Rating: 5/5 This is probably the best business book that I am going to read all year, seriously. It’s way better than The Lean Startup, a book I reviewed two weeks ago. Rework is crisp and to the point. It’s written by the founders of37signals.com, a very successful tech company that’s produced productivity tools for small businesses such as Basecamp, Highrise, Backpack and Campfire. Over and above what they say in the book there was one overriding message that I sensed: they always go with their base instincts and adapt to changing circumstances as they arise. On business plans, they say they are a waste of time and lead to inflexibility and inaction. I agree. They do not disagree with having a rough plan but they think you shouldn’t get bogged down in it. Every number is a guess that won’t materialize anyway. On failure, they say people who fail are just as likely to fail again as people who haven’t embarked on anything before. It’s success, not failure, that leads to success. On being a workaholic, they say go home and get some sleep! You’ll be more creative and work more productively after. Consistently working late is not a badge of honor, it’s a mark of inefficiency. I agree. I am a workaphile in that I enjoy work and spend my weekends writing, reading and website building, but not in the sense of the number of hours I do: I go to bed at 10pm almost every day. Yes, even on Fridays! On starting a business, they say scratch your own itch, create a product that you yourself need, you will be better able to market it. I so agree on this point. I have a friend who’s built a website on healthy eating and weight loss but he has never had a weight issue himself nor is he interested in the subject in itself. On seed money, they say using other people’s money is plan z. Don’t resort to it until you really have to. Once you have external investors they start to control you. Are you going into business to be your own woman (or man) or to be a slave to someone else’s short term profit goals? On constraints or limited resources, they say these are good things. Having limitations force you to think outside the box. Startups with endless cash end up spending money poorly because it is oh-so-easy to spend someone else’s dough. On an exit strategy, they say do you go into a marriage with divorce in mind? What’s the point of going into a business if you are already thinking about how you are going to get out? I so agree. On quitting, sometimes it’s a good thing. Don’t flog a dead horse. On large tasks, break them into small bite-size pieces. I have been living by this principle myself since high school. On one-upping the competition: a waste of time. Dare to be different. On the competition: don’t obsess over what they may or may not be doing. On drug dealers, imitate them. They know their wares are sooo good that they’re willing to give some away for free. LOL! On marketing, ignore New York Times, Wall Street Journal and all the other Big Girls, they have no time for you! Target niche bloggers and publications. The big players usually go surfing for new stories in these niche places. They also talk about the benefits of saying NO; the efficiency of creating long uninterrupted periods for work; building an audience; teaching your fans things rather than just selling to them; doing everything yourself first before you delegate so that you know how hard it is; apologizing sincerely; looking beyond potential employees’ formal education and valuing their other experiences; test driving employees first and giving cover letters more weight than résumés and CVs. I say: buy buy buy!
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Mother Teresa, CEO: Unexpected Principles for Practical Leadership Rating: 4.5* out of 5 When I think of Mother Teresa I think of a little, old lady going around Calcutta feeding and loving the dispossessed. I do not think of a high-powered business woman. The concept of Mother Teresa as a business woman is almost alien to me, yet, she did start the organization, Missionaries of Charity, which at the time of her death had 594 missions in over 100 countries. I like to read business books because although there is a lot of overlap between books, I find that occasionally I discover something completely new and many times I am forced to ponder something more deeply or to experience someone else’s take on a common business principle. In Mother Teresa, CEO, the authors explain the principles Mother Teresa lived by and how these can be translated into business life. Mother Teresa was a doer. She had a vision and she followed it through. She was authentic and she lived the values that she preached. The eight principles that the book elaborates are:
There were two principles that I particularly liked: four and eight. You would never believe it was true but even Mother Teresa had doubts. She never doubted her vision of helping the poorest of the poor but apparently her personal diaries talk about the moments of doubt that she had in God; as well as the loneliness that she faced as a result of dedicating her whole self to the mission. The book talks about using doubt to question yourself and to avoid paralyzing fear. I feel encouraged by Mother Teresa’s belief that we may feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean but that the ocean would be less without that drop. The second important thing I discovered was using the power of silence. This is something I hardly do or don’t do enough. I do, however, agree that stepping away from the hustle and bustle of daily life, meditating and just being you have to be good for you. Overall, I would recommend this book. I used the audio version from Audible which is a mere 2 hours and 7 minutes long. It’s a very short book, only 144 pages, so you should be able to get through it in no time at all.
