Category Archives: Motivation Techniques

Enrepreneurs need motivation techniques that work for them. The techniques which work will depend on many factors, so we have presnted a set of expert techniques from the upcoming book. The Motivated Entrepreneur.

2014 is the year to try your plans for failure

As we start 2014 everyone has a lot of optimism for what it brings. This is a great time of year to lay down plans and create ideas for activities and events for the up coming year. Each year we do this, knowing that not all of these will occur, however our understanding is that we could do these resolutions if we so wished.

The same is true for entrepreneurs, when we create busineses we know that not all of them will be sucessful and failure will provide us with the opportunity to learn. We know that this puts back into a new “year” enterprise start whereby we can move forward again. Each start-up is like a new year, we set down plans, work them through, knowing that not all of these plan are right, will happen and we will have the time to succeed.

Our traditions provide us with the stability of knowing something is right, having been done for many years. Businesses have been formed for hundreds of years, each year some have failed, so allow these failures to create better understanding of business, starting an enterprise and also your skills in entrepreneurship.

The holiday period is a time for reflection and this time is important in many ways. Its a chance to socialize with new and old friends, meet the family and grow as people. The important thing about failure is the learning it provides, without which we can not tune our skills and refine our plans and processes.

So as we start 2014, just remember its ok to fail as log as you can learn from it.

 

 

The real question is, IS the probability of failure is greater than the probability of success?

Having studied statistics and quantum mechanics back in the late 80s at university (It has changed a little bit since then). I understand this life dimension runs between a number of statistic probabilities which in general provide a limited set of outcomes that on average can be determined. Thus having been born in the rural West Midlands(UK), living in a  village for the last 15 years, I will live until I’m 82 years old, as most of the street which I live on have. Job done!!

I don’t believe in enterprise because I want to keep the status quo!! Everything must change, change is the only option,change is good, so how do I change the probability in the favor of enterprise?

So should I even think about this?

I was walking in the forest with my wife, its was during the snow fall last February on a Saturday afternoon. A big forest which leads no where and goes no where, its just a big forest. So what is the probability that we three sets of people meet at the same time(yes same time, same place, all within one metre of each other) these people…

One man warring a three piece suite with two children, also carrying a pink bike
One man caring two plastic shopping bags full of shopping
A woman with two dogs talking on her mobile phone

OK, I think its about 170 million to one.

But if I could bottle it and give this to entrepreneurs who are starting a business, they would pay, being able to fix a 170 million one chance, just pure gold. Every day in my life I see these amazingly high probability opportunities come forward. I am sure I should say serendipity but  …

The real question is, IS the probability of failure is greater than the probability of success?

Given tomorrow, I will sit in a train carriage with a three other random people, who will never have meet, never meet again and spend a brief moment in time which will change the complete history of our galaxy.

Those who fail are not recorded in history. Thus the probability of success is just equal to 1. (Which means the probability of failure is just zero which is why we where we are, right now)

Given we will succeed, what path will you take in this?

Why you shouldn’t start a business

I often talk to people about why they should start a business, normally convincing the majority of the audience to do so. So what if I was being paid to talk people out of starting a business. I know we already have the BBC and popular press who have taken this mantel on, but thought I would give them a helping hand this month.

The clear fact of it is you are not an entrepreneur.

Location Location Location

If you were truly an entrepreneur then you would chose to start your business in one of the top 10 growth economies in the world, so China, Brazil, India and Russia would be on the top of this list (From your IP address I can see you are not from these). These economies have amazing growth, cheap labour, low taxes and little bureaucrats when compared to us in Europe. If not there you would place it in a high growth high population density city such as Mexico City, Singapore or Hong Kong. You could quickly prototype your idea to millions of newly rich and enjoy the inherit growth in the economy.

If not there then create a start-up near your customers or more importunely, your highest paying /grossing markets (A simple measure of GDP multiplied by population). Therefore you would be in the USA, Japan or Germany.  These are great markets to achieve scale and profit margins putting you in a great place for world domination. Think of the major brands, Coke, McDonalds, Starbucks, they all start in the USA due to its scale and spring board effects.

Finance
The vast majority of businesses will need some form of finance at some point. Given the banks are global, they will favour you if you have taken the location advice. The availability of financing from very small amounts, cash flow support, major loans, venture funding, and developing companies for IPO is an important structure for all entrepreneurs to live in. Every economy needs entrepreneurs to growth their start-ups and sell them on, getting ready to start new ones. This creates wealth for the nation through taxes, jobs and exports.

Motive
If you want to be truly rich then take a look at the Forbes rich list and see which countries the self made billionaire are from. We don’t want you to succeed in this country and if you do, we will force you to live in another part of the world for tax reasons. Most of our successful entrepreneurs stay out of the media attention for the very reason of not wanting the media to attack them for providing jobs and taxes to help pay for those that do/do not need it.

