Tag: Innovation

Hell Yeah or No

Four words. This is the simplest and most useful decision making concept I have come across. I reflect on it regularly and it helps me to say “no” with more conviction.

If you’re not saying “HELL YEAH!” about something, say “no”.

When deciding whether to do something, if you feel anything less than “Wow! That would be amazing! Absolutely! Hell yeah!” — then say “no.”

When you say no to most things, you leave room in your life to really throw yourself completely into that rare thing that makes you say “HELL YEAH!”

Source: Derek Sivers

Both Warren Buffett and Bill Gates agree that “focus” is the single most important success factor.

Steve Jobs famously said: “People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I’m actually as proud of the things we haven’t done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying ‘no’ to 1,000 things.”

I hope you find this idea as useful as I do. “Hell Yes, or No!”

(Image by andeecollard)

Posted on by Remo Uherek

What I learned from Sam Zemurray, America’s Banana King

My learnings from The Fish That Ate The Whale about Sam Zemurray:

  • Fire people who can’t get the job done, and replace them by people who can.
  • Fast decisions. Don’t nibble. Get things done.
  • Get your hands dirty. Work hard. Go out to the fields with the machete. “We are here, they are there.”
  • Make gold out of other peoples trash (Sam did this with ripe bananas)
  • Invent things. Be innovative. The company missed to invent the banana box, because Sam was not there anymore. When Sam was there, they were the innovation leader.
  • Founder led companies are stronger than companies where the founding generation has already passed away.
  • Get creative with your solutions! E.g. Sam double purchased land that was owned by two different parties. His opponents hired lawyers. Sam just purchased it twice and got it done. (Effective vs. efficient)
  • Never complain. Just play the hand you are dealt.
  • Want to replace current management? Get enough proxies and fire the board.
  • Listen to the people on the front lines. They have the best information. Go to the docks. Talk to people (scuttlebutt method).
  • Companies have a lifecycle. Even the most innovative, most profitable or most powerful companies fade away. What are the characteristics of companies that survive for hundreds of years? They need to keep reinventing themselves. A young generation needs to take over and rebuild the business.
  • Keep a low profile. Don’t attract too much attention. Be a doer, not an attention seeker.
  • Give anonymously. If you don’t, you are not giving, you are trading (e.g. for status or reputation).

What have you learned? Let me know on Twitter.

(Thank you for recommending the book, Brent Beshore.)


Posted on by Remo Uherek

Alternative VCs

I love the idea of reinventing venture capital. Here are some great examples:

  • Patagonia’s venture capital fund: invests in environmentally and socially responsible start-up companies, providing long-term, patient capital. I highly recommend reading Let My People Go Surfing by founder Yvon Chouinard.
  • Y Combinator: invests small sums at the seed stage, but in large batches of startups, with hands-on mentoring. They were the first investors in AirBnB, Dropbox, Stripe, Coinbase, Reddit, and 1800+ more.
  • Venture Kick: Switzerland’s largest startup accelerator program. Get up to 150’000 CHF for your project.
  • indie.vc: 50% of the companies they’ve backed are led by female founders & the vast majority of them are based outside of the Bay Area or NYC
  • Tiny: they start, buy, and invest in wonderful internet businesses

Know other examples? Let me know on Twitter.


Posted on by Remo Uherek

The Edison Technique: The Best Way to Invent Anything

How to innovate:

  1. Build a prototype, and then keep iterating.
  2. Each time, only change one single thing. Then you see exactly what caused the improvement or failure.
  3. That way you build a huge bank of knowledge, and after many iterations, end up with something unique.

James Dyson used this method to create over 5000 prototypes of his radically different vacuum technology.

What will you come up with?


Posted on by Remo Uherek

Why I started using twitter

First of all, this interesting podcast with twitter co-founder Evan Williams (and co-founder of Blogger.com) made me sign up.

Things I learned:

#1: Twitter is so freakin’ easy. It just answers one simple question: What are you doing?

#2: Twitter is like mini-blogging. Because its so easy that I can do it whereever I am via SMS, I twitter more often than I write blog posts (= more content for my blog via the twitter-widget)

#3: Evan does what he is passionate about and EATS ITS OWN DOGFOOD (= one important success factor of both twitter and blogger.com)

#4: I am definitely no early adopter (since I started blogging in august 2006 and twittering in april 2007). I have to be convinced and see real value before I try something new. Thats an interesting personal insight :-).

Example of twitter power-usage:

Robert Scoble asked his 2500+ twitter-friends what tools he should install on his new MacBookPro. The 2500+ friends received an SMS/IM/RSS-alert with this question and sent Robert dozens of tips in just a couple of minutes. Thats value!

PS: I’m sure you already saw my twitter-widget in my sidebar :-).


Posted on by Remo Uherek