As a general rule of thumb, I use this as a means of determining whether or not I want to do business with someone. And, when I violate this, as I occasionally foolishly do, I always get burned.
Dan S. Kennedy, The Single Most Important Habit of Successful Entrepreneurs

Metacognition

I truly believe Seth Godin when he says what really matters about blogging is “the metacognition of thinking about what it is you’re going to say”. I like to think that I’ve gotten my return-on-investment & hope it shows in my day-to-day activities – whether it be an email, presenting, networking and even talking to my friends and family.

I could stop blogging and simply delete my domain & it’s content. But part of that metacognition is that things on the Internet never really get deleted. Part of that meta-cognition is that people will Google you & they will find stuff.

So while I may not blog anymore, I thought it best to leave a timeless post.

Punctuality

I have to admit. When I first read Dan S. Kennedy‘s The Single Most Important Habit of Successful Entrepreneurs, I thought he was being a little drastic. But since then, I’ve been more cognizant of my own punctuality and quite naturally those I interact with.

As someone committed to the startup ecosystem, I can well appreciate that

Time is the scarcest resource and unless it is managed nothing else can be managed.
Peter F Drucker.

Time & time again I find myself reflecting back on Dan’s words:

It is my conviction that a person who cannot keep appointments on time, cannot keep scheduled commitments or cannot stick to a schedule cannot be trusted in other ways either. There is a link between respect for others’ time and respect for others’ opinions, property, rights, agreements and contracts. A person reveals a great deal about himself by his punctuality or lack of punctuality.

While I understand connections will go down, Windows will freeze up, Macs will spin their beach ball of death, demos will fail and traffic will jam up, I will do my best to be punctual. Punctual when we meet for coffee, or lunch. Punctual when I return a voice message, or, email. Punctual when I offer an introduction, or, follow-up on one.

Until Next Time

I suspect I won’t be blogging much, so if this is the last post for a while, I just wanted it to timeless & relevant – should we ever meet 🙂

Update: I don’t know where I got this impression from but I always felt that being punctual with regard to returning email and voice messages means replying within 2 business days. I know some people feel there’s no point in replying if they’re waiting on someone else’s input, or, they don’t have an answer yet. I understand. Nonetheless, my personal preference is to reply stating that’s the case and follow-up accordingly.

Image source: picjumbo.com