Resumes are Analog. Create a Digital Portfolio Instead.

In this digital age a black and white resume in Microsoft Word is an analog solution to explaining your career.

A digital portfolio is the modern solution for career professionals who desire to distinguish themselves from the herd.

With this approach I have been able to significantly improve my career options and increase my total compensation by 50%.

If you’re not in the middle of a career change, forward it to a friend who you know is.

Better yet, forward this to a friend that you know should be changing careers.

Raising money and your career change

You should approach your career change like you were raising money from investors.

If I was trying to raise money from investors what is their bottom line question?

“If I invest my money in you, will you give me a better return than if I invested in someone else?’

Let’s start with these questions

  • What have you done before?
  • Are you better than everyone else?
  • How do we know you can do it again?
  • What kinds of results can you provide?
  • What do other people have to say about you?

This is not a shortcut

This approach is guaranteed to be the long and narrow road.

Creating a career portfolio will take longer, more effort and more risk.

Most people will never put in the work to differentiate themselves from the herd.

I’ve never enjoyed the herd.

They seem to like words like predictable, normal, steady and reliable.

Their results usually seem to be congruent with those terms.

Making the decision to leave

Two years ago I realized I needed a career change.

After exhausting my wife from listening to my woes for years, I started putting plans into action to leave my job.

I was running a small software division for a product and team that I helped take from a whiteboard idea to a market ready product.

We were experiencing success and arguably things were about to get easier.

But I was loosing heart.

I really enjoyed the job and the challenges in the marketplace.  The environment was tough.

I started to dream of what “better” really would look like.

The shift begins to be unavoidable

I used to become very agitated with myself.

Why can’t I just settle in like everyone else?

Why can’t I be agreeable and compliant like those other people?

Why do I always have to make a ruckus?

Now, I have made friends with this recurring pattern in my life.

Every time I have changed jobs I get to where I can’t swallow the pill anymore.

What I used to be willing to accept or tolerate, I can’t anymore.

I don’t wake up on a particular Monday and say, “I’m not willing to do this”.

It is more of a gradual internal shift over many months or years.

My guess is that my story is a lot like yours.

  • Your daily passion gets easily deflated
  • You see warts where you previously pretended they were “beauty marks”
  • You heart is not in the mission anymore.

Each time I’ve arrived here, I realize that the best resolution was to remove myself from the story instead of continuing to try and change it.

I don’t like what resumes have become

I hadn’t created a resume in years.

It felt a bit overwhelming to get started.

By not having a current resume, I realized I was using it as an excuse for why I needed to stay compliant to the dysfunction.

“I need this job and I’m not prepared to make a move.  Suck it up.”

Over the years, I have read hundreds of resumes and most are predictably and painfully dull.

Most are full of alleged accomplishments, amazing feats and bulleted job duties.

I wanted to revolt.

Imagine that, me wanting to revolt.  I know it’s hard to believe.

So instead of adhering to the perceived standards, I was going to break the rules.

Anyone can create a one-page bullet list of job duties.

I wanted to create a portfolio instead 

Professional trades like Architects, Artists, Graphic Designers, Journalists and Software Developers all have professional portfolios.

A few years ago my brother the architect, started looking for a new job.

He spent weeks preparing an exquisite leather bound professional portfolio that looked ready for your living room coffee table. The contents documenting his accomplishments would have made Mr. Frank Lloyd Wright feel nervous to compete with these design chops.

It was so much more engaging than a black and white bulleted lists.

It told such a better story.

It was visual.

It offered concrete proof of what he had delivered, designed and created.

I was ruined.

Never again could I follow the norms of job hunting and schlep some drab 8 ½” x 11” text file.

Ideas are hard to put on display

My working career has been about the creation of ideas that translate into business value.

What the hell does that mean?

In Sales you don’t sell products (well some people do) you sell an idea of how a product can solve a business problem.

I offer ideas for a living.

As one of my favorite podcasters and authors, Todd Henry, calls it, Translating ideas into value at a moments notice.

