siberianfruit

Startup culture encourages startup advice. Entrepreneurs want to write it. Other entrepreneurs want to read it.

You can read all sorts of things from people who know exactly what they are talking about. Don’t raise funding. Raise as much as you can. Build an amazing product and they will come. NO, don’t worry about your product, just figure out your distribution - it’s the only thing that matters. And so on.

This creates a temptation to learn by reading about other people’s experience. Now, I would venture to say that it’s unlikely that any of the people who are writing about their experience have gotten it from reading others’ advice. In fact, we are interested in these folks’ writing precisely because they have experienced the things they are writing about first-hand. They’ve made their mistakes and have put in the hours.

I started thinking about this because I realized that all this reading was actually slowing me down. It’s possible that this is highly personal and that for others reading is a good way to learn about various aspects of running a startup. Personally, however, I have started to see a negative impact in three ways.

1. Reading/research clutters up your digital workspace.
First, every day I would open and keep open literally tens of browser windows and tabs. It would not be unusual for me to keep 8 browser windows with say 10  tabs per window. And some of those, I would keep open for a week or more because I didn’t want to lose the valuable information that I haven’t had a chance to process yet.


As an entrepreneur, I’m working on several major aspects of my startup at once. So naturally, there is a lot out there that could be relevant for me to read. I would sit down at my computer and instead of working on the task I set out to work on, I would have to deal with all of the open windows/tabs, frequently getting distracted, or getting pulled back into my research. 

2. You’ll put yourself into the box of doing things the “right” way.
I noticed myself recently operating from the position that there’s some “right” way of doing things and that I should figure it out by doing all the reading I need, or talking to all the people I can or should talk to, and then I will know what it is. As soon as I started to let go of this desire to find the answer by reading, I have empowered myself to move forward with speed by being comfortable with NOT knowing the perfect answer, but instead by giving myself the room I need to try things on my own, to make mistakes and to learn from them.

3. The time spent reading or researching is the time spent not doing. 
Yes, sometimes you need to read and research to learn. But if you’ve done the work of identifying your highest value task for the day (I will write about this in the near future, but for now see my guest blog post at Women 2.0), it will rarely be to read or research. Most likely, it’s something about talking to people, designing, hiring, etc.

For the purposes of productivity, you can look at your time as a single track. You choose what the track is filled with, but there’s only one track, so you have to choose wisely. If you’re overdoing the reading or researching part, you simply don’t have the time to take other actions at the same time. So it’s a trade off.

4. There is absolutely no end to how much you can read or research.
I have long been comfortable with saying no to push sales. If you’re a marketer or a sales person who tries to call me, you will get a straight and simple no. I will not even give you a chance to speak because it’s clear to me that this is not how I want to find out about services under any circumstances. I know that when I need a service or a product, I will seek it out, do my research, call the right people and so on. The push approach to sales does not work in my world. 

I have realized that I can and should apply the same thinking to the reading/research I do. ENDLESS amount of startup reading comes my way on a daily basis. I’m coming to terms with the idea that it’s not possible to read it all, save it or organize it all and that, on the flip side, it is possible to seek out the specific information I need exactly when I need it. I may not be able to find that perfect source that would come my way in the previous approach, but -hey - that approach is simply unworkable. 

Entrepreneurs are known for inventing new ways of doing things. And yes, learning by reading can be good. But at best its role should be supplementary to your experience from doing. The focus and prioritization should always be on doing first.

As I became aware of all this, I have started to consciously pull back from the desire to read or research and am using the following guidelines:

• I no longer allow myself to keep browsers open unless they pertain to the specific task I’m working right now. I have on a couple of occasions simply shut down all of my open windows without worrying about going through them. It can be uncomfortable, but the benefits outweigh the costs.
• I consciously give myself permission to make mistakes. I’ve found this liberating and empowering and in tune with my natural way of learning. As soon as I do this, the pressure to be perfect goes away, and instead I’m just having fun doing what I love doing and learning from it.
• I am adopting a pull approach to reading and research. I tell myself that I will find this information if and when I need it. I first consider ignoring it, then, if it seems worth reading, I save it to my Instapaper account for possible future reading. I make an effort to not read it now because that would take me away from the task I’ve set out to work on. 

