Ontario):  http://www.tm61.org

Direct link to Kindle Press Conference on YouTube: http://youtu.be/rm92Tnp953c

Image from Reuters

“Remember, our enemy is not lack of preparation; it’s not the difficulty of the project or the state of the marketplace or the emptiness of our bank account. The enemy is Resistance. The enemy is our chattering brain, which, if we give it so much as a nanosecond, will start producing excuses, alibis, transparent self-justifications, and a million reasons why we can’t/shouldn’t/won’t do what we know we need to do.”
– Steven Pressfield, “Do The Work”

As I write this post, I’m feeling the effects of massive Resistance. On one hand it’s a constant knot in my stomach, a faint headache, and a continuous pull to want to go to sleep.

The rational part of me knows I must tune out this Voice of Doubt and focus on getting this done.

The fear is irrational. I’m not face-to-face with a sabre-toothed tiger. I’m not walking a tightrope between two buildings or jumping a canyon on a rocket bike.

All I have to do is deliver an outline for my book, as part of my homework for the Book Breakthrough Mentor experience I’m doing with Janet Goldstein and Elizabeth Marshall.

The problem is that I’ve been wanting to produce this book for too many years. The idea of someday being a published author has been with me for so long that it has become a part of how I see and define myself. Not the “published author” part, but the “idea of someday being” part.

I’ve decided to draw this line in the sand, to move from the “someday I will be” to the “I am“.

However to do so means negating an important part of my self-image, jettisoning a part of me that has been with me for so long. And to replace it with something potential…possible…but as yet unknown.

Making this transition is probably the most frightening experience of my life.

The time for excuses is over. I must ship.

“What you do for a living is not be creative, what you do is ship.”
– Seth Godin

For more information

“Do The Work” by Steven Pressfield
http://www.amazon.com/Do-the-Work-ebook/dp/B004PGO25O

Video: Seth Godin: Quieting the Lizard Brain from 99% on Vimeo.

Article: “Fear”
http://blog.davender.com/2011/06/fear-trust30/

Image credit: alexperuso via Flickr
Direct link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aper3caper/2207870243/
Used under Creative Commons licence

Every time Facebook makes a major change, the question is asked: Has Facebook “jumped the shark”?

The phrase “Jumping the shark” means the moment a product, after hitting a high point, starts a long decline, moving away from the factors that defined its original success. It specifically comes from a time when the 70′s hit show “Happy Days” was becoming stale, so the writers created a story line where the character “Fonzie” went water skiing and jumped a shark. (Well, you had to be there to understand…)

Anyways, getting back to Facebook, the recent f8 conference announcements of the new Timeline profile and the Open Graph apps sharing every interaction you make with music or reading or cooking, all lead me to wonder if we’re in for the “age of oversharing”?

And what has me scratching my head is this: if Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is so intent on having us share every minute of our lives, why isn’t he leading the way?  For example, see the Facebook profile for Mark Z (if that is a real profile). Only very occasional status updates, which do not communicate anything of his personality, his likes and dislikes, and what he is doing now. Why doesn’t he share his own baby pictures, like he encourages people to do on Timeline? 

Shouldn’t a founding entrepreneur be the most enthusiastic user of his product?

What also has me concerned that Facebook is straying away from its roots is the continued viability of the business model. After years of meteoric growth, to where 10% of Earth’s population are active users, where is Facebook going to turn to continue generating revenue? By getting these users to interact even more with the platform, revealing more of their personal information, and viewing ads, of course. Facebook has tons of cash to burn thanks to generous venture investors. But the business model has me wondering if the revenue numbers they report are true. I mean, when was the last time you clicked (on purpose) one of those lame ads on the right side of the screen? There is something here which is not quite right. In my opinion, the business of Facebook gives off Enron-type vibes. (But oh well, Zuck is the kid billionnaire, not me).

Will this mean that I won’t continue to use Facebook? Far from it. I still see Facebook being a powerful tool for solos to communicate who they are and build a tribe. I’m especially excited that the new Timeline profile view can be used as a very powerful Professional Portfolio to demonstrate your credibility and build your positioning.

The general guidelines I recommend for social media still hold true:

1. Assume every thing you post is up forever, even if you try to delete it. Before you post, ask yourself if you would want to read it five years from now? Think “evergreen” – content which stands up well over time.

2. Assume every thing you post is visible to everyone, even if you try to use selective sharing.

3. Only share personal information and updates that contribute to your professional positioning. (This means stay away from the new Open Graph apps or minimize sharing with them).

4. The majority of your posts should build your Professional Portfolio: Education, Demonstration, Opinion, Recommendation and Information.

Remember that the goal of Facebook, Google+, Twitter (or other social media platforms yet to be invented), is to get you to share as much of your personal life as possible so you can be a target for mass advertisers. You end up working for the advertisers, for free.

However, through conscious and selective use of these tools, you can turn the tables and have these powerful channels work for you. Isn’t that going back to the original promise of social media: people connecting with people?

For more information

For more about building a Professional Portfolio, see my article:
“Build Your Credibility By Becoming A Content Creator”
http://blog.davender.com/2009/07/build-your-credibility-by-becoming-a-content-creator/

Facebook f8 conference (via TechCrunch) – one of many, many, many articles
http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/22/live-from-facebooks-2011-f8-conference-video/

Facebook “Timeline”
https://www.facebook.com/about/timeline

Photo montage by me.

It is the custom on this first Monday of September to celebrate workers. However, given the current economic climate, it is also a good time to wonder whether the “worker” celebrated on Labor Day is a disappearing species.

Henry Ford created the modern American factory worker at the start of the 1900s by offering high wages in return for their effort and loyalty. This model quickly spread throughout the economy because increased wages generated increased demand for consumer goods, which created more customers for goods produced by the factories. To meet this increased demand, you built more factories and hired more people. The basis of an entrepreneur’s worth was his square footage and head count.

However this expansion started to plateau in the 1960s and 70s, so entrepreneurs needed to look for other ways to increase productivity. Increased mechanization started the decline in employment. Offshoring muscle-based jobs to cheaper countries increased the trend. Knowledge workers thought themselves immune to the trend because brain-based work stayed in-country until that too could be more cheaply outsourced.

In hindsight, the trend to producing more with less is totally predictable. Entrepreneurs are driven by the desire to create value for their customers by doing things cheaper, faster, better. Innovation is the leverage that allows us to do more with less. This is reflected in the traditional balance sheet business valuation, where machines are assets and employees are liabilities.

Politicians and economists now are piling the responsibility for creating jobs on the shoulders of entrepreneurs. I believe this is a grave mistake. ”Job creation” is not a priority for entrepreneurs. I have yet to meet an entrepreneur who is primarily motivated by creating jobs. If job creation is a by-product of increased sales, that’s great, but it’s not the goal.

In the past the entrepreneur’s power came from the size of the factory and of the workforce. Now you can serve thousands of customers from a laptop in your bedroom. Companies whose assets are a few office buildings have higher capitalizations than the big automakers, with all of their factories, machines and workforce combined. The power of today’s entrepreneur is in the number of users.

What does this mean for the prototypical wage-earner? If they hope to return to the way they were at the core of the economy in the 1940s and 1950s, it is bad news. This first part of the 2000s are all about an economic shift as profound as the shift from the agrarian to the industrial economy in the first part of the 1900s.

The solution to the problem of unemployment and the shrinking economy goes beyond just doing more of what was done in the past. The Old Economics leave too many intangibles off the balance sheet: ecological, societal, personal, familial. We need to invent a New Economics that includes all this and more.

The old rules are gone and the new ones are yet to be written. It may take 20, 30 or even 100 years to figure out a new way of measuring value and wealth.

The future we desperately need will be created not by politicians, or by the CEOs of the old guard, but by a new generation of citizen-leaders who are crystal-clear about their purpose, who are powered by the passion of a big vision, and who transform the status-quo by mobilizing communities of people to build systems that create profit and prosperity for all.

