William Wu Personal Blog

Inch-by-inch, this is how football is won.  In the movie Any Given Sunday (1999), Al Pacino (as Head Coach Tony D’Amato) delivers this powerful message to his team at their biggest professional game of their lives:

“… As we get older, some things are taken away… well, that’s part of life, but you only learn that when you lose something.  You find out that life is this game of inches!  So is  football.  Because the margin for error in either football game or life is so small… so small, guys.  One half-step too late or too early and you don’t quite make it.  One half-second too slow or too fast and you don’t quite catch it ‘cause it’s half a fingertip away.  The inches we need are everywhere around us, they’re in every break of the game, every minute, every second… there are no shortcuts… we fight for that inch! We tear ourselves and everyone else around us to pieces for that inch! We claw with our fingernails for that inch ‘cause when you add up all those inches, that is what make the difference between winning and losing – between living and dying… in any fight I can tell you this, it’s the guy who’s willing to die who’s going to win that inch.”

Entrepreneurs must succeed in the same way.  Like the All-Pro wide receiver that stretches the football toward the goal line, any entrepreneur aspires to be a superstar needs to compete for inches to gain ground and to move toward his/her goal every day.

There are countless ways to compete for inches, in How to Become Marketing Superstar, author Jeffrey J. Fox gave a few examples on how to compete for inches for a marketer:

• Make one additional sales call a week.
• Interview one more customer.
• Open the store earlier
• Ask for a commitment on every sales call
• Get product placement in one more store.
• Get product placement on one more shelf.
• Train one more distributor salesperson to sell for you on Tuesdays or Wednesdays or any day of the week.
• Ask somebody in your organization to tell you what they are doing, will do, or did today to get a customer.
• Don’t waste time.
• Never let up.
• Start all over again every morning.

Mr. Fox also makes a point that winning inch-by-inch means don’t let the perfect be the enemy of better.

“When Procter & Gamble first introduced Pampers disposable diapers as an alternative to cloth diapers, the product was not perfect.  Pampers came in one size.  There were no plastic tabs to secure the product.  The customer needed safety pins.  Pampers gradually gained market share against cloth diapers and added improvement, new features and a variety of sizes.  To enough customers, the first version of Pampers was better than diapers.  Depends, for adults, is another product category made possible only by the success of Pampers.

If P&G had waited until Pampers was perfect, babies might still be wearing cloth diapers, and moms and dads would still be stabbing themselves (and their babies!) with safety pins.”

Business won’t grow automatically and it needs to grow inch-by-inch by your effort. 

Paul Harvey said it best: “You can tell you’re on the road to success; it’s uphill all the way.” You can’t coast uphill. Growth doesn’t happen by itself; it requires an active investment of time.  Earl Nightengale also said, “If you’ll spend one hour a day, every day for five years on a given subject, within five years you’ll become an expert on that subject.”

Sometimes, you have to grow that additional inch ahead to know what to do next.  That is, the more we grow, the more we know we need to grow. Serendipity is truly the best way to ensure luck.

The bottom line, an inch gained is an inch closer to the goal and don’t let the victory and business success be inch away.  As Vince Lombardi put it, “… Any man’s finest hour – his greatest fulfillment to all he holds dear – is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle – victorious.”

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Before I started my own company, one seasoned entrepreneur friend gave me a sincere advice that “Startup is harder than you imagine. And if you are lucky enough, your company may get acquired which means that you are back at working for a big company.”

He has a point, but my mid-life crisis was too big to overcome. I ignored the advice and joined the start up world anyway.  Why do people like me who want to try a “riskier” path instead of being content at a stable and reputable company?  Fundamentally, this comes down to some simple reasons as one can expect:

• Be personally challenged
• Building something to be proud of or leave a mark in a greater world, if you will
• Freedom & control of one’s destiny
• Creating a fun & compatible team
• Financial rewards

It has been several years post my mid-life crisis period.  My journey has been fun and challenging, to say the least. My company is still thriving and enjoys a healthy growth. But like raising a child, there are challenges in every stage. Raising a teenager is no easier than raising a toddler.  It seems like, by its nature, success is always a work in progress and one can never be too content.

Irving Berlin, an American composer said, “The toughest thing about success is that you have to keep on being a success.”  Bill Gates also pointed out, “Success is a lousy teacher.  It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.”

A book by Marshall Goldsmith, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There goes over 20 bad habits, of which Mr. Goldsmith believes most entrepreneurs could exhibit one or few of them that hinder startup’s next stage growth. 

I grouped the 20 habits from the book into the following buckets:

Over-competitive: The competitive survival of the fittest instinct that successful entrepreneurs posses is one of the many reasons that got a startup to survive at the early stage. However, as company gets bigger, the over competitive nature can start alienate the employees as it prevents empowerment and delegation that is necessary for a company to scale up.  The bad habits include:

• Winning too much: The need to win at all costs and in all situations. 
• Telling the world how smart we are:  The need to show people we’re smarter than they think we are.
• Making destructive comments: The needless sarcasm and cutting remarks that we think make us witty.
• Starting with NO, BUT, HOWEVER:  The overuse of these negative qualifiers which secretly say to everyone that I’m right and you’re wrong.
• Withholding information: The refusal to share information in order to maintain an advantage over others.  
• Refusing to express regret: The inability to take responsibility for our actions, admit we’re wrong, or recognize how our actions affect others.

