An Insite into the first year of a start up

The 1st Year is the Hardest
In Om of GIGAOM's article on his first 365 days as an entrepreneur, he is quoted as saying "a founder’s life is filled, mainly, with attempting new things, recognizing one’s mistakes, and making adjustments. “Each day was different, each situation unique… we all learned how to deal with whatever came our way.” Which is why he is always drawn to baseball analogies. Pitch. Analyze. Adjust. Like a pitcher on the mound. Which, ultimately, is just what a founder is — the person who puts the game in play.

The full text of Om’s piece begins here:
The longest year, the shortest 365 daysAfter eighteen hours stuck in the middle seat on what seemed to be an unending journey back home, I arrived yesterday in San Francisco, whip lashed by a monster jetlag, and an email box full of messages. And all I wanted to do was meet up with the GigaTeam, and have a quiet drink to celebrate an important milestone in our brief start-up life: our first anniversary.

On July 5th, we turned one year old as a company, capping what has been the longest year in my life, and the shortest 365 days. Each day was different, each situation unique, and every crisis a flashpoint. Together, we all learned how to deal with whatever came our way. It has been a year, in baseball parlance, when we struck out a lot, adjusted, hopeful that we could hit one out of the park.
The biggest lesson for me personally — the start-up life is non-stop: no pauses, no breaks, no time to stop and smell the roses. We went from being me, and one blog, to four sites, and seven people. The journey has been made enjoyable thanks to team members, Katie, Liz, Joey, and Carleen. (Don’t worry – I will get to the other two in a minute.)
And that doesn’t include folks who have worked tirelessly through the year, either as contributors, tech gurus and our well wishers. Or the always-supportive True Ventures, who as backers have let me stumble my way through this start-up thing.
Looking back, this has been a satisfying year: we successfully launched WebWorkerDaily, NewTeeVee and FoundREAD. Of course we weren’t always this lucky – IPNetworked and GigaGamez didn’t work out so well for us.
I just wanted to say thanks to all you readers, for giving us your time, and sharing your insights with us, and helping us mature as a company.
Now back to those two missing names: Mike Sly, an old friend from Red Herring joins as a Vice President of Sales, helping us explore new opportunities as we ramp up our events business and grow the publishing operation. He is going to be working in tandem with Federated Media.
And of course, last but not the least, we have Adena DeMonte joining us from the Red Herring as a general assignment reporter, and helping us on something new we have cooking up. So folks, here is to next 12 months… now back to work!

from Om's own Blog http://gigaom.com/2007/07/06/the-longest-year-the-shortest-365-days/

Slainte

Gordon

Relationship a big lever in business

Relationship a big lever in business

Making relationships with, employees, customers and partners is a must to building a lastign business, knowing a person for who the are and not just what they do, allows you to operate at a deeper level as trust and understanding of each other improves.


Some interesting quotes about relationships:

Virtue is not left to stand alone. He who practices it will have neighbors.
Forget injuries, never forget kindnesses.
Respect yourself and others will respect you.
When anger rises, think of the consequences.
Do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire.


It is more shameful to distrust our friends than to be deceived by them.
It is not the failure of others to appreciate your abilities that should trouble you, but rather your failure to appreciate theirs
Tsze-Kung asked, saying, 'Is there one word which may serve as a rule of practice for all one's life?" The Master said, "Is not Reciprocity such a word? What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others."

Recompense injury with justice, and recompense kindness with kindness.
Have no friends not equal to yourselfNever give a sword to a man who can't dance. It is only the benevolent man who is capable of liking or disliking other men.
A youth is to be regarded with respect. How do you know that his future will not be equal to our present?



By Good old Confucius, or Kung Fu Tzu, is a Chinese philosopher, moralist, and reformer (B.C. 551 - 479)


The Business of Building Relationships

As a business professional, you should ask yourself: "What business am I in?". The answer is quite simple: if your business has anything to do with people – and ALL businesses do – you are in the business of building relationships.

Influencing People


In every organization and business activity, influential people succeed and non-influential people don't. You cannot influence someone unless he or she likes you in some way. People are motivated for their reasons, not yours. Rapport is the key to influence. Rapport and influence start with acceptance of the other person's point of view, their state and their style of communication. To influence you have to be able to appreciate and understand the other person's standpoint. And these work both ways: I cannot influence you without being open to influence myself.

Leadership
Leadership is the process of directing the behavior of others toward the accomplishment of some common objectives. Leadership is imperative for molding a group of people into a team, shaping them into a force that serves as a competitive business advantage. Leaders know how to make people function in a collaborative fashion, and how to motivate them to excel their performance. Leaders also know how to balance the individual team member's quest with the goal of producing synergy – an outcome that exceeds the sum of individual inputs.


These are some areas for you to explore in building relationships...



Slainte

Gordon