William Wu Personal Blog

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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I have enjoyed the daily free Leadership newsletter (www.smartbrief.com/leadership/) from SmartBrief and will highly recommend to anyone interested in developing better personal leadership to subsribe to.  Today the newsletter’s SmartQuote section has a nice quote on humility from the U.S. Present Barack Obama, “We exercise our leadership best when we … show some element of humility and when we recognize we may not always have the best answer but we can always encourage the best answer.”

Confucius told his followers, “Humility is the solid foundation of all the virtues.”  Cornel West also said, “Humility means two things. One, a capacity for self-criticism… The second feature is allowing others to shine, affirming others, empowering and enabling others.  Those who lack humility are dogmatic and egotistical.  That masks a deep sense of insecurity. They fell the success of others is at the expense of their own fame and glory.”

One book by Hal Urban titled Choices That Change Live has a great chapter describing humility in an elegant way that I decided to copy the quotes directly from his book to share with you:

4 Things Humble People Won’t Do

- Humble people don’t think they know everything. 

• “It wasn’t until quite late in my life that I discovered how easy it is to say “I don’t know.” – Somerset Maugham

- Humble people don’t think they are always right.

• “Pride is concerned who is right.  Humanity is concerned what is right.” – Ezra Taft Benson
• “Nobody stands taller than those willing to stand corrected.” – William Safire

- Humble people don’t brag.

• “What kills a skunk is the publicity it gives itself.” – Abraham Lincoln
• “When someone signs his praises, he always gets the tune too high.” – Mary H. Waldrip.

- Humble people don’t judge others.

• “I look only to the good qualities of men.  Not being faultless myself, I won’t presume to probe into the faults of others.” – Mahatma Gandhi
• “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.  For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.  Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? – Matthew 7:1-3.

4 Things Humble People Consistently Do

- Humble people treat others with respect.

• “Humility and respect go hand in hand.” – Paul H. Borisoff
• Treat other people exactly as you would like to be treated by them.” – Matthew 7:12

- Humble people are thankful.

• “Prideful people never have enough.  Humble people appreciate what they have.” – Jean Dreyfus
• “It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy.” – Charles Spurgeon

-Humble people are genuine.

• “Pride makes us artificial and humility makes us real.” – Thomas Merton
• “I have three precious things which I hold fast and prize.  The first is gentleness; the second is frugality; the third is humility, which keeps me from putting myself before others.” – Lao-Tzu

-Humble people want to learn and become better.

• “Humility is an approach to life that says “I don’t have all the answers and I want your contributions.” – John Baldoni
• “Being prepared to set aside old notions and be taught by life is learning humility.” – Michael McGinnis

In short, “Life is a lesson in humility.  Be humble… or be humbled.”  Smart leaders know this well and you can, too.

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Wall Street Journal had a good article recently titled “Why Good Manager Make Bad Decisions?” by Erin White.  I re-summarized the 4 reasons that Ms. White mentioned in her article:

1. Over rely on experience could be dangerous.  We sometimes overstate experience and situation may not exactly fit our experience.  We may be liable to rely on our experience in a way that’s just not going to be that helpful.
2. Self-interest. Most people don’t realize self-interest operates at a subconscious level. We’re not even aware of how self-interested we are. 
3. Prejudgments. Smart leaders could be vulnerable to prejudgment; that is, they decided on something early on and stuck to it no matter what.
4. Attachment. Attachments to people or places or business that we like or have spent great effort building up could make a decision difficult.  This is particularly true when it comes to downsize or selling off business.

Motivated by our self-interest is what propels everyone to wake up in the morning and get going. However, we have seen too many leaders blinded by their self-interest that they forget what is morally right. These are particularly amplified by the recent excessive executive pays and bonuses in the corrupted financial/banking industries that we saw in the news headlines.   It reminds me of the following Chinese story:

“Many, many years ago there was a man of the land of Ch’I who had a great passion for gold.  One day at the crack of dawn he went to the market-straight to the gold dealers’ stalls, where he snatched some gold and ran away.  The market guards soon caught him.  ‘With so many people around, how did you expect to get away with it?’ a guard asked.

‘When I took it,’ he replied, ‘I saw only the gold, not the people.’”

