Posterous theme by Cory Watilo

Are You Stuck?

Check out this 2-min video before you get down to reading.

If you still havent seen the video, do that. No point reading the post without that. 

LOL? Crazy guys. They could have just walked up the escalators. That was so dumb!

But hey, have you ever felt "I am stuck and I need help to get out"? Just to find out that there is nobody who is willing to help you. Even your loudest cry for help goes unheard. Thats because the solution seems pretty obvious to everyone and it simply requires you to  start moving one step at a time. But may be it just seems easier to blame the situation and stay stuck. Your call.

Thanks to @CreativePunito for sharing the video and the thoughts.

 

Undoing the Damage

Decision making is undoubtedly a super important aspect of being an entrepreneur. You do that all the time. Right?

Decisions to hire someone, or fire another one, to buy a thing, or sell the other one, to add a new feature or to scrap the older ones, to starting a new product or to discontinue the existing ones, so on and so forth.

A decision is nothing but what seems to be the best possible option with our current understanding of the present circumstances and that of the future.

But as everything continues to change over a period of time, including our understanding of our new present and the future, some of the decisions, we took in the past, stop making sense or may be even start hurting us.

Backspace 092/365

But at times, knowingly or unknowingly, we continue to hang onto many of those.

I could figure out just 2 reasons for someone to do that:

  1. The Decision is now a Basic Premise

    This is more of an unintentional thing. And it happens because either the decision has been taken quiet a long time back or there have been more decisions taken on the basis of this one. Or may be a mix of both. So you ultimately stop questioning your decision.

    Eg. So you saw this problem, you were quiet excited to solve. And your plan to solve it (the product) also seemed quiet promising. So, it made complete sense to give it a shot. But now after a lot of hard-work (and some money too), it doesn't seem to doing that well. Courtesy: Other players, New technologies, Changing markets etc. Now you are trying to make it work by trying out a lot of new things. But the questions dieing for attention might be: "Does the problem still exist?" and "Does it make sense to discontinue the entire product?"

  2. Fear of Committing to Failure

    This is very much intentional. You know its time to undo the decision, yet you continue, because letting it go, makes you seem committing to failure. But in reality, if you look at it, you are just buying time.

    Eg. In the same example, it might be the case that you have realized that its time to discontinue the product. But just because doing that might make you look like a failure, you hang on to it.

The point is not that you should doubt your decisions, but that you should not worry about taking a decision against your own. Thats a sign of strength.

Every second of delay is exponentially increasing the quantum of damage. And the first step of undoing any damage is 'not doing more of it'!

P.S. - If this post reminds you of a damage you undid, do share with others here in comments.

What they Want" Vs. "What they Need

How many times have you faced a seemingly dumb asshole trying to confuse you by telling you this business mantra: "People buy what they want and not what they need"?

That should surely get you thinking about the stuff that sells. Why do people buy what they buy? Is it because they want it, or because they need it? 

Let me tell you that those seemingly dumb assholes are right! Yup.

People buy what they want. Not what they need.

58/365 apple or orange?

But wait. Before you jump on to a conclusion, I have something more to add to that. 

Here's the thing: People buy stuff that they want but consume only what they need.

fulfilled want would get you a customer, but only a fulfilled need would get you a repeat customer.

But the question remains unanswered: "What should you create?"

The answer is simple - if you haven't already figured it out: Both.  "Create what they need and package it as what they want!"

P.S. - Now, Go Create.

P.S. 2 - For your customer, how are you fulfilling both: A Need and a Want?