Rules for Failure

Here is a short list for professional services partners and marketers to ponder. The list, via Seth Godin is an adaptation of William Beatty's words for amateur scientists, but it's pretty global:

The road to failure often contains:

1. Secrecy
2. The conviction that someone is about to steal your idea.
3. Focus on selling your idea to the government or a big corporation.
4. Loss of humility and focus on fame
5. Belief that businesses (the smart ones) will hail your discovery.

A great list! Did you notice that every item on this list points at being single-minded and insecure? I did. As an inverse allow me to offer a roadmap to success:

1. Share information as often as is reasonable with anyone that might help
2. Stop thinking you are the first person to have the idea -- be the first to get it to market
3. Focus on why anyone would pay for your idea
4. Listen to the kernels of truth that others might offer to make your idea better
5. Have passion for what your idea can accomplish for the people that will pay for it.