“Health is not valued till sickness comes.” Dr. Thomas Fuller
Few if any startups get through any round of money (from angel on) without running short. Much of it can be attributed to Murphy’s Laws on Technology #12: Nothing ever gets build on schedule or within budget. The key word there is nothing. Therefore the sooner you get comfortable with the idea of only eating what you kill the quicker you’ll realize success.
One of the consistently biggest disconnect points with people working in a startup come from the desire to have the excitement and financial upside of a startup without giving up the security and pay scale of an established company.
Paying for results is a must unless it’s a person with a skill set that means the difference between success and failure. Otherwise, pay people the best you can afford but make the real money come from agreed upon, tangible results. Pay sales people well…after they’ve sold something. Outsource jobs that are “lumpy” (marketing communications, payroll, benefits, accounting, etc). Hire people who “get it”.
This credo used to be almost exclusively for small, start up companies. Many, if and when they “made it”, then deserted this philosophy for the more common approach of not minding the small things and concentrating on THE BIG PICTURE. One day in the future they wake up in red ink (think the horse head scene in The Godfather) and wonder what happened. Well, what happened is they’ve become a haven for excess and waste that then takes a big, heart wrenching, and if you’re big enough, public purge.
We’ve all seen and been part of that happening on a weekly basis as everyone scrambles to get themselves trimmed down so they can survive. Some will cut out sweets but not cut back on the starch and still be unhealthy. Some will cut out everything and be too anorexic to get going again when they need to. The good ones will cut back to a balanced, more healthy diet and be in great shape when it time to run.
Hopefully once healthy and growing again they will not forget the lesson learned and stay in shape. Doubtful since that goes totally against human nature.
To that point, unfortunately we also watch on a weekly basis the uber companies who are still not getting it. AIG, GM, Chrysler, The Federal Government (to name a few) still think that the only way out is to eat their way out. “If we’re eating we’re healthy, thus the more we eat the healthier we must be” seems to be the mindset. Somehow they’ve convinced themselves and are desperately trying to convince us that it’s in our best interest for them to be overfed.
Are you really buying this?
Few if any startups get through any round of money (from angel on) without running short. Much of it can be attributed to Murphy’s Laws on Technology #12: Nothing ever gets build on schedule or within budget. The key word there is nothing. Therefore the sooner you get comfortable with the idea of only eating what you kill the quicker you’ll realize success.
One of the consistently biggest disconnect points with people working in a startup come from the desire to have the excitement and financial upside of a startup without giving up the security and pay scale of an established company.
Paying for results is a must unless it’s a person with a skill set that means the difference between success and failure. Otherwise, pay people the best you can afford but make the real money come from agreed upon, tangible results. Pay sales people well…after they’ve sold something. Outsource jobs that are “lumpy” (marketing communications, payroll, benefits, accounting, etc). Hire people who “get it”.
This credo used to be almost exclusively for small, start up companies. Many, if and when they “made it”, then deserted this philosophy for the more common approach of not minding the small things and concentrating on THE BIG PICTURE. One day in the future they wake up in red ink (think the horse head scene in The Godfather) and wonder what happened. Well, what happened is they’ve become a haven for excess and waste that then takes a big, heart wrenching, and if you’re big enough, public purge.
We’ve all seen and been part of that happening on a weekly basis as everyone scrambles to get themselves trimmed down so they can survive. Some will cut out sweets but not cut back on the starch and still be unhealthy. Some will cut out everything and be too anorexic to get going again when they need to. The good ones will cut back to a balanced, more healthy diet and be in great shape when it time to run.
Hopefully once healthy and growing again they will not forget the lesson learned and stay in shape. Doubtful since that goes totally against human nature.
To that point, unfortunately we also watch on a weekly basis the uber companies who are still not getting it. AIG, GM, Chrysler, The Federal Government (to name a few) still think that the only way out is to eat their way out. “If we’re eating we’re healthy, thus the more we eat the healthier we must be” seems to be the mindset. Somehow they’ve convinced themselves and are desperately trying to convince us that it’s in our best interest for them to be overfed.
Are you really buying this?
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment