Archive for the ‘Leadership’ Category
UVEF / Power of Commitment
Last Thursday I spoke at the monthly luncheon for the Utah Valley Entrepreneur Forum (UVEF) down at the Novell campus in Provo.
I gave my Adventures in Entrepreneurship presentation. I’m hoping they put my slides and the audio from it up so that I can link to it. I really enjoyed the event, and I met some great people afterwards.
One of those people was John Pilmer. John is the President of PilmerPR. One of the 7 Laws for Entrepreneurial Adventurers I present is to “Leap before you look.” John told me afterward that reminded him of a quote he was familiar with:
But when I said that nothing had been done I erred in one important matter. We had definitely committed ourselves and were
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Yahoo Revival
I guess last week Yahoo had a big broo-ha-ha about their future.
Kara Swisher has a great write-up of the event called The Yahoo Revival Meeting (Starring His Digital Holiness Steve Jobs)!.
Some super-quick takeaways:
- there were 300 plus top-executive attendees, all VP and above. (Good night, if Yahoo has 300 VP’s, maybe that’s your problem right there)
- the event sounds very well planned and coordinated. Good move there, something like this will either bomb or go great, and the planning is the main key to success
- Steve Jobs came and rallied the troops
- Yahoo’s problems are execution. Put that in the category of obviousness. Can they take a meeting like this and actually do something with it?
- Steve Jobs came and rallied the
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Meeting and Networking With Other CEOs
Last week I received an e-mail message from Paul Hutchinson, a managing member of Bridge Loan Capital Fund, inviting me to a networking dinner with other CEOs and company founders from around my area. Paul found me because of an award Doba recently received from the Utah Valley Entrepreneurial Forum (UVEF), and he wrote to encourage me to attend the dinner because of the possibility of being invited to participate in what he called an ‘exclusive executive retreat’ in the spring of 2007 with other world-class CEOs.
My idea of an executive retreat is a little different than most CEOs. As I wrote back on the 5th of June, when Doba takes its Management Team out for retreats, nary a word about work is spoken
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Where’s the JELL-O?
I’m always impressed when I run across the owner or general manager of a large retail store working the check-out line. It doesn’t happen very often, but when it does, it’s usually a sight to behold (think over-aged person fumbling with cash register and credit card terminal, and you won’t be too far from the truth). Aside from the joy one receives as a result of watching the big dog work just as hard as everyone else, I’m usually hopeful that the owner or manager in question is gaining a specific and measurable level of respect, appreciation, and understanding for his or her customer’s and their needs and wants.
Most business owners–especially those who run large retail operations–remove themselves from the showroom
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Five Entrepreneurial Lessons Learned from my Dad
A few weeks ago, right around Father’s Day, I got to thinking about my own Dad and what I’ve learned from him about being a successful entrepreneur. As I’ve mentioned before, I grew up on a farm in Idaho where my Dad farmed with his father (my Grandpa Hanks), and his brothers (my Uncles). My Mom’s father also ran a ranch–his was in the middle of the desert in western Utah–so farming and ranching was what I was raised on, big-time! From the time I could talk back to my parents until I left home to attend college here in Utah, I worked on our farm, and when I went to visit my other Grandpa on his ranch for a ‘vacation,’
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The People You Meet by Blogging
One of the really cool things about blogging is that it affords you the opportunity to meet people you may not have otherwise met had you not had a blog of your own. Case in point: Guy Kawasaki, managing director of Garage Technology Ventures and one of my favorite authors and bloggers (starting to see the connection?).
As I mentioned in this past Wednesday’s post, Guy took time out of his eBay Live! 2006 schedule to stop by the Doba booth for a meet and greet. The meeting, which was informal at best, was arranged entirely as a result of me reading and leaving a comment on his blog. Had I tried to connect with him through a more traditional channel–say via his publicist, publisher, or
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My Bootstraps Are on Fire
I have a theory about why so many startups go up in flames even before they’ve truly had a chance to get off the ground. Rather than finding a product or service they can sell enough of to survive, far too many entrepreneurs pour valuable resources, including ridiculous amount of cash, into efforts aimed at servicing the business they hope to receive.
In my experience, the best entrepreneurs are the ones who are savvy enough to find a product or service that people need, build enough of it to meet the most basic of demands, and then scramble forever to keep up. Said differently, inexperienced entrepreneurs spend more time ramping up and getting ready for business that simply never comes their way.
Whether
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