In a speech earlier today, British Prime Minister David Cameron vowed, “And to the lawless minority, the criminals who’ve taken what they can get, I say this – we will track you down, we will find you, we will charge you, we will punish you. You will pay for what you have done.”
I talk to lots of entrepreneurs (and people that want to be), and many of them have really cool ideas. I love to engage in discussions with thoughtful people – entrepreneurs or otherwise – because I love sharing in their creative process. It’s just fun!
But 99% of the time, I won’t sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). Don’t even ask, unless you are engaging me for paid services in a capacity that exposes me to patented intellectual property (according to the legal definition, which is distinct from an unprotectable thought). I decided to blog about this, because I have this conversation repeatedly with entrepreneurs who don’t follow the the world of seed-stage venture capital with my fanatical zeal. If you’re a venture capitalist or an experienced entrepreneur, what I’m stating herein is stuff you probably already know and accept.
Personally, I have ideas for startups all the time – every single day. I can churn them out by the dozens. Many of them might be great ideas, but all of them are worthless. Why? Because I haven’t successfully executed them. Period. I’m happy to discuss my ideas for startups with anyone that wants to engage me. If you think you can steal my idea and out-execute me on it, then good luck!
In the book Do More Faster: TechStars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup by Brad Feld and David Cohen (and numerous other authors, including Tim Ferriss), their first chapter is entitled Trust Me, Your Idea Is Worthless. In it Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Workweek, asserts “Earth-shattering and world-changing ideas are a dime a dozen.” Tim goes on to postulate that entrepreneurs who insist on having others sign NDAs before discussion of their ideas “clearly overvalue ideas and therefore, almost by definition, undervalue execution. Brainstorming is a risk-free, carefree activity.”
Tim continues, “There is no market for ideas. Think about it for a second: have you tried selling an idea lately? Where would you go to sell it? Who would buy it? When there is no market, it is usually a very sure sign that there is no value.” He finishes with, “Ideas, however necessary, are not sufficient. They are just an entry ticket to play the game. Don’t shelter and protect your startup concept like it’s a nest egg.”
Paul Graham, one of the most famous seed-stage venture capitalists in the world, has written in his blog post Ideas For Startups that “startup ideas are worthless“.
Paul states, “They overvalue ideas. They think creating a startup is just a matter of implementing some fabulous initial idea. And since a successful startup is worth millions of dollars, a good idea is therefore a million dollar idea.”
He continues, “Actually, startup ideas are not million dollar ideas, and here’s an experiment you can try to prove it: just try to sell one. Nothing evolves faster than markets. The fact that there’s no market for startup ideas suggests there’s no demand. Which means, in the narrow sense of the word, that startup ideas are worthless.”
So my bottom line is this: If we’re just talking about your idea at dinner, or over coffee, or on a phone call, I’ll have a blast having a great discussion with you. But remember that unless you have successfully executed it, I am respectfully starting from the position that your idea is worthless – until you’ve executed on it in a substantial way. Forget the NDA. I won’t enter into a legal obligation over an idea.
UPDATES:
The Animal Protection Steering Committee was created by Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black to provide him with a formal recommendation regarding the future of the Animal Protection Section of the Georgia Department of Agriculture.
Each member of our team was appointed by Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black, and except for Venessa Sims-Green, we are all private citizens who are not employed by the Georgia Department of Agriculture.
On Saturday, April 2nd, 2011, the Animal Protection Steering Committee held its kick-off meeting. Committee members who attended included:
Committee members not in attendance included:
Most of the 3½ hour meeting was spent discussing the priorities that each member brought to the committee. Despite the varied interests represented, a spirit of productive cooperation framed the conversation, and general agreement was reached to find the common ground between us.
We had been instructed by Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black to organize ourselves at our first meeting by electing a Chairperson and Secretary. I was nominated by Davis Cosey for Chairperson, and subsequently elected. Gail LeBerge was elected Secretary. Kathy Cowan had been previously appointed by Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black as the Steering Committee Liaison. As the Director of the Animal Protection Section, Venessa Sims-Green attended as the official representative of the Georgia Department of Agriculture.