Provide specific examples of accomplishments

Documentable accomplishments are obviously ideal proof of your career performance.

Point to a specific news article, press release or external reference source.

You offer your ideas in plain view.

Original thought is brilliant evidence of what business and organizational value you will actually bring.

I never intended to write publicly or keep up a blog.

Instead it was my version of a digital portfolio.

I believed it would provide a competitive differentiation between me and every other candidate in the CEO’s office.

Why a blog is a great start?

A blog (WordPress site) will enable you to provide a much more robust body of evidence of your career storyline.

In a traditional resume you are generally limited to a maximum of two pages in total.

With an electronic portfolio you have the luxury of progressively disclosing your career story through a series of small chunks of content with embedded links that are wired up to display your thoughts, ideas, pictures of projects, and documents.

The density of content that you can provide with an electronic portfolio would never create an effective stand-alone resume.

Don’t know how to get started?  Here is a link to Jeff Goins step-by-step setup guide.

Endorsements

LinkedIn has brilliantly capitalized on this premise of offering an aggregated collection of other people’s advocacy or endorsements of your work.

Other people's words about you hold more weight than your own.

Even better is what they are willing to write on your behalf.

If you have not pursued this age-old tactic, you better get started.

I utilized endorsements in my first sales job selling Radio advertising in the mid-90’s.  I was really young, and looked even younger.  My competitors had more experience than me, had better products to sell and were arguably better at sales than I was.

I needed help.

I started asking for endorsements from my customers.  In those days they actually pulled out a piece of company letterhead and typed a full letter.  I carried them around in a three-ring binder in clear covers.

When a prospective customer would ask “Why should I do business with you?”  I’d pull out the letters and flip through them and say, “Mr. Smith says you are in good hands with me”.

In essence the letters promised, Aaron does not lie, cheat or steal.  He is really smart and works hard.  Give him a shot.

Examples for you to steal

Now it is your turn to get started.

See my digital portfolio:

I am happy to provide you document templates to get you started.

If you need advice on how to ask for them, shoot me an email. Am@aaronmchugh.com

What My Lizard Brain Said When I Asked for Advice?

Don’t Do It!

Aaron
Lizard Brain what are you saying to me?

Lizard Brain
Your family needs you to not screw this up.  
Don’t be such a revolutionary that you get canned from your job.  
It takes more money than you have.  
It will require you to borrow money from your friends and family and you’ll ruin your relationships.  

Taken straight out of my journal from December 2011.

The Context

I was thinking about leaving my day job and not looking for a new one.

I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do for a living but I was sure I could not continue doing

  • What I was doing
  • Who I was doing it for
  • Where I was doing it

I knew I was scared.

  • Scared to change.
  • Scared to screw up a “good thing”.
  • Scared to be foolish.
  • Scared I was arrogant and that no one would want me.

I Went to the Lizard and Asked

What the hell are you so afraid of?  

What do you really think is going to happen if I quit?  

You are going to be destitute, broke, 
ashamed and ruin all of your relationships.  

Isn’t that just wonderfully ridiculous?

The concept of the Lizard brain is talked about a lot.  I love it.

It reminds me that I am not the only guy who hears crazy stuff like this.

Here is what happened instead.

Despite the Lizard’s advice, I resigned from my job in November of last year.

I didn’t have a job for four months.

I received phone calls from people asking me to work for them.

I am not destitute.

I didn’t spend a dollar of my savings.

I went to Hawaii and surfed with Mike Field and played in the sun with Sam Ainslie and Kevin Lynch.

I had sex with my wife at lunchtime.

I stopped using an alarm clock to wake up.

I walked my daughter to her bus stop most days.

I wrote an eBook that was endorsed by Seth Godin.

And the list keeps going.

Ask your Lizard brain what he is really saying.

Write it down.

Laugh out loud.

Show it to your friends.

And tell it what it can do with itself.

Get started.

Blog Posts I’d Like to Write

I started a new job two months ago.

At moments I have felt like Dell Griffith from the movie Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.

