On risk
Media praises entrepreneurs as people who pulled it off in spite of all the odds against them. Surely, entrepreneurs are risk takers, right? If there is a 90+% chance that you lose your earnings, reputation, career opportunities, possibly even your family, you must be a lunatic to do it, right? It depends. If entrepreneur is motivated by some external reward (money, career, status, fame) then yes, he has to be an extreme risk taker to begin entrepreneurial journey. However, a true entrepreneur, the one who’s above all motivated by developing a product or service that would innovatively solve a certain problem, wouldn’t think that going on an entrepreneurial journey is risky at all. To the contrary, becoming an entrepreneur [...]
How not to do marketing
A few days ago I stumbled upon this video on LinkedIn. It is a presentation (marketing) video for a German department of one of the largest law firms. I was expecting to see the best marketing practices in action. I was really disappointed. The makers of the video should have known better. Here are the the most obvious failures: 1. Don't talk, demonstrate! Words are cheap. Especially when they come from a marketing department. The only chance a marketer has at conveying the message is by showing the facts. One (and a very effective way) is by showing the relevant work. Of course you can only show a relevant work, if you persistently lived by your words [...]