Egotism: There is always a danger to fool oneself to believe that the reason of startup’s success is due to founder’s brilliant vision or execution. They overvalue their contribution to the early success.  The reality is that it is never a single person that can make the company.  Most often than not, successful founders attract people that help them become successful.  It takes a very talented team to fine tune the original idea, to prototype, to engineering and to service some early set of customers. Founders and key early employees must remain humble.  Some of the bad habits that entrepreneurs could exhibits include:

• Claiming credit that that we don’t deserve: The most annoying way to overestimate our contribution to any success.
• An excessive need to be “me”: Exalting our faults as virtues simply because they’re who we are. 
• Passing the buck: The need to blame everyone but ourselves.
• Failing to express gratitude: The most basic form of bad manners.
• Failing to give proper recognition: The inability to give praise and reward.

Prejudiced: Entrepreneurs must recognize that to grow into the next stage of the company, some changes must be made.  New set of talents must be brought in and early employees must be re-recruited.  The key is to grow the team without losing the startup spirit that made the company successful at the first place.  Some of the bad habits by entrepreneurs could be:

• Clinging to the past: The need to deflect blame away from ourselves and onto events and people from our past; a subset of blaming everyone else.
• Making excuses: The need to reposition our annoying behavior as a permanent fixture so people excuse us for it. 
• Passing judgment: The need to rate others and impose our standards on them.
• Making destructive comments: The needless sarcasm and cutting remarks that we think make us witty.
• Speaking when angry: Using emotional volatility as a management tool.
• Negativity or “Let me explain why that won’t work”: The need to share our negative thoughts even when we weren’t asked. 
• Not listening: The most passive-aggressive form of disrespect for colleagues.
• Playing favorites: Failing to see that we are treating someone unfairly.
• Punishing the messenger: The misguided need to attack the innocent who are usually only trying to help us.

The common theme of these 20 bad habits is really about people.  It is people that make the vision a reality. People are the key to the continued success.  The ongoing transformation of a growing organization needs to enable the growth of the people who make up the organization.

 “Every day, people will tell you how to be successful.  All you have to do is listen.  And then – act.” - David Carter, How to Become an Overachiever

The past success may not guarantee the future success, but the present choices can certainly affect its chance.  By being aware of our own personality weakness and interpersonal behavioral habits, we have a better chance to avoid the success trap.

“Being more successful means becoming more of who you are capable of being.  Each of us defines for ourselves what it means to be more successful.” – Spencer Johnson, the Present

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Have you compared running a company to grow a garden or sell fish?  Recently I read a couple of books that did exactly that.  Both books brought interesting perspectives that are worth sharing.  

First book is from Jeffrey J. Fox’s book How to Be a Fierce Competitor.

In this book, Mr. Fox describes if a garden were a company, then management that strive to be a master gardener would:

• Be certain of the garden’s purpose (why the company exists).
• Plan the garden (the business and marketing plan).
• Invent in the best seeds and plants. (Hire the best people).
• Use the finest fertilizer. (Nurture the people).
• Make the garden environmentally attractive (a productive workplace).
• Manage the garden with the earth in mind (a friendly, green company).
• Train the beans to grow on poles. (Train the people.)
• Rotate the crops from bed to bed each season. (Cross-train the people.)
• Be vigilant in monitoring progress. (You get what you inspect, not what you expect).
• Prune deadwood. (Get rid of nonproductive employees.)
• Weed. (Weed out the unwanted.)
• Stake the tomatoes. (Support the people.)
• Thin the carrots. (Thin management layers and bureaucracy.)
• Build fences. (Defend against competitions and predicators.)
• Encourage butterflies and bees. (Always welcome outside ideas and pollinators).
• Kill parasites and destructive insects. (Get rid of agents provocateurs.)
• Let the random sunflower grow and bloom wherever. (Serendipity is welcome.  Rigidity restricts.)
• Be aware that every plant is different.  Some requires lots of care and attention; others are wild.  Some are glorious in the morning; others bloom at night. Some are colorful; others are thorny, prickly.  Some blossom early, others bear harvest in the fall.  They are tall, short, attractive, forbidding, slender, round, give shades, need shade.  The Master Gardener knows and appreciates the differences.  (Be open minded, tolerant, understanding of groups and individuals.)
• Live with the weather.  (Control what you can control.  Roll with everything else.)
• Walk around the garden. (Walk around the company.)
• Stop and smell the basil.

Another book is Fish! by Dr. Stephen C. Lundin, Harry Paul, and John Christensen.

This book uses Seattle’s very real Pike Place Fish as its management philosophy inspirations.  Everyone has ever visited this world renowned place in Seattle’s Pike Place Market would know that it is fun and energizing to watch the fish guys toss fishes as part of the sales closing process.

The fish guys, by interacting with their customers, managed to create a place that is fun, friendly, bustling and, joyful for their customers and themselves.   The 4 simple lessons ingeniously illustrated in the book are:

• Choose Your Attitude – The fish guys are aware that they choose their attitude each day.  One of the fish guys said, “When you are doing what you are doing, who are you being? Are you being impatient and bored, or are you being world famous? You are going to act differently if you are being world famous.”  Who do we want to be while we do our work? Your attitude is your reaction to what life hands you, and only you can choose that reaction.
• Play – The fish guys have fun while they work, and fun is energizing.  How could we have more fun and create more energy?  Play is not a specific game or activity.  It is a state of mind that brings new energy to the tasks at hand and sparks creative solutions.
• Make Their Day – The fish guys include the customers in their good time.  They engage their customers in ways which create energy and good will.  Who are our customers and how can we engage them in a way that will make their day? How could we make each other’s day? If you find your energy lapsing, find someone who needs a helping hand, a word of support, or a good year – and make their day.
• Be Present – The fish guys are fully present at work.  What can they teach us about being present for each other and our customers?  Become engaged with all your heart in what you do – and thrive.

