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miércoles, 28 de mayo de 2014

10 Simples Verdades Que La Gente Inteligente Olvida

Algunas de las personas más inteligentes que conozco constantemente luchan por salir adelante porque se olvidan de algunas simples verdades que rigen nuestro potencial para progresar. Así que aquí va un recordatorio:


1. La educación y la inteligencia no sirven de nada sin acción.
No importa si tienes el coeficiente intelectual de un genio y un doctorado en física cuántica, no se puede cambiar nada, ni hacer ningún tipo de progreso en el mundo real, si no se toma acción. Hay una gran diferencia entre saber cómo hacer algo y hacerlo realmente. El conocimiento y la inteligencia son inútiles sin acción. Es tan simple como eso.

2. La felicidad y el éxito son dos cosas diferentes.
Conozco a una mujer de negocios muy inteligente, gano casi un millón de dólares el año. Cada empresario que conozco considera que ella es extremadamente exitosa. Pero ¿adivinen qué? Hace unos días, de repente, me dijo que estaba deprimida. ¿Por qué? ”Estoy exhausta y sola. No he tenido suficiente tiempo para mi últimamente”, dijo. ”Wow!”, Pensé. ”Una de las personas más exitosas que conozco no es feliz.

También conozco a un surfista que surfea casi todo el día. Es uno de los chicos más alegres y optimistas que he conocido, siempre con una sonrisa de oreja a oreja. Pero duerme en una furgoneta, de la que es co-propietario con otra persona que practica surf. Así que, aunque no puedo negar que este hombre parece feliz, yo no calificaría su vida como una historia de éxito.

¿Qué me hará feliz?” Y “¿Qué me dará el éxito?” Son dos de las preguntas más importantes que puedes hacerte. Pero son dos cosas diferentes.

3. Cada uno es responsable de su propio negocio.
No importa cómo se gane la vida o para quién trabajes, y en realidad sólo trabajas para una persona, y esa eres tu. La gran pregunta es: ¿Qué estás vendiendo, y a quién?.

Incluso cuando trabajes a tiempo completo, asalariado, en una multinacional, aún eres responsable de tu propio negocio. Estás vendiendo una unidad de ti (una hora de tu vida) a un precio determinado (la fracción asociada a tu salario) a un cliente (el empleador).

Así que, ¿cómo puedo simultáneamente ahorrar tiempo y aumentar mis ganancias? La respuesta es ligeramente distinta para cada persona.

4. Tener demasiadas opciones interfiere en la toma de decisiones.
Aquí en el siglo 21, donde la información se mueve a la velocidad de la luz y las oportunidades para la innovación parecen no tener fin, tenemos una abundante variedad de opciones cuando se trata de diseñar nuestras vidas y carreras. Pero, lamentablemente, una gran cantidad de opciones a menudo lleva a la indecisión, la confusión y la inacción.

Varios de negocios y estudios de mercado han demostrado que entre más opciones tenga el consumidor para elegir, menos productos compran. Después de todo, escoger el mejor producto de un grupo de tres opciones es sin duda mucho más fácil que escoger el mejor producto de un grupo de trescientas opciones. Si la decisión de compra es difícil de hacer, la mayoría de la gente se da por vencida.

Así que si está vendiendo una línea de productos, manténgalo simple. Y si estás tratando de tomar una decisión acerca de tu vida, no pierdas todo tu tiempo evaluando hasta el último detalle de todas las opciones posibles. Elija algo que crea que va a funcionar y dele una oportunidad. Si no funciona, elija otra cosa y siga adelante.

5. Todas las personas poseen dimensiones de éxito y dimensiones de fracaso.
Este punto está relacionado con el punto 2 de la felicidad y el éxito, pero se sustenta por si mismo…
Tratar de ser perfecto es una pérdida de tiempo y energía. La perfección es una ilusión.

Todas las personas, incluso nuestros ídolos, son multidimensionales. Poderosos hombres de negocios, pulidos músicos, autores de Best Seller, e incluso nuestros propios padres tienen dimensiones de éxito y dimensiones de fracaso presentes en sus vidas.

Nuestra dimensión de éxito por lo general abarca las cosas en las que pasamos la mayor parte del tiempo. Somos exitosos en estas dimensiones debido a nuestro prolongado compromiso hacia ellos. Esta es la parte de nuestras vidas que queremos que otros vean – la parte exitosa que guarda nuestra vida laboral. Es la idea de poner nuestro mejor yo adelante. Es el personaje público que imaginamos como nuestro legado personal: “El exitoso ABC” o “El ganador de premios XYZ”.

Pero detrás de ese personaje que promovemos públicamente, se encuentra un multi-dimensional ser humano con una larga lista de fracasos no declarados. A veces esta persona es un mal marido o mala esposa. A veces, esta persona se ríe a expensas de los demás.

6. Cada error que se comete, es un progreso.
Los errores te enseñan lecciones importantes. Cada vez que cometas uno, estás un paso más cerca de tu meta. El único error que realmente puede dañar es el elegir no hacer nada simplemente porque estas demasiado asustado de cometer algún error.

Así que no dudes – no dudes de ti mismo. La vida, rara vez es sobre “tener una oportunidad”, se trata de “tomar una oportunidad”. Nunca estarás 100% seguro de que las cosas funcionarán, pero siempre se puede estar 100% seguro de que no hacer nada no funcionará. ¡La mayoría de las veces sólo tienes que lanzarte!

Y no importa cómo resulta, siempre termina de la manera en que debe terminar. Ya sea que tenga éxito o aprenda algo. Recuerda, si no actúas, nunca lo sabrás con seguridad.

7. La gente puede ser muy buena haciendo cosas que no les guste hacer.
Aunque no estoy sugiriendo elegir una carrera u oficio que no te guste, he oído muchas veces a personas inteligentes decir algo como: “Para ser grande en lo que haces, te tiene que gustar lo que haces.” Esto simplemente no es del todo verdad.

Un buen amigo mío es contador público. Él me ha dicho en numerosas ocasiones que no le gusta su trabajo – “que le aburre a muerte.” Pero con frecuencia obtiene aumentos y promociones. A la edad de 28, de casi un millar de Contadores Jr. en su división, es uno de los dos únicos que fueron promovidos a Contadores Senior. ¿Por qué? Porque a pesar de que no le gusta hacerlo, es muy bueno.

