Blogmatic

Great video link from Natasha of David Miller (Toronto’s Mayor) on social media in municipalities. The link is here.

thank you Natasha.

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Depending on where you start your entrepreneurial journey, your life skills, your lessons learned thus far and the obstacles you face in getting up and running your lessons learned will vary. Here is a short list of some of my most valuable lessons learned and how they relate to some advice I received from Peter Kemball.

Peter provided me with one of the most memorable and important lessons I have ever learned. Basically it goes something like this; 15% of people are truly altruistic and do things for the right reasons all the time, 70% of people are normal do things for the right reason most of the time and finally 15% of the people are just out for themselves, arrogant, bullies and just generally nasty. Understanding what motivates people and which bucket they fall into; 15% good, 70% normal or 15% nasty is super important.

Some of the best advice I ever received came from very close to home, my wife. Her advice to me was being nice to everyone. This is great advice and since Ottawa is really a very small town with everyone connected by one degree of separation and usually by multiple paths being nice is important. This applies to the first two buckets or 85% of the people. Usually the people in the top 15% bucket (Altruistic) are great to have as close friends.

Being nice to people doesn’t necessarily mean that everyone is your friend, there is a difference. You need to collaborate and get along; however, certain relationships are more about business and less or even not at all about being friends. Separating business from being friends and knowing which category people fit into is really important. You need to deal with people in your life and business in the appropriate tone and tact. This has been a valuable lesson and one best summed up in a quote from Ben Franklin; “Those things that hurt, instruct”. This applies primarily to the second bucket or the 70% who could be either good friends or business associates, have a firm idea in your mind where people stand.

Finally there is the third and final bucket or that lower 15%. Keep an eye on these people, however, they will never and should never be friends and in a business situation be sure to protect yourself. If someone like this threatens your business then you should take appropriate action. Good entrepreneurs have a ruthless or shark streak in them that is kind of a survival mechanism and when threatened this characteristic kicks in. Identifying this type of person is super important and often they are great chameleons. Use proper business etiquette under normal circumstance, however, if threatened remember your first goal is the survival of your business.

Cheers,
Ian Graham

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I am a firm believer that your most precious resource is time. There is only so much of it, you must spend it as it becomes available and “Time is money”. You can never reclaim time, or make more of it you can only schedule it wisely. Personal productivity and time management are tightly coupled.

In my opinion one of the highest forms of praise you can offer someone is saying that “I have a lot of time for that person”.

Cheers,
Ian Graham

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Do you get better decisions by taking less time to think about them?

I am currently reading the book “Blink” by Malcolm Gladwell. Gladwell is certainly one of my favourite authors have learned from “The Tipping Point”, found “Blink” an amazing read so far and am looking forward to outliers. Blink is titled the power of thinking without thinking. Well worth a read if you have the time.

Now back to the original question are decisions that take less time actually better than those that require time and a due diligence process. I honestly believe there is considerable merit in those blink decisions. The computational power of the unconscious human mind is considerably more that the conscious mind. There is tremendous value in that primitive intuitive sort of thinking that you feel rather than actually think. Making decisions with the heart instead of the head can produce far better results.

A really important question to ask yourself in the decision making process is “How do I fell about this decision?” Once you are in tune with your unconscious computer great things can start to happen.

Cheers,

Ian Graham

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I am really impressed with the attitude and preparation of the Canadian Olympic efforts for Vancouver in 2010. There is a series of media ads being run under the campaign of “Believe”. The ads highlight potential Olympic gold medalists talking about their intention to win gold. What a refreshing change from previous Olympic outings where the athletes were often there to do a personal best.

Frankly if you are being funded to compete at the Olympics you had better have your sights set on Gold. I find the intent and expectations of both the Olympians and the public focused in the right direction. We are seeing results on the World Cup in various winter sports already this year. It is great to see Canada setting itself up with the goal of challenging Germany for leadership in medals won at the Olympics in Vancouver 2010.

If Canada continues on its current trajectory my Blogmatic prediction is that we will deliver our best ever performance at an Olympic games in Vancouver 2010. If you set your goals for gold then you have a reasonable chance of getting there.

Cheers,
Ian Graham

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The title of this post is a line from the movie “Stand by me” certainly one of my favourite. In this scene Gordy, Chris, Teddy and Vern are chatting about stuff and life in general when Vern comes out with “What the hell is Goofy anyaway”. Is he a dog or a person or what?

