Notice chili in the corner. Hot.

That was a couple of nights ago. Tonight, Ed Kim, who runs Intrepid’s Vietnam practice and happen to be visiting the London office; Don Miller, a friend from Seattle who has been working in London since February; and I just finished an amazing Ethiopian dinner. This kind lady, her beautiful 8-year-old daughter, along with her London friend took us to a bustling restaurant in Shepherd Bush.

While we all had experienced Ethiopian food before, our hostess ordered dishes unfamiliar to us. The raw meats with diced tomatoes was something new for me and fantastic. The chili pepper stuffed with onions and tomatoes was extremely spicy, stopping me right after one bite.

During the evening, we were also taught several things about eating Ethiopian food, such as the proper way  to unroll the injera bread. The young daughter mocked us for pinching our food up with just three fingers rather than the “four-finger” scoop.

For entertainment, the adorable daughter whose father is Swedish, made all of us laugh, usually at my expense, which delighted Don and Ed a little too much.

“You don’t look like a person who knows a lot about facebook,” she stated after asking what we do. Ed asked, “Why? Because he looks so old?” “Yes,” she replied, “He looks 99 years old.”

I watched Ed and Don laugh throughout the night. Being on the road does have its rewards at times, but most of it is a grind of working long hours and eating restaurant foods alone. By the end of the evening, this lady and her friend said that after just one meal together, it seems as we’ve been friends for years. They promised the next Ethiopian meal will be home cooked. They were so warm toward us.

Most opportunities in life are given to those who are looking for something different, and to those who open themselves up for new experiences. Usually that means being open to other people, especially to those who are different from us. In this situation, I’m glad we met people who had such a mindset when they met us.

An effective CEO also knows when someone on his/her management team will not make the team better, and does something about it decisively. Inaction often has as much, if not more, consequences than making an ineffective decision with the right intentions.

When building an executive team and personalities are involved, a young CEO and entrepreneur may not be able to decipher who on the management team is effective and who is not. Other times, he/she do understand the shortcomings of the team but is too inexperience or immature to move quickly to fix the problem.

I’ve met with a lot of young companies and their management teams. I can usually tell within a couple of minutes whether the team has the right chemistry or not, whether the individuals push each other constructively, or whether the team is dysfunctional.

In one company, many made excuses for one of the top executives before I even met him. That was not an effective management team. Recently, I met another management team where everyone comfortably contributed to a meeting. No one person dominated, including the top executive. I knew right away that this group headed for success.

Be honest now, how effective is your management team? Are you making excuses?

People’s energy from their attitude is much like music in the same way. We pick up on people’s “music” (energy) around us. Think about the cheery, pop type of energy. There are the calming type of energy which relaxes other people. On the flipside, there are the cacophonic energy and the high drama music. How about the teenage angst energy?

We all have preferences about what type of energy we like to be around. Depending on the situation, some type of energy is more welcomed than at other times. We have different moods that give off its own energy. But we all also have a core energy about us. Think about which music you are and how that effects a room next time you walk into a the “set of life”. Maybe then, you can, within reason, alter your tune depending on the situation and complement others.

Today, let me list five things I love about the US of A.

1. 47% of all venture-backed companies in the US were started by at least one co-founder NOT born in the country. The American Dream still lives for sure!
2. During foreign disasters, Americans usually always lead the aid efforts with individual (non-government) donations and volunteer work. I once talked to a Canadian business leader who explained how impressed she was with the way  Americans will mobilize to help during foreign disasters. Me too!
3. In general, the American perspective seems more optimistic than from other places. My optimism is sometimes viewed as “over-the-top” elsewhere, but Americans find it encouraging and sometimes even inspiring. Here’s believing you can do whatever you put your mind to.
4. The American middle class, while much maligned recently, is still a distinguishing factor from many other countries. The living standard is relatively very high, especially for a country with such a large population.
5. American customer service. It’s an art form that is distinctively American. It’s not stodgy, it’s not too subservient. It’s Nordstroms, Zappos, Starbucks and so many, many other American brands.

I’m sure you have your top five. Please comment if you want to add to the list. Happy 4th of July everyone!

We as humans walked and ran for majority of our history. Then, the invention of wheels disrupted our lifestyle and allowed us to be much more mobile. The Mongols disrupted the world by using horses in warfare. The US became a connected nation through the disruptive force of rail roads.

In modern commercial context, everyone now understands how disruptive the iPhone has been to the mobile industry. It changed the positioning of mobile carriers upside down. Another obvious example is the internet. The world wide web, which started as a place to put your company brochure on a web site, has changed how retail, customer support, and almost every aspect of businesses are run. That’s disruption.

In business, we constantly look for those disruptions. They represent opportunities for innovative, smaller companies to take market share. For forward-thinking entrepreneurs, these times are fertile ground to create something big. Too often entrepreneurs look for opportunities just to fill the void within the inefficiencies of large, bureaucratic organizations. Building a company during a disruptive period in any industry provides greater, richer opportunities.

Intrepid is building a company within the social media space, which is a disruptive force in of itself. Right now, I see great opportunities to apply social media data into the rigor of academic market research. Others obviously understand this as well. Forrester just came out with a report on integrating social media to research. The disruption in this space is being validated.