Podría llegar a decenas de otros ejemplos como este, pero te ahorraré los detalles. Sólo ten en cuenta que si alguien le dedica suficiente tiempo y atención al perfeccionamiento de una habilidad, puede ser increíblemente bueno haciendo algo que no les gusta hacer.
8. Los problemas que tenemos con los demás son en realidad más sobre nosotros.
Muy a menudo, los problemas que tenemos con los demás – nuestro cónyuge, padres, hermanos, etc. – en realidad no tienen mucho que ver con ellos en absoluto. Debido a que muchos de los problemas que creemos tener con ellos, son inconscientemente creados en nuestra propia mente. Tal vez hicieron algo en el pasado que tocó en uno de nuestros miedos o inseguridades. O tal vez no hicieron algo que esperábamos que hicieran. En cualquier caso, problemas como estos no son sobre las otras personas, son sobre nosotros.

Y está bien. Eso simplemente significa que estos predicamentos serán fáciles de resolver. Somos, después de todo, responsables de nuestras propias decisiones. Tenemos que decidir si queremos mantener nuestra cabeza llena de cosas del pasado, o en su lugar, abrir nuestras mentes a una realidad positiva en frente de nosotros.

Todo lo que necesitamos es la voluntad de ver las cosas un poco diferentes – soltar “lo que era” y “lo que debería haber sido”, y en su lugar, enfocar nuestra energía en “lo que es” y “lo que podría ser posible.

9- Las decisiones emocionales son rara vez buenas decisiones.
Las decisiones impulsadas por las emociones suelen ser reacciones equivocadas, en lugar de juicios racionales. Estas reacciones son el subproducto de una mínima cantidad de pensamientos conscientes y basadas principalmente en “sentimientos” momentáneos en lugar pensamientos consientes.

El mejor consejo es simple: No dejes que tus emociones triunfen sobre tu inteligencia. Relájete y piensa las cosas antes de tomar cualquier decisión que afecte tu vida.

10. Nunca te sentirás 100% listo cuando la oportunidad aparezca.
La principal cosa que constantemente veo que hace que las personas inteligentes den marcha atrás es su propia renuencia a aceptar una oportunidad, simplemente porque no creen estar listos. En otras palabras, creen que requieren nuevos conocimientos, habilidades, experiencias, etc. antes de que se puedan afrontar adecuadamente la oportunidad. Lamentablemente, este tipo de pensamiento es el que ahoga el crecimiento personal.

La verdad es que nadie se siente 100% listo cuando una oportunidad aparece. Ya que la mayoría de grandes oportunidades en la vida nos obligan a crecer emocional e intelectualmente. Nos obligan a expandirnos nosotros mismos y a nuestras zonas de confort, lo que significa que no nos sentiremos totalmente cómodos al principio. Y cuando no nos sentimos cómodos, no nos sentimos preparados.

Sólo recuerda que los momentos con oportunidades significativas para el crecimiento y desarrollo personal van y vienen a lo largo de nuestras vidas. Si está buscando hacer cambios positivos en tu vida, tendrás que aceptar estos momentos de oportunidad incluso si nunca te sientes 100% listo para ellos.


ORIGINAL: UpSocl
Por Josefa Del Real

sábado, 21 de diciembre de 2013

Austin Kleon on 10 Things Every Creator Should Remember But We Often Forget

What T.S. Eliot has to do with genetics and the optimal investment theory for your intellectual life.

 
Much has been said about the secrets of creativity and where good ideas come from, but most of that wisdom can be lost on young minds just dipping their toes in the vast and tumultuous ocean of self-initiated creation. Some time ago, artist and writer Austin Kleon — one of my favorite thinkers, a keen observer of and participant in the creative economy of the digital age — was invited to give a talk to students, the backbone for which was a list of 10 things he wished he’d heard as a young creator:


So widely did the talk resonate that Kleon decided to deepen and enrich its message in Steal Like an Artist — an intelligent and articulate manifesto for the era of combinatorial creativity and remix culture that’s part 344 Questions, part Everything is a Remix, part The Gift, at once borrowed and entirely original.
(This piece of truth is available as a print from 20×200, one of the best places for affordable art.)

The book opens with a timeless T.S. Eliot endorsement of remix culture:

Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different.”





Kleon goes on to delineate the qualities you’ll need to cultivate for the creative life — things like kindness, curiosity, “productive procrastination,” “a willingness to look stupid” — demonstrating that “creativity” isn’t some abstract phenomenon bestowed upon the fortunate few but, rather, a deliberate mindset and pragmatic ethos we can architect for ourselves. As he puts it, “you are a mashup of what you let into your life.

Kleon writes in the introduction:


It’s one of my theories that when people give advice, they’re really just talking to themselves in the past.

This book is me talking to a previous version of myself.

These are things I’ve learned over almost a decade of trying to figure out how to make art, but a funny thing happened when I started sharing them with others — I realized that they aren’t just for artists. They’re for everyone.

These ideas are for everyone who’s trying to inject some creativity into their life and their work. (That should describe all of us.)


On doing what you love, Kleon urges:
  • Draw the art you want to see, 
  • start the business you want to run, 
  • play the music you want to hear, 
  • write the books you want to read, 
  • build the products you want to use — 
  • do the work you want to see done.

On engineering creative and intellectual stimulation: 

There’s an economic theory out there that if you take the incomes of your five closest friends and average them, the resulting number will be pretty close to your own income.

I think the same thing is true of idea incomes. You’re only going to be as good as the stuff you surround yourself with.

And on that note, immersing yourself in Steal Like an Artist is as fine an investment in the life of your mind as you can hope to make.

ORIGINAL: Brain Pickings

viernes, 13 de septiembre de 2013

Polina Raygorodskaya de Wanderu recomienda a las emprendedoras aprender a escribir código (programar)

ORIGINAL: Pulso Social
Por Camila Carreño 
Septiembre 13, 2013
Polina Raygorodskaya de Wanderu
Viajó tanto en bus por su primera compañía que a Polina Raygorodskaya se le ocurrió crear Wanderu, la plataforma que permite encontrar y reservar buses y trenes para moverse entre ciudades en el noreste de Estados Unidos. La speaker de Pulsoconf nos dio algunos tips para las emprendedoras.

