Category: My entrepreneurial adventures

What Makes an Entrepreneur Different

The description of Entrepreneurship given by Seth Godin in his post ‘The four elements of entrepreneurship‘ hit a nerve with me.

Basically Seth states that Entrepreneurship is a choice and that there are only 4 elements of entrepreneurship. According to him the rest can be hired:

  1. “Making decisions.
  2. Investing in activities and assets that aren’t a sure thing.
  3. Persuading others to support a mission with a non-guaranteed outcome.
  4. Embracing (instead of running from) the work of doing things that might not work (this one is the most amorphous, the most difficult to pin down and thus the juiciest)”

The interesting thing is that each element taken individually does not make much of an entrepreneur (for example, element 2 can also characterise a stock trader, who is generally not so much an entrepreneur). It is the (rare) combination of those four characteristics that make up the entrepreneur. An definitely, the fourth element is the hardest to apprehend.

Based on these elements, how much of an entrepreneur are you?

[illustration by Gapingvoid]

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How Co-Dependency and Co-Evolution of Companies Is The Way

Being overly dependent from a customer is considered to be an unacceptable risk for any startup or company. In the excellent book ‘Bootstrapping Complexity‘ by Kevin Kelly, based on a comparison with ecosystems, a slightly different view is offered:

(Dangerous) Symbiosis in action: crocodile teeth brushing!

“Here’s news : half of the living world is codependent ! Business consultants commonly warn their clients against becoming a symbiont company dependent upon a single customer – company , or a single supplier . But many do , and as far as I can tell , live profitable lives , no shorter on average than other companies . The surge of alliance – making in the 1990s among large corporations — particularly among those in the information and network industries — is another facet of an increasing coevolutionary economic world . Rather than eat or compete with a competitor , the two form an alliance — a symbiosis”

While I developed my first company on a stand-alone basis, I find increasingly that partnerships are good ways to develop value for our customers and the world. It can be messy, sometimes disappointing (I hate being taken hostage!) but also rewarding and enriching.

I fully agree that co-evolution is the way. Those entrepreneurs that resist collaboration with other entities and try to do everything themselves will fail. Co-evolution needs to be fostered.

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How Modern Innovation Needs Proper Maturing and Evolution

The more I delve into startups and innovation, the more I find the central message of the ‘Lean Startup‘ valid: innovative products need to be confronted to reality soonest, and should not be excessively developed in isolation. The Minimum Viable Product is the way. And multiple, fuzzy iterations are required for maturing the product.

Evolution is the way to achieve success

One reason is developed in the excellent book ‘Bootstrapping Complexity‘ by Kevin Kelly in a parallel with nature’s evolution. “The rule for machines is counter-intuitive but clear : Complex machines must be made incrementally and often indirectly . Don’t try to make a functioning mechanical system all at once , in one glorious act of assembly . You have to first make a working system that serves as a platform for the system you really want . To make a mechanical mind , you need to make the equivalent of a mechanical thumb — a lateral approach that few appreciate . In assembling complexity , the bounty of increasing returns is won by multiple tries over time — a process anyone would call growth . Ecologies and organisms have always been grown.”

“Creating extremely complex machines , such as robots and software programs of the future , will be like restoring prairies or tropical islands . These intricate constructions will have to be assembled over time because that is the only way to make sure they work from top to bottom . Unripe machinery let out before it is fully grown and fully integrated with diversity will be a common complaint.” We ship no hardware before its time” will not sound funny before too long”

It is amazing that this message must be reiterated so often to entrepreneurs, in particular those coming from engineering colleges where they have been bathed in industrial age scientism. Of course the thing is to enable iteration while keeping costs to a minimum so as to allow success within a reasonable financing requirement. And it will take time and effort. Still it is a must.

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How Stuff Gets Cheaper and Experience More Expensive as a Historical Trend

In his book ‘The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future‘, Kevin Kelly reminds us how historically the prices of commodities and stuff have been decreasing, while the price of experiences increase dramatically.

“A major accelerant in this explosion of superabundance — the superabundance that demands constant increases in filtering — is the compounding cheapness of stuff . In general , on average , over time technology tends toward the free . That tends to make things abundant . At first it may be hard to believe that technology wants to be free. According to a 2002 paper published by the International Monetary Fund , “ There has been a downward trend in real commodity prices of about 1 percent per year over the last 140 years . ” For a century and a half prices have been headed toward zero . This is not just about computer chips and high – tech gear.”

