When I’m passionate about an idea, my mind races. I think of ways to maximize the potential I see. I visualize the idea as a success. I’m mentally at the finish line before I’ve even started running the race. I see how it can add value to customers’ lives, how it will run, how many people are needed, what those people will do, and on and on. Then I have to tell myself, whoa. It takes time to get to the finish line. The idea will get there, but not on day one. When it does, it might not look exactly like my vision.

When an idea has great potential, I want it to be realized immediately. Unfortunately, things don’t work that way. After a decade-plus as an entrepreneur, I still have to remind myself of that. It takes time to learn what your customers want, develop what they’ll actually pay for, build a team, and work through the unexpected kinks.

Most worthwhile businesses didn’t start off anywhere close to where they ended up. Netflix began by shipping DVDs. Now it has a huge digital content library and creates original movies and shows—all delivered digitally over the internet. Amazon started off selling and shipping books. Now it creates movies and TV shows, owns a grocery store, and sells computing power to companies of all sizes. Oh . . . and it’ll sell you anything you can think of and deliver it in two days. Facebook got its start connecting college students over the internet. No one had any idea how or when it would make money. Now it generates $70 billion in annual advertising revenue, runs a social network that connects the world, helps people share images via Instagram, and offers free cross-border mobile communication via WhatsApp. These are extreme examples, but you get my point.

Greatness doesn’t materialize on day one. It develops over time and the journey is a valuable part of the process. Things that weren’t obvious at the outset are discovered along the way and help inform where you end up.

The next time you’re excited about a great idea with lots of potential, savor the feeling and look forward to the ride!

Today I had a conversation about change. Sarah is experiencing significant change, like everyone, as a result of COVID-19. She’s feeling a lot of angst. She wanted to know how I’m dealing with virus-related changes and what I’ve learned from navigating change over a decade as an entrepreneur.

The first thing I noticed is that Sarah rejects change. She fights it if she didn’t initiate it. She will change eventually, but only after the pain of not doing so is unbearable. But change can be caused by something out of our control (like a pandemic). Fighting against something you can’t control wastes time and energy. The world doesn’t care what we think. We can either accept change and get on with things or struggle against it and endure anxiety, or worse. Regardless, the change keeps happening.

I also noticed that Sarah sees most change as an obstacle. That’s her perspective, for whatever reason, and it affects how she copes. It would help her to realize that while change is inconvenient, it opens up new possibilities. Thinking about them instead of dwelling on present discomfort can illuminate opportunity.

I view change as inevitable. The world is constantly evolving. That has always been true and it may be the only thing that will never change. With that perspective, I try to embrace most change. Doing so has allowed me to take advantage of some great opportunities and spared me avoidable stress.

The next time you experience change (now, maybe?), consider accepting it and focusing on the opportunities it presents.

One thing I didn’t do well early in my career was recognize greatness quickly. Someone close to me had to point it out (much later, typically). People . . . opportunities . . . accomplishments—it didn’t matter. For whatever reason, I wouldn’t see it as soon as other people did. And when I did, sometimes it was too late.

During my journey building CCAW, I realized that I didn’t recognize greatness quickly. I didn’t like this about myself and decided to change it. My knowledge gap was my first issue. I tackled it by reading widely in areas I deemed important personally and professionally. This gave me a baseline. When something was superior to that baseline, I could readily identify its greatness. My personality was another obstacle. I tend to be laid back and have blind spots when it comes to people. I can’t change how I’m wired, so this was more challenging to solve. I learned to ask the opinions of colleagues or friends who deeply understand people when I encountered someone I wasn’t sure about. Their observations helped me recognize when the person was great. Not the most scientific approach, but it works for me.

Not being able to recognize greatness hindered me in a few ways. It slowed my decision making, so I missed out on some great opportunities. And I didn’t allocate the appropriate time and resources to great people and opportunities.

Times change. Today I had a conversation with a buddy about an investment I made that has done well. He asked how I knew the company would succeed before other people did. I told him that I quickly recognized its uniqueness because I’ve seen lots of companies in the space and done lots of reading about the space. This company’s performance was rare when I baselined it against what I usually see. I believed this company was great and invested in it confidently.

Some opportunities really do come along only once in a lifetime. Learning to know them when you seem them can be life changing!

Today a friend reached out and offered a suggestion. He’s watched me share more over the last few months and had an idea. He sent me a text about it and we hopped on the phone. The suggestion was a small tweak that would expose my content to more people. I had no idea it was possible. I thanked him and asked if he had seen anything else I could do better, and he made more suggestions. All of them were great.