Today, I finally spring cleaned my bedroom and it’s finally showroom material: now I have the rest of the house to deal with. As you might know, I am more than a little obsessed about being efficient so I listened to the audio version of The Lean Start-up by Eric Ries as I cleaned. I have mixed feelings about this book. Firstly, normally, I bond with my authors but by the end of this book I felt rather indifferent to Eric Ries. Maybe it’s because I could sense that he wasn’t smiling as he narrated or perhaps the absence of examples of female entrepreneurs embittered me. I think he mentioned a woman like once in the entire book - an executive at a large corporation, not even a real startup. Don’t tell me there aren’t any because there most definitely are. Nonetheless, I would give the book 3.5 out of 5. I liked it because it had a lot of examples about different companies, the problems that they encountered and the innovative solutions that took them out of these situations or the inaction that led to their demise. Overall, Mr Ries is trying to create a theory for what leads to successful enterprise. He thinks it is a formula that can be learnt. Personally, I do not subscribe to this view. The most difficult aspect of starting a business is actually starting and for that you need guts, a lot of guts. Whilst there may be common traits amongst entrepreneurs, I don’t think you can put them into a box. Every entrepreneur teaches me something totally different.
There are a few other things I liked but rather than showcase them all here I will suggest you get the book and see what you can glean from it for yourself. In addition read up on the Toyota way. This Wikipedia link is a great place to start. One idea I didn’t like was the idea of student-of-one. Apparently, some people are trying to redesign the education system so that learning is customized to the person and children learn at their own speed. It sounds good in theory but since when has acquiring knowledge been the sole premise of school? What about learning to tolerate and interact with others? What about emotional intelligence? I am definitely not a Luddite but I think there is a fundamental flaw in moving from having teachers teaching kids through to impersonal videos that send feedback to the teacher via internet. If you are wondering who Eric Ries is, he is a multimillionaire and founder of a company called IMVU. I don’t really get what value IMVU adds to a life. People create avatars of themselves in a virtual world and spend money building up their little lives. Hmm? I’m quite anti- needless consumerism but each to his own. The Lean Startup theory is primarily built off of Toyota’s methodologies. The key things I learnt are:
You know how sometimes you find a book that makes you feel all pumped and inspired all the while that you are reading it? Yes? This isn't one of those books. Personally I didn't really enjoy it and I only reached the end because it's so short. You can finish it within a couple of hours. This book has been heralded a classic and must-read for any business leader but I find its principles to be the polar opposite to what I believe is good and fair. It condones leadership with absolute control over one's "troops". I feel Sun Tzu's text is designed to 'groom' a thick skinned, heartless leader who's only focus is winning regardless of the tactics used. I'm a 'let's make love not war' type of girl so amongst the lines that I didn't like are:
One thing’s for sure. When I eventually meet Richard Branson, he’s going to be completely different to the person I have built him up to be in my mind. Having now read both Business Stripped Bare and Losing My Virginity I can see myself approaching him like an effusive little groupie who feels she knows her Idol as well as she does an old friend but to the Idol the admirer is just another admirer. Anyway, what was Losing My Virginity like? The first half of the book was, to me, much more enjoyable than the second half because it’s very candid and personal. He talks a lot about himself and his lifestyle very openly: the girls, the fun, the drugs, the struggles, the mistakes. He also gives a lot of insight into his upbringing and this gives