On the other hand, “The value of experience is rising . Luxury entertainment is increasing 6.5 percent annually . Spending at restaurants and bars increased 9 percent in 2015 alone . The price of the average concert ticket has increased by nearly 400 percent from 1981 to 2012 . Ditto for the price of health care in the United States . It rose 400 percent from 1982 to 2014 . The average U.S . rate for babysitting is $ 15 per hour , twice the minimum wage . In big U.S . cities it is not unusual for parents to spend $ 100 for child care during an evening out” Kevin Kelly could also have quoted for example the cost of education.

And this historical trend can only continue. The value lies in the actual experience. This is why user experience is an essential success factor for most innovations.

 

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How to Overcome the Difficulty of Working ON the Business While Being IN the Business

“Entrepreneurs know all too well how difficult it is to work in the business and work on the business at the same time. Creating the product, delivering a service, often also getting the word out and developing customers are a full job already. Yet we also need to take some time to step back and look at the big picture — where is the business going? What opportunities might we miss because we simply don’t see them?” says Valeria Maltoni in her post ‘The Seven Deadly Diseases of Management‘

This is of course a major difficulty I live with every day as an entrepreneur. When we get a great mission with a client that takes all our time and most of our intellectual capacity, it takes a lot of will to continue doing marketing and business development, not to mention R&D and exploration of new topics that could bring a lot of value to the business and to the clients.

Still it must be done unless, on the short term, we have long inter-missions with no revenue or, on the long term, the company becomes irrelevant.

I have not found better than a lot of self-discipline, reminders and a list of business development actions to be taken every week. Still I have not found a great magic solution to resolve the conundrum. Any suggestion?

The best situation I have experienced is of course to stop being in the business in the sense of being involved in operations (acting as director and involved in the strategy). This has the drawback of not solving the paycheck issue one has when in charge of his family. However increasingly I tend to try to diminish my time compensated by clients and spend more time outside of the business thinking about how to grow it, because that is really the most effective at the end.

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Towards Office-Less Organizations

Since 5 years I have been operating my small consulting company globally without offices (why pay the overhead when we spend most of our time at clients’ offices?!?). It always seems strange to acquaintances, but that’s the way many businesses run today. In this example, ‘The company behind WordPress is closing its gorgeous San Francisco office because its employees never show up‘.

Working from Home

Working from home or on the road is the new normal. I hope that architects will take into account this requirement for home offices a bit more systematically. Traditional businesses would need to notice. In large organizations I still find people who can’t work remotely using video conferencing tools on their laptops (or even still using desktops!). What a waste!

I am not saying that having a co-located team is not appropriate in certain instances. For example I am deeply convinced that continuous team geographical colocation is an essential success factor in project execution and probably also in certain instances of creative endeavors. But in most cases, temporary offices can be rented out when they are needed. And office space needs to be more flexible – for example project team co-location can be more effective outside the traditional organization offices.

Flexible offices are the future, as is remote work across time zones and locations. Traditional office spaces are due for obsolescence. And this will happen sooner than some might expect!

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How to Consciously Refresh Your Identity and Announce It to the World

Following on our previous post ‘How Essential it is to Overcome Threats to our Identity‘, we can go one step further and actually decide to create our own identity. And we should actually do that exercise on a regular basis, refreshing our identity according our evolution and what we would like to become.

My post ‘How I Became a Businessman‘ was such a realization that my identity had changed and I needed to recognize it. One step further is to create the identity of what you want to become. And with social networks we can even announce this new identity to the world.

I have recently done the exercise. For example my LinkedIn title has changed subtly from ‘Senior Managing Partner and Founder, Project Value Delivery’ to ‘Executive Management in Project-Driven Businesses – Entrepreneur & Business Angel’. It was important for me to recognize for my professional identity that my occupation today is more into leading a few companies, being a businessman and investing in startups as business angel. And that is what I want to do more systematically in the near future.

I believe that doing periodically this conscious exercise of inventing and announcing to the world the identity of what you want to be is essential.

When do you start the same exercise?

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How To Keep Enough Seeds When Harvesting the Benefits of Our Ventures

Following on our previous post ‘How it is Important to Always Sow Seeds Rather Than Seek to Reap‘, let’s remember as well that farmers from ancestral times know that after a harvest it is essential to keep enough seeds for sowing the following year (otherwise famine threatens!).

Similarly when eventually we are reaping the benefits from some enterprise, it is essential to keep some of that benefit aside to be able to sow again for the next cycle. That is something that some entrepreneurs and managers sometimes forget.

