clear.your.mind

Pat Connelly, an ex-Midway employee is talking over the news about taking the big N (that is, Nintendo for those who doesn’t know -welcome to earth by the way!) to the united states Courts about the Wiimote, he claims to have patents registered on his name about a development pretty much the same (similar…cough!) since almost nine years ago! Yes! can you smell that? it’s the smell of justice!

“You owe me son! and you owe me big time!

I feel sometimes, two people come up with a great idea and this things happens. Of course, in other instances, only one person comes up with a great idea and the rest just copy it, or promote it better. In this case, Justice, hard and cold justice, may be the one who solves this case.

More about this in GoNintendo.com

It has been said, that 90% of business never grow up like they could because their owners lose, sometime in the battle, the goals they once thought for their business. It’s hard out there, with a lot of business being created each day, that means competence each day. 37signals were the cool kids on the block until WeBreakStuff came out of the floor, right behind them. I saw that happened 20 times since I started my business, with blogs, with other business, with writers, with cool “marketing guys” of the moment (someone remember Seth Godin? how is he doing?) and it repeats once and once again.

Now, I never hit the sky with Emagiancion (yet) because I had lost my goals earlier, before I went into the “battlefield”. This is a 3rd world country gentlemen, it gets ugly sometimes down here and you may get your head screw up from time to time if you don’t move away from all the madness going on here. Yes, I admit it. I have lost the original plan, the goal and I’m now in the trenches with no map at all; I don’t recognize in what side are the allies, and in what side the axis are; totally lost.

But, there is a solution for that. Our job, our main job is to find solutions each day, to problems. Can be a website usability, a design that doesn’t fit well with what the client wants, users that are complaining about a specific feature and how it works, it can be anything, but we solve problems. And it’s a daily task in our business administration too; so the “lost goals” issue, has a fix for sure.

Make a plan

This is what I’m doing right now. Think about what you once wanted to accomplish by going into business. Yes, being your own boss, not working for [[insert boss name here]] never again, not seeing his/her face, working from home, making millions. Yes sure, those are good reasons in fantasy land. Here in reality, a business needs to make a difference; not just for you but for others. No business that makes a difference just for their owners goes anywhere beyond the backroom in the owners house.

Is not always about the money; but about what you can do for the others or what you can avoid to happen. Example: McDonalds is a fast food place right, the only reason for those business to exist is to make money for their owners right? wrong! they don’t sell hamburgers. No sir. That’s not their product. Their product is that you, or I, or anyone, all of us live in a world where nothing works as it suppose to work, everyone is always late, everyone is always running and not being there in time, everyone always have an excuse. You, me everyone.

Not in McDonalds they don’t. You go there, for a meal, ask for it, and under 4 minutes, you are on your way with what you asked for. That’s what McDonalds are producing, that’s their product, that’s what they sell. The peace of mind to know you can get a full meal within 4 minutes. Sure they won’t win the prize of the year for nutrition, but it’s not about that. Again, is about going there, asking for a meal, and witting 4 minutes, having it in your hand. Then, you walk through the door, and you are again, in the imperfect Real World ™ where everything fails.

That’s McDonalds business. The easiest example I can think off right now.

First, you make a plan. What are you going to change? what are you going to deliver out there? It can be changing something you know is wrong (37signals guys changed how the web works, they made web apps easy and accessible for everyone, by price and by features), it can be helping something good to stay how it is, it can be working to fix something that is absolutely wrong; you follow me? it needs to be real. It needs to be there, right in people’s face.

Once you have that, once you have your “cause”, you are ready. THEN, you make a plan. Then you work on how to go from here, to there, and what you will need.

The Plan Sheet

I made a quick plan sheet that folds into my pocket and I carry it everywhere. I actually carry it inside my Moleskine Pocket. I use it twice a day: when I wake up, and after I eat my yogurt ;) and when I’m about to leave my office. How do I use it? I just read it and imagine what’s my next move.

On that Plan Sheet I have wrote down where I’m, where I want to go, and how do I plan to get there, it’s a mini-plan, with numbers ($) and notations everywhere. It doesn’t need to look pretty, it just needs to work. Right in the middle of it, there is our “EmaStudios motto”, or our cause per say. I will reveal it once EmaStudios goes live. But, you can place it on the top, on the bottom, whenever you want, but it has to be there, big enough for you to see. Bigger than everything else. Dominant.

