Startup: An Insider's Guide to Launching and Running a Business Read Free Page B

If you are in the computer business, it is not just about computers. If you are in the pizza business, it is not just about pizza. The best product in the world is just a starting point, and it won’t make you a dollar unless you can figure out how to make that product relevant tothe lives of your customers and get them to understand that relevance. Having a great product helps, but that alone is not enough.
    This bias toward customer indifference is a reality of the market. But to tell you the truth, I like the fact that getting into markets is tough, because that means that it is tough for my competitors too , and will serve to keep the folks in your market that aren’t smart enough or fast enough from hogging the swing set for too long.
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    What Is a Business?
    Too often, business owners, managers, and decision-makers get fooled by the way they use language into thinking that their business is a “thing.” It is not. It is convenient and even necessary to use a noun to refer to your business when communicating with people, but when you visualize it for yourself, make sure you don’t ever do so. One of the lessons I have brought along to all of the companies that I have worked at and consulted for is the following:
Your business is not a noun. It is a verb. It is a “happening” and a “doing.” It is nothing less than the sum total of the actions and thoughts of every employee and customer. It is the result-in-motion of all of the things that the people who participate in your business do each and every day.
    Mentally framing your business in this way is an easy and useful step toward understanding it and how its complexity is organized between ideas, your staff, your customers, and the wider market. If you are visualizing the business as a noun (an object of some kind), your model of understanding is inherently missing much of its complexity. By promoting your visualization from a noun (static) to a verb, you automatically give yourself a much more complex modeling paradigm. You will immediately get closer to the reality of dance-like complexity found in all businesses as they grow and operate.
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    The Boat
    Most people are employees working for other people. This employment may chafe them a bit from time to time, but they are sacrificing a bit of freedom for the stability. They usually aspire to become leaders in their environment, in part to grow their salary, and in part to ease the chafing—and to have more control over their own lives. Inherent in this is the idea that you “plug in” to a structure that other people have created (a corporation, university, etc.). The idea of advanced education (getting an MBA for example), is a way to open options for plugging in to the structure in some advantageous manner. This is the most common work pattern in the developed world—finding a company to work for.
    Some make a different choice: to find their own path, and take the burden of owning something from top to bottom and being responsible for the outcome in a way that others will never understand. Here are the characters in a parable that usefully describes what I am talking about.
    The Employee
    He is riding in a big boat. Cold seas thrash outside, but in the boat’s sturdy, rigid interior it feels relatively warm and dry. There are waves and movement that can be felt inside the boat, but he feels safe most of the time. He knows that there is the threat of the boat sinking or being asked to walk the plank if he makes a mistake, but he tries not to worry about that most of the time. He has a set of duties onboard that he attends to. He gets health insurance and a steady paycheck; his life feels safe, except it is not as stimulating as it could be. Looking out of the window at the strange lands outside, he thinks, “I wonder what else is out there? Where is this boat going anyway? The captain knows. Probably.”
    The Entrepreneur
    He has no boat, but has a dream in mind. He