job search notes: key to success - people with passion

The What's Next in Tech event held Thursday evening at the Boston University School of Management opened with a networking reception followed by two panel discussions.

The panel discussions were moderated by Scott Kirsner, Innovation Economy columnist for the Boston Globe.

Venture Capital Panelists

• Bijan Sabet, General Partner, Spark Capital
• Neil Sequiera, Managing Director, General Catalyst Partners
• Michael Greeley, General Partner, Flybridge Capital Partners

These were very respectable folks. They have money and are trying to put it to good use. They were asked, "What do they look for in a company?"

It was interesting to hear that the consensus answer was not the business plan (so they have Excel and perhaps thought about expenses, so what!) or the product (if they have a prototype, I definitely want to see and play with it) but the people. The people that comprise the start up team is all critical. I think it was Neil who said that the where a funded start-up failed it was due to an flaw in the team that was not revealed during the discovery or in the operations in time to correct it.

So hold that thought, people matter.

We move on to the second panel of entrepreneurs, rather successful folks who in some cases were long-brewing overnight sensations. Yes, they had the patience and persistence to stick it out, change their direction as necessary along the way, and ultimately be successful.

Entrepreneur Panelists

• Mike Dornbrook, COO, Harmonix Music Systems (makers of "Rock Band")
• Helen Greiner, co-founder of iRobot Corp. and founder of The Droid Works
• Ellen Rubin, Founder & VP/Product of CloudSwitch
• Brian Halligan, social media expert and CEO of HubSpot
• Tim Healy, CEO of EnerNOC

One of the several questions asked got around to the important topic of jobs. All have positions open. All are actively looking, so what are they looking for in the people that they would hire?

4 of the 5 specifically stated in the first words of their answer, passion. The fifth got to passion along the way. Depending upon the stage of the start-up, they may be looking for specific skill sets or they may be looking for a jack-of-all-trades type person but in either case, passion was the most significant factor.

On the venture side, it was the people.
On the entrepreneur side, it was the passion.

How do we translate that to our job search?
Should we spend less time on our resume and more time out in the social world connecting with people?

If your skill and passion can be presented in words on a page successfully, I would say go for it.
Otherwise, it seems like getting face to face with someone to share your passion and skill set would be the best thing to do.

Thoughts?

job search notes: imagination - Bingo!

The lesson I'm hinting at is larger than Rome: examine any legend of innovation, from inventors to scientists to engineers, and you'll find similar natural omissions by history. History can't give attention to what's been lost, hidden, or deliberately buried; it is mostly a telling of success, not the partial failures that enable success. Without at least imagining the missing dimensions in the stories, our view of how to make things happen in the present is seriously compromised.

From Scott Berkun's book The Myths of Innovation

I think daydreaming is a distinctive mode of cognition especially well suited to the complex, 'fuzzy' problems that characterize a more turbulent business environment. ... Daydreaming is an effective way of coping with complexity. When a problem has a high degree of complexity, the level of detail can be overwhelming. The more one focuses on the details, the more one risks being lost in them. ... Every child knows how to daydream. But many, perhaps most, lose the capacity as they grow up. ...

From Dov Frohman - Leadership the Hard Way

Imagining = daydreaming!

Yes, you now have a good reason to daydream. Not that you can do it all day but it is allowed and should be granted a reasonable amount of time.

How much is reasonable?

That depends upon the kind of fuzzy logic problem you are attempting to solve.

Do you have a time to daydream in your day?

job search notes: the moment of insight

The magic feeling at the moment of insight, when the last piece falls into place, comes for two reasons. The first reason is that it's the reward for many hours (or years) of investment coming together. In comparison to the simple act of fitting the puzzle piece into place, we feel the larger collective payoff of hundreds of pieces of work. The second reason is that innovative work isn't as predictable as jigsaw puzzles, so there's no way to know when the moment of insight will come: it's like a surprise. Like hiking up a strange mountain through cold, heavy fog, you never know how much further you have to go to reach the top. When suddenly the air clears and you're at the summit, it's overwhelming. You hoped it was coming but you couldn't be certain when or if it would happen, and the emotional payoff is hard to match (explaining both why people climb mountains as well as why they invent new things).

Innovation, very much like finding new work.

Do you agree? or disagree?


Quotation from Scott Berkun's The Myths of Innovation

"great rock & roll bands are exceptional business teams"

Well, it’s turning into my life work, given how long I’ve been hacking away at it. My focus is on business lessons we can learn from rock & roll bands. The book identifies 6 ways in which the great rock & roll bands are exceptional business teams: (1) they’re radical innovators and risk-takers; (2) they’re passionate and inspired about their work—and they have fun; (3) they manage differences and capitalize on conflict; (4) they create a distinct identity and brand; (5) they’re ambitious, focused, and result-driven, despite stereotypes to the contrary; and (6) they’re highly autonomous and independent-minded. Then I show how to instill—or liberate—these abilities in our organizational teams. And I argue that without an infusion of these qualities many of our beleaguered organizations and institutions, ill equipped to compete in this crazy economy, are headed for obsolescence or irrelevance. To keep it interesting I illustrate my points with lots of stories and anecdotes from boardrooms, bars, and recording studios. It will be a business book you can dance to. Hopefully I’ll finish it this year. I’m a slow writer, but maybe it will appeal to all the slow readers out there.

