Babbling VC

Just Start!

It may seem like this is a typical year end post aiming to get people to set goals and resolutions for the New Year. It is not. It simply happens to be coming at a time when you will be seeing a ton of such posts. Yet, it may be just the right time for such a post since it addresses the exact same problem that most people making resolutions will face: not getting started. 

Procrastination and fear will keep you from doing that which you should be doing. You may end up finding other excuses but everything will eventually boil down to fear. Fear of failure, fear of others' opinions, fear of the unknown and so forth....all of this will keep you where you are. There is on simple solution...just start! You've read this a million times and will probably read it a million times more. From where I sit though I keep seeing this around me and I'm going to rant about it a bit. 

Be it in the corporate boardroom or the private bedroom, people just don't get started. They will spend weeks preparing Powerpoints or months telling themselves that they just don't know what they are doing. Or managers will continue their analysis paralysis where they need just that one more piece of information before getting started. Privately, folks will read one more article on that business they want to launch. They'll research endlessly what the proper laptop to buy is or where they need to rent an office. Yet they'll forget to build anything or find out whether anyone wants to pay them for it. 

One of our secrets to success at Liquid Labs is that we've diligently avoided overanalysing and thinking there is a right time to do anything. If we have an idea, we go for it. We build a product and throw it out there. Is it barely useful crap at times? Sure, nothing is ever perfect and we prefer to get it in front of customers to see what they like and what they do not. We change the strategy all the time. Liquid Labs itself and what we do here has basically evolved on a monthly basis for almost six years. We've changed and adapted the model so many times that I could write a whole book just about that. Additionally, so much has changed around us that if we didn't adapt, we'd no longer be in business. Nevertheless, every time we wanted to try something new or change something, we just did. 

We've also failed.....a lot. We've failed with products. We've failed building relationships within the corporate. We've failed with people we've hired and we've failed with people we weren't able to retain. We made wrong decisions when it comes to strategy and we misjudged management and how they would behave. Yet, the one thing that is intertwined with all of this is that we've been decision making machines. We simply decided and started, over and over again. 

Ultimately, it's all about decisions. You need to make them all the time and if you want to change something about your situation.....be it your job, your company, your health or your personal relationships and so forth, I recommend that you just decide to start. If you aren't sure what or how, just start. Something...anything. Adapt as you go but don't wait any longer. Stop analysing, researching and optimising for success. You can do that all later. The first and hardest step is starting. 

Some interesting links if you need more (but start first and then circle back):

Reid Hoffmann

James Altucher

The Art of Charm (podcast)  

Decision Making

There is a problem in most organisations that teams want to generally be in agreement when making decisions. I think this is a mistake. I was pleasantly surprised when recently reading a Jeff Bezos investor letter where he specifically alluded to this issue. He spoke of “disagree and commit” when it came to decision making at Amazon. This is a wonderful approach. (Please stop now and do go read Jeff's letter. It is that good!)

Usually, what happens in companies is that folks get into a death match with one another knowing that they at the end of the day have to somehow come to a mutual decision. What this unfortunately leads to at best is a ton of time being wasted. 

Further it often leads to a certain type of behaviour where the person who can argue the loudest or longest wins. This doesn’t necessarily mean that their decision is right but they simply waged warfare best. Thereafter decision making often turns into a sloppy mess. Deals start being made amongst individuals before meetings even take place and other types of intrigue creep in. This all does nothing to further the goals of the business and can even very quickly lead to its downfall.

Ultimately it all comes down to politics. If you are expected to “fight it out”, those individuals who couldn’t be bothered with politics will initially become quiet and at worst, leave your company. Not everyone on the team is going to be an extrovert or aggressive in their style of decision making as part of a group. Oftentimes those with the most insight may also not be high enough in the hierarchy and prefer to keep their mouth shut verses being stomped on. 

On the other hand, if the culture strives to disagree yet commit, you get things done. Not everyone has to always agree. Sure there is a risk of wrong decisions being made but making decisions is in my opinion better than not making decisions. It also allows people to engage far more in discussions knowing that if others are not aligned, they can still get something done. Oftentimes, the best decisions often look like the riskiest or most farfetched. But I rather have all these options on the table and agree with them if they are good. If they aren’t so in my opinion but the arguments are sound, I’m happy to disagree and commit to trying them out anyway. Therefore, I am with Jeff on this one.

Hell Yeah!

So I’ve had this conversation a couple times in the past two or three days and felt that it merited a blog post. There are two times which come to mind today where you should always decide on something by being completely digital about it. Either you want to do it (“hell yeah”) or you don’t (“fuck no”)!  The general concept comes from Derek Sivers and it brilliantly works in many situations. 

In today’s case it is in regards to hiring and picking jobs. When hiring you should be picking candidates based on “hell yeah or fuck no” and nothing in between. If you are shaky on whether to hire someone........pass. It’s common knowledge that it’s better to pass on someone than to hire the wrong person. Yet it happens over and over again. Hiring managers feel like they need to compromise to fill their positions yet you simply can’t fudge on this one. 

Same goes for people taking jobs. If you aren’t “hell yeah or fuck no” about a job, move on. You won’t do your best work in that role and you simply won’t shine. I do understand if you are in need of a job right now to make ends meet. Then definitely take whatever you can to get to be back on your feet and thereafter become picky. Yet, if you have options, never compromise on this front. 

Not surprisingly, the folks who think like this when hiring or taking jobs tend to get it right in reverse. Everyone I know who is super picky about candidates is just as picky when picking their own roles. Further, those who are super picky about where they work tend to be just as picky about whom they hire. This is a self-fulfilling prophecy and takes everyone up a notch. Hence I am adamant about passing this on to anyone looking for work or hiring people. If one person starts with it, it tends to get passed on to whomever they work with. My goal is obviously to have people in jobs where they really want to be and at the same time, for managers to hire people whom they really want to have on their team. It’s such a no-brainer but it’s an easy win-win situation which you shouldn’t forget in your day-to-day decision making.