I have traveled seven weeks of the past eight.  Here is a quick list:

  • Dallas, TX
  • NYC
  • New Jersey x 3
  • Philadelphia, PA x 2
  • Tulsa, OK x 2
  • Des Moines, IA
  • Corpus Christi, TX
  • Houston, TX
  • Moab, UT
  • Chicago, IL

It has been good.  And I’ve had to put some of my sideline projects towards the back burner.

It is different than having four months off from full-time employment.

Last fall I resigned from my job and took some time to breathe.

It was by choice.  I purposed to have some time off.

Some people felt sorry for me as if I was down on my luck.

I guess the abnormal idea of pulling a Tim Ferris and actually taking a few months off work sounds too good to be true outside of a book?

I’ll give you a download on that story.  It is a good one.  That leads into this post.

I’ll invite you into my head

I’ve been thinking through a number of posts I’d like to write and thought I’d publish the list.

A couple of them are near ready to launch and some are only in my head.

Just so that you don’t think I gave up and threw in the towel here are my “Coming Soon” ideas.

How Do I Compete Against Myself?

IDEA:  It’s about working for a competitor to my old company.
Many of my ideas in the previous company are causing me challenges now at my new gig.
I never thought about the challenges of competing with myself.

Straddling the Fence of Success: Family and Work

IDEA: I’ve had numerous conversations recently about the tension of being successful in one or the other world.
Most people rarely get it right in both.  I’d like to flush out some thoughts on how to straddle the fence and succeed in both worlds.

Flush Your Resumes. Create a Professional Portfolio Instead

IDEA: I have an aversion to resumes.  Only because they are bland and boring and part of the conformist approach to career changes.  I have some tested ideas that I can share on converting to a professional portfolio instead.  This one is pretty close to complete.

How I Turned Seven Hours in an Airport into Aloha

IDEA: This one I am stoked about. I was stuck in an airport for seven hours waiting for a flight.  I turned it into a little bit of relief, relaxation and exercise.  I think I spent $60 and it was one of the best time’s I’ve spent in an airport.

Living Life, Observing Life and Commenting on it

IDEA: I find that some people are really good at living life.  Some people only observe life and don’t really participate.  Others are skilled at commenting on life but often on the life of others.  I am a proponent of all three.  I find a challenge in doing all three concurrently.

Why You Shouldn’t Follow the Rules to Build a Platform?

IDEA: I’ve been giving my eBook away for free and plenty of people have counseled me on why I shouldn’t.  I thought it would be helpful to share why you should break the rules of building a Platform.

Podcast: Why Everyone Should Have a Good Failure When You’re Young?

Interview with CEO, Gabriella Calicchio, Walt Disney Family Museum.
I toured the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco in February.
It is phenomenal.   Especially if you have any interest in how ideas come to life.
During the tour, Walt Disney’s voice comes on and he speaks about his early failure in his career that resulted in his first sketches of Mickey Mouse.  Scheduled to release in May

Podcast: Interview with Todd Henry author of Accidental Creative

We are scheduling the interview for later in May.  More details to follow.  Check out his podcast, it’s one of my favorites.

Your Vote?

Would love to hear from you on which of the above titles might capture your attention and interest?

Let’s keep going.

No Cure For Bad Leadership

Did you know there is no cure for bad leadership?

No amount of pointing out the errors of their ways or negotiating or attempting to improve your reactions will change them.

Leadership is everything.

The long-term outlook of an organization or a company will always be impacted by leadership.

There will be a shrinking return on our investment when we are under bad leadership.

A great attitude won’t fix it.

A positive mental attitude can influence a lot of things, but bad leadership is not one of them.

The up-side

Sitting under bad leadership can influence and shape us to become better leaders ourselves.

Once we know what we do not want to do, how we do not want to lead or what we know not to say, we become better for it.

Redefining Success: #1 Never Gain Elite Status on any Airline

Redefining Success

Airline’s love to woo us with the allure of elite membership status.   They promise shorter lines, a six-foot stretch of red carpet we can walk over and the hope of free upgrades to roomier seats.

