Re: [Harp-L] SPAH leadership

[The Iceman <icemanle@xxxxxxx>]

good points.


However, "can do" is WOW and leads to greatness. There are never any guarantees, so risk taking is part of the excitement.

Keeping expectations low is YAWN and minimizing risks are for old people who put their money in low interest bearing safe annuities.


WOW is entrepreneurial spirit doing things. STEVE JOBS.


YAWN is a company or corporate man sitting on endless committees debating on doing things. US CONGRESS


I hope SPAH isn't an old person looking for safe, conservative paths.  BORING


I hope SPAH becomes young, vital and exciting, blazing a new path with fire. A bright fire seen from horizon to horizon will create a strong gravitational pull to more people.


-----Original Message-----
From: Slim Heilpern <slim@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: harp-l harp-l <Harp-L@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sun, Dec 18, 2011 11:08 am
Subject: [Harp-L] SPAH leadership


A lot of what's being discussed over the last few days with respect to SPAH 
leadership is related to style, simply put a "can do" vs. a "might not be able 
to do" approach. 

I learned a long time ago that when making announcements to customers, or in 
this case members of a reasonably large mailing list, keeping expectations 
reasonably low is often the smart thing to do, as lack of achievement of a 
stated goal, even if unachievable, will be perceived to be failure. Having been 
involved with a couple of different startup companies that eventually failed, 
it's easy for me to be put off by the "can do" attitude -- it only works once in 
a while, and can lead to a very abrupt demise when it doesn't.

With specific respect to SPAH, I would not like to see its limited resources (be 
they volunteer time or money) be spent chasing after things that are unlikely to 
succeed. Tossing ideas around is wonderful, but before any money is spent or any 
in depth research on a particular idea is taken on, it is important for 
leadership to decide which things _seem_ to have a reasonable chance of success, 
and then dig deeper into those things. 

My attitude might be different if I thought that SPAH was in danger of demise if 
it did _not_ act swiftly and bravely, but I don't see any evidence that this is 
the case. It seems to be doing reasonably well, and that is no small feat in 
this economy.

- Slim.

www.SlideManSlim.com