chowyonghan Author

Focus gave Bill Gates and Warren Buffet their successes

(Extracted from gatesnotes) At first glance, Warren and I may seem like a mismatch. I’m a technology nerd. He’s an investor who doesn’t use email. In fact, I never expected to be friends with him.  In...

September 8, 2019| Focus Read More

Luck-Skill Continuum

(Extracted from The Success Equation – Michael J. Mauboussin) There’s a quick and easy way to test whether an activity involves skill: ask whether you can lose on purpose. … When your undertaking involves a...

September 8, 2019| Randomness Read More

How to do a Fermi Estimate?

(Extracted from Wikipedia) An example problem, of a type generally attributed to Fermi, is “How many piano tuners are there in Chicago?” A typical solution to this problem involves multiplying a...

September 8, 2019| Fermi Estimate Read More

Selling Services instead of Products

(Extracted from Confessions of a Pricing Man by Herman Simon) That explains why General Electric and Rolls Royce sell thrust, not engines, to their airline customers. In this model, they charge by the hour for...

September 8, 2019| Marketing, Strategy Read More

Sell Benefits > Features 2

(Extracted from The Millionaire Fastlane by M.J. DeMarco) As consumers, we buy things to solve needs. We engage in transactions to fill voids. You don’t buy a drill; you buy a hole. You don’t buy a dress; you...

September 8, 2019| Marketing Read More

Sell Benefits > Features

(Extracted from UserOnboard) One thing I come across time and time again when reviewing onboarding experiences is the company trying to sell me on the features of their product instead of how it actually improves...

September 8, 2019| Marketing Read More

Pricing has the greatest impact to profits

(Extracted from Confessions of a Pricing Man by Herman Simon) Revenue is the product of price and volume . Profit is the difference between revenue and cost. This means that every business has only three profit...

September 8, 2019| Strategy Read More

Firing employees

(Excerpt from Principles by Ray Dalio) Don’t collect people. Firing people is not a big deal—certainly nowhere near as big a deal as keeping badly performing people, because keeping a person in a job they are not...

September 8, 2019| People Read More

Evaluate employees like job candidates

(Extracted from Principles by Ray Dalio) Evaluate employees with the same rigor as you evaluate job candidates. Ask yourself: “Would I hire this person knowing what I now know about them?” I find it odd and...

September 8, 2019| People Read More

The Yin-Yang Balance of Status Quo and Innovation

(Excerpt from The Messy Middle by Scott Belsky) Typically, the type A “doers” on the team are the powerful antibodies that extinguish new ideas that put time lines and budgets at risk. In contrast, the wide-eyed...

September 8, 2019| People, Yin Yang Read More

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