Flashback: Article from September 27, 2006

Scenario:

1. Jimbo Bob: "Dude, I just read somewhere that you need to have everything in order and documented. That way, we can grow because we have everything in super-specific places. Yay!"


2. Rockstar Sophia: "Dawg, who cares about order?! Let's just move forward. If it gets messy, we'll clean it later. We just can't be standing still!"

Sophia's the rockin' badass, because she's right.

A kick-ass business doesn't worry about cleaning, documenting, ordering, blah-stuff -- unless it's moving forward.

The rule of thumb to remember:

As long as you're moving forward, you're kicking ass.

When we started Trizle, some "expert" told us that we needed to document everything and its mother.

"Document, document, document," the overpriced dude said.

That is, for every transaction, purchase, and whatever else: record the entry and all its little-itty-bitty details like you're psychotically analyzing a high-profile crime scene.

So what'd we do?

We threw the dude off a cliff and drank pearl tea.

Kidding.

Order = Bad Advice

The dude's well-intentioned "let's-order-everything, cuz-we're-like-the-world's-nerdiest-businesspeople" mindset stands as one of the several "bad, bad, bad" advices we received when we started.

Why? The mindset drives you to do nothing. Nada. Standstill. Blah.

• Instead of moving forward, you're documenting.
• Instead of increasing sales, you're recording every little detail of your past order.
• Instead of improving employee morale, you're entering data of past employee feedback.
• Instead of fattening your bottom line online, you're trying to perfect every freakin' detail of your freakin' website that's going to take a freakin' looooong time.

So what do you do?

Accept chaos like it's a fact of life.

The Trizoko 3-step process:

1. Stop over-analyzing.

   Business plans = blah. Marketing plans = blah. 10-hour business meetings to discuss market penetration = blah. Psychotically planning for stuff won't get you anywhere. Psychotically analyzing stuff prevents you from acting. As University of Michigan Psychologist Karl Weick says:

   "It's ok to not know where you are going, as long as you are going somewhere. Sooner or later, you'll find out where that somewhere is."

   Read that again: it's one of the best advices we've ever received.

2. "Complicate yourself!"

   Talk to any self-described "business expert" or read any of their books, and you'll receive a common theme: "You need to wait before you act. You need everything ordered like a mutha flucka. I'll show you how to get ordered." Ahhhhhhhh! Sure, they mean well, but most are psycho in the amount of "things you need to do, have, know before you act." Bad, bad, bad. Embrace uncertainty. Embrace ignorance. Embrace mess. It helps you kick ass way quicker than what those "business experts" tell you. According to Boulder's Jim Collins:

   Organizations are by their very nature messy and that all attempts to impose complete order and predictability will ultimately fail. Learn, adapt, change, evolve, grow, but don't ever expect to have things under control or to know fully where you�re going.

3. Move forward constantly.

   The minute you're stopping to "Hey-let's-fix-this-because-we-focus-on-the-details!", you're losing. You have two options:
   • (1) Either get somebody to do it for you, so you can continue propelling your company forward;
   • (2) or fix those details yourself, but have somebody moving your company forward (e.g. a salesman to increase your company's bottom line).

Remember: As long as you're moving forward, you're kicking ass.

Addenum: Take it from Alice in Wonderland

Trizoko reader Tom sent us this amazing conversation between Alice and the Cheshire Cat:

"Cheshire Puss," she began, rather timidly, as she did not at all know whether it would like the name: however, it only grinned a little wider. "Come, it's pleased so far," thought Alice, and she went on. "Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?" "That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat. "I don't much care where..." said Alice. "Then it doesn't matter which way you go," said the Cat. "...so long as I get somewhere," Alice added as explanation. "Oh, you're sure to do that," said the Cat, "if you only walk long enough."

Gosh, that brings back memories. Thanks, Tom!

The moral in three pseudo-sentences:

Keep moving forward. Accept chaos. Then, clean while you're kicking ass.

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