It’s hard to say if letting go of perfection and checklists are related or not, unless of course you put “be your silly self even if someone looks disapprovingly your way or feels threatened by your authenticity” on your checklist. 🙂
A friend posted a 2010 article on facebook recently called Want to be happy? Stop trying to be perfect. It’s so true. I don’t know where we get that intense fear to be perfect and do it all correctly based on some model someone or a group of people or some stupid TV show put in our mind. I think part of the reason reality TV shows have done so well is because those who have time to watch them inevitably feel better about themselves when they see they aren’t as screwed up as some other people out there! You must watch the author’s video about the topic and her years of research: TEDxHouston – Brené Brown (youtube). She delivers her message in a very authentic/real way and that’s what we are all striving to be: authentic and accepted for who we are. I like the slide where she equates a breakdown to an awakening. I’ve been there, done that and got the t-shirt. I hope I can help guide others through their awakening process because it’s painful. I’ll be attempting to do a little of that this weekend by being on the support team for the Search Within program that I participated in over 2 years ago. The founders of the program will be holding their last events this year after 15+ years of organizing them.
Another interesting read I found via Marc Andreeseen’s blog is called The CEO’s Weekly Checklist by Scott Weiss. He says you should “Push the Team. Sell the Vision. Arbitrate Disagreements. Manage by Walking Around. Talk to Customers.” It made sense to me since I’ve worn those first time CEO shoes before. I might change the order, but other than that these are good guidelines. In my opinion, the number one job of a top notch CEO/President is to find the right people and orchestrate them towards success. It is much easier said than done. You have to get your ego out of the way and not be threatened by the authenticity you see in those people. If you hire them and don’t listen to them, then you might as well dig your early grave from a business as well as your employees personal health perspective.
Author: Aruni |
Filed under: entrepreneur,
entrepreneurship,
environment,
FYI |
Tags: brene brown,
ceo weekly checklist,
facebook,
first time CEO,
marc andreesseen,
marc andreessen,
perfection,
search within,
support team,
tedx |
11 Comments »
I’m sure many of you have noticed that I haven’t been blogging as much recently. It’s not due to lack of desire, but due to lack of time and mental energy. I have a full list of topic ideas I want to blog about, but by the end of the day after interesting and bureaucratically taxing events, kids, dinner, husband, baths, teeth brushing, catching up on Babble Soft stuff and personal emails, I feel pretty dazed.Â
I have blog posts floating around in my head with rarely enough thoughtful time to get them down in a post. Fortunately, I have had some timely guest posters who have filled in some of the gaps.Â
I can’t say I’ll be able to get to a blogging pace (in the near future) that can keep up with my blogging ideas given my current schedule and life situation, but so far I’ve done a better job at posting than Marc Andreessen, founder of Ning and formerly Netscape, who hasn’t consistently blogged since May 2008! But he’s running a heavily venture backed company so I’m guessing he has just a few more people breathing down his neck than I do. Â
I’m glad I’m not in his shoes right now in this economy, with the news constantly talking about the questionable results of social networks from a business model perspective, and with some of the widget partner issues his company is facing. But Marc’s a tried and true entrepreneur so I’m sure he and his team will figure something out. If not, he is a millionaire and married to a millionaire so chances are they won’t be out on the streets any time soon.Â
Yep, it’s all relative and I’m thankful for the opportunities I’ve been given and the opportunities yet to come. Thank you to all of you loyal readers for sticking around!
UPDATE: On an interesting note, Seth Godin, the famous author and blogger on marketing tips & ideas, did a post on September 10 called How often should you publish? and in it he says: “Key assertion: you don’t publish it unless it’s good. You don’t write more blog posts than you can support, don’t ship more variations of that software than your engineers can make marvelous.” So I guess my haphazard blogging is OK because it fits what I can support!
Author: Aruni |
Filed under: blogging,
entrepreneur,
entrepreneurship,
social networks,
venture capital |
Tags: blogging,
blogging schedule,
marc andreessen,
Ning,
social networks |
4 Comments »
Entrepreneurs are all just a little bit crazy and add motherhood on top of that and you get a whole new experience! Entrepreneurs see the world differently, yet we still want to fit in, maybe more so if you are a woman and mother, for the sake of our children.Â
I’m sure there have been books written about the psychology of entrepreneurship, but I don’t have time to seek them out. I figure one will fall in my lap as I need it. And interestingly Liz Pabon, who wrote The MavHERick Mind
, recently reached out to me and will be doing a guest post on my blog soon. I just began reading her book and so far it’s a fascinating read on how and why women entrepreneurs in particular hold themselves back from achieving the success that they are capable of.
A post also recently fell in my lap in-box written by Marc Andreessen, founder of Netscape and Ning, called The Psychology of Entrepreneurial Misjudgment. It is an excellent read where he puts modern language around observations made by Charlie Munger, Warren Buffet’s long time partner and Vice Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway. Here are the themes and you’ll have to head on over to Marc’s blog to read the rest:
One: Reward and Punishment Superresponse Tendency
Two: Liking/Loving Tendency
Three: Disliking/Hating Tendency
Four: Doubt-Avoidance Tendency
Five: Inconsistency-Avoidance Tendency
Six: Curiosity Tendency
The Doubt-Avoidance Tendency is the one that resonated with me the most. It’s true that “You’d better not have a lot of doubts about what you are doing because everyone else will, and if you do too, you’ll probably give up.” But it’s darn hard not to have doubts when the stakes can be so high. I would add that if you don’t have any doubts at all, then you might just run over a cliff without knowing it.  But if you need a quick answer, you can always ask the Magic 8 Ball (thanks to Scott Allen of The Virtual Handshake for the link). I only had to ask my question 3 different ways to get the answers I wanted. 🙂
        
One thing I remember from Marc’s past blog posts is that there is a direct correlation between success and how many times you get up to bat. Many inventors had a string of things that didn’t work out before they found the few that did, and the chances of finding something that does work increases when you try more things. So Babble Soft is my second at bat. I believe we barely slid into 2nd base with our first company, which is still operating, so I’m swinging for the fences on this one!
If you don’t want to miss more posts on entrepreneurship and parenting by me or my fabulous guest posters, Subscribe Now! Oh and share your thoughts because blogging is a form of therapy even if most won’t outwardly admit it. 🙂
Author: Aruni |
Filed under: babble soft,
entrepreneur,
entrepreneurship,
marc andreessen |
Tags: Berkshier Hathaway,
charlie munger,
Curiosity Tendency,
Doubt-Avoidance Tendency,
entrepreneur,
entrepreneurship,
Liz Pabon,
magic 8 ball,
marc andreessen,
Netscape,
Ning,
psychology,
self doubt,
The MavHERick Mind,
warren buffet |
8 Comments »
Recent Comments