The Curse of Being Smart July 27, 2006
Posted by Andrew Wee in : business 2.0 , 2 commentsMost people are oriented towards being a thinker or a doer.
Thinkers tend to be better educated and having had the opportunity to go to a tertiary educational institution.
They tend to land white collar jobs and have relatively high starting salaries.
Doers while also possibly having a tertiary education, will tend to be adept in having hands-on skills and experience.
I am a thinker, a lot of my friends are thinkers.
We sit, we chat, we make plans to take over the business world.
And then we finish our round of drinks, break up and meet again the following week.
Rinse and repeat.
Doers on the other hand, tend to have action-oriented conversations. They talk about specifics of what they might do.
They might lack the overall ’strategy’ for going about doing what they plan to do.
They may think one step ahead, maybe two or three.
But the ‘big picture’ may be a pie-in-the-sky concept for them.
After all, actions speak louder than words.
Thinkers have a larger chance of success at what they do, because they will have well-thought out plans, factoring in worst case scenarios, ROIs, ROEs and all sorts of mathematical functions.
Doers however, may not have a complete game plan, or even a game plan.
The venture may have a higher rate of failure.
But the weird thing is that successful entrepreneurs are more likely to be doers, rather than thinkers.
Why is that?
Besides the process, there’s also the what happens after the outcome is achieved (whether success or failure).
The thinkers are likely to do an analysis, reflection, extended periods of navel gazing, call it what you will.
Doers on the other hand, will dust off their knees, get up, say to themselves, ‘ok, let’s not do that again’
They attempt to succeed again. And again. And again. Until success comes.
In the final analysis, a thinker might have a 40% chance of success, and he may attempt to succeed once, maybe twice.
On the other hand, a doer may have a 15% chance of success, but he will try and try, and try, and try, and try, and try until he succeeds.
Would you choose to be a thinker? Or a doer?
Popularity: 22%
Hungry Enough to Succeed July 23, 2006
Posted by Andrew Wee in : business 2.0 , 2 commentsI’ve noticed one trend among successful business owners.
They’re hungry to succeed.
They have a big overriding need they need to satisfy.
It be to be number one, it might be kill the competition (a la Larry Ellison of Oracle), it might be to make the world a better place. Regardless of the reason, there must be a major purpose.
My aim and purpose used to be to be the best in everything in do, whether it was in school or after entering the workforce.
My thinking had always been, ’second place is also first place loser’, so I worked my butt off to be the best I could be.
After getting married and having my daughter, my priority now is to spend more time with my wife and child.
It’s not always easy, and the nature of Internet Marketing is that:
- It takes up a lot of time
- There’s tons of people doing it, so what makes me different
- Something new comes up every hour, every minutes (at least we know the information economy works!)
Against this backdrop is the need not for speed, but the need to succeed.
Many entrepreneurs come from physically challenging situations - a poor home, or circumstances arising that force them to do something bigger than themselves, maybe sometimes even for surival.
The need to succeed once ingrained, helps them develop a laser-sharp focus on the task at hand.
To take on seemingly insurmountable challenges, and more importantly, succed!
Yes, some of us come from a relatively comfortable background, and survival isn’t an issue.
We can though, develop the mental need to succeed.
If we are constantly challening ourselves to do better, to put in that 110%, it’ll become a personal passion for excellence.
In that frame, we may not be able to take on a physical need to succeed, but surely, developing a powerful mental need to succeed is in our hands, isn’t it?
Popularity: 28%
The UHP Content Creation Challenge July 22, 2006
Posted by Andrew Wee in : business 2.0 , add a commentThursday was an especially challenging day.
I set a target of creating at least 50 pages of content for 2 of my sites, with the plans to shoot for 60 pages.
Starting at Thursday noon, I embarked on my Content Creation Challenge, planning to complete the task within 24 hours.
A key motivator was a promise to the folks at the Internet Marketing Singapore forum that I’d buy $150 worth of refreshments for the next meeting. Heh, it was a good motivator!
