sheraan - Tumblr blog

[sheraan]

Startup Q&A with Fin24

I recently did a wide ranging Q&A with Fin24 on startups, my personal journey, and some advice for budding entrepreneurs. 

The article was titled “Tech start-up space not for the faint hearted”.

Here is the full text:

The technology start-up space is a major drawcard for many of the world’s brightest and most ambitious young minds.

Lured by the prospect of developing the next Facebook, Google or Instagram, these techno-whizzkids constantly create and launch new apps, platforms and other tech-based product offerings, in the hope that one of them will fly, be sold for a billion dollars and they can retire to their island paradise and sip margaritas all day.

In truth, the harsh reality is that the odds of such runaway success in the tech space are probably about the same as a budding actress from Benoni making it as an A-list star in Hollywood. Oh wait … Charlize aside, for every moderately successful tech-based start-up, there are literally thousands of ideas, apps, products and services – many of which burnt through millions of dollars in investor funding – that never made any money.

The reasons for this litany of failed products and dashed dreams are numerous, and more often than not linked to the cash runway ending before the plane can take off. Simply put, it costs big money to get a tech-based offering off the ground, and this is compounded by the fact that many tech products do not generate any income until they are far down the road, and can take years to achieve profitability or economies of scale. By way of example, Hubspot generated $186.4m in revenue last year, and still lost money.

One entrepreneur who has experienced first-hand the rollercoaster ride that is the tech start-up space, is Cape Town-based Sheraan Amod. A veritable veteran of the tech industry at the relatively young age of 30, Amod has spearheaded the development of three major tech-based start-ups over the past decade or so, both in the US and here in South Africa.

He understands first-hand the unique challenges and opportunities presented by the ever-growing reliance on technology to make our lives easier, improve business processes, create access to markets and resources and even manage our health. He shares some of these insights with us below:

1. You have been operating in the tech start-up space since 2008. What made you choose this industry specifically, or did it choose you?

I’ve been passionate about technology my entire life— I was one of those kids who spent hours every day tinkering with computers. It made sense that many of my role models were leaders in the tech industry. Building start-ups is the ultimate challenge because it’s so difficult; but I relish the underdog mentality and “small team trying to change the world” underlying theme of it all. I suppose one could say that the start-up industry and I chose each other…

2. You have founded three businesses over the past 7 years (Personera, Springlab and RecoMed). Which of these has been the most valuable in terms of lessons learned, and why is that?

Founding start-ups is a lot like falling in love. They begin with passion and energy, but sure enough great heartache is also part of the journey. Everybody knows that their first great love and subsequent heartbreak change them the most... so if I am to relate this to my career I’d have to say that Personera was my most valuable experience.

I was young and foolish enough to dare to go global with a world-first concept, and while we did eventually commercialise and sell the company in the US, it was only after some incredibly draining and difficult periods that I don’t wish to repeat.

While other companies I’ve started have had their own special challenges to conquer, it was pretty smooth sailing in comparison to Personera. The simple lessons I took away from Personera were three-fold, viz. (1) innovation is useless unless it delivers value (and customers will thus pay for it), (2) never give up, and (3) never ever give up!

3. You describe yourself as a Renaissance Man. Does your love for learning and culture influence your approach to business, and if so, how?

I sometimes describe myself as an “aspiring” Renaissance Man, but I don’t take this moniker too seriously. Mostly, I’m just a very curious person, and enjoy all forms of learning and expressing myself in different ways — be that in running a start-up, writing essays, or participating in boxing matches.

I believe that having a broad field of vision, while being able to develop laser focus on key aspects and connect them together, does create an advantage in business. It’s well known that the greatest innovations usually occur at the intersection of different disciplines and cultures.

4. What are the three most important things an aspiring tech entrepreneur should know?

- Fortune favours the bold. It’s impossible to build a great company, or get investors excited about an opportunity, without having a bold and challenging vision of where the company is going. You cannot start a fire with a wet match…

- Cash flow is more important than your mother. I borrowed this one from the legendary Ken Morse of the MIT Enterprise Forum, but it’s too good not to share. Cash is the oxygen that keeps start-ups alive. Founders need to understand how much they need and what rate to use it, but at the end of the day even the most promising companies can be destroyed quickly by a cash flow crisis.

- Luck favours the persistent.  Start-ups almost never “succeed” early and grow sustainably — regardless of what investors may wish for. Most encounter several torrid periods that threaten the company’s existence. Push through these periods and just keep surviving. Eventually things will grow again, or a game-changing opportunity will arise that the company can capitalise on. A lot of observers like to call this phenomenon “luck”!

So in summary I would say be bold, watch your cash flow, and don’t give up!

5. Collectively, your business ventures have managed to raise impressive amounts from investors, including venture capital, angel investment, equity finance and other financial instruments. Is there any preferred source of finance for a tech start-up, and what do potential financial partners look for above all else?

There is no preferred source of funding, because the sources change depending on the stage that the company is at. I favour friends, family and angel investors at the seed stages, then venture capital once the company is clearly on a growth trajectory. In all of my experience, I notice financial partners asking the same three questions, in this order: (1) Is the founding team bankable? (2) Is the business opportunity big enough? and (3) Is the risk worth it?

A “bankable" founding team usually carries a combination of smarts, domain expertise, experience, reputation and commitment to the start-up. A "big enough" business opportunity usually means a company that can generate at minimum R100m in annual revenue at high net margins. “Risk” is a tricky one, but most commonly refers to the price of the deal, i.e. does the investor feel that they are receiving sufficient equity in the business to produce a valuable return?

6. You were quite well established in the US, but made a decision to move your operations back to SA. What prompted that return home?

I returned because I could see large economic opportunities that nobody was going after properly. South Africa combines many elements of developed and emerging markets, and can be a great place to build a sustainable business base from which to expand to other similar emerging markets. There’s a lot of negative stuff going on in the media these days, but long-term I believe things will get better and well-prepared entrepreneurs will succeed.

