by Paul Jarvis
positive economic impacts for companies: Michael E. Porter and Mark R. Kramer, “Strategy and Society: The Link Between Competitive Advantage and Corporate Social Responsibility,” Harvard Business Review, December 2006, https://hbr.org/2006/12/strategy-and-society-the-link-between-competitive-advantage-and-corporate-social-responsibility.
at the University of Quebec: Robert J. Vallerand, “On the Psychology of Passion: In Search of What Makes People’s Lives Most Worth Living,” January 2007, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228347175_On_the_Psychology_of_Passion_In_Search_of_What_Makes_People’s_Lives_Most_Worth_Living.
following your passion is fundamentally flawed: Cal Newport, So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love (New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2012), xviii.
engaging work helps you develop passion: William MacAskill, Doing Good Better: How Effective Altruism Can Help You Make a Difference (New York: Avery, 2015), 147–178.
not be just a job but an adventure: Jeffrey Jensen Arnett and Elizabeth Fishel, “Is 30 the New 20 for Young Adults?” AARP, Washington, D.C., November 1, 2010, http://www.aarp.org/relationships/parenting/info-10-2010/emerging_adulthood_thirtysomethings.html.
always winners: M. P. Mueller, “How to Manage (and Avoid) Entitled Employees,” New York Times, March 23, 2012, https://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/23/managing-and-avoiding-entitled-employees/.
attempting to focus on more than one priority: Mary Czerwinski, Eric Horvitz, and Susan Wilhite, “A Diary Study of Task Switching and Interruptions,” Microsoft Research, Redmond, WA, January 1, 2004, http://erichorvitz.com/taskdiary.pdf, 4–6.
reduced by more than ten points: “ ‘Infomania’ Worse Than Marijuana,” BBC News, April 22, 2005, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4471607.stm.
for every interruption: Gloria Mark, Daniela Gudick, and Ulrich Klocke, “The Cost of Interrupted Work: More Speed and Stress,” https://www.ics.uci.edu/∼gmark/chi08-mark.pdf.
we make bad decisions: Cara Feinberg, “The Science of Scarcity: A Behavioral Economist’s Fresh Perspectives on Poverty,” Harvard Magazine, May/June 2015, https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2015/05/the-science-of-scarcity.
fifty-five hours a week: John Pencavel, “The Productivity of Work Hours,” IZA Discussion Paper 8129, Institute for the Study of Labor, Bonn, Germany, April 2014, http://ftp.iza.org/dp8129.pdf, 52–54.
6. PERSONALITY MATTERS
lose 17,000 followers within hours: Anthony H. Normore, Handbook of Research on Effective Communication, Leadership, and Conflict Resolution (Hershey, PA: IGI Global, 2016), 151–153.
wander 46.9 percent of the time: Matthew A. Killingsworth and Daniel T. Gilbert, “A Wandering Mind Is an Unhappy Mind,” Science 330, no. 6006 (November 12, 2010): 932, http://science.sciencemag.org/content/330/6006/932.long.
ignore everyone else: Evan Carmichael, “Guy Kawasaki’s Top 10 Rules for Success (@GuyKawasaki),” YouTube, posted March 14, 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYv4W2IUNs0.
hire journalists to denigrate: Sam Thielman and Dominic Rushe, “Government-Backed Egg Lobby Tried to Crack Food Startup, Emails Show,” Guardian, September 2, 2015, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/sep/02/usda-american-egg-board-hampton-creek-just-mayo.
“Can we pool our money to put a hit on him?”: Deena Shanker, “There Is Literally a U.S. Government Conspiracy Against Vegan Mayo,” Quartz, September 2, 2015, https://qz.com/493958/there-is-literally-a-us-government-conspiracy-against-vegan-mayo/.
7. THE ONE CUSTOMER
great customer service: “2011 Customer Experience Impact Report: Getting to the Heart of the Consumer and Brand Relationship,” Oracle, Redwood Shores, CA, 2012, http://www.oracle.com/us/products/applications/cust-exp-impact-report-epss-1560493.pdf.
ten times as much as their first purchase: The original study is out of print. However, “Increasing Customer Satisfaction,” a summary of the 1974–1979 study and the 1984–1986 studies for the U.S. Office of Consumer Affairs, was published by the U.S. Consumer Information Center, Pueblo, CO, 1986.
don’t ever return: Ruby Newell-Legner, “Understanding Our Customers and Their Loyalty” (video), Seven Star Service, Littleton, CO, 2014, http://www.7starservice.com/products/secrets-to-keeping-our-customers-happy/video.
less on the tangibles of a product: Marc Beaujean, Jonathan Davidson, and Stacey Madge, “The ‘Moment of Truth’ in Customer Service,” McKinsey Quarterly (February 2006), http://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/the-moment-of-truth-in-customer-service.
word-of-mouth referrals: Anita Campbell, “November 2005 Survey ‘Selling to Small Business’ ” (letter from the publisher), Small Business Trends, November 2005, https://smallbiztrends.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/sellingtosmbiznovember.pdf.
help your business: “The Business Case for Loving Customers,” HelpScout, accessed June 23, 2017, https://www.helpscout.net/whole-company-support/.