For more information

This line of thought is the foundation of my personal manifesto:
http://about.me/coachdavender

Image credit: Stefan Ray (slinky2000) via Flickr
Link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/slinky2000/2175943057
Used under Creative Commons Licence

With all of the bad news that pervades our collective conversation lately, one might wonder if the end of the world really is near. We are running out of money, of oil, of water, of food, of jobs, of health, of hope…

I was listening to the podcast of “Real Time With Bill Maher“, where one of his guests was the renowned astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson. Dr. Tyson asked the question: “Have we lost the ability to dream?”. Back in the 1950s and 1960s. general-interest magazines were full of articles about “the city of tomorrow” and “the home of tomorrow”. Where is this kind of future projection today? Now we project “peak oil” and “water wars”. It’s like pessimism is the new black, and optimism is out of style, old-fashioned, naive and silly.

Why has optimism taken a back seat? Why do we let the pessimists have all the fun?

The succession of crises and dramas and bad news that surrounds us, even if we don’t live it immediately in our lives, creates a sense of helplessness. The problems we hear about are so much bigger than us, and they dominate every moment of our collective consciousness.

The renowned psychologist Dr. Martin Seligman, in his book “Learned Optimism” describes the distinction between optimism and pessimism as how we interpret and react to setbacks:

Optimism – reacting to setbacks from a presumption of personal power:

- Bad events are temporary setbacks
- Isolated to particular circumstances
- Can be overcome by my effort and abilities

Pessimism – reacting to setbacks from a presumption of personal helplessness:

- Bad events will last a long time
- Will undermine everything I do
- Are my fault

Dr Seligman proposes that optimism is a skill that can be learned, and which must be exercised to grow stronger. In the end, overcoming adversity is not about luck or prayer or someone else coming to the rescue. It is about assuming our personal power, seeing the temporary nature of the adversity and choosing to invest the effort to overcome the situation. Optimism is a question of will.

The challenge is that our collective conversation has turned towards the elements of pessimism: that the failures of the past will continue into the future, and that there is nothing we can do to change this bad situation, so it is better to do nothing.

Which is why I believe that the key to recovery is to re-learn how to be an optimist, to make it fashionable again. Not pie-in-the-sky, wishful optimism, but what I call “practical optimism”, an optimism grounded in two fundamental principles: faith and fact.

The first foundation of practical optimism is faith in a mission – a clarity about who we are, our values and our principles, a reason for being – and a faith in a vision, seeing adversity not as an obstacle, but as an opportunity to define and prove our worth.

The second foundation of practical optimism is fact: that a solution to the problem set before us can be engineered from science and art. Humanity has overcome major challenges in the past, and will continue to do so in the future. Individuals every day triumph over adversity, it’s just we don’t hear enough about it.

The practical optimist recognizes the challenge, but doesn’t let it become larger than her. The question she asks is not “is there a solution?”, but rather “what is the solution?”. The practical optimist assumes success by becoming bigger than the obstacle.

The dual faith-fact foundation of optimism also makes it fragile. The biggest danger for the practical optimism is not pessimism, but cynicism. The construction of a house takes time, but blowing it up is a spectacular show. In the age of the sound bite, being able to point out a flaw or a hole in a plan is easy, which is why cynics rule the conversation if left unchecked. The practical optimist needs to protect his faith zealously.

The past is past, available for all to study and interpret. The present is the present. Tracing a line from these two points toward the future is simple, and it will usually point to more of the same.

However this reasoning is deeply flawed. If the future could be predicted by a straight line from the past, we would still be living in caves and wearing animal skins.

The natural state of human activity is not excellence, it’s mediocrity. Striving for excellence means exerting effort to break this tendancy towards mediocrity and bend the projection curve upward. To move the projection, we need to push with all our might, give it all we have. Half-measures are not sufficient, because eventually the inertia of the status-quo takes over and nothing changes.

It is the duty of the practical optimist to disrupt the projection towards mediocrity by proposing a vision and taking massive action that disrupts the status quo. The practical optimist’s foundation in faith and fact becomes a leverage point to move the projection, transforming a problem into an opportunity, and an opportunity into a new reality.

The future doesn’t have to be a projection of the past. The past is history. The present is just a temporary condition. It is up to you to imagine the future you really want, and to make it happen. No one else will do it for you.

Any “problem”, whether in our society or in our personal life, does not have to be terminal. You have overcomed adverse situations before, and you will do so in the future.

As Matt Ridley , author of “The Rational Optimist” says:
Am I saying that we should cease worrying about trends that might cause problems? Of course not. I am arguing that we should worry about real problems, including Africa’s plight, but that we should do so in the knowledge that we have solved many such problems before and can do so again. I am certainly not saying, “Don’t worry, be happy.” Rather, I’m saying, “Don’t despair, be ambitious”—though I admit it’s not nearly as snappy a song lyric.

For more information

Inspiration for this line of thought:

Real Time With Bill Maher (podcast): Episode #223 (broadcast 5 Aug 2011)
http://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/real-time-with-bill-maher/id98746009

Martin Seligman: Learned Optimism (book)
http://www.amazon.com/Learned-Optimism-Change-Your-ebook/dp/B005DB6S7K

Dr. Seligman’s site:
http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/Default.aspx

Learned Optimism (Wikipedia): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learned_optimism

Matt Ridley: The Rational Optimist (blog and book)
http://www.rationaloptimist.com/

Sarah Robinson: Escaping Mediocrity (blog)
http://escaping-mediocrity.com

Drew Westin: What Happened To Obama’s Passion? (NYTimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/07/opinion/sunday/what-happened-to-obamas-passion.html

I’m currently visiting New York City on business, and decided to arrive a day early to play tourist and orient myself. While wandering around Midtown, I was looking for a place to sit, cool off and catch up with my e-mail when I came across the New York Public Library at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street. So I decided to enter.

In the lobby of the NYPL there is an exhibit showing draft manuscripts by famous creators. An original sketch from Beethoven caught my eye. As I tried to read the melody through the squiggles and the smudges, I started to understand why historians prize these artifacts: they provide a unique window into the author’s thinking process. Other displays of the original manuscripts of playwrights, poets and authors made me wonder about how historians of the future will be able to piece together the thought processes of current and future thinkers if the edits to their digital documents are lost to time.

We value the neatness of the end-product, but this order is the product of messy trial-and-error evolution. Sometimes the process is as important as the product.

Then I decided to further explore the building. You have probably seen the Rose Main Reading Room in many movies, including Ghostbusters (and others but they don’t come to mind right now). It is a tall, wood-paneled sunlit space with an intricately carved ceiling, long oak tables with brass lamps and shelves of reference books lining the walls.

I was in awe. There is something cathedral-like to the space, a hymn to the knowledge and wisdom passed down through the generations.

Looking around, I feel a twinge of sadness. I am surrounded by books, but at the same time, “books”, the physical kind, are slowly disappearing from my life.

I stopped adding to my personal library about a year ago, when I got my Kindle. The good thing about the e-book revolution is that it makes books and knowledge much more accessible, and especially more convenient. Before I bought my Kindle about a year ago, I occasionally read books, maybe ten or twelve a year. Now my little Kindle currently holds about 400 books on business, finance, philosophy, biographies, politics and science, as well as a healthy percentage of novels, sci-fi and short stories. I now go through at least two or three books a month. I’ve paid for about fifty of them, the rest are Kindle “freebies”. The freebies I select are on average quite good. I no longer have any need for paper books, and will not even consider buying a book unless I can get it in Kindle format.

I wonder if, a hundred or two hundred years from now, when EPUB and PDF and DOC files are all obsolete and impossible to read, will libraries like this magnificent reading room still exist? Will paper books still hold the collective memory of humanity or will we lurch forward, suffering amnesia and forgetting the genesis of our ideas and our knowledge?

I don’t have children of my own to carry on my legacy, but the desire for a passing immortality still inhabits me. Which is the primary motivation driving me to produce a book (and eventually several books) with my name on the cover, to be distributed on the shelves of libraries large and small across the US and Canada and eventually around the world. Just maybe one idea, somewhere in my book, will be the key to unleashning the creativity of someone who changes the world for the better.

Every knowledge professional needs to write a book sooner or later. The experience you develop through your practice is too valuable to be forgotten. The path to being regarded as the authority in your field is by becoming a published author.