7. Finally, tell us a bit about RecoMed, and why it seems to be making some waves in the healthcare space?

Every month, more than one million doctor-related Google searches are made in South Africa alone. I can’t even guess how many phone calls are made by patients and call centres to organise healthcare bookings nationally — probably hundreds of millions. I saw an opportunity to make this process simpler, quicker and more seamless, and to close the loop between searching, calling and booking, by developing a platform that allows people to do both.

In essence, RecoMed is an online platform listing healthcare practitioners that also offers a real-time booking facility for patients wishing to make an appointment — which they can do in seconds using their phone or tablet. It also integrates with any existing practice management software that doctors may be using, as well as with call centres that manage bookings on behalf of patients.

RecoMed’s platform is also being applied to large scale healthcare solutions, such as use in wellness screening days, chronic disease management programmes, and coordinating insurance medicals. It is still quite early days, but the response has been overwhelmingly positive and we have the support of many of the really big players in the healthcare space, so I am thoroughly enjoying the ride in what is a new industry for me.

* Amod is passionate about sharing the lessons he has learned via his blog (http://sheraan.com/ ). He can be contacted at sheraan@recomed.co.za or visit www.recomed.co.za to learn more about his latest tech-based venture.

* Anton Ressel, a regular Fin24 small business columnist and expert answering user questions, is a mentor and business development specialist.

[sheraan]

A Brief Birthday Reflection

As I sit down to write this brief reflection, I can’t help but notice how little time I manage to find to write these days. And yet, writing is one of my great pleasures. 

The stillness and heavy darkness outside bear the perfect conditions for deep, reflective thinking. And yet, though I crave it often, genuine contemplation too often eludes me. 

What I’ve slowly come to realise as time marches on, is that life is speeding up. The noise of endless priorities, commitments and perpetual motion in all areas creates a cacophony that becomes a hidden mental prison if one is not looking out for the bars. The natural outcome of this neuro-treadmill is reduced insight, function and ultimately, expectation.

Dimmed expectations is something that I’ve spent my entire life rallying against. It’s difficult to assume the role of the perfectionist and the star-chaser— quixotic even— but there is a personal truthfulness to it. To listen to one’s internal music in spite of the noise; and wake up every morning to play is a beautiful thing! 

In “A Farewell to Arms” by Ernest Hemingway (one of my favourite authors), Count Greffi tells Henry: “No, that is the great fallacy; the wisdom of old men. They do not grow wise. They grow careful.” On the eve of my birthday, I pose that question to myself. Have I grown careful instead of wise? 

Regardless of the answer, I can confidently say that the coming year of my life will bring meaningful, thoughtful action. Less distraction. More engagement. Greater risk taking. 

In an hour the clock strikes 12, the wheel turns and the next chapter begins. And I’m rather excited.

[sheraan]

Tech start-up space not for the faint hearted

I recently did an interview with Fin24 covering a range of questions on technology startups, as well as my journey and mindset.

Here’s an excerpt:

1. You have been operating in the tech start-up space since 2008. What made you choose this industry specifically, or did it choose you?

I’ve been passionate about technology my entire life— I was one of those kids who spent hours every day tinkering with computers. It made sense that many of my role models were leaders in the tech industry. Building start-ups is the ultimate challenge because it’s so difficult; but I relish the underdog mentality and “small team trying to change the world” underlying theme of it all. I suppose one could say that the start-up industry and I chose each other…

Read the full interview here.

[sheraan]

Success, Self Belief and Floyd Mayweather Jr

I really enjoyed this article in Boxing News about one of Floyd Mayweather Jr’s excellent title fights 13 years ago, more for the things it revealed about Mayweather’s personality and media perception than for the boxing commentary (which was also great).

Here are some notable quotes and personal commentary from the article.

"When the subject was raised earlier in the year, Mayweather just wasn’t producing exciting fights at lightweight and the tendency was to pour cold water on it."

COMMENT: Well, he bucked the trend, created a villain persona and showed us how boring fights could become the highest earners in the sport (because people would tune in to see if anyone could beat him).

'“I’m not out to get the fastest car or more jewellery,” said the father of four, who has come through domestic violence difficulties in the past. “I’ve done been there.'

COMMENT: Haha, well we know where that ended up. He was masking his personality earlier in his career and later just embraced it.

Mayweather: “When I retire, I want to have boxed everybody. And it won’t matter if I wasn’t a knockout artist. All I ever claimed to be is a winner. An ugly victory is better than a pretty loss, but my last two fights at home weren’t pleasing, so I really want to put on a show.”

COMMENT: Mayweather ended up making more money off boring fights than anyone in history. He proved he couldn't be beaten, and got people to tune in, no matter how unentertaining the contest was.

"Mayweather and Arum have had public spats in the past when the fighter’s ego was running out of control – he wanted his image to be as large as that of Britney Spears on the outside of the MGM Grand, for example. He famously called a multi-million-dollar offer from HBO a slave contract; he missed press conferences, felt persecuted. The change may have come at the second Castillo fight when his grandmother, Bernice, took him aside and gave him a dressing down. Here, at least, he enjoyed the fruits of his changed manner."

COMMENT: Nonsense, he didn't change... he got actually got far worse but achieved his every ambition (however vain).

LESSON: Be yourself. Don't apologize for authenticity, even if it turns people off. Pursue your dreams, whatever they may be. Because success can only be attained if it's driven from an authentic burning sense of desire and self belief.

(Side note: I really don't like Mayweather, his "Money" persona or his effect on the sport of Boxing, but I have oodles of respect for his drive, talent, and undeniable success at doing things his way).

[sheraan]

Business Insight: Always Pick Up The Bill

I’m going to be writing more short, pithy posts (inspired by #9 of Seth Godin’s tips for bloggers) from now on. This is the first of my “Business Insights” series.