The committee agreed that it’s very important for us to engage the public throughout the process, and so after the meeting we set up a Facebook Fan Page for our committee to use as an open communication tool. It has been wildly successful, with hundreds of posts and thousands of post views. It has been approved by the Georgia Department of Agriculture‘s leadership team and legal counsel , and “liked” by Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black himself.
http://facebook.com/georgia.animal.protection
I hope that every animal-loving Georgian will join the conversation there. Please show your support for this open transparent process with a “like” of our Facebook Fan Page, “share” a link to it on your own profile, and “suggest to friends”. Help us ensure that Georgia’s animals have the best possible future!
Gary Black was elected Georgia’s next Commissioner of Agriculture on Tuesday! He will take office in January, and will convene the Strategic Planning Team shortly thereafter. Throughout 2011, we will be reaching out to animal advocacy leaders and animal welfare organizations throughout Georgia, creating new lines of communication, and soliciting input and feedback on a variety of animal welfare issues and initiatives. More to come!
To the animal lovers of Georgia:
If Gary Black is elected Georgia’s next Commissioner of Agriculture this Tuesday, Georgia’s animal welfare community will begin a bright new relationship with the Georgia Department of Agriculture.
Pending Gary Black‘s election, I have accepted a position to serve on his administration’s Strategic Planning Team, representing Georgia’s animal welfare community.
In partnership with two other incredibly experienced and respected animal advocates whose names have not yet been announced, we will be responsible for formulating new policy for the Animal Protection Section of the Georgia Department of Agriculture. As Gary Black‘s advisors / policy strategists for animal welfare, our “team of three” has open-door access to Gary Black to improve the welfare of Georgia’s animals, and we will be highly-accessible to the animal advocates of Georgia’s animal welfare community.
We will be reaching out to animal advocacy leaders and animal welfare organizations throughout Georgia, creating new lines of communication, and soliciting input and feedback on a variety of animal welfare issues and initiatives. Some will be asked to serve as volunteers on committees that will drive and support specific animal advocacy issues.
If Gary Black becomes our next Commissioner of Agriculture this Tuesday, the future of animal welfare in Georgia will become much brighter. There will be genuine hope for the animals of Georgia. Only your VOTE this Tuesday can make this happen!
Please VOTE for Gary Black for Georgia’s Commissioner of Agriculture.
Feel free to forward and cross-post to Georgia’s animal lovers.
Thank you,
Chris Benson
chris@chrisbenson.com
http://chrisbenson.com/animals
Great leaders are virtuous people. It is the foundation upon which all other leadership skills are built.
Leadership is built on trust. Be a trusting person. Make leaps of faith all the time. Unless you do, you will not create the sense of empowerment in people that allow them to grow into leaders in their own right.
You must be completely trustworthy. Your followers will buy into your vision only if they trust you explicitly. Never violate that trust, even if the violation might be considered “small” or “reasonable” under the circumstances. Leaders who violate trust do not recover. Be transparent and open in your relationships.
Integrity means that you represent yourself consistently to everyone with whom you interact. You know you’re going off-course when you have a conversation with one person that you wouldn’t want another person to hear. Whether it’s the CEO or the janitor, you must be the same to all.
I must constantly remind myself to be humble. It is my own personal weakness. As you become a better leader over time, and a more capable person in general, it’s easy to allow your sense of confidence to affect of your behavior and interactions. I have a couple of close friends who do me the favor of correcting me when I need it – which happens more often than I care to admit. There is no room for arrogance in the halls of leadership. It reduces your effectiveness.
Leadership is inherently about proactively managing change. That can be incredibly hard to do, because change is scary to most people. Leaders take us to a place that is different from the status quo. To lead is to be the first person traveling down a new path – exposed to risks and dangers unknown. It requires confidence and discipline to overcome the fear that the unknown creates within us all.