Ms. White concluded: “People need to recognize that we are biased in every single situation. There’s no such thing as objectivity…. (Therefore, smart leaders) need to walk into an important decision situation saying, ‘Ok, I know that we are potentially biased in a variety of ways. Let’s try to identify what those are.’”

Take a moment to think about it next time:

• Would you want your employees or associates to see you as someone that put your interest ahead of them?
• Do you think they will want to work with you again if you make them feel so? 

The answers are very obviously ‘No!’  As Carl W. Buechner put it, “They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.”

William Shakespeare told us, “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”  Mark Twain said, “We do not deal much in facts when we are contemplating ourselves.” 

This brings up a somber, but true fact.  The person that you most need the power to influence and control is you.

Dr. Phil in his Life Strategies book offers this observation:

“The person whose negative characteristics and behavior patterns you most need the power to minimize or eliminate and whose positive characteristics and behavior patterns you most need to maximize, is you.  Whether the characteristics is depression, insecurity, anger, apathy, loneliness, or any of a number of other possible characteristics, you are the one who will have to minimize or eliminate it.  Doing so will require knowledge.  It takes knowledge about how you developed that negative characteristic, why you persist with it, and, more importantly, how to replace it with more positive, constructive characteristics.”

One of the articles in Seth Godin’s book The Big Moo lists the Three Rules of Life (and Everything Else) which I took some liberty to morph into the following:

1. Your Attitude Is Your Life.  Our attitude changes our life and the lives of those around us.  Hold yourself to a higher standard. Believe that you want to do to other people just like what you want them to do to you.
2. Maximize Your Options. When we lock ourselves into one possibility of how things must be done, our businesses, our lives and the lives of those around us get stuck.  Therefore in all things, big and small, open yourself to the possible options.  Then trust yourself to choose the right one for the moment.
3. Finally, Don’t Let the Seeds Stop You From Enjoying the Watermelon. Doing what is right could be tough, but the reward is going to outweigh any personal sacrifices.

Everyone approaches every situation with at least some concern about “what’s in for me?” This is normal.  To ignore this human nature is unrealistic and even wrong, but choosing the right decision becomes easier if you are aware of how experience, self-interest, prejudgments and attachments are in play.  Take advantage of your personal motivation and take control of it. At the end, you will feel great of what you have done!

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Just recovered from my new year break and feel recharged to face whatever challenges in 2009. 

Here is a short Zen story to start my rambling for the new year:

“A rich man asked a Zen master to write something down that could encourage the prosperity of his family for years to come.  It would be something that the family could cherish for generations.  On a large piece of paper, the master wrote, “Father dies, son dies, grandson dies.”

The rich man became angry when he saw the master’s work.  “I asked you to write something down that could bring happiness and prosperity to my family.  Why do you give me something depressing like this?”

“If your son should die before you, “ the master answered, “this would bring unbearable grief to your family.  If your grandson should die before your son, this also would bring great sorrow.  If your family , generation after generation, disappears in the order I have described, it will be the natural course of life.  This is true happiness and prosperity.”

This story tells us that sometimes the best thing is to allow things to happen in its natural course.  The law of harvest tells us to plant a seed in spring; to water, weed and fertile it during summer so we can harvest it in the fall.  With this state in mind, here come a few thoughts on personal leadership for starting a new year. 