I was having coffee with someone heading up a division at a large customer today, and when it was time to wrap up as usual I offered to take care of the bill. This person had been at the table for some time before me and ordered a couple of items whereas I only had coffee, but I sorted out the bill anyway with minimal fuss or hassle.

For entrepreneurs, this sort of behaviour should be automatic. Picking up the check ought to be a habit. The relatively tiny cost of lunches is far outweighed by the way that this pattern makes one stand out from other small companies who fuss over things like splitting the bill or allowing (even asking!) customers to pay for them. Reciprocity and goodwill go a long way in life and in business... even with the little things.

So next time you’re having a lunch or dinner meeting, pick up the bill. Always.

[sheraan]

Military History Lessons for Decisive Thinkers

I’m finally back to blogging! I regret being away for so long. 

During my sabbatical I’ve had the pleasure of catching up on a broad range of subject matter, including one of my favourite indulgences: military history.

For the armchair historian, war buff, or general strategic thinker, the following recommended audio courses offer a veritable treasure trove of information. While a little pricey, they are most certainly worth it. (Pro tip: subscribe to the Audible.com $15 credit and get these courses much cheaper there).

Without further ado, here are my top recommendations for the aspiring leader or casual dabbler:

1. The Decisive Battles of World History

2. Espionage and Covert Operations: A Global History

3. Masters of War: History’s Great Strategic Thinkers

The Great Courses are the definitive place for audio and video learning material. I first learned about their amazing resources from Bill Gates’s blog.

Happy listening!

[sheraan]

Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan Press On! has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.

Calvin Coolidge

[sheraan]

How Leaders Gather Teams, Not Employees

(This piece was originally written for the Nashua Blog).

Every company wants the best people to work for them. The “best people” are those who bring a unique combination of talent, experience and high productivity to whatever roles they occupy. In fact, the success of many companies can be judged entirely on the quality of their people – both leaders and employees.

The best people don’t need to work for you The word “employee” actually makes me uncomfortable. A long time ago I stopped using this word entirely and began referring to employees purely as team members. This changed my thinking profoundly and went a long way toward building a company culture that made hiring and retaining the best people much easier.

Let me explain. The best people don’t need to work for you (or me). They can take their skills and experience, and get great positions at any number of companies of their choosing. The battle to attract great people is real, and you can bet that your top people often receive calls and emails from recruiters.

Leaders need to work as much for their people, as their people do for them. Great people are constantly judging their leaders, colleagues and workplace in general. When a great team member chooses to leave a company, they are effectively choosing to fire their boss and hire a new one.

They don’t work for you, they work with you As leaders in the modern workplace, we need to gather teams, not hire lots of employees. We’re just part of the team, with various responsibilities, that help everybody get their work done.

Performance management therefore becomes a two-way process, where both managers and other team members are able to rate each other’s work, attitude and overall contribution to the organisation. An organisation where leaders are treated with any level of immunity to this two-way evaluation process won’t be able to retain the best people for long.

It took me a while to change that ego-boosting conversational habit of saying something like “she works for me” to “we work together”, but the results have been spectacular. All leaders could use a little more humility and accountability, and meeting all people in a company on the same peer level does wonders for company culture.

[sheraan]

5 Tools To Streamline Your Workplace

(This article was originally written for CEO Magazine.)

“Technology is making us less productive.”

We’ve probably heard that line or mentioned it ourselves many times in the last few years. It’s easy to feel like the bombardment of notifications and emails keeping us glued to mobile phones do little to improve focus and collaboration at work.

Nowhere is this truer than in high tech companies that take pride in living on the bleeding edge of what is new and trendy when it comes to tools and gadgets. Luckily, there is some good news too. Embracing technology in the right way can be a major boost to organisational productivity.

Cloud-based applications are available to anyone with an Internet connection and a web browser, and offer some of the smartest ways to get work done in teams. The five products described below are my favourite tools for streamlining everything from email to file sharing and accounting. They���re all easy to adopt, cheap to begin using (most have some sort of free or trial version), and more than justify their investment after just only weeks of use.

1. Slack

Slack (www.slack.com) is like a private chat tool for the entire organisation that actually works. Channels or groups can be easily started on various topics, and private messages are supported too. Slack works well as a real-time chat client, or in period doses, and integrates with a lot of other mainstream tools on the market today. The end result is an increase in effective team communication, and most importantly, a sharp decrease in email!

2. Trello

Trello (www.trello.com) is the digital equivalent of a wall with sticky cards that you can easily move around. It doesn’t try to be too smart or too fancy—it keeps to the basic principles that everyone knows how to move cards through columns on a whiteboard. Boards can be assigned to specific projects or departments, and cards can be assigned to specific people. We keep it simple by using the following four columns or lists to move cards through: Ice Box, To Do, Doing, and Done. Trello is the simplest way to manage a project or track work within a team.

3. Dropbox

Dropbox (www.dropbox.com) should be every company’s filing system. It works like a normal folder on a computer, but is synchronized via the web or network to automatically update once somebody else with access to the folder changes something. Instead of having many different versions of documents floating around the office, using an organized dropbox ensures that the latest files are accessible to team members all of the time.

4. Google Docs

Google Docs (www.google.com/docs) is the best way to collaborate on simple documents, spreadsheets and presentations. The latest versions are stored online and accessible to the entire team. While Google Docs doesn’t yet match MS Office for sheer functionality, it’s ability to handle 90% of the most common needs of teams makes it a magical solution for handling version control and edits by multiple people.

5. Xero

Xero  (www.xero.com) is slowly turning the accepted accounting paradigm on its head by offering a cloud-based system that can be updated and viewed on a continuous basis. Xero enables managers to log in and track their department numbers in real-time, manage payroll, or generate expense claims. When used properly, it demystifies a lot of what actually happens in the accounting department and turns proper accounting into something the team and managers can engage with on a weekly basis; not just an afterthought at the end of the month or quarter.

