Listen to customers.Listen to customers.Listen to customers.Listen to customers.Listen to customers. Listen more than you speak. Always focus on customers and their feedback.
My favourite strategy for startups…
Past and ego, future and pride
Milwaukee Buck’s star Giannis Antetokounmpo was asked about how he keeps his ego in check despite his many accomplishments at age 26. Here’s an excerpt from his answer: ________________________________________________ “When you focus on the past, that’s your ego: ‘I did this. We were able to beat this team 4-0. I did this in the past. I won…
“They took everything” holding back tears
"They took everything" she says holding back her tears. I just had a mentorship session with one of my entrepreneurs. She does landscaping for a couple of shopping malls and her storage facility was vandalised during the looting that took last week in Gauteng, and she lost everything. Those buggers took everything. Her damage got…
Two areas every startup founder should be exceptional at
Two areas every founder should be exceptional at: 1. Spreadsheets The ability to play with financial models and projections givens you an insight about performance of your business. If you don't know your numbers you don't know your business. 2. Storytelling Knowing "what" story to tell, and knowing "how" to tell it [where to start…
Index on what you cannot easily compare
Here are a few things you can easily compare:The status conferred by your role or company or degree The number of products you delivered;Your carThe amount of press coverage you have receivedThe size of your homeThe number of likes you receive on your social media shares Here are a few things you cannot easily compare:…
Sawubona 10,000 views
3 years ago I had the privilege of being invited to give a TEDx talk in Mahikeng, north-west of South Africa. Even though I knew what I wanted to say, it was struggle to put the talk together. 3 years later, the talk has reached 10,000 views. I have dedicated the work I do, my…
Ignorance is expensive
I just finished reading a book on the Titanic titled Titanic: A Captivating Guide to the History of the Unsinkable Ship. Human beings are very interesting. When the so-called unsinkable ship hit the iceberg and an assessment was made by Captain Edward Smith and his crew that the ship will sink within 2 hours, it…
Sawubona and believing
Seth Godin shared an interesting blog post today titled Seeing and believing and I thought it is worth sharing here: _________________________________________________________ They say that seeing is believing. But it might be more true that believing leads to seeing. It’s often easier to discover the truth if we believe it’s there in the first place. _________________________________________________________…
Sharks and perspective
I saw this factoid about sharks recently. Apologies for the dark photo [underground]. It read: Are the sharks dangerous for our divers? No. They’re actually very cautious around divers – as they should be. Humans kill more than 100 million sharks every year. Sharks kill about 5 humans every year. The combination of the stats,…
Plans and excitement
Winning the lottery, very exciting. Working a plan, not so much. So are you hoping and waiting for pure excitement or are you willing to give up the amazing [yet unlikely] excitement of winning the lottery, getting picked, catching a huge lucky break in favour of working a plan that is not nearly as exciting…
Strong opinions and no curiosity
I have a simple principle when it comes to the strength of opinions: the stronger your opinions, the more it is your responsibility to be curious. People who combine strong opinions with high levels of curiosity lead with questions and take the time to understand the other person’s point of view. They, then, debate and discuss…
Five lessons I think every new entrepreneur needs to hear…
It is OK to have no idea what you are doing.Consistency is king.Prepare for pushback, put-downs and rejections.Read business books.Don't try to take everything on at once. One step at a time, easy does it.