“empathy index”: Belinda Parmar, “The Most (and Least) Empathetic Companies,” Harvard Business Review, November 27, 2015, https://hbr.org/2015/11/2015-empathy-index.
internally led innovations: Gary L. Lilien, Pamela D. Morrison, Kathleen Searls, Mary Sonnack, and Eric von Hippel, “Performance Assessment of the Lead User Idea Generation Process for New Product Development,” April 1, 2002, https://evhippel.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/morrison-et-al-2002.pdf.
number-one most innovative company: Jeff Kauflin, “The World’s Most Innovative Growth Companies: 2017,” Forbes, May 17, 2017, https://www.forbes.com/innovative-companies/list/.
34 percent increase in sales revenue: “SalesForce Pardot Customer Success,” SalesForce Pardot, accessed October 4, 2017, https://www.pardot.com/why-pardot/customer-success.
far less for malpractice: Aaron E. Carroll, “To Be Sued Less, Doctors Should Consider Talking to Patients More,” New York Times, June 1, 2015, https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/02/upshot/to-be-sued-less-doctors-should-talk-to-patients-more.html.
malpractice filings dropped by half: Kevin Sack, “Doctors Say ‘I’m Sorry’ Before ‘See You in Court,’ ” New York Times, May 18, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/us/18apology.html.
in most cases apologizing: University of Nottingham, “Saying Sorry Really Does Cost Nothing,” ScienceDaily, September 23, 2009, www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090923105815.htm.
one of the ten most-hated companies in America: Douglas A. McIntyre, “The 10 Most Hated Companies in America,” 24/7WallSt, January 13, 2012, http://247wallst.com/special-report/2012/01/13/the-10-most-hated-companies-in-america/3/.
didn’t answer support requests on social media: Anna Drennan, “Consumer Study: 88% Less Likely to Buy from Companies Who Ignore Complaints in Social Media,” Conversocial, December 19, 2011, http://www.conversocial.com/blog/consumer-study-88-less-likely-to-buy-from-companies-who-ignore-complaints-in-social-media.
don’t align with their actions: Luigi Guiso, Paola Sapienza, and Luigi Zingales, “The Value of Corporate Culture,” September 2013, http://economics.mit.edu/files/9721.
“commitment drift”: Maryam Kouchaki, Elizabeth Doty, and Francesca Gino, “Does Your Company Keep Its Promises? Revealing and Addressing Commitment Drift in Business,” Harvard University, Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, July 21, 2014, https://ethics.harvard.edu/blog/does-your-company-keep-its-promises-revealing-and-addressing-commitment-drift.
8. SCALABLE SYSTEMS
low salaries, and unfair treatment: Naomi Klein, No Is Not Enough: Resisting Trump’s Shock Politics and Winning the World We Need (New York: Haymarket Books, 2017), 113.
return on investment of 3,800 percent: Jordie van Rijn, “National Client Email Report 2015,” Data & Marketing Association, 2015, https://dma.org.uk/uploads/ckeditor/National-client-email-2015.pdf.
26 percent more likely to be opened: Campaign Monitor, “The New Rules of Email Marketing,” https://www.campaignmonitor.com/resources/guides/email-marketing-new-rules/.
se
gmented automation emails: “Q1 2017 Email Trends and Benchmarks Show Increase in Desktop Open Rates,” Epsilon, July 24, 2017, http://pressroom.epsilon.com/q1-2017-north-america-email-trends-and-benchmarks-show-increase-in-desktop-open-rates-2/, 7, 11.
9. TEACH EVERYTHING YOU KNOW
1,200 clients of an investment firm: Andreas B. Eisingerich and Simon J. Bell, “Customer Education Increases Trust,” MIT Sloan Management Review, October 1, 2008, https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/customer-education-increases-trust/.
advice from experts: Brandon Keim, “Given ‘Expert’ Advice, Brains Shut Down,” Wired, March 25, 2009, https://www.wired.com/2009/03/financebrain/.