Used as a group, the sum of the tools described above become nothing short of a revolution in productivity among teams. They represent the way that work will be managed long into the future.

And lastly, my advice for coping with the information overload while trying to focus on something that doesn’t require any sort of collaboration? Turn off that phone and laptop, and pull out a pen and piece of paper.

[sheraan]

The Myth of Smooth Success

When most people see entrepreneurs succeeding, they often think or remark something along the lines of, "Wow, that guy [or girl] really has it figured out. They just keep rising." 

While it may be true that the entrepreneur is doing a great job and operating at an advanced mental level, the mistake often made is that their rise has been smooth, either professionally or personally. Everybody knows that founders work incredibly hard, but so many are fooled that hard work and clever decision on their own are enough to succeed, over and over again.

In my limited experience, I've found that there's a little more to this game than just smarts and laboriousness. After all, people need that to succeed at just about anything in life. In startup entrepreneurship however, there are a lot more unknown and difficult variables to contend with. These could include issues like market timing, tricky investor relations, co-founder politics, or managing a difficult cash runway. It may sound straightforward, but dealing with any of the above when pushed to extremes can feel like a life threatening situation, and raise a person's stress levels to dizzying heights.

As such, "success" tends to show up when the founder has learned to continuously weather these variables and survive- while working hard and cleverly of course- until good things happen. That's what people often refer to as "getting lucky". Even founders, when speaking of their successes will make statements like, "I got lucky there", or "That deal came out of nowhere". Was it luck? Well, yes, to an extent. But in my view, if you stay in the game long enough you're bound to get lucky at some point. That's really what it's all about- being tenacious enough to survive the difficult scenarios; again and again and again.

On the surface and to the outside world though, everything can seem hunky dory. Founders tend to hide their struggles, internalizing them and not wearing their hardships on their sleeves. When viewed in perspective, victories are unimaginably hard won at times, yet this is unseen by most. And therein lies the myth of smooth success.

[sheraan]

The Happily Unexpected Consequences of Engineering School

After several months off, I'm back. This article was originally written for the inaugural edition of my Alma Mater's engineering student magazine. Enjoy.

  The Happily Unexpected Consequences of Engineering School 

I have always held a deep, energetic passion for technology. When I went to study a double major engineering degree at UCT [University of Cape Town], I was excited. What would I learn? Who would I get to work with? How will I use these skills in my career one day? These are common questions for any young student. In my case, after leaving university I quickly crossed over into a path of entrepreneurship, where I would I get a crash course in sales, marketing, fundraising, HR and several other areas that I was never taught much about in university. After enough people asked (and continue to ask) me, "Do you regret what you studied?" I pondered this carefully and decided that my answer was a resounding "No". I have realized that while giving me explicit skills in a couple of technical areas, my experience studying engineering also equipped me with a number of implicit skills that I didn't even know I had until long after I graduated. It was as though I was building a hidden toolbox of assets over those four years, and in the years since, I have seen that hidden toolbox continue to help me along. You might be wondering what I mean exactly. In this letter I have shared just a few stories that may illustrate my point.

Thinking back to my engineering classes at university, I can recall various courses where the final deliverable had to be a working demo or functional prototype of some sort. I remember building an alarm prototype for Embedded Systems, writing a predictive text program for Computer Science, and even whipping components together on a breadboard to do interesting things with 555 timers in Introduction to Electrical Engineering. The specific assignment isn't what mattered- what mattered is that they forced us to build stuff and make it work. 

As we all now know, there is a marked difference between theory and practice. Sometimes, things don't always work out the way the manual stated they would, and we need to do a little trial and error. At other times, we need to create a hack or workaround and pray that it holds up under testing until we have time to develop a more fundamental solution. Things don't always proceed as planned or on schedule, but deadlines are deadlines. And it has to work, or you could fail. This sounds a lot like a real world product development cycle. In startups, tiny teams are forced to create working products in a short space of time, and it's hardly ever as clean and straightforward as one reads about in business literature. Fortunately, all of those thoughtful planning sessions and hair pulling fault-finding missions during practical assignments offer a solid foundation for us. Engineering grads are rarely frightened by the challenge of creating something new.

In my first year of studies, my classmates and I quickly became swamped with work. Tests, projects, assignments, and the dreadful tutorials piled up. Tutorials were particularly hated, because we had to submit them or risk being disqualified from the course, but their marks didn't count toward the course grade. At that time, I was living in a university residence, and a clever group of around eight to ten disgruntled like-minded students decided that something had to give. (I cannot confirm if I was one of this group because the story to follow is a little incriminating). Battered by mounting work volumes and not enough time to get everything done well and still enjoy university life, these students developed a novel solution to overcoming tut submissions. Every week, the group nominated an individual who's job it was to do the tutorial for a particular subject. The night before the morning submission, the group would band together in a res room, as though a clandestine political party meeting were taking place. The person who did the tut would then have to rapidly take the group through the exercise, explaining how he reached his answers and the methods used, and members would have a chance to pose any questions. Once all were satisfied, the original pages of the tutorial solution would be distributed among the different members, who would then creatively copy (e.g. swap variable names etc.) the entire document in rapid assembly line fashion. Seeing the group effectively distribute different pages among each other and cross check each other’s work in a lightening total time of under an hour was a remarkable sight. In the morning, a postman from the group was nominated to submit everyone’s tuts while the others attended their lectures or decided to sleep in. 

Now, I must admit that this was probably (definitely) breaking the university's rules. And while rule breaking isn't something that I expressly recommend, it's something that entrepreneurs often need to do. (Besides, it's easier to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission anyway, but I digress). While that group of students were possibly "harming their education" by not doing all of their homework solo, they were actually learning hugely valuable lessons in adaptable team work, managing overload, and operating in the margins where those who follow all of the rules wouldn't care to tread. People strong in these traits are golden to startups. I'm not surprised that many of the people from that group in first year went on to pursue highly entrepreneurial careers.

