The Parable of the Cement Pylon

Years ago I heard a story about a person who was driving down the freeway and approaching an interchange with two possible directions the driver could choose.  One person in the car was telling the driver to go right and another person was telling the driver to go left.  The driver was unable to make […]

Bill Gross, the Genius Behind IdeaLab

Bill Gross is the founder of the IdeaLab business incubator, with sales exceeding $435 million. It is one only tech incubator that survived the dotcom crash in its original form. IdeaLab has built many different ventures, such as:
· GoTo/Overture (became Yahoo Search Marketing) – paid inclusion search engine that was renamed Yahoo! Search Marketing after […]

Trying a Lot of Things and Keeping What Works

In Built to Last, the authors said:
In examining the history of visionary companies we were struck by how often they made some of their best moves not by detailed strategic planning, but rather by experimentation, trial and error, opportunism, and–quite literally accident.
This week I read an interview in Founders at Work with Paul Buchheit of […]

Changing the World with Microlending

Kiva is one of the greatest uses of the Internet to do good. Kiva is an online microlending service that allows people anywhere to lend money directly to entrepreneurs in developing countries around the world. Kiva’s mission is to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty.
Kiva works to qualify […]

Big Hairy Audacious Goals

All companies have goals, but many of the most successful companies set Big Hairy Audacious Goals (”BHAGs”). There is a big difference between merely having a goal, and being fully committed to a huge, daunting challenge–like a mountain to climb.
Far better to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, […]

Tyranny of “OR” and Genius of “AND”

According Jim Collins and Jerry Porras in Build to Last, the “tyranny of the OR” leads businesses to feel that they can only choose one option or the other, but not both, such as:

Change OR stability,
Conservative OR bold,
Low cost OR high quality,
Creative autonomy OR consistency and control,
Invest in future OR do well in short-term,
Make progress […]

Clock Building Instead of Time Telling

In Built to Last, authors Jim Collins and Jerry Porras talk about a hypothetical person who could look at the sun or stars and tell the exact time down to the second. That person would be an amazing “time teller”. However, wouldn’t it be much more amazing if that person created a clock which could […]

Core Ideologies in Visionary Companies

In Built to Last, the authors identified “Visionary” companies which met very rigorous standards of sustained greatness. The authors did not find any specific ideological content as being essential in these visionary companies. However, the authors did find that it was essential that the companies have a core ideology of some sort, and […]

Business Myths & Realities

In preparation to write the book Built to Last, authors Jim Collins and Jerry Porras and a team at Stanford University researched highly successful (“visionary”) and less successful companies for six years. Their research debunked many myths commonly held in the business world. The following are some of the myths and findings that I found […]

Domain Name Nostalgia & Tax Issues

I have been a “domainer” (someone who buys and sells Internet domain names) since 1996. Back then Network Solutions was the only domain name registrar and they charged $100 to register each name. They allowed domain names to be registered without paying up front, and then they billed the registrant who had about […]