From John O'Leary as told to Trevor Gay as part of an interview at The Simplicity Blog. Well worth a read, you have my permission to click through and read it.

Tell Trevor, I sent you!

"Then I thought, what if?"

For years, developers have been trying to display scannable bar codes on cell-phone screens -- unsuccessfully; light reflecting off the screens interferes with the scanners' detection systems. "Then I thought, What if we get out of the paradigm of trying to read the code off of the screen?" Challa says. "It's looking for light reflections, so why don't we just give it the light it's expecting?" The upshot: Instead of printing out online coupons, movie tickets, and boarding passes -- and toting around credit cards and gift cards -- consumers will soon be able to store bar codes in their phones.

Amazing results can occur when you think "What if?"

Read the full story in the June issue of FastCompany Magazine or online here.

Have you had a break through with a "What if" moment?

5 for Friday

In a quick review to help catching up on some items, I have five for Friday.

1 - Did you see that Zoho has allowed access to those with Google accounts? This is a good move. read more about it here. Have you tried Zoho? It is a competitor to Google docs and a worthy one at that.

2 - In case you missed it elsewhere, Google Street View has implemented a new feature to muddle the faces of people in the crowds to avoid privacy issues. Pretty slick. I hope it is automated. Would be a good algorithm to market for a price. Check out the posting on the Google blog here.

3 - Oh, Arlen Specter has your integrity never been questioned? Are you really not pandering to the Eagles or to Comcast?

4 - Did you hear the story about the girl who had her MAC stolen and using the "Back to MyMAC" feature took a picture of the thief using it, one of her friends was able to identify the thief so it was an easy pick up by the police? Nothing like a little technology to help. On the other hand this may also go down as one of those "stupid thief" moves! read the story here.

5 - Hey, if they can send a scent (yes, you read the properly) over to your cell phone, it won't be too much longer before "Beam me up Scotty!" can really happen. Read the short story here.

This was the week that was. Enjoy!

What did you find interesting this week?

Get Phone Fingers

What more is there to say:

Tired Of Smudges On Your iPhone? Get Phone Fingers

Good quote - Myth of Innovations

Discovering problems actually requires just as much creativity as discovering solutions. There are many ways to look at any problem, and realizing a problem is often the first step toward a creative solution. To paraphrase John Dewey, the creator of the Dewey Decimal System, a properly defined problem is partially solved. And if your particular innovation involves the support of other people, a clearly defined problem helps form bonds and build teams were none existed before. Author John Seeley Brown said, "When we get in the spirit of following a problem to the root, that pursuit of listening to the problem brings multiple disciplines and multiple crafts together. The problem pulls people together.

Bold text is for my emphasis. I finished reading Scott Berkun's book: The Myths of Innovation this week.

The book moves to my recommended listing.

Linux vs. Windows; How do you innovate?

After reading colleague Alexander Wolfe's piece about a Linux distro called "Vixta" that apes the look and feel of Windows Vista, I confess to having mixed feelings about the whole thing. Mostly negative ones.

Here's the big reason I feel as uneasy as I do: it's tantamount to an admission of defeat. The only way Linux can "succeed" is if it looks like Windows. And frankly, isn't there something hypocritical about railing against Microsoft for not innovating and then turning around and mimicking them, right down to the chrome on the user interface?

This comes back to a question many people have asked before. Does Linux have to look like Windows to work? Not "beat Windows at its own game", which if you ask me is a red herring, but work. Granted, the Windows UI is familiar territory for most people with at least some degree of computer use, but that doesn't mean it has to be the be-all and end-all of UI design.

Read the full article by Serdar Yegulalp here.

When the dominant design is Windows, Linux (or any other OS) would need to at least pay some homage to it by being similar enough so that users (who in general do not like change) will feel comfortable enough with the interface/UI to try it. If Linux or any other OS does not provide some step of familiarity, they will not be able to make the next step into the change or unknown.

The author would benefit from reading The Myths of Innovation by Scott Berkun.

The Myths of Innovation - Scott Berkun

I am working my way through Scott Berkun's book: The Myths of Innovation this week. It reads easily. A good quote from the section I read this morning:

"Like the child in the park, creativity is intertwined with the ability to see ideas as fluid, free things. Ideas come, they go, and that's OK; to an open mind, ideas are everywhere (something I'll prove momentarily). It's the willingness to explore, experiment, and play, to invest energy, hit a dead end, and then chase a new direction that allows minds to find good ideas. All of our notions of play, and its freedoms from formal judgement, are inexplicably linked to finding good ideas."

Are you going to find time to play today?