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Most of the people who have mentored me tell me that it’s not always the right answers that help - it’s asking the right questions.
There was a discussion a few months ago on whether being small had its
advantages - agility, speed etc. My response then was that it all
depends and I stick to the same opinion even today. While being small
has its advantages, it has its disadvantages too - especially if you
are a small technology business.

For those companies, I created this list of questions. Some of the questions may have broader applicability.

1. Do you have a sound business model?

2. Do you have the right resources to execute on the vision?

3. Are you willing to change?

4. Can you influence the influencers?

5. Can you scale?

6. Can you think “systems”?

7. Do you have the right tools?

8. Do you now how to market in the new world?

For starters, Take a look at Dave Taylor’s new book “Growing your business with Google“

9. Are you willing to kill your darlings?

10. Is your business GYM-proof?

On a lighter note:

PS:
This list is in no way complete. However, I have to end this post somewhere

Always focusing on small wins has one danger - that you might be in a
Continuous Spiral Syndrome trap. It feels like you are winning in the
short term but in the long run you may be losing out. On the other
hand, just focusing on home runs (big wins) also has a danger that if
there is no sign of measurable progress in reasonable time you might
get disillusioned and give up.

So one approach is to take the middle ground and have a balance in the
projects that you are working on - may be one project that is in the
“home run” category and a few projects that are in the “small wins”
category.

We can do a quick exercise and try to see if there is any balance. List
out all the projects that you are working on today on a sheet of paper.
Take another sheet and create two columns

Home Runs       |       Small Wins

Now put each of the projects that you are working on in one of the
categories. No need to analyze this to the nth degree. When I did this
exercise with a friend, the first question he asked me was “I have some
projects that are in the small wins category but if I complete them
all, I will have a home run.” The answer was to not think too much and
put this in the “Small wins” category. If you are confused on any
project, go with your gut and put it in the category that you feel most
appropriate. You won’t be scored on this test.

Once you complete the listing, take a look and see if there is a
balance. You can come up with your own ratio (let’s say for every “home
run” project, there should be at least 5 “small win” projects)

If there is no balance, time to act -
look at all your projects, re-prioritize and shuffle around until you
are happy with the distribution.

Good luck!

We are smart and we know that if we generalize anything it means that it is applicable at all times. Right?

What we practice, though, is very different. Most people don’t need a
lot of proof to make far reaching conclusions and generalizations. Have
you heard someone say “He’s always late”, “He’s mean”, “She is always
complaining” etc. They may be true or they may not be. But the way
these statements are made it is as if “they are true all the time under
all circumstances.”

A personal experience: A couple of weeks ago I was finding a parking
spot at a shopping complex. It was a busy weekend so there were not
many spots left. It was already dark and I was driving slowly. After a
few minutes, I found one but could not park there immediately as the
car in the next spot had both the back doors open. A couple were
standing outside from both the doors and it appeared like they were
trying to fix something. I had to wait. After a few minutes, I started
losing patience and was starting to conclude how inconsiderate some
people were and started to wonder “Why don’t they fix whatever they
were fixing when they park their car at home?”  I was getting
ready to make some conclusions. Just then both the husband and wife
came out - each one with holding a cute little kid. Both kids were
sleeping happily and it was clear to me that the couple were trying to
take them out without disturbing their sleep. My generalization thought
process came to a screeching halt. It was confirmed again - it’s so
easy to fall into the trap and generalize.

If you observe carefully, the root cause is our tendency to “assume that something is true for the whole when it’s only true for the part.” You can beat this system by just slowing down whenever you are making far reaching conclusions or generalizations.

There is one rule that is hard to break and it’s called the “Things Take Time” (3T) sometimes rule.

During the initial days at CIGNEX
(back when I co-founded the company in late 2000) I wish I had
practiced the 3T rule. Those of us in the technology world know that
those times were tough and nobody was buying anything from anyone. If I look back and reflect on those times, it seems funny (now)

I had learnt a simple and powerful lesson - “Things take time.” Just
because I was in a hurry to make a deal did not in any way mean that
the other party was in a hurry too. Things just take time. There are
times when you have to hurry and there are times when you don’t. The
wisdom is to know the difference. It take years for a tree to grow and
nine months for a baby to be born. No point in hurrying up.

