October 2009 Archives

What would you do if the plane you were on crashed into the snow-covered Andes, you survived the crash with an injury, but then you had to figure out how to survive a night in horribly cold and treacherous conditions? Imagine what that would be like--not having food, enough clothing, perhaps even injured, and never having seen or felt cold snow before.

Now imagine having to face those conditions for 72 days.

That was precisely Nando Parrado's experience in 1972 when his rugby team's plane crashed en route to a match in Chile. The movie "Alive" was based on the team's experience. I had the pleasure of hearing Parrado's powerful story a couple of weeks ago when he spoke at a joint EO Boston and YPO event at Mount Wachusett. It was nothing short of inspirational. He described how, after 60 days wasting away on the mountaintop, he and his friend, Roberto, decided they were going to leave the crash site and try to find help. It seemed like a foolish idea--after all, they were surrounded by hundreds of miles of mountains on either side of them, and had no idea where they were going. But to hear Parrado tell it, they had no other choice. He said he preferred to die trying to get out of that nightmare scenario rather than wait for death to come.

Parrado's presentation was filled with amazing lessons about the human spirit, but he also shared a lot of the wisdom he gained from the experience on the mountain in 1972. Although he survived, Parrado lost his mother and his sister in the crash--he and many other players had invited family on the trip because there were extra seats on the plane. In light of this, Parrado has a lot to teach people about life and about loss. I found what he had to say extremely valuable.

Key take-aways from Nando Parrado:

"If you look back, you get nothing more than a damn pain in your neck." When Parrado uttered these words, I took note. He was talking about looking back at that fateful flight and the loss of not only his teammates and friends, but his mother and sister, too. It was clear he'd suffered initially thinking about all of the "what-if" questions that pop up after a decimating loss like his. But in the end, it was his father--who lost his wife and daughter in the event, too--who told Nando that looking back only serves to paralyze you in the present. That's an important lesson.

"Be a little irresponsible and love a little more. Enjoy life but never give up your family." Coming from a successful entrepreneur--Nando has launched many successful businesses in his lifetime--this really hit home. What Nando was saying was that he loved all the cushy things life had to offer, but if he had to choose between working all of the time to afford those things, and being able to spend time with his family, he'd always choose his family over working non-stop. By saying be more "irresponsible," he was asking the audience to slow down. Enjoy life and stop trying to think about how you're going to take over the universe. Live right now.

"Each day is a gift." Nothing we face as entrepreneurs will ever be as intense and cataclysmic as trying to survive in the Andes for 72 days. After the 60th day on the mountain, Nando and his friend set off to get help. They had no real food, and they weren't dressed for the snow. They climbed without equipment. And finally, after almost two weeks of climbing and walking, they got help. Each day after that, Nando said, was a gift. I think everyone could benefit from this kind of thinking.

If you're an entrepreneur--and even if you're not--no doubt you've gone through ups and downs in business, and in life. You may have regrets, you may even replay pivotal moments over in your head from time to time wondering how you could've done better in some way shape or form. Or, perhaps you get so passionate about your ideas that you have very little time for family or friends. If you've experienced either, you have something to learn from Parrado's advice. Learn to slow down and appreciate what life has to offer you. As Nando discovered after his harrowing ordeal in 1972, every day really is a gift and we all have to learn to appreciate it.

In between meetings, projects looming on the immediate horizon, and the rushed interactions of modern life, have you stopped to say thank you to the people who make everything happen? Not in a glib or half-hearted way, but really stopped and recognized all they do? If so, did you then express your gratitude in a meaningful way? I started thinking about this because I just finished reading The Carrot Principle on my Kindle (which is actually a pretty nice way to read) and it made me think about how we don't say "thank you" enough and really mean it, even when it can have such a profound impact on how we relate to others, and how they relate to you.

