Which is More Important - Entrepreneur's Character or Idea?

Whether you're the bank, an angel or venture capital investor which counts most, the entrepreneur's/business owner's character or their idea?  

View YouTube - What Counts Most - Character or Idea?

A big fallacy is people believing that if only they had one great idea the business takes care of itself.  Bill Gates developed someone else's idea into Microsoft DOS idea.  Steve Job leveraged Steve Wozniak's engineering prowess into Apple.  And if you look in the US Patent Office you'll find plenty of brilliant ideas that have gone nowhere without a person with the character to build success.  

Investors seek to understand the owner, their motives, beliefs, skills, values and identity.  They look into the owner's past performance and circumstances as to how they've overcome time, team, money and system challenges and still found success.  The investor is making money with money.  They want a commensurate risk/return "of" and "on" their capital.  They ascertain from the owner whether they will convert the investor's money into greater value.  

So before you seek an investor, work harder on yourself, your character than the idea - to be worthy of investment.  And if you're going to work harder, wouldn't you also want to work smarter?  

Just like any sports team with a coach they work smarter to achieve more faster than they would otherwise.  Is it any different in business?  

Do you believe that with an accomplished business coach would you get the know-how, insights to ask higher quality questions, improving your skills, impacting your beliefs and values about what’s possible which ultimately allows you to make higher quality decisions and take actions that move you to your goal of a commercial profitable business that works without you always being there?  And isn’t that why you started your business in the first place?  

Let's get started...give me a call today.  

ph:  972 709 6776  em:  StephenMarino@ActionCOACH.com

The 3 Business Coaching Principles Leading to Higher Profits and Productivity

Thinking Bigger, Insisting on Win/Win and Being First to Inspire are three business coaching principles that lead you to higher profitability and productivity.  

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Business owners think back to a time when you were in high school or college when you had a teacher, mentor or coach that got you to perform higher than you thought possible.  They gave you know how, motivation and accountability to go further.  So as a business owner today, where do you get that kind of guidance when you need it the most?  0:04

Hi I’m Stephen Marino with ActionCOACH - Business Coaching.  When we work together in a coaching relationship our purpose is to achieve higher profits and productivity.  To do that, I use three major principles.  

1.  Thinking Bigger - Getting owners to think beyond the day-to-day toward a compelling vision so that when the going gets tough we keep going.  Giving owners confidence gained from proven time tested strategies that get you the result more predictably and less stressfully so you don’t have to go through the expensive and exhausting school of hard knocks.  Then giving owners the courage to act on what they know.  Closing the gap between knowing and doing.  And finally holding the owner accountable to doing the small things all along the way toward the bigger vision of tomorrow.

2.  Insisting on Win/Win/Win - We start with having your customers and clients win.  When they win you’ll attract lots of them and then you win.  When you win then I win.  It’s got to work in that order.  And I want you to win as fast as possible because you control my reputation.

3.  Being First to Inspire - I practice what I coach.  Based on successes and experience from the military leading troops, from corporate sized engineering and development projects to 15 years of business ownership and coaching, you benefit.  You don’t need to make my mistakes.  There are plenty more mistakes to be made.  You just don’t need to make mine.  If I only wish I knew then what I know now.  

If these principles sound like the type of environment where you can see yourself going further faster, then let’s talk.

Call me at ph:  972 709 6776 eM:  StephenMarino@ActionCOACH.com

Is Microsoft's Future Really About Building Technology or Socialization?

The conversation about Microsoft remains about technology vs socialization.  Facebook, Google+ and Twitter growth is about socialization i.e. easily making connections and interactions with people - the ones we know, the many that are just interesting as well as those interested in common subjects.  

Microsoft announced that Satya Nadella was its next leader, betting on a longtime engineering executive to help the company keep better pace with changes in technology.  What can we learn from his insights on focus, customer's unmet desires and approach to learning and growth?

In an email to Microsoft employees on Tuesday morning, he wrote that he is “defined by my curiosity and thirst for learning.”

“I buy more books than I can finish,” he wrote. “I sign up for more online courses than I can complete.  I fundamentally believe that if you are not learning new things, you stop doing great and useful things.”

He said, "The most important factor in Microsoft’s ability to remain a growing business in the future was its ability to become a player in what he called new paradigms in computing, like cloud computing.

“That is, you could say, the existential issue for us,” Mr. Nadella said.

“I think that with any new paradigm there will always be a couple of new players who come at it,” he continued. “But to me the thing that is perhaps more interesting and challenging, and gets me excited, is, hey, how can we renew ourselves?”

In his statement Tuesday, Mr. Nadella said: “The opportunity ahead for Microsoft is vast, but to seize it, we must focus clearly, move faster and continue to transform. A big part of my job is to accelerate our ability to bring innovative products to our customers more quickly.”

The technology trends allows us to be digitized thus connected.  How will Nadella do that with Microsoft?

Leaders - Want Results...? Include These People!

Want faster more effective results?  Include these types of people in the decision making process up front.

1.  Set out the issue and desired outcome to those directly involved

2.  Include those to be consulted - when and how

3.  Give feedback to those that need to be informed timely 

Make decisions using this guide, then you'll achieve results faster and more effectively than you would otherwise.

Let's have a conversation on leadership and team issues if they are getting in the way of predictable increasing profits and productivity.