I am in North Carolina with my kids visiting my brothers. So am on holidays enjoying time off with my kids and extended family. So not much business focus now except the odd call and of course email.
My brothers and I did have a charette yesterday. We each have different businesses with unique challenges. Mark mostly sells embedded and specialty computers. Lyle is trying to get his Biodiesel plant going. Glen is in wind power. We also had discussions on blogging (both Glen and Lyle are active bloggers).
Lyle is writing another book. His first one - Biodiesel Power is into the second printing so I am getting tips from him.
Mark is a comedian so we always have lots of laughs.
My brothers and I are very close so always have a great time when we get together.
I was given a book at one of my recent seminars, Younger Next Year, a Guide to Living Like Fifty until you are Eighty and Beyond, by Chris Crowley and Henry S. Loch, M.D. Of course, I am not yet 50 so why should I be thinking about when I am 80? The book does make valid points that the earlier you start, the easier it is to take the clock lower.
Most of the book re-enforces what I already know: eat right and exercise. In addition to that, the book talks about the need for purpose, interaction, and contact with other people. As people get older and consider retirement, etc., they often lose their circle of friends and lose their purpose and that is what causes premature aging.
The book is written in an interesting way. The two authors, one in his seventies, talks about his life experiences and how he has been responded to by the younger doctor author who explains his theories of medicine and why things work the way they do.
I have not read anything else that talks the way this book does about why exercise is so good for us. The thesis is that evolution takes ten of thousands of years and so we have not yet had time to evolve. It was only a few hundred years ago when there was famine and exercise was a huge part of daily lives, just to survive. Our bodies have not had time to adapt and as a result, we often go into "famine" mode where our bodies metabolism slows down and we start storing fat. The book points out that technology has allowed us to eat very poorly and certain innate cravings which are healthy when things are scarce like sugars and fats are tremendously unhealthy because we can end up with hugely concentrated sources of them. They are well within our reach and means.
Technology also allows us to exercise and walk less with simply less motion. This goes every where from cars to elevators to electric can openers. I have always been a big advocate of being careful of watching what I include in automation. (You will notice that I conveniently don't bring up anything about the negatives about computer technology, which of course is different.)
Friday, December 29, 2006
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Boxing Day 10 Miler
No business wisdom here so skip this if thats what you want.
The past few days have been family time as expected this time of year.
Today I ran the Boxing Day 10 Miler. Weather was close to perfect. It was 3 degrees C (about 38 F) to start and warmed a couple of degrees through the race. There were 900+ runners. I remember running it a number of years ago with only 200 other runners. This made for a crowded start and a crowded race.
To start about .5 K in (Canadian runners have problems with distance - we run in Km and miles depending on what suits us) there is a short but steep hill. No problem. But after that, the next 2 miles are slow downhill. Reminded me a bit of Boston. The problem with that is I know I will have to come back up hill. The first mile I ran too fast at 7:35 so I eased off.
After a few miles, we came to the marina. Beautiful views. Some headwind though.
Then I just ran. After mile 6, there is a huge long, steep hill up the escarpment (another word for big moutain). I was not trying to do a pace, just trying to get up it.
At about mile 7 we hit the trails. A bit wet but not too slippery. A bit too crowded to pass and at that point, I still had energy to do so. By the time we hit the roads again, I was close to spent. I did not even try to pick up the pace at mile 8 and 9. Usually I try to pick up the pace a bit when I pass the mile markers.
Overall, I finished at an 8:31 pace at 1:25:08. Elizabeth did 1:16:03 winning the top female in her age category.
Not a bad way to work off indulgences of the season.
The past few days have been family time as expected this time of year.
Today I ran the Boxing Day 10 Miler. Weather was close to perfect. It was 3 degrees C (about 38 F) to start and warmed a couple of degrees through the race. There were 900+ runners. I remember running it a number of years ago with only 200 other runners. This made for a crowded start and a crowded race.
To start about .5 K in (Canadian runners have problems with distance - we run in Km and miles depending on what suits us) there is a short but steep hill. No problem. But after that, the next 2 miles are slow downhill. Reminded me a bit of Boston. The problem with that is I know I will have to come back up hill. The first mile I ran too fast at 7:35 so I eased off.
After a few miles, we came to the marina. Beautiful views. Some headwind though.