Here is what I learned the hard way

The only people who achieve Premier, Executive or Admiral status end up living a life similar to George Clooney’s character, Ryan Bingham in the movie Up in the Air.

Ryan spends less than two weeks in his own Omaha, Nebraska bed each year.  The movie profiles his almost tunnel vision pursuit of reaching the ten million mile mark with his airline of allegiance.

The tragedy of his story is that his quest for elite membership unfolds as a lonely reality of solitude and isolation.

After almost ten years of business travel, I’ve learned that if you have crossed the airline’s elite membership ticker tape then you’ve just lost at least 50 days of your real life each year.

Doesn’t having a wallet full of elite airline membership cards seems like an attempted payoff?  Shorter lines and red carpet walks are a poor trade for the days and nights spent away from my real life.

I revolt instead

What if we redefined success as never gaining elite status on any airline?  What if instead, we found a way to structure our life in such a way that stopped short of that reward?

Could we instead travel one fewer trip each month?  What if success was defined by not being rewarded for being away from home?

How close to the line can we walk? 

I shuffle my air travel between two to three carriers and successfully achieve no elite rewards.  Yes, I enroll in each of their reward programs but I attempt to never achieve the Premier, Elite, or Aviator, statuses.

My story

I travel a fair amount for my day job and end up spending 40 to 60 nights away from home each year.  Just even typing it I feel the conflict inside.  I love my family and love my friendships that await my return each trip I spend away.

For some business travel can be a nice deviation from their real life.

For me, real life beats any business trip.  I work for an international software company.  I travel because it is a necessary requirement to meet our current and future customers in the comfort of their conference rooms and offices.

Face-to-face meetings enable for a human connection to occur.  I utilize web conferencing technology like GoToMeeting or Webex regularly, but I also know when you simply have to be there in person.

I view it as a trade

I trade days and nights away from my family for compensation that enables for care of my family.  Some weeks I’m not so sure it is a good trade.  Using the principle of Dollar Cost Averaging for Life I settle in for the trend over time.

As you read this you see the precariousness of my goal.

I travel a lot but I value being at home.  I value caring well for my family and I am away from home a week or more each month.

The world will always tell us what constitutes success, but most of the world doesn’t live a life I want.

Redefining success empowers us to pursue our own target versus accidently achieving one that leaves us like our friend George Clooney.

How about you?

What I Learn When I Leave Suburbia to Chase Adventure

In the past six months I’ve experienced some adventures that are worth sharing with you.

As the years tick on I am gaining more understanding of my unique offering to the world.

Summarized, I am really good at playing.

I used to not believe it.

I thought everyone loved adventure and sought it out regardless of the circumstances they found themselves in.

A gift that’s meant to be given away

As more gray hair finds it’s way into my crown, I realize that I am entrusted with this gift.

I have an insatiable desire to see what is around the next corner.

When I leave Suburbia and pursue Adventure here is what I’ve learned.

By way of invitation I’d like to share a handful of stories of what I found around a few corners.

Fly Fishing the Gray Reef

Me on the Gray Reef

“The Reef” sounds like some coastline of ocean doesn’t it?  Wyoming’s N. Platte river houses a special section of water that provides a perfect combination of temperature, depth and food.  The river incubates monsters trout.

Dr. Bruce Kautz has become a friend.

Bruce is our pediatrician who for years helped lead the fight to keep my special needs daughter alive.

He diagnosed Hadley twelve years ago with cerebellum hypoplasia (her brain did form correctly).

He was there to admit us into the hospital where she died two years ago (January 28th 2011).

More on our family story at McHughStory.com.

What does this have to do with fly fishing and adventure?

Bruce called me out of the blue in late September and said,

Hey you still fish?

Yeah, I still fish.

Wanna go to Wyoming with me for two days with a guide and fish the Reef?

Of course I’ll go.

Bruce and our guide

As I fought back tears, I told him I’d call him back and let him know if I could go.

