The Network Garden - Mark Sigal's Blog

Datex Advanced Retail Sales Tracking

If you are a Retail Shopping Center Portfolio Owner or Manager, and still tracking the Sales Data of your merchants the old-fashioned way, then you need Datex Advanced Retail Sales Tracking. It's battle-tested, and turns your data into a competitive advantage, while making your people more productive. 

 

Seek Your Calling: Inspired by the Shoe Dog

"I'd tell men and women...not to settle for a job or a profession or even a career. Seek a calling. Even if you don't know what that means, seek it. If you're following your calling, the fatigue will be easier to beat, the disappointments will be fuel, the highs will be like nothing you've ever felt." - Phil Knight, Founder, Nike 

I just finished reading 'Shoe Dog,' the biography of Nike founder and long-time CEO, Phil Knight. It's a great story of entrepreneurship, and a fantastic, easy read.

As an entrepreneur, I can tell you there is a LOT of time spent just feeling stupid.

The mistakes, the unforced errors, the letdowns, the people disappointments, etc.

There is a tendency to assume everyone else has it figured out.

Nike is one of the most iconic brands; surely Knight figured it out long ago.

But, the truth in the reading is how many years they sat on the razor's edge, basically sales rich, cash broke, how many life threatening moments they simply did not die but easily could have.

They did not even produce their own shoes until 1971, seven years after their birth. That's also when the Nike name and swoosh logo debuted.

Air Jordans did not materialize until 20 years after their birth, and the eponymous "Just Do It" campaign, which became a rocket ship, did not appear until 1988, 24 years after their birth.  

So much of being an entrepreneur is not dying, persisting, doing better, then doing great (hopefully). So much for the notion of the "overnight success