Last Week Again

I originally posted this on Tumblr but....how would do you ever get to that?
Also, I've been encouraged again to post more regularly here so thought I'd start with this - some reflections on the past week - a normal crazy week. I'll admit that the first few on entrepreneurs are kind of raw. While perfect companies never invite me in, I'm finding the common dysfunctions of entrepreneurial ones a little....tiresome? discouraging? Common? Here goes:

1. crazy entrerpreneurs - several drinks this week with employees of entrepreneur owned firms. Common theme - employees observe that being an entrepreneur has little to do with managing a business. I agree, it generally has something to do with starting or buying a business (desperation, no other choice, unable to work for someone else). Managing a business is a whole different thing.
2. everyone’s exception to the rule (whether it’s true or not) - yeah, Bill Gates appears to have started and successfully managed his business
   
3. ego - I think I won the argument about where ego comes from (or at least I put up a good fight): ego is the manifestation of insecurity - check it out - the people that demonstrate the lowest level of ego are the ones who are most comfortable with themselves
4. agreed - many insecure entrepreneurs do great things
5. up for debate (but what I believe) - because they have a lot to prove?
6. secret sauce - one of my entrepreneur friends observed there is no secret sauce for running a business. I disagree, and he agreed. There is. It’s people. Great people = successful business. Bad people = no business. Note: bad managers attract bad people.
7. deal with it - firing people is a key way of getting to good people - yes it’s hard - good people will thank you for it - and respect you
8. relax - when I found out Britney Spears was following my daughter on Twitter (I know, she auto-follows - kind of like tweet-cyncing) I tweeted a version of Britney’s latest song title to make a joke “well f u seek amy” (Britney uses it the same way) - and lost 15 followers in 5 minutes. Seriously. Lighten up!!
9. friends - I talked to a great friend feeling a little down who’d analyzed it back to wishing popularity would translate to more people who really care (this person has LOTs of friends). It’s a tough one. Caring means investing beyond a drink here and there. Lots of people don’t get that.
10. Google Latitude. A couple of friends turned me on to it. I think it’s creepy. But…yesterday my daughter was driving 2 hours to school and I got to follow her the whole way. I know it made us both feel better. Also, I will speak to her about shutting me down once she got there!
11. taking Friday off - now that it's summer I want to do more of that. In the meantime I'm heading to Whistler to go skiing. It doesn't really make sense to me either :)
    

A Break from my Break

Unusual and refreshing to have a day to myself. So, taking advantage of it to update a few things including this blog.

Last time I posted here it was about Twitter. That was a few weeks ago and I'm still into it.

Honestly, trying to sort all the pros and cons of Twitter is a little confusing. Things I know for sure:

1) my web usage has changed - I go to pages not sites; I use readers and interfaces that allow me to organize, read, video, photograph, write, post and re-post content all at the same time

2) thanks to Twitter, I've been exposed to tons more blow-away web content than I ever strayed into on my own. Every day is a feast of new links and intriguing, interesting people, organizations and web pages.

3) I un-follow people who tweet too much. Especially as the list of people I follow grows, my patience for those who twit constantly gets shorter and shorter

4) the Masters Golf tourney was an eye opener regarding the potential and fun of Twitter. I strayed into it by discovering just prior to the Masters that Stewart Cink (the PGA pro) was using Twitter to connect to his fans. Tweeting that knowledge got me a dozen instant followers and connected me through twitter with the Master's organization (not so stodgy) and others who were in Augusta for the Masters or just interested in it. It also gave me the chance to point others to two golf-related web sites I have an interest in. I just saw stats and the impact on traffic was fantastic. Unfortunately Cink didn't make the weekend, but before leaving he posted thoughts and even pictures from inside the ropes. That was cool. All through Saturday and Sunday, I was able to follow the Masters on my Blackberry using Twitter.

5) I hear people who haven't tried Twitter dissing it. Honestly, shut up. The world is changing. The web is definitely changing. Web sites are a small part of what's happening now. If you're a business owner, or manager or employer, not understanding how the social web works is a big miss. A week of lurking on Twitter and I guarantee you'll start to have questions about what you're missing and how it's hurting you.

6) Participating on Twitter has enabled me to have interaction with thought leaders in multiple fields that would be impossible any other way. Stewart Cink? Richard Branson? Howard Stern? I'm not coming up in their address books. But recently a well known author was bragging about how fast his # of followers was growing without much effort. Pointing out that he was barely playing the game - that his # of followers compared to the # he was following was out of whack turned him into an instant follower. I thought it was a cool move.

7) Twitter can be distracting. Generally I set aside 20 mins - half an hour in the morning and evening. If I'm waiting or stuck in traffic I'll follow it on my Blackberry just for something to do. It's always interesting but walking away is good too.

There's no bottom line at this point regarding Twitter. It's interesting and the learning is phenomenal. Where it fits long term? No idea.