Vox Fortis Communications

And I don’t mean by using their handy calendar applications. 

There’s something to be said for visionaries. The world is full of people with the Next Big Idea, and all the grand schemes on how it’s going to materialize. Unfortunately, things get in the way of that…some people are great at ideas, but poor on execution. Some don’t know where to start. Sometimes they KNOW it’s a great idea, but they don’t have enough background in the market to give it traction.

That said, look at a phenomenon like Google. It was a search engine, people. With plenty of early dot com ones out there to compete with, dreamed up by two young guys, blah blah blah, the rest is history.

Is it really, though? The history was their initial idea, not the cutting edge of innovation in Internet-land that Google has become. How did these two idea guys get it done?

They planned it. They thought it out. They did their homework. They picked what they knew would work and started with that, and the rest became gravy.

Sometimes it’s a simple lesson, but one worth heeding: test the water before you jump in. Well, maybe not always, but if you see the shark fins, then it’s probably good advice. It can be tempting to want to run the gamut of Internet wonder with clients sometimes because you see the potential, but it’s important to remember that sometimes YOU need to keep your feet on the ground to be the best advocate for your client. If Sergey and Lawrence, the founders of Google, had put together a plan that included all the services that Google now offers (”oh! oh! we could have document sharing!”….”dude, no wait….CHATTING”) do you think the core of Google would be as well-honed as it is?

Probably not. Don’t spread your clients too thin on a ton of services. Take the time to listen, and start with the basics. If you’re a consultant, that same advice goes for you too, young man/lady. If you spread too thin, you will wind up giving nothing to your customers.

It’s about vision. Keep it laser-focused, but be nimble about the methods you use to attain it.

If you doubt the power of vision, check out the paper written by the Google founders while they were still at Stanford. Look at where their company is today.

Now tell me it’s not worth the time to plan a little.