Sunday, January 13, 2002

I'm sure this has been said before, but the surest way to be a success in business is to run it like its a marathon not a sprint.    The problem with the last couple years is that it taught so many people my age that you should run it as a sprint -- start with your exit strategy in mind, build something, crank up your numbers, get rich and exit.   Rinse and repeat.   Everyone knows someone who did it.  It's very alluring.   I can't deny that I chased that dream. Aside from the fact that it works only rarely, there are a couple problems with that.   First, it  produces companies that become empty hulls the day its founding hot shots cash out and leave.   Second, it creates generally poor work experiences for everyone along the way, especially after the founders have found their exit.    So my new philosophy is to let go of getting rich as a goal -- always negotiate for the best deal I can get, but not to make choices about where to go or what to do based on how much money it'll get me.  Instead, I will focus on working on good products in great organizations.   I will focus on making the place I work a great place to work -- great because its a superbly executed business with leading products in strong markets; great because its a company that knows its values and lives them consistently, from top to bottom; great because its a company that strives to make itself a better company every day.  I believe, if I do that, getting rich will take care of itself, naturally and as a matter of course.  And even if it doesn't, I will do good work for and with people I like.   And that, alone, will make it all worth while. 8:14:45 PM

so, Drucker says that innovation occurs where there is expertise.   There is a lot of truth in this.  And, actually, this is part of the problem with internet bust in the last few years -- too many people trying to innovate where they had no expertise.   Seems like there are two main sources of innovation -- the problem and the solution.  Sometimes, all that's needed is for someone to clearly identify the problem (or a set of related problems) and the solution follows naturally.   Sometimes, you do something a new way, or you make something new, or you do a new thing.  Then. all the sudden, there's a way of solving previously identified problems that didn't exist before.   So, if you want to innovate, look where you are an expert on the problems or where you have some hope of pushing forward the state of the art on solutions.   The funny thing is that I think innovation comes from defining problems more often than from developing new solutions.   Yet, I think most people focus their energy on developing new solutions.     There's really probably a couple other categories of innovation.   For example, sometimes there are truely novel things that don't solve existing problems but are useful things none the less.  Like email or IM.   You could say they solved existing problems, but that would miss what they really did which was change the way people did work.    People also spend a lot of time looking for these kinds of innovation.   I think these are both the hardest to find and the hardest to launch.   I wonder how often the company that developed the idea really ever capitalized on it here. 6:12:25 PM

I spent the last two days hanging out with my wife and friends.   I watched the Raiders beat the Jets with Mary and Dave over a pizza from Zachary's.  And the Niners lose to Green Bay with Mary, John, Chris, and Kim.   Now I'm going to try to get some work done.   Just a little. 5:03:54 PM