I’m curious
To me, curiosity is a “must have” skill for an Entrepreneur. Simply put, it’s the most important of the four “Personal Brilliance” elements by Jim Canterucci — you can’t solve problems or find opportunities if you don’t ask questions.
Listen to why I think it’s important to save time and build teams while you’re curious.
James Weddle – Curiosity in Personal Brilliance
Also check out Jim Canterucci’s “Emerging Leadership Circle” – leadership lessons on video.
Let go! Define the work. Get the talent. Move up.
The quote “…I wouldn’t have the chance to work with the incredible employees and mentors from whom I learned so much.” in Eric Ries’ blog post on Lessons Learned about 10 years of E got me thinking about how important having a great teams are to success as an E.
If you don’t build a team, you’re never going to get to the next level. You’ll follow the e-Myth where you never advance because you are not doing what you do best.
How do you build a great team? We’re answering that question right now at ShareOnce.
Great question with more than one right answer. Here are 3 questions you can ask yourself to get started:
- What am I great at?
- What work is critical (not nice to have or important but critical) to get the business to the next level?
- What can I offer to attract the best talent in the market to accomplish that work?
If you let go of the (crazy, selfish, damaging, binding, painful, ignorant (sorry, it just is)) thought that you are the only one on the planet that can do that work, you have the chance to attract them with the right offer. If you get the talent, you have the chance to get to the next level.
Of course, a LOT of other things have to go well but you can’t win if you don’t have a team with talent.
Awareness as an Entrpreneur – Personal Brilliance Interview
I was fortunate enough to be interviewed by Jim Canterucci, author of “Personal Brilliance” and noted leadership and change management expert. The first of four excerpts, “Personal Brilliance – Awareness”, can be found here.
Awareness, especially “self-awareness”, is my #1 “brilliant” strength an entrepreneur. I know what I am good at and what I’m not and what I like/love to do. Because I know where I fit, I am able to clearly define for teammates and partners what the opportunity is on our team and the respect I have for their contribution in that area.
Take a listen and let me know what you think.
Let ‘em eat cake!
Let ‘em eat cake! Whoops…looks like they already have! Just kidding, my venture brethren. It is nice to hear VC’s are listening / learning about themselves (as an industry).
By the way, no mention of bald? The picture clearly shows…ok…so does mine!
(But you can’t tell if I’m fat…ha ha!)
Google takes on Microsoft…big-time!
This is a WOW! I’m not rooting for/against either … only value in the marketplace for my PC friends. I’m on a Mac, no worries. Wait…ahh…may Apple be next?!
David, @AuthorizeNet, and Twitter
I have to say, I am pleased with David’s (@AuthorizeNet on Twitter) active engagement on our issue at ShareOnce.com. I’m not sure where/why/how the ball got dropped or if this is just standard operating procedure during sales/sign up. I’m only interested in getting this up and running ASAP and David has helped make that happen.
It goes to show you that one person can change things and that Twitter can really help with Customer Service. I wish him well changing and improving Authorize.Net’s customer service practices.
I’ll keep you posted.
We are LIVE at ShareOnce.com
We are LIVE at ShareOnce.com!
Customer Service (Not So) Live…
For some background, search “AuthorizeNet” on Twitter…you are on Twitter, aren’t you?
I thought it would be interesting to provide a real-world, real-time view of what startups and product launches (and most every other busy business on the planet) goes through. I will be posting on this issue until it is resolved so stay tuned here and here.
My latest venture, ShareOnce, goes live at ShareOnce.com in approximately 3 hours…with or without Authorize.Net, the world’s leading (or it was as of Wednesday, pre-fire) E-Commerce gateway. I ordered a gateway and merchant account last week and received confirmation on Wednesday, July 1 that it was available for use. Then the fun started…again, see Twitter.com “AuthorizeNet”.
Here’s my response to the salesperson who has been working with me and who have not heard hide nor hair from since Tuesday.
Salesperson-name (I’ll cut him some slack and not call him out specifically on a blog),
With this fire problem and resulting support and PR nightmare, I can’t imagine a worse time a) to work at Authorize.net, b) become a new customer at Authorize.net.
My condolences re: a).
Re: b), since I/ShareOnce.com are in this category and still not “live”, something has to be done IMMEDIATELY for me to keep my business at Authorize.Net. Besides the major concerns of why a company of your stature would not respond with 24X7 support when millions of dollars are not being processed due to no fault of your current customers, I can only say the whole E-Commerce world is interested in your CEO’s and your organization’s response/actions to this. So far…#EpicFail.
It was a full 24 hours of spinning wheels as to what the issue was on Thur/Friday … time my development team wasted trying to figure out what we we’re doing wrong. And these are not novices — 15-20 years of experience each. Come to find out…well, I HAVEN’T COME TO FIND OUT YET because your entire support team consisted of one person on Twitter (finally) telling the world essentially, “please be patient.”
In response to my specific issue (is it on our end or your end, is it fire related or internet related, are you really up or just parts of your service up, did my merchant acct go thru or was it it just my gateway acct, …), I had the following “conversation” with Authorize.net’s lone person on Twitter:
(from Twitter)
AuthorizeNet: @JamesWeddle Very sorry. You’re going to have to contact Customer Support for that one on Monday. They’ open at 6AM Pac. time. 877-447-3938. # in reply to JamesWeddle
JamesWeddle: @AuthorizeNet I’m a new customer and we can’t get trxns thru in live mode “Request rejected by FDC omaha – Invalid merchant number” – ideas? #
Authorize.net briefly, without much notice, and with a limited team took support calls on Sunday. I had to find out from my developers who just happened to catch a blurb on Twitter or from your site. I rushed onto a call and after 10 minutes of tail-chasing was told, “Sorry, you’ll have to call Sales on Monday morning.”
Of course, your vmail is clear — email is the best way to reach you. Why not Twitter? Why not mobile? Why not field calls in an emergency? If this isn’t urgent to you, I’m definitely with the wrong gateway/merchant account provider.
Let me know what you can do for me. Today. This morning. Before we launch at 8:00am CST at ShareOnce.com.
Best regards,
James Weddle and the entire ShareOnce Development Team
www.twitter.com/jamesweddle
www.twitter.com/pjsherman
www.twitter.com/denishennessy
www.twitter.com/sconaty
Don’t become these people!
Be clear about the give BEFORE the get; answer “What’s in it for me?” (WIIFM) from your audience’s perspective before you make the pitch.
Thank you to Scofield Editorial who produced this video and to “The Agency Blog” where I first found it.
Life is short. Get straight to the Point!
James