I called my wife and told her the story and we both agreed the answer was “of course”.

Bruce (I still don’t feel comfortable calling him by his first name) was in the thick and thin of our life.  He saw us at our worst: accidental drug overdoses, broken femurs, hospitalizations, surgeries, infections, and writing scripts for wheelchairs, feeding tubes and seizure medications.

He is an honorable man. He called it work, but our family called it salvation.

Here is the punch line

Picture me laughing my xxx off in the front of the boat hooking up with big trout for two days.

Now picture me with a sore wrist from hooking and landing more fish than fishermen with nets and a rowboat.

Do you see the contrast?

He lived with us through the famine of our life and now he is offering me an adventure to experience “plenty”.

Surfing Hawaii-The Big Island

Mike Field Surf Board Art

After I resigned from an eight-year career and I needed a break.

I cashed in some miles to fly to the Big Island, HI.

My good friend Sam (who taught me how to play) invited me to come soak in some aloha.

Live Aloha by not planning

I used to fill the calendar with events and obligations.

Now I go with a list of desires and try and let the week take shape.

That said, my friend Sam might still say I’m still learning how to live Aloha.

I guess I still have too much Howlie in me?

Here is a quick run down:

How is this not just bragging?

I’ve taken a lot of relational risks over the years.

Mike, Sam, Kevin, and “T” have all received relational deposits from me over the years.

I’ve sought these guys out through phone calls, emails, texts and surprises in the mail.

As a result we’ve forged a friendship that enables for me to be invited into their worlds.

I am not just a visitor, I’ve become a friend.

A morning paddle or a surf session is their normal.

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I get to participate in a story that is already in motion.

They simply make a place for me in it.

The beauty of this kind of adventure is that it is not a simulation of the authentic.

It’s the real deal.

Mountain Biking the Redwoods

The fellas heading into the Redwood Forest

Meet Bill.

He is the Director of Guest Services at Mount Hermon Conference Center outside of Santa Cruz, CA.

He’s been there for 18 years and can’t imagine doing anything else.

In case you’ve never been there, picture gigantic trees that are 2,400 years old with a high-ropes course 100 feet up into the canopy.

Jurassic Park meets the Ewoks from Return of the Jedi.

I met the mild mannered Bill while attending a Wild at Heart Boot Camp.

Do you see the connection?

  • Bill graciously agrees to take us on a guided tour of the redwoods for a two hour mountain bike ride.
  • He supplied the bikes, the route and the invitation.
  • It was a story already in-motion and this is Bill’s normal.
  • He rides this ride once or twice a week but he was stoked to take a bunch of hacks out for a cruise.

Check out the rag-tag crew above.  Ambassador Bill on the right.

Two Hours of Surfing in Santa Cruz

My brother Matt suiting up

Better than shuffleboard

Most people would assume that three hours is not long enough to have an adventure.

Between breaks during our weekend at Mt. Hermon, Matt, my brother, and I got a hook-up from my friend Curious Gabe.

Gabe is a long-standing columnist and photographer for Surfer Magazine.

I asked him….

Who should we call to go surfing?

Gabe, being said “Definitely Richard Schmidt Surf School”.

Thanks to Gabe

A few emails later, we were scheduled for a 2 pm surf lesson.

Although we didn’t have some great story of relational connectedness, we did have a twenty-something who loves surfing enough that he works only to earn money for beer and gas.

Down the hill, wetsuit on, catching waves, wetsuit off, back up the hill all in three hours.

You should’ve seen our smiles.

When all the other guys opted for shuffleboard or a game of cards, we lived an Outside Magazine article.

Up and back to Barr Camp

102,00 Feet on Pikes Peak

Barr Camp has been around since the early 1900’s.

It is located seven miles up the Barr Trail on the way to the summit of Pikes Peak.

Its charming but rugged with a couple of beds, a wood stove and two young ladies cooking up ramen noodles and coffee.

In order to get there you have to be willing to climb 2,800 feet of elevation.