Of course, over the years I have met people who are struggling with the
3T rule and those that have mastered it. Those who are struggling are
typically hurried, restless and frustrated. They want results now. They
send an email, leave a voicemail and sometimes stop by to meet and
follow up on the request. On the other hand, those who have mastered it
are typically calm, composed and in control of their time. They
understand when I say I will get back to them in a few days. They know
- things just take time!

The danger of not mastering the 3T rule is that we might think working
hard is the answer to speed up things (and break our back bones) when
all we needed to know was that things just take time sometimes.

Here is a common scenario.

Everyone of us has a story in us and it IS interesting. You have a story and your friend has a story. The question is - have you both exchanged your stories at the deepest level?

I finished my engineering degree in electronics and communication in
early 90s. Today, as you would expect my classmates in engineering are
in various parts of the world doing very interesting jobs. When I moved
to the bay area in 1997, it was not difficult to find many of my
classmates here. One of my classmates took the initiative to setup a
mailing list so that we can all keep in touch. A few years passed by
and the mailing list was active and going well. Once, we decided to do
an experiment to share “our story so far..” to the group. About half
the group shared their stories in great detail - their journey from the
day they left the college - their successes, their failures, about
their family and their friends and hobbies and so on. It was a
phenomenal experience to read every single story that was posted on the
mailing list. I was able to connect with my classmates in ways that I
could not imagine after reading their stories.

For that exercise, I created my “story so far..” a chronological
listing of milestones in my life. I have since then updated it and kept
it current to reflect what happened until six months ago. I have
exchanged such stories with several friends and the result is always
the same - a feeling of fascination and new level of respect for each
other. It’s an experience worth experiencing!

Summary: Stories are powerful. Your own story is powerful. Since you
are the most important person in your life, it is worth recording your
story. Keep “Your story so far..” up to date and ready to be exchanged
with your friends to take your relationship to the next level.

Good luck!

In several cultures across the world, a common ritual is to pray
silently for a few seconds before the meal. The prayer is usually to
say “Thank You” to GOD for that meal. It does make a lot of sense when
you think of millions of people in the world that are struggling to get
one good meal in a day. If you think of the number of children that die
of hunger in the world, it becomes almost a no-brainer to be grateful
for every meal that we get!

We can almost generalize this and say that it’s a good idea to be
grateful for everything we have in life - for all the wonderful people
that are surrounding us. For, if we are not grateful, there is a
dangerous tendency to take people for granted - especially the ones
that interact with us on a day to day basis.

If you reflect on the last three months of your life, I am sure you
will find several instances where people (who are close to you or ones
that you just made friendship with) who walked the extra mile just to
make your life a bit easier. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to plan and
acknowledge them for that? Better yet, how about planning to
reciprocate in some way - now or in the near future?

In summary, everyone needs help. Most
people get significant help. However, only a handful are grateful for
all the help they receive. You can stand out from the crowd by being
one of these handful people.

Yes, that’s right. It can be as simple as that. You can stand out from
the crowd just by boosting up your smile a bit and spreading cheer
wherever and whenever you can.

Quick. Try to think of someone in your workplace that is always smiling
and happy. I am sure one or two people came to your mind instantly. But
not a whole lot of them. Isn’t it easy to spend time with one or two of
these special people? The sad part is most people don’t smile much and
worse yet, most people don’t think that smiling is a big deal.

Take a look at the following quote:

                                      - Deepak Chopra

Who does not like gifts? If you consider this moment as a gift, it’s not hard to start celebrating and smiling!

If you need a few more reasons to smile, here are four more to consider:

Good luck!

Picked this up from Sandhill.com’s
newsletter (by MR). None of us have unlimited resources. This little
quote reminds us that what we need is a way of making the most of these
limited resources to succeed.

           - C. K. Prahlad, co-author of Competing for the Future and many more books

I will be speaking at a conference call hosted by renowned Roger Parker for the Guerilla Marketing Association on November 23, 2005 at 4pm PST.

More details can be found at

I will be speaking about my book and my series on “Ways to distinguish yourself.” The call will be interactive.

I am looking forward to it and hope you can join me!

I had the privilege of attending a TEC talk by Don Schmincke (author of The Code of the Executive) a few days ago. The talk was phenomenal and had a ton of “take home value.”

One of the key things that I remember very well was the answer to the
question - how do we create a strategy for our organization?

With the
risk of over-simplifying, let me summarize what Don said.

Strategy can be evolved by answering the following three questions for
one of our products or services or for the whole organization:

Simple and succint, I thought.