Category: Thoughts
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Why We See Ourselves As The Thriftiest
Over at Cognitive Daily, they conducted an informal poll regarding how thrifty people perceive they are. The most interesting result however is that most people believe they are the most thrifty person they know. Early in my marriage, I discovered quickly that different people perceive the value of certain goods differently. My wife is thrifty…
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Unspoken Assumptions & Improving Decisions
This last week we had several very good meetings with our advisors who helped us refine our direction. Like stepping into a frigid pool on a scorching day, it was both refreshing and shocking. The result was very positive, but I was surprised that I hadn’t seen the refinements prior to meeting. Sometime ago, at…
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Small Is The New Big – VC Edition
One of the significant trends that is happening in business, is that the opportunity for people to create new small businesses that make a living but stay small is growing. The cost of distribution, the cost of creation, and the cost of reaching a small target audience are all approaching free. The ability for these…
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Rear Wheel Differential
This is a fairly simple post today. This video (skip the first 1:50 tells how a rear wheel differential works). I’ve always wondered and found it fascinating. If you’ve always wondered how it works, enjoy…
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The Challenges of Growing Big
How much money did you make for your business last year? If you are an entrepreneur in a small business (or in sales), the number probably pops in your head right away, or at least a method to get there. If you work in a large organization, you probably don’t know and don’t even know how you could know.…
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The Risks of Commoditization
We are simple beings, as such, we like simplicity. But our world is very complex, and therefore we simplify by creating commodities. Commodities allow us to seek out an object for it’s general properties while ignoring it’s specific ones. For example, most of us go to the store to buy milk. When we are…
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First Impressions & A Second Start
Ever meet a new friend, and find out that he is 21, and then 10 years later, continue to still unconsciously see him as 21. It’s hard to reorient ourselves after that first impression. The same can be true when you start a job. People see your capabilities at the beginning and that inertia continues for long…
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The Purpose of Conferences
Fifteen years ago, conferences were a place to do two things: meeting new people and get information that you could really only get at the conference. Today, almost all of the information can be gotten elsewhere, the only benefit is being able to get to know people – to reconnect in person with people you…
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Leading Is Initiating
In my experience, there are many people who assume that in order to lead, they need to know all the answers or be more experienced than the people they are leading. As a result, they are content to do the things they are asked, and nothing further. They don’t feel they bear any responsibility for…
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The Benefits of Dwelling
Most ideas can be rather simply put. Cliff notes have been truncating books for ages. Book reviews often summarize a book sufficiently that you can have an intelligent sounding conversation about the ideas presented with your colleagues. Unfortunately, ideas represented in simple forms rarely translate into change: Change of action, change of understanding, change of perception.…