Approach challenges with discipline and a positive attitude. Learn to balance idealism and pragmatism to get the job done, and have the strength of character to do the right thing – always.
Today is my birthday. I am 40 years old. As I look back on the broad themes that have dominated my life to date, one stands out above all others – my passion for the pursuit of excellence in leadership. I first became interested in leadership as a teenager, and have been actively studying and practicing leadership ever since – more than half my life.
I have been privileged to serve in many leadership roles through the years, have read dozens of books about leadership, attended lectures and workshops, and have been exposed to thousands of leaders – both good and bad, with the vast majority somewhere in between. When I find great leaders, I learn everything I can from them.
All these years later, I still have much to learn about leadership. I would claim to have already made every mistake there is to make as a leader (meaning a lot), if my experience didn’t tell me I’ll continue to make mistakes for years to come.
These days, people often tell me that I’m a “natural leader”. They are usually surprised when I reply that I’m not. I’m a “learned leader”; I was not born with this knowledge. It is a practiced art. Anyone can learn it, though it comes easier to those who already have some of the necessary attributes.
Despite being one of the most analyzed and documented topics in human history, few people define leadership the same way. If you ask ten different people what leadership is, you’ll typically get ten different answers, though there will be commonalities among them. They know it when they see it, but they have a hard time describing exactly what it is. I’ve spent years thinking about what leadership is, and will attempt to define it hereafter in a clear and concise manner.
As John Maxwell teaches us in his many books on the topic, leadership is about influence. As leaders, we want to accomplish specific objectives that require the participation and commitment of others, and it’s our responsibility to influence those people in order to achieve those objectives. Easier said than done.
So how do you develop influence with others so that they’ll commit to an objective? There are many right ways to organize the activities and attributes that make up or contribute to leadership. I use the following model to simplify and clarify. As I learn more about leadership, the model evolves.
In the following posts, I will address the ingredients to the development of influence.
Please read the Adventures of Lexie & Chris – Part 1, and the Adventures of Lexie & Chris – Part 2, before reading Part 3.
Lexie received less attention than usual from me over the past few weeks. Between a father who spent nearly two weeks in the hospital, and my dog Yonah’s chemotherapy treatments, Lexie got the short end of the stick. Even so, her life continues to improve.
Lexie recently made a huge upgrade in lifestyle – she’s now living out of the crate in the Learning Center. She and Lenny are free to hang out and play all the time, though Lexie is restricted to the downstairs so that Lenny has his own refuge. Their friendship has grown ever stronger, and I’m fairly convinced that Lenny thinks he’s a dog too. He certainly knows how to handle Lexie, even in her more exuberant moments. The willingness of our entire care-giving team to accommodate Lexie’s newfound freedom has truly inspired me, and is a testament to the unwavering dedication of our volunteers.
A big part of Lexie’s ongoing socialization process is learning how to meet and get along with other dogs. She has attended several recent group K9 Coaching classes on the front lawn with the other OPP dogs. As Sandy Adcock, Director of Training, noted, “She did a wonderful job keeping calm and paying special attention to Chris during class. Even when other dogs were barking at her, Lexie was a perfect lady. She’s come such a long way. Class ended with a game of 123 Red Light – Lexie and Tito tied to win.”
My step-son Eric and I took Lexie on a second walk with our dog Peri over to Kell High School. After a challenging start, Lexie and Peri settled into a working (walking?) truce, which eventually finished with friendly butt sniffs and nose touches. First Bruiser, now Peri. With her developing social skills, Lexie is learning to get along with other dogs. Each time she is introduced to another dog, she becomes a little more accustomed to the proper canine etiquette that she knows I expect from her. She gazes into my face with intensity, and I return the same. Then I nod towards the other dog, and tell Lexie to “be good”. She knows what I’m asking, and she genuinely tries.