For most people it takes between three or four hours from the parking lot.

My buddy Ray Cameron’s son was back from college for the weekend so we joined the youngsters in an up and back trip one Saturday morning in February.

We swap stories

Ray and I chat personal finances, business challenges and the challenges of dealing with his daughter’s cancer.

Hiking trails provide a phenomenal context for unpacking stories. 

I love the concept of parallel play.

The idea that boys and men play better together when they are doing something versus just sitting at a coffee table.

I love coffee and can gladly polish a pitcher of beer with fellas, but I love being on the trail more.

Climbing James Peak in a blizzard

This one makes me laugh just thinking about it. One of my favorite mountaineers was Alex Lowe.

He had this charismatic and optimism that was infectious.  He was a physical specimen of a man at 6′ 4″ he could move across mountains like a superhero can climb buildings.

I was able to meet him once and we had a good chat about the time I met some of his friends while climbing Mt. Rainier.

Alex Lowe, James Peak and Matt Dealy

My buddy Matt Dealy and I love mountains. And we have this unfortunate reality of our lives that we dream of mountains more often than we experience them. This day, we purposed to go into them.

We wanted to hike/climb James Peak outside of Idaho Springs, CO.  I had guided a client up the mountain ten+ years ago.

I knew we had the probability of a coin toss that we would make it to the top.

Alex Lowe would always say,“You can’t tell what is happening up there from down here”.

I always loved that mantra.

Alex’s words encouraged me to push higher on climbs and not give up or turn around just because it appeared to be was crappy weather above you.

It was literally a blizzard outside

Matt and I couldn’t even get out of the car.

We drove to 10,000 feet and there were no other cars in the parking lot.

No snowplow had cleared the road.

The iPhone weather app promised snow and wind.

We packed our packs and headed up anyway.

Luckily I’d been there a dozen times and could navigate our way up to St. Mary’s Glacier.

I love pushing in a controlled environment

What I mean is that I love suffering when it is by choice.

Why?

In life suffering is so uncertain. 
You don’t know when it will end.

In life you are unable to foresee how long the suffering or discomfort will last.

You have no idea when relief is going to arrive.

I hate that reality.

In the mountains you can always turn around and go home.

In the mountains, you are largely in control of how bad it gets or how long it lasts.

Most people don’t think this is kind of blizzard adventure is fun.

Matt’s one of the few friends that enjoys this kind of day.

In the end, we didn’t make it very far up the mountain before we decided that some hot coffee sounded better than snow sandblasting our faces.

Skiing with my daughter Averi

I saved the best story for last. My daughter Averi is almost 12.  She is an algorithm of beauty, joy, and athleticism. We escaped suburbia a few weeks ago for a ski day at Monarch outside of Salida, CO.

It was just the two of us

After three kids I now know that the activity itself is not the point.

Spending time together is the point.

When my firstborn Holden was 12 year old I failed at this principle.

When he was young, I thought the adventure was the point.

Now when I play with my kids I am better able to flex with their temperature and go at their pace.

They may argue that point.

If we need to stop and get a Starbucks to bribe them to keep going, we will.

If we need to go inside to warm up and eat a $20 lunch, then we do.

I won’t bore you with my young type-A fatherly dysfunctions.

Luckily we can always start being the fathers and mothers that we wish we were yesterday by starting to change today.

I hope you will risk pursuing an adventure very soon.

If you can’t think of one, shoot me an email and I’ll give you some idea starters.

am@aaronmchugh.com 

Free eBook: Don’t Quit Your Job. Fire Your Boss.

Download Your FREE copy
This is an invitation to unravel what the world has taught you.

Early praise for Don’t Quit Your Job. Fire Your Boss.

“This absolutely beautiful book is a true whack of the truth on the side of your career.”

Seth Godin, Author The Icarus Deception

“I loved this book. Reader beware: this book will call you out and into your best work.”

Jeff Goins, Author, Wrecked

“This brave book helps you cast aside the unwritten contract of compliance and take control to start living the life you really want.”