Key takeaways for me are:

1. Like gardening, company is not built in one day.  It takes patient, care, feeding and lots of hard labor to grow a great company.  And don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant.  As Greek proverb said, “A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in. “
2. You learn something every day if you pay enough attention.  As Martin H. Fischer said, “All the world is a laboratory to the inquiring mind.”  And “When the student is ready, the master appears.” as Buddhist Proverb puts it.
3. Find something that you can be truly passionate; choose to enter your work place with a great attitude.  You can make a huge difference to yourself and to others.  As Herm Albright said, “A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worthwhile.”

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During the holiday travel, I ran into a fascinating book Improv Wisdom: Don’t Prepare, Just Show Up by Patricia Ryan Madson.  It highlights a lot of what I consider essential for building up a great culture of a young company.

The book argues that human beings are improvisers by nature.  All conversation - indeed, all natural speech, if you think about it - is an improvisation.   Improvisation “is a way of doing things that emphasizes a flexible mind and a sense of humor; it is not a scientific method.”  Observing from her teaching experience as a Stanford drama faculty and head of the Stanford Improvisers, Ms. Madson describes her improvising group, ”everyone seems to say ‘thank you’ often, and ‘I’m sorry’ slips naturally off the tongue.  We smile and laugh a lot. . . . We make mistakes, sometimes whoppers. We correct them or we capitalize on them.  We notice how much others are doing for us.  We have fun. We screw up; we apologize. We get on one another’s nerves sometimes. We move on. We create life and art together.” Image how a wonderful esprit de corps that a young company can learn from!

13 maxims, as presented in the book, summarize how the principles learned from improvisers can be applied to entrepreneurs as well:

First Maxim: say yes

Saying yes is an act of courage and optimism; it allows you to share control instead of saying no to attempt to control the future.  This yes calls upon our capacity to envision, to create new and positive images.  

• Become a “can-do” person.
• Look for the positive spin, for what is right.
• Substitute “Yes and” for Yes but.” 
• Add something to build the conversation.

Second Maxim: don’t prepare

The point is to let go of our ego involvement in the process. Sometimes the habit of excessive planning impedes our ability to see what is actually in front of us. The mind that is occupied is missing the present.

• Attend carefully to what is happening right now. 
• Allow yourself to be surprised. 
• Trust your imagination. 
• Fear is a matter of misplaced attention. 

Third Maxim: just show up

So often it is our presence alone, rather than some special ability, that makes the difference.

• Motivation is not a prerequisite for showing up. 
• Use rituals to get things going. 
• Change your vantage point and refresh your mind. 
• Be on time for the sake of others.

Fourth Maxim: start anywhere

When you don’t know where to start, begin with the most obvious thing, whatever is in front of you because all starting points are equally valid. They begin where they are, often in the middle.

• All starting points are equally valid.
• Begin with what seems obvious.
• Talk to you audience. Don’t give a lecture.
• Trust your mind.

Fifth Maxim: be average

When you try to be perfect, the result is often to jinx it.  Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of good.

• Close enough is perfect.
• Dare to be dull.
• Think “inside” the box.
• Celebrate the obvious.

Sixth Maxim: pay attention

What we notice becomes our world.  Enjoy those moments when your attention is aligned with your actions.

• Shift your attention from yourself to others.
• Keep on waking up.
• This moment happens only once. Treasure it.
• Avoid multitasking. Attend to one thing at a time.

Seventh Maxim: face the facts

Life is about balancing, not about being balanced.

• Accept other people as they are. 
• Work with what you have been given. 
• Insecurity is normal. Count on it.

Eighth Maxim: stay on course 

Use the litmus of purpose when overwhelmed with feelings or confused about a decision.

• Every improvisation has a point.
• Keep an eye on where you are going.
• Ask often: “What is my purpose?”

Ninth Maxim: wake up to the gifts 

Our natural sense of entitlement can be an obstacle. If we experience something as ours, we won’t see it as a gift.  We need to see the contributions of others in bold relief and to recognize our interdependence. 

• Who or what is helping your right now?
• Make a point of thanking those with thankless jobs.
• What are you doing to give back?

Tenth Maxim: make mistakes, please

Do something risky and challenging, something out of your comfort zone, where mistakes are possible (and likely), and to proceed boldly.  Knowing that mistakes are inevitable, and admitting them freely, demonstrates courage and character.

• When you screw up, say “Ta-dah!” and take a bow.
• Mistake? Focus on what comes next.
• Become a confident mistake maker. Lighten up.
• Admitting a mistake shows character.

Eleventh Maxim: act now

What we do gives us more information about how to proceed. The doing itself becomes the teacher and guide.  The goal is always doing appropriate action, occasionally this can mean no action while being watchful for others to act before proceeding.

• The essence of improvising is action.
• Act in order to discover what comes next.
• You don’t need to feel like doing something to do it.
• Sometimes not doing is what is needed.