Lexie really shines through as a great family dog. She recognizes the road between Kennesaw Mountain and my parents’ home, and becomes so excited on the way there that I have to push her out of my lap so I can drive the car. We arrive and she eagerly leaps from the car up their front stairs, dragging me by the leash. She is the queen of her new home domain; she knows it, and she knows that everybody else knows it as well. After a warm and loving greeting to my parents, she does her duty by making sure that each room is thoroughly investigated, the trash cans carefully inspected, and the kitchen counters diligently patrolled. Then she and my mother conspire to get rid of me, knowing that I will protest the goodies that Mom sneaks to Lexie when I’m not looking.
The day before Thanksgiving, Lexie spent four hours at my parents’ house while I helped them prepare to host our large family the following day. My nephew Alexander and my 5-year-old niece Lilly played with Lexie through the afternoon. There were smiles all around and lots of puppy kisses. When my sister Alyssa arrived to pick up Alexander and Lilly, she met Lexie for the first time. After 10 minutes, Alyssa commented, “This is the most well-behaved dog I’ve ever seen”. Then she asked me why my mouth was hanging open. I decided not to mention that just before she had arrived, Alexander had dropped two hotdogs on the floor. My mother had rescued one, but Lexie had dexterously stolen the other.
Alyssa left to go home with the kids. Except for the hotdog, Lexie had been a marvelous family dog for 4 straight hours. Now she broke down and had one of her notoriously mischievous moments. My parents had recently installed a long handicap ramp for my father. It goes from the parking area outside their house, and winds up to a side door. My mother asked me to retrieve something from the closed room where that door is, and Lexie pranced along beside me. As we entered the room, I noticed that my parents had left the glass door to the outside open – with only the mesh screen door closed. Lexie felt the breeze blowing in, looked at me with a “catch me if you can” expression, and launched herself THROUGH the closed mesh screen door – mesh door, no more. In panic I gave chase, bellowing at her to come back. Paying no heed, she raced down the long ramp – gleefully exuberant to show off her sudden freedom and independence. She flew by my car, and raced out the long driveway into the darkness towards the road. I knew she wouldn’t run away, but I was hoping she’d turn around before she got to the busy road. In a moment of inspiration, I dashed first to the kitchen, and then bound out the front door, having decided to sacrifice the lone survivor. “Lexie!!! Hotdog!!!”, I screamed into the night. Then she was there, back from the darkness. Her jailbreak concluded, the escapee had turned herself in for a tasty morsel. Through so many adventures, it was the first time she’d ever gotten away from me.
Possibly her most precious moment occurred just a few days ago. Dad came home from the hospital, so of course I took Nurse Lexie over to help him get settled. She trotted straight over to him, and gently – delicately – stood on her hind legs, and momentarily put her front paws on his chest – ever so careful not to press on him with her weight. Just letting him know that she loved him with a tender touch. She simply knew. I watched with a lump in my throat.
Lexie has become a new dog through the second half of 2009, and 2010 will be even better for her. I’ll continue to provide quarterly updates on her progress. On behalf of Lexie and Lenny, we wish you a very merry holiday season and a Happy New Year! And as always… I love Lexie.
Please read the Adventures of Lexie & Chris – Part 1 first.
Six weeks have passed since I wrote the original article about Lexie. In that brief time, she has continued to make progress, and her friendship with Lenny the cat has deepened into true companionship.
Several weeks ago, Gigi and I took Lexie and Lenny to the veterinarian for a checkup. Lexie put up with the poking and prodding from Dr. Shepherd with little argument, but her feelings for Lenny became very clear when Lenny had his turn. Lenny began yowling in anger at Dr. Shepherd, and that really upset Lexie. I couldn’t help but smile inwardly when Dr. Shepherd suggested that I remove Lexie from the room while he examined Lenny. I couldn’t blame him; if Lexie had been looking at me like that, I too would have considered my next actions rather carefully.
