Risk & Business Magazine Spectrum Insurance Fall 2016 | Page 12
10 THINGS TO BE PARANOID ABOUT
10
Things to Be Paranoid
About As An Entrepreneur
T
he biggest thinkers are usually
the most paranoid, and the
smallest thinkers are the least.
Andy Grove was a Hungarian
immigrant, an entrepreneur,
and one of the founders of Intel. He was
known as the guy that drove the growth
phase of Silicon Valley. He was respected
among all CEOs. He wrote a book
titled Only the Paranoid Survive. I highly
recommend this book. Even though it’s
an older book and some of its stories may
not be relevant today, the concepts are still
relevant. A lot of people say that it’s not
good to be paranoid, but I think paranoia is
absolutely necessary for entrepreneurs.
more diligent so you don’t lose $728,000
on a project that you’re working on.
Here are some examples:
•
Speed of delivery for customers
•
Speed of delivery for partners and
vendors
•
Speed on how quickly you get back to
customers and other people
•
Speed on emails
•
Speed on placement
•
Speed on purchases, how long it takes,
how easy it is for the buyer, and how
quickly the product is delivered
ENTREPRENEURS
WHO ARE THE
BIGGEST THINKERS
ARE USUALLY THE
MOST PARANOID.
THOSE WHO ARE
THE SMALLEST
THINKERS ARE
NORMALLY THE
LEAST PARANOID.
•
Speed on how quickly it takes for a
loan to be underwritten
Here are ten things to be paranoid about as
an entrepreneur:
#3: DEADLINES
I’m paranoid about deadlines. “Are we going
to hit this deadline?” “Is this thing going to
get done?” It’s similar to time, but different
because time can be so general.
#1: SPEED OF IMPLEMENTATION
Speed of implementation is probably at the
top of my list of things for entrepreneurs
to be paranoid about. What do I mean by
speed? I mean how quickly we implement
effective ideas.
However, it is possible to move too quickly
and do things abruptly. There are instances
where you need to take your time and be
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Everything comes back to speed. The
biggest companies in the world that
became way too thick did so because at one
point, speed was very critical. But they’ve
become flat because speed is no longer a
priority for them. They forgot about being
paranoid about the speed.
#2: TIME
You don’t have as much of it as you think
you do. One of time’s best friends to a
paranoid entrepreneur is preparation.
Learning to delegate the $10-an-hour jobs
and staying focused on the vital role you
play in your company is the best way to be
effective with your time.
If you make an announcement that
something is going to launch at a particular
time, how paranoid are you that the launch
is going to take place? How does the team
feel about that deadline not being met?
What are you doing to make sure the
deadlines are met?
#4: INTERNAL SYSTEMS
How efficient are your internal systems?
What type of product are your internal
systems producing? Are they the best they
can be? Is the experience that results from
your internal systems the best it can be?
What needs to be adjusted in your internal
systems to make things more efficient,
faster, and more streamlined? Can your
systems be duplicated? Can anybody do
them?
If you hired another person, could they
come in and immediately do exactly what
the person who was there three-and-a-half
years was doing?
How efficient are your internal systems?
Do they work well together? Do things run
smoothly, without glitches?
You need to be paranoid about your
internal systems.
#5: INNOVATION
You need to feel a lot of paranoia about
innovation. A lot of big companies aren’t
paranoid about innovation because they
don’t ever think they’ll be passed up. They
are typically extremely arrogant and cocky.
Then, a younger company comes along
and recognizes it isn’t the best and it hasn’t
arrived yet. It recognizes that the other
company is bigger and better. But the
younger company is hungry. It’s ready to
fight. It wants to win.
You have to ask if you have an appropriate
level of paranoia on whether innovation
is still taking place in your company, or if
you’re doing business as usual.
#6: ENERGY
Do you still have the same enthusiasm and
excitement you used to have, or are you
getting too content because you’ve had
way too many victories? You need to be
paranoid about keeping your energy at the
highest level, such that other people want
to be around you and emulate you.