I’ve been sitting on this for a bit now, meaning to write up my thoughts. I’d never heard of Tayler Davidson prior to this post, but it SO resonated with me, I downloaded the PDF, and Kindle-ized it so I could have it all the time, with notes. I’m just gonna post my thoughts on this topic, go to Taylor’s post and read all 25 lessons yourself!
Almost all 25 topics are pretty spot on.
1. Dither, dither, dither; plan, plan, plan.
Instead: Fail fast. Fire, aim, repeat.
So, so easy to do. It’s brain crack to plan and analyze and never act.
6. Focus on the long-term.
Instead: Focus on the short-term.
By virtue of our having no startup capital beyond what we brought to the table, Tom and I are pretty good at keeping the focus on the near term. It’s often said, and 100% true that without near term planning, the long term won’t ever happen.
7. Build prototypes, mockups and samples.
Instead: Start building in a format and medium as close to the finished product as possible, and iterate, iterate, iterate.
Tom and I tend to differ on this one a bit. I’m very much a throw it out there person, he’s more a plan, review, plan type. We usually meet on the middle, which works well. I totally think that it’s not who launches with the best most solid plan that matters, but who launches, listens, and learns.
10. “New, New, New!”
Instead: F*** new. What’s different? What’s better?
Yeah totally. “New, new new” is so sexy, but is a venus fly trap. It doesn’t have to be sexy, it has to be better, add value. Tom and I have seen this in the reviews we get over other events in the same space, that cater to 5k people, have massive expo areas and SWAG galore.
13. Over-promise, over-sell, under-deliver.
Instead: Over-promise, over-sell, over-deliver.
I think we do ok at this, there’s room for improvement at least in my own mind. I think we actually do more promise, under-sell, over-deliver. LOL
14. Be stubborn in the face of failure.
Instead: Be determined in the face of disbelief.
This a tough one. Failure is hard to swallow, disbelief just as much so. Sometimes it’s disbelief internal to us, sometimes it from external sources. We still think it’s possible to have a conference company that can support more than one person Full Time, and not rape attendees and sponsors. We’ve got the value down, now we just need to find the sweet spot for attendees and sponsors. Attendees get us, sponsors don’t mostly. Some do. Some really do, and see that our attendees are the core of who they’d like to talk to. Others still can’t get past “It’s just the two of you?”
17. “I know more than anyone else.”
Instead: If you think you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re the fool.
18. A unanimous decision means we’re all right.
Instead: If everybody agrees, you’re probably all wrong.
We’re really good at never agreeing.
23. Work under “understandings”.
Instead: Create legal agreements as soon as possible.
Possibly our biggest FAIL to date (and ongoing).
24. Everything matters.
Instead: Recognize the difference between “penny-wise” and “pound-foolish”.
This one bites us a lot. Not as much as it used to, but we still focus on things that seem huge to one of us, but once complete, no one cares. It sucks to waste time like that.
