Archive for the ‘Commentary’ Category
Being honest about bootstrapping…
Posted by Christopher Hastings in Commentary on April 28th, 2010
At some point, I need a title like Baron or Duke or Earl – like Baron Munchhausen.
Because when you are a Baron – you can make up stories that end up being spun into legend.
Like riding on cannonballs. Killing 50 birds with one shot and – the reason for this point – pulling oneself up by their bootstraps when stuck in a swamp or quicksand. Some rumors have it that it was his hair – but no less, this man needed no help in saving himself, conquering outrageous enemies or committing acts of heroism that are unnatural to man.
I’m not saying that there are not those who are entirely capable of building great lives with little dependence on others – but lets not lie to ourselves about it. Pulling oneself by their bootstraps is a lie. Do you want to bootstrap your company? Then you started with means and were able to grow over time based on money you generated or borrowed. Do you bootstrap your network? Someone made kind introductions on your behalf. They expended more capital that they may have had to work very hard for, in order for you to have it a bit easier.
Micro-finance is much the same way. It starts with community and the synergies of social capital being spun into something that is credit worthy by those with means. It doesn’t mean they started their own currency system and got it recognized internationally. Someone always invests, someone borrows, someone donates – and its all to help each other.
So let’s be careful about the Myth of the Bootstrapper. I love the Acton MBA program, Bootstrap Austin and the thinkers in Colorado that enjoy bootstrapping. I just think we have to be careful about how far we carry that torch.
(For the record, I hear Kevin Koym at TechRanch Austin, a heavy supporter of bootstrapping is working on a book about the social capital aspect. I think it will be great and can’t wait to read it!)
Defining Failure
Posted by Christopher Hastings in Commentary on April 8th, 2010
Many have posted on how no lesson we learn from is technically a failure. I’ll not rehash that statement.
I only bring it up to make a confession. I wrote the Boys Scouts of American an e-mail the other day about their Entrepreneurship merit badge book. I reviewed it in association with a product launch I’ve been working on and found a factual/symbolic error that has bothered me even days later.
On pg. 14, they tell the story of Steve Jobs. They describe how despite Steve Jobs runaway success now at Apple, this was not always the case. He, too, by their recollection, had a failure in the form of NeXT Computers. It was only after the ‘failure’ of that company was he able to enjoy the success of Apple Computer.
Except, it doesn’t take a business history buff to know that NeXT wasn’t exactly a failure. Was it under-capitalized? Did it have management issues? Probably a little of both.
The part that makes it not a failure is that after Jobs got booted out of Apple, NeXT was what he began creating. From this platform, he divested into software and built the framework that eventually became OS X. It was only because of that software build that NeXT was purchased by Apple, paving the way for Jobs to return to the company he founded. And that can’t really be a failure in anyone’s book.
Second Generation Innovations…
Posted by Christopher Hastings in Commentary on March 18th, 2010
Many people are familiar with Google’s new auto-suggest feature. It’s been mocked for some of the revelations that it shows about what people are searching for, yet it recently provided an interesting insight.
When you start to search for “Who invented the…” it lists a drop down list of inventions/innovations that are in common everyday use.
In most cases, one innovation begat another:
Telephone —> Mobile Phones
Radio —> iPod
Computer —> Internet
Camera —> Television
Only in two innovations does it not list a derivative that was and is world changing: light bulbs and toilets.
Which causes me to wonder – if we were searching for the disruptive innovation in toilets – what would that be? CFL light bulbs may be a step in the right direction… but other than incinerating toilets – we haven’t seen much innovation in this area.
So how can we innovate toilets?
Etiquette of Innovation
Posted by Christopher Hastings in Commentary on May 6th, 2010
I was talking to an old friend today and we were talking about the social side of business. Not Twitter or Facebook, but how we interact with each other on a daily basis.
If you meet a series of people more powerful than you in a small meeting, you have only a few options.
1) Get them to like you
2) Get them to not like you
3) Get them not to notice you
If its the first, it is because you are able to say or doing something impressive that agrees with their worldview and is not offensive. If you break one of these three rules, you move to the second option.
If they talk to you, then it is probably either the first or the second. But realize that you may not get to know what the outcome was right away. Because people are polite. And they will be polite if they think you are an idiot, because they are professionals. They will be wary of someone that over reaches, says silly things or is generally in appropriate. So sometimes the best thing you can do is wait for later – when you meet them again and are thoughtful enough to remember the times before.
I thought it would be an interesting book to study Twitter as a case study for etiquette, but no one has yet.
So how does this relate to innovation? Easy. You can offend a little, impress a little, but by and large – you must be what they know and understand. If they don’t understand 80% of what you are about and find a way to align themselves, you are just a novelty.
And we have all been novelties sometimes.
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