one a much better idea of why he grew up to be the person he is. Not just success-wise but with regards to his values and views on life. In fact, it reads a little like a novel, which is a good thing. The second half of the book is largely covered in Business Stripped Bare, it is much more business-like and it’s less about his life and more about his ideas and his businesses. Lots of people have this impression that Richard Branson has been rolling in cash for the last thirty plus years. This is not the impression I get from reading this book. Any excess cash in the early days was invested in new ventures such that the Branson Businesses were always operating on a tight rope. Bankers immediately wanted their money back whenever there was so much as the rumor of trouble. Myopic bankers refused to fund Branson beyond rigid limits because they really couldn’t see where his vision was going to take the enterprises. Competing companies (notably British Airways) used every dirty trick in the book to derail any progress. Some highlights from the book: “My parents always treated my two sisters, Lindi and Vanessa, and me as equals whose opinions were just as valid as theirs.” Ditto. It’s a little strange for a Malawian child to say this but I can definitely relate to this. My parents have been treating me like an adult with valid opinions from day zero and I think that has completely influenced the way I manage to interact with people who are much older and have achieved much more than I have. “My parents always encouraged us to have our own opinions and rarely gave us advice unless we asked for it.” I like this. Personally, my parents always gave advice but they always followed that up with the statement, I can give you advice but you don’t have to take it. I frequently chose not to take it because you know what? I thought I knew better! “When I get an idea it has to come out, it is like being sick, a bodily action.” I’ve never heard it put like that before but I like! RB is very fortunate to have been in the position whereby he could actually action his ideas. It takes a lot of guts and nerve of course but this line got me thinking, how many poor villagers in Africa and elsewhere have a burning desire to action a plan but completely no resources to do it? “My parents had always drilled into me that the best motto to follow is ’Nothing ventured, nothing gained’.” That’s a great motto to be brought up on, don’t you think? This might be the reason why the guy always gives it a stab, whatever ‘it’ is at that point in time. Many of us would be so overcome with all the things that could wrong that the idea would remain just that, an idea. I love the passion that Richard Branson has for Africa. However, his focus has so far been on South Africa which is rich compared to many other African countries. I wonder what he would think if he came to a place like Malawi. We look upon our wealthy South African cousins with awe and doubt as to whether we will ever reach a similar state of development. As poor as they might be, we are much much poorer and I think we would benefit from some input from Mr Branson. I don’t blame him for not having come through though, the business environment is not good at all and the Government needs to work hard to change that. If you can’t even buy a tank of fuel to drive around town where does a foreign investor start? Cons? There is a little too much detail in some areas; for instance, the many hot air balloon trips. At first, I thought there was also too much stuff on outer space. Who cares? I thought but when I started getting into it I thought there was some very valid information e.g. the potential to live in outer space if earth was for any reason uninhabitable or even the potential to use resources from outer space as energy sources that will take away our dependence on crude oil. One question remains in my mind: does Richard Branson really relate as well to celebrities as he does to the common man? I got the impression that he does or at least he used to (he’s a lot less exposed to commoners now) and I would really like to know more about this. There are many other things to be gained from reading Losing My Virginity. Get a copy.