Twelfth Maxim: take care of each other

Give up criticizing. Listen attentively. Pay attention to your partner’s story. Look for ways that you can advance collective dreams and interests.

• Make your partner look good.
• Kindness is essential during chaos or a crisis.
• Always put positive thoughts into words and action.
• Deliver more than you promise. 

Thirteenth Maxim: enjoy the ride

Enjoy your life, seriously.  We need to be reminded of our capacity for delight and pleasure. Finding wonder, remembering how to play, . . . these are the things we all yearn for.

• Find joy in whatever you are doing, including ordinary tasks. 
• Look for ways to play. Play is essential to human growth. 
• Learning is enhanced when we lighten up.

Planning is necessary (see my other blog on planning), but over planning is no guarantee that things will turn out error-free.  As the book concludes, “Improv points to ways of being more and better alive, ways of cutting through our patterns of procrastination and doubt. It is up to each of us, however, to make the move. . . . a life of meaning and value is achieved through purposeful action. Risk is involved. Feeling insecure is natural, expected - part of the territory“.

Although improvising is not a magic pill for success, it, in a way, reflects the spirit of Zen that teaches how to be in harmony with the nature flow now, to work together moment by moment without a known formula, and to have fun!  To re-quote Charles Darwin’s famous saying,

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives…In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.”

You can read a free chapter of this wonderful book here.  There are also videos from youtube available and here is a shorter video for your reference.

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An entrepreneur’s initial challenge is to do two things: first, to envision the future and enroll people to make that future become reality, and second, to engage people in the business so that they see the organization’s success as the platform for their success.

To enroll people means that you need to recruit those who believe in your endeavor and can help you realize the dream. Anyone who has done a lot of recruiting knows that recruiting is really more of an art than a science; there is no hiring process that is going to be perfect all the time.  You have to develop your own ability and instinct by observing the success and failure of your past hires.  Some of your hires will be highly successful, but a few will not do that well. The goal is to consistent refine your effectiveness in screening candidates so you can continuously improve your hit rate.

Over the years, I have had many opportunities in hiring and recruiting people.  My early years at Microsoft gave me lots of practice about how to conduct good interviews and assess a person’s core skills.  Later when I became an “As Appropriate” (a term referring to the last hiring manager in the Microsoft Interview loop), I learned how to assess a candidate’s overall fitness for the company.

Recruiting at Microsoft, however, was very different from recruiting at a startup. At Microsoft, we had no shortage of people wanting to join.  Microsoft was and still is a top-rated, well-established company filled with exceptionally bright people and wonderful benefits. My success criterion as a Microsoft hiring manager was to hire only exceptionally qualified “A” players for the company.  My hiring philosophy is basically the classical “A + A = A.  Only Hire A’s” strategy.  Here, the first A is for “ability” and the second A is for “attitude.”  The right ability plus the right attitude adds up to an “A” player.  “A” players are smart, savvy, motivated, and hardworking, and, most importantly, they get the job done.   

David Ogilvy describes this type of hiring elegantly. “If each of us hires people who are smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs.  But if each of us hires people who are bigger than we are, we shall become a company of giants.”

Later, when I started recruiting for our startup company, the simple “A + A = A” formula became necessary but not sufficient.  We cannot pretend that “A” players will naturally gravitate toward our little-known company, nor could we afford to hire all those “A” players at all cost.  Many A players don’t want to bet their careers on a small young company with lots of uncertainties and lesser benefits if job safety and the chance to work in a thousand-person team are at the top of their mind. We quickly realized that the people who will work for us are those like-minded people wanting to pursue an entrepreneurial career.  These people are confident in their own ability to succeed and are willing to take some risks for personal growth, financial upside and an environment where their efforts directly impact the success of the company. 

This realization has led me to come up with my own hiring philosophy now, one that caters more to the startup world.  I call this “the HAPPY Recruiting Principles”:

William Wu’s H.A.P.P.Y. Recruiting Principles

Here is a quick explanation of what the H.A.P.P.Y. stand for:

• “H” stands for “Hunger”.  This is the first thing that I look for to see if the candidate has an appetite for an entrepreneurial endeavor.  When animals go hunting together, those that are hungry tend to be in front of the pack.  Startups are all about hunting for new grounds, so we need those people who are willing to go all out to make things happen.  Our best employees are often those who have tried the hardest to convince us that they can do their jobs better than anyone else.  Their hunger and determination to join of our team often got me energized as well. 

Like Napolean Hill said, “The starting point of all achievement is desire. Keep this in mind. Weak desires bring weak results, just as a small fire brings a small amount of heat.” We look for those with a lot of fires and desires.  Simply put, “No fire.  No hire!”

• “A” stands for candidate’s “Applicability”.  The applicability refers to the transferrable skills and knowledge possessed by a candidate that can be directly applied to the new job. Skills are the how-to’s of a role.  They are capabilities that can be transferred from one person to another. The knowledge is simply what a candidate is aware of.  There are 2 kinds of knowledge: factual – things a candidate knows; and experiential knowledge – a candidate past work experience.  Skills and knowledge can easily be taught. More applicability means less ramp-up time and easier adjustment into the role.   