Then I just ran. After mile 6, there is a huge long, steep hill up the escarpment (another word for big moutain). I was not trying to do a pace, just trying to get up it.
At about mile 7 we hit the trails. A bit wet but not too slippery. A bit too crowded to pass and at that point, I still had energy to do so. By the time we hit the roads again, I was close to spent. I did not even try to pick up the pace at mile 8 and 9. Usually I try to pick up the pace a bit when I pass the mile markers.
Overall, I finished at an 8:31 pace at 1:25:08. Elizabeth did 1:16:03 winning the top female in her age category.
Not a bad way to work off indulgences of the season.
Friday, December 22, 2006
What I Learned
Ben Yoskovitz of Instigator Blog sent a challenge to the blogging world to blog "What I learned in 2006". I learned:
1 - I read books faster than I can post the reviews on my blog (I am way behind in posting my reviews)
2 - Over a long time blog readership increases as long as I continue to get press and mentions. (my blog traffic has doubled+ in 2006)
3 - Life is short (one of my good friends died this year)
4 - More about being a CEO and life in a bigger company.
5 - "successful people do tough things". This is one of my mantras. I did some tough things this year. Short term pain for long term gain.
And mostly I learned that I have a lot more to learn and that I am far from the excellence I strive for.
And I am trying to learn to enjoy the process, not jus the destination.
Have a great holiday!
1 - I read books faster than I can post the reviews on my blog (I am way behind in posting my reviews)
2 - Over a long time blog readership increases as long as I continue to get press and mentions. (my blog traffic has doubled+ in 2006)
3 - Life is short (one of my good friends died this year)
4 - More about being a CEO and life in a bigger company.
5 - "successful people do tough things". This is one of my mantras. I did some tough things this year. Short term pain for long term gain.
And mostly I learned that I have a lot more to learn and that I am far from the excellence I strive for.
And I am trying to learn to enjoy the process, not jus the destination.
Have a great holiday!
Thursday, December 21, 2006
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
Marketing 101 - Add Value
Mark Gibbs of Computer World Canada wrote a great editorial called "Unsubscribe me now!" in the Dec 8th issue. The gist of the message is he wanted no unwanted newsletters and more importantly, no newsletters speaking of personal things like exercise schedules etc. He brings up a very valid point on the noise on the net and asking for permission before sending marketing messages.
One of the things I like about blogging is it is voluntary for the reader to read. Most of my readers do not subscribe (but it is easy to do by just scrolling down and putting in your email list). Most just visit it on their own while surfing. So it is not intrusive.
The challenge for marketers is to cut through the noise. To not irritate but still get peoples' attention. This is increasingly the question marketers have to answer - how. In a word, the way to do this is to add value. The following are 5 ways to add value in marketing.
1 - People will read your stuff if it makes them money or saves them money.
2 - They will read it if it inspires them to do something they want to do.
3 - People will read if they can learn something.
4 - Be fast. Yes - this blog is a lot about time management but even without that thrust, people lack time. So be fast.
5 - Add humour or as the Americans say add humor. Laughter adds value.
In short, people will read if they can benefit. They listen to WIIFM - Whats in it for me. So think when you market - what is the benefit for the reader?
Now I better go and subscribe Mark to my blog, he might want to know about my workout tomorrow.
One of the things I like about blogging is it is voluntary for the reader to read. Most of my readers do not subscribe (but it is easy to do by just scrolling down and putting in your email list). Most just visit it on their own while surfing. So it is not intrusive.
The challenge for marketers is to cut through the noise. To not irritate but still get peoples' attention. This is increasingly the question marketers have to answer - how. In a word, the way to do this is to add value. The following are 5 ways to add value in marketing.
1 - People will read your stuff if it makes them money or saves them money.
2 - They will read it if it inspires them to do something they want to do.
3 - People will read if they can learn something.
4 - Be fast. Yes - this blog is a lot about time management but even without that thrust, people lack time. So be fast.
5 - Add humour or as the Americans say add humor. Laughter adds value.
In short, people will read if they can benefit. They listen to WIIFM - Whats in it for me. So think when you market - what is the benefit for the reader?
Now I better go and subscribe Mark to my blog, he might want to know about my workout tomorrow.
Sunday, December 17, 2006
Finding Your Why
Busy weekend with the RIM Holiday Party on Friday night. It was huge. It was held in RIM Park.