My next story happened much more recently, around two weeks ago. I was in a casual meeting at a coffee shop with a successful Internet entrepreneur and über-geek, and we were discussing a little business. All of a sudden towards the end of the conversation, the following exchange took place.

"So, I assume that as a business guy, you haven't ever written a line of code in your life" he said.

"No. Actually I have been a techie since I was a kid; I was a programmer for several years and studied Electrical and Computer Engineering at university" I replied.

"Oh, that's cool. I was just checking. So if I asked about using a CDN to speed up load times you'd know what I was talking about."

"Yes, we could have a nice debate about the merits of AWS plus CloudFront versus an optimized local box to increase app speed..."

Recognition flashed across his face, a wry smile developed in the corner of his mouth, and we continued to wrap up the business at hand. This type of conversation has happened over and over again in my career as a technology entrepreneur. Even though I don't work as an engineer anymore, I interact with engineers and technically minded people all the time. And the simple but unfortunate fact of the matter is that if you haven't earned your chops in a technical faculty before and are unable to stand toe to toe in a technical discussion, they simply won't extend the same level of camaraderie and mutual respect toward you as they would to one of their own. In my experience, business is mostly a practical skill that can be picked up on the go, while engineering requires deep understanding and conceptual frameworks that are less easy to learn "on the job". So even though I'm not an engineer anymore and I have crossed over to the business side of the outfit, I am still lucky to be considered as an insider and team player by the technical folks, and that matters massively. To best work with or lead people, it's essential to understand them. 

Casting my mind back to graduation day all those years ago, I distinctly remember feeling elated- but this was an equal mix between a sense of achievement, and a genuine sense of survival. I’m sure you know what I mean. When looking at that result after a difficult test or exam, sometimes the first thought that comes to mind is not "Look at my incredible mark!" but rather "Wow, I didn't fail!” Studying engineering is hard. But then again, business is no picnic either, and it's good to be tough. The outcomes are worth it. And as I am continuing to learn in a career of entrepreneurship, engineering students tend to develop some unexpected but highly useful tools that pay dividends for a long time to come.

[sheraan]

5 Great Autobiographies to Read

As you probably know by now, I love reading. Lately, I have been enjoying autobiographies of various flavours. Here are 5 great recommendations. Every one of these books taught me something and made me think in profound ways- surely the hallmark of a successful read.

1. Open - Andre Agassi

This book surprised me by Agassi's constant revelation of "I hate tennis". It's a deeply personal autobiography that really helped me understand his character, his personal struggles and the good and bad of being a world class athlete picked from a young age. I'm a huge tennis fan and grew up watching him play, so his detailed retelling of important matches was probably much more digestible for me than for the casual reader. But the gold in this book lies in realizing how even the elite among us are only human, how even highly successful journeys can end up being lonely, and why having a great partner is so important.

2. Total Recall - Arnold Schwarzenegger

I am self confessed Arnold fanboy. After all, I started bodybuilding at a young age and he is a hero among bodybuilders. And I have huge respect for his success in entertainment, business, and politics. Arnold's recent memoir has not garnered the best critical reviews, but I don't care. I loved reading this book. Arnold shares surprising facts about his humble youth in post World War II Austria, and works hard to constantly remind the reader of how it was his relentless focus, drive and ambition that propelled him from achievement to achievement. As an avid gym-goer, I appreciated how many pages he spent describing his journey in bodybuilding and deep interest in health and fitness. There were a lot of excellent business lessons here too, one of the most memorable being not to over think things (or you might quit before your start), but rather just take the leap and get stuck in when you really want to do something.

3. Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman! - Richard P. Feynman

Richard P. Feynman had to have been one of the most curious characters of the 20th century. He was a Nobel prize winning physicist, safecracker, amateur artist, professional samba band musician, renowned Caltech professor and quite a Lothario as well. There were a couple of unique things in this book that totally floored me. Feynman had a deep interest in learning things with a desire to fully understand them, working from first principles or inventing his own, and doing work that was meaningful and personally rewarding. He also had plenty of side pursuits and wasn't afraid to try new things (usually with remarkable success). This strange autobiography is filled with interesting stories and opinions from one of the most fun scientific geniuses I can imagine.

4. Kitchen Confidential - Anthony Bourdain

A close friend of mine recently adopted a career path as a high end chef, complete with studying at a prestigious school and working at fine restaurants. I was captivated by his stories of the brutal, abusive yet addictive professional kitchen culture. Bordain's memoir really is a tell-all on the kitchen industry, and it's brilliant. He shares plenty of tips and insights related to food, but this book is mostly about people, the relationships that make the restaurant industry work, and just how different that world is to that of regular office workers. He's also an exceptional (if rather vulgar!) writer, and this book had me spellbound from start to finish. 

5. The First Billion is the Hardest - T. Boone Pickens

Boone Pickens is a helluva interesting guy. At age 27, he started a drilling company that turned into a small oil empire, then changed the corporate takeover landscape in America, and more recently, focused on trading in energy derivatives and equities, with great success. This book chronicles the most recent chapter in his life. What I found astounding is how, in his late sixties, he got kicked out of his own company, got divorced, faced depression and generally hit rock bottom, to turn it all around in a new company and become a billionaire within 10 years. The energy, youthfulness and mental vigour that he gives off in his eighties are truly remarkable. What I enjoyed most about this read though is Boone's wry wit and salty humour that comes through in his excellent storytelling.

[sheraan]

The Pro's and Con's of Frequent Flying

I'm taking a quick break from my usual business themed posts to discuss something that is close to my heart: frequent flying.