I expect that most of my sales to of the e-book kind. But if enough dead tree versions are produced, then just maybe I can achieve a little bit of immortality, just like the passion-driven, dedicated authors and scholars who wrote the volumes which line the shelves of this magnificent temple to knowledge.

For more information

Exhibition: Celebrating 100 Years: http://www.nypl.org/events/exhibitions/celebrating-100-years

New York Public Library Rose Reading Room: http://www.nypl.org/locations/schwarzman/general-research-division/rose-main-reading-room

I’m currently in New York for Book Breakthrough 2011: http://www.bookbreakthrough.com/workshop/

The chorus of the socialerati was unanimous: Facebook was no longer cool. Too many grandmas and cats, too many games and ads and noise, too many gurus pushing programs and businesses hawking stuff.

So when Google+ launched as an invite-only “Field Test”, all of the cool dudes (and they were mainly dudes) rushed to the new platform and proclaimed it as the best thing since sliced bread.

People were fighting each other like Filene’s Running Of The Brides to get a precious invite to join Google+. The service, still in a testing stage, reached something like 10 million accounts in the space of two weeks.

But your humble scribe, not so socialerati but still curious about this stuff, managed to get in at somewhere the four million mark. My first impression?

Meh.

Google+ is not the revolution we’ve been waiting for. And it just might go the same way as Google Wave or Google Buzz.

My main annoyance about Google+ is that it is more of the same. Yes there are things like Circles and Sparks and Whosits and Whatsits but it is still the same people sharing the same stuff as they do on Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn.

Here are some of my thoughts why Google+ misses the mark now and will do so for the foreseeable future:

1. Google+ further fragments my attention span.

Attention is the currency of the new economy. There are only 86,400 seconds in a day, and I haven’t succeeded in learning how to walk, chew gum and update at the same time. Recent statistics say that people spend 22 minutes a day on Facebook but only 90 seconds on Google+. Actually, I don’t think that’s quite accurate because of the way the service is used – my Facebook tab on my browser might be open that long each day (and probably even longer) but it is hidden behind other tabs. I use the same window for Google+ as for GMail and other services, so it is more of a get-in-get-out usage pattern.

2. My circle is already connected.

I’m already connected to lots of people on Twitter (around 2500) and Facebook (around 1500) and LinkedIn (around 800). And many of these people I’m connected to on all three platforms, among others. Where am I going to find new people to connect with? By inviting my connections on the the other platforms to join me also on Google+?

3. I only have so much to say.

I’m already using tools like Hootsuite and Tweetdeck to multicast my ideas to Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. I hope soon Google+ will publish an API so I can use the same tools and not have to cut and paste between services. But it will be the same number of updates, multicast to four services instead of three, because I can only think of so many brilliant things to say per day.

4. I resent Google forcing my work tools to become social.

So much so that I set up a new Google profile only for G+ and Google Reader. I’m concerned about privacy, hacking, and especially of the possibility of Google yanking my account because of the fine print in their terms of service. Not that I will purposely do something bad, but I personally know colleagues on Facebook who saw their outpost there suddenly banned without explanation or appeal. I have no reason to believe that Google won’t be as evil, or more, especially given the “free expression” nature of social.

5. What I really don’t like is that Google+ doesn’t bring significant new value added to social.

For progress to be incremental, innovation must be disruptive. The expectations were high when the rumors about Google+ were circulating pre-launch. But the bottom line, as I see it, is that Google+ is just another social channel in a rapidly fragmenting social universe. I will use it, because as a tribe-builder, I need to be everywhere to connect with people. But I don’t plan on wasting precious heartbeats micro-managing my connections into circles.

Facebook may be going through a dip in its record-setting adoption rate. That is good, and would be happening whether Google+ was on the scene or not. Google may boast of high participation rates, but I think that will be due to the “forced” nature of signup, i.e. if you’re a Google services user, you will have a G+ account by default. But will you use it? When is the last time you posted only on Google Buzz?

Will social still be relevant in 2020? I expect so. I remember back in 1999 I was using my mobile phone to access my e-mail on my Pentium II laptop, just like I use my iPhone today to get e-mail. But the fundamental experience is very different. I believe the contrast in social in 2020 compared to now will be just as different.

Unfortunately, Google+ doesn’t disrupt the experience of social enough to start a new paradigm. I’m not worried, though. There’s still eight years left to go.

For more information

In the meantime, find me on Google+ here:
http://ow.ly/5KVyV

TechCrunch: Google+ At 10 Million Users:
http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/14/larry-page-on-google-over-10-million-users-1-billion-items-shared/

Behave On Google Plus Or Your Gmail Gets It (gawker.com)
http://gawker.com/5823121/behave-on-google-plus-or-your-gmail-gets-it

Google+ Growth Since Launch (Experian Hitwise) – stats on page hits and dwell time
http://weblogs.hitwise.com/heather-dougherty/2011/07/google_growth_since_launch.html

Comic from xkcd http://xkcd.com/918/ Used under Creative Commons licence

This is the first post I’ve written and posted using my iPad and the iOS WordPress app. Not bad, eh?

Speak what you think now in hard words, and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said today.
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

Sometimes I look back to decisions I’ve made in the past and wonder if I could have done better. If I knew then what I know now, how would things have turned out?

The danger of this game is that you can’t get a do-over on your choices in life. So the only outcome of this thought exercise is regret, and that does not get you anywhere fast.

However, I realize that the decisions I am most proud of, are not necessarily the decisions that made me richer or more successful, but rather those decisions which where crystal-clear to me at that time.

Those decisions felt “right” to me because they resonated with a wisdom at the core of me. When I made those “right” decisions, the clarity first came from the heart, then quickly confirmed with the information I had at that moment. The key characteristic of those decisions was how it felt… there was an optimistic inevitability to them. There was no fear, no doubt.

Did these “right” choices always work out the way I hoped? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. But I feel no regret from those “right” decisions, and I feel just as “right” about them now as I did then, no matter the eventual outcome.

Other times when I tried to make the “best” choice, analyzing the pros and cons, decisions which were made with the head first…those decisions did not turn out so well. There was always an element of doubt, because of new information coming in, sometimes confirming my decision, other times contradicting it. These decisions felt mushy and uncertain. There was fear, doubt and regret around these choices, especially when they didn’t work out as I hoped.

Which tells me that if I want to live a life without regret, should I follow my head, or my heart?

If I give the authority to my head, I can never make a clear choice. It may be that in the future I learn something about the situation, or about myself, that if I knew now would lead me to make a different decision. Or maybe that piece of information would hold me back from trying something new, from taking a leap, from expanding my zone of possibility.

When man first attempted to fly, it was a process of trial and error, each step made on the information they had at the time. Given the track record of those early attempts, if they looked at what they were doing rationally, they would never have gotten off the ground.

To create the future you really want, you must challenge the status-quo, the way things are right now. Every decision requires taking a leap of faith. And only the heart is able to make that leap with confidence.

Let go of trying to make the “best” decision, and focus on making “right” ones. A “right” decision resonates with your mission, vision and values, using the information you have at hand. Then charge ahead with clarity, commitment, confidence and courage towards making your dream become real.

For more information

This post is part of a series inspired by The Domino Project’s #Trust30 Writing Challenge. Each day during the month of June 2011, we receive a thought from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay “Self-Reliance”, to use as a writing prompt. For more information about the #Trust30 Writing Challenge, see today’s prompt:
http://ralphwaldoemerson.me/tia-singh

Related posts on this blog:

Today Is Not Yesterday Nor Tomorrow
http://blog.davender.com/2008/10/today-is-not-yesterday-nor-tomorrow/

The Stuff Of Leadership
http://blog.davender.com/2005/12/the-stuff-of-leadership/

Image credit: Fergal Claddaugh on Flickr
Direct link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/feargal/5568944462/
Used under Creative Commons 2.0 licence

Men imagine that they communicate their virtue or vice only by overt actions, and do not see that virtue or vice emit a breath every moment. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

When I was making the transition from military life to the civilian world in the mid 90s, and again as I was transitioning from engineering to coaching at the end of that decade, I participated in a personal development program called “The Pursuit Of Excellence“.

Among the several truths I discovered through this program is this: ”How you do one thing is how you do everything“.