10. PROPERLY UTILIZING TRUST AND SCALE
92 percent of consumers: Cited in “Consumer Trust in Online, Social and Mobile Advertising Grows,” Nielsen, April 10, 2012, http://www.nielsen.com/ca/en/insights/news/2012/consumer-trust-in-online-social-and-mobile-advertising-grows.html.
rated referrals: Anita Campbell, “85 Percent of Small Businesses Get Customers Through Word of Mouth,” Small Business Trends, June 10, 2015, https://smallbiztrends.com/2014/06/small-businesses-get-customers-through-word-of-mouth.html.
smaller businesses thrive: Fareena Sultan and William Qualls, “Placing Trust at the Center of Your Internet Strategy,” MIT Sloan Management Review 42, no. 1 (Fall 2000): 39–48.
only 29 percent actually do so: “Anatomy of the Referral: Economics of Loyalty,” Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, and Advisor Impact, Salisbury, NC, December 2010.
88 percent of American consumers: “Local Consumer Review Survey 2014,” BrightLocal, 2014, https://www.brightlocal.com/learn/local-consumer-review-survey-2014/.
11. LAUNCHING AND ITERATING IN TINY STEPS
predictability, accessibility: George Whitesides, “Towards a Science of Simplicity,” TED Talks, February 2010, https://www.ted.com/talks/george_whitesides_toward_a_science_of_simplicity.
the most-funded KickStarter project ever: “Pebble Time — Awesome Smartwatch, No Compromises,” Kickstarter, accessed October 9, 2017, https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/getpebble/pebble-time-awesome-smartwatch-no-compromises.
(didn’t ensure Pebble’s long-term success): Lauren Goode, “Fitbit Bought Pebble for Much Less Than Originally Reported,” The Verge, February 22, 2017, https://www.theverge.com/2017/2/22/14703108/fitbit-bought-pebble-for-23-millionw.
best suited for consumer-facing products: Olav Sorenson, “Could Crowdfunding Reshape Entrepreneurship?” Yale Insights, July 14, 2016, http://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/could-crowdfunding-reshape-entrepreneurship.
who are predominantly white males: Gené Teare and Ned Desmond, “The First Comprehensive Study on Women in Venture Capital and Their Impact on Female Founders,” TechCrunch, April 19, 2016, https://techcrunch.com/2016/04/19/the-first-comprehensive-study-on-women-in-venture-capital/.
other white men: Alison Wood Brooks, Laura Huang, Sarah Wood Kearney, and Fiona E. Murray, “Investors Prefer Entrepreneurial Ventures Pitched by Attractive Men,” PNAS, February 20, 2014, http://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Publication%20Files/Brooks%20Huang%20Kearney%20Murray_59b551a9-8218-4b84-be15-eaff58009767.pdf; see also Malin Malmström, Jeaneth Johansson, and Joakim Wincent, “Gender Stereotypes and Venture Support Decisions: How Governmental Venture Capitalists Socially Construct Entrepreneurs’ Potential,” Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice 41, no. 5 (September 2017): 833–860.
hitting their fundraising goals than men: “Women Unbound: Unleashing Female Entrepreneurial Potential,” PwC and the Crowdfunding Center, July 2017, https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/diversity-inclusion/assets/women-unbound.pdf.
you’ve launched too late: Anthony Ha, “LinkedIn Founder Reid Hoffman’s 10 Rules of Entrepreneurship,” VentureBeat, March 15, 2011, https://venturebeat.com/2011/03/15/reid-hoffman-10-rules-of-entrepreneurship/.
simply good enough to launch: Jim Collins, “Good to Great,” Fast Company, October 2001, http://www.jimcollins.com/article_topics/articles/good-to-great.html.
“Every company now is a technology company”: Anil Dash, “There Is No ‘Technology Industry,’ ” Medium, August 19, 2016, https://medium.com/humane-tech/there-is-no-technology-industry-44774dfb3ed7.
“are even on the radar screen in terms of competition”: Rick Munarriz, “Blockbuster CEO Has Answers,” Motley Fool, December 10, 2008, https://www.fool.com/investing/general/2008/12/10/blockbuster-ceo-has-answers.aspx.
“Screw the Nano”: Clint Ecker, “Motorola: ‘Screw the Nano!’ ” Ars Technica, September 23, 2005, https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2005/09/1352/.
“staring at a plywood box every night”: “Worst Tech Predictions of All Time,” Telegraph, June 29, 2016, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/0/worst-tech-predictions-of-all-time/darryl-zanuck-in-1964/.
