Principles from the author's interview with the Boston Celtics' most successful coach.
You don't reward your players based on their statistics -- you reward them based on their contributions to the team.
You create a special bond with your players based on honesty.
You never motivate your players through fear but only through pride.
Uncertainty creates a huge problem for professional athletes -- and a huge opportunity for coaches. (If the players feel secure, they don't want to leave).
Loyalty is a two-way street. (If the company isn't loyal to me, why should I be loyal to it?)
He says: The biggest threat to any startup isn't running out of money -- it's going out of your mind. If you run out of emotional energy, it doesn't matter if you still have cash; you're done.
Things to keep in mind:
The team is what makes or breaks it, not the spreadsheet (no one believes those numbers anyway).
Stay humorous.
Listen to loud music to keep you pumped up.
Entrepreneurs travel on their bellies. Make a place where everyone wants to hang out and eat (lots of creativity happens there).
Start with small experiments that solve real problems that people are having. See what works and build on that.
This is the opposite of "Get Big or Get Out." One of the benefits of the web is that it's possible to make smaller companies that solve specific problems without costing a fortune in startup costs. Especially with technologies like Google App Engine and the like, it's becoming easier and easier to create full-powered, scaleable systems from dorm rooms and garages.
Don't worship the people at the top simply because they are at the top.
Organizations have gotten too big, the world too complicated, decisions too intricate, and change too rapid for any one person at the top to have all the answers.
The job of the leader isn't to have all the answers.
The job of the leader is to ask the right questions.
More and more work is teamwork.
Teamwork requires people who can take on the real work of leading at all levels of the organization.
The company with the most leaders at all levels wins.
The companies that win will be the most fun places to work.
Contrary to popular belief, technology is neither the problem nor the solution. Technology is never a measure of itself and always a measure of us. (This has always been the best evaluator for science-fiction stories).
Leaders tend to form shells around themselves, for protection from being overwhelmed. But then the leader cannot grow outside the border of the shell. And, cut off from new energy, what's inside begins to shrivel and die.
Your strengths, the things that make your business successful, are the very things that will become weaknesses and bring you down.
Social networking to make the world a better place: Neo.org.
In response to monkeys stealing his coffee beans, an Indian farmer observes: If you start shooting monkeys, you'll spend the rest of your life shooting monkeys.
Bruce Eckel (www.BruceEckel.com) provides development assistance in Python with user interfaces in Flex. He is the author of Thinking in Java (Prentice-Hall, 1998, 2nd Edition, 2000, 3rd Edition, 2003, 4th Edition, 2005), the Hands-On Java Seminar CD ROM (available on the Web site), Thinking in C++ (PH 1995; 2nd edition 2000, Volume 2 with Chuck Allison, 2003), C++ Inside & Out (Osborne/McGraw-Hill 1993), among others. He's given hundreds of presentations throughout the world, published over 150 articles in numerous magazines, was a founding member of the ANSI/ISO C++ committee and speaks regularly at conferences.
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