An airplane is nothing more than a formation of aluminum compromises

I flew a Seeker Seabird recently in New Mexico. It is an example of an airplane that is built and certified to fulfill a simple mission and it does just that. The Seabird is a plane with few compromises to the design objective. It is built for going slow, looking around and doing it all remarkably inexpensively. It is 3 for 3 towards those objectives. It sort of begs the question why can’t more aircraft (products) do this?

The Pilatus PC12 comes to mind as another aircraft that meets its design objectives. It hauls people and stuff as if you are packing a Chevy Suburban, does it as fast as turboprops with two engines and is measurably more comfortable inside than other single engine turboprops. Ok, there are two airplanes that fulfill their Marketing Requirements Document. Are there others?

The Oportunity of a Lifetime Comes Around About Every Two Weeks

My dad had a bunch of sayings that drove me crazy when I was a kid, but similar to Mark Twain, I am amazed at how smart he was as I look around 30 plus years later. One of his country, Texas folk sayings was: “the opportunity of a lifetime comes around about every two weeks.” I have drawn many things from this pithy comment over the years but I am now convinced it is about balance. Not that you shouldn’t keep swinging, to misuse a baseball metaphor. Balance in this case is defined as weighing the pursuit of core business basics against risk.

Venture capitalists, angel investors and entrepreneurs today must follow or pursue their convictions with a zeal like never before. Pursuing a “hunch” or “your gut” is the riskier way of finding opportunities but only the basics of any company make up a business’ DNA; LIQUIDITY, PROFITABILITY & GROWTH should be the primary pursuits today balanced against those riskier opportunities. If your pursuits cannot predictably deliver at least one of these three things in an acceptable way (positively), then consider why you are doing them.