It’s counter-intuitive, but your title may make you manager, but your team makes you a leader.
It’s time to fire my gut.As a CEO, I have a bias for action and often make decisions with my gut.
Entrepreneurship is a journey, and it seems like it will be a lifelong one for me. The ride is filled with adventure, obstacles, and destinations that surprise. In the spring of this year, I decided to return to one of my passions: writing about my learnings as a CEO. This year marks the end of
Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, certainly makes the list of most admired leaders right now. Under his leadership, Microsoft has gone beyond Bill Gates’ wildest expectations. The firm that launched the PC software industry surpassed $1 Trillion in market cap this year, making it one of the world’s most valuable companies. He’s led the company
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.
At dinner one evening, a close friend and entrepreneur asked me, “what CEO skills are you using the most now in your new role?” (image:istockphoto) ARR, LTV, GTM, churn, positioning, competition, customer satisfaction, valuation. Over the past 18 years, I have been the founder and CEO of two companies where these metrics (and more) were
I have noticed a pattern in the 20 years I have been an entrepreneur, advisor, and CEO. Every time there is something wrong with a company, there is a recurring problem. Either someone is not doing their job, or they didn’t know it was their job. It’s more common than you think. A problem with
Twenty years ago, on 11/19/99, I sold my first startup. It was a technology company selling something called “Java Beans.” My four co-founders and I had a life-changing experience when a company called BEA Systems acquired our company for over $100M. We were excited not just for our own lives, but the way it would
In 1971, a young mother of three boarded a small boat to make a journey from her home country, Haiti. She hoped to find her husband, who had fled Haiti’s dictatorship nine years earlier. She reunited with him in a flourishing community of Haitian immigrants in The Bahamas, where he had found safety and work.
A few weeks ago, I got an email from an old friend. She was part of the marketing organization in the early days of my last company — a fantastic woman — she was looking for an update on what I was doing and agreed to write a recommendation for me as a CEO. She reminded me of a
The next time you are in your office, wondering what you should do. Take a random walk through your company. You’ll be surprised by what you find.
People think their next amazing business idea is going to be in their head, when you’re sitting in your room by yourself with a journal, totally detached from what you’re working on.
The body is strong, the mind is weak.
It starts deep in the pit of my stomach. It’s hard to describe. It’s like a cross between butterflies and sharp fluttering stomach pain. Sometimes, it manifests itself as a pain on the left side of my neck. It feels like a burning, humming sound. The buzz you might hear at a power substation full
About 8-years ago, I boarded a flight from JFK to make my way to an island about 30 miles south of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. It was a welcome break. I was attending a small, annual, invitation-only gathering of the northeast’s forward-thinking entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, executives, and researchers. The location and name — Nantucket Conference — were fitting. The island
The truth is when you have the combination of these two (thinking and doing) inside you — whether you believe it or not — you are an entrepreneur. (Photo by christian koch on Unsplash) What do home climate control and missile defense systems have in common? A lot. This is what my friend Dip Patel discovered in circa
Slipping on a banana and breaking your hip is fragile. Getting hit by a truck then getting up to walk to your hair appointment is resilient. But, getting one of your arms cut off then growing a new one the next day is beyond resilient — it’s antifragile. Sh*t happens in startups. (Amen, right?) I can relate.
Once, when meeting with the CEO of a new customer, I pulled out a bottle of ketchup and set it on the table. It was one of these … Once, when meeting with the CEO of a new customer, I pulled out a bottle of ketchup and set it on the table. (Image: istockphoto) It was