There is no dividing line between our public persona and our private life. If you preach one position in public and secretly do the opposite, you will get caught. Arnie, Anthony, Eliot, Mark… The examples are too numerous to be named.

I’ve been getting feedback from the #trust30 series and other blog entries, about how I am sharing my inner thoughts, wishes, fears and dreams with you. The question that I get asked is “do I worry that it will have a negative impact on my reputation?”  I believe it’s quite the contrary. If I’m preaching the gospel of Clarity, Commitment, Confidence and Courage, but secretly I’m hiding behind my fears, then I’m not walking the talk, and people will sense it.

It is too easy for those of us in the coaching and leadership industry to fall into “The Guru Trap“, where we start to believe our own hype and take shortcuts to shore up the image we want to project. It can be a route to quick financial success, but this instant success can be quite hollow. Keeping up a false front takes a lot of energy, while living authentically in our professional and personal life is much simpler and more fulfilling.

Be honest, be transparent, be open, and above all, walk your talk. Business is first and foremost trust. This means developing the courage to be real, in order to create a connection of trust between people.

For more information

This post is part of a series inspired by The Domino Project’s #Trust30 Writing Challenge. Each day during the month of June 2011, we receive a thought from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay “Self-Reliance”, to use as a writing prompt. For more information about the #Trust30 Writing Challenge, see today’s prompt:
http://ralphwaldoemerson.me/david-spinks

Context Associated: http://www.contextinternational.com
I will always be grateful to Kimberlee Faith Wolfe for encouraging me to get involved in this experience, as well as my first facilitator, Bobby Ng of Edmonton,  who gifted me with a set of life principles which continue to guide me today, as well as the many other leaders and colleagues with whom I shared a transformative experience during the Wall, the Advancement, and the Mastery programs.  Context programs continue in Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and elsewhere. If you want to know more, I can put you in touch with the right contacts.

Related article:

Beware The Guru Trap
http://blog.davender.com/2010/01/beware-the-guru-trap/

How Big Is Your Whuffie?
http://blog.davender.com/2010/01/how-big-is-your-whuffie/

Related Book

“The Likeability Factor” by Tim Sanders
http://timsanders.com/books/likeability-factor.html

Image credit: “mikeyexists” on Flickr
Direct link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/63101308@N00/360108233/
Used under Creative Commons 2.0 licence

What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think. This rule, equally arduous in actual and in intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness. It is the harder, because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know I. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Thinking Big” is easy. I come across people all the time who have big dreams. I meet far fewer who are actually making them happen.

The difference between talking and doing is Commitment. To me, Commitment is making what I say I want my first priority.

I’m the first to admit that I have a Big Project that I’m not committed to. Actually, several. I want to lose 20 pounds. I want to produce my first book. I want a life partner. These are all big things I want in my life, that I talk about, plan to do, someday.

It’s the distinction between urgent and important: Urgent is what gets other people”s projects moving forward. Important is what gets my projects moving forward. I have “lost” whole years focusing on the urgent while setting aside the important. These years have been productive, just not in ways that are as important to me now as they were important to others back then.

One’s results are a product of one’s priorities. If you find you’re talking a lot about something you want to get done, yet there is no progress happening on that front, then look at your commitment. Is what you’re talking about now creating the future you really want?

For more information

This post is part of a series inspired by The Domino Project’s #Trust30 Writing Challenge. Each day during the month of June 2011, we receive a thought from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay “Self-Reliance”, to use as a writing prompt. For more information about the #Trust30 Writing Challenge, see today’s prompt:
http://ralphwaldoemerson.me/laura-kimball

Related posts:

Will You Jump Or Wait To Be Pushed
http://blog.davender.com/2010/05/will-you-jump-or-wait-to-be-pushed/

Image credit: Ed Schipul (eschipul) on Flickr
Direct link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/eschipul/2371505523/
Used under Creative Commons 2.0 licence

Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of the world.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

In today’s Wikipediaed world of instant information, we are conditioned to have all the answers we need at our fingertips. Because, if it’s on the Web, it must be true!

But it makes me wonder why the answer which comes from others is more credible than the answer which comes from within.

To trust your own truth is scary. What if you’re wrong?

Well, what if you’re right?

What if your education, your knowledge, your experience, your failures, your successes, your heritage, your upbringing, your philosophy, your mission, your beliefs, your values, your instinct, your intuition, and your vision all combine to give you a unique perspective on the situation? To see what others don’t see?

You emerge as a leader when your truth allows you to see beyond conventional wisdom, out towards the blue oceans of unexplored possibilities.

Truth is not carved in stone. It is invented each moment as humanity moves forward, assimilating new knowledge and new experiences. No one has a monopoly on the truth.

There comes a point where you must stop looking to be validated by someone else’s truth, and start listening to your own.  You know what is true and what you need to do.

For more information

This post is part of a series inspired by The Domino Project’s #Trust30 Writing Challenge. Each day during the month of June 2011, we receive a thought from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay “Self-Reliance”, to use as a writing prompt. For more information about the #Trust30 Writing Challenge, see today’s prompt:
http://ralphwaldoemerson.me/jen-louden

Related posts

To Get The Desired Result, Ask The Right Question
http://blog.davender.com/2007/12/to-get-the-desired-result-ask-the-right-question/

A Thought About Intention
http://blog.davender.com/2008/05/a-thought-about-intention/

On The Right Questions
http://blog.davender.com/2007/03/on-the-right-questions/

Image Credit: Jeremy Brooks via Flickr
Direct link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremybrooks/2551580036/
Used under Creative Commons 2.0 licence

These are the voices which we hear in solitude, but they grow faint and inaudible as we enter into the world. Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members.
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

So what if fear is “False Evidence Appearing Real”
It’s real enough to me
It’s the fear of being incompetent that scares me the most

To create a new normal I must learn a new way of being
which means doing what I’ve dreamed of doing
but have not yet done

My worth to others
and especially my worth to me
is based on what I’ve done in the past

But if I try something new,
my fear is
of not measuring up to the expectations of others
and even more terrifying
is facing the reality that what I’m delivering
does not measure up to the magnificence of what I imagined

Will I let them down?
Will I let ME down?

When I look back ten years from now
I will probably smile at how naive I was
how I was afraid of giving life to my vision
for fear of not being worthy of being the one to make it happen

It is very tempting to cling to the known
because, like it or not, at least it is known

The choice I have before me is to be comfortable in my competence
because it justifies being the person I am now
or to celebrate my incompetence
because it frees me to invent the glorious person I am meant to be.

For more information

This post is part of a series inspired by The Domino Project’s #Trust30 Writing Challenge. Each day during the month of June 2011, we receive a thought from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay “Self-Reliance”, to use as a writing prompt. For more information about the #Trust30 Writing Challenge, see today’s prompt:
http://ralphwaldoemerson.me/lachlan-cotter

Image credit: Loretta Prencipe (LWPrencipe) on Flickr
Direct link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lorettaprencipe/110834144/
Used under Creative Commons 2.0 licence

La montée fulgurante d’Instagram – de zéro à $1 milliard en 24 mois – démontre deux choses:

1. Pivoter, c’est payant! Les fondateurs ont essayé des prototypes pour valider leurs hypothèses, ajustant leur tir pour avoir la bonne correspondance « problème-solution » et « produit-marché« . Ajoutez un peu (beaucoup) de chance, et ils se sont retrouvés au bon endroit avec la bonne offre au bon moment.

2. La clé pour bâtir une entreprise qui a de la valeur, c’est de moins vous soucier de comment créer des revenus maintenant aux étapes de définition et de validation, et vous concentrer plus sur comment faire utiliser votre solution par de vraies personnes. Si vous essayez de monétiser chaque utilisateur dès le début, ils jugeront le risque comme étant trop grand et personne n’essaiera votre offre. Il faut créer une masse critique d’utilisateurs clés (vos champions) avant de passer à la monétisation. Et comme démontre Instagram et bien d’autres startups, il y a des façons de monétiser autre que de faire payer les utilisateurs!

Votre modèle d’affaires et votre modèle financier sont-ils assez développés pour tenir compte de ces leçons?

