Words from the wise

The other week I wrote about the advice I would give myself if I could go back in time to when I was a fresh faced graduate. I had a couple of other ideas as well, but on reflection I realised they weren’t actually mine.

They were great pieces of advice that I had got from others. So, I thought a nice partner piece to last week’s post would be to describe the best advice I have been given by others:

Bill Lang – CEO of Bill Lang International – “If you can’t measure it, it’s not business.”

Bill and I owned a small IT consulting firm that we built up and sold many years ago. Bill, being ex McKinsey and Harvard Business School, is a big believer that everything can be measured, including subjective and qualitative things. He has built systems for the banking industry that regularly ask questions like: “On a scale of one to five, how do you feel about work this week?” Bill’s point of view was that if you can measure it, you have a basis to determine whether innovations actually add value. If you can’t measure it, stop wasting time on it. I have carried this advice with me for the last decade.

Campbell Sallabank – CEO of LinkMe – “Pay yourself first.”

Campbell and I shared some office space in the mid to late 90s. Campbell made me realize that you can’t let a venture totally consume you. Kind of “one hand for the ship and one hand for you”. If a venture can’t afford to pay you as a resource, there’s something wrong with it and you need to fix it. When doing break-even calculations, factor in your required profit as a fixed cost. When cash flow is tight, you still need to eat.

Ray Lewis – CEO of Greypath – “Power unexercised is pointless.”

I had a business a number of years ago that became distressed when we lost our two major customers (about 60% of sales) in six weeks, and one became a very large bad debt. My partners in the business responded by resigning as directors en mass, then hammering me about what I was going to do. Ray, who is also my father, pointed out that I needed to look at what power I had as a director and use it or shut up about it. Consequently, I put the company into liquidation without discussing it with the other shareholders first (that was character building!). The concept about understanding what power I have in any situation and using it has formed the basis of my negotiations since.

Peter Zarris – CEO of OPIC – “If you get to 30 and you still think persuasion is about making a logical argument, you have already lost.”

I first came across Peter when one of my businesses built a website for him that would allow his business to select the best psychometric tool for any situation. Downstream, we became friendly and he also did some testing for my staff. On one discussion with Peter over coffee about why a business partner couldn’t see sense in a particular course of action, Peter stated “If you get to 30 and you still think persuasion is about making a logical argument, you have already lost”. I came to realise that what was logical to me, was based on my values and experiences and others would interpret the same set of facts according to their own values and experiences. It was a real slap in the face to me because up to that moment, logic had been king. Peter also told me that if you really want to change, understand it’s going to hurt. And if it doesn’t hurt, you’re not doing it right. Peter’s insights fundamentally changed the way I deal with people.

Old lady on the radio – “Listen to many, consult with a few, but paddle your own canoe.”

My brother Peter, who is a global strategic business development guy, and I had been having a discussion about the value of third party advice and expertise. Peter felt you were insane to go into a new venture without getting advice. I somewhat bitterly felt that if you asked around, you could always get advice for and against any course of action, so asking around for advice had little value. Driving away from the lunch I heard an old woman on the radio say “My grandma used to tell me… listen to many, consult with a few, but paddle your own canoe”. This appears to be a quite ancient piece of advice. It didn’t change my life but it did stick with me as it consolidated my thinking on the value of third party advice. Basically if someone isn’t a subject matter expert on something that’s tangible (eg the answer to “what is the melting point of steel?”), I am happy to listen but I don’t let it cloud my own judgement. I value my own judgement the highest.

Oprah Winfrey – “The universe rewards action, not inaction.”

So, I was lying on my back in a hotel room in Lima, Peru watching TV (which was mostly in Spanish but I enjoyed the absurdity) when the Oprah Winfrey show came on. It’s funny/scary how two things are constant around the world: McDonalds around the corner and Oprah on the TV. Anyway, Oprah stared into the camera and said “The universe rewards action not inaction”. I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I first heard it from Oprah, but I reckon it’s a great distillation of many other philosophies such as Landmark Training and Stephen Covey‘s First Habit of ‘Being Responsible’. Basically, if you want something to happen, pull your finger out and make it happen.

Now I’m sure everyone has their own advice that they value, but the interesting thing is that simply the act of writing it down, such as in this post, really brings it to the forefront of your mind.

Brendan Lewis is a serial technology entrepreneur having founded : Ideas Lighting, Carradale Media, Edion, Verve IT, The Churchill Club, Flinders Pacific and L2i Technology Advisory. He has set up businesses for others in Romania, Indonesia and Vietnam. Qualified in IT and Accounting, he has also spent time running an Advertising agency and as a Cavalry Officer with the Australian Army Reserve.