Humans over-complicate all too much, and achieving what you desire boils down to four simple steps.

1. Belief – 100% Belief and Conviction
2. Action – Take Massive Action
3. Reinforcement – Continual and Constant Reinforcement
4. Reward – Meaningful Reward Upon Completion

Continually follow these four steps of the Cycle of Achievement and you can achieve ANYTHING.

Texas is known for oil, New York for Wall Street, and Los Angeles for Hollywood. All of these places have their own cultural nuances, which have a direct affect on the socioeconomics of regional business. The cultural differences among geographic regions are perhaps nowhere more apparent than when we compare the Midwest to Silicon Valley.

First off, the Midwest (Minneapolis/St. Paul) really does suck for anyone who is an innovator or visionary.  It’s like an innovation vacuum that can suck the fun, energy, creativity, ingenuity, and life right out of you. I should know. I’m from there, and that’s why I left.

Most people in the Midwest are not big thinkers.  They are trained in mediocrity and conditioned to take safe bets. I never fit in with or liked that attitude, which was why I followed the great American tradition and “headed west” to Silicon Valley (the San Francisco Bay Area).

Here, in “the Valley’s” markedly different business environment, success is the expectation, fueled by the regional norms of big thinking, creativity, innovation, thinking outside the box, collaboration, helping one another, taking risks, and having a ton of fun while making lots and lots of money.

Being from Minneapolis–and having been an entrepreneur for 12 years–I offer these further observations of the two regions’ contradictory attitudes:

1. Risk Taking

Midwest: Always mitigate any risk at all costs.

“Don’t take risks; you might fail.”

Silicon Valley: Take risks. That’s what being an entrepreneur and investing are all about. It’s simply a numbers game.

“Fall down 6 times; get up 7.”

2. Innovative Thinking

Midwest: Don’t ever be anything more than evolutionary.

“You might want to prove that model out.”

Silicon Valley: Be revolutionary.

“Wow, that’s amazing! How can I help?”

3. Goal Setting

Midwest: Play it safe and don’t reach too high.

“Jeez . . . I don’t know if you should try that.”

Silicon Valley: We’re after home runs and grand slams.

“Go for it! Give it your best shot!”

4. Failure

Midwest: Failure is an indelible black mark. We enjoy kicking a man while he is down.

“He’s got the plague. Let’s stay as far away from him as possible.”

Silicon Valley: Failure sucks, but it creates great entrepreneurs.

“Try again. Here’s more money; I bet you learned a lot that time.”

5. Acceptance of Others

Midwest: We stick together and don’t trust new people.

“Outsiders can stay out.”

Silicon Valley: New people bring new ideas. We welcome them.

“One for all and all for one.”

6. Business Models

Midwest: We must see tangible assets and major profit before we will invest.

“Wait a minute…so you’re saying it’s not real estate?!?!”

Silicon Valley: We evaluate investments based on team members, product ideas, and targeted users.

”We love online revenue models. Just show us a potential market.”

7. Investing

Midwest: We want a controlling interest in your company. If your venture fails, we will come after everything you own.

“I want a personal guarantee on everything, including your organs.”

Silicon Valley: We have to put our money to work, we understand early stage investing, and we know that only a few ventures will come to fruition.

“Angel investing is fun!”

8. Bringing Home the Bacon

Midwest: Just keep a steady job with one company.

“What do you mean, you don’t get a paycheck every Friday???”

Silicon Valley: If you believe in yourself and are willing to sacrifice, then you should go for it.

“I am sick of eating Ramen, but I know my endeavors will pay off in the long run.”

Being an entrepreneur and venture capitalist is about HIGH RISK-HIGH RETURN, which Silicon Valley is great at. The West Coast is also great at attracting the world’s best talent and being a tractor beam for big thinkers, innovators, and those who are willing to stick their necks out for what they believe in. When you think about it, there is very good reason why guys like Evan Williams and Marc Andreessen left the confines of the Midwest.

So I say to you, any Midwestern visionaries, big thinkers, and innovators–GET OUT NOW!!!

In the famous words of Donald Trump ~ “If you’re going to be thinking anything, you might as well think big.

The only one thing constant in life is change.  Today I decided to change my blog “matt’s blog-business and philosophy.” It’s lack of focus has been bothering me for some time, not being as hyper-focused as I would like and essentially writing about whatever I felt deemed worthy.