Polina Raygorodskaya era modelo y su primer emprendimiento fue una compañía de PR para marcas de moda. Estaba en segundo año en Babson College cuando creó Polina Fashion. Pero la startup que ahora la apasiona es Wanderu, que ella co-fundó y donde actualmente es CEO.

Con Wanderu busca mejorar un proceso por el que ella pasó muchas veces: moverse en bus de forma más eficiente. Y no sólo se ahorra tiempo, sino que también destaca que es mucho más sustentable que viajar en auto.
Y al parecer está funcionando, porque recientemente levantaron US$2.45 millones. Polina Raygorodskaya nos explica cuáles son sus planes:

Nuestro objetivo es seguir creciendo y expandiéndonos través de Norteamérica. Ya tenemos más de 13 asociaciones que nos dan 80% de cobertura del mercado del noreste y estamos expandiéndonos activamente región por región a lo largo del país. También estamos contratando y haciendo crecer nuestro equipo técnico para poder seguir desarrollando la tecnología más avanzada en la industria”.

Algunos consejos para las emprendedoras

Ya en el 2007, Polina Raygorodskaya fue elegida por Business Week como parte de los “25 mejores emprendedores de menos de 25“. En 2011 co-fundó Wanderu con Igor Bratnikov (COO) y Eddy Wong (CTO), y en el directorio cuentan con personas clave como Craig Lentzsch, ex CEO de Greyhound –una de las compañías de buses más grandes de Estados Unidos–, y Rogelio De los Santos, partner del fondo Alta Ventures Mexico.

Wanderu fue uno de los primeros equipos en el la aceleradora de PayPal Start Tank en Boston y este año la compañía fue la ganadora del South by Southwest Interactive Accelerator Award.

Hablamos con Polina Raygorodskaya antes de que aterrizara en Guadalajara para Pulsoconf :

En Latinoamérica no hay muchas fundadoras tech, ¿cómo ha sido la experiencia para ti?
–La mayor parte de mi tiempo lo he pasado en Estados Unidos, pero en el tiempo que he pasado en México no he notado ningún tipo de discriminación por ser una mujer que fundó una empresa tech. Incluso en Estados Unidos es un mundo de hombres, la mayoría de los fundadores tech son hombres, pero ha habido una gran tendencia en la última década para que más y más mujeres lancen startups de tecnología. Creo que es un momento muy emocionante para las mujeres interesadas en el emprendimiento y la tecnología.

–¿Cuáles son los principales desafíos para las mujeres en el mundo de los negocios tech? 
 –Creo que uno de los principales desafíos es que hay menos mujeres que hombres que estudian ingeniería, y por eso es más difícil crear una empresa sin ser capaz de construir un producto. Una de las cosas más difíciles para un fundador no técnico es encontrar un co-fundador técnico. A cualquier mujer interesada en crear una startup tech le recomendaría aprender a escribir código. Si no estudiaron programación en la universidad, hay muchos cursos y recursos disponibles específicamente para las chicas que quieren aprender a hacerlo. También hay programas como Codecademy.

–¿Qué le recomendarías a las emprendedoras mujeres que quieren empezar su propia compañía?  
–Mi mayor recomendación es que simplemente lo hagan. Una de las cosas más difíciles es dar el paso, especialmente cuanto tu carrera te está dando dinero. Si encuentras algo que te apasiona y quieres empezar tu propio negocio deberías hacerlo. También creo que es importante si no sabes cómo programar, al menos aprender algo de programación básica. Les ayudará a encontrar un co-fundador técnico y ser capaz de comunicarse con el equipo tecnológico en el futuro. Si estás construyendo una empresa de tecnología al menos deberías entender lo básico de la tecnología que está usando para construirla.

–¿Qué opinas del ecosistema latinoamericano de startups? ¿Es un mercado interesante para tu compañía? 

–Creo que América Latina es un mercado en auge y hay un montón de oportunidades para aprovechar en este momento. Estamos muy interesados y entusiasmados en el mercado de América Latina, especialmente México.

Sigue las novedades de Polina Raygorodskaya en twitter (@polinatravels) y no te pierdas su charla en Pulsoconf.

[Imagen Destacada]

About Camila Carreño Camila Carreño es periodista. Ha trabajado en el diario El Mercurio en temas de política, en la Universidad Católica en materia de políticas públicas y como editora sobre emprendimiento digital en Chile. Síguela en Twitter: @camicarreno.
View all posts by Camila Carreño ?

domingo, 28 de julio de 2013

20 Things 20-Year-Olds Don't Get

ORIGINAL: Forbes
7/23/2013
 
I started Docstoc in my 20’s, made the cover of one of those cliché “20 Under 20” lists, and today I employ an amazing group of 20-somethings. Call me a curmudgeon, but at 34, how I came up seems so different from what this millennial generation expects. I made a lot of mistakes along the way, and I see this generation making their own. In response, here are my 20 Things 20-Year-Olds Don’t Get.

Time is Not a Limitless Commodity
– I so rarely find young professionals that have a heightened sense of urgency to get to the next level. In our 20s we think we have all the time in the world to A) figure it out and B) get what we want. Time is the only treasure we start off with in abundance, and can never get back. Make the most of the opportunities you have today, because there will be a time when you have no more of it.

You’re Talented, But Talent is Overrated - Congratulations, you may be the most capable, creative, knowledgeable & multi-tasking generation yet. As my father says, “I’ll Give You a Sh-t Medal.” Unrefined raw materials (no matter how valuable) are simply wasted potential. There’s no prize for talent, just results. Even the most seemingly gifted folks methodically and painfully worked their way to success. (Tip: read “Talent is Overrated”)

We’re More Productive in the Morning – During my first 2 years at Docstoc (while I was still in my 20’s) I prided myself on staying at the office until 3am on a regular basis. I thought I got so much work done in those hours long after everyone else was gone. But in retrospect I got more menial, task-based items done, not the more complicated strategic planning, phone calls or meetings that needed to happen during business hours. Now I stress an office-wide early start time because I know, for the most part, we’re more productive as a team in those early hours of the day.  

Social Media is Not a CareerThese job titles won’t exist in 5 years. Social media is simply a function of marketing; it helps support branding, ROI or both. Social media is a means to get more awareness, more users or more revenue. It’s not an end in itself. I’d strongly caution against pegging your career trajectory solely to a social media job title.

