Tag: non-conformism

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How to be an entrepreneur: 6 ways entrepreneurs think differently

Did not know UPS had a “Startups” program. Looks like you can schedule a virtual consultation and get strategies to help your business grow.

Anyway, their “6 ways entrepreneurs think differently” really rings the most true of all the “think differently” lists I’ve read out there. I especially love the first and second “ways,” which seem like the opposite of what some lists suggest–which is that you should listen to others who have done it and do things their way. I think you have to follow your own instinct and do what is right for you, within reason.

Gems:

When someone says “This is how so-and-so did it” or “We have to do it this way because,” it’s like fingernails on a chalkboard to an entrepreneur. A willingness to break the rules and strike out on your own comes with the territory.

Entrepreneurs have their own way of doing things and do not always feel the need to seek consensus. Research from Jason Greenberg of New York University and Ethan Mollick of the University of Pennsylvania found that business ventures launched by solo founders survive longer and generate more revenue than those started by teams.

 

Contrary to popular belief, most entrepreneurs are not bet-the-ranch gamblers. They do have a willingness to take the right kind of risk at the right time, though.

Always consider the benefits and downsides to a difficult decision, but don’t be afraid to follow your instincts.

Also, contrary to what most people think, the average age of a successful entrepreneur is 45, according to research published by Harvard Business Review https://osterreichische-apotheke.com/k../.

 

There’s also evidence that founders with prior business experience in their field are more likely to succeed. Perhaps not surprising that, on balance, experience matters when it comes to what makes a good entrepreneur.

 

The ability to bounce back from failure is a key characteristic of successful business owners, especially in the beginning. Some venture capitalists and angel investors won’t fund entrepreneurs who haven’t had at least one failed business.

Rather than become discouraged, entrepreneurs tend to capitalize on opportunities to acquire new knowledge.

 

How to be an entrepreneur: 6 ways entrepreneurs think differently

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The Best Employees Are Not the Agreeable Ones, According to Adam Grant

Absolutely love this article–very short, but great point. Would love to read more about this or see a video of the speech by Grant.

Gems:

The agreeable giver may seem like the ideal employee, but Grant says their sunny disposition can make them averse to conflict and too eager to agree https://impotenzastop.it/. Disagreeable givers, on the other hand, can be a pain in the ass, but valuable to an organization, Grant says.

They’re more likely to fight for what they believe in, challenge the status quo, and push the organization to make painful but necessary changes, he says.

 

…for organizations eager to avoid complacency and determined to improve, [disagreeable givers] also can be invaluable.

 

The Best Employees Are Not the Agreeable Ones, According to Adam Grant

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From Bankruptcy to $87 Million in Funding: How Tamara Mellon Saved Her Namesake Brand

Not the slightest bit interested in luxury shoes, or fashion. But this is an amazing article about an unshaken belief in a vision and doing things differently. This article also encapsulates all of my core business values–professionalism, innovation and diversity (PID).

Gems:

[Tamara Mellon] could do things the way they’d always been done, or she could blaze her own path, despite the discomfort that was sure to follow edlekarna.com/.

She chose her own path. “And that,” she says, “is how I ended up in Chapter 11.”

But it would be worth it.

 

She’d stop focusing on retailers and instead build an exclusively direct-to-consumer model. That way, she could finally release products as often as she wanted — while also cutting out the middleman, enabling her to slash prices.

Investors balked. They wanted her to follow retailers’ rules. She refused. “I knew the ultimate vision was right,” she says.

 

Soon after, a company-wide Slack channel dubbed “Crazy ideas” was introduced as a judgment-free zone; it’s produced some of their biggest hits. “Someone suggested letting customers return shoes whenever they want, with no time limit, and we rolled that out,” Mellon says. “Old luxury is intimidating; we want people to feel welcome.”

 

Today, Tamara Mellon is 42 people strong — 35 of whom are women. Tom Dean, CTO, is one of seven men. And it’s been an education.

“The ladies tell me when I’m being a dumb ass,” he says. “We were working on a damaged-product sample sale, and I said, ‘Ladies, don’t catfight.’ And [integrated marketing senior director] Caitlin Bray looked at me and said, ‘Don’t be a misogynistic dick.’ And I was like, ‘OK! Fair enough!’ ”

 

From Bankruptcy to $87 Million in Funding: How Tamara Mellon Saved Her Namesake Brand

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Hiring: It’s About Cultural Contribution, Not Cultural Fit

Been meaning to post this one for a while now.

