Ride of my Life

A couple funny video mashups done by Mahalo Daily on the California Presidential debates that were put on this week by CNN.

Republican debate: The Reag-o-meter, who mentions Ronald Reagan the most.

Democratic debate: a love-fest.

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Every single day there are new decisions we have to make at Zinch. Some are big decisions, others are small. But they all, collectively or individually, lead to the overall success (or failure) of the business.

Decisions are everywhere. How and what do we do to attract more students/colleges to the site. Should we build this feature for the kids or should we build that. Should we attend this event/conference or should we attend that one. Do we price the service here or do we price it there. Do we take in investment capital or do we bootstrap and rely on current revenues. Do we hire more coders or is our development speed fast enough. Do we hire more sales people or is our customer acquisition speed quick enough. Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah….it never ends.

Now of course, decisions are made with proven metrics, analytical data, market research, customer feedback, and long discussions among the management team. But the bottom line is that the decisions never end. There are always more decisions to talk about and make.

If we wanted, we could spend the entire day banging our heads against the wall, analyzing the statistical data and diving into past research and history to make sure every single decision is the best possible decision. When we first started Zinch, it’s exactly what we did. We’d spend hours and hours talking about things. I used to think there was always a right or wrong answer. Black or white. This or that. And we needed to spend the time figuring out what THE answer was to each problem.

I couldn’t have been more wrong. Now I’m not suggesting that one makes a hasty decision without thoroughly thinking through the consequences. But as each day goes by and each decision is made, I realize that the most important thing we can do is be decisive. Analyze. Study. Talk about it. Make the decision. Execute. Move forward. As quickly as possible. Keep the decisions moving through the pipeline. The decisions don’t end. The longer you wait and the more you think about it, the more decisions are sitting in the hopper, waiting to be taken care of. The business slows down. The company hurts. And of course, competition catches up to you. Ouch.

If there are 10 options in front of you and you chose the 3rd best option, most would argue you didn’t make the right choice. Well, if you chose that option and moved forward with it in 1/10 the time it would have taken you to choose the 1st best option, I believe you did the right thing. Time is on no one’s side in business. The longer you wait, the sooner your competition will pownce on you. Yes, they will eat you alive.

Decisions never end. I know it’s a tough balance to find–making the best possible decision, and the quicker the better. But it’s a balance worth finding. Be decisive. It’s one of biggest lessons i’ve learned thus far with Zinch.

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Sometimes I stop to think how far we’ve come. It’s been about a year and a half since we started on this project…and about 10 months since we launched. Over 300,000 students have created profiles. Over 415 colleges from all over America have signed up and are using it to recruit students. Some of the world’s best institutions are using our service….and are liking it. We’ve had an incredible amount of press coverage. We’re forming powerful relationships with different organizations, companies and groups within higher education. We continue to make noise in education. And it’s exciting. It’s amazing.

The crazy thing is that we’re probably only 1/20th of the way there. We have such a long way still to go. There is still so much more to accomplish. So many more things to build. So many more places to go.

Nonetheless, i’m proud of what we’ve done and how far we’ve come. We have an amazing group of people making it all happen. I’m confident we will continue to be the market leader in our space and continue to grow as fast as we have, if not faster.

-Mick

Oh by the way, we were recently mentioned in the Boston Globe and also in a newspaper in Maine. The buzz doesn’t stop.

College admissions is a Zinch.

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+ TV thoughts. I’m liking Conan more these days simply because of the writers strike. He doesn’t have writers so he pretty much writes all his stuff. It’s unpredictable and it’s interesting. American Gladiators…I find entertaining (extremely). Celebrity Apprentice….I find amusing.

+ I’m so behind on my blog feeds. I have a lot to catch up on over the weekend.

+ I haven’t taken a single web design class in my life. I learned it all on my own. One of the things i’m really enjoying these days is a book i’m reading by Eric Meyer on CSS. CSS is a programming language used to help display web sites. The book is an easy read (mainly because I’m already proficient in CSS) but it’s really helping me get back to the fundamentals and basics of what CSS is all about. So I like it.

+ Halo 3 is tight. Very tight.