Pick Up the PhoneStop hiding behind your computer. Business gets done on the phone and in person. It should be your first instinct, not last, to talk to a real person and source business opportunities. And when the Internet goes down… stop looking so befuddled and don’t ask to go home. Don’t be a pansy, pick up the phone.

Be the First In & Last to Leave ­– I give this advice to everyone starting a new job or still in the formative stages of their professional career. You have more ground to make up than everyone else around you, and you do have something to prove. There’s only one sure-fire way to get ahead, and that’s to work harder than all of your peers.

Don’t Wait to Be Told What to Do – You can’t have a sense of entitlement without a sense of responsibility. You’ll never get ahead by waiting for someone to tell you what to do. Saying “nobody asked me to do this” is a guaranteed recipe for failure. Err on the side of doing too much, not too little. (Watch: Millennials in the Workplace Training Video)

Take Responsibility for Your Mistakes – You should be making lots of mistakes when you’re early on in your career. But you shouldn’t be defensive about errors in judgment or execution. Stop trying to justify your F-ups. You’re only going to grow by embracing the lessons learned from your mistakes, and committing to learn from those experiences.

You Should Be Getting Your Butt Kicked – Meryl Streep in “The Devil Wears Prada” would be the most valuable boss you could possibly have. This is the most impressionable, malleable and formative stage of your professional career. Working for someone that demands excellence and pushes your limits every day will build the most solid foundation for your ongoing professional success.

A New Job a Year Isn’t a Good Thing ­­– 1-year stints don’t tell me that you’re so talented that you keep outgrowing your company. It tells me that you don’t have the discipline to see your own learning curve through to completion. It takes about 2-3 years to master any new critical skill, give yourself at least that much time before you jump ship. Otherwise your resume reads as a series of red flags on why not to be hired.

People Matter More Than Perks – It’s so trendy to pick the company that offers the most flex time, unlimited meals, company massages, game rooms and team outings. Those should all matter, but not as much as the character of your founders and managers. Great leaders will mentor you and will be a loyal source of employment long after you’ve left. Make a conscious bet on the folks you’re going to work for and your commitment to them will pay off much more than those fluffy perks.

Map Effort to Your Professional Gain You’re going to be asked to do things you don’t like to do. Keep your eye on the prize. Connect what you’re doing today, with where you want to be tomorrow. That should be all the incentive you need. If you can’t map your future success to your current responsibilities, then it’s time to find a new opportunity.

Speak Up, Not Out – We’re raising a generation of sh-t talkers. In your workplace this is a cancer. If you have issues with management, culture or your role & responsibilities, SPEAK UP. Don’t take those complaints and trash-talk the company or co-workers on lunch breaks and anonymous chat boards. If you can effectively communicate what needs to be improved, you have the ability to shape your surroundings and professional destiny.

You HAVE to Build Your Technical Chops – Adding “Proficient in Microsoft Office” at the bottom of your resume under Skills, is not going to cut it anymore. I immediately give preference to candidates who are ninjas in: Photoshop, HTML/CSS, iOS, WordPress, Adwords, MySQL, Balsamiq, advanced Excel, Final Cut Pro – regardless of their job position. If you plan to stay gainfully employed, you better complement that humanities degree with some applicable technical chops.

Both the Size and Quality of Your Network MatterIt’s who you know more than what you know, that gets you ahead in business. Knowing a small group of folks very well, or a huge smattering of contacts superficially, just won’t cut it. Meet and stay connected to lots of folks, and invest your time developing as many of those relationships as possible. (TIP: Here is my Networking Advice)

You Need At Least 3 Professional Mentors – The most guaranteed path to success is to emulate those who’ve achieved what you seek. You should always have at least 3 people you call mentors who are where you want to be. Their free guidance and counsel will be the most priceless gift you can receive. (TIP: “The Secret to Finding and Keeping Mentors”)

Pick an Idol & Act “As If” – You may not know what to do, but your professional idol does. I often coach my employees to pick the businessperson they most admire, and act “as if.” If you were (fill in the blank) how would he or she carry themselves, make decisions, organize his/her day, accomplish goals? You’ve got to fake it until you make it, so it’s better to fake it as the most accomplished person you could imagine. (Shout out to Tony Robbins for the tip)

Read More Books, Fewer Tweets/Texts – Your generation consumes information in headlines and 140 characters: all breadth and no depth. Creativity, thoughtfulness and thinking skills are freed when you’re forced to read a full book cover to cover. All the keys to your future success, lay in the past experience of others. Make sure to read a book a month (fiction or non-fiction) and your career will blossom.

Spend 25% Less Than You Make – When your material needs meet or exceed your income, you’re sabotaging your ability to really make it big. Don’t shackle yourself with golden handcuffs (a fancy car or an expensive apartment). Be willing and able to take 20% less in the short term, if it could mean 200% more earning potential. You’re nothing more than penny wise and pound-foolish if you pass up an amazing new career opportunity to keep an extra little bit of income. No matter how much money you make, spend 25% less to support your life. It’s a guaranteed formula to be less stressed and to always have the flexibility to pursue your dreams.

Your Reputation is Priceless, Don’t Damage It – Over time, your reputation is the most valuable currency you have in business. It’s the invisible key that either opens or closes doors of professional opportunity. Especially in an age where everything is forever recorded and accessible, your reputation has to be guarded like the most sacred treasure. It’s the one item that, once lost, you can never get back.

jueves, 25 de julio de 2013

The Zen of Business Plans

ORIGINAL: LinkedIn
Guy Kawasaki
July 15, 2013

Before you dedicate your life to crafting a business plan the length of a book, read this quotation from an article called “Enterprise: Do Start-ups Really Need Formal Business Plans“ from the Wall Street Journal.

Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.
Dwight D. Eisenhower

A study released by Babson College analyzed 116 businesses started by alumni who graduated between 1985 and 2003. Comparing success measures such as annual revenue, employee numbers and net income, the study found no statistical difference in success between those businesses started with formal written plans and those without them...

What we really don’t want to do is literally spend a year or more essentially writing a business plan without knowing we have actual customers,” says the author of the study, William Bygrave of Babson College. He advocates that entrepreneurs “just do it.” He also cautions that entrepreneurs are apt to stick with a flawed plan they spent months drafting.

