STARTUPHICCUPS
Wednesday Dec. 12, 2018
Driven by zeal, important work to do, expectations so high, any size business – or for my young friend’s with so much more passion than plan …
Do lessons learned prove expectations are always unreasonable, just plain crazy, or was that just my experience?
When I divert energy from one thing to another to the detriment of others I might conclude the solution is to reduce all those ‘things’ to one thing, then give 100% effort to that one thing. But progress on any one thing doesn’t equal progress on everything.
What if I choose the wrong thing, or right thing at the wrong time?
The other day I sent a note to someone I’m mentoring; offering advice on how to plan and execute a business growth initiative. As I wrote offering help I got reminiscing – my own start in business – my plans, where business actually came from, how that planned venture was a longer slower build with higher costs and lower revenues than ever expected, how best parts of that business came from ‘other things’ we did ‘until the main business got going’, things that just showed-up, opportunities we jumped at. Some worked, some didn’t, but we would never have survived without those things, people and opportunities that just showed up when least expected but when we most needed them …
Ready, fire, aim – Tom Peters’ quote, important guidance but my rendition goes like this: “ready, fire, aim, look around, assess, fire again, aim again, look around again – look for unexpected opportunities and welcome them like you would a good friend knocking at you door.”
New year coming, what are you starting?