Of course, the irony is that if you’ve made it this far in the post, you’re reading. But, hey, that’s your choice :) 

Happy doing!

We constantly assess our own abilities against those of others. I know I do. What strikes me as incredible is how freaking random, self-created and only supported by facts after-the-fact these assessments are.

Here’s what I mean. For the second time in my life, I’ve started working with a life coach, this time on a much bigger commitment. 

(As a side note, read about Mark Pincus’ dedication to using life and other types of coaches: http://www.vanityfair.com/business/features/2011/06/mark-pincus-farmville-201106 For me, reading this was an external validation of something I’ve always believed in - which is giving myself the best tools I could possibly get to succeed).

With the encouragement of my coach, for the last couple of days, I’ve been consciously going through my beliefs about what I’m good or bad at. Initially, going through this exercise, it appears as though these beliefs are facts. But, after a close look and some helpful guidance, you can start to see your own BS. You’ve made most of it up!

Our beliefs are likely either unsupported by facts, or are a result of us acting on those beliefs in the first place until they come true. My so-called facts have included the following: I’m a natural entrepreneur. I’m great at product design. I’m great at operating independently. I’m bad at marketing. My independence is also my weakness and, I’m bad at bringing other people into my game. (Keep in mind that this being a public post, I’m keeping these observations on the safer side of things. Gotta maintain my awesome public image :-) ). And so on. 

Now here are the facts I’m beginning to collect. I can think of multiple instances when people have come to me and asked how is it that I’ve managed to do what I’ve done. Specifically, start and run a successful user experience design consulting company (http://dynamikagency.com/ - a company I put on hold to focus on my startup), finance and launch a startup (http://www.wanelo.com/), become really good at product design. 

People like to ask if I’ve gone to school for these things. The answer is a giant NO. There was no school involved. I simply did these things because I wanted to do them and I had an irrational, unsupported-by-anything belief (which I really can take no credit for) that I can do those things! It’s that simple. I believed that I could, that they were mine to claim and I did them.

We all know those people who think they can and those people who simply think they can’t. Some jump forward with zero preparation, make mistakes, learn, adjust, while others take classes, read books, read and research endlessly, feeling overwhelmed by the necessity to be “ready” and to build up slowly before starting on a task. 

Here’s some simple proof. When Wanelo first launched, the design was just plain bad. There’s no other way of putting. It was utterly horrible. And, in retrospect, I really didn’t care about how bad it was. I wanted to design it. I thought I could design it well. I liked the problem I set out to solve. And I decided that I loved designing enough to figure it out (i.e. make mistakes, learn and fix them). So I did it. But the reality is that I was not good at it and I had no idea what I was doing. 

On the flip side, looking at the things I believe myself to be bad at, it becomes obvious that the starting conditions for my strengths and weaknesses are actually nearly identical. In other words, I don’t know sh*t to begin with and it’s my beliefs about what I can and cannot be good at that is determining my ability to become good at that thing.

With all this in mind, I am now deciding that I am born to be ridiculously good at marketing and at bringing others into my game. Watch out :)

… that it’s all about the little things!

A friend shared this really simple, but awesome presentation that points out our misconceptions about what’s involved in changing a behavior. Intuitively, we think that behavior change is all about big radical informed decisions. In reality, it’s all about starting small, setting small short-term goals and ensuring that the triggers in our environment are working to encourage the new behavior.

Go through the presentation (included below) - it’s highly worth it! To learn more, explore the Stanford Captology webiste: http://captology.stanford.edu/.

