Songs

Take 1: On Negotiation

I am currently in the process of opening a business franchise with a friend of mine. I'll discuss more once we're up and running, but right now I'm more interested in the topic of negotiation. My partner and I had to do some negotiation with our franchisors so that we could protect some of our rights moving forward. First, I want to know your opinions on the subject. How do you prepare for negotiations? Do you try to propose terms first, or wait for the other party to make suggestions? What are the most effective negotiation techniques in your experience?

More generally, what parts of your life do you think of as negotiation? Board room discussions at your job? Deciding what movie to see or where to eat on Friday night? Planning the next vacation with your significant other? Hit the jump for video of Stan Christiansen, one of my favorite academics to tackle the subject, talking about communication and negotiation.

Confession #2: Serendipity is real

Disclaimer: I use the terms "luck" and "serendipity" to indicate what others may call "fate" or "destiny." Explicating the terms and their implications calls for more philosophical prowess than I have, especially at 6 in the morning, so consider them to be interchangeable for this particular piece.

I have a quick story about "making your own luck" that should be helpful to a lot of people. It seems small, and it's impossible to say at this point in time how it will affect my life, but I am convinced I was meant to see this:

Two days ago (a Friday night), I called one of my fraternity brothers and asked what he was up to for the evening. He was headed to a small birthday party in Santa Clara, and I decided to come along for the ride since I had nothing better to do. At first, when we arrived, I thought I had made the wrong choice. Everyone already knew each other, and my friend gravitated towards his acquaintances. Despite the best of intentions, my networking efforts were poised to fail miserably. Fortunately, as the party gradually diminished in size and a few drinks helped to grease the social wheels, I saw that all was not lost. I began discussing the latest Lil' Wayne songs and bay area weather, and I became more comfortable as the night drew on. When the time came to leave for the evening, my friend offered to take one of the other guests (who was actually his sister-in-law) back to her hotel. In the car, we talked about our mutual interests in business, and she told us about Ken Blanchard, most famous as author of "The One Minute Manager." Turns out she works at Grand Canyon University, where Blanchard had established an Executive MBA program. At the time, I made a mental note to check out the book since I am always looking for business-related reading material.

The following day, my interest in business writing prompted me to corroborate the woman's story. Lo and behold, Ken Blanchard did write the One Minute Manager, and he has established an Executive MBA at Grand Canyon University. A bit more research revealed to me his underlying principle - being able to summarize goals, praises, and reprimands within one minute each. This is a widely accepted principle in business today, and I found it interesting that he was such an early pioneer of these concepts. I actually recommend Made To Stick, which expounds further upon the concept of one-minute goals.

Then, Sunday night, after hours of meetings and procrastinating, I found myself still awake at 5AM because I still had work to do for the quickly approaching morning. Skimming the TV Guide online, I stumbled across Blanchard's name once again. This being the third time in one weekend, I naturally had to flip over to the local public television station. The program was entitled 'Ken Blanchard - Achieving Your Dreams.' At that point, I knew I had to write this post, but I also have to get as much as I can from Blanchard's experience as I multi-task to put this together.

Now, the useful advice:

• Success is all about joy. If you don't find joy in what you do, you won't be willing to work hard enough to produce world-class results
• Success begins with a vision - what's yours?
  
• At some point, you have to find a way for people to pay you to do what you love
• Balance is key - use the PACT (Perspective, Autonomy, Connectedness, Tone) model to maintain balance
  

These may seem obvious or trite, but I believe that the most important messages can never be over-stressed or emphasized. For me, the moral of the story is that you always have to keep your eyes and ears open. You never know where two completely unrelated subjects (college parties and a TV guide) will make an unexpected connection for you. Good luck.

Confession #1: I think good marketing is really cool

What's G?
It's the emblem of a warrior
It's the swagger of an athlete
A champion, and a dynasty
It's gifted, golden, genuine AND glorious.
It is a lower case...god
It's the GOAT - aha!
The greatest of all time
What's G?
It is the heart, hustle and soul of the game.
That's G.

-Lil' Wayne

This commercial has had the interwebs buzzing for the past 24 hours, ever since it first aired during the Rose Bowl (as far as I can tell). I should have posted this yesterday when it first caught my attention, but it's still relevant enough to spend some time on. In one conversation with a friend, I defended the concept as pure marketing genius, while my friend said that the lack of product association defeats the purpose. Here's our conversation on the matter:

5:38 PM Friend: what the hell is this commercial for I have seen it 7 times and still dont know
me: gatorade
lol i spent 30 mins looking it up yesterday
5:39 PM Friend: well that is stupid if we cant figure out what it is about why have it
I told rob about it and I was like I have no clue what it is
me: i think it's brilliant marketing
cuz it get's people talking about it online
and u actually can figure it out
at the end of the commercial
there's a little s-vc, inc. at the bottom
5:40 PM s-vc owns gatorade
that's how i figured it out
Friend: gatorade is marketed towards athletes
they are not putting in that effort
me: haha it's not tho
Friend: nor are they gonna be bright enough to figure all that ish out
me: athletes use drinks that r better at replenishing electrolytes
and less sugary
5:41 PM heck pedialyte is better than gatorade for high-performance athletes
gatorade is using the athlete's cool factor to sell to the general public

Regardless of who is correct, people are talking about it, as evidenced here and here

First

I just started a blog, and I'm not exactly sure why. I don't have time, I'm not looking for readers, but I have a lot of nervous energy to get out. Besides, everybody's doing it. I am a senior at Stanford University, incredibly excited about entrepreneurship, and have no idea what I'm doing once I graduate. One of my esteemed high school colleagues once referred to first-time Pro Bowler Wes Welker as a "spider monkey on crack," and that's basically what I feel like right now. Stick around for more about subjects that are WAY more interesting than me.

Directions this blog might take:

* Technical notes about various internet, infrastructure, and energy technologies

* Selections for general consumption from an aspiring music snob

* Discussions of trends surrounding entrepreneurship and venture capital, particularly as they pertain to Silicon Valley

* Anything else

If you have the misfortune to stumble across this blog, give me suggestions. I've been learning to use MySQL recently. I'm hoping to summarize my recent discoveries in a post dedicated to the less technically literate among us, but I fear that could be so unbelievably dull that nobody reading it will ever return. Either way, this promises to be a long, strange, circuitous journey, but hopefully we'll have some fun along the way.

All the best,
John

What I'm listening to: DJ Benzi, Kanye West and Plain Pat Present - Sky High

P.S. If you are highly proficient with programming in a variety of languages, and interested in brainstorming/developing ideas that could potentially turn into business(es), also comment! I have several ideas, and I'd like to discuss them with somebody who can explain what they believe is or is not feasible.