The Carrot Principle did a great job using massive amounts of data from surveys to explain critical points, showing the value of saying thank you, and how to systematize the process of expressing gratitude in a company. I would suggest any entrepreneur read the book, since most of us never look for or expect it when someone says "thanks." But not saying thank you doesn't mean you're a better leader or entrepreneur, and it certainly isn't what motivates your people. Be grateful for the work your employees do--and show it in obvious (calling out someone's awesome work) and not-so-obvious ways (respecting their time by not throwing last minute projects their way). No one wants to feel alienated from their work, and when you don't recognize what people do, they start to feel invisible.

After reading this book, I know that I personally need to do a better job of recognizing and celebrating more successes and saying thank you to people myself. Not only will it change my relationships, but it will also help build a culture of gratitude, which can only lead to more professional respect and a better team. Sure, it sounds cheesy, but the small thanks we share can make a huge impact on the people around us.

If you're in the web app startup space, no doubt you've heard the big news during TechCrunch50 that Mint was acquired for $170M. That's a very high return on a company that did a great job visualizing data from Yodlee. What is Mint? It's a great service that allows you to track all your accounts, expenses, budget and more. Many people, even ones that use the service, didn't know that Mint actually gets their data from Yodlee, which preforms all the heavy lifting and connecting with financial institutions.

What's even more interesting than the fact that Yodlee feeds all of the info into Mint.com, is the presentation that Aaron Patzer, founder of Mint.com, gave, which was subsequently released online for the Founder Institute. If you're interested in getting funded or curious about the process at all, I would strongly suggest watching the video and viewing the slides as Aaron walks through the process of funding the startup, his views around value contribution, as well as some original slides from investor presentations.

Aaron talks about and provides great insight into the typical angel-to-VC model for web apps, but why not talk about the other model where companies are bootstrapped and actually charge for their service from day one? I know, I know--it's "sexy" to say you've raised money and there certainly are many incubators, angels and others that support this perception, but we need to focus on value generation. There are way too many startups focused on social media, news aggregation, and crowd sourcing that have no real business model other than to raise money and hope to figure something out. Is that really a plan?

Getting funded can work for a few companies, and there will always be huge success stories like Twitter which didn't have a business model when they started, but there are far more failures sitting in the deadpool. I am all for innovation in any industry, and if you have a passion for social media, launch something there, but at least have some model for making money. The model may change, you may give the service away later, but put some value on it today.

Now that my mini-rant is over, watch the video and slides. It's well worth the 30 minutes of your time to gain some insight into an interesting process that might be right for your startup. What other great resources like this are there to get an education about startups online?

You're brain is tired, but your body wants to go. I find this to be the typical sensation following one of our quarterly off-site planning sessions for Grasshopper. I've looked at data, talked for hours, and at the end of it all, it's nice to give your mind a rest and find an outlet for that pent-up physical energy.

See the indoor skydiving video and full post at Grasslands, the Grasshopper blog.

Whatever your perspective on the great American healthcare debate, it's undeniable that the discussion has spawned some interesting presentations of people's various viewpoints. The two that stood out to me were "Healthcare Napkins All" by Dan Roam and C. Anthony Jones and this animated video I found on YouTube called, "Health Care Reform Thought Bubble." While one was SlideShare's first prize in The Best Presentation 2009 contest, the other is just one person's perspective explained on the issue using motion design from Thought Bubble. I don't necessarily agree with everything in either of the pieces, but I think it's awesome that digital media has given us the platform to create and share visual "explanations" like these.

No doubt healthcare (and its possible reform) is an incendiary topic. After all, we're not just talking about an intangible, abstract policy, we're talking about people's health and their ability to access medical care. It's a touchy subject (if you were in doubt, just read some of the comments on ReadWriteWeb's post about the presentation created by Roam and Jones). However, when we have visual aids such as these two videos--and many others--at our disposal, I think we have an opportunity to inform ourselves and at least understand the basics of very complex issues (reminds me of my post about Jeff Jarvis' "Credit Crisis" video).

What do you think of the way these two groups of people expressed their opinions about healthcare? What could they have done better? Is anything lost by creating presentations and videos like these?