17 lessons from buying 17 businesses
Plus, innovation vs. deployment: which will reduce more CO2 emissions in 2050? 7 questions to ask in a 10-minute coaching session. 10 paradoxes to change your leadership mindset. (vol 139)
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Today’s topics.
🛒 17 lessons from buying 17 businesses.
📏 Innovation vs. deployment: Which will reduce more CO2 emissions in 2050?
🦉 7 questions to ask in a 10-minute coaching session.
😕 10 paradoxes to change your leadership mindset.
1.
🛒 17 lessons from buying 17 businesses.
If you’re a fan of Enduring Planet (I am!), then you might appreciate this wisdom from their parent company Enduring Ventures, and its Founder Sieva Kozinsky.
I especially like the ones in bold.
1. You can’t do a good deal with a bad person.
2. There’s a difference between “great” and outstanding businesses.
3. The formula is growth potential + moat + cash flow.
4. Healthy conflict keeps businesses alive. Silence kills them.
5. If the business can’t run without its owner, don’t buy it.
6. Fundraising = relationships + plan + experience + hustle.
7. Surround yourself with others who aren’t afraid to argue with you.
8. Study other peoples’ mistakes to avoid making your own.
9. You don’t need to ink out every bit of profit on a deal.
10. Join masterminds to learn from others.
11. If you can’t explain the business in clear language, don’t buy or invest.
12. Buy businesses that you could hold forever.
13. Treat your relationships like you’ll have them forever.
14. Not every business needs to be a tech startup. Cash-flowing companies are king.
15. Customer feedback is one of the most powerful tools you have.
16. Have the patience to let compounding work over many years.
17. Freedom is more valuable than fancy things.
2.
📏 Innovation vs. deployment: Which will reduce more greenhouse gas emissions in 2050?
According to McKinsey & Company, the answer is — Deployment.
What does that mean?
Commercially viable solutions that are being deployed at scale today, such as solar and wind, will account for 55% of GHG reductions in 26 years.
(See the dark blue boxes below.)
In contrast, technologies in earlier stages of innovation, such as hydrogen aviation and small modular reactors, will account for 45%.
(See the grey boxes.)
So what?
Work on either front. They both matter.
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3.
🦉 7 questions to ask in a 10-minute coaching session.
If you want to be a better manager of teams, consider these 7 questions from the seminal coaching book: The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever by Michael Bungay Stanier.
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If you don’t see the picture, here they are in text:
The Kickstart Question - "What's on your mind?"
The AWE Question - "And what else?"
The Focus Question - "What's the real challenge here for you?"
The Foundation Question - "What do you want?"
The Lazy Question - "How can I help?"
The Strategic Question - "If you're saying yes to this, what are you saying no to?
The Learning Question - "What was most useful or valuable here for you?"
4.
😕 10 paradoxes to change your leadership mindset.
I think we like paradoxes because they’re contrarian. And they’re right.
(By the way, this is why being a contrarian investor is so hard. They’re usually wrong.)
Consider these examples of paradoxes from Scribophile.com:
Youth is wasted on the young.
Less is more.
The only constant is change.
You have to spend money to make money.
The only rule is there are no rules.
It’s hard making elegance look easy.
The more you know, the more you know you don’t know.
If you don’t risk anything, you risk even more.
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If you liked those, you’ll also like the two below from Sahil Bloom.
You’ll find eight more paradoxes that “changed his life” here.
The Growth Paradox:
Growth takes a much longer time coming than you think, but then happens much faster than you ever thought possible. Growth happens gradually, then suddenly. Slowly, then all at once.
The Productivity Paradox:
Work longer, get less done. Parkinson's Law says that work expands to fill the time allotted for its completion. When you establish fixed hours for your work, you find unproductive ways to fill it. Work like a lion instead—sprint, rest, repeat.
That’s all, y’all.
Make it a great week because it’s usually a choice.
~ Chris
Founder @ Entrepreneurs for Impact
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P.S. Over 100,000 CEOs are members of CEO peer groups. Are you? Check out our community for climate tech CEOs at Entrepreneurs for Impact.
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(As these photos show, I’m an actual human writing this newsletter. Not AI. 🤖)
What a great read Chris...thanks