• Count your blessing. The famous Japanese proverb says, “He is poor who does not feel content.” Lao-Tzu says the same, “He who is content is rich.” It is easy for us to forget how much we own at a tough time and the grass always feels greener on the other side.  But the reality is that we own a lot more than we sometimes realize.  Think about it.  The fact that you are reading this blog means that you have access to internet and information that most people in the world won’t even have the choice having.  Suffering is a state of mind and it is all relative.  Be satisfied with what you own is often the best counter to the present world where relentless pursuit of more becomes the society norm.  Inventory what you have gotten and be willing to make the best use of them.  
• Be willing to let go.  “The only way to make yourself indispensable is to make yourself dispensable.” As pointed out by Dr. John Maxwell in The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: “A weak leader worries that if he helps subordinates, he will become dispensable,  But the truth is that the only way to make yourself indispensable is to make yourself dispensable.” Take the principle behind Bruce Lee’s Tao of Jeet Kune Do, “Empty your cup so that it may be filled; become devoid to gain totality.”
• Be true to yourself.  To quote Edward R. Murrow, “To be persuasive, we must be believable. To be believable, we must be credible. To be credible, we must be truthful.“  Steve Jobs in his widely circulated speech to Standford University graduates: “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. You somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
• Invest and believe in yourself.  Who you are dictates what you see, so get to know yourself better and then bring your unique strengths out, the things you like doing and are good at, to bear on the work in hand. You need to build on your strengths that strengthen others. Personal leadership is all about have a clear vision of where you want to be and have discipline to take meaningful actions to realize the vision. As a Japanese proverb put it, “Vision without action is a daydream.  Action without vision is a nightmare.”  A Buddhist proverb also tells us, “You, youself, must make the effort.  The buddhas are only teachers.”
• Seize the moment.  “The Precious Present” by Spencer Johnson, one of the popular books, uses a simple story to teach people how precious the present moment is.  Mark Twain once said, “I was seldom able to see an opportunity until it had ceased to be one.” So make the best out of every situation and you can find beauty everywhere around you. Understand the Chinese saying, “When you have only two pennies left, buy a loaf of bread with one and a lily with the other.” To seize the moment is to practice what Bill Fitzpatrick, a Shaolin master, describes in his book 100 Action Principles of the Shaolin,
   “If you feel happy, smile.
  If you feel daring, act.
  If you receive good service, compliment.
  If you feel energetic, do something positive.
  If you know a good joke, tell it.
  If you feel generous, give.
  If you are interested in getting wealthy, save and invest.
  If someone needs help, leann them your strong hands or soft voices.
  If you give your word, keep it.
  If you can say something nice, say it.
  If you can stand up for the weak, do it.”

One of the best things that a new year has given us is new hopes.  The new hopes that things will improve and all the hard work in the past will pay off and all the dots will somehow be connected to form the best roadmap ahead. As you kick into the high gear to ramp up for this year, remember to allow the natural order to happen in its course.  Perhaps Lao-Tzu’s words can be used as a reminder:

“Softness triumphs over hardness. 
Feebleness over strength. 
What is more malleable is always superior over that which is immoveable. 
This is the principle of controlling things by going along with them, of mastery through adaptation.”

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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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“Don’t tell your problems to people: eighty percent don’t care; and the other twenty percent are glad you have them.”  - Lou Holtz

There is always something you can do about any problem; even it if is just changing your perspective on how you feel about the problem.   There is an African proverb that is being widely quoted, “If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.”  This is such a powerful paradigm shift in dealing with any problem thrown at us in work and in life.  Too often, we engage in a blaming game or power struggle with others that we assume problems are only caused by other people.  We therefore feel victimized and spend more time and energy going around problems than fixing them. 

The truth is that we create our own experiences; we are responsible for our thoughts and actions. When a problem occurs, we can choose how we respond to it.  Dr. Stephen Covey, author of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People told us this very concept, “As long as you think the problem is out there, that very thought is the problem.” Putting blames on someone else rarely fixes the problem since it puts the responsibility to fix it on others. This creates a tension of power struggling as often time in unsuccessful marriages or as finger pointing games as in many dysfunctional organizations. 

Owning the problem puts you in control so you are no longer a victim. Study what happened to create the problem and learn from your mistakes, correct it and move on. For every problem, if you believe it is possible to solve it, tremendous things can happen to the believer.

How do you focus your energy on solutions instead of problems?  Perhaps the following list that I found from the web can help:

Ten Ways to Worry Less and Accomplish More
Author unknown (however, this list is widely referenced on the web)

1. Don’t think of problems as difficulties. Think of them as opportunities for action.
2. After you’ve done your best to deal with a situation, avoid speculating about the outcome. Forget it and go onto the next thing.
3. Keep busy. Keep the 24 hours of your day filled with these three ingredients: work, recreation, and sleep. Don’t allow yourself time for abstract thinking.
4. Don’t concern yourself with things you can’t do anything about. Armchair generals don’t win battles, but they do have nervous breakdowns.
5. For the time being anyway, eliminate daydreaming completely. Stop building air castles.
6. Don’t procrastinate. Putting off an unpleasant task until tomorrow simply gives you more time for your imagination to make a mountain out a possible molehill. More time for anxiety to sap your self-confidence. Do it now, brother, do it now.
7. Don’t pour woes and anxieties to other people. You don’t want their sympathy - it’ll merely make it easy for you to feel sorrier for yourself.
8. Get up as soon as you wake up. If you lie in bed, you may use up as much nervous energy living your day in advance as you would in actual accomplishment of the day’s work. 
9. Try to arrange your schedule so that you will not have to hurry. Hurry, a blood brother to worry, helps shatter poise and self-confidence, and contributes to fear and anxiety.
10. If a project seems too big, break it up into simple steps of action. Then negotiate those steps-link rungs in a ladder…one at a time. And don’t allow yourself to think about the difficulties of step number two until you’ve executed step number one.