Clay Hebert, co-founder WorkHacks

“Revolutionary. McHugh pulls the string that unravels a person and leaves them only with hope.”

Morgan Snyder, Author, Become Good Soil

Don’t Quit Your Job. Fire Your Boss. is for you if…

1. You want to enjoy going to work each day.

2. You feel confident that your career is too important to approach with apathy.

3. You want to gain greater influence at work.

4. You’re ready to explore new alternatives for finding recognition for your work.

After reading, you’ll be able to:

1. Establish a unique strategy for firing your boss.

2. Know how to obtain the freedom to offer your best in any job.

3. Understand why quitting your job won’t help you.

The Free offer

I am giving this book away for free.

No strings attached.

Yes, absolutely free. That means:

  • No email address required.
  • No hoops to jump through.
  • You can forward it to anyone you’d like.

And yes, I know this is a bad way (in theory) to “build a platform.”

If you want more, you’ll come back.

CLICK HERE

Why the Status Quo is Not Ready For Your Innovation?

Moon Up Close by Gustavo (creative commons)

The more innovative the more barriers the status quo will erect in your way.
Guy Kawasaki

Innovation can be like
selling tickets to the moon

There is a direct correlation between how innovative your product (or idea) is and how many barriers you will encounter.

Every product faces barriers.

If you have personal experience with delivering a product or idea to market, I am confident that your journey was full of challenges.

Let’s agree that business is difficult.

And innovating anything takes time, effort, energy, smarts, marketing and money.

But New is not the same as Innovative.

[Innovation] + [Status Quo]
=More Barriers In Your Way

Innovators see the future
before it’s possible

In 2005, my friend Vance Brown envisioned how gasoline pricing should all be controlled from a mobile phone.

There was no path, no map and no customers asking for the solution.

  • The Palm Treo was the only Smartphone on the market.
  • High-speed Internet connections were not available in most convenience stores.
  • Devices were not connected.

We started selling futures.

It was like throwing spaghetti on the wall to see what would stick.

In hindsight it was like asking someone if they would like to go to the moon.

Me:   “Would you like to go to the moon in the future?”

Prospective Customer:   “Yes, I’d love to.”

Me:   “Would you go ahead and pre-pay for your ticket now and then we will go build the rocket ship?”

(PC):   “Why don’t you come back when the rocket ship is finished and we can talk”?

Status Quo Erected Barriers

  • We like the way we’ve been doing it for 25 years.
  • It has never been done before.
  • The Internet is too slow.
  • It will never pass our security audit.
  • My staff will never get behind it.

It took us the better part of eight years to break down these barriers.

Guy advises to do whatever it takes

We adopted the Free Trial approach to get the software in the customer’s hands.

Once they could witness the Innovation first-hand, they were believers.

Our solution was not merely a nuance change. 

It was a revolutionary change to the customer’s core beliefs and day-to-day operations.

Innovative products are not easy to sell.

Incremental Improvement is not Innovation

I believe that the distinction of Innovative should be reserved for very few.

Key question:

Is there a model, a path, or a similar solution to follow?

Why the iPad mini is not innovative?

Examples of New but not Innovative:

  1. GoToMeeting HD video  HD quality video for your conferencing.
  2. iPad Mini  Smaller screen than iPad.
  3. The Samsung Galaxy phone  The biggest smartphone screen.

In each of these examples they already have customers buying a similar product.

  • Improve your video quality
  • Shrink your device size by 40%
  • Increase your screen

I don’t believe they are experiencing the kind of Status Quo barriers that Guy Kawasaki is speaking about.

Cool-Yes.  Innovative-No.

Innovation in the face of the Status Quo

iPad

Innovation: 

No keyboard. Wi-Fi only.
Download from our App store.

Status Quo Barriers:

Obsolete soon, Already have a computer and smartphone,
No Flash, on AT&T, Too heavy, No camera, Too expensive.

Netflix

Innovation:

Stop going to blockbuster,“We will mail it to you or watch it over the Internet”.

