Deformation professionelle is a French phrase that encapsulates the perspective that your view of reality is shaped by your profession.
Deformation Professionelle Of The Software Entrepreneur Read More »
Paying dues–putting the time in not only to understand but master a problem or situation–is a critical element of success in many circumstances.
Orienting, Observing, Doing Homework, and Paying Dues Read More »
If you accept the premise that we are living in an age of accelerating change, then you have to build and manage a learning process for your startup.
Building and Managing a Learning Process Read More »
A story from my interview process at Cisco. I asked “what are you doing to obsolete your product?”
What Are You Doing to Obsolete Your Product? Read More »
Earning and keeping your customers’ trust is essential to your success as a startup. Gerald Weinberg’s “Secrets of Consulting” offers “11 Laws of Trust” as a guideline for establishing and maintaining successful business relationships.
Keeping Your Customers’ Trust Read More »
I spend a fair amount of time advising entrepreneurs, both informally when solicited and formally when I have been retained–and sometimes even when I have not been asked for advice. Here are some key principles I follow.
Advising Entrepreneurs Read More »
“A good listener is not only popular everywhere, but after a while he knows something.” Wilson Mizner One of the more challenging aspects of entrepreneurship for engineers is the need to be able to engage in “small talk” and casual conversation with strangers. I have three suggestions that go to state of mind more than
Three Tips for Small Talk and Casual Conversation Read More »
Some things change, others remain constant. It’s hard to see the patterns when you are enmeshed in them. You have to pause and reflect.
Some Things Change, Others Remain Constant Read More »
Entrepreneurs sign the front of a paycheck. They take prudent risks and create functional businesses that provide value to customers, employees, suppliers, investors, and partners.
Entrepreneurs Sign The Front Of A Paycheck Read More »
There are categories of knowledge that are not written down, yet. They include observations that have not been curated but drive intuition-based decisions, first hand stories of events–successes and failures–that have not been filtered and sanitized but still offer insight and explanatory power. They are important because they are sources of competitive advantage. Knowledge That
Knowledge That Is Not Written Down, Yet Read More »
E-mail is not a conversation. I have to remind myself of that from time to time. When I am deadlocked with someone and tempted to send one more e-mail to clarify or I find myself getting angrier I have to remember to take a five minute walk around the building and pick up the phone.
E-Mail Is Not a Conversation Read More »
Inspired by Eames’ “Powers of Ten” I explore the scope and scale of plans and activities based on duration. I take a one hour duration as the starting point and look at a factor or 10,000 in each direction: from 1/300 of a second to 10,000 hours.
Scope and Scale of Plans and Activities Read More »
A recap of the inaugural blog post for SKMurphy blog 4 years ago and a roundup of lessons learned writing 700 posts since.
Entrepreneurs Still Welcome: 700 Blog Posts In Four Years Read More »
“The truth is, start-up-land is littered with mavericks, iconoclasts, dropouts, and misfits.” Sramana Mitra in “The Real VCs of Silicon Valley” Entrepreneurship is Involuntary I have come to the conclusion that most entrepreneurship is involuntary. Either someone is an entrepreneur from the time they are young, which was my personal experience, or they are thrust
Mavericks, Iconoclasts, Dropouts and Misfits Read More »
A review of Michael Malone’s “The Future Arrived Yesterday: the Protean Corporation.” Malone believes that successful companies of the future must find a way to continuously and rapidly change almost every one of their attributes but retain a core of values.
The Future, Arriving Yesterday, Remains In Constant Motion Read More »
Gabriel Weinberg is a serial entrepreneur (latest startup: DuckDuckGo), a Hacker Angel, insightful blogger, and frequent contributor to Hacker News. He is writing a book on how startups get traction and interviewing folks like Patrick McKenzie to collect lessons learned from a variety of perspectives. I was delighted when he approached me to take part
Gabriel Weinberg Interviews Me For His Traction Book Read More »
I curate startup advice in three word doses from Dharmesh Shah, Ed Weissman, the Cluetrain Manifesto, and a number of other sources.
Startup Advice in Three Word Doses Read More »
Startups have fewer meetings than larger companies but entrepreneurs still need to make those meetings effective, in fact there is less margin for unproductive meetings in a startup than there is in a larger firm. Here are two sources of good information on effective teams and how they meet: James Shonk’s “Working in Teams” is
Debugging Teams/Meetings: Start With Goals & Roles Read More »
Ed Weissman offers three reason why business prefers to pay for software: employee focus, a commitment to service, co-evolution with their needs.
Ed Weissman on B2B Opportunities for Startups Read More »
Paul Saffo defines “strong opinions, weakly held” as an effective mindset for foresight or making forecasts. This is a good approach for entrepreneurs.
Paul Saffo: Forecasting is “Strong Opinions, Weakly Held” Read More »
