First Principles

“All of us have to learn how to invent our lives, make them up, imagine them.
We need to be taught these skills; we need guides to show us how.
If we don’t, our lives get made up for us by other people.”
—Ursula K. Le Guin

This is the first of a series of articles about First Principles, the components required to create a life, a company, a family, a culture. In the hope that all of you can more easily create your own life, independently.

It’s Not About You! It’s About Them!

Inventing a company or a product is more than throwing a group of generic sales guys in a room with a few marketers, a product genius, an actuary, a compliance lawyer, a techie and a phone team. It’s not just “Add Water and Stir.”

Because, (although there are many generics out there) the really substantial companies always begin the same way: by isolating a Customer Need or Desire and Solving it, then Selling the Solution.

That’s the beginning, but the great companies go beyond a “unique product.” They also communicate about the product or service in a unique and memorable way.  They have a “Story.” Beyond that, they recognize their story as an asset which everyone has a responsibility to burnish with endless re-telling.

So, it’s the Product which solves the customer’s problem, and the Story which makes the product/solution easy to understand, respect and worthy of acquisition.

The next challenge is to make sure that nothing is lost in all the re-telling: by sales, marketing, the desk or the web.  Sure, everyone has their own unique style, but if you sacrifice the story on the altar of one person’s egotistical commitment to their own style, the company loses out as the story gets diffused and genericized.  The strategy is this: “One Story, Many Voices!^®” The point is to “tailor” the sales force, materials and methods to the story, not the other way around.

It’s so easy to miss this when you start to take pride in your team, company, leadership, offices, track record and all… But remember, it’s really about how all those things serve the customer.

This is the First First Principle:

“It’s Not About You! It’s About Them!”

The secret beating heart inside this concept is Service. You’re in business not just to sell, not to get rich, not to become famous, but, in addition to everything else, to serve.  If you keep that in mind, you can retire both well and happy.

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