Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Spreading yourself thin

Business school convinced me that "strategy" means a lot more than
"having a plan." It is making decisions about trade-offs. You can't
attack all parts of the chess board or Risk board at the same time.
Your product can't be everything to everyone. You can't specialize in
everything.

Nevertheless, I think people apply strategy too strongly in their
personal lives. They think that their interests and pursuits should be
obviously consistent with each other.

But in personal life, strategy is a mere vehicle for the blood and
fuel of what we do: our passion, wherever it comes from. Strategy is
your tack on a sailboat, and passion is the wind. The wind is the
indispensible part.

This aphoristic stuff has been in my head because I've been writing a
book this summer. I'm about half done. I don't think any VC would have
counseled me to write a sci-fi book as a constructive move for
Linkspank. I think it has been good for a periodic stoking of my
passion about my startup, though. And fun.


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