The Boss of You

This smart, sim­ple Venn dia­gram has been mak­ing the rounds on Twit­ter, and I like the way it neatly sum­ma­rizes some great busi­ness advice. The cre­ator, Bud Cad­dell, comes from a ser­vice firm per­spec­tive, but I think this stuff applies equally well to product-based businesses.

I was par­tic­u­larly delighted to read Caddell’s thoughts about the “Learn to say ‘no’” segment:

We’ve come across things peo­ple want us to do, that we do well (or at least bet­ter than the com­pe­ti­tion) that we really don’t want to do. This is per­haps the most fatal trap for any busi­ness I’ve worked in. These are the sirens call­ing you to ship­wreck. You’ll hem­or­rhage your best peo­ple, you’ll stop lov­ing what you do, and you’ll lose the pas­sion that built your busi­ness in the first place. Start say­ing ‘No.’

Read his blog post and see what you think. (And if you love it so much you want to hang it on your wall, he’s got you cov­ered there — check the post for details on buy­ing prints.)