If you don’t forget where you are, and where you want to be, and if you don’t forget WHY you wanted to begin the journey in the first place, I believe you, as I, could go right to the top of our dreams.

It’s not hard. It’s DAMN HARD. And that’s why we are doing it, right?

Javier Cabrera
From the EmaStudios HQ. Bs. As. Argentina.

I don’t remember when I stopped making my searches at Google and began doing them at Youtube; but the fact is that I use Google just for looking into blogs, or specific things like a piece of javascript code I want to work with; and that’s it. If I want to see an upcoming movie release, I just Youtube-it and find the trailer/teaser or even the Behind the Scenes. Same thing happens to games, and to books in some cases (I even catch a Stephen King book reading a couple of weeks ago!)

Google has made a great job for the web, it is actually the fahter and mother of today’s Internet, clear, simple and cool enough to let us use it without showing us stupid yellow/red banners blinking all over the place (Altavista, Yahoo, AOL, where are you guys?). Google has made the Internet, what is today (in part). Youtube is what’s coming if you ask me. Haven’t you noticed how new gadgets now don’t come with a “Google” feature? but with a Youtube feature? (iPhone anyone?). I know I know, Youtube was bought by Google, but hey, Youtube isn’t Google, and it wasn’t made by Google. That means Google bought their competitor and made it their own partner, that’s very cool actually.

I’m not saying Google will disappear, it will just go for a vacation until it reorganizes itself. Blogger wasn’t a hit. Google Video wasn’t a hit either. Google stats was definitely not a hit. Youtube, it is indeed, a good hit for Google, since most of us don’t even use it anymore to look for entertainment (cellphones review, gadgets review, games review, movies review, books reviews, etc) now we just Youtube-it.

Funny how things turn out right?

Previously in the Part 1 of Myth: The Entrepreneur, I explained how being an Entrepreneur is no easy walk, you won’t find anything harder than being at your own out there, is a big, ugly scary world. Of yours it will be fun, but that’s only if you like the adventures. That’s what I’m about to talk now, even if it sounds stupid at first but it will show it value later, I promise… in the mean while… are you a knight?

No more Princess?

It’s sad, but it’s true, there are no more princess to save. There are two kind of human being, the one who likes the danger, and the one who doesn’t. If you are trying to become a business owner, or if you are just thinking about it, then you know it better than I. In the past, we heard stories about Knights and Adventurers who fought with giants and dragons in order to save Princess and earn their kingdom. Today, those are just stories, there are no more Dragons to kill, no more giants to fight and certanly, there are no more Princess to save!

What’s left? just life. You will find yourself working eight, ten hours a day, boring at your desk, looking out the window and seeing there a part of yourself dying… that if you are an adventurer. If you are a guy (or a gal!) who just want to live a quiet cool life, then having a job in a company is a dream, the smell of the fresh coffee, the group work at the office, the meetings, the parties and the promotion at the end of the year, that’s really something and I mean it. It’s really exiting!

But there are a few out there… who think “that’s ok! but… it isn’t for me. I’m here taking a place which I don’t fully enjoy, and what is worst, here can be someone who really enjoys a company-office work… but I want exitement, I want something totally different.”

Well my friend, you want to fight a battle. And I’m not talking about war, I’m talking about business.

Continue reading this article »

Everyone has an entrepreneur inside, that’s something I learned a long time ago. Over the past weeks I had been reading a cool books someone I deeply respect sent to me, it’s called The E-Myth (google it!), that’s stands for The Entrepreneur Myth. There are some believes out there about entrepreneurs, how they work and how it is being one, between the most common Myths we can found the following ones. You may notice them while talking with a friend during a dinner or by hearing people talk on the elevator:

• Entrepreneurs have no boss
• Entrepreneurs won a lot of money
• Entrepreneurs works only 4 hours a day and then go home to watch UFC on TV
• Entrepreneurs have lots of free time and they can decide what to do on their work hours
• Entrepreneurs take vacations when they want!

And the list goes on and on… all of that it’s just a Myth, because the Entrepreneur is a Myth itself. Ask every Entrepreneur that has been working a couple of months now and he will tell you things like:

• I hate my job…
• I can’t stand that client one more day…
• I didn’t charged him enough man… I’m going so beyond contract with him!
• I have a whole bunch of bills to pay, and I can’t even go home!
• I’m here since Wednesday, what day is today?

