Waiting, preparing.

Would you work for 20 years to develop the technology to create your vision?
Consider the case of Pixar.
http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=3299

Breaching the Comfort Zone

Have you ever given much consideration as to why you read the books you read, or why you watch the movies you choose to watch? Perhaps the cover grabs your attention? Maybe it is because the book is from a specific author that you like or it is just sitting in the section that you normally buy books from. Most likely it is because someone you trusted told you about it. That someone could be a best sellers list, it could be Amazon’s personalised recommendations for you, it could be that a friend told you about it. It is highly unlikely that you regularly walk into a bookstore and go ‘Wow today I am going to buy a totally random book in a genre I have never read by an author I do not know.’ While the random book idea can be a rather liberating experience it is one we tend to shy away from. We prefer the trusted and tried.

The books you read, films you watch, places you go on holiday (if you go at all), people you interact with are all largely based on your past experience, or the past experience of someone else whose opinion you value. Humans, most of the time, seek out that which is inherently familiar to us. It is, perhaps, a psychological safety mechanism that keeps you risk free and secure. Trying a new author has risk; you are spending precious money on a book that you may not enjoy. So we mitigate that risk by seeing if others have read it first. Movie producers pay high end actors a fortune to be in their films, not just because they may be good at their craft, but because they create a sense of familiarity in the fans who will go watch the movie. Trying something new can be an emotional experience if you have to break out of your comfort zone to do so. Stepping out of it means that you are moving away from trusted ground and onto something less stable.

I make an effort to do something new and different each year. It may be trying a new author, learning a new skill, travelling to a new location, having a new experience. Last year I took up karate, the year before that I started on a book manuscript, before that I went to Disneyland, before that I started this column. Do something new. It may scare you a little. It may throw your system out of sync for a while as you persuade yourself you are not crazy. At the end of the day the biggest comfort zone you are breaking is the fear of trying new things. Plan a holiday this year with the family rather than just sitting at home during your leave days. Try somewhere new locally, try going outside the country, and try a new method of travel. Take up a new sport or hobby. Go skydiving, go swim with sharks, do the gorge swing at Victoria Falls. Read a book a month. Just do something that challenges you.

Businesses have comfort zones. We do work the same way because it is the way it has always been done. Starting a new product that has never been done involves breaking out of the familiar. Stepping up from local to regional to international hammers on the walls of comfortable. Trying a new management style or bringing a new structure to a company means stretching the boundaries we have in our minds. Start by breaking out of your own personal zones and you will be better able to handle the bigger changes that you have to make in your organisation. Have fun with it.

The Cost

Sometimes it is not the cost of doing something that we should be worried about but rather the cost of NOT doing something.
What greatness are you holding back from the world?

Lies and Culture

Here is a question. How many of you are doing business with someone that won't return your calls and they owe you money? Someone is always chasing someone down for blood. It affects new relationships as well; after having had two or three people default on promised payments it becomes harder to trust the next person’s word. It's hard to blame the person that's always been burnt for being shy of the fire.

Lies breed distrust, distrust means things take longer to navigate or innovate. It takes longer to discuss an idea with someone because they may steal it. It takes longer to open a bank account because they need to verify that we are who we say we are. It takes longer to source funding because people have been scammed before. When things take longer to innovate we get left behind. Then when we get left behind we start to look elsewhere at perceived better opportunities, to where the grass appears greener on the other side. So lies breed distrust, distrust slows us down, and we start to look at where we think things are really happening. Many in Africa think they are in training. “I’m training for my real job in Europe or America, training for the real world.” Why? They do not see anything happening for them here.

Lies promote a bad culture. There's nothing worse than a bad culture; a bad business culture where suits and ties are more important than truth and quality. The sort of culture where promises are broken without regard for the consequences is destructive. I was dealing with a bank with liquidity issues, daily I got promised “we will have cash for you tomorrow”. They never did. Why not just be honest and tell me the truth, let me know exactly where you stand so that I can make better decisions and plan better in my own life and business.

When love and passion for people takes a back seat and instead status and pictures in the newspaper are regarded as symbols of validity we fall short. When we expect the best service or product in the world from local SME's or start-ups, but we want to rip them off and pay cheaply we contribute to a culture that festers. Every time we lie, or cover up the truth, or lead people on we add to the culture of deception and make it harder for others to trust.

