OverHeard

Overheard : Services vs Product businesses

In the services business, you get paid to say yes to everything.

In the product business, you get paid to say no. By convincing the customer that you are not going to give what they want, but what they need.

– Sanveet Singh (CEO of $PAR) on a podcast with Richard Sosa

Overheard : On appreciation

Everyone needs to feel appreciated. It doesn’t matter what they do, it doesn’t matter who they are, that’s a need in everybody.

– Grace McNiel (Hugh Jackman’s mom)

Hugh Jackman mentioned this quote on a podcast with Tim Ferriss. Highly recommend listening to the podcast. Hugh shared a lot more such wisdom in it. My admiration for Hugh went up a couple more notches after listening to it.

Overheard : Process

Love this quote about process attributed to Tobi Lutke in multiple interviews. He said it in different ways, but here is the gist

There are three kinds of processes

  • Process that makes things that were previously impossible to do, possible. That’s good.
  • Process that makes something that was previously possible significantly simpler, which is also good.
  • Remaining 99.9% of all process that exists in corporate America is the third category, which is actually just telling people to behave slightly different from what common sense tells them to do.

Source :

Overheard : Return on investment from a book

Quote from “The Rebel Allocator” by Jacob L. Taylor on the return on investment from reading a book

For around ten dollars, you get to have an in-depth conversation with an expert who dedicated years to distilling all the information about a topic. For the cost of a mediocre dinner, you get access to years of another human’s effort. I did the math. If it took the author one year of work, you’re paying them about one penny per hour. How much time does this penny-per-hour investment save you in culling through information? We’re talking lifetimes.

Overheard : Giving your best

A power quote by Abraham Lincoln. Ran across it while reading The Accidental President: Harry S. Truman and the Four Months That Changed the World . BTW, the book itself it a great read on history and leadership.

I do the very best I know how – the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so to the end. If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me won’t amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right won’t make any difference.

Overheard : Unexpected, Unanticipated, Unfair

Caught this on a whiteboard at work 🙂

In business, just like in life, we are going to have to deal with the unexpected, the unanticipated and the unfair. Those who deal most successfully with all of it are the ones who have the attitude that indeed whatever happens is normal. That doesn’t mean that whatever happens is acceptable or pleasant. But it does mean that changes and surprises are part of life, and we can choose to either roll with the changes or the change rolls over us.