I learned three key elements this week:
- Fear precedes making a decision, focus comes after you make a decision.
- Keep an eye on mistakes you’ve made in the past (HBR’s latest issue is the Failure Issue) and learn from them. Take inventory of them. What decisions did you make, why did you make them and what were the results? Would you make the same decisions over again?
- If you’re committed and passionate about what you’re doing then that will get other people pulling for you. In other words, if you give a damn it will attract others. Find a way to get those people engaged if you can.
If you’re putting your own startup together then take a look at the resources that SCORE has to offer. They also have webinars and online workshops.
For keeping track of all the things I’m now responsible for I’ve been using Things on the Mac. It’s at bit limited for anything beyond simple tasks so I’ve been playing around with Basecamp and now Zoho. I’m still undecided, Zoho gives a lot for a little money but Basecamp is really straightforward and doesn’t try to solve everything.
[edit] Add Apollo to the list – I haven’t created an account yet but the interface looks clean and straight forward. This is one I hadn’t heard of yet.
I’m taking Sunday off and going to the Grand Prix of St Pete. I went to the inaugural one a few years ago and it was a great race. Tonight I’m teaching my girlfriend who Mario Andretti is. This should be fun…
