Tag: entrepreneurship

Sit down and watch it grow

FabrizioLeave a comment

One of the most difficult thing when you are in charge is to understand when it’s time to let go.

With the best of conscious intentions, a leader in a growing company may inadvertently generate an endless number of “problems” in order to stay busy, feel needed, and defer the difficult work of figuring out what leadership looks like now that the organization has evolved.

Ed Batista

I have experienced this first hand in different companies. The idea that being busy means being important is something that we all buy into at one point or the other. It is often very dangerous when a company is growing, as the focus of managers and leaders should mainly be on letting go of their duties and their responsibilities, on making sure that the people they manage and lead get the necessary attention, and that the high level strategy and vision gets appropriately translated into day to day actions from their team.

You can get used to this little by little: take something you have built, sit down, delegate and watch it grow without you. It will be liberating and incredibly rewarding.

About entrepreneurship

FabrizioLeave a comment

Entrepreneurship is overrated. And it is underestimated.

Wanting to be an entrepreneur is great. But.

Don’t be one if you want more freedom. Being an entrepreneur does not mean being free, you still have to abide to quite many written and unwritten rules. And eventually, many entrepreneurs feel that they are slave to their work, much more than employees often do.

Don’t be one if you want more time. I don’t even know why this is still a myth, but people actually say that. You will work 24/7. Making your own day does not mean that you will be home every evening by 18 to spend time with the kids and that you will have two days a week to dedicate to family and hobbies. Your work is your family, your hobby, your only thing.

Don’t be one if you want to be rich or successful. We only read the stories of (and idolize) those who make it, and of course we want to walk in the path they cleared. Truth is, most entrepreneurs fail. And fail again. And again. Without ever seeing an inch of success.

Don’t be one if you are tight financially. This links to the paragraph above. Even in the remote scenario your company will be actually successful and profitable, and you can pay yourself and your people a honest and decent salary, you will be personally busted before that happen if when you start you do not have a solid financial basis.

I understand this might sound harsh, yet if there is something I heartily hope for everybody is to do things mindfully. To actually look at their own situation and decide, for themselves, without the influence of some idle stereotypes, what they can and want to do.

Being entrepreneurial does not have to necessarily translate into being an entrepreneur. There are plenty of works out there that demand entrepreneurial skills, and at the same time give a solid salary, chances for success, acceptable work-life balance and the freedom to take responsibility over your work.

Be ready and make your choice.

 

What comes first?

FabrizioLeave a comment

If you have something you are proud of and care about, rather than starting by listing all of its benefits and advantages, first ask.

Who is it for?Who is the audience, what are their characteristics, where do they hang out, and with whom, and for what.

How does it help them fulfill their purpose?What do they think about themselves and the world they live in, how do they want to shape their world, where does my idea stand in achieving this, will it be a tool in their hands, or the purpose itself, or a way to understand something before they go there.

Why should they care?How is my offer different from the other thousands (yes, there are that many), how can I make it different, what twist should I focus on, what should I avoid speaking of, what does resonate and what does not.

As much as they seem trivial, these questions often leave entrepreneurs and start-up founders speechless, or stuttering at best. It takes time to answer them, yet they can take you a very long way in understanding what to do next, where to take your idea, how to invest your next euro.

On this note, here is the bit that spakerd today’s thought (follow the link and check the video).

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