Dr. Shepherd did tell us something that provided me with great relief. I asked him to look at Lexie’s teeth, and he stated that he believed that her teeth were not damaged by human hand, but were the result of natural causes. In my original article, I had suggested that Lexie’s teeth had been sawed off or filed down by a human being, leading me to speculate that Lexie may have once been a bait dog in a dog-fighting operation. I am delighted to report that Dr. Shepherd didn’t think so, and I’ve never been so happy to be wrong in my entire life.
On Sunday, November 1st, a small group of volunteers gathered to build an enclosed run on the back of the Learning Center for Lexie and Lenny. I am immensely grateful to everyone involved for spending their afternoon to make Lexie’s small world at OPP a little bigger and better. At the end of the day, Lexie had her own small outdoor area where she could safely prance about off-leash. Not only did it benefit her and Lenny, but also the volunteer care-givers, who don’t have to put her on leash several times each day so she can pee and poo. Now, they can simply open the back door, and let her outside under supervision – just like the other dogs at OPP.
Soon, Lexie will no longer be confined to her crate in the Learning Center. On certain evenings, we are already leaving her loose in the Learning Center overnight with Lenny under very specific controlled circumstances. I have no worries about Lenny’s safety; Lexie adores him. But we need to make sure that all volunteer care-givers are comfortable dealing with an unrestrained Lexie – especially when entering or leaving the Learning Center.
I take Lexie for walks and runs several times each week – sometimes from OPP, but usually off-site. The many trails within Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park are our favorite outdoor destination, and Lexie has become a first class trail dog and an excellent fitness partner. Every once in a while, she’ll block my path to stop me in my tracks, and gaze unwaveringly into my eyes. This is her demand that I kneel down, and rain kisses on her head and nose. She soaks up the quick loving, and we’re off again. We’ll often arrive at the summit of Kennesaw Mountain on a sunny weekend afternoon, where numerous visitors are resting and enjoying the view, and Lexie will invariably attract a crowd of admirers – adults and children alike. It is not uncommon for me to spend an hour telling folks about Lexie and Our Pal’s Place while they fret and coo over her. She is an accomplished ambassador for OPP.
I now deliberately give Lexie on-leash opportunities to interact with other dogs from several feet away, and on some days we’ll have 1-2 dozen encounters. Many go well, but some devolve into snarling and lunging. The volume and frequency of the encounters have given me insight into Lexie’s behavioral motivators and triggers. I am constantly reminded that dog aggression expert Brenda Aloff, who wrote the definitive book on the subject Aggression In Dogs, teaches us that “canine aggression is about space invasion”. Fundamentally, Lexie is rude with other dogs rather than aggressive. She invades their personal space out of intense curiosity without understanding the social consequences, and doesn’t know to use the calming and negotiating signals that well-socialized dogs naturally learn growing up. With Lexie starting each encounter rudely, the nature of each interaction depends on the other dog’s reaction. If the other dog puts up with it (even though it shouldn’t have to), then all is well. If the other dog responds with understandable defensiveness, then Lexie’s “aggression trigger” is activated, and the encounter devolves into snarling and lunging (but no physical contact).
Ultimately, the only way for Lexie to improve is to continue having interactions with other dogs, and to accomplish this I am actively studying and specializing in positive training techniques for aggressive dogs. The intense trust and understanding that Lexie and I have developed (as described in my original article) enables me to influence her in ways that would be unsafe for any other person, but which are helpful in converting active aggression into acceptable behavior using positive training techniques. As our trust grew strong, I used specialized knowledge I’ve acquired in dog-aggressive positive training techniques to gradually and deliberately get Lexie used to having me touch her body during aggression events in order to alter her behavior to accommodate my touch without mindless biting. Lexie now knows and expects that every single dog encounter actively involves at least three participants – herself, the other dog several feet away, and me touching her. I can’t stress enough the danger of this training approach without proper instruction and worlds of mutual trust between you and the dog, and I point out that this is not something I can do with any other dog. Having trained Lexie to physically accommodate me during aggression events, I can now safely use the “pressure” of my body as a positive tool when I’m attempting to influence Lexie to convert her aggression into an acceptable behavior. It has proven very effective at redirecting her attention away from mindless lunging and back to me with conscious focus. I am helping Lexie revert from fight-flight behaviors driven by the Hind Brain (the Medulla Oblongata in the base of the brain stem) back to the Front Brain (higher order thinking in the Cerebral Cortex), and I have taken great care to maintain a perfect safety record.
