Pride sucks. Check it at the door. This is a start-up.

There's a very real reason why "pride" is one of the seven deadly sins. In fact, according to the write-up about the seven deadly sins on Wikipedia, "In almost every list Pride (Latin, superbia), or hubris, is considered the original and most serious of the seven deadly sins, and the source of the others."

And thus "pride" has no place in a start-up.

Pride makes you talk at your customer. Not with them. It closes your ears to that which you ought be hearing if you ever want your start-up to survive, yet alone have any chance at ever thriving. The last thing a customer wants to hear is how great you are. It's irrelevant. They can go talk to anyone else, and hear the same. Rather, they want to hear how you are going to solve their problem. How can you solve their problem with your mouth open? Shut it, ask, listen, and help solve their problem.

Pride makes you think you know better than your customer. Your customer is the only one who knows what they want. And as a start-up, it is your job to find out, as best you can, what that is. Otherwise, there's little chance they'll reward your start-up with their hard earned dollars. Telling the customer how great your company, product, service, business philosophy or whatever else you take pride in, is just noise to them. Ask them what they want, listen, engage, and use what you learn to help them help you be successful in your start-up.

Pride makes you vulnerable. I suspect that one of the major reasons so many people do not enter the world of entrepreneurship is because of the great unknown. There is NO CERTAINTY. There is no pre-defined organizational structure to climb. No job title that matters. No certification that says you've succeeded. No way to easily and concisely communicate just how much of your heart and soul, blood, sweat and tears you've pored into this thing you call your start-up, and how deeply important it is to you. There is no performance review and annual raise. No bonuses. Unfortunately, these are the things that far too many people cling to, and use as evidence of their own self-worth, confidence and sense of place within their social and professional networks. Forget about it. No one cares. What matters is what you believe about yourself and how you treat the people around you (ie, customers). And those who dare to believe in themselves are the ones who dare to set all that meaningless detritus aside, and go it alone, knowing that no matter what happens, everything is always going to be okay. Lose the pride, and watch your true, strong, confident self emerge. And your start-up will grow muscles like you never thought possible.

Pride makes you say things that have no value, but to serve your pride. How many times do you hear someone answer the question "So, what do you do?", with something along the lines of "I am the Director of XXX at ABC corp, I manage the XXX widget team, we did XXX dollars last year..." blah blah blah. Really, that's what you do? Good for you. It's got no place in a start-up. Building a business, from concept to market is a life pursuit, it's not about impressing your peers with a job title, with how much power you have, and how much money you make. It's about embracing the unknown, putting yourself out there and on the line, having the courage to live your dream, constantly iterating on the value and execution of your dream, and in so doing, checking your identity at the door. Your identity, your pride, will only ever get in the way, and will muddy the experience your customers will have with you and your start-up. Let it go. It has no value in a start-up. The next time someone asks you what you do, tell them about the dream you are living...you are living it right?

Of course, all of this is much easier said than done. All of us have vulnerabilities we might prefer to hide, as well as those things we've accomplished in life that make us feel good and that we wish more people would know about. Regardless, the point I am trying to make, and reinforce and re-emphasize to myself more than anything, is that when you've committed to starting your own business/es, you've got to be willing to wear many hats; deal with constantly shifting dynamics; and be willing to do just about anything that your start-up requires to succeed. And you absolutely have to be comfortable with recognizing your own limitations and be willing to engage and rely on others who can help you in the co-created actualization of your dream, your start-up. Notice, pride has no place in any of this...this is a start-up.

Embracing the Value of an Imperfect Solution

Life's littlest moments can behold the most enlightening lessons. This morning, during a seemingly routine exercise - that of making breakfast - I experienced a delicious realization. It was an idea that arose from the minutiae of flipping fluffy pancakes - a particularly delightful way to start the day and one I feel compelled to share.

I laid everything out on the kitchen countertop: a brand new box of Hungry Jack buttermilk pancake mix, fresh eggs, vegetable oil, milk, measuring cups, measuring spoons, and two spatulas: a wooden one for mixing, and a flat plastic one for flipping. On top of the gas-lit range warmed an iron griddle already hot enough to spit water. In hungry anticipation of ingredient-mixing nirvana, I scanned my hotcake-cooking arsenal, and noticed something was dreadfully wrong - no mixing bowl.

This wouldn't happen "back home" (in Philadelphia). We have pretty much everything we "need", including a wide array of glass, aluminum, ceramic and plastic bowls. But since we're still getting set up in our new place here in Cochabamba Bolivia, there's no such thing. So I rooted around our still relatively sparse kitchen cabinetry, and came upon my first possible solution: a cereal bowl. But after a crusty-eyed inspection of its dimensions and volume, I surmised it would likely lead to an unbearably cramped mess of batter-mixing frustration. Next option: plastic containers usually reserved for storing and refrigerating leftovers - but just too flimsy, too small, and too square. What about drinking glasses, coffee mugs, plates or plastic bags - no way! The only thing left was a shelf containing 4 shiny-new, teflon-coated, cooking pots and frying pans...bingo!

Within moments, like a half-starved short-order chef, I was manically mixing pancake batter...in a range-top pasta-pot. Maybe not the "perfect solution" by definition, meaning it wasn't a "mixing bowl", but without a doubt, the most perfect "imperfect solution" given the circumstances. And therein lies my epiphany...

There is meaningful value in the process of arriving at an "imperfect" solution. And, that the satisfaction derived from experiencing that process, can quite possibly equal or exceed the satisfaction derived from the application of a more conventionally "perfect" solution.

As we look about the world, it's impossible not to notice the problems that need solving: war, poverty, disease, hunger, environmental degradation, corruption, and so on. It's especially difficult if you give any portion of your attention to the non-stop, over-commercialized "news" being spun online, over the air, and over the wires...I digress (that'll be a topic for another post, soon).

But, if we can just remember, that our own solutions to problems, no matter how "perfect" they may seem to us, may very well not be perfect solutions for others. We've got to be willing to take into account other people's culture, history, family, economic means, sympathies, beliefs and priorities before we start doling out solutions. And we've got to give at least equal weight to the value of the process of arriving at solutions as we do to the highly subjective value of the solution itself. And finally, we've got to be willing to allow that process to unfold naturally, with mindful engagement and respect.

Becoming more empathetically inclined this way could enable each and every one of us to experience more satisfying interpersonal and inter-societal relationships that lead us to solutions for the world's most vexing problems, I am sure of it.

You might say extracting all this "meaning" from mixing pancake batter is a bit of a stretch...but I can hardly wait to see what's cook'n for lunch!

Finally, A Personal Blog Without Constraints

I started "blogging", according to my Blogspot records, back in 2007.  My efforts to date have been pretty esoteric in nature: 1) StevensOnLeave is for publishing our personal travel memoirs, 2) PhillyITStaffing is for publishing statistics and information relevant to our business at www.TheITStaffingCompany.com, and 3) EverySAPJob - The Blog has been moved to WordPress hosted on our own server for improving SEO at our other business  www.EverySAPJob.com.

Now though, "This is Cliff" will give me the means to write about anything on my mind.  I've already written a few things of length elsewhere, such as notes on my Facebook page, some ramblings inside my EverNote and MyWriting iPad apps, and even a book published on LuLu.com.  But here, I will write whatever I want, whenever I want, and just enjoy the process of writing without constraints.

I've got a few ideas brewing, so let's see how it goes.