Work the System: the Simple Mechanics of Making More and Working Less by Sam Carpenter landed in my lap at a very fortuitous time. I was already knee-deep in one of those “what am I doing with my life” phases, trying to discern the difference between accomplishing something and accomplishing nothing (but staying very busy). I am always amazed at how fine the line is.

If you’ve never heard the phrase “fire killing” (I hadn’t), be advised before reading that it refers to attacking urgent problems (like an angry client on the phone) instead of focusing on what may actually be more important (like creating a corporate culture that creates fewer angry clients). It is one Carpenter’s favorites, and it illustrates perfectly the difference between “accomplishment” and “staying busy.” The phrase immediately reminded me of Stephen R. Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People – another book that stresses the “important” over the “urgent” as a key to leading a better life.

My mention of Covey’s 7 Habits is by no means unintentional, because I rank Work the System right up there with the two books that I think anyone who wants to actually do anything should read. One of them is 7 Habits, obviously. The other is Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman, which is an invaluable guide for navigating the intricate pathways of human emotion and interaction.

That I am mentioning Work the System in the same company as 7 Habits and Emotional Intelligence is an enormous compliment, because those two books have long been the rocks upon which I based much of my world-view. I think, armed with the knowledge contained in these three books, one could make a very good run at leading a happy life and a successful business. In other words: Work the System is staying on my shelf, right where 7 Habits and E.I. would be (if I hadn’t given away my copies to people that I felt needed them more than I did).

Carpenter spends the first third of his book guiding the reader towards the same realization that he experienced 12-odd years ago. He calls this process “getting it,” and he will be writing a guest post or two about it in his guest series, which starts on Monday. Look forward to this, because life is not the same once you “get it.” Even if you already sort of “got it” before picking up the book (Carpenter does mention that there are, of course, people out there who “got it” long before he did – and many of them built very successful careers for themselves because of this), it will reenergize you.

An example: Mid-way through reading this book, I wrote up a budget for my household and began tracking our spending so that we wouldn’t end up going into debt this year for the day-to-day stuff like gas, groceries, and entertainment. And I reorganized my weekly schedule to free up some extra time in the evenings for my side-projects by wasting less time watching TV.

The greater changes are still to come, however. Carpenter’s book lays the foundation for a simple yet powerful shift in your life. Before reading it (if you’re not one of the rare few who already “get it”), it’s very likely that you’re spending a lot of time running on a treadmill without even realizing it. After reading it, you’re ready to take your run outside.

About the author: John J. Walters is a social media marketer with Wasabi Ventures, director of marketing with TestSoup, and a research associate with The Maryland Public Policy Institute.

Each attendee was instrumental in the determination of the winner based on the pitch.

Once the votes were cast, three finalists (Mosaic, MyBridalDream.com and Pokos Communications) were selected to appear in front of a panel of expert judges  to answer questions about their company. Judges independently scored each company and then the winner, Mosaic, was announced and awarded the grand prize.

“We are honored to win the first ever VentureX competition especially with so many other great companies participating. We will use the prize right away to keep enhancing our product and to continue growing our business.  We are very excited to work with Wasabi Ventures and to being a part of all the excitement that is happening at the ABI in Manchester.” – Gerard Murphy, Founder, Mosaic

The event drew an impressive crowd of 250+ attendees including Venture Capitalists, Angel Investors, and Entrepreneurs. Each attendee was invited to listen to each pitch and ask their own critical questions in order to cast their vote accordingly. Attendees enjoyed extensive networking and learning through his event as well. In addition, each attendee participated in the “final pitch” in front the judges listening to critical feedback and networking it judges after the event.

Each start-up that participated, proclaimed “winners” or not, all gained something. The take-away from the event was comprehensive feedback, expansive networking, and the exposure for their company. This is only the beginning for many of the companies and we encourage them to continue to refine their idea and to come out and support our next VentureX Event to be held in Baltimore, Maryland, early Summer 2012. Be sure to keep up with our discussions, ideas, connections and events at The Startup Life .

We would like to congratulate all startups for getting this far, and offer a special thanks to all of our attendees, judges, and the abi Innovation hub, who made this event possible. We are looking forward to working with you in the future!

About the author: Kendall D. Ryan is the Director of Events and Outreach for Wasabi Ventures.