I reflected after the call. In ten minutes, he told me things that would have taken me weeks to figure out. What a huge amount of time saved! I just had to open my mind and be receptive to someone pointing out an area I could improve in.

Early in my entrepreneurial journey I was overconfident. People would make suggestions, but I wouldn’t heed them. If I had a vision for something and a suggestion didn’t mesh with it, I wouldn’t take it seriously. Instead of listening to what the person was saying, I would fixate on their not buying into my vision. Often, I learned the hard way. Eventually I’d do what they had suggested, but only after my vision had failed. Over time, I learned to appreciate credible people and listen when they make suggestions.

My friend is a very credible entrepreneur and respected in his field, so I was receptive when he reached out. In fact, I was excited to be critiqued by him and hear his perspective. Sure, he pointed out things I wasn’t doing well. But more importantly he showed me a better way and explained why it was a better way. I thanked him for taking the time to contact me and implemented the change while we were on the phone. I wanted him to know that I took his suggestions seriously.

The next time someone credible offers to critique your work, jump at the chance and listen to them. If such offers aren’t coming your way, consider asking someone credible to critique your work. You could save yourself a lot of time and energy and learn things you might not have otherwise!

I chat with rising entrepreneurs regularly. Some have nothing but an idea. Some have built an MVP and are fine-tuning it based on customer feedback. Almost none of them have validated that customers are willing to open their wallets and pay for their product or service. Translation: they don’t have product–market fit.

These founders usually ask me about raising money from investors. A few hundred thousand is what I usually hear. To be clear, there’s nothing wrong with raising money. Progress requires capital. Building an MVP and modifying it based on customer feedback takes time and energy, which requires people. People don’t work for free. Customer revenue this early in a company’s life cycle is minimal. This means founders need capital from other sources, such as investors.

I usually ask these rising entrepreneurs a few things:

• Do you have a working product or service?
• How many paying customers do you have?
• How do you plan on spending investors’ money?

These questions usually spark a good conversation. My objective is to get them to focus on their goal and see if raising money aligns with that goal.

Raising investor capital is important, but early-stage founders should focus on developing a product or service that customers are willing to pay for. Investor capital should be viewed as a tool to help them reach their goal, not the goal.

Today marked the end of my fifteenth week of working from home. Here are my takeaways from week fifteen:

• Awareness – Knowing my weaknesses and asking people who are strong in those areas for help was beneficial this week. One person pointed out one of my blind spots, which allowed me to make a better decision quickly.
• New things – I learned a lot of new things this week. Personal and professional things. I’m excited about using what I learned. I like learning, and this week reminded me of that.
• Catching up – I talked to a few people I hadn’t spoken with in some time. It always feels good to catch up with folks. Every time, I’m surprised by how much I get from these conversations.  

Week fifteen was a good week. It hit me that it’s been almost four months. That’s a third of the year. I’m starting to wonder if where we are now is the new norm.

I’ll continue to learn from this unique situation, adjust as necessary, and share my experience.

Last year I attended a conference in Atlanta. One panelist was a black venture capitalist. I hadn’t heard of him and was intrigued. He has experience at various venture firms and recently launched a $40 million fund to start his own. His firm is a hybrid that invests in emerging venture capital firms and early-stage companies. This hybrid approach was new to me. I set a goal of connecting with him and learning from his experiences. Unfortunately, he lives on the West Coast (like most VCs), so it hasn’t happened.

I try to read everything that’s published about him. One piece mentioned that he would be giving a talk to alumni of his alma mater via Zoom. I didn’t attend his school but figured I’d try to register anyway. Worst case, they reject my registration. Best case, they don’t, and I get to learn something. To my surprise, they let me in.

The talk was great—well worth the time. He shared his unique perspective on various things and discussed the challenge of raising capital for his firm. The highlight, though, was an unpublished resource he shares with firms he invests in. He offered to share it with his audience upon request. Naturally, I asked for a copy. Had I not attended, I would never have known this golden nugget of information was available.

I haven’t been able to connect with him in person, but I didn’t let that discourage me. I did the next best thing. I went to where he would be sharing his experiences and listened. Today, it happened to be on Zoom. It wasn’t what I envisioned when I set my goal, but it did the trick. It filled some of my knowledge gap, and I now have a great resource that will continue to do so.