As a person interested in company building, such opportunity is all you can ask for. Now, we just need to out-execute competitors who see the same opportunity. That, my friends, is the game that makes everyday so much fun.

Admit it. It’s true.

Artists continuously challenge normal convention to come up with new, innovative expressions. They, along with  chefs, scientists, performers, and other passionate people thrive out on the fringes. We as humans instinctively are drawn to them. They are the quintessential ”cool”.

Take the stodgy world of network television for example. While regulated, every generation of new shows have been attacked by conservatives as immoral and sure to doom the minds of the young people. The industry constantly pushes away from center to the near fringes, which is the only way they can keep the attention of their audience. See, we naturally are drawn away from our center.

Can you imagine living in a society where the conservatives don’t feel threatened? That would be one bland world. Let them clamor, so we’ll know that we are really living.

The most interesting music, the most interesting foods, the most interesting art, the best experiences of our lives are on the fringe.

For me, the first taste of Vietnamese snails, French tartare, English black pudding, Korean silk worms, or even real sashimi were all “living” experiences that I will never forget. Live!

One of my sons is an adrenalin junky and a bit fringy. As a young teenager, he was arrested for jumping between the ledges of two buildings three stories high. When he played in a punk rock band, they insisted on singing a crass Blink 182 song about being molested by a grandfather. Tough to take as a parent? Definitely. Interesting? Certainly. He’s now a straight A student in college with his most conservative girlfriend to date.

My entrepreneur spirit is in many ways is a reflection of my desire to test the fringes: Take the risk and figure out a way to start something from nothing and create eventual tangible value. For me, that’s living.

Everyone has a comfortable center. From there, let’s challenge ourselves outward, farther out to the edges. Your heart might pump a little faster. Your mouth might become a bit drier in anticipation. Yeah, your life will just be more interesting.

My son during his punk rock days

Trust determines your relationships with your most intimate peeps, with your work colleagues, with strangers, with everyone. Some of us have the propensity to trust too much, others too little.

In a team environment, it is critical to trust your teammates. When a superstar athlete does not trust his teammates, he tries to do everything on his own, usually losing to the other TEAM.

In the work place, it is no different. I’ve always said that I’d take three capable and collaborative people over three extremely-brilliant people who can’t work together — or trust one another. The military understands this well, and breaks down new recruits until they are completely built back up in a team concept, learning to trust their fellow soldiers. This is because at times of extreme crisis, trust becomes critically challenged. In order to overcome difficult situations, teammates need to trust one another even more.

In the workplace, people must trust one another to build a powerful team. If people don’t trust one another, then micro-management, finger pointing, gossiping, politicking will begin to dominate. Most energy will be internally focused rather than outwardly toward customer needs or market opportunities and threats.

Building a trusting environment starts at the top. Leadership must show trust toward the team and vision. Then the leaders need to build an environment where failure is okay when trying to solve problems creatively. There needs to be a net for people who may fail, such as a good, clear escalation path and a mechanism by which each experience is used as a constructive learning lesson.

Such a strong, ever-improving team is much more scalable, sustainable and effective than a manager trying to “do it all”.

In all your relationships, do you have the foundation to build trust? In times of marital or parental crisis, your trust will surely be tested. And either you will have the core foundation to trust or you will not.

Unfortunately, it is during these times of change that leaders are buried in the day-to-day and communicate the least. Often, unsure of next steps or too wrapped up in effecting change, we are hesitant and forgetful to be transparent with information.

So, clearly, it is when we need to communicate the most that we communicate the least, causing a crisis situation that further spiral out of control.

Here are some communication priorities during such times:

• Address the situation at hand with frankness. By speaking clearly and realistically, you as a leader can build credibility that the situation is truly being recognized.
• Put the current situation in context of the bigger picture. Usually, change causes both progress and pain. Both needs to be understood in context.
• Clearly outline a plan to address the current situation. Let people know that there is a plan in place and the leadership team is being proactive to remedy the situation. Also, a clear plan dismisses unhealthy rumors that arise.
• Recognize people’s efforts during the change. Some great talent rises to the top during such times. Re-enforce the attitude, behavior and efforts of such people.
• Walk everyone to the “light at the end of the tunnel”. Hope is eternal.
• Communicate more than you think you should.

The reference topic is “Three Core Components to A Great Work Environment” from an old blog post.

Once after having lived overseas,  I visited my high school to play basketball with old teammates. They wondered aloud why I would leave the comforts of the strip malls of Tacoma? Actually, I like my hometown of Tacoma, but some of those friends were doing the same things that we were back in high school.

Maybe in church or at work, some people try to make their world smaller so that they can have bigger impact. Yes, to be the proverbial bigger fish in a smaller pond. Some friends don’t want their friends to have other friends. Some mothers try to be more significant in their children’s lives by stifling them in the home. Girlfriends and boyfriends try to monopolize each other’s time so they can be more important to each other.

In building a business, be weary of such people. They will make a mountain out of a mole hill. They will make you sweat running in place. They will be a distraction.

In friendship, be weary of such people. They will monopolize your time as the world passes by. They will trivialize the truly relevant and exaggerate the unimportant. Their intentions are never for you but for their own insecurity.

In relationship, be weary of such people. They will play on your insecurities. They will not let you grow. They will suck energy out of you and never give any back.

So, how small are you making your world?

Or, are you being enlightening to others, inspiring those around you?