Passwords protect access to a myriad of personal accounts, banking information, files, credit cards, the ATM,  your cell phone; yet the frustration of tracking separate passwords proves exhausting and time consuming. I freely admit my propensity towards defaulting to the same password for every account and access I need, and historically created  something I knew well like the year of my birth and my initials, or, my grandfather’s name followed by the year I graduated from high school.  If you find yourself defaulting to the same approach; please don’t.

Before you find yourself echoing the sentiments of many who learned “too little too late”, i.e. those victims of identity theft; review the following best practices for password protection and organization.

1. Create strong passwords. Experts recommend passwords should be at least twelve characters long and contain a mix of upper case letters, lower case letters, numbers and symbols

Password’s should not contain real words or names.

2. Consider using a password manager. There are a wide variety of online password manager applications which allow you to view your passwords from anywhere you have access to the internet.  Online password managers allow you to have a multitude of passwords, protected in an encrypted environment, accessible by a “master password.” Here are a few to applications to check out:

RoboForm

LastPass

Use your search engine and query “password manager reviews” to explore other applications and  find the best solution for you.

3. Investigate a flash drive solution. I.e., an encrypted application on a flash drive.  Keep in mind, the flash drive must be carried with you :

https://www.ironkey.com/personal

RoboForm offers software to install on your flash drive

Look for additional information regarding password creation by searching “what makes a strong password” in your favorite search engine, or the following links may prove helpful as well:

http:/www.hackingpasswords.net/

http://www.identity-theft-awareness.com/password-protection.html

About the author: Tracy Parks is CEO of Simplicated, LLC, Productivity Consultant, trainer and speaker.

In brief, advantages include accessibility to your information and knowledge which essentially becomes “on demand.”  All you need is an internet connection.  This facilitates connectivity on the road or after-hours 24/7, globally.

Cost: Servers (as well as software) will always require maintenance, add-ons and upgrades. With the cloud, hardware costs are reduced as a large majority of the infrastructure is created and maintained by a third-party provider.  Organizations can then  position IT staff to focus on developing other business-forward projects.

Improved decision making and business execution as individuals, teams and companies are better able to access real-time information.

Disaster preparedness and succession planning, whether a power outage, a catastrophic loss (fire, flood, earthquake, hurricane), organizational job shifts or the retirement of an administrative assistant.  With redundant, accessible, well-managed information systems everyone — from individuals to enterprise-wide users can be  up and running following a significant business interruption.  The on-boarding of new staff to new positions flows smoothly and the knowledge created by a staff member who leaves the business enterprise is not needlessly neglected/lost on a personally-accessed PC.

Finally, security, yes you read that correctly, security.  For the most part, SaaS options offer the highest levels of internet security available today with providers investing vast dollar and manpower resources toward that assurance. These measures are far more sophisticated than a majority of staff and subject matter experts can provide in-house.

About the author: Tracy Parks is CEO of Simplicated, LLC, Productivity Consultant, trainer and speaker.

The Lean Startup authored by Eric Ries does just that.

Now before you disengage, keep an open mind about the definition of “startup.”

This as a good read for most every business professional.  The principles and approach will benefit those we commonly refer to as the entrepreneur as well as what Mr. Ries defines as the  ” intrapreneur.”  If that term is unfamiliar,  think of it as the folks who  operate inside an established organization; those who are innovating, creating a new product, service or solution on behalf of their respective teams, organizations or companies.

Mr. Ries defines a startup as “an organization dedicated to creating something new under conditions of extreme uncertainty.”  Whoa — is that applicable for business large and small, new and old in today’s economic landscape?  Absolutely.

The thrust of the book is the power and process of using continuous innovation to create radically successful businesses. In that the author outlines a way to test, adapt, and adjust the vision for a new product, service, or value. He speaks candidly and clearly of lessons learned by personal experience with 3 startups and provides tools and approaches that are fresh and on-point.

About the author: Tracy Parks is CEO of Simplicated, LLC, Productivity Consultant, trainer and speaker.

But inertia has its uses, especially here in Silicon Valley. While it trivializes that condition, the statement that everyone (especially young entrepreneurs and VCs) has ADD is distressingly accurate. People swing wildly from “That will never work,” to “I told you it would work!” (And that’s just between board meetings!)

Eric Ries made a valiant attempt to address this with his Lean Startup methodology, which calls for startups to pivot (changing the business, but keeping crucial elements the same). Unfortunately, startups now seem to use “pivot” synonymously with “change everything about the business except the founders involved.”

