How useless it is to be worried

One of my team mates asked me today if I was nervous/worried about the board meeting tomorrow. My answer was "no". She didn't ask why, but here is my logic:

I am worried all my work time about how to increase performance, except during board meetings.

Because during board meetings I can't do much about performance. BEFORE and AFTER it, then I am always worried about performance. I can only do it when I am outside of the board room, working in the trenches. During board meetings I only accept what we did or did not accomplish, no reason to be worried about it - it's purely the result of our work and some amount of luck or lack of luck.

What makes for a great entrepreneur?

It's probably a number of things, and a passion for what you're trying to do is certainly one of them. Oftentimes these folks have experienced a problem firsthand and they're consumed with solving it. And they refuse to quit.

A lot of the great founders and entrepreneurs I've worked with are micromanaging, detail-oriented, paranoid people. They want to know everything, and they care about everything. Interestingly, most of my companies have a key executive who never graduated from college, and probably two of my six CEOs never went to college. And the CTO at another company, the star at that company, did not go to college.

See the rest of the interview with Larry Cheng on What Makes a Great Entrepreneur.

Why my bachelor thesis was about viral marketing? Because of Seth Godin

Get a review copy of my new book
by Seth Godin

There used to be one hundred people who mattered.

That's true in a lot of industries, but particularly in books.

One hundred people who could make a book a hit. These were key buyers at bookstores, reviewers and editors at newspapers, the person who booked time at Oprah or the Today Show.

So publishers courted these people. If the one hundred loved it, the book launched as a hit. Of course the 100 all get free copies. Lots of free copies.

Today, of course, those one hundred people matter a lot less. And who matters more? You.

You, because you have a network. You blog. You tweet. You talk things up at meetings or recommend things to friends.

And there are a lot more than a hundred of you.

One solution is to give everyone a free copy. Publishers and authors could do this and try to make money doing something else. Another solution is to let the best of this group, the most committed, the most interested... let them stand up and identify themselves.

So, that's what we're experimenting with on Linchpin. For a select group of motivated readers, I want to send you a copy of Linchpin (at my expense) three weeks before anyone else can buy one. My US publisher is not sending free review copies to magazines (the few that are left), newspaper editors, TV shows, any of the usual media suspects. Instead, we're allowing people like you to raise their hands and, if they like the book, asking them to tell the world about it in January.

How to choose? I can't afford to buy a book for everyone, so I needed to come up with a filter. Here it is: The first 3,000 people who make a donation to the Acumen Fund (at least $30) get one at my expense. The money you pay goes directly to Acumen, you get the fun of making a donation and get a tax deduction before the end of the year, and I figure out which of my readers most want a copy of my book.

If you're excited about getting a first look, I hope you'll check out this page for all the details. And thanks for your support, every day. It means a lot to me.

Please hurry, since once they're gone, I probably won't be able to offer any more.

Readers outside of North America should click here please.

[UPDATE: After 9 hours we've sold half of the reserved books and raised more than $70,000 for Acumen. Thanks guys.]

That's why we call him a marketing guru. Well, I would call him in fact a viral marketing shaman, but that's just a personal joke.

"Never look at the trombones. You will only encourage them!"

On the previous post the maestro has a quote that is the root of my decision: "Never look at the trombones. You will only encourage them!"

What a leadership lesson.

TED Talks - Itay Talgam: Lead like the great conductors

A very interesting (and funny) TED talk on different styles of leadership of diferent conductors:

Are You an In or an Out Leader?

How much time and energy are you spending in (or with) your team and how much time out in the wider organisation? It might seem like a simple question, but executives rarely take the time to think about it. It's important to do though, because this single question could answer many other questions that you — or your boss — have about your style and effectiveness.

Executives usually have a preference for one arena, which can be reinforced by their role, their personality, or even the corporate culture. A quality control manager, for example, would naturally be more inwardly focused while a communications director would roam across the business. Both roles would attract different personalities. Similarly, some organisations are structured as, or have developed into, silos due to the nature of their business or markets. Examples might include law firms, where separate practices evolve to serve clients in specific areas.

My suggestion is that executives need to balance the time they spend in both the In and Out arenas if they are to be effective.

via blogs.harvardbusiness.org

Applications to the AIESEC Norway national board 2010-2011 are out

When a student or recent graduate leads a whole organization, that is something especial. The opportunity to work in a high level strategic job as I am having now as AIESEC Norway president, and previously as VP Talent Management, is something that I am sure will only be present in my life in +-10 years (if I manage to climb fast). I am extremelly grateful for those opportunities and I believe only someone that is utterly dumb (or untalented) would leave AIESEC without experiencing it.

AIESEC Norway MC 2010-2011 are open. You can download it here (if you are a member of AIESEC).

But this is not a job for everyone, so don't even consider applying if:

- you don't believe AIESEC Norway can make more exchanges;
- you believe AIESEC Norway should stop during exams;
- you think of quitting or doesn't care if you don't achieve your goals, instead of learning and doing your best next time;
- you think you are too good to make the same job as a member would do;
- what you say is not the same of what you do;
- you want to get a lot of money before 2011;
- your first question when you are getting a new job is "how much vacation do I get?";
- you do not thrive in challenging situations and you avoid challenges and conflicts.

Are you not sure if this is for you? Send me a mail or call me or anything, I am open to have a cool chat with you about it.