Don’t conclude from this study that analysis, planning, vision, communication, and teamwork are not necessary. This isn’t true. What is true is that a business plan should not take on a life of its own. It is a tool but not an end in itself. In order effectively write a business plan, you now need to learn the Zen of writing business plans.
  • Focus on the executive summary. The executive summary, all one or two pages of it, is the most important part of a business plan. If it isn’t fantastic, eyeball-sucking, and pulse-altering, investors won’t read beyond it to find out who’s on your great team, what’s your business model, and why your product is curve jumping, paradigm shifting, and revolutionary. Even if the plan is purely for internal use, you should still spend 80 percent of your effort on writing a great executive summary. Most people spend 80 percent of their effort crafting a one-million-cell Excel spreadsheet that no one understands much less believes.
  • Write for all the right reasons. Most people write business plans to attract investors, and while this is necessary to raise money, most venture capitalists made a “gut level” go/no go decision during pitch. Receiving (and possibly reading) the business plan is a mechanical step in due diligence. The more relevant and important reason to write is a business plan, even if you’re not raising money, is to force the management team to solidify the 
    • objectives (what), 
    • strategies (how), and 
    • tactics (when, where, who).
  • Make it a solo effort. While creation of the business plan should be a group effort involving the management of a company, one person, ideally the CEO, should do the actual writing of the business plan. Take it from an author, it’s very difficult to cut-copy-and-paste several people’s sections and come out with a coherent document.
  • Pitch, then plan. Most people create a business plan, and it’s a piece of crap: sixty pages long, fifty-page appendix, full of buzzwords, acronyms, and superficialities like, “All we need is 1 percent of the market.” Then they create a pitch from it. The correct sequence is to perfect a pitch and then write the plan from it. A good business plan is an elaboration of a good pitch; a good pitch is not the distillation of good business plan. {click to tweet} Why? Because it’s much easier to revise a pitch than to revise a plan. Give the pitch a few times, see what works and what doesn’t, change the pitch, and then write the plan. Think of your pitch as your outline, and your plan as the full text. How many people write the full text and then the outline?
  • Keep it clean. The ideal length of a business plan is twenty pages or less, and this includes the appendix. When it comes to business plans, less is more. For every ten pages over twenty pages, you decrease the likelihood that the plan will be read, much less funded, by 25 percent. Many people believe that the purpose of a business plan is to shock and awe investors into begging for wiring instructions. The reality is that the purpose of a business plan is to get to the next step: continued due diligence with activities such as checking personal and customer references. The tighter the thinking, the shorter the plan; the shorter the plan, the faster people will finish reading it.
  • Limit yourself to a one-page financial projection plus key metrics. Many business plans contain five-year projections with a $100 million top line and such minute levels of detail that the budget for pencils is a line item. Everyone knows that you’re pulling numbers out of the air. Do everyone a favor: Reduce your Excel delusions to one page and provide a forecast of the key metrics of your business—for example, the number of paying customers. These key metrics provide insight into your assumptions. For example, if you’re assuming that you’ll get 20 percent of the Fortune 500 to buy your product in the first year, I would suggest checking into a rehab program.
  • Write deliberate, act emergent. I borrowed this from my buddy Clayton Christensen, the author of The Innovator’s Dilemma (Harvard Business School Press, 1997). It means that when you write your plan, you act as if you know exactly what you’re going to do. You are deliberate. You’re probably wrong, but you take your best shot. However, writing deliberate doesn’t mean that you adhere to the plan in the face of new information and new opportunities. As you execute the plan, you act emergent—that is, you are flexible and fast moving: changing as you learn more and more about the market.
Here are your marching orders. Take your pitch and give yourself one week to write a plan from it. Consult with your team as you write it (you’ll find how different your perspectives of the business are). Consider it a working document and don’t let it run your business. If you do these things, you’ll have a better business plan than 90% of your competitors.

If you liked this post, please share it and click the FOLLOW button above to get more. And please consider subscribing to my mailing list at http://eepurl.com/u0U81.

Guy Kawasaki is the author of twelve books including APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur — How to Publish a Book, What the Plus!, and Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Action. He’s the former chief evangelist of Apple and current advisor to Motorola. Guy shares enchanting stuff on the topics of marketing, enchantment, social media, writing, self-publishing, innovation and venture capital.

This is an excerpt from Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition.

martes, 9 de octubre de 2012

How to Get the Most Out of Google Chrome

ORIGINAL: Gizmodo

Let's face it, the light-and-fast Google Chrome browser is the only way to surf the web-no question. But whether you're new to the browser or an old veteran, we've got some tricks to improve your mileage. Our Google Chrome Optimization Guide will show you which Google Chrome extensions to download and ways to tweak settings you didn't even know were there.

Take a Shortcut
Before we dive in to Chrome's many hidden gems, let's start with some basics (run before you walk, as they say). Just like in Windows, shortcuts can save you a ton of time in Chrome, as well as having to constantly reach for the mouse to perform menial tasks such as opening new tabs. Memorize these handy shortcuts and you'll be well on your way to mastering Chrome:
  • Ctrl+N: Opens a new window.
  • Ctrl+T: Opens a new tab.
  • Ctrl+Shift+N: Opens a new window in incognito mode so you can, uh, shop birthday gifts on the sly. Yeah, that's what this is used for, right?
  • Ctrl+Shift+T: Resurrects the last tab you just sent to the graveyard. You can reopen the last 10 tabs you closed.
  • Alt+F or Alt+E: Opens the Chrome menu.
  • Ctrl+Shift+B: Toggles the bookmarks bar on and off.
  • Ctrl+H: Opens the History page.
  • Ctrl+J: Opens the Downloads page.
  • Shift+Esc: Opens Chrome's Task Manager, so you can see which tabs are using the most resources, potentially slowing down performance.
These are just some of the many, many Window keyboard, Google Chrome feature, address bar, webpage, and text shortcuts available in Chrome. If you spend a few minutes each day learning a couple of new shortcuts, it won't be long until you've committed them all to memory.




Now, onto the fun stuff...

