“Hannibal ante portas” = “Hannibal is before the gates” – from Cicero’s commentary.

The Latin quote above is used often when talking about not wasting time.

At a start-up, the second most valuable commodity behind cash is time.  Technology start-ups have to move fast, and there are only 24 hours in any day.  So every minute wasted is an opportunity lost. And in one of the biggest places time is wasted is in meetings not starting on time.  That usually has a multiplier effect of wasting multiple people’s time all at once.

So I have strict meeting rules:

• If you are going to be more than 5 minutes late, send a note.  I have SMS, IM, email, carrier pigeon available 24 x 7.
• After 5 minutes, the meeting will be closed.  If it is a 1-on-1 meeting, don’t bother coming, I will reschedule.  If it is for a group meeting, don’t bother coming, I will send an update later or you can read it on the company intranet.

The enemy is always at the gates as a start-up.  Save the fiddle playing for when you have won the war. (Sorry for the mixed Latin metaphor.)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 10th, 2008 at 9:00 am and is filed under General Business, Management, Start-up Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.