Comments on: Dink to Success

By: Dan Price

Dan Price — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 01:38:42 +0000

Hey Andy, Nice post…do you think the seahawks should try to bring Holmgren back as GM? Not sure if you saw the times article on that today. Anyway, I think I am going to take the other side on this issue. With Gravity Payments, we did some very innovative things for our customers when we started. Those innovations as well as ethics and a drive for excellence from our customer’s point of view have been a great platform for incremental growth creating nice revenue and profit bootstrapping from unbelievably low resources. However, those innovations will only provide a platform for a differentiated offering for a finite period of time. Eventually, we are going to have to make some radical shifts to further revolutionize our industry, again from the customer’s standpoint. At some point, we will have to say goodbye to our current business model, which is working wonderfully, and delighted our customers in the past, and embrace tomorrow’s model. In addition, we will have to do this before (and not after) we become irrelevant. I agree it doesn’t mean you completely abandon what got you there, perhaps you start to have multiple business units or carry some of the stuff that is working forward. However, a). to stick with what worked yesterday and assume it will work tomorrow strikes me as more risky than b). figuring out what your customer wants your industry to look like tomorrow and creating it as soon as you can…even if b). involves taking a step backwards with radical change. I always want to stay ahead of the curve on the “what have you done for me lately question” that all customers ask one day. I really appreciated this entry because I am spending a lot of time thinking about this issue right now. Thanks for all of your great posts!

By: Free Mind Games

Free Mind Games — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 19:20:24 +0000

Crawl before you walk. Walk before you run. Good one…

By: Neal Freeland

Neal Freeland — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:28:01 +0000

It’s a weak division, Seattle is only 2 games behind and there are 10 games left. Playoffs are still an option, never give up hope.

(That’s another lesson for startup success).

By: Cary Bergeron

Cary Bergeron — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:13:46 +0000

I really like your view on this and I completely agree. Some of my most profitable websites have been brought up this way. I have also fine tuned the plan and have applied it to othes as well. Not every one is a success but a short gain is better than nothting.

By: SEO Consultant

SEO Consultant — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:32:48 +0000

Great post today! It was refreshing to hear this advice as you and Neil have in the past made the plea to people to commit to their entrepreneurial ventures despite fears. I understand that you were both saying that if you never try then you will never win, and to now be afraid of failure. But my side is that if you have a family to support its difficult to be reckless with your career and finances. That being said I have always favored a more conservative approach, that is much more similar to “dinking” than it is the long bomb. This, for me, is the right way to go about moving into my own entrepreneurial adventures since I have obligations that will not allow me to fail financially.

By: Soleil Hepner

Soleil Hepner — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:03:57 +0000

Finally, words to soothe my battered ego - you know that voice that says, “You’re doing it all wrong”.

With people telling me to take YogaBlaze to every city in the U.S. - RIGHT NOW - I’ve resisted - instead perfecting it here in Seattle one yink (yoga-dink) at a time. And it’s working, pennies to dollars; 30,000 students to 1,000 teachers.

course, I’m from Detroit…

By: Joel Gendelman

Joel Gendelman — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:32:12 +0000

Excellent post Andy - I’m a big fan of the dink strategy. BTW, Seth Godin had a recent post that also posits the importance of questioning and perhaps throwing on first down a time or two…http://bit.ly/3h2o4l

By: Rahul Pathak

Rahul Pathak — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:51:53 +0000

I concur with Keith - great post. Shame about the Seahawks though

By: Shayan Zadeh

Shayan Zadeh — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:35:12 +0000

I am a true believer of what you wrote here. And I learned it the hard way. Resisting those changes that have that hint of working at the expense of a working model is hard but definitely worth it.

On the other hand, experimenting with new ideas without disrupting the whole system is a must for entrepreneurs. Without such potentially game changing experiments you can’t find the next “working thing”. You just need to find a way to test them in a limited way without betting the farm on it every time because 9 out of 10 will fail.

Continuing with sports analogies, one should remember that Ichiro wins a lot of games. But he is not always on the highlight reel except when all those hits year long add up to record breaking events You just need to keep executing…

PS: as an ex-Seattleite and Seahawks supporter, I feel your pain.

By: Keith Smith

Keith Smith — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:07:13 +0000

Great post Andy. Business, like football, is often a game of inches. We all get enamored with the big exits (2 new ones just today that make us all drool). But this is a good reminder.