This past week I was catching up with my colleague Terry Lyons on ideas big and small, and we turned to the ideas of what needs to be brought to the table when trying to take a spark of an idea and make it bloom in a time challenged world. Like the book I was reading by Ryan Holliday, folding these pages over to go back to mentally can help move opportunities big and small along, and make the storytelling narrative just that much easier.
We boiled it down to four C’s that need to almost always be checked. Mind you this was not some deep discussion…it just flowed from conversation, but because we were LISTENING to each other this came about.
Credibility
Context
Consistency
Contacts
There are so many startups being bandied about, bad ideas that somehow become a “thing” and good ideas that never seem to make it to the light of day. They all come down to these four C’s in many instances.
Credibility. Do you have the credibility, often with strangers, to get their attention event for a short period of time. Is your unwritten resume (which I have written about before) strong enough when they go and ask or google or search you to make it worthwhile for them. Is their baggage in your personal search to cause red flags?
Context. Why is this important to them and to the narrative ongoing today? Explain quickly to me the “why” and the “why now” for what I am doing. Did you do your homework going in so that you understand what I am doing and that this fits for me?
Consistency. Are you coming back hammering home the same goal over and over again or are you all over the place. In a time challenged world, focus is so key, especially if you can understand what my goals are going in and listen enough to adapt your approach to what makes sense.
Contacts. Lastly, we are a business of relationships. Who do you REALLY know, not are just Facebook or LinkedIn contacts, which can help us collectively address and issue, answer a need or create a discussion. Your old-fashioned rolodex, means a great deal, and it has to be authentic. It’s why we get out and about and meet people, you can’t forge relationships just through a handheld device or a piece of glass.
None of these are easy and sometimes they just aren’t fully addressable. But if you start here and go in with a curious problem-solving attitude, you may be able to bridge the holes by strengths in other areas. Regardless, the four C’s create a solid path for success, relationship building, and moving things along.
Bookmark them, maybe they will help simplify the most complex opportunities, sports or not.
Leave a Reply