I've had my private business since I was nine years old. I've started, bought, sold and helped in numerous different kinds of companies over the 30 odd years since that time.
I've done everything I've always wished to do, and I've had plenty of fun. A few of the highlights : I worked on Wall Street, I helped take a company public and I threw one of the biggest VC names in the country right out of my office. I have worked on designing a quality management system for a leading dairy company. I've worked with many of the largest names in the offline and online space, and I've seen the insides of a lot of the biggest companies in the US.
I made my first million the old-fashioned way. I worked my butt off. And I've got a lot to show for it, for which I am both humble and grateful. Understand this, I regard myself as a successful entrpreneur and I am happy with it.
Why am I sharing all of this with you? I'm getting there.
People always ask me if I have any recommendation for being successful. They ask if I could name the things I think have gave the most to my success. Id like to share my findings from 30 years of business experience. They're applicable both offline and online.
Here are my top five recommendations for success :
1. Always confirm all your mails and phone calls get returned. I make a lot of contacts and requests thru email, telephone or maybe in the flesh. I am fully surprised at the number of folks who dont trouble to return the request. It is classless and disrespectful to ignore someones request, and it makes them angry. Indignant folk tell other people how you have wronged them. The fewer people out there chatting unwell about you the better.
When I was an iso 9001 consultant at Modem Media I got between 1000 - 3k mails a day. I was buried in mails. My helper went in and cleared out mails when she could, forwarding the ones she was aware that she or one of my underlings could handle. But she left the rest for me. I might spend at least an hour a day returning them. Often all I said was Call so-and-so or Thanks for the heads-up, but many of them got answered. The priority was clients, then managers then ordinary folk. If you are not going to answer correspondence from clients or peers, dont give any person your email. Funny thing about almost all of usif you've got an email and invite us to use it, we expect a solution. I've written 3 mails to Darren at ProBlogger.net. He has not answered a single one. While I suspect some of his stuff is very good, I find his unresponsiveness disheartening and I dont find him as authoritative as I used to.
I sent an email to the President of Staples on a Saturday afternoon a few years back. I got a personal reply from him the day after (Sunday), and we resolved my problem with assistance from one of his EVPs. If he'll make a response to one of my mails, so can Darren.
2. Help anyone that asks. It doesn't matter what it is if somebody asks you to help them and you can do it, do it. Whether it entails rolling up your sleeves, writing a check, giving some precious time or just answering a query from someone that does not know as much as you, suck it up and do it.
3. Always know more than most of the people about your industry or business. I've always been a technologist, so this has been engrained in me since I was sixteen. Read about things in your field every day. Go to a convention or trade show every now and then. Participate in dialogues or forums, on or off-line. It will keep you connected to the people in your industry and make you a guru. The Net is an amazing tool for getting this done.
4. Treat your workers like gold, because they are. In my personal enterprises my workers get away with a lot. They are well paid, get surprise benefits all the time and can pop up and vanish as they please. Some take advantage, but they do not last long. Being a jerk to your employees will always come back to bite you. It will also mean that you'll get hosed a few times, but you would have anyhow.
Make the workplace fun, comfortable and as casual as you can. Show your people by example how you want them to treat customers and work-mates. They are going to follow your lead. If they abhor coming to work it will show in what you produce, this was a major feature that I spotted while designing the quality management system I discussed earlier.
At Modem Media I organised a yearly barbeque in the front parking lot. We had pork, BBQ sauce from Texas and masses of other stuff Im not going to get into here. It was a tiny gesture nevertheless it went a great distance.
5. Acknowledge everyone who helps you advance, particularly those who didn't gain from it. This is another thing I am surprised more people haven't caught on to. I said in an earlier post that I constantly comb my log files for folks who have social bookmarks pointing to this blog site and send them a fast email thanking them. I stopped counting the number of folks who email me back surprised that I would bother to thank them. Why shouldn't I? They took time out to help promote my blog, and got nothing in return. A thank you acknowledges their effort and time and firms up them as a supporter. Trust me, you need all of the allies you can get.
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