Goal setting
June 16th, 2006 by Dave Cheong
My old boss back at TelstraClear (the second largest telco in New Zealand) posed an excellent question for me. In an email, he asks “What is an Entrepreneur and how do you know if you have become one?“.
At first I thought, that’s simple. I’ve been thinking about being an Entrepreneur forever. It wouldn’t be too hard to come up with an answer. Now, upon reflection, I believe the answer is much harder. After all, how does one describe passion and measure happiness? As I write this post, I see the importance and value in that seemingly simple yet complex question.
Let me begin by addressing why this is an important question. Simply, it is important because it is about goal setting. Goal setting is key in any undertaking. Without goals, not only does it become difficult to channel your time and energy constructively, it is also impossible to measure success and failure. How can you possibly know if you have done something when you haven’t defined what it is you want to do and what criteria marks it as done?
Goal setting however is not simply about wanting to do something, it is also about being able to articulate what the goal is about, realistic in whether you can accomplish it or not and what yard stick you can measure your progress against. When applied to your personal and professional life, goal setting is about taking control of how your life evolves. It is about exercising your freedom to choose. It is about being proactive about your happiness.
So what makes a good goal? Here are a few simple guidelines for determining what a goal should be:
- Conceivable. That is, you must be able to articulate what it is about and describe it to your family and friends. The more vividly you can visualise your goal, the more committed you will be. For example, if your goal is to lose weight, can you visualise what you’d look like in that nice new suit or dress?
- Achievable. Do not set yourself unrealistic goals. Not only is it a waste of time (because they are unattainable), it is also damaging to your confidence and well being. How would you feel if you set yourself an unrealistic goal of losing 20kgs overnight, be totally committed to it and then failing to do so miserably?
- Measurable. You must be able to track your progress and definitively say if you have attained a goal or not. Generally, the more worthwhile the goal, the more difficult it is and the more time it will take. Especially for these goals, it is important to have a yard stick to measure progress against. An example of a measurable goal is losing 20kgs in 6 months.
- Aligned. Every goal you set for yourself must be consistent with your overall objectives, desires, expectations and beliefs. You cannot set yourself conflicting or contradictory goals. For example, losing weight is probably in contradiction to a goal to sample the best cuisines around the world.
- Worthwhile. Although not completely mandatory, I believe a goal should be challenging and worthwhile. Life is too short doing unimportant things. If you genuinely wish to improve your personal or professional life, set yourself worthwhile goals. Losing weight is a worthwhile goal - it can improve your health and overall standard of living.
- Desirable. Not only is it important to have worthwhile goals, they must be goals you genuinely desire to attain. A desirable goal will command more commitment, dedication and perseverance from you. This desire will be your motivation. In our example, losing weight is desirable because you can be more alive and energetic, feel more confident, lead a better life, play with your kids etc.
Many people fear setting goals, especially the goals which seem tough and worth achieving. I feel that way for some of my own goals. Ultimately, this fear stems from a fear of failure. We fear setting goals because we are afraid of failing. If I failed, what would my friends think of me?
One effective way I know of to combat this fear is to ask yourself - Why do I have this goal? What do I wish to accomplish? Is the pain to change less than the pain not to change? Do not focus on the fear, focus instead on the positives and your desire to accomplish your goal. Yes, I want to lose that 20kgs. Yes, I want to look good in that new dress. Yes, I want to feel alive!
If you have a goal that is truly desirable, you owe it to yourself to try. There is nothing wrong with failure. There is no shame in failing when you have tried your best. However, you’d regret it for the rest of your life if you have a goal but did not attempt to accomplish it simply because you were paralysed with the fear of failure.
Take a moment to think about what your goals are. Remember, goal setting is a map or process for attaining desired outcomes. It is about identifying where we are now, where we want to be and the steps that can take us there. Follow the simple guidelines I have highlighted above to begin your own journey.
If you think you are up for it, I strongly suggest taking a look at my 5 step framework for accomplishing your goals. It’s easy to follow and provides a very simple and high level overview of the things you need to consider and remember about goal setting and following through.
In my case, what is an Entrepreneur? Why do I want to be one? How do I know if I have become one? Am I already an Entrepreneur? Will I ever be able to become one? These are all great questions and I have dedicated a future post to addressing them.
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Implementation is more important than idea
June 12th, 2006 by Dave Cheong
Let’s face it. Most startups fail. At the start of any venture, it is safe to say the founders are all passionate, committed and believe they have the necessary ingredients to create a successful business. Yet, why do so many fail? Is it the money? Is it the founders? What about their products? Do they add genuine value? Would you pay for it? Are they competing with Google or Microsoft?
The answer of course is it depends. Every startup has a different makeup and DNA. Some start with no money. Others raise multi-million dollars in venture capital. Some start with a single person. Others start with a team of 50. Some begin in a garage. Others on Level 17 of the most expensive skyscraper in the city.
So why do some succeed while others fail? I suspect the answer is different from startup to startup. Many factors, and sometimes several in combination, will contribute to the demise of a once promising business venture.