Sometimes it isn’t obvious how you can accomplish a goal. But if you’re clear on what your goal is, persistent, and open to creative solutions, the universe usually presents you with an opportunity. You just need to recognize it and take advantage of it.

This past week I talked with two founders. Both of them have wildly successful companies that are still growing. But they told me they’re reducing head count. For most companies, the customer landscape has changed—but for these companies, not so much. They’re still growing at a healthy clip (just not as fast as they were). Even so, I wasn’t surprised. Their need to get leaner is rooted in decisions made during a period of rapid expansion.

Both founders have hired aggressively over the last few years as they’ve grown rapidly. In that scenario, roles can be created without anyone knowing whether they’re needed. I’ve seen companies hire someone to do manual tasks that custom software could handle. The person responsible for the department doesn’t have time to delve into what each person is doing or how they’re doing it. They just know their team is maxed out because of the company’s growth, so they go to HR and ask to add more people. And even if they knew that software could help them, it probably wouldn’t get built. Engineering teams are focused on customer-facing work to increase revenue—new product features, bug-fixing, etc. They don’t have time to consider projects that would make internal teams’ lives easier.

Quality can slip, too. Instead of hiring an A player in a two-month recruiting process, you add a B player because you have just thirty days to fill the role. Over time, the quality of your team falls, which has all kinds of ramifications down the road.

One day you look up and see people who aren’t fully utilized . . . employees without a clearly defined role . . . team members who aren’t carrying their weight.

Both of these entrepreneurs see staff reductions as a way to address these issues. In my opinion, they’re able to consider layoffs because their focus has changed. They know it’s easier to keep a customer than find a new one (especially in this environment). They want to better serve their current customers in order to reduce churn. At this moment, efficiency, not growth, is the goal.

Business is cyclical, and I suspect that despite the pandemic, what’s happening with these companies is part of the normal business cycle.

Today marked the end of my fourteenth week of working from home. Here are my takeaways from week fourteen:

• Relationships – I learned how past relationships and associations are relevant today. I’m thankful and appreciative. I’m actively looking to give back to the organizations that gave me the opportunity to build those relationships. Excited about paying it forward!
• Why – Clearly understanding why I do the things I do is extremely helpful. That self-knowledge helped me successfully navigate a few important conversations. I want to continue using my why as my compass.
• New work normal – I watched the uptick in COVID-19 cases and decided to work from home. I’ll monitor the numbers this coming week and reassess.
• Screen fatigue – My eyes are tired after long Zoom sessions. They actually hurt sometimes. I started taking breaks and going for walks when I feel my eyes tiring.

Week fourteen was a good one. It confirmed that doing things for the right reasons is important. I’m glad my why drives me.

I’ll continue to learn from this unique situation, adjust as necessary, and share my experience.

Today I attended a training session with other seasoned entrepreneurs. The topic was storytelling. Storytelling is conveying information in a way that resonates with people emotionally. Here’s a quote that sums it up well:

A story is a vehicle that allows you to put the facts in an emotional context.

~ Peter Guber

This topic interests me a lot. Why? Because I think I’m pretty bad at storytelling. I hope learning more about it will help me improve. After today’s session, I clearly understand where I’m lacking.

Here’s my big takeaway. Persuasive stories require the following:

• Ethos – Credibility and trustworthiness open people up. People listen to you if you have sound character. It’s tough to persuade if you’re perceived as shady.
• Logos – Logic, facts, and sound reasoning are convincing. If what you’re saying makes sense, people listen.
• Pathos – Talking about hopes and dreams, fears and worries, beliefs and ideals appeals to your audience on an emotional level.

We learned a lot of other great things too, like how to structure a story.

I see what my problem is. I’m a very logical person. Naturally, my stories tend to be heavy on logos. I try not to speak about things outside my experience, so ethos isn’t an issue. But my arguments lack pathos. They don’t have emotional appeal. I shy away from revealing how I feel or how something affects me personally. If my facts and logic make sense, people will be persuaded, right? Wrong! Now I know that most people will be swayed only by a story that balances all three elements.

I wish I had known this earlier. Storytelling is hugely important. It helps people buy into your vision—no small thing. It has implications for recruiting, team moral, sales, partnerships . . . Tell good stories and you will paint a clear picture of where you’re headed and convince your team to help you get there.

To every aspiring and current entrepreneur: are you a skillful storyteller? If not, figure out where you fall short and fill that gap. Telling a better story can do great things for your entrepreneurial journey!