Friends of Dave #33: Got Time to Lean, Got Time to Clean
If you check out one thing on vacation, it should be this.
It's now officially the dog days of summer, friends. For many of you, it's vacation time. Beach time. Family time. Time to sit back and unwind. So trust me, I won't bore you with a long preamble this week. I also cut down the number of shared articles too.
I did hear a phrase twice this week that I had never previously heard. We were at the beach last week, and I was speaking to my wife's cousin Mike who recently decided to take a break from corporate life and own and operate a pizza shop at the shore. You think startups are hard? This is the ultimate in entrepreneurship. Combine sales, marketing, operations, customer service, HR and product management all into one and compress 90% of your earnings into a three month window. I witnessed it first hand and let me tell you, there is very little margin for error in that type of business. That's when Mike described the difficulty he had maximizing the value from his seasonal employees. He says he always reminds them: "if you've got time to lean, you've got time to clean."
Then, on a flight this week I happened to catch the movie "The Founder" -- the biopic about Ray Kroc, the man who built McDonald's into a global empire. Absolutely fascinating origin story that has very little to do with food and more to do with persistence, ingenuity and urgency. About midway through the movie, Ray utters the same phrase Mike did when trying to keep his employees motivated and on task: if you've got time to lean, you've got time to clean. I won't give away more details about the backstory, but I highly recommend streaming this on Netflix (it is available). You will not be disappointed.
The moral? If you want to truly make it as an entrepreneur, you can NEVER really rest. You are never off duty. You can't quit in the face of adversity or complacency. Even during the dog days of summer when everyone else is relaxing, you have to keep moving. There is always something that must be done. There is always something that needs cleaning.
So for those taking one, make sure you enjoy your break. You deserve it.
XOXO
Dave
Think on This...
Is college necessary? — techcrunch.com
Last-mile training is the combination of technical education and placement services that is quickly making college education for most students irrelevant.
Does an On-Demand Culture Really Make Life Easier? — theringer.com Companies like Blue Apron, Uber, and Netflix are theoretically allowing for a simpler version of life. But if we don’t commit to them fully, then the grand efficiency experiment becomes a lie.
For Your Day Job...
What Path is Your Sales Team On? — www.akoonu.com How the Sales Process aligns—or doesn’t—to the Buyers Journey is essential to understanding the logistics, timing and needs involved in winning deals.
Best Fintech Reports of 2017 — news.crowdvalley.com
Check out this great compilation of reports not just if you follow trends in FinTech, but Insurtech, AI, blockchain, etc. -- really great, comprehensive stuff here from the thought leaders.
Your Weekly Dose of Randomness...
Don't Put Your Feet on the Dashboard — www.cbsnews.com
This takes putting your foot in your mouth to a WHOLE new level folks......
Death of the Internal Combustion Engine — www.economist.com
But if the internal combustion engine goes the way of the dodo, how will the whistles go "WOOO"?
And The Last Word....
Why Generation X Might Be Our Last, Best Hope
Caught between self important waves of both boomers and millennials, Generation X is steeped in irony, detachment, and a sense of dread. This attitude makes it the best suited to preserve American tradition so we can all keep L-I-V-I-N.