Saturday night with Elizabeth's Christmas Party. Thanks to Sam for a great and generous party. It was held at the Millcroft Inn.
I was feeling tired and run down this weekend so not as productive as I would have liked. I ran 21.1 K today (the odd distance is because thats half a marathon). It was all I could do to squeeze out those last few miles. It took me 1:53 which is OK for a training run. Although I am not really training for anything except life. That said, I likely will run the Boxing Day 10 miler.
Have a tough day planned for tomorrow. There are downsides to being a CEO. Tough days are one of them. Exercise is one of the ways I choose to deal with stressful times.
To have a coach or not to have a coach is a personal decision. Some people react well to them and some people do not them.
Sometimes having a personal coach can actually detract from productivity especially during times of extreme busyness.
I recently read a short advertorial book by John Di Lemme called, Find Your Way and Fly. The reason I call it an advertorial book is because he is largely trying to sell his audio programs and other courses. Actually a bit too hard of a sell for my liking.
From what I have seen from his material, it is all good and fairly similar to Anthony Robbins material. I believe using some of this thinking in conjunction with some depth and hard work can definitely help one succeed.
One thing that I don’t like about him is he is promoting himself extensively to network marketers and I have never been much of an advocate of those (it is just not for me, I am sure that there are a lot of people that do well in those network marketing areas).
One chapter that I enjoyed was chapter three, The Habit of Giving. He noted that most successful people give generously of their money. For me, I would say that many successful people also give generously of their time (of course this is always a balancing act because giving too much time can cause even the most successful person to fail because they are not spending time on their top priority items).
One thought that he had was, "if every bill was paid and you had enough money in the bank for the rest of your life, what would you be doing?" His idea is to do this as an exercise as this will get at your true purpose in life.
It is interesting that I faced this challenge myself more than a few years ago and have determined that in order to achieve my purpose, I needed to continue to grow a successful business and I have chosen SYNNEX as my vehicle for accomplishing that purpose.
Saturday night with Elizabeth's Christmas Party. Thanks to Sam for a great and generous party. It was held at the Millcroft Inn.
I was feeling tired and run down this weekend so not as productive as I would have liked. I ran 21.1 K today (the odd distance is because thats half a marathon). It was all I could do to squeeze out those last few miles. It took me 1:53 which is OK for a training run. Although I am not really training for anything except life. That said, I likely will run the Boxing Day 10 miler.
Have a tough day planned for tomorrow. There are downsides to being a CEO. Tough days are one of them. Exercise is one of the ways I choose to deal with stressful times.
To have a coach or not to have a coach is a personal decision. Some people react well to them and some people do not them.
Sometimes having a personal coach can actually detract from productivity especially during times of extreme busyness.
I recently read a short advertorial book by John Di Lemme called, Find Your Way and Fly. The reason I call it an advertorial book is because he is largely trying to sell his audio programs and other courses. Actually a bit too hard of a sell for my liking.
From what I have seen from his material, it is all good and fairly similar to Anthony Robbins material. I believe using some of this thinking in conjunction with some depth and hard work can definitely help one succeed.
One thing that I don’t like about him is he is promoting himself extensively to network marketers and I have never been much of an advocate of those (it is just not for me, I am sure that there are a lot of people that do well in those network marketing areas).
One chapter that I enjoyed was chapter three, The Habit of Giving. He noted that most successful people give generously of their money. For me, I would say that many successful people also give generously of their time (of course this is always a balancing act because giving too much time can cause even the most successful person to fail because they are not spending time on their top priority items).
One thought that he had was, "if every bill was paid and you had enough money in the bank for the rest of your life, what would you be doing?" His idea is to do this as an exercise as this will get at your true purpose in life.
It is interesting that I faced this challenge myself more than a few years ago and have determined that in order to achieve my purpose, I needed to continue to grow a successful business and I have chosen SYNNEX as my vehicle for accomplishing that purpose.
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Entrepreneurship Advice
I seem to be getting a lot of blog spam lately. Perhaps I should be flattered. I moderate all comments so they do not get through.
One of my readers sent me the following email (sorry for the late reply - I have been busy):
"First off I just want you to know all I'm asking for is advice, which is the most valuable thing I can get right now.