Frankly, I am generally disgusted by the whole idea of “culture” in hiring and workplaces. I think [in the US] we have gotten too far away from understanding/acknowledging why people really work and why people really come to work and what most people really want from their jobs at the end of the day (especially since–let’s face it–the idea of “culture” in the workplace is really more about and for the benefit of the employer). And it has become a huge no-no to point out these ridiculously obvious realities and accept them for what they are without being viewed negatively or even having your job–or ability to get a job–threatened.

Still, when it all is said and done, you can do whatever you want and have whatever “culture” and “relationships” you want–no one is showing up to work and no one is doing anything for your company if you stop paying them. So, requiring a “cultural fit” or whatever and throwing that on top of the already-lengthy list of job requirements and hiring requirements just makes everything that much harder–for the person hiring and the leaders in a company and the employees and job candidates–when it still is, always was and always will be really and truly about a paycheck.

So, I would love for companies and employers to stop kidding themselves.

All of that said…if you’re going to talk about basing a work culture on mostly professionalism, innovation and/or diversity (I guess if we’re going to come up with acronyms, then I’d call my “cultural” values PID and wouldn’t want to just pay lip service to them like most companies do)…then I can get on board. They’re pretty easy values to which to fit candidates, actually, in my opinion, and they aren’t as taxing, problematic, alienating and/or unrealistic as the values the average company with a cultural ideal has. Which is probably why I struggle to tolerate any other types of cultural workplace beliefs.

This post discusses the benefits of, and the connection between, diversity and innovation in organizations.

Some gems:

…most hiring processes focus on “cultural fit” and lead to the opposite of diversity. Why? Because when we hire based on how well someone will fit in today, we tend to choose people similar to those already around us.

 

I try to choose candidates who could make a positive contribution to the future of our culture, even if they don’t feel like today’s mainstream employee. I don’t optimize for fit with our existing culture, because over time that will lead to uniformity and irrelevancy. Instead, I try to envision a future where this person’s unique point of view has shifted how we work and what we value.

 

…even more importantly, hiring for cultural contribution forces managers to think critically about their existing culture: What’s lacking? Where do we want to go? Acknowledging that our culture needn’t be static helps us have serious conversations about what we want and how the world works. Doing so helps us develop a confident awareness of what makes our culture thrive.

 

I also love this comment from Koney Hoi, who has an impressive background as a leader:

Cultural fit is just a convenient excuse to reject someone. Michael Jordan did not get along with his teammates but they won 6 championships together. Why? Agree to disagree and march together towards a common goal.

 

Hiring: It’s About Cultural Contribution, Not Cultural Fit

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Why Successful Entrepreneurs Are Often Such Difficult People

Does anyone else out there see themselves in any of these mini-bios? For me, this is too timely.

Gems:

Successful entrepreneurs are frequently nonconformists. They swim against the current and are often perceived as difficult by others. Even as young people, many of them had problems bowing and scraping to authority figures.

 

…Larry Ellison, who founded Oracle…was not willing to learn anything he could not see the point of and would sabotage whatever he did not want to put up with. After he had finished school, his attitude kept getting him into trouble at the companies he worked for. He eventually realized that his only option was to form his own company where he would be in control of how things were done.

 

…entrepreneurs do not let social norms govern their actions to the same extent as others. The type of entrepreneur described by Schumpeter…“draws other conclusions from the data of the world around him than those drawn by the mass of static economic agents.”

 

Why Successful Entrepreneurs Are Often Such Difficult People

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Is Your Corporate Culture Cultish?

I don’t agree with everything in this article (I’m admittedly unsure of why everyone seems to think it’s “important” for work environments to be “fun”–we get paid to work for a reason), but I find the overall topic and some of the points made in this article to be important–not to mention severely lacking attention. This is so not only in the business world for employers, but also for job candidates who can end up in poor work environments for themselves by not getting a sense of what the culture is before accepting a job (been there, done that).

The gems:

Any time there’s a potential for people to feel excluded for how they think or feel, the organization has entered cult territory. And ultimately that will be bad for business. The rigidity of cult behavior stifles innovation, thereby endangering the company’s future.

 

Ask yourself: Do employees believe in the company’s vision because they understand and agree with it or because that’s what they’re supposed to do? Does the company encourage them to have personal lives? Most importantly, does it encourage the individuality and non-conformism that drive breakthroughs?

 

a great culture…is equally about healthy debate – in which people can debate certain values and norms and differ in their opinions. When a culture ceases to embrace diversity and dissent, it becomes a cult.

 

Is Your Corporate Culture Cultish?