The short story is yes, by Friday noon, I’d created 57 pages of content.
30 pages at www.InternetMarketingCookbook.com and another 27 pages at BizExcellerator.com.
The pages at BizExcellerator might not be as obvious though, because I created a business/entrepreneurship course and in the meantime, got plenty of hands on experience with Aweber’s autoresponders too.
Do check the pages out and feel free to leave comments either here or on the respective sites.
Enjoy your weekend.
Popularity: 19%
Poor usability, Singtel!
Posted by Andrew Wee in : business 2.0 , add a commentI am quite disappointed.
Even the prize of a Motorola V3X cell phone doesn’t alleviate my dissatisafaction with “Asia’s leading communications group with operations and investments in more than 20 countries and territories around the world”
I went to my favourite page at http://home.singtel.com/consumer/msg_center/internet_sms.asp intending to send a SMS out to a friend.
I noticed that soon all Internet SMS users (which let you send free SMS to Singtel users) will need to register.
As a sweetener, they’re giving out Motorola cell phones
Not bad, I’m thinking.
I get to the registration page and guess what I see.
Looks pretty ok, you might say.
Until you get to “Agreement between you and SingTel Mobile”
This contains the terms and conditions for use of the service.
Pretty standard you might say.
Being a careful guy, I scroll down to read the t&c, especially if there might be charges involved.
I’m squinting at the three line display.
I scroll down. and read more.
I scroll down. and read more.
I scroll down. and read more.
I scroll down. and read more.
I scroll down. and read more.
I scroll down. and read more.
I scroll down. and read more.
Does this never end?
My eyes are watering from staring at the miniscule text.
Frustrated, I copy the entire block of text and paste it in my text editor.
Turns out it’s about three pages. My word count rates it as 1012 words.
I contribute regularly to article directories and my articles run 400-500 words.
This is like reading 2 articles on screen real estate equivalent to my mobile phone.
It’s take about 200 taps on the scrollbar to read the entire message.
What’s the deal, SingTel?
Usability should be one of the key considerations.
Some things that could be done to improve this:
- Increase the display to at least 5 lines
- Use a larger font size to increase readability (especially appreciated by the long-sighted)
- The best: have the terms and conditions appear in a pop up window
We want technology to make things easier, not more difficult.
Class dismissed.
Popularity: 7%
Adapting to Change July 21, 2006
Posted by Andrew Wee in : business 2.0 , add a commentCan anyone hope that change freezes for a moment?
It’s strange, but many people like to reminisce about the good old days.
When soda cost a nickle, a hamburger cost a quarter. When everything seemed as it was and nothing change.
And suddenly like a tidal wave, change comes along one day.
New fangled things like CD players, LD players, MD players, DVD players, MP3 players, every kind of player comes along.
Unable to cope with change, these people retreat to their homes, hiding from change.
Like the ostrich that buries it’s head in the sand, hoping to stave off change.
In the business world too, and especially the technology sector, change comes in the blink of an eye.
One moment you’re the market leader, the next moment, things have changed.
From being king of the heap, you’re suddenly king of the scrap heap.
Oh how the mighty have fallen, how things have changed, may suddenly become a familiar refrain.
Witness how Apple Computer pioneered the Apple ][e, and was subsequently displaced by the IBM PC, and the title went back to the Apple MacIntosh, and then leadership changed hands to Compaq, and at next change, Dell, and somewhere in between was Apple again with it’s iMac, it’s PowerMacs, once again establishing itself as a potential Big Mac with growing market share.
In the rough and tumbling, ever changing world of technology, the guy sitting on the music chairs changes with each turn of the music.
Likewise, business leaders unable to adapt to change will inevitably face a challenge.
The unspoken rule of the tech jungle seems to be not the strongest survive, but the one best able to change survives.
Likewise, for any business with an established incumbent, it’s merely a matter of time before things change.
Things cannot stay the same, especially at the top.
The only constant in the technology business is that things will change.
And that’s something that will never change.
Popularity: 9%
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