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Words. Wisdom. Winners.
Never too late!
The irony of email – signal and noise!
Ever since I took over the fancy title, my email volume (both work and personal) has increased by about 260%. I am averaging around 230 work emails and 45 personal emails every day. But here is the ironic part
I feel I am getting more signal than noise now.
I am a BIG supporter of the signal and noise theory. Most times, people mistake noise for signal and chose to react. I don’t think I am an expert at deciphering signal, but I pick my “battles”. most things for me, work wise and personally, are noise. I don’t ignore them, I just don’t react.
But surprisingly, this has changed lately. Atleast when it comes to email. When I was expecting it to be the other way round. My response to email ratio has increased and that’s not because I am compelled to respond. I genuinely see the benefit of doing so.
Customers with feedback
Employees with concerns or suggestions
Decisions to be made
Follow up (people must hate me for the amount of follow up emails I send – thanks to boomerang)
etc etc
Yes – The big difference now, is my time to response. And that’s by design. I take time to respond. I want to. Because suddenly (atleast in my head) my words weigh a lot more than they did. So I want to make sure that I do justice to the one writing in. Give him/her what they want and solve it right then and there, so that my followup decreases.
Nothing really has changed. In me or in the world. But somehow there is suddenly more signal than noise! Fascinating. Maybe not long-lived though.
You learn everyday!
The deals business makes you go through a beautiful ride everyday! It’s so close to the customers – every step and action of yours is public. Margin of error is…well..zero!
So we had this deal, that I thought was interesting. It runs today in Delhi – doorstep beauty service by VLCC – you know the typical women works – facial, waxing, Bleach, hair spa etc etc!
So here I was – oh wow – all these nice elements from a good brand, at a great price and what more – at one’s doorstep.
The deal failed!
Hit by massive depression, I go back home and quiz my mom, sis and wife! Here is the reason:
Going to a nice salon, is an escape from home! The idea of getting these treatments done while their daily routine is happening alongside, isn’t a dream you can sell!
I love this industry. You learn something new everyday!
Any reason why you think this failed?
The power of the right incentive!
“I could end the deficit in 5 minutes. You just pass a law that says that anytime there is a deficit of more than 3% of GDP all sitting members of congress are ineligible for reelection.”
– Warren Buffet
The pessimists might ask – who will pass such a law! Yes, einstein! Smart of you
Look beyond the law. The message is the power!
Look – this is what I have done!
I have learnt this the hard way – people who need to tell you about how good the work they are doing is, are most likely not doing a good job!
Most likely.
What’s your team?
A leader is all about Top People and Top Sales.
It’s unfortunate that most ‘leaders’ forget that Top Sales is infact a byproduct. It’s almost automatic. Magic!
Build your team. NOW. And only you can build it. Not the HR. Not someone else. You!
IPL is about India?
I love rediff comments. I especially love what it does to every Indian.
Article on Chennai winning IPL…
…comment from reader!
Its amazing that an Indian has lifted the IPL trophy. Every team should have an Indian captain so that whenever someone wins, an Indian lifts the trophy!
Such joy! This is precisely what makes me forget my sleep at 1.30 in the morning.
Back to work! Rediff rocks!
Is anyone looking?
Seth Godin is truly a genius. To come up with what he does, on a daily basis, requires enlightenment!
And here is another gem from him
Perhaps you can burn 500 calories on the treadmill before you give up for the day. With a personal coach, though, you could do 700. The trainer gets you to exert more effort.
You wake up on a Monday morning after a long hard weekend of misbehaving. You have a splitting headache. You can easily call in sick, no one will freak out. But then you remember that there’s a $500 bonus at stake if you keep your attendance perfect. You make the effort because someone else is bribing you.
There’s an entire system organized around the idea that we’re too weak to deliver effort without external rewards and punishment. If you only grow on demand, you’re selling yourself short. If you’re only as good as your current boss/trainer/sergeant, you’ve given over the most important thing you have to someone else.
The thing I care the most about: what do you do when no one is looking, what do you make when it’s not an immediate part of your job… how many push ups do you do, just because you can?
——-
When you are an entrepreneur, the above acquires higher meaning. Very soon you realize that it cannot be the term sheet valuation, or the CEO title, or the media coverage, or the swanky office space that drives you. The drive has to be you yourself.
The question is – can you live with a sub-optimal structure knowing that it is a sub-optimal structure. Can you really get up everyday and do those push-ups, because you ought to!
Internet Entrepreneurs Are Like Professional Athletes, They Peak Around 25
I hope this isnt true for Indian entrepreneurs!
Internet Entrepreneurs Are Like Professional Athletes, They Peak Around 25
What comes first? Product or Sales?
I have made a lot of mistakes in life. One in particular that I remember was during the early days of StudyNation. The product had not had a good start (we had launched as StudyTimes.com). Our SEO strategy hadn’t worked as well as we thought. We had to shut down the site and relaunch as StudyNation.com
The relaunch was immensely successful. Within 3 months we were very close to displacing the top sites. The traction on the traffic was fantastic.
As the one closely working on the project, I decided to do something that I shouldn’t have, in hindsight! Selling!
Sales is core to any business. And everyone in the world has to think of sales sooner than you would like, unless ofcourse if your last name ends in -kerberg! And thats what I did as well. Problem was, there wasnt anything core to sell. The product wasnt ready for sales! The traffic wasnt high enough to sell advertising and the lead generation side of the business needed me to work on the product before I stepped out into the market.
It was a discussion with Vivek that made me realize my flaw. It was evident the minute we sat down to chat about it. I had made the fundamental mistake of running after sales even before the product was ready!
That said, Seth Godin argues that the attitude should be to ship fast. Had the iPhone waited to do a ‘complete’ job of itself (heck, it didnt even have SMS forward. It still doesnt have an SMS way of sharing contacts!), it possibly would never have been the iPhone we know of! But then, that was the iPhone. It was a revolution as it is. The same logic, I reckon, doesnt work when you shipping out something that as already been shipped before, especially by someone else!
The idea is to ALWAYS place the product first. Make sure the sales you wish to achieve, is supported by the product you have built. No point building an ecommerce product that doesnt make buying simple. Or a lead generation product that doesnt make searching on the site simple. Thats core. Thats fundamental.
Product is your sales!
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