This requires some discipline. For example it is possible to determine a fixed ratio of reinvestment, or pre-agree on some new projects. In any case it is essential not to spend that resource on anything else than creating new seeds for the future.

Be wise. Always set aside enough for the next crop. And reinvest by sowing numerous seeds.

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How it is Important to Always Sow Seeds Rather Than Seek to Reap

I like this beautiful quote by Robert Louis Stevenson: “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.”

It is too true that we often focus on the result, on the outcome but sometimes forget that what is important is to sow the seeds continuously. Now some of these seeds will grow and fructify, and some (many) will not. Nevertheless as it is always difficult to know which ones will grow, it is better to sow more than we would strictly need.

I find this sentence to be particularly applicable in the field of creativity and entrepreneurship. It is important to continuously sow some seeds. Some will unexpectedly grow beyond our expectations. In any case we will have created avenues of growth for the world and brought a contribution to other people.

Let’s sow more. And we’ll reap more eventually… but that is not what is the most important.

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How to Create Disruption With Small Steps

In a complex world disruption does happen, always with far reaching consequences. But creating disruption is hard. I am in the midst of an experiment with my venture CleanuC (trying to disrupt the way the nuclear industry tackles decommissioning) and it is tough to change things although it would seem the system should be ripe for change.

One way to look at creating disruption is to proceed with small steps. This might seem paradoxical, but I truly believe that it is the right way to go. Proceeding with small steps relies upon experimenting, gauging the reactions of various stakeholders and improving the model until reaching a condition that is ripe enough to create a real tipping point. It is a bit similar to the Lean Startup concept of product development, in that case it is about disruption.

Moreover the small steps approach is also deeply antifragile as underlined by Valeria Maltoni in this excellent post ‘How Small Things Make a Big Difference‘ that serves as an inspiration to this particular post.

Proceeding with systematic small steps, with perseverance, is not contradictory with huge disruptions. It is just a way to reach more effectively the tipping point. When do you start the first small step for a big change?

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What the Benefits of Self-Publishing Are

James Altucher has written an excellent post about the benefits of self-publishing in today’s world:  ‘Self-Publish The Bestseller Inside Of You: A How-To‘.

I believe all the points made in this post are worthy. I will just comment on a few:

  • Speed and control: from finishing the book to having it available in all e-bookshops globally: about 2 weeks. Of course interior design, cover design etc can take some time before. But it is much faster than any publishing route and this can be a great advantage.
  • A book is the new business card: in my businesses I do not give away brochures, I give away expert books that I have self-published. This immediately raises the recognition level of the person you are facing (and because of the implied value of a book they generally won’t bin it at the first occasion)

I would like to add one from our perspective: self-publishing also allows to produce specific, non commercial versions of our books that are customized for clients, or for testing ideas with a format that is nice to handle and give away. And this is a great help in some instance.

In summary, I am a great promoter of self-publishing and I believe this approach is definitely the way to go for anyone’s first book!

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What are the purposes of us to be in business – my own 10 purposes

Dear entrepreneurs, why on earth are we developing businesses?

businessLet’s start with 8 purposes to be in business (video) given out by Robin Sharma:

  1. Fulfill client dreams (market – 3 top dreams of customers)
  2. Remove Client Frustrations
  3. Refuel their joy
  4. Distribute Value (10x value obsession)
  5. Total Craft Mastery (TCM) (seeing work as your craft)
  6. Build a team of Picassos
  7. Scale a beautiful life for you and your loved ones
  8. To serve humanity and create a legacy

Most of these are worthy and I do certainly adhere to most although they might be a bit influenced by Robin Sharma’s coaching a focus. There seem to be some missing, in particular:

  • regarding the ability to choose one’s path (freedom) and to discover and explore new things and interests that come up as a result of my activity
  • the fact that the team is not only a team of gifted individuals, but also can deliver something great as a team

So, here’s my personal take on the 10 purposes to be in business:

  1. Fulfill client dreams and refuel their joy
  2. Remove Client Frustrations
  3. Distribute Value (10x value obsession)
  4. Personal Total Craft Mastery (seeing work as your craft)
  5. Build a team of worthwhile individuals that can express their talents (Picassos)
  6. Build a team that can achieve incredible things working as a team and expand one’s capabilities with that support
  7. Be free to choose your development path
  8. Be able to explore new untrodden avenues
  9. Scale a beautiful life for you and your loved ones
  10. To serve humanity and create a legacy

Any other purpose to be in business?

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