What if after all means are tried and you simply can’t find a good resolution.  Perhaps then we can all learn from this Tibetan proverb, “If a problem has a solution there is no need to worry about it. If there is no answer for the problem, worry will do no good.”

Smart executives and successful entrepreneurs are those who suggest solutions when they present the problems. You can do the same! So next time when a situation arises, try to think

“Am I part of the problem or am I part of the solution?” 

Perhaps the reflection will focus your energy on turning a problem into a great opportunity.

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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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Consider these famous people they have in common:

• Woodrow Wilson had a learning disability but still served as the president of the U.S. from 1913 to 1921.
• Francisco Goya, the celebrated Spanish painter, became permanently deaf at age 45 but went on to create some of his most powerful work.
• Albert Einstein is heralded as a scientific genius in spite of rumours that he suffered from a learning disability.
• Ludwig van Beethoven, the famous composer, had become deaf by the time he creaed his magnificent Ninth Symphony.
• Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper for lacking ideas.  He also went bankrupt several times before he built Disneyland.
• Steve Jobs was fired from Apple, the company that he co-founded. He described that experience the best lesson to mature him as a leader and enabled him to be able to take Apple to a much higher degree of success today. 
• After Fred Astaire’s first screen test, a 1933 memo from the MGM testing director said, “Can’t act.  Slightly bald.  Can dance a little.” Astaire kept that memo over the fireplace in his Beverly Hills home.
• A relatively unsuccessful marketer of restaurant equipment, Ray Kroc didn’t sell his first hamburger until age 52.  At a time when many people prepare for retirement, Kroc built McDonald’s from a handful of hamburger stands into the world’s largest food chain.
• J. K. Rollin was on beneift for 18 months when she wrote her manuscripts on Harry Potter and received more than a year worth of rejection letters from countless publishers until Bloomsbury agreed to publish her little wizard book.

Facing adversity is NOT pleasant, but there is a positive side of it.  Several great quotes on this:

• “There is no education like adversity.” – Benjamin Disraeli
• “Out of clutter, find the simplicity.
  From discord, find harmony.
  In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”  - Albert Einstein
• “Your present circumstances don’t determine where you can go; they merely determine where you strat.” – Nido Qubein, Business Consultant, Motivational Speaker
• “Adversity puts people in touch with themselves.” – Rose Lane
• “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career.
  I’ve lost almost 300 games.
  Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed.
  I’ve failed over and over and over in my life and that is why I succeed.” – Michael Jordan

Recently I ran into a story that illustrates how Mahtma Gandhi taught us a lesson on how to put our struggles into perspective.  The story goes like this:

As Gandhi was boarding a train, one of his shoes slipped off and fell on the track below.  Since the train was already moving forward, he was unable to retrieve it.  To the amazement of his companions, he took off his other shoe and trew it back on the track close to the other one.  When a fellow passerger asked why he did so, Gandhi smiled and said, “The poor man who finds the shoe laying on the track will now have a pair he can use.”

The spirit of Zen also shows us a way when it tells us:

“The past is already past.
Don’t try to regain it.
The present does not stay.
Don’t try to touch it.
From moment to memont.
The future has not come;
Don’t think about it
Before hand.
Whatever comes to the eye.
Leave it be.
There are no commandments
To be kep;
There is no filth to be cleansed.
With empty mind really
Penetrated, the dharmas
Have no life.
When you can be like this,
You’ve completed
The ultimate attainment.” – Layman P’ang

Perhaps a Japanese Zen saying summarizes this best: “The world is like a mirrow, you see? Smile, and your friends smile back.”

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