Whenever someone proposes a change, I always ask, “Is this clearly better than what we’re already doing? Because as I recall, you thought you had some pretty good reasons when you made that initial decision.”

Change is shiny and new and exciting, but change also has a price (and we as eternal optimists always seem to underestimate that price, and overestimate the benefits). Try to be agile AND grounded.

About the author: Chris Yeh is a managing partner with Wasabi Ventures.  Follow him on Twitter or read his blog.

One of my favorite bloggers, Jonathan Fields, wrote a post about just that recently entitled Make More Bad Stuff.  He interviewed an accomplished guitar maker and confided that he had long thought about making his own guitar, but was deterred by the difficulty of the task.  The guitar maker’s advice?  Go make a really bad guitar.  Learn from it.  And then make one that’s less bad.  You’ll be making great guitars sooner or later.

The key part here that many neglect is the learning component.  You can’t just go out there and make mistakes all willy-nilly.  As a rule, be very careful about what you do “willy-nilly.”

The best way to make sure that you learn the right lessons from your mistakes is by conducting a project post-mortem.  These don’t have to be huge and formal (although they certainly can be, especially if it was a big project that involved a lot of people), but they do have to get done, and you do have to take them seriously.

I’ve been devoting a lot of thought to my most recent project, the Back to School Giveaway, which I organized for TestSoup along with five other co-sponsors.  We pulled together $150,000 worth of educational technology services and set up a raffle to give them away to 20 eligible schools.  The contest had over 250 entrants in the three weeks for which it ran.

Was it smashing success? No, definitely not.  But we got some promising leads for potential partnerships and made some decent connections with other companies in the edtech business.  We also scored TestSoup some extra exposure and gave away a bunch of product that will help educate kids, which always feels great.

But what did I learn?  Here are the highlights.

1) Don’t rely on other people.  Assume that everyone else involved in a project is just as busy (or busier) as you are.  Unless people specifically say that they will do something, don’t expect it.  So if your plan hinges on the active involvement of others, recruit those others carefully.

2) Spread the word in as many ways a possible every single day that you can.  If you are working on something that relies on sign-ups or participation from the public, you need to devote a massive amount of time and energy to getting the word out.  You cannot slack on this one, sorry.

3) Apply the “three times as much” standard.  This is a rule that my friends and I came up with for when we work on our cars.  Take as much time you think a new project will require and multiply that by three.  That’s how long you should actually budget for it.  Same goes for workload.  New stuff takes three times as long.  That’s because you need to figure out how to do it, do it once badly, and then do it again properly.

Granted, those are all just general business lessons that I learned from organizing the BTSG.  It’s not a true post-mortem (I do those privately, and mostly in my own head during contemplative walks), but there’s still some valuable information in there.  These are lessons that I would not have learned if I hadn’t put in the effort to run the contest and then to think critically about how it fared.

It may not be fun — or good for your ego — but conducting a post-mortem after each new project is an important step towards becoming a great entrepreneur.

About the author: John J. Walters is a freelancer with WasabiVentures, director of marketing with TestSoup, and a research associate with The Maryland Public Policy Institute.

Sales techniques once again lead the way out of potentially damaging outcomes.  Here are some steps that may help the next time help may be needed:

1.  Ask, “Why” do you believe, feel…

2.  Listen carefully to what is being said and not being said

3.  Clarify anything you do not understand or was mis-interpreted

4.  Let the other person completely finish their side of the story

5.  Take notes on points with which there was mis-understanding or with which you disagree

6.  Diplomatically respond to each point of displeasure with an explanation and mindset of finding an agreement

7.  Before moving to the next point, make certain the first agreement is in place

8.  At the end, ask in your own words, “Does this clear up what was troubling you?” 

Most of the time, these steps will produce a positive outcome.  However, our theme is to attract the “Right” job or clientele.  Should you find someone unreasonable and unwilling to compromise or work through the matter, then you should walk away.  One of my favorite quotes is that of Abraham Lincoln, “You cannot please all of the people all of the time.”  Walk away pleased you tried your best.

The Community Service project AmericaHires360 was developed to help Americans return to work. Companies and Sponsors are making it possible for Job Seekers to attend for free. The event takes place online October – December click this link,  http://www.eventbrite.com/event/1900782291/AH360/1765715087, to register today.

