The Older I Get

I've bothered you about journaling a lot. Don't blame me. Blame Randall. He "gently" recommended journaling a few thousand times to me. But okay, okay. Sometimes, it's really useful. But only on days that end in Y.

Today, I was writing about how things change with age. I used to care so much about the bleeding edge. I wanted to know the new thing that's way out there, that we'd all be talking about a few months later. As I get older, I'm less and less interested in that, because it rarely serves our needs. It's interesting, but it doesn't change our world much unless it somehow relates to what we're doing. It's like you put new stuff in three buckets.

Three Buckets for "New"

To me, there's new and novel. That's bucket one. It doesn't do much for you, but maybe you should consider the implications. TikTok just points to the fact that people want to consume even shorter form content. Micro content. That's all it does for me and my business anyhow.

There's new and inevitable. For this, we have to accept that it's how we'll operate, one way or another. We had to type on glass because they took away the keyboards. I think the Apple Vision Pro isn't the thing, but it's the version that will make us finally get what "spatial computing" means and why that matters. Poor Scoble's been talking about this for ages.

There's new and impactful. Right now, you have to hope a company makes software you can use. Along came the whole "low code/no code" push. Okay, kind of neato. But then with AI, we're soon (kinda can now) going to be able to say, "I need an app to glue my trouble tickets from Jira into Salesforce" and with AI magic, that'll just spit out the other side. (We sell that app now, but the point is - one day, we'll just be able to ask AI to make it.)

I don't care as much about "new" as I used to. It might be age. Might be experience.

Instead, I Think of Fixer Uppers

In my journal, I wrote about some of my contributions to Appfire and how I see them. I look all the time for ways to align our people and intentions with the strategic goals of the organization. I look at what we have and wonder if there are ways to get even more head-nodding between teams, between leaders and their people, between groups within the organization.

I then went on to ask myself about a fun little experiment. Why not? It's my journal. I said, "If Randall dropped me into a smaller business that wasn't exactly killing it, could I turn it around?" It's not a real world consideration. We don't work that way. We acquire and bring teams into Appfire to grow. But like I said, it's my journal.

To me, this is more exciting. Thinking about what it would take to make a business do better. Where would you start? (The money.) What would you change? (I'd look at pricing, expenses, short and long term fixes, structures, etc.)

NONE of that is about "new." Well, new to the business, but surely not shiny scuba masks on our face so we can watch Godzilla on a virtual 70 foot screen.

See where I'm going?

Meat and Potatoes

I think what's most exciting to consider when thinking about business is how to move them towards the success they want to achieve. Every employee at Appfire (we call them fireflies) is an owner of the company. They have shares. I know when it comes to my shares, I think all the time about how we can earn more revenue, spend less on expenses, do things with the least amount of internal friction, and be able to improve in a continuous motion. I think about upskilling our people and streamlining our processes.

That's exciting to me. That, communicating clearly, coaching effectively, helping people win.

I'll let the others do that other shiny/new stuff. I'll let them do Owen Wilson "Wow" sounds when cars can park themselves. (I read recently that Ford's no longer going to make self-parking a feature in cars because nobody was using it.)

Me? I'll just have meat and potatoes days and work on growth.

What about you?

Chris...