Enable Chrome's Gold Icon
Vinyl decals won't make your Honda Civic go any faster than it's already capable of going, and by that same token, replacing Chrome's icon with the hidden Gold version doesn't offer anything other than an aesthetic change. Be that as it may, it's super easy to add a little bling:
  • Right-click Google Chrome's shortcut and select Properties
  • Select the Shortcut tab and click Change Icon...
  • Choose the Gold icon and press OK, then Apply the change
After you swap the icon, sit back and languish in the jealousy of your co-workers!

Get Freaky with Favicons!
One reason to use Chrome is because it offers a clean and clutter-free interface, a fact that's not lost on competing browser makers who've attempted to emulate the look and feel of Chrome. Even still, there's room for improvement. One way to simplify Chrome's interface even further is to only use Favicons in the bookmarks bar.

First, make sure the bookmarks bar is enabled. If it isn't, press Ctrl+Shift+B to toggle it on, or press the Menu button denoted by three lines in the upper right-hand corner (previously the Wrench icon), expand the Bookmarks option, and select Show bookmarks bar.

Now that you can see the Bookmarks bar, go through your bookmarks and delete the text of existing ones, and do the same when adding a new bookmark. What you'll be left with is a bunch of Favicons, which not only looks cleaner, but it saves space too. Pretty neat, isn't it?

Home Sweet Homepages



Why settle for a single homepage when you can own two, three, or even a dozen? Or more! We're creatures of habit, and if you're like us, you have a selection of websites you visit every time you fire up your browser. In Chrome, it's easy to configure multiple homepages. Just go to Menu > Settings and select the 'Open a specific page or set of pages' radio button. Click the Set pages hyperlink and start typing in your go-to websites.

Fool Your Friends with Fake Edits
It's not nice to prank your friends and family, but it can be hilarious, not to mention incredibly easy in Google Chrome. Let's say you want to convince your co-worker that AMD just purchased Intel for a mere $35 million (as if!). Load up a reliable website for tech news, like MaximumPC.com, right-click an article's headline, and select Inspect Element. This will bring up a developer console in the lower portion of the browser where you can edit the webpage locally. Change the headline, and if you want to go all out, do the same for the thumbnail image and even the article text. Close out the developer console and all that's left is a fake news story on a legitimate website!

Of course, there are practical uses for the developer console that don't include pranking your buddies. It's a neat way to inspect various web code and analyze HTML parse errors to ensure a clean website.

Command Chrome Like a Boss

Google Chrome is a constant work in progress, and often times the developers will disable certain functions that might not be ready for prime time for one reason or another. If you want to see what they are, and even enable them, type Chrome://flags in the address bar (Omnibar) and hit Enter. Bear in mind that they've all been disabled for a reason, and enabling one could break your browser.

Another one of our favorite commands is Chrome://memory, which shows not only how much memory Chrome is consuming, but also other browsers running on your system.

There are lots of other commands to play around with. Type Chrome://about to see a list of them.

Experiment on Canary and Leave Chrome Alone
If you're not feeling adventurous enough to tweak your stable Chrome build but still want to experiment, what you need is Canary. What's Canary, you ask? It's the nightly build of Chrome intended for developers, so you may run into buggy behavior on occasion, but the neat thing is Canary can run alongside Chrome at the same time. Changes you make to the Canary browser have no effect on Chrome, and vice versa.

Split the Browser Window

The advent of tabbed browsing changed everything, but sometimes you may want to see two webpages side-by-side. You can do that by dragging and splitting a tab from the main browser window so that it runs in a separate window, but you can also split Chrome into a dual-view mode with a bit of JavaScript magic.


Click the above hyperlink and type in the two webpages you want to view side-by-side in a single, neat window. It's an easy way to compare prices between two online vendors, search results from two different engines, or keep track of different sports, among other uses.

Create a Separate Account for Little Billy

It wasn't all that long ago when creating separate profiles for multiple Chrome users was slightly complicated and involved mucking around Windows folders, copying contents, and performing other tasks. These days it's as simple as going into Settings and clicking the Add new user button under the Users section.

Creating a separate Chrome account is a handy way to keep little Billy's browser settings separate from yours, and also allows you both to sync your Google account on the same PC. What it doesn't do is secure your data from prying eyes, so view this more of a convenience than a security setting.

To switch between multiple users, click the icon in the upper left-hand corner and select the appropriate profile. Alternately, you can press Ctrl+Shift+M to switch between accounts.

Extensions, Extensions, Extensions
Still the best way to customize Chrome to your liking is with Extensions, and long gone are the days when this was a reason to cling to Firefox. Chrome's extensions have grown in number and functionality, and there are plenty of good ones out there. Some of our favorites include:
  • Awesome New Tab Page: Do you know who's awesome? You are, and that's why you need Awesome New Tab Page. In a word, it's 'awesome'. Yes, it looks a little like Metro, or whatever Microsoft is calling the funky UI in Windows 8 these days, but instead of dominating your desktop, it simply spices up Chrome with a highly customizable interface that displays a series of widgets and links.
  • Buffer: Are you addicted to Twitter, Facebook, Google Reader, Reddiit, or Hacker News? Then for the love of all that is holy, do your followers a favor and install Buffer, which will spread your flood of tweets and messages out over time. It's an easy way to stay social, and also the courteous thing to do.
  • Too Many Tabs: There's no shame in being a tab-aholic, nor is there in admitting you need help. That's exactly what Too Many Tabs does — it helps you sort through your bazillion open tabs and find the one you're looking for.
  • Print Friendly & PDF: If you print out a lot of webpages, this is a must-have extension. It allows you to strip out unnecessary items, like ads and other content and wasted space that takes up paper or ink.
  • Pacman: In the old days of computing, you slacked off by playing Minesweeper or Solitaire. Maybe you remember playing SkiFree. There are better time wasters out there, and one of them is Pacman. which is available to play right in your Chrome browser with those familiar sounds that used to cost a quarter to hear.

sábado, 29 de septiembre de 2012

10 Tips on Writing from David Ogilvy

ORIGINAL: Brain Pickings

“Never write more than two pages on any subject.”



How is your new year’s resolution to read more and write better holding up? After tracing the fascinating story of the most influential writing style guide of all time and absorbing advice on writing from some of modern history’s most legendary writers, here comes some priceless and pricelessly uncompromising wisdom from a very different kind of cultural legend: iconic businessman and original “Mad Man” David Ogilvy. On September 7th, 1982, Ogilvy sent the following internal memo to all agency employees, titled “How to Write”:


The better you write, the higher you go in Ogilvy & Mather. People who think well, write well.