Here’s an excerpt that seems to summarize the overall philosophy from the above site (emphasis mine):

1. We humans are lazy. BJ Fogg has mapped out the six elements of simplicity that account for this reality. With this new insight, we can pinpoint why many designs fail to achieve results. Simplicity matters more than motivation when it comes to influencing people.

2. Hot triggers change people. Many people would argue that information matters most when designing for behavior change. Not so. Hot triggers are the most powerful element in changing behavior.

3. Daily habits are powerful. In fact, daily habits are the most powerful of all behaviors. While technology can help people create good habits most attempts fail. Why? Few designers understand the psychology of long-term behavior change. We know what it takes to create a habit – in yourself, a customer, your dog.

I know that this rings true because it matches up with my own experience in trying to change any of my behavior. I have long ago assumed that I’m not one of those strong-willed people who can change their behavior at will. (Whether those people actually exist is a whole other question.) My solution to improving various aspects of my life is to look for ways of setting myself up with the right environment and the right triggers so that willpower is eliminated from the equation completely. Here are some examples that I think demonstrate this approach:

1. We got rid of our TV because we felt that there was a gravitational pull towards it in the living room. When your TV is in the living room, it seems to become the default behavior and staying away requires willpower. My goal in removing the TV was to be more conscious in selecting what I am going to do at any given moment without having to rely on my willpower at all. It’s worked! We have stopped watching TV (with the exception of an occasional Mad Men episode on the computer) and we don’t miss it!
2. When I quit coffee I did it by telling myself that I was only going to try it to see what it’s like. I know that thinking that I was quitting permanently would make me very unhappy and cause a lot of internal resistance. (Full disclosure: after a reasonably long break from coffee, I have since started drinking it again. The jury is still out on whether or not I want to continue with it.)
3. How many people do you know who have a gym membership and don’t really use it? I know that to get myself to exercise it was important for me to go to a nice gym - ideally a gym that makes me feel like I’m visiting a spa. My theory was that if the gym was not nice, I just wouldn’t go. This worked well and I enjoyed going!
4. More recently, scheduling pilates workouts has worked great as well. The reason this one works is that once it’s scheduled, all I have to do is show up! Once I’m there the instructor tells me what to do and I really don’t have to think about it much. 

What I would love to work on next is applying this thinking to figure out and improve my morning routine which is currently too haphazard and random. One of my problems is that I roll out of bed and feel the need to check into my online world immediately. The first step for a better morning for me is probably just not checking my work, email, etc. until I’ve figured out some essential things about the day to come. Work in progress!

Top 10 Mistakes in Behavior Change

[reposting this from my old Wordpress blog]

Following my previous post on NOT writing definitively and not preaching, I present you with my first definite and preaching post. Good luck.

* * *

No matter how much big-picture perspective we have on our lives, as “human machines” we cannot help but periodically get caught up in the dynamics and stress of the human life.

For example, I do what I do, which is build businesses (two at the moment) because it’s the most fun I personally can have with my life. To me, entrepreneurship is about creativity, problem solving, challenges, and continuous growth. Yet, in spite of all this wonderful motivation, I cannot help but get intensely stressed out and loose my beautiful perspective. Yes – what do you know? – I’m only human.

I believe that we all need to work continuously on retaining and resurrecting perspective. This applies especially strongly to people who are intelligent enough to have a big-picture perspective in the first place. Why? Because those are the people who have the tendency to take life more seriously and overthink everything.

The importance of bad music.

I grew up with a certain elitist attitude towards really popular music (stemming from my parents). My music tastes are pretty diverse, but I’ve since come to embrace pop and some really cheesy music because it’s my antidote to taking life too seriously. I believe that we all need “bad music” in our lives.

The recipe.

(This is the part where I tell you exactly how to live your life.)

1. Figure out your big-picture perspective.

2. Arrive at the conclusion that while it’s good to work hard and strive for a fulfilling life, stressing out and having a bad time in general is just not worth it in the long range.

3. Find your personal ways of reminding yourself to not take yourself or your life too seriously on a regular basis. What’s your bad music?