"Perfection is attained by slow degrees,

it requires the hand of time."

Voltaire

Bringing Happiness to Others = Success

The founder of the rising new startup company Buffer, Joel Gascoigne, posted on his tumblr account the secret to success from the happiest man in the world: 

help others

Hiten Shah is incorporating this idea of constantly helping others in the startup world, and simultaneously is one of the happiest people Gascoigne has ever met.

To find out how you also can building a startup around this philosophy, click this link.

"You have brains in your head.

You have feet in your shoes.

You can steer yourself in any direction you choose.

You're on your own.

And you know what you know.

And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go..."

Dr. Seuss

How are we influenced?

Who are the real online influencers?

Click here to zoom in on the infographic image.

5 Traps to Avoid When Your Business is Growing

Managing a growing business is difficult. Especially when your business grows faster than you are ready for. Here are some tips that Inc. Magazine's Josh Linkner had to figure out the hard way:

1. The Overcorrect - By overcorrecting a mistake, you run the risk of only creating new, different problems.
2. The Money Trap - Don't just throw cash at every roadblock now that your business is creating revenue. Solve the underlying issue at hand before it gets larger and more complex down the road.
3. Putting Religion Ahead of Science - A company fueled only by passion derails without the evolution of systems, training materials and processes.
4. Complicating the Process - Eradicate complexity wherever possible. One small step in the wrong direction multiplies to completely leading you off-course.
5. Gorging Opportunities - Don't become distracted by the shiny objects and flavor-of-the-week. It rarely builds sustainable companies.

"Advertising is the price that companies pay 

for being un-original."

Yves Behar

14 Ways to Stay Focused & Productive

Inc. Magazine released a list of 14 Creative Ways to Stay Focused and Productive created by the Young Entrepreneur Council.


Some tips may come as a surprise....

1. Befriend the whiteboard
2. Create a 50-minute music playlist
3. Step away from the office
4. Put your reputation on the line
5. Seeing near and far
6. Disconnect with extreme discipline
7. Don't push your limits
8. Try a task-management tool
9. Can you concentrate?
10. Look beyond the business
11. Share the enthusiasm
12. Announce accountability
13. Stretch your legs
14. Align work with values

To see more details for each of these tips, click on the link above.

Creativity and Play

Years before The Lean Startup, here's a TED video on creativity and play.  

Notice the bits on rapid prototyping, iterative design, minimum viable product!

It’s not an ‘either/or,’ it’s an ‘and.’ You can be serious and play.” (Tim Brown)

If you are unable to view the video below, please clink on this link to view it in your browser.

Find Your Employee's Hidden Talents

Inc. Magazine recently published an article on Finding Your Employee's Hidden Talents that may typically go unnoticed. As a manager and employer, here's some steps they outline to encourage these superstars:

• Pay closer attention to performance reviews.
• Reinstate a suggestion box.
• Ask for volunteers.
• Don't overlook less obvious advantages to find talent.

Hidden talents don't have to be huge, but the results can be.

12 Things the Best CFOs Know

Real Estate expert Stephen Roulac was asked by Proformative what knowledge is necessary to be an effective CFO. His response was 12 different roles that are important for having a successful CFO in your company. While some answers were obvious, such as finance and accounting, others were quite surprising.


To find out more, click the link to read the article "The 12 Things the Best CFOs Know".

The State of the Web

Mary Meeker, a partner at KCPB, gave an impressive presentation on internet trends at the D10 Conference this past May, outlining the rapid growth that is taking place in the mobile sector.

Her presentation includes useful data in marking growth trends across the globe for mobile internet subscribers, market rankings, and the shift in media industry. 

Despite the rapid growth of Apple's products in our market, Meeker's data research shows Android surpassing the iPhone globally by four times.

To learn of more surprising statistical finds, view Meeker's full presentation by clicking the link: "The State of the Web".

Secret to Making Employees Feel They've Got More Time

Harvard Professor Discovers A Cool Secret to Making Employees Feel Like They've Got More Time
by Julie Bort



New research shows that to make people feel like they have more time, you've got to add tasks to their schedule - so long as those tasks involve helping other people...

...Since nobody can put more physical hours into a day, managers who want to give their employees a sense that they have free time need to address "psychological time"...

Read the full article on Business Insider.

"The indispensable first step to getting

the things you want out of life is this:

decide what you want."

Ben Stein

Secret of Time Management

Surprising Secret to Time Management by Geoffrey James


Everyonce in a while a new twist is developed on an old productivity tool, and it could have a major positive effect on your effectiveness.


Click the link above and see how your Priority List can be improved with a simple improvement.

Secret to Making Employees Feel Like They've Got More Time

Harvard Professor Discovers A Cool Secret To Making Employees Feel Like They've Got More Time
Julie Bort

Turns out it's a total myth that to inspire innovation in your company you've got to give your employees a bunch of free time to work on pet projects. New research from Harvard Business School is showing that if employees feel like their time is being well spent, such as by doing tasks that are beneficial to others and the company, they feel like they've got more time. They are happier, more productive, more enthusiastic, and more satisfied. You can read the full article from Business Insider by clicking the link.

Norton says managers can use this research in a couple of ways.

1. Make employees participate in a company volunteer effort, particularly if they can use part of their workday to do it.

2. Let employees know how their day-to-day tasks are helping others. If they can hear how the employee helped a customer, this will also make them more satisfied with their job.

3. Use fun strategies to encourage team members to help each other. Norton tells of one experiment where salespeople were given $20 bonus money and told they had to spend on another team member. Those teams sold more than other groups that were told to spend the $20 on themselves.

By giving people the right kind of time, they will give it back to the company in productivity and innovation.

Company Culture

Twilio recently published the core values of their company, calling it "Our 9 Things". Fred Wilson discussed it on his blog last Monday, describing it as a "guiding light" that acts as a "framework for the culture and values of the organization". In your company, you too should develop a company culture that highlights your business values and goals.


Take a look at Twilio's "9 Things" below:

Ideas for Impact: 4 Types of Managers

Ideas for Impact #28: Jack Welch's Four Types of Managers

Four Types of Managers


Jack Welch, Chairman and CEO of General Electric from 1981 to 2001, described four categories of managers in General Electric's year 2000 annual report. You can read the full article here. 


Type 1: shares our values; makes the numbers- sky's the limit!

Type 2: shares the values; misses the numbers- typically another chance, or two.

Type 3: doesn't share the values; doesn't make the numbers- gone.

Type 4 is the toughest case of all: the manager who doesn't share the values, but delivers the numbers. This type is the toughest to part with because organizations always want to deliver and to let someone go who gets the job done is yet another unnatural act. But we have to remove these Type 4s because they have the power, by themselves, to destroy the open, informal, trust-based culture we need to win today and tomorrow.

We made our leap forward when we began removing our Type 4 managers and making it clear to the entire company why they were asked to leave- not for the usual "personal reasons" or "to pursue other opportunities", but for not sharing our values. Until an organization develops the courage to do this, people will never have full confidence that these soft values are truly real.