• The first “P” is about a candidate’s natural talent which includes “Personality, Problem-solving and People Management”.
  • Personality reflects in a candidate’s striving talent. Some people are competitive in nature; others like to go with the flows.  Different roles require different types of personality to succeed.  Each personality comes with its strength and weakness. 
  • Problem solving reflects in a candidate’s thinking talent and the ability to navigate through tough technical challenges or business trade-offs daily.
  • People management reflects in a candidate’s ability to connect with other people and to work effectively with customers or other team members. 

These 3 P’s are neither trainable nor changeable. Marcus Buckingham & Curt Coffman’s excellent book First, Break All the Rules stressed on the importance of matching every role with the talents required to succeed. 

To quote from the book,
 “Great managers know:
People don’t change that much.
Don’t waste time trying to put in what was left out.
Try to draw out what was left in.
That is hard enough.”

As is often said by a basketball coach to his players, “I can teach you how to play great basketball, but I cannot make you taller.” 

What separates an “A” player from an ordinary player is that the player not only has the skills and knowledge, but also has the talent.  They are the Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods to their sports.  

• The 2nd “P” stands for “Passion”.  A truly outstanding candidate must love and be proud of his/her own profession. For example, great testers must enjoy the problem solving aspect of exercise that challenges them to break the system and find bugs before their target customers.

To quote E. M. Forster, “One person with passion is better than forty people merely interested.” Ralph Waldo Emerson also said, “Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.”  Passionate people are infectious people.  They raise the bar of excellence and lift the spirit of the entire organization.

• The final “Y” is about “YOU”, the candidate.  Yes, no one in the world can help a candidate to decide if he or she should join any company.  A candidate needs to ask himself or herself honestly:
  • “What’s unique requirement of the job that can stretch my ability and challenge me to grow out of my comfortable zone?”
  • “What is the culture of the organization and the key people that I will work with and can I learn from them?”
  • “Do I fundamentally believe in this company’s vision and where it is going?  Do I understand the marketing forces in this company’s industry, including competitions, eco-systems and trends?”
  • “Does this job uniquely reflect my interests, skills, talents, capacities and match my true passion?”
  • “Do I have the support of my loved ones to pursue this career path?”
  • “Does my conscience tell me this is a career pursuit worthy of being committed to?”

Only the candidate can truly answer these questions.

Like Andre Gide said, “Do you think your truth can be found by anyone else?”

The HAPPY framework allows a candidate and me to discuss frankly about the mutual interests and possibilities.  When we both feel right, it creates a win-win situation for everyone. 

HAPPY recruiting!

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Business Week recently had a cover story on the new book by Jim Collin, the renowned author of Good to Great and Build to Last.  His new book on HOW THE MIGHT FALL – A Primer of Warning Signs.  Mr. Collin provides insightful findings on the key question: “How do you know your company is already on the path of decline?”

According to Mr. Collin’s research, there are 5 stages of declines that companies go through.  Here are the excerpts from the business article:

“STAGE 1: HUBRIS BORN OF SUCCESS

Great enterprises can become insulated by success; accumulated momentum can carry an enterprise forward for a while, even if its leaders make poor decisions or lose discipline. Stage 1 kicks in when people become arrogant, regarding success virtually as an entitlement, and they lose sight of the true underlying factors that created success in the first place. When the rhetoric of success (”We’re successful because we do these specific things”) replaces penetrating understanding and insight (”We’re successful because we understand why we do these specific things and under what conditions they would no longer work”), decline will very likely follow. Luck and chance play a role in many successful outcomes, and those who fail to acknowledge the role luck may have played in their success—and thereby overestimate their own merit and capabilities—have succumbed to hubris.

STAGE 2: UNDISCIPLINED PURSUIT OF MORE

Hubris from Stage 1 (”We’re so great, we can do anything!”) leads right to Stage 2, the Undisciplined Pursuit of More—more scale, more growth, more acclaim, more of whatever those in power see as “success.” Companies in Stage 2 stray from the disciplined creativity that led them to greatness in the first place, making undisciplined leaps into areas where they cannot be great or growing faster than they can achieve with excellence—or both. When an organization grows beyond its ability to fill its key seats with the right people, it has set itself up for a fall. Although complacency and resistance to change remain dangers to any successful enterprise, overreaching better captures how the mighty fall.

STAGE 3: DENIAL OF RISK AND PERIL

As companies move into Stage 3, internal warning signs begin to mount, yet external results remain strong enough to “explain away” disturbing data or to suggest that the difficulties are “temporary” or “cyclic” or “not that bad,” and “nothing is fundamentally wrong.” In Stage 3, leaders discount negative data, amplify positive data, and put a positive spin on ambiguous data. Those in power start to blame external factors for setbacks rather than accept responsibility. The vigorous, fact-based dialogue that characterizes high-performance teams dwindles or disappears altogether. When those in power begin to imperil the enterprise by taking outsize risks and acting in a way that denies the consequences of those risks, they are headed straight for Stage 4.

