All tagged Growth
Get funded!
If you float around social media long enough and follow certain cohorts or hashtags, you’d be forgiven for thinking that there are only a few paths to entrepreneurial success - and even fewer paths that are ”right”.
In particular, the pressure is to get funded - or at least that’s the option that provides (is given) the most ’social’ credibility.
I read a tweet the other day about a founder who was worried that his company was growing at “only” 25% a year and, as a result, felt he needed to get bought.
Now, to any objective observer, if you were to set up a business that returned 25% top line growth year over year, that would be considered, without question, a successful enterprise. I mean, we’ve all heard that stat about how 80% of new businesses fail within the first year. So then to not only get past that but to also flourish and grow, is a heck of an achievement.
Today's episode focuses on doing the things we want to do, but don't - either because we're concerned what others will say, or we overthink our own ability to be successful at it.
Sometimes, this thought process is helpful, but more often than not, it gets in our way. Better to focus on what we want and just do.
Today's episode recounts a decision I made many years ago that, in the grand scheme of things, was relatively minor. It was my decision to get - and then remove - my earring before I went to Business School.
Not a huge decision in most contexts, but it was definitely one that taught me about why we make the choices we make - and WHY we should make the choices we make.
Today's podcast takes on the idea of having allies versus accomplices. That is, when we're growing something of consequence, social or economic, real progress is made when we have people willing to give - at some cost or risk to themselves - to further our collective goals. How they become accomplices is the real challenge.
Many times, we tend to think our problems emerge out of nowhere.
Suddenly, the growth stops as those sales meetings cease to convert. Or our quality issues become overwhelming as the returns pile up.
If you compare a song off of Radiohead’s first album, Pablo Honey, and their third album, OK Computer - for example, a song like “Anyone Can Play Guitar”, with “Let Down” - you can hear a real sonic difference.
From the complexity of the songwriting to the musicianship, right through to the production work, you can hear an increasing level of sophistication. Essentially, you can hear the growth and evolution of the band over the years.
I think we overstate the idea of originality.
We’re too caught up in this belief that being original means doing something that has never been done before. That unless we create something profoundly unique - the likes of which no one has ever before seen - then we aren’t original.
We tend to give more thought to the competition than we really should - and I say that with the full (and practical) understanding that our competitors can influence a lot of what goes on in the markets we play in and the customers we serve.
We worry about their pricing and their product features. We worry about their sales activities and their breadth of client access. We worry about their last move, and their next move.
In my last post, I talked about the importance of avoiding stasis in your strategy, that being comfortable with the middle ground is a straight path to irrelevance. Maybe not today, but certainly someday.
So a response - an active, progressive strategy to do something is absolutely essential. It’s essential to be on the front foot and proactively define a clear plan for continued success.
That doesn’t, however, have to mean going after the big boys head-to-head. It doesn’t necessarily mean trying to become THE market leader.
I was listening to a podcast the other day in which the main subject of the show - a storied entrepreneur - made a very interesting comment.
If you have to create an “innovation center”, then you’ve already failed.
There's certainly a value to be placed on growth. On the continual pursuit of expansion.
It drives us to look for development opportunities, to rethink how things are done, to change what we think is 'conventional' i.e. "the way it's always been".
Growth is a tremendous value creator.
When I was 16, I decided to move from Hong Kong to Karachi to study for a business degree. It was a decision borne of economics more than anything else, but it seemed to make sense at the time, given the reputation of the school and my family ties there.
"We are living in an increasingly digital world that craves analog sensation."*
Digital is ubiquitous. From our work to our hobbies to our entertainment to our commerce, the digital-to-analog ratio in our lives has ramped up exponentially over the last two decades. To the point where the promise of digital has now become very much a reality.
My friend, Jane, shared a fantastic quote from Brené Brown on Facebook recently:
''I think midlife is when the universe gently places her hands upon your shoulders, pulls you close, and whispers in your ear: I’m not screwing around. It’s time...
So, as anyone who follows English football knows, my team, Arsenal, is going through a pretty bad patch right now. There are a host of contributing factors to this, which I won't get into, but they've all culminated in a lack of belief within the team when they're on the field.
One of the cool features of Facebook is On This Day, where it shows you memories of what you posted on a specific date in prior years. I came across this one from Kevin Smith that I shared last year:
Where we are is a function of our choices, some we've consciously made, others implicitly, still others made for us (for better or for worse).
When we're kids, we're limitless. We're idealists. We believe.
Fireman. Musician. Actor. Astronaut.
As we get older, we mature, we grow, we learn. We develop new skills, we focus, we get practical.