Woolly minded people write woolly memos, woolly letters and woolly speeches.

Good writing is not a natural gift. You have to learn to write well. Here are 10 hints:
  1. Read the Roman-Raphaelson book on writing. Read it three times.
  2. Write the way you talk. Naturally.
  3. Use short words, short sentences and short paragraphs.
  4. Never use jargon words like reconceptualize, demassification, attitudinally, judgmentally. They are hallmarks of a pretentious ass.
  5. Never write more than two pages on any subject.
  6. Check your quotations.
  7. Never send a letter or a memo on the day you write it. Read it aloud the next morning — and then edit it.
  8. If it is something important, get a colleague to improve it.
  9. Before you send your letter or your memo, make sure it is crystal clear what you want the recipient to do.
  10. If you want ACTION, don’t write. Go and tell the guy what you want.

David

This, and much more of Ogilvy’s timeless advice, can be found in The Unpublished David Ogilvy: A Selection of His Writings from the Files of His Partners, a fine addition to my favorite famous correspondence. The book is long out of print, but you can snag a copy with some rummaging through Amazon’s second-hand copies or your favorite used bookstore.

viernes, 6 de julio de 2012

The 7 Requirements of All Effective Scientists

ORIGINAL: BenchFly
by Mark Changizi on June 20th, 2012

Editor’s note: As part of an answer to a question in our recent interview, Mark Changizi shared his prescriptive guide for scientists that he used to give to all of his students as they entered the lab. We found the advice so valuable we decided to publish it on it’s own. The insights are not only timeless, but also form the basis of his upcoming book, Aloof.

1. [Turing tape] You need an idea notebook.

  • It is provable that Turing machines with more tape can carry out more complex algorithms.
  • Without a notebook, you forget the beginnings of all your potentially great ideas.
  • And with a notebook you can systematically build on your idea, not losing where you were once you set the work down.
  • From about 1998 I have about 26 notebooks.

  • I split each page into two vertical strips, and write small. More information per page helps you integrate things better.
  • I also now have a “meta-notebook” that keeps just the best ideas, and the hope is that it lasts while I go through a dozen or more main notebooks. Without this, many of your great ideas can even be lost within your own notes.
2. [Open-minded] Do not aim to solve some specific problem.

  • In fact, do not even confine your brainstorming to any particular subdiscipline.
  • The odds of getting a great idea in any given area is very low. So you need to allow your brainstorming travels to go anywhere. As true for your first discovery as for your tenth. (Perhaps more true of the tenth, because then there are fewer discoveries left!)
  • Sometimes it is easier to make an important discovery in a field when you are somewhat ignorant. …because you don’t know what “everyone knows.”
  • Avoid becoming psychologically invested in an idea too early, lest you waste time on it.
  • However, once you think there is some potential, you can’t give up too early. Very often the true idea you end up with differed from your first idea you thought had potential, and it was only after delving into the literature with your idea in hand that you realized that your fuzzy intuition wasn’t quite coherent, but the modification was.
  • The previous two bullets are so vague as to be useless, but there they are.
  • Also, note that sometimes the best way to motivate yourself to learn a discipline is when you have your own idea first. You’ll read attentively now.
3. [Proliferate and select] You may need 10 to 100 ideas before you find a good one.

  • Your idea has a lot of hurdles before it. It must be coherent, interesting, true, testable, publishable.
  • Keep brainstorming, constantly.
  • Set a very low threshold to writing an idea down.
  • No idea is too embarrassing. Some of my best ideas seemed embarrassingly crazy when I first conceived of them.
4. [Aloof] Avoid feeling part of any specific academic community.

  • When you become part of any community, you learn all the personalities—both your peers and the bigwigs. You naturally can’t help but want to impress them, to even become them. That’s just human.
  • You learn from the community the “big problems” they respect.
  • You learn about the problems in other fields that they “poo-poo.”
  • All this serves to greatly constrain your ability to find a great idea, because it makes you psychologically less able to go outside your own community.
  • And it can happen without you ever noticing.
  • Not only are you less able to take up other kinds of problems, but it makes you less able to freshly see the problems in your own community, because you are too much of an insider. You know what “everyone knows.” That is, “Everyone knows X,” and so you wouldn’t dare put forth ideas contrary to X.
  • …and you wouldn’t even realize you were being deferential in this way.
  • You need to be an outsider so that you are free to stick your middle finger up at the discipline, in the form of an idea that contradicts “what everyone knows.”
  • A corollary: Avoid conferences.
  • Staying aloof does not locally optimize your career, because of the relative dearth of contacts.
  • But it can help globally optimize your career, via your research standing out.
5. [Be the boss] Avoid working for anyone, and that includes a granting agency.

  • For your graduate career, try to secure yourself some time to pursue ideas of your own, in addition to the ideas of your advisor.
  • For your postdoc, apply for a fellowship where, if you get it, you are free to research as you wish. Or, find a lab where the PI is likely to let you point the way to some extent.
  • For your job, avoid universities and departments where grant demands are unreasonably high. (When you have a grant, it typically means some granting agency is your boss, unless you’re so lucky that you proposed to do exactly what was the most significant research direction for you.)
  • For example, if you are the lone theorist amongst experimentalists, then because everyone else needs a million dollars every two years, you’ll end up needing that much too because it becomes the social-merit-yardstick of success. …even though it makes no actual sense for you.
  • And if you do get that much grant money, your ability to be creative will suffer, for your only worry will be how you can make sure that you get the next grant, so that you don’t lose your lab. And the best way to get the next grant is to get it in pretty much the same kind of thing you did in the previous grant. (And odds are you won’t get that much without becoming an experimentalist anyhow.)
6. [Data] Don’t publish without data.