STAGE 4: GRASPING FOR SALVATION

The cumulative peril and/or risks gone bad of Stage 3 assert themselves, throwing the enterprise into a sharp decline visible to all. The critical question is: How does its leadership respond? By lurching for a quick salvation or by getting back to the disciplines that brought about greatness in the first place? Those who grasp for salvation have fallen into Stage 4. Common “saviors” include a charismatic visionary leader, a bold but untested strategy, a radical transformation, a dramatic cultural revolution, a hoped-for blockbuster product, a “game-changing” acquisition, or any number of other silver-bullet solutions. Initial results from taking dramatic action may appear positive, but they do not last. STAGE 5: CAPITULATION TO IRRELEVANCE OR DEATH

The longer a company remains in Stage 4, repeatedly grasping for silver bullets, the more likely it will spiral downward. In Stage 5, accumulated setbacks and expensive false starts erode financial strength and individual spirit to such an extent that leaders abandon all hope of building a great future. In some cases the company’s leader just sells out; in other cases the institution atrophies into utter insignificance; and in the most extreme cases the enterprise simply dies outright. “

One of the key assertion by Mr. Collin is that “Every institution is vulnerable, no matter how great. There is no law of nature that the most powerful will inevitably remain at the top. Anyone can fall, and most eventually do.” 

The Chinese philosopher Lau Tsz has this famous quote in the Tao Te Ching:

“He who stands on tiptoe is not steady.
He who strides cannot maintain the pace.
He who makes a show is not enlightened.
He who is self-righteous is not respected.
He who boasts achieves nothing.
He who brags will not endure.”

Bill Gates echoed this idea when he said, “Success is a lousy teacher.  It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.” 

Companies don’t need to get big to fail.   Entrepreneurs must learn the lessons from the failure of the Mighty and they must keep a sharp focus on growing companies sensibly.  A quote from Anita Roddick sums it up nicely:

“Nobody talks of entrepreneurship as survival, but that’s exactly what it is and what nurtures creative thinking.” 

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As economy getting worse these days, it proves that big companies are no more safer than small companies. Think about all the bankruptcy news recently for those billion-dollar corporations that were once consider life-long employers by many people. No more.  Tough financial outlook is going to force companies at any size to operate lean, efficient and find creative ways to grow.  Only those that follow Charles Darwin’s evolution principle will likely to survive and come out stronger: 

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives…In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.”

An excellent book “Deep Survival – Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why” by Laurence Gonzales provides some excellent insights by showing true stories of miraculous, endurance and sudden death.
In the appendix section, Mr. Gonzales concluded his 12 rules of Adventure/Survival. You can read it in more detail from http://www.deepsurvival.com/

1. Perceive, believe (look, see, believe)
2. Stay calm (use humor, use fear to focus)
3. Think/analyze/plan (get organized; set up small, manageable tasks)
4. Take correct, decisive action (be bold and cautious while carrying out tasks)
5. Celebrate your successes (take joy in completing tasks)
6. Count your blessings (be grateful – you’re alive)
7. Play (sing, play mind games, recite poetry, count anything, do mathematical problems in your head)
8. See the beauty (remember: it’s a vision quest)
9. Believe that you will succeed (develop a deep conviction that you’ll live)
10. Surrender (let go of your fear of dying: “put away the pain”)
11. Do what is necessary (be determined; have the will and the skill)
12. Never give up (let nothing break your spirit)

A few quotes that reinforce these rules:

• “Hope never abandons you; you abandon it.”
  ~George Weinberg

• “When things go wrong as they sometimes will;
  When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill;
  When the funds are low, and the debts are high
  And you want to smile, but have to sigh;
  When care is pressing you down a bit-
  Rest if you must, but do not quit.
  Success is failure turned inside out;
  The silver tint of the clouds of doubt;
  And you can never tell how close you are
  It may be near when it seems so far;
  So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit-
  It’s when things go wrong that you must not quit.” ~”Don’t Quit,” Author Unknown

• “Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.”
  ~Dale Carnegie

Smart entrepeurners know that if a business is not growing, then it is in a survival mode.  Success is about surviving one day at a time and many days in a roll .  As Life’s little instruction book said it best, “Never give up on anybody. Miracles happen every day.”  Keep your hope, be persistent and trust that miracles will happen to those that put themselve in a lucky position even in the most unlucky position.

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I love travel and have been faithfully following the Dalai Lama’s recommendation, “Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.” In addition to many fun memories that my family collected along the way, there are some lessons that I learned from these trips that seem to be applicable to entrepreneurships.

1. Who you travel with makes all the difference.

First and foremost, it is all about the people you meet along the way. Great travel experiences come from the great people you share them with: your fellow travelers, fascinating guides, great local people and the unique characters you meet along the route. Wherever you go, the people make the difference. This is what the Scottish novelist and poet Robert Louis Stevenson meant when he said, “We are all travelers in the wilderness of this world, and the best we can find in our travels is our honest friend.”

I recall times when our tour was not organized well. Planes were delayed; bus rides were way too long, the scenery was boring, and so on. However, every time when these situations happened, they provided me with great opportunities to chat with my fellow travelers in a more intimate way and also allowed our family to spend good quality time to chat and play games together.

An entrepreneurial venture requires a team of people that are willing to hazard the journey and share the good times and the bad times together. Sir Ernest Shackleton knew this well when he put a recruiting notice for his 1914 Antarctica Expedition: “Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages. Bitter Cold. Long months of complete darkness. Constant danger. Safe return doubtful. Honor and recognition in case of success.” You really need a team of people that you are willing to bet your career on and trust them to be able to share the ups and downs along the way.

Like Tim Cahill said, “A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.”

