http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/
That's a $200 billion dollar company's website.
They are a reinsurance and investment company. They know that, and they make sure you know that, they do it by making it clear what they do not do.
Here are some things they do not do:
- Web design
- PR
- Logistics (AGM, first Saturday of May)
- Executive lounging
- Excitement
- Buy expensive things (They bought a company once, the CEO was late... looking for unexpired parking meters)
- Hire writers
I think there's a story here around being who you are being made up of what you do, but more importantly what you do not do.
It's a dificult thing, and it took me six years of dawdling before I realised who I wasn't going to be. I wasn't clear about what I wasn't willing to do, and in return I ended up being everything to everyone, the Jack of All Trades. If you let others control your destiny, you end up being and doing what others want and not what you want.
Can you imagine how uncomfortable some companies would be if they dropped their PR division, or fired their homepage designers?
It's the difference between the Doing Men, and the Maybe and Sorry Men.
Are you clear about who you aren't?
Are you clear about about what you won't do?
Some thoughts for Monday.
Flickr Cred: Thomas Hawk
The title is once again tongue in cheek. I was reading some scrawled pen marks in 'The One Minute Manager' by Blanchard and Johnson, it said 'No one does nothing to you, you do it to yourself.' Nice meaning, odd writing.
Oh and Activision blew analysts expectations away, putting on over 15% on Friday.
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