Entrepreneurial companies seem to run on pizzas.
So, one day, about 11 a.m., I hear a lot of commotion in the parking lot. A couple of key employees are standing around a pile of metal, plastic and tools arguing about design.
"What'cha doin'?" I ask innocently.
"Why," they reply enthusiastically, "We're building a car so we can go pick up a pizza."
OK, so I made it up.
But the point is - be sure you aren't doing this very same thing every day.
We have all spent a lot of time and money working diligently to build capabilities that exist somewhere else. My rule of thumb is that I'd like a couple - not just one - acknowledged experts to listen to my plan and affirm that the capability that I think is the genesis of a unique idea doesn't yet exist. Often, entrepreneurial enthusiasm masks a lack of real domain expertise.
Software companies have a particular affinity for this problem - inventing what exists already - but it can happen to any of us.
Do we know if this capability is something we can find somewhere else? In another industry? Or closer to home? Let's check before reaching for the wrench.