Risk & Business Magazine Gifford Associates Fall 2016 | Page 13

10 THINGS TO BE PARANOID ABOUT

#7: NUMBERS
As an entrepreneur, you need to be
paranoid about the numbers. There are so
many different things you can measure as
an entrepreneur. But what’s your number
one? What’s the number one thing you
measure the most? Just think about that.
Some people say, “The most important
thing to measure is profits.” Why? Because
you’re taking profits home? A guy that
worked for an attorney told me, “I’m
working for an attorney that owns the firm.
Every month, profits come in and he takes
all the profits and leaves everything else
behind.” If profit is the most important
thing to you, could it be because you’re only
thinking about yourself? I don’t know how
many people are excited about working
for a company where profit is the most
important thing to the CEO. This doesn’t
mean that profit isn’t important, because
without profit, you go out of business.
Profits are important, but they’re not
number one.

on what they do? No, but you do need
to pay attention to what they’re doing,
because they’re definitely paying attention
to you.
The level of paranoia required for this
item is not very high. When asked, “Which
strategies do you follow when it comes
down to warfare?” Napoleon always
said, “No one’s. I use my own.” Now he
probably secretly copied somebody else,
but he focused on certain philosophies and
action plans that others didn’t think about.
Everyone wanted to emulate him.
Even though this level of paranoia shouldn’t
be high, you do need to be aware of what
your competition has at their disposal.
#9: NEW LAWS AND LEGISLATION
What are some new regulations or laws
taking place in your area or country? If a
new person or party takes office, how is
that going to affect your business?

Is it top-line revenue? Is it gross? Is it
paying off debt? Is it being debt-free? Is
it how much cash you have? What is the
measure? Is it how many employees you
have? Is it how many vendors you have? Is
it how many partners you have? How many
products? What is it?

You’ve got to understand that legislation
could possibly affect your business. If you
don’t, and you think, “Oh, it’s not going
to happen” you’ve got to assume that it is
going to happen. How are you going to
react to it? Every industry has laws and
legislation that you’ve got to be prepared
for. The best businesses already have a plan
of action in case something does take place.

#8: COMPETITION
Competition really isn’t at the top of my
list, but you do have to pay attention
to your competition. You need to pay
attention to what your competitors are
coming out with, and the products they’re
launching. Why? Is it so you can react based

#10: LEADERSHIP TEAM
The last thing to be paranoid about is
your leadership team. A great coach is very
paranoid about the energy in the locker
room. A great coach is very paranoid
about the captain of the team who is
leading everybody else. What are his or her

habits? What is he or she doing when he’s
taking players to his house or to dinners
or parties? What bad habits is he or she
teaching to them? It could be that he or
she is not captain material. Maybe you
need to change the captain. The best player
isn’t necessarily the leader of the team.
Remember that. In fact, very rarely is the
best player also the best leader.
You have to be paranoid about who you
install as the face of your company and who
you ask to lead everybody else, because if
you choose the wrong person, he or she
may give birth to a lot of negative, lowstandard leaders.
If you aren’t very diligent about paying
attention to that, standards will drop.
Those are ten things that I recommend
being paranoid about as an entrepreneur.
If you haven’t already read the book Only
the Paranoid Survive by Andy Grove, I highly
recommend you do. +

BY: PATRICK BET-DAVID
CEO, PHP AGENCY INC

Patrick Bet-David is CEO of PHP
Agency, Inc., Creator of Valuetainment on
YouTube and author of 25 Laws for Doing
the Impossible. Visit patrickbetdavid.com

FALL 2016

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