In addition to the work of Mr. Doug Hall cited below, Yotam Ariel whose site I mentioned also sends along this lead.
http://theleanstartup.com/
Speaking for myself, nothing I teach is new. I learned it from others, for some reason I sensed things were changing back in the 1980s and a record needed to be made of how businesses are started up (international trade division). The result was this book, selling continuously on Amazon.com for over a decade.
Eric Ries, Doug Hall, Yotam Ariel (and here) and I are not teaching anything new, and we are all teaching pretty much the same thing our own way. And check out our repective websites for the different approaches to the same thing (mine here www.johnspiers.com ) I am delighted what I have been teaching for thirty years is now cutting edge. It's about time!
What is different today is what we teach was once passed on from generation to generation, if not by father to a son then from business owner to bright young employees who went on their own after a kind of apprenticeship.
The Wall Street boom of the 1980's, the dotcom boom of the 1990s and the real estate boom of the 2000's were disasters in terms of diverting countless people from innovation to working on the big score. USA has lost 3 generations of entrepreneurs, and our economy shows it. Furniture from Ikea, Clothes from H&M, food from Safeway, education on a credit card, drive through medicine, housing underwater and income from welfare check.
The four of us are not enough to meet the demand, or at least the need. (I am sure there are others, but certainly not enough.) USA needs countless people teaching this. The damage done during the economic booms in USA is worse than the Chinese experienced during the Great Proletariat Cultural Revolution, since the USA had farther to fall.
We know two things about China's recovery: China had Hong Kong and Singapore to learn from (and Deng's consultation with both are well documented) and the Communist Party tried freedom. USA has no Hong Kong to learn from, and there is nothing to suggest freedom will be allowed in USA. All indications we are heading into far worse oppression, but then what goes around comes around.
USA's only defense against the welfare/warfare, bailouts, collectivization, gulag economy, gitmo lawlessness, torture, etc is small business innovation. To move oneself from being part of the problem to part of the solution is best effected by business start up. Instead we are totally consumed with 'gay marriage" and gun control as the most pressing conversations to address our woes. We are quite ridiculous.
I'll say it again, none of us is teaching anything new. What is new is people are teaching it. Our educational system delivered the bright minds that have given us welfare/warfare, bailouts, drone diplomacy, industrial collectivization, gulag economy, gitmo lawlessness, torture, etc. Innovation number one might be education.
Indeed, I wrote another book that shows how to become a teacher and an author (why go back to school as a student and end up in debt? Go back as a teacher and make money and gain esteem!) It uses the same process, but the topic is developing a teaching and authoring gig.
(There is a Kindle version too)
Let me summarize the process of business start-up from my point of view:
1. The customer is the most important thing, and you are the first customer.
2. Getting the product or service right is the hardest thing, and it is the only thing you do that you get paid for.
3. Compete on design, not price.
4. Entrepreneurs do not take risks. Measure twice, cut once.
5. It's about the lifestyle, not about the money. Profit is just another business expense.
That you'll find at least four out of five of the above surprising is surprising. For most of human history, nothing on that list was surprising. It goes to show how much work is yet to be done.
***John Spiers will be offering an all-day seminar on small business international trade start up at Orange Coast College, Los Angeles Area, June 29, 2013. Full info here...***
Feel free to forward this by email to three of your friends.
http://theleanstartup.com/
Speaking for myself, nothing I teach is new. I learned it from others, for some reason I sensed things were changing back in the 1980s and a record needed to be made of how businesses are started up (international trade division). The result was this book, selling continuously on Amazon.com for over a decade.
Eric Ries, Doug Hall, Yotam Ariel (and here) and I are not teaching anything new, and we are all teaching pretty much the same thing our own way. And check out our repective websites for the different approaches to the same thing (mine here www.johnspiers.com ) I am delighted what I have been teaching for thirty years is now cutting edge. It's about time!
What is different today is what we teach was once passed on from generation to generation, if not by father to a son then from business owner to bright young employees who went on their own after a kind of apprenticeship.
The Wall Street boom of the 1980's, the dotcom boom of the 1990s and the real estate boom of the 2000's were disasters in terms of diverting countless people from innovation to working on the big score. USA has lost 3 generations of entrepreneurs, and our economy shows it. Furniture from Ikea, Clothes from H&M, food from Safeway, education on a credit card, drive through medicine, housing underwater and income from welfare check.
The four of us are not enough to meet the demand, or at least the need. (I am sure there are others, but certainly not enough.) USA needs countless people teaching this. The damage done during the economic booms in USA is worse than the Chinese experienced during the Great Proletariat Cultural Revolution, since the USA had farther to fall.
We know two things about China's recovery: China had Hong Kong and Singapore to learn from (and Deng's consultation with both are well documented) and the Communist Party tried freedom. USA has no Hong Kong to learn from, and there is nothing to suggest freedom will be allowed in USA. All indications we are heading into far worse oppression, but then what goes around comes around.
USA's only defense against the welfare/warfare, bailouts, collectivization, gulag economy, gitmo lawlessness, torture, etc is small business innovation. To move oneself from being part of the problem to part of the solution is best effected by business start up. Instead we are totally consumed with 'gay marriage" and gun control as the most pressing conversations to address our woes. We are quite ridiculous.
I'll say it again, none of us is teaching anything new. What is new is people are teaching it. Our educational system delivered the bright minds that have given us welfare/warfare, bailouts, drone diplomacy, industrial collectivization, gulag economy, gitmo lawlessness, torture, etc. Innovation number one might be education.
Indeed, I wrote another book that shows how to become a teacher and an author (why go back to school as a student and end up in debt? Go back as a teacher and make money and gain esteem!) It uses the same process, but the topic is developing a teaching and authoring gig.
(There is a Kindle version too)
Let me summarize the process of business start-up from my point of view:
1. The customer is the most important thing, and you are the first customer.
2. Getting the product or service right is the hardest thing, and it is the only thing you do that you get paid for.
3. Compete on design, not price.
4. Entrepreneurs do not take risks. Measure twice, cut once.
5. It's about the lifestyle, not about the money. Profit is just another business expense.
That you'll find at least four out of five of the above surprising is surprising. For most of human history, nothing on that list was surprising. It goes to show how much work is yet to be done.
***John Spiers will be offering an all-day seminar on small business international trade start up at Orange Coast College, Los Angeles Area, June 29, 2013. Full info here...***
Feel free to forward this by email to three of your friends.
2 comments:
The Remarkable Persistence of Long-Run U.S. Growth:
http://conversableeconomist.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-remarkable-persistence-of-long-run.html
This is interesting... did he predict the 2000 dotcom bust, then 2008 housing bust, in which countless people are below water and we can count the very many who lost their homes? Did he predict the 1 in 4 who depend on state checks as a lifeline? Did he predict that student loan debt would exceed all other credit card by now? Because others did. And debt matters.
I would not bet that the quality below those graphs plotlines do not matter.
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