Popular support
The general public don’t want you to start a business. They want you to work in a newly build factory paying your taxes, pension and union contributions for the next 45 years. This ensures you fit into our 1950s model of our UK society which proves job satisfaction and security for life. Your only chance in life is therefore to work for a gov’ner who thinks little of the time and effort you put into the role. You should be happy to have a job, any job and accept your lot in life.

From these four points, its clear you are not, nor will ever be an entrepreneur, so just give up reading about it now and get yourself a nice safe job at the local supermarket!

Direction or Momentum?

I listening to Gordon Lord at a breakfast talk at Birmingham Science Park, he asked the question : Is it more important to have Direction or Momentum? He stated in his view it was momentum, and as a coach he could develop someone’s direction if they was moving forward. However no momentum is hard to direct.

This got me thinking about business and my own startups. Sometimes its difficult to see if we have any direction and the momentum is all but gone from our sails. Being in a start-up is about getting thousands of things done to achieve one step forward. Sometimes in the dark.

I have always looked at developing businesses which could be faster than others in the market. Software is very hard to patent and therefore the fastest product to market with an innovation gains some market share, do this over an over again and this generates a loyalty, a brand loyalty which many companies would only dream of. It also forces me and my business, to constantly innovate the technology, business model and also the customer proposition. This also ensure we are lean and mindful of our competition.

To do this, I think of my products as they were t-shirts, when every T-shirt is made of the same cloth, but its about the design and how that design gains empathy with the buyer. Why would want to sell only one t-shirt to a person? No one (very little people, anyway) buys the same t-shirt twice, so you must be constantly designing new designs, understanding you target demographic, the up coming trends and hype which you can use to ensure your products benefit from the free marketing and attraction. The portfolio of design capture a market presence which attract browsers, then buyers who virally market your products by simply wearing your t-shirts.

No business knows the direction these trends will take them. Being on trend with a large enough market is the only important factor that ensures growth and success in the t-shirt business.  It’s a design numbers game.

So I have spent the first six months of 2012, getting a business with no direction and no momentum (a bootstrapped start-up) to a place where it has we have 10 brilliant people creating, new game titles, new brands, building associated products and services which people throughout the world will play, interact and engage with for many years to come.

Now all I need is a little more momentum towards the direction of launching one of our titles for me to say we finally have true business momentum. I guess then we can look at the direction travelled and ask if we need to pivot.

Playing the Enterprise Game

I was recently reading about the Spanish explorers looking for El Dorado, heading for a place, which no one had come back from.  Also this week seeing NASA landing a one tonne vehicle on Mars, saying we will one day land a real person.  Both are achievements of amazing people.

Explorers were and are entrepreneurs.

The successful entrepreneurs understand the rules of the game (Being in favour with the King of Spain or maintaining USA government funding during an election year), play the game to the desired conclusion and manage the risk on their terms. Not much has changed in over 500 years.

However, today we can test our “entrepreneur game play” like no other has ever done. Learning through game play is well established and re-connecting the real-virtual world learning is important in this case. It is important when and what to learn in games.

When you start playing your latest xbox game, the first five or ten minutes are spent learning the rules, controls, physical aspects, tasks and goals of games. Once these are understood you proceed to managing the risks (bullets, baddies, obstacles..etc).

The management of risk is also well established for seasoned entrepreneurs and gamers. They have both tuned this to ensure a higher probability of success. In both cases, time is their only currency traded for a higher risk in their new venture.

Based on previous games, you may have a play strategy that will be continuously modified during the play. This is very much the the case with entrepreneurs. Their business plan will be a strategy or series of best-case scenarios which the entrepreneur will know works for them and their skill set (the same as the gamer). A series of personalized moves or short cuts which provides you the advantage on your opponent has always (since Rules of War) been one of the core tactics for success.

Once in the game/ business, the strategy and management of the risks will be altered in real time to ensure the current goals are achieved. You can never forecast when a surprise attack will occur and therefore you must always have enough ammunition and resources to overcome these random events. These tactics are often overlooked in start-up businesses, yet seasoned gamers and entrepreneurs understand them very well.

The partnering with other players is also an important aspect of today’s games (World of War Craft). Without this you cannot build greater resources and achieve higher rewards. Again this is a skill you will see with successful entrepreneurs, why do something that someone else is better at, find you core strength and maximize your rewards on this. So you find t-shirt businesses who don’t make, print and sometimes even retail their products. This is also the case when funding a business, investors are partners in your business.

The physical controls (keyboard, mouse, joystick, controllers) used and implemented in a game allow us to manage the game. In business these controllers can be just as simple, such as people skills, presentation and setting SMART goals.

Games have had their score board’s for years and forum to look and exchange comments.

The whiteboard is in everyone’s office, putting targets, status and issues in one place for everyone to see, discuss and develop solution is just the best business tool developed by the human race.

So the next time you sit down for the entire weekend to play your console, you are entirely justified in saying you are developing your entrepreneurial skills. Go and enjoy, cus ….

Gamers can be entrepreneurs too..