關於 ultimately eventually ，我們在網路上蒐集到這些相關的討論、資訊與評價

【Lesson #7 - Zoom in, zoom out】
For the last post in this mini-series of "7 lessons from 7 early-stage founders" I spoke with Jackson Aw, the founder & CEO of Mighty Jaxx (AW#20), the region's leading platform to purchase limited edition collectibles. With over 8 years of experience as an entrepreneur, Jackson touches upon the danger of short-term thinking, especially when it comes to decision making, while highlighting the importance for founders to both "zoom-in and zoom-out."

***

As founders, we often speak of vision and long-term thinking, but seldom put it into practice. With the amount of years that I’ve spent in entrepreneurship, I’ve come to learn that every single decision you make eventually comes back around.

Establishing distribution and finding channels to expand our products’ reach has been my core focus at Mighty Jaxx. A few years ago, I was looking to expand our company into Country X (anonymized for sensitivity purposes) in response to increasing inbound interest. Given the nature of the market, we needed to find a local partner but unfortunately none of the big fish wanted to work with us. Desperate for any way possible to get our foot in the door, I settled with the first partner that responded to our proposition.

The deal was inked immediately, closing in just a few days with haphazard terms that recently came back to bite us in the butt. With 65% of our sales now coming from Country X, we far outgrew the original partnership and our partner was no longer suitable to handle our future growth. Unfortunately, the terms of the deal didn’t allow for any clean way to get out of the arrangement and we quickly found ourselves stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Ultimately, money was used to resolve the issue. Looking back, I would have structured the deal more carefully, thinking at least 3 steps ahead and projecting multiple scenarios, particularly ones with more upside and optimism. But as a founder you tend to get caught up with the day to day fights, losing track of the bigger picture.

How I approach decision making is worlds apart now. Anytime we’re doing new distribution deals, we’ll have 3 - 4 sessions with the C-level, collecting information from each department to provide a 360 of the company, sometimes taking upwards of 4 months. But, of course, execution speed is an important consideration for startups; that’s where Colin Powell’s principal comes in handy: pull the trigger on a decision when you have anywhere between 40% to 70% of the information available—nothing more, nothing less.

Calling all founders targeting SEA, AI/IoT, or Blockchain/Defi, applications for AW#22 are open till January 4 -> https://bit.ly/3hrPQFE

About "THE BEAUTIFUL ONES"

Perhaps there are many of you who are interested in biology or anthropology had heard of the "Universe 25" experiment.

The experiment was about a "rat utopia", providing an artificial heaven for rodents to survive - free from predators, sufficient food, accommodation and all sorts of recreations. Such creatures with social structures will result in a "behavioral sink" when the group grows into a certain threshold.

In the experiment, rats and mice experiencing behavioral sink are invasive, refusing social activities, going hypersexual and progressing further, asexual and completely isolated from the community. Some males ended up just ate, slept, and groomed, wrapped in narcissistic introspection, and ultimately death. These were called by scientists as "The Beautiful Ones".

As there are more of "The Beautiful Ones", a huge community would eventually collapse and become extinct.

I am certainly not an expert on this, but this experiment gave me immense insight. At least from what I could observe, there are many who could not adapt to the exponential growth of the community and information, resulting into a situation very similar to "behavioral sink". Being alive is increasingly lonely, but such cultural revolution is also so poignant that motivated me to construct such a contradictory emotion and world setting with sounds.

Being the first song released under the new alias "KIVΛMKII", creating pieces in such form is also the main focus of the project. I have always been into theology, philosophy and science and so, which interprets life and universe in different eras and different ways. Transcribing such beauty into pieces of work is the greatest motivation throughout my life as an artist. I have always hoped that through such creation, I could come across more resonating souls in this lonely world, as a proof of my existence.

To stop writing forever, I shall talk about how I transcribe concepts into sounds and music in other instances, or in a walkthrough video of the entire project if you are interested.

I have to thank my friend Wayson Hsu for mastering the track with me. This piece is not as "digital" as my previous works, and I attempted to use analog gears to render the master track, giving the dirty and saturated, granulated world in the finalize phase. With his help, the outcome was satisfying.

I created the entire video for this. I planned to make a music video with my new character image, rendering with better visual effects, but my eyes got swollen due to infection, and the whole plan was ruined right before the date I scheduled to release the video, so it resulted in this motion visual. There might be some flaws in the video and I would say it is below perfection, but I would consider it a pass given the production schedule I had.

I would also like to thank another friend Yu-Lin Tsao for providing me insights of using program codes in the music video. Unfortunately the code seems blurred in the rendered video (I am so thankful that viewers are decoding them, and I have already released the code).

I wish my new work could bring some further insight to you, and there will be new works in the same concept upcoming. I will be working together with you for the better 2021.

【Lesson #5 - Don’t compete just for the sake of competing】

All is fair in love and war, or so they say. Oftentimes founders will move heaven and earth just to find out what their competitors are doing and how they can get a leg up--sometimes to the point where they lose sight of WHY they've started the business in the first place. In my chat with Chris Xue, Co-founder/COO of Novelship (AW#16), he reveals how in his quest to build Asia's leading online marketplace for limited edition sneakers and streetwear, he became blindsided by an over-optimization on squashing competition, while stressing why in hindsight a customer focus will ALWAYS trump a competitor focus.

***

Beating out your competitors is an almost primal instinct. It’s also a topic that investors always ask about—”how are you different from xyz? How will you compete against them? What makes you the winning horse?”

