An Entrepreneurial Journey



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  • Success is a Process of Discovery

    p>Doesn’t it seem like some of these people making it big in the business world just have this epiphany one day about a great idea, then they just go and make it happen…ending up with millions and sometimes billions later on?

    This was not my experience.  What I’ve seen is that, one day you start working on this small idea, then somewhere along the way you stumble upon a bigger idea, which usually isn’t anywhere close to your original idea.  If you have gone down the path of an entrepreneur, is this how it happened for you?

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  • Setting Us Apart in India

    180012 1576661140041 1340974047 1273655 539609 n (2)I am writing this from our office in Pondicherry, India, where I’m working with the amazing team of software architects, programmers, quality assurance engineers, test engineers, and designers that we’ve built over the last 7 years.  This year our Chief Software Architect, Chris Nolan, joined me so that he could experience some hands on time with the team.

    It’s always incredible to come here and see the evolution of our office, people, and the efficiency in what we’re doing.  I really do enjoy spending time with them and seeing how their lives have improved, experience their day to day, families, and their passion for making things work better through software.

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  • The Effectual Entrepreneur

    If you’re an entrepreneur, have you ever looked at how you went about starting your business?  Does it seem a bit unorthodox when compared to how people told you it should be done?  This stimulating topic is backed with years of research, shedding light into the mind of an entrepreneur.

    When I first started reading on this topic, I found it fascinating because it made me feel less like a renegade for my unconventional method of starting a business.  I hope this knowledge can perhaps help someone out there who is exploring the concept of being an entrepreneur, or possibly help someone like me who simply needs to feel good about the way entrepreneurs go about making things happen.

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  • Put Me In Coach!

    In my last blog I talked about having a process to get things done so that you can do more and get where you want to go. Sometimes you need more than just a process, you need help. A good resource for that is a coach, one who is experienced and knowledgeable in the area we need help.

    As many of you know, growing a business is difficult and it is understood why so many don’t make it in the early years. We simply don’t know everything, as hard as that is to admit. This is where coaches can be so valuable. A coach can give an outside perspective, experience and awareness that we just don’t see ourselves. Tiger Woods has a coach and so do many of the Fortune 500 CEOs who get coached by Marshall Goldsmith and Bill Campbell.

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  • The Effectual vs. Causal Entrepreneur

    Last week I discussed a study done on Entrepreneurs by Sara Sarasvathy that I found fascinating.  Her study analyzes the characteristics, habits and behaviors of what she calls the species entrepreneur.  She traveled to 17 states and met with 30 founders of companies ranging from $200M to $6.5B, covering a variety of industries.

    So what she determined is that there are 2 methods of reasoning, effectual and causal.  The causal approach is one that you commonly find in books.  This is where you have a predetermined goal, a given set of means, and you work to identify the most optimal, efficient, and financially feasible way of reaching the set goal. 

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  • 3 Secrets from the Coach of the Century

    After my last blog on Hero’s, one hero stood out in my mind and I’d really like to share why.  You’ve probably heard of him.  His name is Coach John Wooden of the UCLA Bruins basketball fame of the 60’s and 70’s. During his tenure he won 10 NCAA National Championships over 12 years. He was called “Coach of the Century” by ESPN. His path to success was made up of many secrets that apply not only on the court, but in business as well. Here are 3 that I have found most meaningful:

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  • Failure Is Not an Option

    A few weeks ago I joined with 740 other EO members for the EO Texas University, where we were exposed to some exciting speakers and events.  Among them were: Terry Jones, founder of Travelocity, Alvaro Uribe, former president of Columbia, Warren McDonald, who lost both of his legs during a climbing accident in Australia, and Kai Huang, who’s company RedOctane created Guitar Hero.

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  • Business…What a Great Game!

    Last week my company, Efficience, went on our annual retreat. This is where we take a few days to get away from the office and plan out our year, define our focus and strategize around threats and opportunities.

    We held our retreat in a cabin just outside of Gatlinburg, TN in the beautiful Smoky Mountains. We headed up Wednesday afternoon, and just as we settled in to do our SWOT Analysis before dinner, it began to snow…a lot. It was a beautiful setting for us to get away and just unplug so that we could get our minds right and focus on the tasks at hand.

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  • Meetings That Motivate

    How many times have you heard “I spend so much time in meetings, I don’t have time to do all the things I say I’m going to do in those meetings”?  It’s a constant battle I face, trying to improve our meetings so that they are as productive as possible in the least amount of time, and ultimately beneficial to our business.  After all, business is about bringing a group of people together to accomplish something, together.  So you could say that these gatherings are one of the most crucial parts of business.  It’s difficult to align people without that infamous word “meeting”.

    Imagine a US football team in a huddle.  Before each play, the offense and defense take a few seconds to analyze where they are, what down it is, what they think the opposing team will do and their own next play options.

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  • Oops! You mean there’s a better way to improve performance?

    Last week we discussed getting your team aligned around a critical number, ours being Gross Profit Margin. This week I want to share one or two business practices that are counter intuitive, aka an “OOPS!” in the Aubrey Daniels book called OOPS! 13 Management Practices That Waste Time and Money. The book is about behavioral science, detailing the basis for how humans behave toward typical ways business is done. You might be just as surprised as I was to find that one of the most relevant, counter intuitive practices outlined here is Salary and Hourly Pay, otherwise known as Oops #6.

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