When you take the time to clarify mis-communication, it serves to build your brand, develop further business or will help to get you noticed and preferred by the hiring manager.  Qualifying for the right job or clientele puts you on the wave of a very Smooth Sale.

About the author: Elinor Stutz, CEO of Smooth Sale, LLC authored the International Best-Selling book, “Nice Girls DO Get the Sale: Relationship Building That Gets Results” and “HIRED! How to Use Sales Techniques to Sell Yourself On Interviews”.  Elinor delivers inspirational keynotes at conferences, team training, private coaching and finds joy in helping her clientele turn their dreams into reality.  Elinor is available upon request for consultation.

So, although the percentage of documents printed is doing down, the total number of printed documents is going up. Keith Davidson of Xplor International is quoted as saying, “The paperless office is as about as realistic as the paperless toilet!”

While in many offices “paperless” is not possible, Almost Paperless™ is not only possible, it is highly desirable.

Today, based on my personal experience and observations with clients through the years, I want to identify seven key disadvantages of a paper filing system:

1. Paper creates unnecessary clutter.  How many times do you look at an email or a document, not know what to do with it, and just print it out saying to you “I’ll decide on that later.”  Hence, my mantra “Clutter is postponed decisions.®”
2. Paper decreases productivity.  How many times have you spent hours looking for information in a pile of papers, when if you had stored the information electronically, a simple keyword search would have found it in seconds?
3. Paper limits our ability to access information.  How many times have you needed information that was on a piece of paper in a place other than where you were at the moment?  And how many people do all their work in one office these days?
4. Paper limits our ability to share information.  How many times have you been talking with a colleague and wanted to share information, which wasn’t stored electronically?  You have to wait until you’re back in the office, risking the possibility of missing an opportunity to be of service to a client or prospect quickly — or even forgetting to respond at all?
5. Paper limits our ability to collaborate on information. How many times have you been discussing an idea or a document with a colleague, and it would have been a blessing to have something in writing on which you both could edit — and see each other’s responses or ideas?
6. Paper costs money.  Research shows that although a piece of paper may only cost one cent, it costs 15-30 times that when you consider the actual costs of storage, faxing, copying, etc. — not including the cost of the time spent looking for it!
7. Paper hurts our environment.  I have to admit I haven’t always been a leader in “going green” — I’ve seen too many situations where environmentalists advocated actions that seemed “just plain crazy” as we used to say on the farm. But having said that, I’ve seen far too many cases in organizations where people are printing paper when it was totally unnecessary.

I often tell clients they can keep everything they want as long as they’re willing to pay the price—and the price tag includes Time, Space, Energy & Money.

The first step in deciding to go Almost Paperless™ is to establish a plan to answer the following questions about your company:

The 5 Information Management Questions

1. What information do we need to keep?
2. In what form?
3. For how long?
4. Who needs access to it?
5. How can we find it?

Once you can answer these questions, you’ll quickly determine how much paper you can toss or recycle, and in turn, how much space you can free up in your office.

Not sure where to start? We often say “Sometimes it takes an expert to take out the trash.” Visit www.BarbaraHemphill.com to access resources and guidance on going Almost Paperless.™

About the author: Barbara Hemphill is the founder of Productive Environment Institute whose mission is to help businesses reduce costs and increase productivity by implementing systems to manage information, space, and time.  For information about speaking or consulting services, www.BarbaraHemphill.com or call 888-380-6799.

That’s BS.  Success is hard.

Success isn’t about raising money or getting a high valuation.

It’s about building a business that delivers a great product to happy customers.

Every great business started as an entrepreneur with an idea, no product, and no resources.  Hundreds of thousands of well-educated, highly qualified people each year set out from that starting point.  And only about 100 manage a life-changing liquidity event.

Many people think that I’m successful.  I won’t argue the point, but I will note that I’ve been doing startups since 1995, and every single one has been hard.  Some have succeeded.  Most have failed, or at least failed to make a major impact in the world.

If I were to start a company today, despite all my relationships and my minor notoriety (in the words of comedian Greg Fitzsimmons, I’ve spent decades clawing my way up to the middle), I would still estimate my chances of success at well less than 50%.  That’s because success is hard.

But remember this: Even though success is hard and the chances of success slim, there’s a 100% chance you’ll never experience the joy of a successful startup if you don’t try.

About the author: Chris Yeh is a managing partner with Wasabi Ventures.  Follow him on Twitter or read his blog.