Great entrepreneurs build value and market-share in down markets. They go to work seven days a week and the breakout when other folks check out. –Calacanis
During these times it is imperative that you discover your hidden value. The folks you work for are looking not for great but for incomparable value. If you are a marketer, a sales person, a developer, designer and especially if you are in the C-suite of a bank. You need to see beyond the present and start preparing for the opportunities ahead. That would mean that you need to put the time to learn and become the best in the world (your own definition of world that is) at the stuff that you are working on and to really prepare for what you want to do next. The key here is that you define what you do next.
In an earlier post I wrote about the process of innovation and recession partly inspired by the Jason Calacanis email letter (now posted in his blog) and what I have quoted above. That is one of the most authentic and straightforward simple statements that I’ve read in a while. That got me thinking about how innovators and entrepreneurs look at a down market and about a way to build value in a down market. Mostly a downturn it is looked at as an opportunity rather than a handy cap. This made me look for opportunities where I can build community and sync up with other like-minded folks that would help me become smarter about the way one should look at the existing opportunities.
Yesterday I went to hear Robert Scoble speak about social media and his experience in technology markets. Robert said something very interesting about Twitter. He said that it feels like back in 2000 when Google was widely used but not making any money. We all knew there was something there but we did not know what it was. It feels like Google before it made any money. That statement within itself is mind bending given the economic situation. But that’s the thinking that made Google and that created the frenzy of startups created with Google as the sole exit strategy.
