

The Importance of Step Two (to Building a Great Company) - bmcmanus
http://startupsrule.com/?p=15

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bmcmanus
There is tremendous value in taking the first step to anything–especially
starting a great company.

Being confident enough to go out and meet anyone, to share opinions, to think
differently, to solve your own problems and to shape your reality is both
admirable and necessary to change the world for the better.

That being said, starting a great company is not a one step process. Your
problem which you bravely solved may be shared by many people around the
world, but a great company will never grow and survive around you–it will do
so around that which makes other people’s lives better.

I don’t know every step to making a great company, but I’m pretty sure that
Step Two is to look beyond your own needs and develop a deep interest in how
your actions will affect others. I guess this fits somewhere in between
“building for a market of one” and scaling your solution after discovering
product/market fit.

Today, it’s easier than ever to hear what the people you affect are saying,
but no one teaches you how to listen. It’s also easier than ever to publish
content and put it in front of others, but no one teaches you how to think
about the ways in which readers will perceive it and respond.

I think that the best way to approach Step Two is to assume that everyone can
see straight through you. If you interact with them only to inflate your own
status, they will eventually pick up on it. If you publish content to
broadcast your own needs without serving theirs, they will figure it out and
abandon you.

“You can fool some people sometimes, but you can’t fool all the people all the
time.” - Bob Marley

People are smart–they can tell when someone spends extra time thinking about
what they need. You’re smart too, but you’re not smart enough to fake that.

Great companies spend more time thinking about the problems of others than
they do their own. Those companies understand the best ways to solve our
problems even before we do because they’ve spent so much time thinking about
it. We love that feeling, and we pay for it.

So, whether you were part of the founding team of your company or not, be the
first person on your team to take Step Two. Spend extra time to make
everything you produce more helpful to everyone else, and ignore those on your
team who will tell you that you are wasting time.

Your thanks will not come from them, but from the smart, real people whose
lives you improve while building your great company.

Question for comments: Does what I wrote resonate with you? If so, please tell
me what you’re thinking about now.