Due to my hands-on approach to sales in our company, I have to fly a lot to meet customers or join partner tours all over the USA, as well as internationally. The fact that our company has a head office in Cape Town, South Africa, makes things even more interesting. As a result, I end up flying a lot.

I worked out that in a typical month, I could easily spend 100 hours on planes and in airports. That's a lot of mileage, and a lot of waiting around. I try not to even think about the dozens and dozens of nights spent in hotels, away from home.

Eventually, you learn to take it all in your stride and live with it, but I still can't understand why people think the "jet setter" lifestyle is glamourous. It's not as though business travelers are jetting off to Ibiza or Macau to party every two weeks.

There are some perks though. Here's a summary of the pro's and con's of frequent travel as I see it.

Con's

1. Waking up before the crack of dawn to catch a 6:30am flight. This happens more often than you would think. Particularly in the USA, where you are going to be routed through a major hub like Chicago, where you will wait for 2 hours before getting your connecting flight.

2. Security lines. Usually, this involves rapidly taking off half your clothes and ripping apart your carry-on bag, while often stuck behind impossibly slow vacation travelers, or worse- families.

3. Flight delays. A constant irritant in America and Europe's crowded skies. Especially when you are delayed for hours while sitting on the tarmac after boarding a 6am flight, which is often the case at New York's La Guardia airport.

4. Wasting time in between things. There is a lot of "filler time" that needs to be spent while traveling. Checking in, passing security, moving between gates, checking on flight statuses, waiting around while delayed, etc. This can be mildly improved by answering email or reading a little, but it's still pretty much unproductive.

5. Screaming babies on planes. I don't really need to explain this one.

6. Jumping time zones. You eventually learn to deal with jet lag effectively, but it can scramble your body clock somewhat, causing sleepiness during an important meeting, or ravenous hunger in the middle of the night, which isn't exactly ideal.

With the con's now out of the way, let's move on to the better stuff.

Pro's

1. Priority access. With good airline status, you get faster check-in, security line skipping, lounge access and priority boarding. For the frequent traveler, these things are absolutely essential, and make a world of difference. I'm not sure if this is just making the best out of a bad situation, but I know that I truly appreciate it when I have it and painfully miss it when flying on the wrong airline.

2. Time to think. Aside from the waiting around in airports, the actual time spent on a plane can often be a peaceful time to read or think. Not surprisingly, I get most of my blogging done on flights.

3. Hotels (if you like hotels). There is a definite point when checking out new hotels produces diminishing returns (no matter how swanky), but occasionally (and especially when my schedule isn't jam packed), they can be pretty cool.

4. Visiting new cities. Much like the previous point, this really improves when my schedule isn't insane, but either way, there is the chance to grab a business dinner or drive through town on the way to a meeting. I never get to see the sights on business trips, but at least I can say that I've visited a lot of places, sampled the food, and checked them out a little.

5. The camaraderie among regular travelers. Whether they are new acquaintances or old buddies from "the road", frequent travelers tend to get each other, regardless of age. We can swap stories (good and bad) for hours. The quality of this experience is amplified to great effect when salespeople get together.

That's it for now. What are your likes and pet peeves about frequent flying?

[sheraan]

A Simple Way to Set Effective, Motivating Goals

The new year has begun, and this is always a period of time when I do a lot of thinking about the 12 months to come and what I hope to achieve during that time. The new year is the perfect time to reboot our thinking and focus on a concrete set of goals. Everybody has hopes and dreams, but setting goals forces one to add deadlines, quantities and accountability to those dreams.

In this post, I will share my method for goal setting, refined and simplified after years of experimentation. It isn't perfect, but it works for me. Let's get started.

Step 1: Generation

I begin by generally thinking about what I hope to achieve in the year, and let my mind run wild. I don't want to restrain my thought process into thinking of only "realistic" or "important" things, as this hampers one's creative ability. Goals should be deeply emotional, as emotion leads to drive and motivation. I write down the first thoughts that come to my head, in no particular order. These aren't necessarily remarkable or fantastical, but rather just things that I know I want to accomplish in the year ahead. Here are a few typical examples:

Grow company revenue to X

Close X,Y key deals/partnerships

Become a better connector

Go on holiday to an island for a week

Get leaner and healthier

Save/invest X amount of cash

...etc

Even seemingly strange, less important goals that come from an emotional place should be captured at this stage, for example:

Learn to dance salsa

Learn a foreign language

Try Yoga

Read up on a particular topic of interest

Cook a great dinner for my family/friends

Once completed, I usually end up with a list of 15 or so items that get me really jazzed up when I review them. I know that a goal is a good one when I can read it, close my eyes and the thought of achieving it makes me feel genuinely happy and excited. If a goal doesn't begin from that point of inner hope and belief, it would probably be very hard to stick to and follow over an entire year (and why would you be going after it anyway?)

Step 2: Categorization

In the next step, I try to find any blank spots in my plan, so I take a top down view of my important life areas and write them down as categories. These are:

Career

Health & Body 

Mind/mental stimulation

Personal Finance

Social/relational

Recreation/fun

I then place each item from my original list under the appropriate category. If any category is left blank, I take the time to generate a goal to fall under it, and make sure it passes the emotional relevance test. 

Step 3: Quantification

This is the part where the wording and structure of each goal is analyized. It is imperative that every goal starts with a verb (to inspire action), and is specific and measurable. 

For example, using this approach I would rewrite two of the example goals generated in Step 1 in the following way: 

Original statement: Get leaner and healthier

New statement: Lose 10kg to weigh X. 

Or, even better: Reduce waist to 28" at 7% body fat with defined abs.

Original statement: Learn to dance salsa.

New statement: Become an intermediate grade level salsa dancer.

Notice how adding specific detail to the goal clarifies the picture and makes it easier to measure success. While some of the goals I generated in Step 1 would be perfectly fine as is, I go through the entire list and rewrite the ones that are too vague. This process also forces me to add a reality check to my emotional dream, i.e. to go after something that I truly believe is attainable within the time frame of one year.

