Archives April 2020

For almost my entire life, legacy has been one of my main drivers. The thought of making history, of being remembered and admired. It is the ultimate immortality. Because if we are remembered, then we will never die. If we are forgotten, then what is the point of anything?

We would be temporary. Inconsecuential.

But then Covid comes along. And I am faced with daily tasks driving me away from that greatness that would eventually write my name in the pantheon of heroes.

God damnit, how anxious and lost I felt! Here I am, the potential kwisatz haderach, spending (wasting) hours of my life doing anything but the things that would birng me closer to my goal of becoming a human myth.

And the, thank the universe, got to read this Naval’s tweet: “Legacy” is the opinion of people not yet born, about someone who no longer exists.

How obvious. How stupid and shallow made me feel. It was a shock. A revelation about how I really felt about others opinions. And the epiphany rose almost immediatly after: The only opinion of us that matters is our own. The only time that matters is now.

Now I feel kind of relieved. Still a little anxious. Not so easy to let go that dream you have been chasing your whole life.

We’ll see how all this ends.

If hard times breed strong people, then all entrepreneurs who decide today to start or keep pursuing their dreams, will become super heroes entrepreneurs.

They will be super strong, resilient, wise, resourceful founders.

They will be cautious but won’t be stopped by fear.

They will understand that starting up a company means solving real, meaningful problems.

They will be driving the betterment of the world.

They will be responsible for the continuity and thriving of the human race.

To those about to rise, we salute you.

You come and ask someone to build you an F1 car. You shouldn’t expect to get the car in 3 or 4 days.

You want the car to be the most beautiful? Add weeks of design. You need the car to actually be fast? Add maybe years of design. You need the car to become an icon so everybody may recognize it? Add months of testing and communication.

This metaphor is valid to any requirement. You want a company agile, self managed, ambitious, recognized, profitable, etc? It takes a lot of effort, a lot of money and a lot of time. If you requested the whole enchilada, then you can’t expect to get it after no expenditure of effort, time and resources.

Be sure to invest so you may get what you imagined.

it’s where I devote my time and effort.

In the last few days, there is an abundance of attention. That gold at the end of the marketing-and-advertising-efforts rainbow has been multiplied.

For most people, time has expanded. They have less things to do and more minutes, even hours, to spare. They indulge. And that is a huge opportunity for those looking to get more attention to say something.

People with time will indulge in 2 ways:

1. They will get even more of the thing that they already like: More facebook, more netflix, etcetera. So if you had a small window to say your stuff, now the door is wide open, so you can go deeper on your story.
2. They will be more indulgent to try new stuff. So you may have the opportunity to get to more people, that people that thought your brand, product or service was not for them and now they will have a huge surprise because you might be just that thing they weren’t looking for. This is a time for changes, for everybody, so you could help set their new normal.

In any case, you will have to provide what really matters. That easy and that hard. They may be indulgent now but this will also come to an end. And when that happens, the window of attention will narrow again. We all will be more selective of what we give our time and effort, and we will choose only those things worthy of them.

Hopefully it will al go to “normal” in a few weeks. In the meantime, probability says you will not make any money.

So rethink your strategy. Think about th 4c’s of value creation: Contribution / Coordination / Communication / Connection

Contribution: How can you help your community by providing any service or product. If you can pivot to serve Health, Security, Logistics or Education, by all means start doing it now.

Coordination: By actively participating between the business and industries labeled as essential and those that have encountered a dead end in their operations, you might find opportunities to create new materials, designs, companies and people, eager and able to help.

Communication: Yo may be the link between the information and a particular set of people interested in how all this will impact their businesses and their lives.

Connection: Maybe you don’t have anything to supply…but how about you help connect within your community groups of people that may supply goods, services, or even time to better the conditions everybody has fallen to?

Now we are standing in an age of mandatory involvement. The times when we could coast our ways through life have ended. Isolation has pushed us to rethink the burden or the obligation to be a part of the community as the exact opposite, as the privilege of being a part of a community.

Note: All this reflection was based on the words by Seth Godin in an interview at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CT6Kl4buA3w

I wish that was true.

At least, if people were aware of all the things in business that had just become obsolete, they would PROBABLY be ready to learn new ways of living, new ways to thrive.

The truth is, all of us will have to let go our lives as we know them right now. We sill have to stop resisting change and embrace it. We will have to unlearn almost everything we know about making a living.

The first step is to realize in what ways the recent events will impact our lives. And then, for every aspect identified, UNLEARN everything, go back to the beginning and eliminate all previous assumptions.

Then by first principles, build our way up to a new way of doing business.

If you need inspirational words (to convince yourself to start a business), don’t do it. Said Elon.

If you’re discouraged to try something by someone telling you not to do it…then probably you shouldn’t do it. If your conviction is that feeble, then stop right there and consider to save yourself money, time and tears. Actually going through it will leave you broken.

Yes, broken. But here’s something to ease the pain: failure is rarely definitive.

So there it is: the cold, harsh truth followed by the hopefully, soothing truth.

It is only fatal when you don’t learn. And we are wired for learning.

Fear is the only thing that prevents us from executing one more time, and in this new iteration, with knowledge only developed by failing. The fear will always try trick us into thinking we can’t learn and that we can’t try again and again.

So bring me the yummi crunchy glass, I’ll be staring into the abyss until it shys away.

…with whom you haven’t had any communication yet, as how you plan to maintain your service through the pandemic, leave anything you might be doing right now and go to the telephone, email or social networks and explain.

You have to give them ease. You might not be able to fulfill your service or product right now, but you have the responsibility to be there.

They have to know that you are still there and that you are going to be there when all this is over, and, knock on wood, If your business is no longer viable, then they will appreciate you even more if you help them transfer your business to any other supplier, even if it is your competitor. Your job is, also, taking care of their feelings.

The name of the game, for now on, is REPUTATION, either for a personal or corporate brand.

Remember, people will forget about everything, but they will remember, always, how did you make them feel.