On the whole, Lexie’s behavior is clearly and steadily improving. Recently, Sandy Adcock (OPP’s K9 Coach Manager & professional trainer) and I decided to introduce Lexie and Peri – one of my own four dogs. Together, along with several OPP volunteers, we took Lexie and Peri for a walk. They padded along eyeing one another curiously while we kept them several feet apart, but neither made an aggressive gesture towards the other.
About a week later, OPP volunteer Mark Chafin was telling me that he and Sandy had taken his dog Bruiser for a short walk with Lexie some months back, and that it had gone well. We decided to take Bruiser and Lexie for a walk at Cheatham Hill. It was an amazing sight. Big easy-going Bruiser loped along for 2 miles with Lexie prancing playfully around him (both on leash). At that moment, it was easy to believe that Lexie would soon evolve beyond her dog-aggressive behaviors.
On Saturday, November 21st, Lexie will take another step forward by attending Sandy’s K9 Coaching class with other OPP dogs. My primary objective will be to work with her on her dog-to-dog social skills.
Lexie responds particularly well to clicker training, which elicits, marks, and reinforces desirable behaviors. In her book Reaching the Animal Mind, Karen Pryor describes some unconventional applications for clicker training, and that got me thinking one evening after a walk. Lexie is scared of certain types of physical contact, one of which was having her hind paws held. This was causing me problems when we walked trails after it had rained, because Lexie wouldn’t let me clean the mud from her hind paws before putting her in my car. One evening, I used a clicker, some treats, and a towel to train her to accept a thorough hind paw cleaning using a towel without freaking out. It was funny, because in the span of 15 minutes, she went from panic when I grabbed her hind paw, to offering it to me herself while maintaining relaxed leg muscles. She is one super smart dog.
One of the most important experiences Lexie can have are regular home visits, so that she can learn what family life is all about. Since my family already has four dogs at home – Satori, Yonah, Peri, and Marcus, my house isn’t the best option. My parents – Gale & Whit Benson – no longer have any pets due to lifestyle constraints, but they have graciously allowed me to bring Lexie to their home on a very regular basis. About once a week, I take her over there after a walk or run at Kennesaw Mountain, since they live very close to the park. At first, I was a little concerned that Lexie might physically overwhelm my parents, or even accidentally injury them as she flings her muscular self around, but Lexie somehow senses that limits are necessary, and she doesn’t leap on them the way she does with volunteers at OPP. She is gentle with them. My mother positively dotes on Lexie, and Lexie in turn adores my mother. They allow Lexie to roam freely inside – exploring, getting into stuff, and generally making herself at home. Over time, it has become clear that Lexie has decided that their house is her house, and after finally tiring of sniffing exploration, Lexie will come into the family room where we’re sitting, and curl up for a nap at our feet. Occasionally, I have the pleasure of the most adorable sight – my 5 year old niece Lilly leading a very willing Lexie around the house by the leash. I don’t know if Lexie has ever before spent time at home with a family, but she’s clearly a family dog now. For an hour or two at a time, she seems to forget her life in rescue, and relaxes in her “home” until its time to leave once more.
Lexie is becoming a very adoptable dog. She is already a well-adjusted family dog. She loves people of all ages, cats, car rides, long walks, loping runs, and wading in creeks. Her dog-aggressive behavior is receding, often absent, and very manageable. She is super smart, and delightfully full of personality. Lexie needs someone with a big heart, lots of energy, and a bit of patience. I would love to adopt her, but with four other dogs, it’s not presently possible and may never be. Despite that, some things never change… I love Lexie.
Please read the Adventures of Lexie & Chris – Part 3.
