http://hellomynameisscott.blogspot.com/2008/07/figure-out-why-and-where-others-failed.html
Figure out why (and where) others failed
Monday, July 07, 2008 – posted by hellomynameisscott at 9:21 AM
***Begin Quote***
Here are some questions you can ask:
1. What was the biggest mistake you made in your first year of business?
2. What are the three biggest mistakes made by people in your industry?
3. What is the stupidest possible thing I could be doing right now?
4. If you had to do it all over again, what would you do differently?
5. What’s on your list of “Things I’ll Never Do Again”?
6. What things do you wish you started doing earlier?
7. Complete the following sentence: “I would have been a lot more successful had I never…”
***End Quote***
1. What was the biggest mistake you made in your first year of business?
Not realizing that the gravy train would end when a key guarantor of the whole effort would get a divorce in the third year. The effort limped along after that as he was distracted. The workers, like me, needed him to schmooze the big wigs and get us in the door. It was lucrative and I should have billed more when the ‘billing fairy’ was sprinkling money on any contract you proposed.
2. What are the three biggest mistakes made by people in your industry?
* Fail to invest in themselves. (One thing I have done right is 1% in tech toys and 1% in education.)
* Fail to realize their ‘real’ job is to find their next one.
* Fail to have a formal networking program (ala Lucht’s description) running at ALL times.
3. What is the stupidest possible thing I could be doing right now?
Being complacent about the probability I’ll be laid off by EOY!
4. If you had to do it all over again, what would you do differently?
I would go to Law School with my AT&T Study group that I did my MBA with! That was a BIG mistake.
5. What’s on your list of “Things I’ll Never Do Again”?
Never trust anything not in writing. Never doubt your gut feelings. Never chase money. Never make investment decision based on taxes as the top criteria. Never make big mistakes; just lots of small ones!
6. What things do you wish you started doing earlier?
Saving for retirement. Or started at all? Followed the Sony Bloch’s ‘Buy 12 houses as a retirement plan’. Ran track in college. Played poker. Wrote my books.
7. Complete the following sentence: “I would have been a lot more successful had I never…”
Lost my information security focus when I branched into Enterprise Architecture.
# # # # #
Reinke Faces Life 