Status Quo Barriers:

Started in 1997 with no peers.  Offered Pre-Paid Postage,
Limited titles, limited geographic coverage,
delays due to US mail, Subscription model instead of per title.

Square

Innovation:
Accept a credit card for payment from anyone.

Status Quo Barriers:

Credit Card companies in control since 1950’s.
Old Model: Minimum fees per month and higher % rate per transaction.

Can you image the naysayers?

I wish we could have attended the meetings at Apple, Netflix and Square when some heretic announced his/her ideas for the above.

You can’t make a computer without a keyboard or disk drive.

You can’t mail a DVD.

Only businesses can accept Credit Cards.

Why the Status Quo usually wins?

It’s easier.

It’s easier to keep providing incremental improvement to existing products or services that customers are already buying.

It’s risky to create a product that cannot fit into an existing category.

Reference:

Guy’s quote from his blog in 2006.

The way life should work is that innovative products are easy to sell. Dream on. Life isn’t fair. Indeed, the more innovative, the more barriers the status quo will erect in your way. Entrepreneurs should understand this upfront and not get flustered when market acceptance comes slowly. I’ve found that the best way to break barriers is enable people to test-drive your innovation: download your software; take home your hardware, whatever it takes.

Read more from Guy Kawasaki  

Why I Don’t Convert Ideas into Action

Finished Ironman CDA 2005

Thinking but not committing

If you are anything like me, I bet you spend a lot of time thinking and dreaming about starting something new.

For me it can range from an Adventure trip that I want to go on to an ebook I’ve been writing.

Ideas into action are more difficult.

There is a pattern.

But I notice a pattern when the ideas in my head swirl around but no action is produced, I know its time to assess the source of my reluctance.

Today, I am hesitating calling a desired podcast guest that I’d like to interview.

The best I can tell I am simply nervous that she will say no.

And she might.

Converting ideas to action.

1) What is stopping me from starting?

I hear that little voice in my head always taunting me.  Telling me to be realistic, safe, and reliable.

What might I hear if turned down the volume on the voice of self-protection, self-preservation and safety?

What am I really afraid of?  

Rejection?  Being a bother?  No one liking what I create?

I actually feel much better when I can hear myself say or read the words that are holding me back.

The words or emotions behind the fear seem to have less power once I say them out loud.

2) Have I written down my plan or idea?

I find that when I write down in a journal or a notepad what it is I want to begin, it becomes more tangible and attainable.

The power of seeing my ideas and words on paper in front of me further commits me to launch. When it is electronic, it’s easy to skip past it in your list of Word docs or read emails.

3) What is the worst that could happen?

I recently resigned from a leadership position that I held for almost eight years at a software division that I helped start.

I labored over the decision for years.

One of the most helpful questions for me to answer was this one.

How bad could it get?  

This is a phenomenal exercise to spend some time on.

Ask yourself this question and then write down everything bad that you could envision happening.

“I could loose my job, not have health insurance, have to live with my in-laws, and live with the shame for failing”.

It is so liberating to actually see on paper what I was afraid of.

Some of it was down right laughable.

Some of it was actually uncomfortable but still not tragic.

4) Facing the Dragons

I think you will find that staring face-to-face with your perceived dragons will liberate you.

They are not as powerful or dangerous once you identify them.

I’m going to go make that call and invite the podcast guest.

Wish me luck.

How to Change the World that You Live in Today?

Photo by Bonnie Courtland (Creative Commons)

We wish the world was a better place.

We wish our life was easier.

And we can easily defer the responsibility to change the world to other people.

We assume we are:

  • Too busy
  • Too important
  • Not important enough
  • Too old
  • Too young

Maybe the best way to change the world is to start with the little patch that we live within.

This video is a wonderful example of heart and art being offered to the world.

Originally shared by Daniel H. Pink.  Check out his site.

One Man’s Quest to Make a City Smile

A great podcast that you might enjoy also:

Living the Truest Version of You with Jon Dale.