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Make Something Good Happen

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1387533615_e0e064e3f1_zA few years ago, Seth Godin hit publish on a short post that inspired me and probably millions of others: Make Something Happen.
Over the years, we’ve watched as it get twisted into Make Anything Happen. It’s time we reclaim it, and I think it’s possible if we add one word: Make Something Good Happen.
Good can be an incredibly subjective word and idea, but it gives us a baseline, and by focusing on that baseline we’ve got a filter of sorts for our actions. It’s a filter that I think entrepreneurs and established businesses alike need to adopt. For instance, a few months ago Andy Hayes captured in perfect detail some ongoing issues with Software as a Service (SAAS) and how a  Make Something (Anything) Happen attitude can frustrate users:

For example, in just the past week:

  • Flickr changed their entire website design, and pretty much got rid of their pro plan, which I pay for just for the photo storage.   Their “update” to users on the changes was so confusing, I had to go read the Mashable article just to understand.
  • Gmail kicked me into their new “composer” menu, which violates a whole slew of user experience principles.  They’re Google, which i suppose gives them license to do what they want, but it breaks Rapportive, the second most important tool for my business (as when you put in an email for a new contact, it shows you their social media links, bio, etc.)  And neither Google nor Rapportive seems to care.
  • Producteev (acquired by Jive Software) has basically closed down my entire backoffice the past 2 days, with no end in sight.  They did an unannounced software upgrade, removing key features that we chose Producteev specifically for. But the worst thing is they didn’t tell anyone about the upgrade, and it’s not gone well, so ALL of my mission critical data is now floating in the ether – business development lists, editorial calendars for my magazine, future billing schedules – all gone.   And I am a paying customer – I paid because I didn’t trust a free service, and I got burnt because of it.

Our obsession with having the latest and greatest has tricked business into thinking that if we’re not constantly offered updates we’ll leave for something new. Obviously if there’s a known problem with a product or service that gets ignored, then yes, we’ll look elsewhere. But I don’t (and I suspect you don’t either) lie awake at night hoping there’s a notice on my phone to update all my apps every morning. Change for the sake of change clearly falls under Make Anything Happen.

So what does it look like to Make Something Good Happen?

It looks a lot like a to-do list filled with solving problems, answering questions, and giving people a pleasant surprise. On Seth’s original list he highlighted launching an idea, posting a post, running an ad, or calling a customer. In a good situation, all of those ideas still resonate. It’s how you apply them that matters. I particularly like the idea of calling a customer. What if once a day you called one of your customers? Not to sell them anything, but to check in, to see if they have any questions or to follow up an earlier issue. That’s making something happen in a way that makes you memorable for the best kind of reasons.

I don’t accept that the only way to “keep up” with the competition is to look like we’re doing something even if in the big scheme of things we’re actually doing very little. You owe it to yourself and to your customers to deliver substance that offers real value, answers a question or solves a problem. Obviously it’s incredibly easy to Make Anything Happen, to default to a lower standard, but your customers will notice and appreciate the difference when you Make Something Good Happen.

Photo credit: Steve Rhodes

The Entrepreneur’s Trap: Doing One Thing Well

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7155680446_b019e8b3a4_zWhen you start a business, one of the oft-heard admonitions is to avoid trying to be all things to all people. It’s the classic jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none philosophy.

On the surface, it makes perfect sense. Identify your niche and the very specific way you can offer a service or product to improve your odds of succeeding. However, what happens when you fall into the trap of doing one thing so well that it blinds you to what’s happening around you?

This blind spot came to mind when I saw a recent list of brands that no longer exist. Lehman Brothers, Washington Mutual, and Wachovia were obviously casualties of the financial crisis. But the one that caught my eye was the disappearance of Saab.

Saab had a niche and delivered a very specific product. But Saab made a mistake. It picked a niche that didn’t give it much flexibility or room for growth. So despite managing to do one thing really well for many years, Saab went bankrupt December 19, 2011.

In a report reviewing the demise of Saab, authors Matthias Holweg and Nick Oliver highlighted how Saab feel into the trap of relying on doing one thing well. But that one thing proved to have an expiration date:

Taking a wider perspective, the fundamental economics of the modern automotive industry simply can no longer support individualistic designs at the prices that Saab was able to command. Low volume producers can survive when their customers are ones with very deep pockets. If their customers don’t have deep pockets then they at least need to be plentiful in number. Sadly, Saab’s customers were neither.

Whether it was planned or not, Saab’s strategy placed it in the middle of the road, another aspect that doing one thing well can blind us to. We tell ourselves that because we focused on one thing we aren’t hedging our bets, but the entrepreneur’s trap opens wide if we’ve picked one thing that doesn’t inspire much emotion one way or the other.

For instance, one of the reasons restaurants like In-N-Out, Five Guys, and Shake Shack have made us willing to pony up $5+ for a burger is they’ve changed our expectations of a fast-food burger. We want this different experience. It’s such a clear step up from the McDonald’s, Wendy’s, and Burger King experience that it stands out. Even more interesting, if you take a look at their menus, the available options are fewer than what you see going through the standard drive-thru.

Now, they can get away with this strategy of offering fewer options at a higher cost, but only so long as they continue to deliver food that excels AND customers are willing to pay more for that experience. They’ve picked a side, they’re doing one thing well, and for now they’re avoiding the trap. In the coming years we’ll have to see how or if these companies can adapt if we move on from our love affair with expensive burgers.

So as you assess your options consider these questions:

  1. Does my one thing give me room to grow?
  2. What triggers can I add to help me see what’s happening around me even as I’m succeeding?
  3. If the one thing I do well stops being needed, how could I transition to something else?

To be clear, doing one thing well isn’t the primary problem you face. Instead it’s assuming that doing one thing well is all the strategy you need to succeed as an entrepreneur.

Photo credit: Vilseskogen

Entrepreneurs Need to Dream Small to Make It Big

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Voyager IWe’ve gotten so used to swapping out our technology every few years that it’s hard to think of technology over 30 years old as still being incredibly valuable. And yet Voyager I, with Voyager II not that far behind, is on the brink of entering interstellar space. Doug Mataconis captures perfectly what is so remarkable about this old technology:

According some quick Google searching, the total cost of the Voyager program, and that would appear to include both Voyager I and Voyager II has been roughly $250,000,000 over 36 years. During that time, they’ve encountered Jupiter and many of its significant moons, Saturn and its moons, Neptune and its moons, and Uranus and its moons. Now, Voyager I has apparently discovered something scientists didn’t expect to find at all at the edge of our Solar System. In terms of pure science, we’ve arguably gotten more from these two small unmanned craft than we have from the manned space program itself. That’s not too shabby.

Read that second to the last sentence again:

In terms of pure science, we’ve arguably gotten more from these two small unmanned craft than we have from the manned space program itself.

That seems like a big claim to make, but one that I think is both reasonable and highlights something entrepreneurs often overlook.

We get so focused on discovering and chasing after the big idea that we often pass up something smaller. We start equating size with value, and in the process, we miss the potential of something small to have a big consequence, like the Voyager program.

It becomes incredibly hard to give small it’s due when, going back to the space example, the news shows astronauts at the space station or talks about winning a trip to Mars. But while both of these stories captured our attention, it’s incredibly easy to forget that the U.S. no longer supports manned spaceflight and going to Mars is still just a big idea. Yet Voyager I and II are still speeding away towards the boundary of our solar system, and in the process telling us amazing things about our universe.

So as you consider all the ideas you’ve got tucked away in your notebook, give the smaller ones another look. You may discover that the secret to succeeding as an entrepreneur comes in a small package.

Photo credit: NASA