Definitely worth a read, I felt very hyped as I was reading this book. I much prefer to a read a book written by someone with tonnes of experience rather than reading a multitude of theoretical mumbo jumbo. Richard Branson also has the benefit of multi-sector experience. Personally, the fondness with which he speaks of Africa is endearing, however, some of the awful scenes he described were experienced in a rich African country. I wonder what he would make of the really poor countries like my own dear Malawi. It would be totally radical if he visited. I was encouraged that he didn’t portray his business experiences as plain sailing and explicitly talked about the hard times. Personally, I am not all that interested in space travel so I skimmed over those pages rather rapidly and although I am pro-environment, that section got a little technical and I skipped a little. Here are some of my favourite quotes. I won’t write every single one because that would pretty much have me typing the whole morning and that’s just not practical: “Never mind Dragons’ Den: if you want to meet entrepreneurs, come to Africa.” True dat! “business has to give people, rewarding lives, or it’s simply not worth doing” “I’ve sat drinking with people who have abused their gifts – and others who have made absolutely the most of some pretty dubious talent.” “I’d advise every owner of a company to keep a notebook and jot down the things that need doing.” I do this for every interesting thought that I have, if I don’t have notebook to hand I email myself a one liner and put the thought into my notebook later! “Success one day does not give you a free lunch every day thereafter.” “You can spot negative people and stultifying institutions a mile off. Have the courage of your convictions, and ignore them.” “If I was a happening band on the cusp of success today, I wouldn’t go through a conventional record company. I’d...release it myself.” I would say the same of books. Publishers and record companies eat most of your profit AND you lose control over the final product – they probably mean well but there’s a lot to be said for autonomy in artistic output. “One business mantra remains embedded in my brain – protect the downside.” So many ignore this one rule. When the London riots happened a couple of weeks ago in August 2011, so many shopkeepers were revealed to be uninsured. Insurance isn’t all that expensive. This also applies to hedging liabilities with simple derivatives like interest rate caps and swaps. People often forget that choosing not to hedge is a hedging decision in itself. Think about it. “You’ll need stamina and patience to deliver well – especially when everybody is out to kill you.” There was plenty of good stuff about keeping on the right side of the law which is something my dad always tells me. I also laughed at the business idea that Virgin received of three-legged women’s tights, one that you tuck away and use when you get a ladder. Virgin turned that idea away but you know what – I would buy those!! His definition of success is the best I have seen yet and it will totally help me to explain a little venture I am working on. He said for him money and celebrity are a poor guide to success. "Success for me is whether you have created something you can be proud of" he surmised - this is the perfect definition, some friends have questioned the point of the project I am working on because they can't see how I will make money from it and I haven't been able to answer their queries to my satisfaction. I say it's not about the money, because it isn't, however, I would be happy if I did make some money doing it because that would be one gauge of success. That said, ultimately it is something I will be proud to have done and that's what matters. Importantly, I cannot expect someone else to visualize my visions. It's best to just execute. Finally, he reminded me that “in business, as in life, you can’t afford to be afraid of doing the wrong thing.” If you’ve got an idea, go for it.
Daniel Pink explores the issues surrounding what motivates people. Key to his analysis is the argument that people generally enjoy work and that the stick and carrot approach favored by most businesses to encourage people to work may actually me demoralizing and counterproductive because it strips the implicit enjoyment out of work. I fully agreed with this premise, I think it is true for me although it is not necessarily true for all people. That said, I did not agree with every example he gave, for instance, he presented a study showing that if people are paid to give blood, fewer people give blood because the good-will aspect is taken out of the giving. This may well be true for the developed world but I know for a fact that Malawi has increased blood donations by providing some food and a generous “expenses” allowance. In a country that is so poor even quite a small amount can be a powerful motivator to donate blood, I gave blood myself but gave my money away. Perhaps Daniel’s argument explains why I felt the need not to keep the money. My favorite take-away from this book is the idea of a ROWE (results-only-work-environment), that is, a working situation where people are given targets and tasks of what needs to be achieved but are given carte blanche on how it is achieved – they don’t even have to come to work – they can work from wherever; this would suit me just fine. I constantly talk about how I hate waking up to be in my office from 7.30 to 7.30, those hours don’t suit me at all. I love work for work in itself but I loathe being micro-managed and I despise face-time even more. It’s Saturday and I started this write-up at 4.50 a.m. because for today, that is what is convenient for me, most people are asleep now and probably will be for quite a few more hours but that’s what suits them. More businesses need to take a serious think about how they could be more ROWEy (yes, I coined that phrase) because it is not only intellectually appealing, it has been shown to be very successful by those that have taken the step. Amongst many things, employees are happier, productivity rises (increasing revenue) and turnover falls (reducing hiring costs).
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By Heather Katsonga-WoodwardTime allowing, I love to read. If I read anything interesting, I will blog about it here. Categories
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November 2015
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