Here are some things to remember when trying to build a better culture. More things happen when no one cares about who gets the credit. Innovation explodes when the landscape is easier to navigate. Good culture triumphs over good strategy (the best crafted strategy documents will fail if there is no integrity to underscore it). Truth and honesty breeds brothers and sisters, not patrons and clients.

The grass has got to be greener inside of our world. Let us not head out for international pastures before we address the bad culture and lies that cripple the genius we have.

(See http://emergingideas.com/lies-culture-grass for the source article for this post)

Seth's Book

I am a bit miffed with author and entrepreneur Seth Godin. Regular readers of this column will know that I am a great fan of his work and writing, so what possibly could he have done that has irritated me. To put it simply, he published a new book. The problem is that it is not available in electronic format...and not likely to be in the near future. It is a full colour book only available in hard copy.  This means that I cannot get it instantly at the click of a button but will have to order it and wait patiently for it to arrive. Not only that, it is expensive-thirty-four dollars for a book before almost doubling the cost by shipping it out here to Zimbabwe! Despite all this I have never wanted a book so badly.

 

Why? Why would I want a book that at first glance seems overpriced (it is not really) and could take up to a month to ship to me? Simply put, because it is Godin, because it is different, because Seth Godin developed my buy-in long before he even thought of writing the book. Godin is a ‘practice what you preach’ kind of guy. He is foremost a marketer, and the pioneer of what he calls permission marketing. Not only does he teach on the idea, but he tests his theories on his followers. He is a living example that what he teaches really works. I know because he has used it on me.

I first came across Seth in an email. Someone forwarded me one of his blog posts that they thought I would enjoy. I did and the experience attuned me to his name. When I saw that another mate of mine had a book by him I asked to borrow it. I was hooked-there was something that resonated with my desire to challenge the status quo. Soon I was buying books of my own, following his blog and sharing his ideas with others. To use one of his own phrases-I became part of his tribe. To Godin, a tribe is a group of followers you develop who ‘give’ you permission to market to because you already have their interest. He has devoted much of his time and effort to developing his tribe.

The book he has just published is testimony to the ground work he has done. He presold 30 000 before publication, exceeding his own estimates by 40%. In a world that has more books than ever that is huge traction. Here is the great thing about it; he is not trying to sell to people who do not want it. He has a steady market that he has developed, so when he brings out a crazy new idea they are already willing to buy in. Too often we are looking for the big catch now without any of the groundwork. Godin’s book may look like an overnight success, but it is the result of many years of hard work and effort.

There are two lessons I would like you to take home from this story. The first one I have already mentioned-do not be afraid of the groundwork. Put the effort into your clients to build a relationship with them. Create deals, communicate, learn who they are, build your own tribe of supporters. Be creative in how you do it. Stop looking for the instant numbers and instant success; rather look for the long term followers who will stick with you. These are the customers who will buy the equivalent of ‘your book’ when you bring it out.

The second lesson is stop trying to please everyone. You can’t. Pick your target audience and make them into your tribe. Realise that a few loyal fans are worth far more than a fickle crowd who will betray you for the next big deal. Do not mistake volume of clients for success. Scaling clearly allows for bigger returns if your margins are small. Remember that some expensive products lend themselves to their inability to scale; rare artwork for example. Rare artwork is brought by a select few, a tribe who value such an investment and that tribe may not be interested in your attempts to sell mass produced prints. Godin is not trying to sell you his book; he is trying to sell it to me and others that are part of the subculture he has created. I’m telling you about it as a story to help me make a point rather than an attempt to get you to buy it (notice that I have not even mentioned the title in this article).

Zimbabwe’s economy has been largely transaction based over the last few years. We have shopped where it is cheaper when resources have been scare, been forced to buy from whoever has a product we need. There has been little development of relationships. As the economy grows it will be relationships that bring you clients that stick with you. As competition increases it will be relationships that bring you business when you can no longer bring your margins any lower to compete on price. Spend 2015 building your ‘tribe’ of clients and watch the rewards.