Musings From the Mount 

Authors note:  While a great many people of contributed to these philosophies and I thank them, I accept full responsibility for assembling them in this way. 

 Over the course of the years I have spouted a bunch of this stuff to those brave enough to get within earshot.  Several of you have been so foolish as to ask me to write some of this stuff down so here goes.

I guess I’ll start with the last idea first.

A yearning to create is an essential human quality which is almost spiritual in its nature.  In some ways that partially explains the vast amount of religious art that as been created through out the ages.  Strangely enough it is also a possible explanation for self destructive behavior.  Imagine if you will, the combination of the frustration of believing that creation is beyond your ability with the certain knowledge that creating havoc is within your scope.  It’s about morals from there.

Once you have the above nugget of awareness several ideas present themselves.  For instance:  before you can create, learning must take place.  I know that seems obvious but there is value in not glossing over that fact.  I’ve found that routinely and regularly, happiness can be found in learning.  There is the frustration of the challenge followed by the rush of pleasure you experience when it all comes clear.  Heady stuff!

So in many ways the pursuit of happiness can be boiled down to the pursuit of knowledge.  After all hasn’t that been one of the driving forces behind human history?  Knowledge is power! 

With all the preceding as ‘set and setting’ it’s time to get down to business.

In the best dramatic traditions here is a countdown of guidelines that have proven the test of time in count down presentation.  (That’s the drama part.)

Guidelines vs. Rules:

It is almost a law of nature.  If you establish a rule you will generally have to establish an exception.  Of course an exception is another rule, which will eventually require an exception of its own, etc.   It is easy to see how this progression could go on to the point where it is impossible to remember all the ‘rules’.  So you write them down.  In extreme cases the list of rules gets so big you can only get through them using a computer to conduct the searches for you!   Now let us consider the case of Guidelines.  A guideline is a template for thought.  The key here is that a well crafted guideline explains what the goals are and relies on the individuals’ ability to make a choice consistent with the guideline.  It implies that the decision maker is being empowered to bring their own native intelligence to bear on the problem at hand, while concurrently receiving the confidence that the decision is consistent with the shared goals.

Teach them to fish:

Closely relate to the prior observation is the ancient idea that if you teach a hungry man to fish he will eat for a lifetime.  So in many ways guidelines are like ‘teaching a man to fish’.   Again empower the individual, be it yourself or those around you and all involved will grow.

And now without further ado and again in reverse order…

My Guidelines for modern living:

F.)           Reality and truth are dependent of point of view and therefore best considered to be ‘subject to change’.

E.)           Repeatable, Manageable and Supportable are the ‘cornerstones’ of integrity.

D.)          Finding oneself of more than one mind on a question can be taken as a clear indication that there is insufficient information available to reach a valid decision.  As a result it is most often wise to postpone making that decision until more data can be gathered.

C.)          ‘Should’ and ‘Supposed to’ are the two most dangerous phrases in the English language.

B.)          If it is not clear how everybody involved wins don’t do it.

And finally…

A.)        There is no valid motivation that is not a selfish motivation.

Startup Philosophy

Starting a business can be a confusing time.  In most cases it starts with a rush of adrenaline and a great idea.  In time a conviction grows that, yeah we really do have something here.  

While the early stages can be fun, there comes a time when you find yourself having to go from dreaming about doing something to actually doing something.   After all you don’t have a business until there is a ‘product’.  Whether your ‘business’ is manufacturing, marketing, distribution, service, … whatever your customers are willing to pay you to do is included in the term ‘product’ expressed earlier.

It’s all too easy to get distracted by all the legal dance steps many people must learn:  Tax filings, reporting requirements, registrations, and insurance  that all must be managed in order to provide your ‘product’ to the world.  One of the goals of this website is to provide you with clues on how to learn more about the former while this article is aimed more at the latter.  The fact remains that in order to be competitive in today’s market place you have to know your ‘product’.  

There is a lot to be learned from posing the rhetorical question: “Why would I, as a customer, spend money on this? “.  Nine times out of ten the answer is some variation on the theme, “there is a financial motivation”.  In other words, the customer will benefit somehow financially.  In some cases that motivation may be more directly apparent, (e.g. If I purchase my raw materials from you, my margins go up.).  In other cases, motivation can only be identified indirectly (e.g. if I hire your services, I have more time to devote to other pursuits.)