I have been working in a field of interest for many years now as a hobby. I've always had many very good ideas but I never had the resources to make them happen. I always figured it was because I was too young. Now I'm older, I have a job and I'm plagued with the same problem. I'll have a great idea but it will usually be out of my range because I either do not have the technical ability, the funding or resources to make the idea I vision happen.
My most recent plan evolved from my experience running similar websites, I found there was an un-fulfilled need. I decided to start judging the need for what I was offering so I did my homework and contacted over 130 other similar sites. Within a day I had 20 sites interested in what I had to offer. That's great and all but those 20 sites generate about 6 times the traffic I could handle. So once again I'm in the same position. I do not have the resources I need to properly execute my idea.
My basic question, what is the best route to take when you have a great ideal that is more then you can handle.
A little more about me, I'm 23 years old, I have been running web sites and involved in the industry for around 6 years. I have a good paying job in another industry which makes it even more difficult to make the "jump".
Thank you for your time."
My response:
1 - There is never a right time. Entrepreneurship involves risk. This means yous sometimes need to just jump. This said - I always say "fail often, fail fast, fail cheap" so I always look at the downside.
2 - It is very powerful to be under resourced. It will make you more resourceful and likely allow you to run a leaner more competitive business.
3 - I like to choose opportunities that are the right size for me now. This is a beautiful thing for business - there is always a right size business opportunity for everyone at every size. When you are starting from your basement, you can take a $100,000 opportunity and do well. Bigger companies cannot do this so will leave you alone.
4 - When the opportunity is too big for me, I consider narrowing my scope. Instead of being the biggest seller of bar code equipment, be the bigger in bar code for warehouses etc.
5 - Consider partnering. it is better to have 10% of something that is worth something than 100% of an idea.
6 - Ideas are a dime a dozen. It is the implementation that counts. How often do you see a resturant with a line outside and the one next to it goes bankrupt. All the time. Ideas are easy.
7 - I know a lot of people who almost start businesses. They are not successful. To steal from nike - "Just do it". And do it now. Time is the enemy of ideas and business. Someone else has the same idea. It is the one who perfects it that wins.
Hope that helps.
One of my readers sent me the following email (sorry for the late reply - I have been busy):
"First off I just want you to know all I'm asking for is advice, which is the most valuable thing I can get right now.
I have been working in a field of interest for many years now as a hobby. I've always had many very good ideas but I never had the resources to make them happen. I always figured it was because I was too young. Now I'm older, I have a job and I'm plagued with the same problem. I'll have a great idea but it will usually be out of my range because I either do not have the technical ability, the funding or resources to make the idea I vision happen.
My most recent plan evolved from my experience running similar websites, I found there was an un-fulfilled need. I decided to start judging the need for what I was offering so I did my homework and contacted over 130 other similar sites. Within a day I had 20 sites interested in what I had to offer. That's great and all but those 20 sites generate about 6 times the traffic I could handle. So once again I'm in the same position. I do not have the resources I need to properly execute my idea.
My basic question, what is the best route to take when you have a great ideal that is more then you can handle.
A little more about me, I'm 23 years old, I have been running web sites and involved in the industry for around 6 years. I have a good paying job in another industry which makes it even more difficult to make the "jump".
Thank you for your time."
My response:
1 - There is never a right time. Entrepreneurship involves risk. This means yous sometimes need to just jump. This said - I always say "fail often, fail fast, fail cheap" so I always look at the downside.
2 - It is very powerful to be under resourced. It will make you more resourceful and likely allow you to run a leaner more competitive business.
3 - I like to choose opportunities that are the right size for me now. This is a beautiful thing for business - there is always a right size business opportunity for everyone at every size. When you are starting from your basement, you can take a $100,000 opportunity and do well. Bigger companies cannot do this so will leave you alone.
4 - When the opportunity is too big for me, I consider narrowing my scope. Instead of being the biggest seller of bar code equipment, be the bigger in bar code for warehouses etc.
5 - Consider partnering. it is better to have 10% of something that is worth something than 100% of an idea.
6 - Ideas are a dime a dozen. It is the implementation that counts. How often do you see a resturant with a line outside and the one next to it goes bankrupt. All the time. Ideas are easy.
7 - I know a lot of people who almost start businesses. They are not successful. To steal from nike - "Just do it". And do it now. Time is the enemy of ideas and business. Someone else has the same idea. It is the one who perfects it that wins.
Hope that helps.
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