A matter of when, not if
When —not IF— you have a shit customer, employee, colleague, vendor, you know you have to let them go. As hard as it would hit your revenue or your profit. You have to let them go. If you’re radical and make that happen overnight, it’ll hit. Hard. If you’re less radical and make it over a period, it’ll still hit. Hard. They will kill your business chunk by chunk. Your morale. Your self-esteem. Your culture. Your value. You can do that. Or see your business fade away without noticing. Till it…
Fungible
Fungible. Exchangeable. That’s money. And that’s why you don’t have to give away your power. Sure, customers have money. And without money you can’t make your business thrive. Yet, one thing you can do for sure is find money from better fits. People that fit to you. To your standards. After all, money is fungible.
Average
Design for average. Produce for average. Make for average. If you want to stay blend in. To stand out you have to keep doing what you did at the beginning: breaking from what you saw was the same. What was average.
Speaking the language
It’s something that happens quite often: Sellers and buyers speaking different languages, yet using the same words. They use the same words and yet the understandings are different. Until you find that common language, you won’t be able to see the same thing. The same return. The same outcome.
The third person in your conversations
What’s your level of self-awareness? As in when you’re in a conversation and are able to listen and view yourself and what’s happening as if you were an spectator? When you’re able to do so (and I know I’m not one to do fully, or even at a 30%), you can guide the conversation at a higher level. You can see how you’re about to react. Or how you did react, and correct on the spot. And if you can’t correct right there, right then, you can take a note of what happened and do better next time. The…
Delulu anyone?
Delulu. Adjective. Internet slang for “delusional”, characterized by or holding false beliefs or judgements about external reality that are held despite incontrovertible evidence to the contrary, typically as a symptom of a mental condition. Oxford Languages TL;DR. The perception of reality vs the actual reality are very different. There’s a time where delusion is disguised as optimism. A time where the expectations of what’s supposed to happen in a business and the reality of what’s actually…
Approach them from interest, not self-interest
When talking with people and trying to figure out if they’re a fit for you, stop thinking of yourself. Assess their situation Take notes Help Connect And don’t expect something in return. That’ll build up your reputation. It’s the long game, dear reader.
A shopping list
That’s what most quotes and proposals look like. A list of items the prospect can choose from and decide what they buy. It doesn’t matter if it’s actually important, it’s what they “feel” it’ll be important for them… in their self-diagnose. A sense of alignment and direction BEFORE the execution? Nah. We need it to happen today. Let’s skip that. This looks too expensive from that proposal. Let’s take it off. This is too many things —and it’s not everything that I asked for. Let’s pressure…
Anyone with a heartbeat
A business. A very broad description of what they do. To try to grab the most opportunity, and from there get the foot in the door. – Who’s your type of customer? – Anyone with money. [aka. Anyone with a heartbeat.] – What you do? Bring solutions. Creative. Collaborative. Team players. Strategic (whatever that means). A partner. More of what you can find in the market. Totally exchangeable with zero effort. One more in a sea of many. Just think of it. Which of the competitors would go and say…
20 lessons on entrepreneurship
This is a recent TEDx by David C. Baker on 20 things to think of in business. It’s right under 20 mins. Totally worth a watch. 🙂 20 Things I learned After Growing Up in San Miguel Acatán | David C. Baker | TEDxGuatemalaCity