C’est certain que les leçons d’Instagram s’appliquent directement pour les offres basées sur le web. Et je crois qu’il y a des leçons à appliquer aux projets d’affaires de façon plus générale: si vous pensez trop petit maintenant, vous vous privez de marge de manoeuvre pour grandir plus tard.

Oui, Instagram a su agir rapidement lorsque les possibilités se sont présentées. C’est une rapidité d’action basé sur la clarté de ce qu’ils voulaient, une conviction qu’ils étaient sur la bonne piste, et une discipline d’exécution exemplaire.

Arrêter de penser petit. Que feriez-vous si vous étiez dix fois plus audacieux?

Pour plus d’informations:

L’histoire d’Instagram (via TechCrunch):
http://techcrunch.com/2012/04/09/instagram-story-facebook-acquisition/

Image: Scott Ableman sur Flickr
Lien:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/ableman/144334645
Utilisation sous licence Creative Commons

La recherche automatique ne trouve aucun billet relié à ce sujet.

Vous comprenez que la recherche de marché est importante pour bien comprendre les critères décisionnels de vos clients cibles. Mais pourquoi j’insiste que vous fassiez des entrevues en personne, au lieu d’utiliser des méthodes qui utilisent votre temps de façon plus efficace, tels que les sondages ou l’analyse des statistiques de votre site web?

J’ai beaucoup aimé l’explication dans l’article « Great Companies Start With Why » sur Inc.com
(traduction libre)

« Les clients ne peuvent pas vous dire ce qui est plus important.

Comme je l’ai mentionné, la partie du cerveau qui contrôle le comportement et la prise de décision ne contrôle pas le langage. Donc apparemment des questions simples comme « Quels sont les qualités du produit qui sont important pour vous? » ou « Quels sont vos besoins primaires? » sont en réalité difficiles à répondre. Tout le monde dit la même chose : je veux des produits de haute qualité, je veux un service de qualité, et je veux beaucoup de fonctionnalités à un prix compétitif.

Alors comment se fait-il lorsqu’un produit est vraiment le meilleur, les gens n’affluent-ils pas nécessairement vers lui ? Et pourquoi des produits non conformes réussissent-ils à vendre quand même? C’est parce qu’il y a d’autres facteurs dans le processus décisionnel.

Il n’est pas que les gens mentent, c’est plutôt qu’ils ont tendance à répondre avec ce qui peut être facilement vu et mesuré : le prix, la qualité, le service, les caractéristiques. Un propriétaire de Harley est en amour avec sa moto, mais posez-lui la question et il vous dira probablement qu’il aime sa Harley en raison de sa conception, son ingénierie et ainsi de suite. Pour ceux qui sont maniaques de Harley-Davidson, ces motos sont tout simplement les meilleures.

Alors posez-vous la question : pouvez-vous définir votre « pourquoi » ? Si vous ne savez pas pourquoi vous faites ce que vous faites, les chances sont nulles que vos clients le sachent non plus. »

Cela revient au principe de base du processus de vente:

Les gens décident d’abord avec leurs émotions,
puis ils justifient leur décision avec des faits.

Faire des discussions en personne vous permet de déceler des indices qui vous aident à comprendre les émotions derrière le processus décisionnel de vos clients.

Ce que vous êtes en train de comprendre, c’est l’ADN de votre offre, la différence qui fera en sorte que les clients iront vers vous au lieu d’avoir à courir vos clients. Si votre positionnement se base seulement sur des facteurs quantitatifs, vous allez perdre, car vous devenez une commodité.

Pour plus d’informations

Great Companies Start With Why (Inc.com)

http://www.inc.com/tom-searcy/great-companies-start-with-why.html?

L’article de Inc.com s’inspire d’un TEDTalk (fortement recommandé)
de Simon Sinek: « Start With Why : How Great Leaders Inspire Action »
http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action.html
(sous-titres disponibles en français)

Et sur mon blogue :
Quel est le code de votre projet d’affaires?
http://blogue.davender.com/2010/04/quel-est-le-code-de-votre-projet-daffaires/

Image: « Joe Shlabotnik » sur Flickr
Lien direct: http://www.flickr.com/photos/joeshlabotnik/3342877736
Utilisation sous licence Creative Commons

Recherche automatique de billets reliés à ce sujet:

1. Notes de conférence: « Comment avoir plus de clients…et de meilleurs clients »
2. Vous pouvez toujours dire NON
3. Infolettre (14 septembre 2010): Tribus, Slow-Dating, et plus de bons clients pour vous!

« Il y a des connus connus; il y a des choses que nous savons que nous savons. Nous savons aussi qu’il y a des inconnus connus, c’est-à-dire, qu’il y a des choses que nous savons que nous ne savons pas. Mais il y a aussi des inconnus inconnus, des choses que nous ne savons pas que nous ne savons pas. »
- Donald Rumsfeld, ancien secrétaire de la Défense américain, au sujet de sa conviction qu’il existait des armes de destruction massive en Irak (2003)

Pourquoi pensez-vous que je ne recommande pas de faire une analyse de vos forces, vos faiblesses, des opportunités et des menaces (SWOT), un élément pourtant standard dans tout livre de plan d’affaires?

Parce que chaque fois, les gens sont trop optimistes sur les forces et les opportunités et ne creusent pas assez pour bien se rendre compte de leurs faiblesses et les menaces. Et même s’ils voulaient faire une étude approfondie de ces derniers, ils se situent toujours dans les angles morts.

Ce sont les inconnus inconnus qui vont saboter votre réussite. C’est pour cela que je mets l’emphase que vous pensiez en termes d’hypothèses et de « cygnes noirs ».

Un événement « cygne noir » (Black Swan Event) est quelque chose qui arrive, en dehors de vos hypothèses ou de vos prévisions, qui provoque un impact imprévu sur vos plans. L’événement arrive comme une surprise majeure pour vous, mais avec du recul, l’événement est logique et même inévitable.

La plupart des plans supposent que les tendances actuelles se poursuivront dans le futur, ou tout au moins s’il y a des changements, ils se produiront progressivement. En réalité, ce qui se passe le plus souvent, c’est que des événements imprévus créent une discontinuité majeure, vous plaçant dans une situation où la prochaine étape n’est pas évidente (ou prévisible).

Que ce soit des événements lointains, comme de turbulences en Égypte, ou des chocs économiques comme le prix de l’énergie, une grève, des avancements technologiques ou l’apparition d’un joueur majeur dans votre espace compétitif, ce sont ces « inconnus inconnus » qui finissent par vous surprendre.

Le concept de cygne noir vient du livre de Nassim Nicholas Taleb: « The Black Swan: The Impact Of The Highly Improbable » (Le cygne noir: la puissance de l’imprévisible). L’auteur est un expert en ingénierie du risque qui a commencé sa carrière comme mathématicien et investisseur dans les marchés boursiers, d’où son obsession avec les événements non prévisibles.

Bienvenue en « Extremistan »

Un événement cygne noir:

1. est une surprise pour l’observateur au moment où il arrive,

2. provoque un impact majeur qui oblige une réaction ou une réponse immédiate,

3. avec le recul, l’événement était prévisible, le plus souvent réfutant une hypothèse clé sur laquelle le plan ou le système était basé.

La probabilité qu’arrive un événement cygne noir est directement liée à la qualité des hypothèses qui sont sous-jacentes au plan. Chaque plan est fondé sur des hypothèses, soit conscientes ou inconscientes: surtout le fait qu’il y ait une certaine stabilité à son environnement économique, politique et technologique. Beaucoup ont comme hypothèse que le monde peut être modelé selon une distribution normale (courbe en cloche) – ce que nous voyons autour de nous est une situation moyenne. La courbe en cloche est facile à visualiser, facile à expliquer, et a l’avantage d’être mathématiquement prévisible. C’est également une hypothèse dangereuse. Taleb surnomme cet état d’esprit le « Mediocristan », parce que la prévisibilité de la distribution normale induit le planificateur vers un sentiment de fausse sécurité.

Dans la vraie vie, il arrive tous les jours des événements extrêmes qui causent un impact réel. Taleb appelle cette situation l’ « Extremistan », et au lieu d’utiliser la courbe en cloche pour représenter la réalité, il propose de voir les tendances comme plus fractales que la normale: que l’évolution se fait en segments brisés et discontinus au lieu d’être en courbes lisses et rondes.