2. Your attitude determines what you see.

Before you travel to your destination, it is important to set a realistic expectation of what you hope to see. Every trip that I have been on always had some unforeseen surprises and not all of the surprises were good. Unfamiliar culture, jet lag on long flights, and constantly changing situations can put a lot of stress on a person both mentally and physically. Maintaining a positive attitude enables you to really appreciate what you experience – good and bad, for the duration of your travel. A short story illustrates this well:

“An old philosopher was tending his front garden on the road between Thebes and Athens.

A passing traveler hailed him over the wall.

“Old man,” said the traveler, “I am heading for Athens and have never visited. What are the people like there?”

The old man stands up: “How did you find the people back in Thebes?” he asks.

“They were the worst people you can imagine; you can’t trust them and they’d steal the clothes off your back,” said the traveller. 

“Ah. I’m sorry to tell you that you will find the people of Athens exactly the same,” said the old man, and bent back to his work.

A little later another traveler passes the front gate.

“Old man,” said the traveler, “I am heading for Athens and have never visited. What are the people like there?”

“How did you find the people back in Thebes?” asks the old man again. 

“Ah, the best of folk,” smiled the traveler. “Kind, welcoming, good company…I will miss them.”

“Then I am delighted to say,” smiled the old man, “that you will find the people of Athens exactly the same.”

A business is a true reflection of the leader him/herself. Good entrepreneurs look in the mirror everyday and know ‘You see the world as you are, not as it is.’

If you can have a team of people that is keen, committed and involved — and these attitudes are supported, respected, encouraged and rewarded by the entrepreneurs themselves— your journey is more likely to be successful.

Like Nikos Kazantzakis said, “Every perfect traveler always creates the country where he travels.”

3. Which path you pick does matter.

John D. Rockfeller Jr. has this famous quote: “If you want to succeed you should strike out on new paths rather than travel the worn paths of accepted success.” Sometimes you need to be willing to go to places where it is less crowded and less traveled to really understand and appreciate the local cultures. This means you travel just a bit farther than the heavy tourist areas, even a 30-minute train ride to a nearby town will often surprise you and make your journey all the more memorable.

The secret of picking a different path however, should not be done randomly. To really know where you are going without getting lost in a foreign land requires plenty of planning in advance. You need to be willing to research and understand the risks before you go.

Or if you truly want to be different, you do what Ralph Waldo Emerson suggested, “Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”

4. How and where you travel is a function of what you are willing to give.

How you travel is really dictated by 3 basic factors: time, money and health. Starting a business requires the same ingredients. Going to see the Pyramids requires a complete different scale of time, money and health than, say, a visit to your nearby state park in an afternoon. Both could be fun. But if you are planning to take a long flight to a far away land, be sure you are well-prepared – do it when you can since time waits for no one; save enough money to at least get you going; and do it because you have the physical strength to walk, bike or climb to experience the thrill since many of the best ancient wonders in the world that I know unfortunately were not designed for accessibility.

As an entrepreneur, you must be willing to give up your evening or weekends in exchange of time required when the opportunities demand it. You must have enough funding and be able to sustain it long enough to see it through. And, from my personal experience, even after you have spent all you can, you may still come away from reality that everything does cost twice as much, take twice as long and yield half of the results you expect.

So judge your success not by how much you have accomplished, but by how much you have to give up accomplishing the success.

5. Be a traveler, not a tourist.

G. K. Chesterton said, “The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see.” It is important to recognize that elsewhere in the world; the pace is often not what we are accustomed to. For example, planes and trains don’t necessary follow a schedule; traffic mess in Seattle is no comparison to sharing your 2-lane roads with 4-lanes of vehicles of all kinds plus donkeys, cows and camels in other emerging countries. To truly enjoy the journey, you need to learn how to adapt and enjoy every moment. Be a real traveler, and not a tourist. A traveler adapts to the environment and a tourist expects the others to adapt to him. Have you ever heard of “when in Rome, be a Roman?”

Starting a new business is like traveling to a thrilling place that you have never been before. There are many things in life that will catch your eyes but in the end only a few that will catch your heart… make sure you pursue those heart-felt opportunities. A famous Arabic proverb says it best, “The dawn does not come twice to awaken a man.” Learn to adapt and learn to seize opportunity. Like great travelers, smart entrepreneurs appreciate every opportunity. They turn every set back into a great learning opportunity and every win as a small celebration.

Measure your travel not by the miles that you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.

Finally, some people just don’t enjoy traveling at all for whatever reasons. They know how to find ways to enjoy life without going far. So ask yourself, do you have the passion and what it takes to go on a potential life-changing trip? If you don’t, then it is probably a waste of your time, energy and effort. This is what Martha Graham meant when she said, “Great dancers are not great dancers because of their technique; they are great because of their passion.” Great entrepreneurs know that they start a business because they have the passion to do it better than others. The do what they love and they love what they do.

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Here is a nice little children’s story called Goose by Molly Bang. 

It is a story of a little goose who had to leave home to find out what no one could teach her.

“On a dreadfully dark and stormy night, an egg was blown right out of its nest.  It rolled and rolled and rolled down a deep deep hole, until it landed in a den of woodchucks, where a baby goose hatched out!

That baby goose was adored by her new brothers and sisters and by her new momma and poppa, who taught her everything they thought a youngster should know.  And that little goose learned very, very well.

But the goose was often sad.  She felt different from everyone else, and nothing could make her feel better.  Her family tried to make her happy, but they couldn’t.  Her friends tried to make her happy, but they couldn’t. So the goose set off into the world to see what she could figure out by herself.

