There were several off the cuff remarks that have influences my thinking over the course of my career. (And yes, I know, I haven't even gotten to the kiddie thing, but I'm still single in my history, so you entrepreneur moms, just wait. ) One biggie was when a former VP at Purina, and then a CEO at a major educational software company (don't want to name names) said "cat food, educational software - no difference. The key to sale is to gain as much shelf space as possible.'
At the time I was more in the production side than on the business side, but it what it also said to me that if a VP at a pet food company can also be a CEO at a education software company - something you think would be worlds apart - is that actually the only thing that is important is how quickly you can get up to scratch on any given industry.
After six years working my way up the salary path at Cambridge (my job remained the same, the title and money kept changing) I decided to make the BIG move - that is to move from my relatively comfortable life in New York City (albeit somewhat lonely despite my two roommates) to Israel. Why - well that's a story for another blog, perhaps some day. Maybe when my business is so successful that I'll have time write on several blogs at once...
I approached a couple of major academic presses in Israel armed with raving recommendations from my wonderful colleagues at Cambridge University Press (and I mean that!) and was told as follows:
-We don't really have use for your experience (HUH - I worked for the top academic press..)
-Your knowledge of computer based publishing is really way ahead of us (Ok - it was 1993, but still)
-We can pay you $500 a month (and I will eat how?)
So I went to work for Israel's foreign ministry. Now you might ask, as a famous biblical commentator Rashi often did, what is the connection between publishing and politics. None actually. I could make something elaborate up, but my point is that I didn't use any of my 'technical experience', I used my 'world experience'. I'll gloss over this period except to say that I went to my boss one day with an idea, and opened the conversation with 'I have an idea'. The immediate response was 'I pay you to work not to think'. So I quit.
And went to work for a multimedia company called SuperStudio. Now here I could really use my experience. Instead of producing a book, I produced multimedia. And learned about management and business timing. I had a team of 30 people working for me in graphics, writing, animations, videos and other great creative stuff. But when the programmers failed to make the product work in time for an important meeting, despite all the great multimedia I had put together, my resources were cut off on Thursday at midnight. Sunday morning (yes, in Israel we work on Sundays) I had nothing to do. And it was my fault because I had failed to understand that although the programmers did not directly report to me, it was my responsibility as the producer to ensure that the VP of R&D understood the importance of getting the product to this meeting. He and I had barely met till that moment.
At the time I was more in the production side than on the business side, but it what it also said to me that if a VP at a pet food company can also be a CEO at a education software company - something you think would be worlds apart - is that actually the only thing that is important is how quickly you can get up to scratch on any given industry.
After six years working my way up the salary path at Cambridge (my job remained the same, the title and money kept changing) I decided to make the BIG move - that is to move from my relatively comfortable life in New York City (albeit somewhat lonely despite my two roommates) to Israel. Why - well that's a story for another blog, perhaps some day. Maybe when my business is so successful that I'll have time write on several blogs at once...
I approached a couple of major academic presses in Israel armed with raving recommendations from my wonderful colleagues at Cambridge University Press (and I mean that!) and was told as follows:
-We don't really have use for your experience (HUH - I worked for the top academic press..)
-Your knowledge of computer based publishing is really way ahead of us (Ok - it was 1993, but still)
-We can pay you $500 a month (and I will eat how?)
So I went to work for Israel's foreign ministry. Now you might ask, as a famous biblical commentator Rashi often did, what is the connection between publishing and politics. None actually. I could make something elaborate up, but my point is that I didn't use any of my 'technical experience', I used my 'world experience'. I'll gloss over this period except to say that I went to my boss one day with an idea, and opened the conversation with 'I have an idea'. The immediate response was 'I pay you to work not to think'. So I quit.
And went to work for a multimedia company called SuperStudio. Now here I could really use my experience. Instead of producing a book, I produced multimedia. And learned about management and business timing. I had a team of 30 people working for me in graphics, writing, animations, videos and other great creative stuff. But when the programmers failed to make the product work in time for an important meeting, despite all the great multimedia I had put together, my resources were cut off on Thursday at midnight. Sunday morning (yes, in Israel we work on Sundays) I had nothing to do. And it was my fault because I had failed to understand that although the programmers did not directly report to me, it was my responsibility as the producer to ensure that the VP of R&D understood the importance of getting the product to this meeting. He and I had barely met till that moment.
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