Alors que la distribution normale du « Mediocristan » est basée sur l’idée que des événements-surprises sont des aberrations, dont les effets s’estompent dans le temps pour que les choses reviennent éventuellement à la normale, un vision fractale de type « Extremistan » accepte l’arrivée des événements imprévus de type cygne noir comme points de départ vers une nouvelle voie évolutive: le passé est le passé, qui ne reviendra jamais.

La planification dans un monde de cygnes noirs

Que signifie tout cela pour l’entrepreneur en démarrage? La plus grande faiblesse des plans de projet réside dans les hypothèses qui sous-tendent le plan. C’est pourquoi j’aime la citation Rumsfeld au début de ce billet, qui résume précisément pourquoi la guerre en Irak a mal tourné: l’effet imprévu des « inconnus inconnus ».

L’entrepreneur en startup vise à livrer un nouveau produit ou service sous des conditions d’incertitude extrême. Donc en partant, il choisit de vivre en « Extremistan » et non pas en « Médiocristan ».

La méthodologie classique de planification d’affaires veut que notre environnement soit en équilibre statique. Mais il y a un si grand nombre de variables à prévoir et à contrôler, et lorsque vous ajoutez tous les facteurs externes, le problème devient rapidement trop grand pour accoucher d’un plan qui se résume dans un beau document statique.

Le monde réel est chaotique, et il faut en tenir compte.

C’est pourquoi il est très important d’être conscient des hypothèses qui sont sous-jacentes à vos plans et vos objectifs. Définissez vos hypothèses. Recherchez-les. Testez-les. Que faire si la situation change? Ce changement pourrait être à un niveau macro, comme une hausse soudaine des prix du carburant ou une dévaluation de la monnaie, ou à un niveau micro, ce qui se passe si vous êtes blessé dans un accident? Ou un ouragan qui cause une panne de courant? Comment pouvez-vous faire pour que votre planification soit plus résistante aux « inconnus inconnus »?

Tenez pour acquis qu’en étant entrepreneur, vous choisissiez d’être citoyen de l’ « Extremistan » et développez une attitude agile. Définissez un cadre de principes stratégiques pour vous guider dans les décisions tactiques du moment.

Faire du cygne noir votre ami

La stratégie pour les entrepreneurs dans un environnement Extremistanais est de lâcher prise de la planification structurée, et de miser sur une approche agile de prototypage pour reconnaître et agir rapidement sur les possibilités quand elles se présentent.

Taleb est fondamentalement en désaccord autant avec les disciples de Marx que de ceux d’Adam Smith: la raison pourquoi les marchés libres fonctionnent, c’est parce qu’ils permettent aux gens d’agir sur des opportunités momentanées, grâce à un processus agressif d’essai et d’erreur, et non pas en donnant des récompenses ou des «incitatifs» pour les compétences. La stratégie de réussite pour un monde en Extrémistan est de garder le plus de portes ouvertes que possibles, de recueillir le plus de possibilités de cygne noir et d’agir rapidement de façon agile.

Ma conclusion personnelle de la lecture de ce bouquin, c’est que Taleb confirme ma conviction que les entrepreneurs en démarrage doivent mettre de côté le carcan de plans d’affaires formelles, pour d’adopter plutôt une stratégie de prototypage rapide de « Fail. Forward. Fast  » . En accélérant le cycle évolutif, vous pouvez tirer parti des possibilités imprévues et répondre à des événements négatifs d’une manière positive très rapidement. Le cycle c’est d’essayer des choses, puis apprendre, s’adapter et se relancer.

En reconnaissant les faiblesses de vos hypothèses dès le début, et en acceptant que ce qui déterminera le succès de votre projet, c’est comment vous sautez sur les occasions présentées par les «inconnus inconnus ». De cette façon, vous pouvez faire du cygne noir un ami qui ouvre les portes de la réussite lorsque les gens autour de vous sont réduits à la panique.

Pour plus d’informations

Article traduit de la version originale en anglais
http://blog.davender.com/2011/02/dont-let-the-black-swan-bite-you-in-the-ass/

Le livre “The Black Swan” sur Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Black-Swan-Impact-Highly-Improbable/dp/140006351

J’ai vu le livre en français chez Archambault:
http://www.archambault.ca/cygne-noirlela-puissance-de-limprevisible-ACH002691445-fr-pr
Mes notes Kindle à propos de ce livre:
https://kindle.amazon.com/work/black-swan-improbable-robustness-ebook/B000Q2CLQS/B00139XTG4

Site web de Nassim Nicholas Taleb:
http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/

Articles reliés sur ce blogue

Une pensée à propos du prototypage
http://blogue.davender.com/2008/05/une-pensee-a-propos-du-prototypage/

Articles reliés sur mon blogue en anglais:

The Way To Succeed Is To Celebrate Failure
http://blog.davender.com/2010/09/the-way-to-success-is-to-celebrate-failure/

To Win, Think Tactical
http://blog.davender.com/2010/03/to-win-think-tactical/

Resilience: Live A No-Limits Life In Chaotic Times
http://ezinearticles.com/?Resilience—Live-a-No-Limits-Life-in-Chaotic-Times&id=1662578

Recherche automatique de billets reliés à ce sujet:

1. Le chapeau noir c’est votre meilleur allié

Pourquoi est-ce important de faire une étude de marché?

Tout chiffre ne mesure que le passé. Ce n’est pas possible de prédire l’avenir avec certitude en se basant seulement sur le passé. C’est comme si vous essayez de conduire une voiture en ne regardant que dans le rétroviseur.

Revenez à la définition d’un startup selon Eric Ries: « Un startup est une institution humaine qui vise à livrer un nouveau produit ou service sous des conditions d’incertitude extrême « . Puisque vous naviguez en eaux inconnues, comment pouvez-vous choisir l’orientation à poursuivre?

Ce que votre étude qualitative et quantitative vous permet de faire, c’est de bâtir un modèle.

Chaque décision que vous prenez est basée sur un modèle (soit conscient ou inconscient) de comment vous percevez l’avenir. Votre étude de marché, les entrevues que vous faites maintenant et les sondages plus détaillés qui suivront (si vous décidez de les faire) sont tous des informations pour vous aider à bâtir et à valider un modèle qui sert de sextant pour naviguer l’avenir.

Ce modèle n’est pas seulement pour convaincre les investisseurs, mais surtout pour savoir comment attirer de vrais clients qui sont prêts à payer de leurs poches pour votre offre.

Donc dans vos conversations, écoutez bien pour comprendre les préoccupations de vos clients. Utilisez ces informations pour élaborer un modèle qui décrit comment votre offre créée de la valeur pour eux.

Un cadre pratique pour établir votre modèle est de considérer les quatre dimensions de l’innovation: offre, processus, marché ou valeur.

C’est bien d’avoir la confiance pour foncer dans votre projet. Mais il faut aussi s’équiper avec les bons outils pour éviter les icebergs qui peuvent vous surprendre le long de la traversée.

Pour plus d’informations

L’idée de l’importance de se bâtir un modèle de l’avenir est inspirée d’une entrevue avec le professeur Clayton Christensen (« The Innovator’s Dilemma ») sur HBR.org
http://blogs.hbr.org/video/2012/03/disruptive-innovation-explaine.html

Définition d’un startup selon Eric Ries
http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/2010/06/what-is-startup.html

Les quatre dimensions de l’innovation
http://blogue.davender.com/2010/11/les-quatre-dimensions-innovation/

Image: Daniele Civello sur Flickr
Lien: http://www.flickr.com/photos/civellod/5683156333/
Utilisation sous licence CreativeCommons

La recherche automatique ne trouve aucun billet relié à ce sujet.

Vous êtes déjà amoureux de votre offre. C’est normal, vous y pensez jour et nuit. Vous avez investi votre âme, votre sueur et probablement une bonne somme d’argent pour vous rendre jusqu’ici.

Mais votre dilemme c’est que votre marché cible n’a pas encore fait ce même chemin. Vous arrivez d’un coup, puis ce que vous leur proposez doit faire concurrence avec les milliers d’autres pensées qui tournent dans sa tête. Vous dites avoir la réponse avant qu’il ne sache la question.

