Nothing ventured, nothing gained

This past Tuesday (5/23) I attended an ATW meeting where I got to hear Bob Parsons speak about the secrets to his success: luck and perspective. This was the first time that I had met Bob Parsons but I read his blog frequently and listen to his podcast occasionally, so I had a pretty good idea of what to expect. As it turns out, I was mostly familiar with his story, but it was still a huge pleasure to hear him speak. From the perspective of a software engineer, here’s what I got out of the talk:

• His companies were started from scratch and with no investors. As of today, he is still GoDaddy’s single and only investor.
• He is definitely a nerd. He taught himself BASIC on a short flight and wrote software to do everything he needed.
• Perspective is knowing how to think about a problem; doing this will allow you to be in control of the problem.
• Luck.. is just that, luck. But he also took risk, broke rules, and worked incredibly hard.
• Borrowed $5k to buy an IBM/PC when they first came out.
• MoneyCounts was priced at $99, then $69, and finally $12 before it finally made a ton of sales.
• MoneyCounts had a 5.5 day release cycle.
• Today, GoDaddy has over 30 software development teams.
• Intelligence has nothing to do with business success.

Bob also took a moment to share his 16 rules of survival. I’m listing it here, even though you can read it over at his blog.

1. Get and stay out of your comfort zone.
2. Never give up, if it were easy, everybody would be doing it.
3. When you’re ready to quit, you’re probably a lot closer than you think. The temptation to quit is greatest when you’re just about to succeed.
4. Make it a point to accept the worst thing that could happen to you. Very seldom will the worst consequence be anywhere near as bad as a cloud of “undefined consequences.”
5. Focus on what you want to have happen. If you dream it, it will happen.
6. Take things one day at a time
7. Always be moving forward. Remember the Japanese concept of Kaizen: Small daily improvements eventually result in huge advantages.
8. Be quick to decide.
9. Measure everything of significance. If you measure it, it will improve.
10. Anything not managed, will deteriorate.
11. Pay attention to your competition, but pay closer attention to what you’re doing.
12. Don’t get pushed around.
13. Life is not fair.
14. Solve your own problems. Don’t follow others.
15. Don’t take yourself seriously. We’re usually in less control than we think; Luck plays a bigger role.
16. Always have a reason to smile- Find it. “We’re not here for a long time; we’re here for a good time.”

Thanks Bob!