So starting today mattcrowe.com will be about business only, focused on my passion for building companies through the eyes of an entrepreneur turned VC. My personal development, psychology, and philosophy writings are going to be launched on a new website – dedicated purely to self-improvement.

Lastly, I also decided to pursue my passion for politics by beginning to regularly write Political Commentary for The San Francisco Chronicle, giving ALL Conservatives a voice during a frightening time in our country’s history as liberals and their socialist leader attempt to change the very  fundamentals America was founded upon.

Stay tuned…..

What Makes a Business Successful?

How many times have you screwed in a light bulb in your home? How many times have you got into your car and driven somewhere? How many times have you listened to music? A LOT.

The key to a product or a business is to take something and make it incrementally better.  People like comfort.  Users use Google over the new search engines because they know it, they have used it, and they are comfortable with it. Users really could even care less about how it works, they just know it works.

When I went from Yahoo to Google it was real simple.  I used yahoo, and heard about Google.  I then tried Google a couple of times until I realized that it was much simpler and I completely stopped using yahoo all until about a year ago. Why? Simplicity, Ease of Use, Branding, and a whole lot more.

Here are more examples of making something that was around and making it better:

1. The Light Bulb – Thomas Edison
2. The Model T – Henry Ford
3. Virgin Records – Richard Branson

Lastly, just remember these eight things when you want to make your business successful……..

It must be able to be mass-produced.

It must be able to be scaled rapidly.

It must be easily understood.

It must be simple

It must be hip/unique – otherwise known as Sexy

It must be memorable

It must add value to the user

It must be able to make money

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Penguins are my favorite animals. Anytime I have the opportunity to visit them at a zoo I will ALWAYS take it to watch them frolic around and flap their little wings splashing around in the water and waddle around on land.  It always makes me laugh and puts a smile on my face. I’ve even been fortunate enough to watch the famous little “ferry penguins” do their little dance in Southern Australia as they come in from the sea at night!

Starting a business is a lot like how the Emperor Penguin brings its baby into this world.  They take a trek out to a remote place in the Antarctic where the female will lays a single egg, which is incubated by the male while the female returns to the sea to eat.  The parents will then take turns going out to sea to feed and caring for their chick in the colony.

I like this analogy for starting a business. You decide to take a journey. You (and maybe a partner, or partners) create your baby –i.e.: the egg.  You then sit on that egg and endure freezing cold weather, hunger, and possible death to ensure that safety, warmth, and hatching of your egg. Just like in business, you do everything necessary to make sure that your new company hatches.  Even after your baby hatches, it takes a year before the baby down goes away and the adult water resistant feathers grow in and during that year you are very vulnerable to be eaten by a fox, or die from cold or even worse, hunger. Just like in business the first year or years are the hardest, and when you are most vulnerable. It is the creator’s job and duty to ensure that you grow up all safe and sound for you to be able to fend for yourself.

Penguins have been doing this year after year as have entrepreneurs and there is a lesson to be learned from these happy little flightless birds!

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Yesterday I was driving past our local international airport and watched a plane blast off right over my head as it was on its way up to 30,000 feet.  This airliner made me think of an analogy that has withstood the test of time in business and will continue to do so for all of history due to its fundamental nature.

“Keep it Simple.”

Below I have outlined a real life business example of two competing businesses in the airline industry, one of which keeps its simple while the other loves to be the king of trying to be everything to everyone all the while not being anything to anyone.

Example A:

The Minneapolis MN-headquartered airline, Northwest Airlines (now merged with Delta) is a prime example of a company that is not only boring, but an absolute mess, barely makes a dime, and has been through years and years of struggle as they try to find their place with their business model of “lets be try to be everything to everyone.”

Their CEO Doug Steenland has his head so far in the sand that he can’t even see the fact that they would be a great airline and highly profitable if they just focused on what they did best instead of trying to be everything to everyone.

Here’s the thing:  Northwest makes 90% of its money from business travelers who regularly fly to hubs like Chicago, New York and Los Angeles. Northwest loses more money than they know what to do with shipping people to remote places like the Bismarck, North Dakotas of the world at 10:52 p.m. They have tried to establish their airline as one who can take you anywhere in the world anytime.

While that may be fine, people don’t care about that.  They care about quality; brand and service (I have yet to meet a Northwest flight attendant who doesn’t have a chipped shoulder and wasn’t angry at the world). A majority of consumers will go out of their way AND PAY MORE MONEY for things that they enjoy.  Take coffee for example: people don’t have to spend $3.47 on a skim latte form Starbucks, but THEY DO.  They could just brew it from home which some people still do and that’s fine…. they are not really members of Starbucks’ target market. NWA can’t seem to focus on a  target market – let alone decide what their brand stands for – so consequently they have swapped their once-successful company for a joke of an airline that is more about shipping people around like cattle instead of the values the airline industry was founded upon.