Quand vous menez avec votre solution, vous obligez la personne qui vous écoute à faire l’effort mental de faire le lien entre votre offre et leurs préoccupations. Elle doit comprendre si ce que vous offrez répond à une priorité pour eux en ce moment, juger si ce que vous offrez fera l’affaire pour eux, et surtout évaluer si vous êtes capable de livrer sur vos promesses.

Toute cette gymnastique mentale ouvre la porte aux doutes et aux objections. Quand vous l’obligez à venir vers vous, la moindre résistance fera en sorte que c’est plus facile de dire non.

Au lieu de vendre la réponse, soyez la question.

Quand vous ouvrez la conversation avec le problème qui vous passionne, vous faites écho aux préoccupations de la personne qui vous recherche activement. Vous parlez son langage, ce qu’elle vit au moment présent. La personne voit que vous comprenez sa situation. Cette empathie fait tomber la résistance et renforce le lien de confiance. Votre prospect est naturellement plus ouvert, et n’a pas besoin d’être « vendu ». Au lieu d’avoir à leur convaincre, vous leur influencez.

Soyez un passionné du problème. C’est la façon la plus naturelle d’attirer des clients qui reconnaissent la valeur de ce que vous offrez, et qui sont prêts à s’engager avec vous.

Pour plus d’informations

Article relié
Arrêtez de pitcher votre produit et faites la promotion de votre passion
http://blogue.davender.com/2011/02/arretez-de-pitcher-votre-produit-faites-la-promotion-de-votre-passion/

Image: par Ninja M. sur Flickr
Lien direct: http://www.flickr.com/photos/a_ninjamonkey/3294014627
Utilisation sous licence CreativeCommons

Recherche automatique de billets reliés à ce sujet:

1. Au lieu d’être vendeur, soyez raconteur
2. C’est la question qui importe
3. Comment faire pour bien définir votre marché cible?

Les médias d’affaires sont en délire à propos du premier appel public à l’épargne (le « IPO ») de Facebook.

Outre le fait que des centaines de personnes deviendront des millionnaires et des milliardaires, et que je n’en suis pas un, je crois qu’il y a un élément important dans cette transaction qui peut enrichir tout entrepreneur.

Normalement les prospectus d’offre sont des documents turgides, mais celui de Facebook fait exception à la règle. C’est un document intéressant à lire – surtout une section intitulée « Une lettre de Mark Zuckerberg« , qui commence comme suit:

Facebook n’était pas créé à l’origine pour être une entreprise. Il a été bâti pour accomplir une mission sociale: de rendre le monde plus ouvert et connecté.

(…) Nous ne construisons pas des services pour faire de l’argent, nous faisons de l’argent pour construire de meilleurs services.

Et nous pensons que c’est une bonne façon de construire quelque chose. Maintenant je pense que de plus en plus les gens veulent utiliser les services des compagnies qui croient en quelque chose au-delà que simplement maximiser leurs profits.

Il continue en décrivant la philosophie de gestion de Facebook, qu’il nomme « The Hacker Way »

« The Hacker Way » est une approche qui prône l’amélioration continue et l’itération. Les hackers croient qu’on peut toujours faire mieux, et que rien n’est jamais fini. (…) Les hackers cherchent à bâtir les meilleurs services sur le long terme par l’action rapide, et en apprenant à partir de petites itérations plutôt que d’essayer d’obtenir la meilleure solution la première fois. Nous avons le slogan « Fait est plus que parfait » (Done is better than perfect) peint sur nos murs pour nous rappeler de toujours rester en mode expédition.

Zuckerberg énumère ensuite les cinq valeurs au coeur de l’approche de gestion de Facebook:

Visez l’impact: Si vous voulez faire un grand impact, la meilleure façon est de toujours être en train de trouver et de résoudre les problèmes les plus importants.

Agissez vite: La vitesse nous permet de bâtir plus de choses et surtout d’apprendre plus rapidement. Nous disons « agissez vite et cassez des pots ». Si vous ne cassez jamais rien, vous n’agissez pas assez rapidement.

Soyez audacieux: Construire quelque chose de grand requiert qu’on prenne des risques. Dans un monde qui change rapidement, vous garantissez l’échec si vous ne prenez pas de risques. Nous encourageons tout le monde à prendre des décisions audacieuses, même si cela veut dire qu’on se trompe des fois.

Soyez ouvert: Nous croyons qu’un monde plus ouvert est aussi un monde meilleur parce qu’avec plus d’information, les personnes peuvent prendre de meilleures décisions et avoir un plus grand impact.

Créez de la valeur sociale: Facebook existe pour créer un monde plus ouvert et connecté, et non pas seulement pour bâtir une compagnie. Nous attendons que tous chez Facebook se concentrent chaque jour sur comment créer de la vraie valeur pour le monde dans tout ce qu’ils font.

La beauté de cette lettre c’est comment elle résume l’énergie qui anime tout le projet Facebook.

Je vois trop d’entrepreneurs qui basent leur stratégie d’affaires selon une analyse des besoins du marché. Le problème c’est que cette approche ne répond pas à la question « pourquoi faire affaire avec moi ».

Zuckerberg a raison de dire qu’aujourd’hui les gens préfèrent fréquenter des entreprises qui croient en quelque chose au-delà que simplement maximiser leurs profits.

Évidemment, la transaction commerciale est importante – un flux de revenu positif est nécessaire pour la survie d’une entreprise. Mais le simple échange d’argent (même si c’est fait par de la publicité) n’est pas suffisant pour assurer la fidélité de l’utilisateur.

Il importe, dès le début de son projet d’affaires, d’identifier son « tao »: les principes de base, les valeurs, la vision et la mission qui communiquent le « pourquoi » de son projet.

L’acte de la vente se fait lorsque le lien de confiance entre vous et votre client est assez fort pour qu’il se sente en sécurité. La confiance se base sur la reconnaissance de valeurs partagées. Votre client prospectif vous écoute et vous observe pour déceler les indices qui communiquent vos valeurs.

En affichant vos couleurs dès le début de la relation, vous facilitez ce processus de découverte. Vous attirez de meilleurs clients, des clients qui reconnaissent la valeur que vous offrez et qui sont prêts à s’engager avec vous. La fidélité se créé lorsque les gens reconnaissent que vos motivations sont en alignement avec vos intentions.

Facebook n’est pas parfait bien sûr. Son attitude envers la protection des données privées, les changements fréquents du système, ses algorithmes pour classer l’information que je vois sur mon fil de nouvelles sont tous des éléments qui m’agacent sans fin. Zuckerberg admet lui-même que sa création n’est pas parfaite.

Ce qui me fait revenir jour après jour c’est la valeur de la connexion interpersonnelle, ce « tao » que la lettre du fondateur exprime si bien.

L’entreprise Facebook est maintenant très riche, mais au moins elle est aussi consciente de sa valeur sociale que de sa valeur monétaire. Et c’est un pas vers l’avant pour la responsabilité sociale corporative.

Pour plus d’informations

Je vous recommande de jeter un coup d’oeil au prospectus de Facebook ici (en anglais):
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1326801/000119312512034517/d287954ds1.htm

La lettre de Mark Zuckerberg commence à la page 67
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1326801/000119312512034517/d287954ds1.htm#toc287954_10

Et si vous êtes curieux à propos de mon « tao », je l’ai affiché ici:
http://about.me/davendergupta

Image empruntée de Mashable:
http://mashable.com/2011/11/30/facebook-ipo-guide/

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La question du financement préoccupe tous les entrepreneurs en amorçage: s’autofinancer ou aller chercher de l’argent extérieur. L’argent externe peut coûter cher, ça prend beaucoup d’énergie et aussi vous devez céder une bonne partie de votre entreprise.

Plusieurs prônent l’approche de l’autofinancement (ou « bootstrapping »), n’utiliser que ses propres réserves et les flux de capital générés par les ventes (soit du produit lui-même ou d’autres services).  Je vois plus qu’un startup vendre des services de consultations pendant le jour, pour financer le développement de leur produit qu’ils font le soir.

