Mistakes are worth contemplating, and yet we often don’t. The reason, I think, is because it hurts a little to focus on them. It’s not fun to see ourselves that way. Mistakes are definitely not ego food.
But there is something very important to remember about mistakes: Not focusing on them can ultimately be more painful.
Sixteenth century French Renaissance writer, Michel de Montaigne, wrote, “Those things are dearest to us that have cost us the most.” Think he’s talking about mistakes? I do. Do you think of your mistakes as “dear”?
If you don’t contemplate your mistakes and learn from them, you are subjecting yourself to double jeopardy. Because today you will not only make the new mistakes we are all destined to make as we go through life, but you’re also doomed to repeat the old ones you should have learned from yesterday.
Whether your mistakes are valuable or expensive depends on whether you contemplate and learn from them, or deny them and keep on paying for them. I think paying for a mistake once is “dear” enough, don’t you?
Around the turn of the century, I ran across a study that was conducted to look at changes in the way businesses leveraged assets to execute their business model between the 1970s and the 1990s. Reading the results of that survey was an “Aha!” moment for me, and it contributed significantly to my thinking about how we would do business in the 21st century.
Study author and intellectual property attorney, Kenneth Krosin, found that in the late 1970s, corporate assets amounted to about 70% fixed assets, like buildings, equipment, tools, fixtures, inventory, etc., and about 30% intangible assets, a/k/a intellectual property (IP), such as patents, trademarks, licensing and trade secrets. But the big news in this study was that by the end of the 20th century, those asset category percentages had essentially inverted. By 1999, businesses were leveraging around 70% IP, and only 30% were assets that had serial numbers, stock numbers or an address.
Welcome to the Digital/Information Age.
In the speeches I deliver to small business owners around the country every year, I describe the findings of the Krosin study so I can poll the audience about how they’re leveraging IP. My unscientific findings show that, while most small businesses are not quite leveraging IP to fixed assets at a 70:30 ratio like the big businesses in the Krosin study, most are leveraging IP more every year and fixed assets less.
Besides the types of intellectual property - patents, etc., - there are two categories of IP: 1) the kind that someone else creates, for example, the patented software you license to use on your computer; and 2) the kind that a business creates for itself, like a delivery scheme developed internally that reduces fuel costs, which is often employed as a trade secret.
In the 21st century, it doesn’t really matter who creates the IP your small business is leveraging, as long as you’re continually finding new ways to do so. I believe that any small business that isn’t leveraging IP more and tangible assets less is headed for extinction.
I’m happy to report that Kenneth Krosin (foley.com) has become a member of my Brain Trust and has joined me several times on my small business radio program, The Small Business Advocate Show, to talk about IP and small business. I think you’ll enjoy my most recent interview on this topic with Ken. And don’t forget to leave a comment.
There is much excitement about Barack Obama becoming the 44th President of the United States. It’s a remarkable moment in American history on many levels.
• In America, we select the future leadership of our government with plenty of healthy political passion and debate, but without physical conflict. It’s not unique in the world, but the United States is the world’s template for this kind of transition.
• Barack Obama is the first black American to be elected to the presidency. Enough said.
• Who can remember when any presidency – even John Kennedy’s – began with as much anticipation and hope?
• Who can remember when any presidency began with such great expectations?
It’s that last point that I think is really the most remarkable. As Americans, we have to guard against placing so much expectation on the performance of one person. Clearly there are certain things we expect our President to do, not the least of which is to take the steps to protect us from being attacked by our enemies. And we want our President to lead with a positive and patriotic attitude that sets the tone for the nation.
But as we anticipate the promise of Barack Obama’s tenure as President, Americans should take stock of our own responsibility as participants and producers of our society and marketplace, and as beneficiaries of the bounty of our great land and republic. Let’s spend more time looking inward at our own roles in our future success.
At the core of our national values is the belief in and desire for self-determination. But the wages of self-determination is self-responsibility. Our success as individuals and that of our nation depends more on each of us individually and collectively as a society than on any president. I think Barack Obama knows this. I pray that this will be his requirement of us as he governs.
Tim Berry, President of Palo Alto Software (www.paloalto.com)and long-time Brain Trust member, and I took a few minutes to talk about this on my small business radio program. Listen to our comments and let us know what you think. This one is only about 6 minutes.
As we approach the second decade of the 21st century, it’s clear that the strength of the American economy will come more from our ability to create and sell intellectual property (IP) than the tangible things we were so known for in most of our history. And as globalization – efficiently transporting goods, services and financial assets around the world – continues apace, our IP is also being delivered away from American shores and, therefore, the protection of U.S. intellectual property laws.
Our trading partners around the world have their own IP laws that dictate how our property will be treated there, but unfortunately, those laws often don’t provide adequate protection and, frankly, our innovations can get ripped off. This is where our federal government comes in.
The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) is the primary organization that negotiates our business relationships with other countries, including IP issues, and the leadership of that cabinet level department is changing. Barack Obama has chosen Bill Richardson to head up his DOC and since small businesses are creating more and more IP, and doing more and more international trade, this appointment bears watching. Richardson has an impressive resume as a governor and diplomat, but time will tell about his effectiveness as the head of the DOC.
Someone who will be watching the Richardson DOC is Dr. Mark Esper, with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Recently, Mike joined me on my small business radio program, The Small Business Advocate Show, to talk about IP, trade issues and the Richardson selection. Take a few minutes to meet Mike and listen to our conversation. And of course, comments are always welcome.
Intellectual property (IP) is one of the most important issues most small business owners need to become more knowledgeable about; especially with regard to their own IP.
Most of us think of IP as just patents, and since few of us are inventors, we think the IP world is for others. But ALL small businesses create IP on a regular basis. If you’ve developed a system for managing your customers, or a delivery scheme, both are good examples of small business intellectual property. You’re not likely to patent those, but you should recognize that they are your assets and protect them as another kind of IP, a trade secret. Think of the Colonel’s 11 herbs and spices, or the formula for Coke. After all these years, both are still trade secrets.
Copyright are another great example of small business IP. You create information every year that should be copyrighted by your company and protected.
Today we learned more about IP, especially copyrights, with David Dawsey, IP attorney from Gallagher & Dawsey Co., LPA (we used to call them patent attorneys) and outstanding member of my Brain Trust. I hope you ‘ll take a few minutes to listen to what David taught us about small business IP. If you’re leveraging intellectual property in your small business, be sure to leave a comment.