You can imagine the rest. Wait, there is hope. The reason for any Entrepreneur to feel like this is because he isn’t made for work. Entrepreneurs AREN’T MADE FOR WORK. Not regular work anyway. Tech guys are, Manager guys are; not Entrepreneurs. If you put an Entrepreneur to work you are killing his soul! he will die day after day. Any Entrepreneur who had a business of his own know that. Entrepreneur’s work is different, his work is not the eight-hours-day work tech guys does, he doesn’t code, he doesn’t do software, he doesn’t manage people, his work is to think outside the box! see? he is a creative soul, and his mission is to take a company beyond today! his goal is to take it to tomorrow’s vision!

The good news is this: we are have the three guys inside. We all have an Entrepreneur, who can have a great idea and vision the next Apple; and we all have a Tech Guy, who can write a new Language like Ruby on Rails! Or the Manager guy who can run a Fortune 500 company with 4 zillion employees and enjoy every sginle second of it. We all have the three, we are all those guys, we just need to make them work together!

A Tech guy is there to support the Entrepreneur’s idea with his experience; a Manager guy is there to support the Entrepreneur’s idea with his hability to manage a business, his experience, and his people skill. But, the Entrepreneur has no other skills than seeing a possible future and pointing at the possible right directions, the real outcome has to come from the Manager and Tech Guy, they will have to make an effort (a great effort) to translate what the Entrepreneur’s saw, his vision, his idea; into a reality.

That’s how big companies work. That’s how they got far enough to become history! The best thing you can do is to sit down, grab a Moleskine or a piece of paper, and start sketching your own business from day one like I did! I will keep this subject coming later, right now, you and I need to do some thinking!

This post is a little bit old but it’s worth it. It was on WorkHappy, a highly recommended site. Seth Godin wrote about the top five mistakes entrepreneurs make when they start on business, and gosh he is right! here are two of them:

Expecting gratitude in exchange for having done something that was hard. Yes, you built a company, you might even have bootstrapped it. Yes, you’ve got the machinery and the packaging and the retail space. Yes, you’ve navigated hiring people and yes, you finally shipped. I couldn’t care less. I’m not going to buy your brownie/consulting/services just because you worked hard on it.

Failure to measure. All this is worthless if you don’t test and measure relentlessly. Do what works. Kill what doesn’t. Repeat.

Related Links:

• Work Happy: Five Mistakes of Entrepreneurs

One of the things I love from Guy Kawasaki is that he is truly sincere. A couple of months ago I worked on the new design of his blog (yep, that’s me) and I had a chance to exchange emails with him; and I found out something that is really weird on the world of “gurus”; simplicity.

People that are in the same (or similar) position that Guy is, always trend to make things more complicated than they really are; like for example, thinking they know it all on every subject, Guy isn’t like that. If he doesn’t know something he doesn’t have afraid to say “gosh, I don’t really know that. Maybe we can look it up”. We never spoke for a long period of time, we just exchanged e-mails and it was work related, but that was enough. It takes the same amount of time to know someone likes to make things complicated than to know someone just want things simpler.

I saw a video of one of Guy’s presentations and he said something that really hit me (hard) on the head. He said (as I remember) don’t make a business to make money, make a business to make meaning; that will lead you on the money track. If you make a business to make money, people will notice it and they won’t do business with you, but if instead, you focus on making meaning and FORGET the money issue, I can ensure you will find it at the end of the rainbow; it will be much more fun and you won’t believe you are working.

Can’t discuss that argument. That is what we are really aiming with Emaginacion. We want to bring “balance” to the force; if you know what I mean.

Another person I respect is Tom Peters. Even when they seem distant some how (Guy and Tom), for me they enter into the same category; motivate entrepreneur and business owners. While they stand on different islands of thought, they walk the same path. Tom says you need to start all over again, you need to re-imagine business, you need to know that Dell is about to crash and you won’t see it again in the next 50 years, the same thing will happen with your business, it won’t live forever, someday it will finish, it will end, all ends; so why we don’t think outside the box for a second? it’s amazing when you realise you can surprise yourself. As someone said, don’t be trapped by dogma.

Related Links

• Guy Kawasaki Blog
• Tom Peters Blog
• Steve Jobs quote, don’t be trapped by dogma.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.