AND to top it all off after years and years of nothing but continual failure, instead of getting smarter and learning from their mistakes they decide to merge with Delta Airlines in hopes to make them EVEN bigger, so just MAYBE, just MAYBE the combined losses will be a little less that what they are today and they won’t have any market competition.

Yes, Northwest Airlines does ship tens of thousands of people all across the world every single day safely, but why not do in style, and in a way that their travelers are proud to wear the badge of their brand and shout out from the mountaintops advocating for them to the masses.

Why not just “keep it simple?”

Example B:

Virgin America is an example of one of many airlines that is smart about how they are running their business. They run their company like it’s a small business spending their own money, not like a major publicly-traded company spending shareholders’ cash.  Virgin America is a company that people WANT to fly on.  Very simple when you stop and think about it.  They have a select few routes, with limited times and limited destinations, maximizing the use of their planes to their absolute fullest potential. They do the same flights, and the same schedules, to the same places….OVER, and OVER, and OVER, and OVER, and OVER.

Virgin America operates on an entirely new fleet of identical planes which are not only more efficient, but also again…”simple”. Their interiors are second to none; their staff is friendly and happy to be working. They have a brand behind them that people all over the world have come to admire. All the while Virgin America keeps things simple, and builds loyal clients while making a boatload of money in the process.

It’s really not that complicated, is it?

Why is Virgin America a success vs. Northwest Airlines constantly in the shitter?

Two Things:

1. Focus:

Having a clear and concise focus, and becoming the very best in your industry is one of many ingredients in the recipe for success.  Focus on keeping things simple, and don’t unnecessarily complicate things that should never become complicated in the first place.

2. Replication:

My dear readers, everything we do is a choice. Replicating and duplicating the same process over and over allows you to perfect what it does and become the VERY BEST at it – all the while being a thought leader and expert in your industry. Anyone who runs a successful business should put replication into practice, and if they don’t they are missing out on a major opportunity to set yourself apart form a very large crowd of mediocrity.

Keeping it simple doesn’t mean you can’t be a mega global corporation. It just means you have to remember what you are best at and stick with that until you’re blue in the face for doing the same thing over and over again.

In our society of consumerism, instant gratification, and me, me, me attitudes, businesses are going to have to wake up to the fact that they will not survive if they try to be everything to everyone. If they want to be successful; they must be the very best in their specific highly targeted niche and nothing less – otherwise why even bother? Screw being mediocre.

STOP COMPLICATING YOUR BUSINESSES.

Simplicity has never gone out of style and it never will.

Screw being in business if you can’t learn to “Keep it Simple”

As some of you may know I have a weekly column for Real Business Magazine, the number-one resource for entrepreneurs and small businesses in the UK.

I am their American correspondent on the entrepreneurial scene “across the pond” and have been writing for them for about a month now. I especially like this weeks article so I thought I would share it with you:

“Why Venture Capital is Like Dating”

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Click here to read the article

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This past weekend I spent some time in the Northwood’s of Wisconsin.  As I was kayaking across a serene lake in the Sylvania national forest I was instantly brought a bit of business inspiration.

Trees in the forest start out as a tiny little seed.  White Pines, Ash, Poplar, Maple, Oak, etc. When they start out they fight for light from the competition, much like businesses when they are quite young. They have to struggle to grow from a fragile little sapling, when the deer and animals want to munch on their fresh little leaves, or even get trampled by a hiker or a bear.  But as they continue to grow, much like business as they seek for the light and fight their way to the top. The strongest, and best grow until someday hundreds of years later a logger wants to come and cut down that tree because of its beauty, and size and cash in from the sale. Much like businesses, they grow from a small little company fighting there way until they grow up to be strong substantial companies with shareholders, board members, and maybe even a potential sale.

A tree starts as a seed, and so does a business.  Growing that business from seed to fully-grown tree takes many years, nurturing, and patience.

Remember that each tree had to fight its way to be, and so will you with your business.

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I wanted people to see this because, when building a company you should always be asking yourself these two questions:

1. “What basic fundamental human need do I provide?”

2  “What does my service answer?”

Doing that will help ensure that you are not wasting your time making something that users don’t want or need.

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