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This sets the scene for my Facebook dilema. “What the hell is facebook anyway”. Is it a personal social networking site is it for business or is it something in between. Linkedin has a very clear identity and it is business. Facebook seems to have multiple personalities. Early on when everyone on the site was under 25 it had a very clear and distinct idea that it was for friends to connect. These days it seems to be trying to be everything to everybody and in that attempt pleasing no one.
Facebook continues to be one of the top 3 internet destinations in the world, however, if it continues to suffer from this Goofy identity crisis not knowing who they are as a social network then the decline is only just starting.

Cheers,
Ian Graham

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The logical answer would be: “Yes, of course you need to be smart, how else you will succeed?”

I know what I know and like to think I know what I don’t know. You don’t have to be smart to know what you don’t know, however, you do need to recognize your weaknesses and figure out a way to mitigate them. Probably the best way to mitigate your weaknesses even if you aren’t the sharpest knife in the drawer is to surround yourself with smart people. 

One of the highest compliments anyone paid me recently was by John Doran President of Domicile when he said “you are not afraid to surround yourself with smart people.” I had originally negotiated for a property owned by Domicile for TheCodeFactory, alas it was not to be. However, a great learning experience.

Anyway back to the original question: “Do you have to be smart to be successful?” If you are capable of recognizing your weaknesses and surrounding yourself with people smarter than you can accomplish a whole lot. I think that answers the question in a roundabout sort of way.

Cheers,
Ian Graham

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… you were starting out.

I have received a lot of great advice from many people that I respect and admire in getting TheCodeFactory up and running. One of my favourite gems is the title of this post; “Remember who was good to you when you are starting out.” It was Peter Kemball founder of Acorn Partners that let me in on this bit of wisdom at our very first meeting, even before they had agreed to be a founding partner at TheCodeFactory.

Probably one of the toughest things to do as a start-up and as a new business I consider TheCodeFactory a start-up, is to succeed. Early on when you have limited funds and are trying to get traction it is a tough go. Once you are up to critical mass and “successful” it is a whole lot easier for companies to be supportive and jump on the bandwagon. However, always remember those that supported you early on because they are the ones who believed in you and your idea while those standing idly on the sidelines waiting for success are indeed fickle friends. Good partners and those to which I am genuinely grateful and do business with are the ones that contribute now or in the early going and continue to be supportive on the road to success rather than after reaching “critical mass”.

Cheers,
Ian Graham

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I meet with Jeff Eisen my life coach on a regular basis and have benefited greatly from his wisdom. We last met at TheCodeFactory about two or three weeks ago. As we talked he mentioned that your journey through life should be effortless and easy if you are on the right path. At least that is my recollection.

I have given this considerably thought and reflected on the sentiment of effortless and easy. I tend to agree with the first part if you are pursuing your passion in life then time passes effortlessly. However, I struggle with the concept of life should be easy.

Should life be easy?

Personally I don’t want things to come to easily. My preference is to work hard and earn success. Most successful people in life fondly remember the early days in their journey when they had little, worked hard and reflect back on what great times these were later in life.

When I worked for a large multi-national company I had a great salary, good co-workers, life was relatively easy and I had a whole lot to be grateful for. However, at the same time life was somehow less fulfilling than it is now when I am pursuing my passion in life. Life is a whole lot of hard work right now, yet at the same time in terms of personal fulfilment never better. I appreciate the weekends far more, value my time with family more than ever (perhaps because there is less family time), have met an incredible number of excellent people and am more determined than ever to achieve my goals. I like hard work and don’t want easy.

When life is easy I don’t think we fully appreciate all the great things we have, in fact we take them for granted. .

Cheers,

Ian Graham

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There has been a terrible tragedy here in Canada where at the time of writing of this post 12 people had died and many others became sick from Listeria in some products from Maple Leaf Foods. I have been particularly impressed by the response of the company to this horrific situation. Maple Leaf foods has taken the approach of “facing the brutal facts”. They were quick to acknowledge the problem and put in place measures to correct and address the situation. While this won’t undo the damage done it does speak volumes to the character and culture of the company.

The President and CEO have acknowledged the situation in the media, on TV and in an open letter that I found in the Ottawa edition of Metro. My take on the situation is that Maple Leaf foods have taken the problem head on and I think their actions are commendable. By “facing the brutal facts” they have shown much character and conviction as an organization.

Ian Graham

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