12. THE HIDDEN VALUE OF RELATIONSHIPS
social networking section of Apple’s app store: Sarah Perez, “Video Texting App Glide Is Going ‘Viral,’ Now Ranked Just Ahead of Instagram in App Store,” TechCrunch, July 24, 2013, https://techcrunch.com/2013/07/24/video-texting-app-glide-is-going-viral-now-ranked-just-ahead-of-instagram-in-app-store/.
great customer experience: Sarah Perez, “When Growth Hacking Goes Bad,” TechCrunch, January 3, 2014, https://techcrunch.com/2014/01/03/when-growth-hacking-goes-bad/.
path to failure, exponentially: Andy Johns, “What Does Andy Johns Think of Pinterest’s Rapid Growth? What Factors Do You Believe Drove Its Viral Growth, Especially from 2011–Present?” Quora, March 17, 2014, https://www.quora.com/Andy-Johns-4/What-does-Andy-Johns-think-of-Pinterests-rapid-growth-What-factors-do-you-believe-drove-its-viral-growth-especially-from-2011-present/answer/Andy-Johns?share=1&srid=hiM.
for attention at any time: Des Traynor, “If It’s Important, Don’t Hack It,” Inside Intercom, February 12, 2013, https://blog.intercom.com/if-its-important-dont-hack-it/.
rate of repayment on Kiva is 97 percent: See the Kiva website at https://www.kiva.org/about (accessed October 13, 2017).
coining the term in 1916: “L. J. Hanifan,” Wikipedia, last modified June 2, 2017, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L._J._Hanifan.
comes from the social capital of a business: Willy Bolander, Cinthia B. Satornino, Douglas E. Hughes, and Gerald R. Ferris, “Social Networks Within Sales Organizations: Their Development and Importance for Salesperson Performance,” American Marketing Association, 2015, https://www.ama.org/publications/JournalOfMarketing/Pages/social-networks-sales-salesperson-performance.aspx.
several courses and workshops on the subject: “Customer Relationship Strategies: The Key to Developing Long-Term Customer Relationships,” McGill University, School of Continuing Studies, accessed October 12, 2017, https://www.mcgill.ca/continuingstudies/programs-and-courses/business-and-management/courses-and-workshops/cementing.
bottom part of the pyramid: “The Social Brain and Its Superpowers: Matthew Lieberman, PhD, at TEDxStLouis,” filmed September 19, 2013, YouTube, posted October 7, 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNhk3owF7RQ.
not harming animals: “Compliance with Appropriate Implementation of Animal Experiments in Research and Development Activities at Otsuka Group Companies,” Otsuka Holdings Co., Ltd., accessed October 13, 2017, https://www.otsuka.com/en/rd/compliance/.
caused loyal and long-term customers to revolt: “Keep Daiya Vegan! Reject the Otsuka Acquisition,” Change.org, accessed October 13, 2017, https://www.change.org/p/daiya-canada-keep-daiya-vegan-reject-the-otsuka-acquisition.
loyal stake in your business: Jim Dougherty, “5 Steps to Building Great Business Relationships,” Harvard Business Review, December 5, 2014, https://hbr.org/2014/12/5-steps-to-building-great-business-relationships.
dimension of their business: “Capitalizing on Complexity: Insights from the IBM Global CEO Study 2010,” IBM Corporation, 2010, http://www-07.ibm.com/events/my/ceoworkshop/downloads/1.pdf.
13. STARTING A COMPANY OF ONE — MY STORY
“People want to be the noun”: Austin Kleon, “The Noun and the Verb,” July
22, 2015, https://austinkleon.com/2015/07/22/the-noun-and-the-verb/.
Acknowledgments
Books are team efforts in which one person (the author) gets to take all the credit. So, my thanks go out to all the people whose names wouldn’t fit on the cover with mine:
To my wife, Lisa, who’s always willing to encourage me when that’s needed, and to kick me in the ass when that’s needed as well.
To my amazing agent, Lucinda Blumenfeld, my equally amazing editor, Rick Wolff, his wonderful assistant Rosemary McGuinness, and everyone else at Lucinda Literary and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. You’ve all lifted this book to a level far beyond what I could have dreamed of or reached on my own.
To the folks who let me interview them for this book. I was totally hitting above my weight with my interview requests, but lucked out when these people agreed to talk and share with me: Chris Brogan, Kate O’Neill, Katie Womserley, Marshall Haas, Miranda Hixon, Tom Fishburne, Alex Beauchamp, Angela Devlen, Brian Clark, Danielle LaPorte, Glen Urban, James Clear, Jason Fried, Jeff Sheldon, Jessica Abel, Sean D’Souza, Jocelyn Glei, Kyle Murphy, Kaitlin Maud, Rand Fishkin, Sol Orwell, Zach McCullough, and everyone else I spoke with in writing this book.
To my “rat people,” my longtime readers who let me email them every Sunday morning with whatever wacky and mostly counterintuitive idea I want to share on my newsletter. Thanks for reading, for sharing, and for encouraging. Without you all, none of this would be possible.
To you, for reading this book. I hope what I’ve shared can inspire or cast a different light on your work.
THE BEGINNING