Certainly, a lot of that emphasis had misguided our own efforts in the past. After relaunching our platform two years ago, we had an almost infatuation-like obsession with outflanking our enemy, tracking their every move, poaching key accounts, and outbidding them in ads, at least up until COVID came around.

The logical thing to do was go into hibernation. Who would want to buy hype sneakers in the midst of an economic downturn. Staying open would’ve meant higher burn, decreased runway, and less ammunition to fight against competitors when the economy recovers. All of our peers closed shop; even our investors encouraged us to shut down for a few months.

It was certainly compelling, but then we started thinking about our customers, and the thousands of sellers that depend on our platform to support their livelihood, whether it’s terms of paying bills, covering tuition, or supporting their own families. Upon that revelation, we applied to become an essential business and was eventually given a license to continue operating.

Unsuspectingly, buyers also continued buying, if not more. With no other platform running, Novelship became top of mind for customers. Growth accelerated, placing us miles ahead of our competitors.

Don’t get me wrong—competitors are important. It helps keep you sharp and innovative, and also proves that there’s demand for your product/service. But don’t compete just for the sake of competing. It blinds you, and keeps you from truly listening to and understanding what your customers want.

It’s ok to be aware of what your competitors are doing, but don’t let that be the sole driver in your decision making. It’s more important to understand how the competitors’ moves ultimately add value to the users, then you can sensibly determine whether or not to go down that path.

Applications for AW#22 are now open to founders targeting SEA, AI/IoT, or Blockchain/Defi -> https://bit.ly/2LOzhYU

Allen Iverson(notes) made his debut with the Memphis Grizzlies on Monday, and it went about as expected.

He spent much of the night on the sideline. And he wasnt happy about it.

Nor, it seems, was his rear.

I had a problem with my butt from sitting on the bench so long, Iverson said. Thats the only thing I had a problem with.

Iverson made his first appearance in an NBA game since April 1, and not much had changed in the seven months in between. The Grizzlies brought him off the bench just like the Detroit Pistons tried to do, and Iverson didnt like it. Not after watching the Grizzlies lose 127-116 in overtime to the lowly Sacramento Kings. Not after he played just 17 minutes an effective 17 minutes in which he scored 11 points and not after seeing his new team fall to 1-3 while he sat idly on the sideline.


Upon signing with the Grizzlies this summer, Iverson said he would have no problem coming off the bench provided he was given a chance to compete for the starting job. That, however, was then. This is now. Iverson is a tremendous competitor and fiercely proud. Not even missing Memphis first three games along with the entire preseason with a hamstring injury seems to have tempered his distaste for bench work.

After the game, Iverson had no problem stating matter-of-factly and loudly just so everyone in the locker room could hear, including starting guards Mike Conley(notes) and O.J. Mayo(notes), who was seated next to him that the Grizzlies would need to make a change if they continue to lose.

Specifically, theyd need to start him.

Im not a reserve basketball player, Iverson said. Ive never been a reserve all my life and Im not going to start looking at myself as a reserve. Thats something for the media to talk about. Its only a big issue when the media talks about it. The subject never came up in my career until everything happened in Detroit. No one talked about me being a sub or anything like that until last year.

In all the other years of my career, its never come up. Ive been a starter on All-Star teams, Olympic teams and NBA Finals teams. Its just a big deal now. I think it is something people should let go. To answer your question, no, Im not a bench player or the sixth man. Go look at my resume, it will show you that Im not a sixth man.

For all of Iversons accomplishments, however, the Grizzlies were the only team to show any significant interest in him when he became a free agent this summer. They ultimately signed him to a one-year, $3 million contract.

Iversons stock dropped, in part, because of his experience with the Pistons an experiment gone bad. From his arrival into the NBA to the end of his tenure with the Denver Nuggets early last season, Iverson had started 827 of 832 regular-season games. Iverson says the Pistons rookie coach, Michael Curry, promised him when he joined the team that he would continue to start. After Curry eventually relegated him to the bench, Iverson openly complained about his reserve role and said he would rather retire. The Pistons, citing Iversons back problems, sent him home for the remainder of the season.

Iverson was hoping this season would provide a fresh start. He made his first appearance on Monday with 4:39 left in the first quarter, but took only one shot in the first half and missed. Kings fans heckled him by saying he should retire.

When Iverson returned in the second half, he looked much more like The Answer of old. He scored 11 points in the half, even making a key 3-pointer, and didnt force the action. His cross-over mid-range jump shot looked as pretty as ever.

I felt like me, Iverson said. Ive been playing basketball for 26 years. It felt like riding a bike. Thats what I do. Im a professional. I felt like me out there. I havent played in a long time, so obviously I had a lot of time to rest. So I wasnt tired.


But with the game tied at 94 with 4:49 left in the fourth quarter, Memphis coach Lionel Hollins replaced Iverson with Conley. Iverson was visibly upset while heading to the bench and begrudgingly slapped hands with Hollins. With 1.4 seconds left in regulation and the game still tied, Hollins put Iverson back on the floor.

In the past, Iverson would have been almost certain to take the final shot. Instead, Zach Randolph(notes) threw away a bad pass to send the game into OT while Iverson stood alone in the corner, unguarded.

I went to the bench and told my teammates that I didnt think they knew I was in the game, Iverson said. They didnt. They didnt even think I was in the game and that was a bad thing. I was like, Man, I was wide-open.

Obviously, [the Kings] didnt think I was in the game because someone big ended up on me. I guess [the Grizzlies] got used to me sitting so long that I didnt even get in the game.

Iverson wanted to clarify that he wouldnt complain if the Grizzlies were winning. But they didnt, and they arent.