One thing I do know however, is the difference between the idea and the implementation. A startup can begin with a revolutionary idea but execute dismally. Another startup can begin with a mediocre idea but execute spectacularly. The startup which executes dismally will fail and the one which executes spectacularly will succeed.
It is the implementation not the idea which is important. You may have the best idea but if you cannot reach your customers or you cannot pay your bills, you will fail.
Contrary to what some IT professionals believe however, it is not the technology which ultimately determines the success or failure of a business. Sure, you may need the big machines, clustered application servers, replication, redundancy, security etc. You may also even have a better “framework” or a better “DAO layer”. However, when starting up, these factors are rarely the cause of a business failure. At the start, customers don’t care you can scale to accommodate 1,000,000 concurrent users or that your “framework” is more flexible than the competitor’s. What they do care is how your interface looks, how your product solves a genuine problem they have, how much it cost and whether there are substitutes out there.
Also, if you cannot stay in business long enough to establish yourself and penetrate the market, all the technology in the world isn’t going to save you. You may have the next world shattering idea (like the Browser), but if your competitors out compete you, you will fail (like the Browser wars). It doesn’t matter whether you came up with the idea first, it is how you execute which determines whether you stay in business.
If you are thinking about starting a new business, don’t worry too much about coming up with a unique idea. Unique ideas are hard to come by. It is also harder to convert users with a unique idea - you first have to educate and convince them. Look to existing ideas, observe how they are executed and seek out opportunities to innovate above and beyond what they have done. Remember, it is the implementation not idea which is important.
Kathy Sierra in a recent post talks more about this. In her post, she writes “Our success is not about what we think up, but rather who we think about“. Her dogma is the customer is all important and good usability is king. I agree with her.
In a similar post, Wil Schroter writes “Let your execution speak for itself“. Ultimately, you cannot protect your idea. Concentrate on your execution. You’re already on to a winner if you have an idea worth copying.
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Do something you love doing and admire
June 11th, 2006 by Dave Cheong
So far, I’ll written two related posts - one about good patterns and the other about enlisting support from family and friends. Now, I’d like to introduce you to another key in my goal of transitioning from Software Engineer to Entrepreneur.
I title this post “Do something you love doing and admire”. In my goal to become an Entrepreneur, I know I need to look for ideas or projects that play to my interests and strengths. My strengths are clearly technical related - I am educated as an Electrical Engineer and make my living doing Java J2EE software development projects. It follows that my new business startup will be technology related - probably a web service of some sort - because that plays nicely to my strengths.
As for interests, these vary across the spectrum. Apart from being my job, I’m also passionate about technology. I actually enjoy coding and designing nice user interfaces. It’s hard to explain if you do not share the same interest in software development but try to apply it to something you are passionate about. For me, it feels great when a web page I’m working on is displaying the right set of values retrieved from the database. It feels great when my code is clean, succinct, easy to understand and structured correctly. It feels great when another developer uses my code and it “just works”. It feels great when a business user comes to me and tell me they love what I’ve “done to the page”.
This, I think, is part of the key. Do something you love doing. I know this isn’t a completely novel idea but it’s true nonetheless and doesn’t make it less important. If you do what you love, then you’re more likely to be better at it. Why? You’ll spend more time at it. You’ll read up about it in your spare time. You think about it when you’re on the train. You talk about it with your friends at the pub.
Doing something you love doing is very important. However, it’s only 1/2 of the key. Paul Graham has an excellent post which you should read if you have the time. His post talks about “How to do what you love“. In that post he makes a good point about doing what you admire. That I believe is the second 1/2 of the key.
You have to do something you admire.
Some people may do something they love but they do not admire it. For example, an accountant may love the repetitiveness of their work. They love the fact that each day is consistent and they can leave at 5:30pm without fail. They love the fact that if they follow a process, there are never any surprises. They may even love the fact that things balance and are accounted for every time. Sure, they love what they do. But do they admire accounting? Please don’t get me wrong, they may admire accounting and I’m not saying it is a lack lustre line of work at all. I’m only using it as an example.
Why do you have to admire what you do or the people doing it? If you only love what you do (and not admire it), then you may end up doing the wrong thing. Huh? Let me explain.
Firstly, you could stagnate. If there is nothing to admire, why change? What’s the incentive to become better? If you love accounting, but do not have an accountant you admire and aspire to be, what is your incentive to be better than you are now? Do you want to stay being an accountant as you are now forever?
Secondly, it may not be the best thing for you to be doing. Paul Graham talks briefly about it in his post. When compared to spending time on a boat on the Carribbean or playing on the Xbox, how can work possibly stack up? Well, it can’t of course. But spending time on a boat or playing on the Xbox are not the best things you can do in the long run. The key I believe is we don’t admire being on a boat or playing on the Xbox. We may love doing these things but we don’t necessarily admire them.
So do something you love doing and admire. Look to the heroes in your industry and aspire to be like them. I am fortunate enough to not just love what I do but I also have heroes I aspire to be more like. These heroes have made the successful transition from being just a Software Engineer. Now, they run their own businesses, create products and services they are passionate about and are ultimately masters of their own destinies. This is worth admiring.
What do you admire most about what you do? Can you name your heroes? Is there something or someone you aspire to be?
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