Do not rely on people to do what you want them to do.

Count on people to do what they want to do.

Find the ones who are inclined to do what is helpful to you.

Ignore the rest.

 

    
Focus is more than the concentration of forces on an outcome.

It is also the abandonment of other endeavors in order to direct ones forces at the target.

Many of us are taught that a winner never quits, yet a winner must quit what hinders him from winning.

The act of pure focus must be paired with acts of true disengagement.

This appears simple and intuitive but most find it difficult to execute.

    
How trusted you are matters more than how useful your innovation is.

Entrepreneurs usually overvalue the usefulness of their innovation while not realizing that the majority of their market makes decisions based on trust and not usefulness.

Early stage entrepreneurs should focus on building trust first.  A level of trust must be established with the market before the usefulness of the innovation may be valued by the market's membership. 

Once trust is established and the innovation may be valued on its utility, adoption has then the chance to grow rapidly.

This is a core reason why adoption of innovation takes so much time initially, yet then may quickly  take-off.  The initial slowness is time when the building of trust occurs.

Ambition is distinct from Desire. A man who simply wants for something exhibits desire. The man who wants to face the work and challenge of achieving his vision exhibits ambition. Ambition and Desire can look very much the same, but they are vastly different in their ability.

    
Weakness is the tendency to do the wrong thing. 

Flaw is the wrong thing that results. 

Failure is the result of flaw being allowed to flourish.


In studying the weaknesses in the self and in others, do not mistake flaws for weaknesses.

Flaws are the result.  Weakness is the cause.

Flaws are the symptom.  Weakness is the condition.

    
The greatest enemy of the strategist is himself.

To emerge victorious in conflict, the wise combatant seeks to know well both his enemy and himself.

You must understand yourself both as your enemy and as your ally.

This is what it means to know one's weaknesses.

    

If you view the stakeholders as the source of problems, then they are.

If you view the stakeholders as the source of solutions, then they are.

    
An industry conference is the worst place to get valid information -- unless you realize that the vast majority of panel speakers are telling a bunch of huge lies.  Gargantuan lies. 

This is because the motivation to sit on a panel is to gain popularity.

Men who seek seats on industry panels, such as at trade conferences, do so mainly for their social needs and for their company's marketing/branding needs.

Men seated on panels are generally seeking attention for themselves and companies and they seek for that attention to be positive.  They certainly aren't there to have a discussion of any meaning, as it is in their interests to keep any valuable information to themselves. 

Popularity is the major motivation as being a panelist is certainly not a quality road to generating business.  In general after a panel the panelist gets deluged by inane requests from a horde of nobodies.  All those cards get thrown out.

The lies have a general nature in that they are distinctly populist as the goal is to please the masses.   Here are some of the most popular lies we've heard at the trade circuses.

• Venture Capitalists:  We want to hear new ideas!
• Famous Entrepreneur: You too can be as great as me!
• Major Label Music:  We respect the artist.
• Healthcare Industry: We want to make things simpler.
• School Boards: Our job is to represent the children.
• Corporate Finance: We want to do things creatively, differently.
• Anyone Who Says: We want a level playing field.
  

However, if you find a panelist saying unpopular things, you may wish to investigate those for merit.

    
A 97.5% rejection rate is a good thing.

You are an Innovator Entrepreneur so understand that only 2.5% of your market are going to initially try your innovation.  You have to find that minority.

Arm your team to expect 97.5% of prospects to Ridicule you.  What your team knows and expects will not demoralize them.

The Innovator Buyer comprises only 2.5% of your market, and the Innovator Buyer is not The Early Adopter.  The Early Adopter is VERY different.  The Early Adopter is your second target.

Many entrepreneurs make the mistake of pursuing Early Adopters first, wasting resources and finding more resistance than was expected.  What you really want is the Innovator Buyer. 

The Innovator Buyer is venturesome and open to taking risk.  This is the type of human who will try something out just to see what happens.  The Innovator Buyer is motivated by discovery.  The Innovator Buyer is the type of person who orders a novel product just to try it.  He is enthralled when the product delights him and he is not unhappy when a novel product underwhelms him.  You have low disappointment risk in dealing with him.  The Innovator Buyer is less popular and less visible.  He must be discovered.

The Early Adopter has low risk tolerance.  The product must be reasonably proven to work before the Early Adopter will try it.  Early Adopters do not use beta-versions.  The Early Adopter will try out something new when he observes the Innovator Buyer benefitting from it.  The Early Adopter tend to be popular and very visible, and because of that your team will be steered to them by your ecosystem members.  This can be dangerous as Early Adopters have moderate disappointment risk.  Early Adopters, however, can point you to the Innovator Buyers.  Ask the Early Adopter who they watch for great ideas.  This is the path to the Innovator Buyer.

    

Some are born stakeholders, others become stakeholders and others have stakeholderness thrust upon them.

Uniiting stakeholders is an active endeavor.  It doesn't just happen automatically.   And the vast majority of businesses don't do it at all.  Thus an Entrepreneur who can cultivate and unite his stakeholders in his cause, even if done poorly, can wield a genuinely unfair advantage against his competitors and adversaries.

The 6 stakeholders are Founders, Employees, Investors, Suppliers, Buyers and Government.

Most businesses treat stakeholders like men treat their gods -- they claim to honor them, but at best treat them ritualistically -- if at all, and really only pay attention and tribute when there is a problem beyond the businesses immediate power to solve.

Most businesses look at their stakeholders and try to figure out how to capture value from them.  However, stakeholders are involved in your business to gain value themselves.  It is through building value for stakeholders that they may be united and thus lead.

Stakeholder management is risk management.  No single stakeholder class can turn your business into a guaranteed success, but ANY of the 6 can destroy the business. 

More interestingly, however, is that they can also destroy your competitor's business.