Embracing The Fear Monster

January 18, 2013 By Leave a Comment
embrace fear

I remember asking myself a lot of questions before I was able to push "publish" and publicly launch the very first entry in Juan Great Leap. What would they say? What if they say, "Sino ba itong feeling na ito!?" What if they laugh at me?  What if they ignore me?  It took me a couple of weeks in between finishing my first post and  actually publishing it. You know how I did it? After a long day at work, the thought of publishing it crossed my mind. Before giving myself any chance to over-analyze, I forced myself to just push publish. And that was that. After that, I then started wrestling with the fear of posting it on my social media sites. ("Bahala na" works wonders, by the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: STARTUP ADVICE, TAKE THAT LEAP! Tagged With: , , ,

The Crucial Art Of Momentum Management, part deux

February 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment
track fail

In the previous post, we talked about managing YOUR momentum in the startup process, about how we have to strike when the iron is hot and take advantage of our energy. But what happens now when you're now working with a team of either founders or employees? Things become a bit trickier because now the startup exists outside of you. It now exists in your co-founders/employees, as well as the product you are now presumably working on. Identifying Momentum Shifts First of all, you have to be able to learn to READ how your momentum is. Is there an impasse in activity? Is output slower? Sometimes the signs are subtler: has a co-founder's energy dwindled? How does undergoing your … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Leadership, STARTUP ADVICE Tagged With: , ,

The Crucial Art of Momentum Management

February 1, 2012 By 2 Comments
brutus

“There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries."  - Brutus (in the play Julius Caesar, by William Shakespeare) This is a line from my favorite Shakespeare play, where Brutus urges his comrades to seize a fleeting opportunity in an armed conflict. Ships tend to leave ports during high tide, so as to go along with the flow. Brutus is basically telling his mates to seize the day while the tide is high, because that opportunity will come and go. Of course, seizing the day is basically the mantra of any entrepreneur - I'm not here to expound on that. What I want to … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Leadership, STARTUP ADVICE Tagged With: , ,

Why Uncertainty Is Your Friend

January 30, 2012 By 5 Comments
uncertainty

Do you know what you will be doing in your job in 2 week's time? In 2 month's time? I did. I knew my HR routine for the day - around 10 email requests, 2-3 interviews, 1-2 disciplinary cases to type up, perhaps one meeting with a manager who either wishes to hire or fire someone. I'd also meet with the occasional employee who wants to talk to me about resigning,  and perhaps a general meeting with other managers if it's a Monday. Then it would depend on the time of year. Mid-year and year-end, I'd also be calling managers to submit their late performance management forms. First quarter? Meetings on increases and promotions. Summers, I'd have meetings about the company outing. Rainy … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Life in a Startup, STARTUP ADVICE Tagged With: , ,

STEP 6: Why You Should Rethink Doing a Launch

January 26, 2012 By 2 Comments
Think VERY carefully before punching that button

(This is the 5th post in the series 6 Steps to Startup Launch. You can find the introductory post here, and the previous post here.) Ah. I remember our own "launch" back in 2006. It was a grand thing. We booked a room at Discovery Suites for half a day and we invited a number of corporate managers to a free "product launch" of our Flexible Benefit services in STORM. Since we didn't really put in a lot of cash in the venture when we started, this was a major, major expense for us. We filled the room with people carrying important-sounding business cards. And yeah, we felt like we had it made. Of course, it was a flop. Not one person in the room bought our product. If anything, we just … [Read more...]

Filed Under: GETTING STARTED, The 6 Steps to Startup Launch Tagged With: , ,

Stuck in Traffic? Use the time to listen to these invaluable podcasts!

January 9, 2012 By 4 Comments
3223086466_07409c8084_s

One habit I picked up in my startup life is reading business books. I started slowly, and then grew to read them voraciously. But when I transferred houses from one which was a stone's throw from the office to one which was an hour and a half away, my reading time got stymied. This was how I introduced myself to the world of podcasts. I would download podcasts from the web, upload them into my mobile, and listen away: 3-4 hours a day sometimes in the traffic. Great, wonderful learning - during a time when there is minimal distraction. Want to get started? Let me introduce you to one of the most elaborate startup resources available online: The Stanford Entrepreneurial Lecture … [Read more...]

Filed Under: TOOLS AND RESOURCES Tagged With: , ,

Pick your startup idea using the 3 circles

January 3, 2012 By 3 Comments
hedgehog

A long time ago, I read the bestselling book by Jim Collins, a book which a lot of you are probably familiar with, Good to Great. I have forgotten everything about the book except his 3 circles framework. Jim illustrates that for good companies to become great, they have to exist in the "sweet spot" of 3 overlapping circles. While the book was really made for large corporations, and used data mainly from large corporations, I realized how applicable the "3-circle" framework is for startups. I use this framework extensively in startup product development. My simplified version of the framework looks like this: So let's say you're deliberating on what startup idea you'd like to … [Read more...]

Filed Under: GETTING STARTED, POPULAR POSTS, TOOLS AND RESOURCES Tagged With: , , ,

An Open Letter to Philippine University Deans and Leaders

December 29, 2011 By 13 Comments
students

(My friend, please read through this. If you agree with its content and find it important, stop being passive - don't hesitate and SPREAD where you feel is necessary. Post it on your Facebook account, Tweet it, comment on it - agreeing or disagreeing, email it to directly to University Leaders in your network, or print it out and send it to their office, then perhaps tell them what you think about it. Let's not wait for other people to do it, nor think that "this isn't my problem," because in some way, it is  -  peter) Dear University Deans, Leaders, and Administrators, If a young, impressionable Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg were studying in your institution right now, would he … [Read more...]

Filed Under: OPEN LETTERS, STARTUP ADVICE Tagged With: , , ,

The Destructive Power of “Not Yet”

December 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment
procrastinate

Around three years ago, I had a coffee talk with an entrepreneurial fellow named Randy (not his real name, rhymes though). Randy was a mobile applications programmer working for a large telco. He was carefully explaining to me about his idea for a mobile application/mobile service which I thought was just super - first in the local market, clear user value proposition, clear monetization strategy, low investment costs.  I had a lot of questions, but he gave thoughtful answers - it was obvious he gave a lot of thought to his idea. Typically, I got really excited and told him he should start working on the code immediately. I reasoned he didn't need to resign, but that he could work on the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: TAKE THAT LEAP! Tagged With: ,

The only shoe that will fit perfectly is yours

December 27, 2011 By Leave a Comment
if-the-shoe-fits

Each individual is unique. From our fingerprints, our view of the world, our biases, our histories - we are each truly unique. Our uniqueness extends to what exactly satisfies us at work. Some of us prefer sales, some research, some human resources, some supply chain management, some finance, some technology. Some of us prefer to work at night, some mid-afternoon, some are morning folk. Some of us prefer working with people, while some prefer to work alone, for some "it depends." Some of crave simplicity, while others desire sophistication. Some of us get a thrill out of talking to someone new everyday, while some of us want to a correspond with more an intimate set of … [Read more...]

Filed Under: TAKE THAT LEAP! Tagged With: , ,
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