L’avantage du mode « bootstrapping » c’est que le manque de capital vous oblige à être créatif. Vous pensez deux fois avant d’agir. Vous demeurez proche du marché et vous ne faites que ce que vos clients veulent maintenant: l’essence de l’approche « lean ».

Mais le grand désavantage c’est de ne pas avoir les ressources pour profiter d’une ouverture momentanée qui se présente. Et un deuxième grand désavantage (qui m’a été souligné par cet article de TechCrunch), c’est que dans le mode « bootstrapping » on manque l’occasion de valider la valeur de son entreprise, ce qui peut compromettre la capacité de lever des fonds externes plus tard.

Les investisseurs ange et VC jouent aussi un rôle important sur votre comité conseil (d’où l’importance de bien choisir ses investisseurs).

Il n’y a pas une approche qui est meilleure que l’autre en général – cela dépend toujours de votre situation particulière: de la maturité de votre idée et de votre offre, de votre marché et de vos objectifs. Personnellement, je crois qu’il faut toujours être visible aux investisseurs — de bâtir des liens, de valider votre idée et de démontrer votre capacité d’exécuter. Soyez prêt afin de rapidement avoir accès aux ressources financières dont vous avez besoin, au bon moment.

Mais n’oubliez pas, quelque soit votre stratégie de financement, l’objectif ultime demeure la même: d’aller chercher des clients payants et de générer des revenus.

Pour plus d’informations

Article original sur TechCrunch:

Why Bootstrapping Is Just As Over-Rated As Raising Venture Capital
http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/07/why-bootstrapping-over-rated/

Et un exemple de quelqu’un qui a décidé de le faire lui-même en bootstrapping:

This 25-Year-Old Said No To $10 Million In VC Cash, Then Built A Wildly Successful Startup (Business Insider)
http://www.businessinsider.com/this-25-year-old-turned-down-10-million-in-vc-cash-to-run-his-start-up-on-a-shoestring-2012-1

Voir aussi mon article

Le financement de votre projet: les Bons, les Brutes et les Truands
http://blogue.davender.com/2010/11/le-financement-de-votre-projet-les-bons-les-brutes-et-les-truands/

Image: « TwoCents » sur Flickr
Lien direct: http://www.flickr.com/photos/twocents/3610983
Utilisation sous licence Creative Commons

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Pour plusieurs, le mot « startup » fait référence à la technologie: c’est cool, ça attire les jeunes geeks en T-shirt (bien sûr ce sont plus souvent des gars), qui boivent du Red Bull et qui passent deux ou trois nuits blanches de suite à peaufiner leur code. Le startup classique, ce sont les « wunderkids » comme Mark Zuckerberg de Facebook et les investisseurs qui sont à la recherche de la richesse instantanée.

Mais le startup, au fond, c’est beaucoup plus que ça.

Un « startup » c’est une espèce particulière d’entreprise en démarrage. La meilleure définition d’un startup c’est celle de Eric Ries dans son livre « The Lean Startup« :

Un startup est une institution humaine qui a comme objectif de livrer un nouveau produit ou service dans des conditions d’incertitude extrême.

Ce qui décrit bien tout démarrage d’entreprise, que ce soit en technologie ou autre.

Mon expérience du startup c’est qu’il y a une énergie, une audace, une motivation qu’on ne retrouve pas normalement chez l’entrepreneur classique. Le startup, dès le départ, voit grand. Le domaine des startups technologiques est le secteur économique qui est le plus en ébullition en ce moment. C’est un laboratoire fascinant où les nouvelles approches à l’entrepreneurship sont en train de se définir.

Je propose de commencer avec la définition de Eric Ries, qui m’intéresse par ses trois éléments constituants:

- Une institution humaine:  Un startup est d’abord et avant tout une collaboration de personnes, du travail d’équipe. Le défi le plus critique des startups n’est pas la technologie, mais plutôt la capacité du startup d’attirer, de retenir et de gérer ses talents humains. Surtout que le startup vise la croissance rapide, d’où le défi de leadership et de gestion.

- Livrer un nouveau produit et service: L’innovation est au coeur du startup, que ce soit l’innovation de processus (technologie), l’innovation de valeur, l’innovation de marché ou l’innovation de l’offre (voir mon article « Les quatre dimensions de l’innovation« ). Le startup vise à déranger l’ordre actuel des choses (« disrupt »), et en ce faisant, créer de nouvelles opportunités.

- Conditions d’incertitude extrême: Souvent, le startup démarre sans une idée claire de comment il générera des revenus. Tout est à bâtir, il y a peu de modèles. Le startup à succès se base sur le prototypage et une collaboration étroite avec ses clients pour déterminer quoi offrir et comment l’offrir. C’est l’élément que j’apprécie le plus des startups, car trop souvent lors d’un démarrage classique on affirme tout savoir dans son plan d’affaires. C’est justement les hypothèses non-fondées qui causent l’échec. Au moins le startup a le courage de dire dès le début qu’il y a beaucoup d’inconnus, et le plan devient plutôt la stratégie de découvrir les hypothèses et de les valider avec de vrais utilisateurs.

La gestion des startups c’est encore beaucoup un art en voie de développement. Il y a autant d’éléments que je n’aime pas de la façon dont se comportent les startups, que de choses que j’aime. Mais, comme j’ai dit au début, c’est un laboratoire fascinant où nous sommes en train de développer l’entrepreneurship du 21e siècle, et c’est pour cela que je veux les examiner de plus près.

En 2012 j’ai l’honneur de travailler directement avec la prochaine génération des startups technos les plus « hot » à Québec, par mon implication au programme FastTrac TechVenture. J’ai hâte de partager avec vous les meilleures leçons que peuvent nous démontrer ces startups, pour que vous puissiez appliquer ces nouvelles approches dans votre entreprise personnelle afin d’évoluer plus rapidement vers les résultats que vous visez.

Pour plus d’informations:

Les quatre dimensions de l’innovation
http://blogue.davender.com/2010/11/les-quatre-dimensions-innovation/

Le livre « The Lean Startup » par Eric Ries
http://theleanstartup.com/

et son blogue « Startup Lessons Learned »
http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/
contiennent beaucoup de sagesse qui s’applique à toute entreprise en démarrage

Image: FounderFuel Demo Day 2011 par « EvaBlue » via Flickr
Lien direct: http://www.flickr.com/photos/evablue/6331633859
Utilisation sous licence Creative Commons

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1. Avons-nous le courage de jouer dans la cour des grands?

En ces dernières heures de 2011, je souhaite que vous preniez un peu de temps pour réfléchir à propos de vos objectifs, de vos cibles et de vos intentions pour la nouvelle année.

Quels que soient vos objectifs pour 2012: augmenter le volume de revenus ou le nombre de clients, ouvrir de nouveaux marchés ou lancer de nouveaux produits ou services, promettez-moi que vous allez faire une chose…

Lâchez les objectifs « réalisables » et visez des objectifs AUDACIEUX.

Pour avancer, il faut mettre un pied devant l’autre. Et pour grandir, il faut aller au-delà des limites de sa zone de confort. Donc pour réussir, votre objectif doit avoir un pied dans le connu et le confortable, et l’autre dans l’inconnu et l’inconfortable.

Viser le réalisable, c’est un piège, car les deux pieds restent dans le connu et le confortable. Maintenir le statu quo, c’est stagner, et la stagnation, c’est la mort. C’est aussi vrai dans la vie qu’en affaires.

« Visez la lune, même si vous manquez votre coup vous risquez d’atteindre une étoile » dixit l’entrepreneur-philosophe W. Clement Stone.

Et j’ajouterais aussi un deuxième élément: gardez un pied sur terre comme point d’appui.

Je vous souhaite une joyeuse fin du congé des Fêtes. Revenez avec le plein d’énergie, car le changement de calendrier vous donne toute la permission pour créer l’avenir que vous désirez et que vous méritez!

Pour plus d’informations

Articles reliés

Comment vaincre son Don Quichotte intérieur
http://blogue.davender.com/2010/05/comment-vaincre-son-don-quichotte-interieur/

Image: DLR German Aerospace Centre via Flickr
Lien direct: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dlr_de/5476084104/
Utilisation sous licence Creative Commons

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