Andy Lykens

Innovating and operating through growth

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The Roots and Growth of Decisions

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They’re cutting down a tree on the corner of my block. A big tree. There are 3 big trucks and 6 guys with chainsaws. The tree is outnumbered, but it still seems like it’s winning.

This one’s major offense is that its roots have completely upended the sidewalk. It’s dangerous. I know because I’ve tripped on it more than once.

Cutting this tree down has done nothing to fix the sidewalk. And putting a sidewalk next to this kind of tree in the first place is a short-sighted idea – but whoever made that decision is at least retired and maybe dead.

So if the decisions people make have consequences, and if they’re hard to undo, and if there’s even a remote possibility that 6 men with chainsaws will have to undo it – maybe it makes sense to think more about the roots and growth of our decisions in the first place.

Friction and Opportunity

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Yesterday I bought a beer at a movie theatre. The bottom of the cup is smaller than the cup holder on the theatre seats, and the cup turns sideways and spills if you try to use the holder.

When a UPS driver couldn’t find my father-in-law’s house, I was prompted to change the address of my delivery and forced to ‘update’ a correct address because the driver was lost. My delivery date went from 1 day to 2 weeks, and I had to spend an hour on the phone to sort it out.

A new printer installed seamlessly for a new Mac. But for an old PC, the only solution is to upgrade the entire operating system, even though HP forces you to install all of their proprietary software.

My pre-booked, 25km Uber ride cost me $57 – the driver got $21. You can tell me about willingness-to-pay and value, and then I’ll tell you that I was served ads the entire time using the app.

It’s not easy to stay passionate about cup holders, shipping and printers, but that’s not the point. Passion can be found in elegantly solving problems that would otherwise create friction in the lives of your customers.

If you need a business idea, companies show their hands everyday; just go about your life and wait until you have to talk to customer service for a large brand or buy a product off the shelf that disappoints you. The friction is where the opportunity is.

Feeling Stuck?

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When there’s no momentum, when the conversations happen when you’re not there, when you try something new and it doesn’t take off, that’s when you feel stuck.

Stuck is annoying. Stuck isn’t the same as failure, stuck is stuck. Not moving ahead, but also not falling behind. If failure is a pool of sharks, stuck is the treadmill in front of it. To be stuck, you have to be trying.

I wish I had the answer for getting unstuck, but I don’t. All I can think about are the jars I haven’t been able to open. They were stuck. And they were stuck. And they were stuck. And suddenly…they weren’t.