+ There’s a company out there (I won’t name the company) that “creates” a social network for colleges. College pay big dollars for this “service.” Seems fair. The problem is this: this company just goes to ning.com, a site that allows ANYONE to create their own social network (for free), and sets up a social network for the college. In other words, colleges are PAYING this company to create social networks for them when in fact ANY COLLEGE AND ANY PERSON can simply just go to ning.com and set up a social network, FOR FREE. Colleges are paying this companyt! These colleges are completely oblivious to the scam and fraud that this company is pulling on them. It’s unbelievable. It’s shameful. It’s sad that certain companies like this can be so disgustingly unethical.

+ I hate cold weather. So does my dog.

+ We (Zinch) had a nice mention in a good article by the Boston Globe called: Colleges turn to Web tools in hunt for ‘08 freshmen. It’s a good article that highlights some of the trends in technology in college admissions.

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I’m blogging as I watch it….so this is just a bunch of random thoughts of mine as it’s going on. These are thoughts from just the Republican debate.

+ First off, I think Ron Paul is the biggest idiot ever. He was getting smacked around like a little rag doll by the other candidates, mainly on foreign policy. Ron Paul thinks 9/11 happened because of our foreign policy. The other candidates schooled him down on how much of an idiot Ron Paul is. Radical Islam kills and terrorizes. That’s what they’ve been doing for years, to different countries and different peoples. 9/11 had NOTHING to do with our foreign policy. Ron Paul is a moron.

+ I love how Mitt Romney believes that the future of this great nation depends on what happens in the American home, in families. The more I listen to Romney, the more I believe he can be one of the greatest presidents America has ever seen.

+ Ron Paul continues to amaze me. They’re talking about health care and Ron Paul keeps bringing up the war and how if we bring our troops home it’ll solve the health care problem. Fred Thompson just chuckled at him.

+ Huckabee’s answers are never very substantial. His answers are full of fluff. Nothing to really chew on.

+ I kinda disagree with Romney on illegal immigration. I prefer amnesty for those illegals already here, and tighten and secure borders after.

+ I liked what Giuliani said regarding Obama’s lack of experience. He hasn’t run a city. He hasn’t run a state. He hasn’t run a business. He has absolutely no experience being the executive. Also, Obama wants change. Okay, well…change isn’t always for good. Change can be for the worse.

+ Republican debate was fun to watch. I definitely still think Romney should be the GOP nominee. Aside from policies and values, Romney just has the presidential feel. He’s lead companies, organizations and states. I definitely think he has the greatest leadership of the candidates.

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One of the biggest things I need to improve this year is organization. I’m not horrible at being organized. I’m just not great. Organized people seem to be the most productive. They manage their time well. They prioritize their tasks well. They balance their lives well. They know what they need to get done and they do it. I have got to be better organized.

Too many times do I find myself saying “crap!” because something here or there slips through my fingers and I forget to do it (or never get around to doing). Perhaps it’s an email I forget to reply to. Perhaps it’s a phone call I forget to make. A bill I forget to pay. An idea I never get around to making a reality. A person I forget to visit. A task I forget to perform. An errand I forget to run.

Too many times.

My mission president (the man who presided over my church mission in Recife, Brasil while I was there for 2 years) was a retired Colonel from the Brazilian army. He was very experienced and very wise. He always taught us that to organize is to create. He taught us the importance of making sure things in our lives were organized, well planned out, and in order. If we did that, we would be creating space in our busy schedules to create new things.

As we organize our time we start to realize that we have more time. We find gaps in the day, holes in the schedule where we can get more done. Perhaps new goals to reach, new tasks to perform or new ideas to make real.

This newly discovered “free time” allows us to take a step back and see the bigger picture of our personal lives. It allows us to find what we can make more efficient (kinda like what I talked about a couple weeks ago), where we can improve and what we can change.

It’s this positive change that allows us to progress.

Organization leads to free time. Free time leads to creating (positive change or other things). Creating leads to progress. Progress leads to happiness. Without organization and giving ourselves the time to create, we’ll become robotic. We’ll just keep doing the same things over and over again (in a disorganized manner). And yup, we’ll keep getting the same results…whatever they may be.

To organize is to create. I need to organize my life better this year so I can create more (change, ideas, opportunities, etc). For myself. For my family. For others. For Zinch. For the world.

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