Then there is that little voice in the back of your mind that says, “I’ve got to find somebody who will pay me to do this”.  Unfortunately that little voice will often try to convince you that you must be “all things to all people”.  Listening to that voice’s advice is almost always a mistake.  If you take a moment to put yourself in your customers’ place it can be a little easier to see.  Who do you want to ‘buy’ from?  Are you more comfortable purchasing from the ‘provider’ that has the reputation for being very good at a particular thing or from the ‘provider’ that is attempting to be “everything to everybody”?  It has been stated that a customer will ‘buy’ when they are emotionally committed to the purchase.  It stands to reason that the more confident you are in your ‘product’, the easier it is for your customer to convince themselves that your ‘product’ is just what they need.  Part of that is helping them to identify when their needs do not line up with your ‘product’.  If you don’t have confidence in your ‘product’ how can your customer?

Many of you will want to start a business based on something you enjoy doing,  noting that opportunities exist to find people interested in spending money on your ‘product’.  It is not uncommon to ignore or delegate the ‘logistics’ of owning a business to someone else.  It cannot be stressed enough to: (a) Make certain that ‘things’ are always up to date and (b) Make every effort to reduce the ‘logistics’ to a repeatable process that anyone can be taught. 

Let’s take a moment to explore both those topics: 

“(a) Make certain that ‘things’ are always up to date”

This almost sounds trite, but reality suggests that if more people paid attention to this concept, an enormous amount of trouble could be avoided.  A closer look at that statement implies that you have made yourself responsible for the work being completed and for the need to have it completed in a reasonable and timely fashion.  An additional implication is that you understand  the process  and the benefits the process is ‘designed’ to bring you.   Unfortunately we hear of far too many performers or other public figures that relied on others to ‘look after things’ only to discover that trust was misplaced.  Count on it, this scenario is repeated many more times that you will ever hear about.  Don’t become a statistic.  Always know what is being done “in your best interests”.   After all, not to decide is also a decision.  In fact one of the joys of starting a business is making decisions you think are ‘best’ based on the information you have at hand when making that decision.  It is important to realize that you will not always make the ‘best’ choices.  In fact it is almost a certainty that you will make at least one decision where your ‘best informed’ decision was not, in the long run, the ‘best’.  Give yourself, or for that matter the person you delegated a decision to, a ‘break’.  Of course at the same time, every mistake is a learning opportunity.  Some of those choices will just be more adamant about teaching that lesson than others.

“(b) Make every effort to reduce the ‘logistics’ to a repeatable process that anyone can be taught.”

One of the basic human ‘needs’ is security.  It can be said that how individual people react to that concern is as varied as childhood.  In other words, each individual will perceive their own need for ‘security’ differently.  It is not uncommon for this to manifest itself at a defensive level below the individual person’s consciousness.  In an observable number of cases these defensive decisions can be positive, other times it would appear that some kind of mad self-destructive demon was in charge of the decision making process.  It almost sounds like something that should be studied, don’t you think?  One of the more insidious manifestations is what has been called  ‘empire building’ behavior.  Often an individual, motivated by a desire to keep their job, will design a process that only they can understand.  This is bad for the business and the person who  ‘built the empire’ for a great many reasons.  The business becomes dependent on the individual.  That also implies in turn that the individual can never grow or progress from that particular responsibility.  Catch 22.  The second part of this is the idea of ‘cross-training’.  An individual who knows how to discharge not only their own responsibilities but also the responsibilities of others will unconsciously make decisions that anticipate what  others might need to complete their jobs.  The end result is improved productivity and morale.  Of course it is widely acknowledged that improved morale also contributes to improved productivity.  Everybody wins. 

A really good case could be made for the idea of ‘everybody wins’ as a cornerstone in the foundation of a successful decision.  If the customer wins and the employee wins, it stands to reason that the business will win as well.  Nearly as good a case can made for the idea that the phrases ‘should’ and ‘supposed to’ can be used as signposts for processes that would benefit from being critically reexamined.  If the process itself is not simply a collection of partially understood directives, there is a good probability that it might benefit from some kind of automation.  While this ‘truism’ is valuable in many cases it cannot be said to be a ‘rule’, but merely only a guideline.