Sunday, December 14, 2008

Execution & Strategy

I've been thinking about what I've learned from my internship and classes. I've gained a lot of technical skills over the last few years, and this has not helped me to start an internet company--- so what will?

I think it boils down to execution & direction. One needs to have a direction to go. Just after college, I worked for 2 different small companies whose owners were just winging it day to day--it was easy to see they were not going to stay in business long.

I've been pretty good at planning out the internet product, but then have had very loose plans for how I was going to advertise it. The internship this summer definitely taught me a lot about executing a go-to-market strategy.

Courses I've had this year like entrepreneurial strategy and entrepreneurial marketing (FYI, this professor is going to release a pretty good book on startup marketing so watch for it) have shown what to base a strategy on.

So now I can create a much more robust and useful strategy. Anything left? Oh yea, execution! Tom Hopkins used to say that the salesman with enough desire will succeed, but he now says he has changed his mind and its the salesman with the most discipline.

And I really think that discipline is one of my greatest weaknesses. Its fun to dream of the future-I love that part! But working for it? I get bored pretty easily. I'd rather just hangout with friends.

Of course seeing that I've got a good strategy and knowing how to define one should help me to trust it better and be more willing to give it my time.

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