Step 4: Refinement

Now, I have a list of 15 or so goals that are highly specific, get me genuinely excited when I think about achieving them, and are categorized into 5 or 6 areas. 

As this is a list that I would need to read often and memorize, I have learnt from experience that the life categories become a hinderence to that process and need to be dropped. Instead, all goals are sifted into two lists: Professional, and Personal. Stuff that helps my career move forward is Professional. Everything else is personal by default.

Next- and this is the hard part- the list actually needs to be pruned a bit. Trying to store a list of 15 items in your head is difficult at best, and having too many goals can also take away from the sense of importance that the list is designed to generate. To combat this, I force myself to prioritize the goals in each category, and elimate a few until I am left with a very strong set of 10 goals. (OK, this year I cheated and went with 12). Ideally, these should be equally split between Professional and Personal targets, or at most one could have 1-2 more of the one type over the other.

That's it! From the initial session, along with two subsequent reviews to double check that I am 100% satisfied with the list, my time investment is usually around 2 hours.

Step 5: Creating Commitment

It's no good to do this exercise, write down your goals, and then forget about them. I believe that constant revision and interim goal setting is absolutely necessary to stay on track.

So, armed with the list of annual goals, it's time to break them down into 60-90 day "short term" goal setting periods, depending on what makes more sense for me at that time (usually, I go after 90 day periods). So for example, I would create a "3 Month Goals" list, that would re-analyze my annual list, pick what is most important for the next 3 months (not all goals need be on it), and reframe them into achievable milestones. To continue from the example above:

Annual goal: Reduce waist to 28" at 7% body fat

3 month goal: Reduce waist to 32" at 12% body fat

Annual goal: Become intermediate grade level salsa dancer

3 month goal: Start weekly salsa classes and memorize beginner steps

The "short term" list should always contain less items than the annual list (e.g. 6-9); this breeds greater focus on a few important things. Moreover, having a "short term" list allows me to reward myself at more frequent intervals throughout the year if and when I achieve a target, and ultimately keeps me on track to those big, exciting, annual goals.

Once I have finalized my "Annual" and "Short Term" goal list, I write it down somewhere that's easy to recall, such as putting a note in my bedside drawer and having an electronic copy on my phone. Upon waking every morning and before going to bed each night, I read through the list and briefly visualize the outcome of each target. This process ensures that my goals are top of mind and that I can't ignore them. This is a seriously motivating force.

Okay, perhaps this method is not exactly simple (and it will improve with time), but I think it works for me. What are your thoughts on my approach?

Good luck with your goal setting and all the best for 2013!

[sheraan]

On Reflection and Self Analysis

A little while ago I celebrated my birthday, and it got me thinking.

We're getting older all the time, but birthdays just make it more official- they help us to keep score of our lives in a sense. I think that birthdays are a perfect time to take stock of one's life and ruminate on the year gone by and ponder the year to come. To me, this exercise helps me to refocus, repurpose, and redefine who I'd like to be at this new milestone. After all, life is a process of continual evolution, isn't it? Here is an outline the exercise that I planned and went through this weekend.  Section 1: Key Area Checks Begin by asking: "On a scale of 1 to 3, how did I do in each of these areas over the last year?" 1.1. Mental stimulation and general mindset? 1.2. Health and body? 1.3. Career progress? 1.4. Social (relationships, friends, family)? 1.5. Personal finances? (I use a short scale of 1 to 3 meaning poor/decent/great as it's a lot simpler to get an accurate estimate of how one really feels). Once each area is rated, go on to review each area and ask:

- Was this an improvement over the previous year? - What one thing can I do to improve this area moving forward? (Oftentimes, just one thing can make a significant difference). Next up, it's time to see where I went wrong. Section 2: Negative Experiences

Here are the questions I asked: 2.1. What was my biggest mistake this year? 2.2. What was my biggest setback? What caused it? 2.3. What new negative habits did I form, if any? Once those things are actually identified and written down, it becomes so much easier to learn from mistakes and take steps to avoid (or lower the risk of) those situations in future. Finally, it's always best to end things on a positive note. Section 3: Positive Experiences And the questions are: 3.1. What achievement made me happiest in the last year? 3.2. What is my fondest memory of the last year? 3.3. What new positive habits did I form? 3.4. What am I most grateful for? Although very simple, this little exercise provides useful closure on a year past and paves the way for a frank internal conversation on deciding how to spend the next twelve months.  This post was focused on self-reflection, so I will save my thoughts on planning ahead for another day.  If you're into this sort of thing, I strongly recommend that you check out Michael Hyatt's fantastic blog post, Seven Questions to Ask About Last Year.

[sheraan]

Hiring for Startups: 10 Clear Markers For a Great Fit

Building a strong team is one of the most important directives of a founder. There are many facets to this, but the most obvious and beneficial one is hiring the right people. 

We've recently made some new hires at Personera, and the process made me aware of a couple of key "go/no-go" markers that show themselves again and again. So what are some of the strikingly common as well as more nuanced factors when deciding if a candidate is a good fit?

This is my litmus test:

Positive Markers ("Go")

Smart and motivated: This is needs to be determined right at the starting gate. Any good team member is going to need to be smart because of the fast pace of a learning that takes place in a startup, and their motivation level will influence their ability to persist through the oftentimes tough three to six month beginning period to see what comes next, not to mention giving them an important sense of pride in their work.

Extremely keen to join company: This is more important that people think. When a candidate is genuinely excited about a company's product, or people, or both, that passion leads to much a better fit and sense of stickability with the startup over time.

Has something to prove: The best startup team members always have a deep desire to prove something (either to themselves or to others), build something amazing, or leave a special mark on the world. They want to stand out from the crowd and escape business as usual. Over time, this defining characteristic is often the difference between a good outcome versus a great outcome when choosing a new team member.