  • There’s no such thing as a pure theorist in the brain and cognitive sciences. Unlike in physics, you can’t publish work that will be noticed by other scientists if you don’t very seriously connect it to data. There are some physics-types who publish biologically-related stuff only in Physical Review, for example, but these are largely ignored by most scientists. …partly because of the unusual journal, but mostly because the connection to the data and existing problems is not made clear.
  • May simply be a cultural phenomenon with no wisdom underlying it, due to nearly everyone in the field being experimentalist, and their standards get extended de facto to everyone. In physics this is not quite the case.
  • Alternatively, it could be that brain and cognitive sciences (and the biological sciences generally) is importantly different than physics, such that a good theorist just can’t be as abstract as physics theorists can be. Perhaps in cognitive science the data are intrinsically messier, or there is a lack of shared frameworks within which problems are approached, or the gap between theory and data is inherently wider. ?
7. [Sloth] Avoid all but the simplest experiments, and avoid building complex tools.

  • Being an experimentalist is difficult. It requires loads of specialized skills, great experience, and more theoretical know-how than what theorists typically need. The difference is that the experimentalist’s expertise is applied to a million problems in the lab rather than just to the scientific problem itself. Changing research directions for an experimentalist is difficult and counter-productive. For a theorist, this makes it impossible to have the freedom to find a next good idea.
  • Instead, rely on easy-to-get data.
  • Already-published data. There is a century-high pile of papers filled with data that is just sitting there, and if you’re lucky your question can be tailored so that you can test it from existing data, mined out from the library.
  • If you must do experiments, make them easy, like very simple psychophysics experiments (although even this is very difficult to master).
  • Or, you can often gather data in non-standard ways, like from natural scene images, or from the web, etc.
  • Don’t build any complex tools, unless you really have to. Typically, by the time you build the fancy beast to help you do X, you’ve burned through much more time than it would have taken to just do X the slow way.
  • And, worse, once you’ve built a fancy machine, you get the hammer effect: that when you’re holding a hammer, everything looks like a nail
  • You also get the sunk-cost effect, that you feel you ought to use your hammer on things, now that you spent so much time building it.
  • Suddenly you only want to use your tool on things, rather than picking research directions that have the most potential.
  • For example: A new professor in neuroscience at UCLA took two years to get his equipment up and running from his half-million-dollar start-up, and was constantly wondering aloud what experiments he could run once it was up and running.
Mark Changizi, PhD, is the Director of Human Cognition at 2AI Labs and writes on science at Forbes, WIRED, Discover, and the Atlantic among others. Mark is also the science host of the new Discovery Channel show Head Games. Keep up with his latest thoughts on Twitter.



lunes, 28 de mayo de 2012

6 Secrets for Eliminating Stress

ORIGINAL: Balance In Me
By contributor Lori Lynn Smith


Where does stress originate?
If you ask 10 people where their stress comes from you’re likely going to get answers such as their kids, family, work, and especially money. These are stress factors that are common to most of us. There are many different schools of thought about where stress comes from. The fact of the matter is that stress is our body’s response to the demands that we place on it.

Stress and mental fatigue most definitely can take its toll on our well-being. This can be so much harder to handle than physical fatigue because of our inability to think clearly or express our feelings and frustrations. Worse still, mental stress is known to cause physical fatigue and illness, too!

Stress, mental fatigue and exhaustion can be a result of your work, family life, conflict, or even a lack of good quality sleep. Stress is a normal part of life so you’ll never be able to escape it. What really matters is how you deal with stress because everyone experiences stress differently.

Recently, I found myself in the middle of a big project at work, the normal work load was increased and the hours were much longer. This left me mentally tired and very low on energy. As luck would have it, then my long term relationship ended. Both situations can be tough to handle but to compound them at the exact same time that was a real hard.

But it was not an impossible situation and I could navigate through it and so can you very successfully with just a few strategies.

These strategies are definitely not meant to be hard and they should allow for significant stress relief.

  1. Relax your Mind and Boost your Energy. Relaxation is absolutely necessary to relieve mental stress and rejuvenate your body and mind. You’re probably thinking, “How am I going to do that?” Well, it’s easy, it really is. Here are some tips to help you reduce mental exhaustion and start implementing a relaxation routine:
  2. Carve out time for yourself. Spend time in a quiet room where you can reflect and get in touch with your spiritual side. My favorite place to go is the beach; if you go early in the morning when it is quiet and wonderful. Everyone has a different way of self-reflection. Some pray or meditate, others write in a journal or diary, while others simply allow their thoughts to gently release into the darkness and quietness of the room.
  3. Get plenty of good quality sleep. Stress and mental fatigue can exist no matter how much sleep you get, but sleep does help refresh your body and mind. Getting adequate good quality sleep will eliminate a lot of your day-to-day stress. After all, the body will have a chance to repair itself and recharge.
  4. Free your mind from the problems. While you might not be able to eliminate your problems over night, you can allow yourself a little  time. Time to take your mind off of those things that are causing you stress. You can do this by working on a puzzle, reading or spending time with friends and family. Or perhaps you need to go out for a nice dinner or enjoy a relaxing weekend getaway to free your mind.
  5. Move your body regularly. Exercise causes your brain to release endorphins, which are known to make you feel happy. It’s like the body’s natural “high.” Even if all you can do is take a 15-minute walk, take it. That can be great alone time for you. Even this short time can make a really big impact.
  6. Breathe. I know it sounds too simple, but it is a wonderful tool. When things get rough, take deep breaths in through your nose; hold it for 10 seconds, then release. You’ll notice that this will relieve tension. I love to blow bubbles! You do the same type of breathing and you can enjoy bubbles!
  7. Take a day to yourself. Take yourself out to a movie, go to a museum or art gallery, or do something you’ve always wanted to do but never made time for. In doing so, you’ll be able to enjoy the peace and quiet of being alone. Honestly it took me a while to be able to learn to be alone, but it is worth it. Once you learn that it is okay to sit, do nothing AND enjoy it, you will schedule this time weekly.
Implement Your Own Strategies
These are just some of the strategies to combat stress and mental fatigue. You may already have some other methods that help you relax and find peace in your life. I highly recommend that you spend some of your alone time specifically looking for new strategies AND testing them out.

Pick the ones that make you feel great and leave the ones that are blah. Once you begin integrating these simple exercises into your day, you will begin to feel the weight lifted from your shoulders and before you know it, you’ll feel like a brand new person!

Lori Lynn Smith is a passionate and an authentic teacher who shares her real life experiences about creating a more nurturing and fulfilling lifestyle. On her blog LoriLynnSmith you can follow along while Lori continues on the path of transformation from Chaos to Calm.