In 2011, I took a stab at focusing my writing only on few but important topics — topics that kept me intellectually engaged and I cared deeply. The idea was to create a column/email called Om Says. It was a good experiment for it allowed me to be selective. In 2011, I published 70 Om Says. More importantly, many of you engaged – be it on Twitter or in the comments section of the blog or via email. Those conversations, helped trigger new thinking.
At the end of 2011, when I look back, I am still pleased with the topic choices I made. Though I wish I had spent more time on headlines and did a better job of self editing. But that is something to look forward to in 2012. I guess despite 10-years of blogging, I have quite mastered it quite yet.
Earlier this morning I shared my top dozen picks for 2011 with readers over on GigaOM, but here I want to share some posts I think would be extremely useful for fellow entrepreneurs and startup founders. These are are based on my own personal observations.
I increasingly see companies, both big and small, often focusing too much on their competitors and not focusing on being unique. And if a company spends all its energy trying to be the same as another, it has already lost the game.
For environmentalist and entrepreneur Bill Liao, a round trip to San Francisco takes three months: He doesn’t fly. It takes a lot of conviction to go against convention like this, but that dedication is necessary if you truly want to have a breakthrough product.
These days it seems raising funding gets all the focus. Most of us forget that there is a big difference between raising capital and starting a business and actually building a business. Many of us underestimate how long it takes to build a business.
Startup founders and company leaders are the ones who define its culture. By being open and transparent, they build a company with a healthy and a positive outlook. On the flip side, culture of fear and hiding erodes trust and proves to be counterproductive.
Today just happens to be the four-year anniversary of a hiccup that redefined my life and made me think differently about how I live, how I create, what I consume and how I approach work. Here are some observations (not lessons) from the past four years.