Likes working in small teams: Small teams allow for open and fast communication, lots of independence and responsibility (i.e. no handholding), and no office politics. The candidate should light up at the mention of that!

Handles stress well: Startups can become very stressful at times. I'm not an advocate of keeping things insane all the time (or else people will go insane), but from time to time teams need to work weekends, weeknights, and deal with highly stressed out managers or (worse) customers. This can easily push somebody who has an anxious personality over the edge, so I think it's important to bring people into a startup who are of a generally calm demeanor and don't allow undue stress to shut down their nervous systems, so to speak.

Negative Markers ("No-go")

Focuses on shiny qualifications: There's nothing worse than an interview where a candidate who wants to talk more about their degrees, course qualifications, and previous titles than what they actually do, or have accomplished with their work. This can also be a telling clue as to where their sense of professional pride stems from, and while not necessarily a bad thing for the person, this is definitely not a good thing for the startup.

Debates contract minutiae: When a candidate wants to get into detail about contractual stipulations around things like office hours, leave, overtime (seriously?) and performance management policy (etc), I see red flags going up all over the place. Startup attorneys often write up employment contracts to favor that favor the company in the event of a labour dispute. If the candidate is truly ready to join the company, they will probably realize that (a) none of those things are likely to be managed and tracked to the letter of the contract anyway, (b) they will work as hard as they need to be a valuable member of the team and pursue the vision, and (c) a startup is not a big corporation. 

No private projects to speak of: A candidate who has no side "pet" projects (past or present) to discuss is a concern, because that may show a certain lack of curiosity and personal passion in the candidate's work. This mentality is needed for team members to think of innovative ideas to contribute to their area of the business, as opposed to just doing the work set out before them.

Believes age equals entitlement: I am all about experience, capability, and delivery- and this is completely independent of a person's age. Age can of course naturally lead to or correlate with these things (for most people maturity and experience takes time to develop), but when age alone is seen to be guarantee of seniority or entitlement, it's cause for instant disqualification in my book.

Existing staff feel uneasy: The social IQ of a team far exceeds that of the CEO or manager in charge. When a team member (or members) feels a little uneasy about bringing a new candidate on board, it's best to take their concerns very seriously and reconsider the decision to hire. More often than not, the team will be right. This can very hard to do in situations where the hiring manager likes the candidate, and the person really wants to join the company. Hiring isn't always easy.

I hope that this list of markers helps you to hire better. And remember, even with the best of checklists, there's just no substitute for trusting your gut. 

Good luck and good team building!

[sheraan]

The Importance of Priorities (How To Take Charge of Your Life)

I have noticed my life becoming increasingly busy lately, to the point where I someties feel like throwing my hands up in despair at all the things competing for my attention on a daily basis. The phone keeps ringing (and when I don't answer, voicemails pile up). Hundreds of emails pour in. Somebody always seems to be waiting on me for something or other.

I know that I am far from alone in this department. In fact, I think that getting "out of control busy" is possibly a normal path of career growth, and is to be expected to happen to all motivated individuals (I'm looking at you, reader of this blog) who take on a lot of responsibilities at some time in their life. And as we get older, personal responsibilities seem to pile up right alongside the burgeoning amount of work demands.

I have been spending plenty of time thinking about this recently, and have come to a few (fairly obvious) conclusions:

Things aren't going to become less stressful on their own. The moment I move something off my plate, something new will be there to replace it.

Efficient and effective working methods aren't enough. Productivity hacks and systems like GTD are part of the solution, not the solution themselves.

To remain sane, avoid burnout and continue to make progress, learn to operate calmly and stay cool amid constant chaos.

When multiple things are competing for our attention and pulling us in different directions on a daily basis, we face a choice of either becoming a victim of the chaos, or the master of it. To me, becoming a victim means watching your time evaporate day after day, progress hitting a plateau, and allowing generally negative thought processes to set in. In a busy world, if you aren't sure what to do or work on next, somebody else will fill the gap and decide for you.

The path to conquering a chaotic schedule is to set clear priorities, and relentlessly stick to them. Begin by asking yourself tough questions like "What is really important here?" and "What am I unwilling to compromise on?", and a powerful list quickly develops. Next, the list can be focused further by reviewing your upcoming goals and protecting your path to achieving them.

For example, here is a list of personal priorities to consider:

Health (diet, exercise, etc)

Family

Love and relationships

Learning new things

Saving money

Traveling

Spending time with friends 

…etc

And here is a list of business priorities to consider:

Sales

Budgeting

Recruiting

Leading the team

Project management

Admin

Getting help on certain projects

…etc

The application of this rule works in different ways for different people. I like to think in terms of monthly and daily priorities, and manage my to-do list accordingly. In any given month, I try to protect top 5 items from my personal and professional list as much as possible. I don't always succeed at this, but awareness and clear direction is seventy percent of the battle. It's always a huge temptation to decide to take on 20 different things in one day, but one has to realize that "If everything is critical, nothing is critical", and plan accordingly. As much as we can logically split personal and business matters in our head, we only have one life and need to find a way to effectively combine the two.

As for all the other things to do, they usually have a way of taking care of themselves eventually. The key thing is that the fundamentals were looked after first, before the fiddling over the stacks of relative minutia could take over. When working at the fundamentals and getting those out of the way first, we can't afford to let ourselves sweat over the small stuff.

Every day, remind yourself of your priorities, and why they exist. This will help you to control your life, as opposed to letting the circumstances of your life control you. There's no comfort or salvation in making excuses. Setting sound priorities and sticking to them is a surefire way to create order amid chaos, reduce daily stress, and galvanize your ability to accomplish that which is important to you.

How do you cope with busyness, stress and many things competing for your attention at once? Let me know in the comments or drop me a line.