Business of Software Blog

Seth Godin action figures: a photo competition

I learned some time ago - and this has been reinforced many times since - that my sense of humour is not a good guide to marketing decisions. Luckily, other people at Red Gate quickly overrule me any time I try to get involved in marketing. That's why, if you visit Red Gate's stand at Tech Ed this June, you'll get a funky Red Gate t-shirt rather than a cool pair of Red Gate underpants.

Occasionally, and regrettably, I get my own way though. And that's almost always a mistake. That's why I sent out 140 Seth Godin dolls out to last year's attendees of Business of Software 2007. Seth is speaking at Business of Software 2008, and I thought this would be a really cool way of getting people who came last year to sign up to this year's conference.

They seem to have sunk without trace.

Or have they? I want to find out. I'm running a photo competition. If you have a Seth Godin doll (from me, or maybe you have one anyway) then e-mail a photo of your Seth doll to me at neil.davidson@businessofsoftware.org, and I'll post it up.  The more interesting the better. Assuming that anybody enters (a big assumption), I'll send out a copy of one of Seth's books to what I judge to be the best photo.

[Update: you can't post images in typepad comments so you'll need to e-mail me the photo and I'll post it up]

The entries

Jim Kring:

My entries:

Here is Tom Randle's entry:

You can see another of Tom's Seth Godin photos, and read the story behind this one, at Tommy Toast's flickr stream.

Mr Flibble's entry:

Mr Flibble's flickr stream is well worth a look too.

These three are from embe:

This one from s3a is called I said bring me a Sith, with an i!

You can find a larger version at s3a's flickr stream.

Mr Flibble saw s3a's entry and was inspired to send in two more entries:

Another one from s3a:

Sheri's entry:

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Embarcadero buy CodeGear

I've just learned that Embarcadero are planning on buying CodeGear, the Borland division that's responsible for their developer tools (but not the more enterprisey application lifecycle management stuff). They're paying $23m.

Embarcadero currently have revenues of $60m but expect the merged companies to have revenues of $100m. So they're buying annual revenues of $40 for $23m. That's an interesting multiple.

Earlier this month, Thoma Cressey Bravo, the private equity firm that owns Embarcadero, agreed to buy InstallShield and FlexNet from Macrovision for $200m and form a new company called Acresso. Given Thoma Cressey Bravo's stated aim of 'creating value through the strategic use of acquisitions to accelerate business growth' I wouldn't be surprised if Acresso buys Embarcadero, or vice versa, some time soon.

It's a business model that I find a bit fishy. If I thought that Thoma Cressey Bravo's plan was to heave CodeGear back to greatness then I'd think differently. But I suspect that they're more interested in the quick buck. They're taking slightly shabby, flabby companies that are stumbling into decline and gluing them together, hoping they'll stick long enough for a 12-month increase in sales followed by a re-float or trade sale and an enormous profit. It's like taking an apple, an orange and a banana, banging them together and calling it a fruit salad.

What do you think of the acquisition? What does it mean for CodeGear? Post here ...

[Disclosure: Embarcadero are theoretically a competitor of Red Gate, but our paths don't cross much]

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Remove the safety net: why making a fool of yourself is a good thing

When I was 12 years old, Mr Pretorius, my sadistic, South African high jump teacher, favoured a triangular, metal high jump bar over the usual fibreglass pole or bamboo stick. He would have wrapped it in barbed wire if he could: his theory was that failure should be painful but rare. The more that failure hurt, the less likely it became. My fear of knocking the bar off and landing back-first on its skin-scraping metal corners would spur me on to jump ever-increasing heights. Of course, since it was physical ability rather than mental toughness that held me back, the only thing it spurred me to do was to give up high jump classes as soon as possible.

Although Mr Pretorius was wrong, there is a kernel of an interesting idea here. In many cases it's not our lack of ability that stops us succeeding. We fail because we don't bother getting started; or once we start we don't stick at it; or we don't really want to succeed; or playing just one more game of Mario Kart is more appealing than knuckling down and solving that knotty problem.

People often say they fear failure, but it's not failure they fear but failing in public. Failing in private, when nobody finds out, is easy: making a total tit of yourself in front of strangers or - even worse - people you respect is scary. It's something most of us will do almost anything to avoid.

We can take this fear of failure and flip it round so it becomes a powerful motivator. Here's my suggestion: to succeed, put yourself in a position where failure is publicly embarrassing.

On the Joel on Software forums, people often post asking if they should start their Micro ISV, or they're earning some money and should they go full time. I say just go for it. But don't tip-toe half-heartedly into it, telling nobody and keeping the safety net of the day job. That's not going to help you succeed. Jump into it head-first, shouting and screaming; tell the world what you're going to do.If you fail, people will point at you and mock you, snigger at your misguided audacity and say they always knew it was never going to work. You don't want that, so you're more likely to succeed.

Here's an example I've used before. At last year's Business of Software conference there was a point when it wasn't looking good. I only had 30 attendees signed up. I - and people I trusted - were questioning its viability. The least risky option would have been to quietly back down and cancel. But I decided to go ahead, knowing that there was a reasonable chance that the conference would flop and that I'd embarrass myself. That was the psychological turning point: it was the moment that I made an absolute commitment to running the conference, no matter what the consequences, or how foolish I'd end up looking. It was also the moment that things started to pick up, and I don't think that was a coincidence.

If you're feeling really brave you can artificially raise the stakes. Make a stupid, public bet, for example. Want to leave your day job but aren't sure that you'll succeed? Tell people that you're going to run through the streets of New York in a gorilla suit if you haven't given up work and made your first sale by this time next month. That should be a powerful motivator. Let me know how it goes.

So go on: be bold, and risk making a tit of yourself.

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