Things only got worse – and worse.  All alone, the goose felt sadder and sadder.  She was so lonely, she didn’t notice where she was going.  She lost her footing and fell!  Down, down, down she dropped, falling toward the ocean below.

Fighting to stay aloft, she flailed and flapped her wings, and found out – she could FLY!
So she flew and flew and flew, all the way home. 

You know, that goose surprised everyone, especially herself.”

Many entrepreneurs are like the goose in the story.  Startups are a different breed than your typical established large companies.  Too many startups want to mimic what big companies do and, statistically speaking, most big companies are somewhat mediocre and slow to innovate.  The people and policies that work for big companies are often the things that work against startups.  Startups must find their own ways to succeed, although this is often hard and challenging.  On the other hand, entrepreneurs must realize that the best platform to stand on is your own two feet and the best hands to work with are your own hands.

Although the goose succeeded to discover herself pretty much by accident, at least she was not afraid to venture out to find her own path.  Many people are not very successful in life because they happen to be most afraid of taking risks.  They have made themselves failure proof.  They know they can not fall from the bottom, so this gives them a false sense of security they want.  The fact is, taking a risk is little risk at all, and it is a chance you give to yourself.  If you take it, you will either be successful or be wiser assuming you have the courage and faith in your ability to learn.

Of course the aimless way the goose used to discover herself is not the best way, smart entrepreneurs can do better than that.  They are smart enough to know that taking risks does not have to be super risky since there is a fundamental difference between foolhardy and taking calculated risks.  If you have faith in your own ability to learn from mistakes, you will be able to plan for the consequences just in case that it does not turn out your way. When you learn from your failure, they pave new ways to success. 

Andre Gide, a French author and winner of the Nobel Prize in literature in 1947, once said, “One doesn’t discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of shore for a very long time.” The value of your goal is the path you take to reach it. The rockier the path, the stronger you’ll grow.  Move forward.  Take Action.  Learn to learn.  As Maxell Maltz, an Americans motivational author, put it, “The most delightful surprise in life is to suddenly recognize your own worth.”

Warren Buffett once spoke at the University of Washington, “Everybody here has the ability to do anything I do and much beyond.  Some of you will and some of you won’t. For those who won’t, it will be because you get in your own way, not because the world doesn’t allow you.” 

You can either get in your own way or succeed on your own way.  The choice should be clear!

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What’s the best economic time to start a company? Boom time or down time?  The answer is probably “it depends.”

What if you do want to start now? Then you are probably facing the reality of a weak economy.  I recently ran into a blog by Melissa Chang about why a recession is a good time to start a company.  I took some liberty to re-summarize Ms. Chang’s article below:

1. A recession forces founders to be frugal. Having limited capital leads to creative thinking, healthy deliberation about expenditures, and the need for founders to pay very close attention to cash flow, budgets and balance sheets.
2. Recessions force entrepreneurs to take another close look at their ideas. A business based on flawed idea won’t work long term. Back in the dotcom era, start-ups with a lot of money led to the appearance of success, and only to go busted. More scrutiny leads to more solid ideas and plans.
3. Recessions lead to committed startup teams. People who have a choice to go to a stable “large” company but still come to a startup could mean that they’re willing to live with the added risk and Spartan conditions because they truly believe the company’s vision and product and enjoy the startup environment. Those are the types of people entrepreneurs need for their teams.
4. Startups get a head start. You can get a great head start on that day by starting your business now so when the economy comes out of recession, your business will be that much further along.
5. Recessions toughen up companies. Adversity brings out qualities that every entrepreneur needs to succeed – guts, problem-solving, strength and perseverance. Starting a company in the lean times helps develop those qualities more quickly, which will help the startups in the long-run.”

There are also some other benefits during a down turn based on my own experience.  For example, we had no problem finding an office space within our limited startup budget and acquired most of our office furniture at virtually no cost. Funding the company with our own money to bootstrap right after the dotcom meltdown also forced us to examine every dime and delay/defer any unnecessary expense.

Winston Churchill once said, “The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity.  The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty“. I personally believe that anytime is a good time to start your business.  If you have a sound idea and are willingness to put your money where you mouth is, you should be able to have a good run. 

Perhaps it is less about timing, but more about the courage needed to get started.  To quote from one of the scene in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee that illustrates the kind of courage that you really need to realize your dream. 

“I wanted you to see what real courage is…It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and you see it through, no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.”

Without the courage and the willingness to adapt and give your best try, there will be plenty of opportunity to succeed.  There are definitely plenty of people see it the same way:

• “The future belongs to those who are willing to make short-term sacrifices for long-term gains.” - - Fred A. Manske, Sr.
• “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” -Eleanor Roosevelt
• “I will tell you the secret of getting rich on Wall Street: You try to be greedy when others are fearful and you try to be very fearful when others are greedy.” –Warren Buffett, American investor, businessman
• “Nobody talks of entrepreneurship as survival, but that’s exactly what it is and what nurtures creative thinking.” –Anita Roddick, cosmetics company founder 
• When one door closes another door opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the ones which open for us.
  — Alexander Graham Bell
• “Kites rise highest against the wind — not with it. “ - ~Sir Winston Churchill
• “Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot; but make it hot by striking.”–William Butler Yeats, Irish poet

So, why not start NOW.  Remember procrastination is opportunity’s natural assassin.

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