Mining Claim 2009-2025 Form

I was working as a Census taker for Statistics Canada during the national census of 1996 when one member of the public made a false complaint against me.To give the necessary background: Each census taker was assigned a different territory. We were each provided a detailed map of our own territory, clearly marking out its boundaries. Every residence within that territory was depicted on the map as a little square or rectangle. And for each street within our territory, it listed the relevant range of house numbers for each side of that street (e.g. one territory might end at numbers 49 and 50 Random Street, the next territory started across the intersection at numbers 51 and 52 Random Street.) If everyone got together in a huge field, they could potentially piece together a cool, giant detailed map of Canada.A big part of our job was physically delivering a census form to every separate lot within our territory with a residence on it. If the map showed a lot with a newly built home as empty, a form still needed to be delivered to that residence, and then we needed to mark the missing residence on the map of our territory. The maps were extremely accurate, and I had to mark maybe one new home on mine.The census was meant to be a snapshot of Canada on a particular day. If someone owned multiple residences, they needed to fill out the form for each property with information for that residence as of census day. So if the entire family stayed in one house on that date, the information for their second house would be that it didn’t have any residents as of census day — there was no need to fill out any of the additional data on that form. If someone’s son spent that date in the spare house? Then the form would reflect that the second home had one resident as of that date, and that son’s data would need to be entered on that form.People didn’t have to fill out the forms on the spot, but could mail it in (at no cost) by the deadline, some date following the “census date”. If they had any questions about filling out the form, I could try to answer their questions while I was at their door, or they could call the help line provided on the form itself.There was a different, and longer, census form for farms. It collected some agricultural data as well as data about the residence and its inhabitants. If someone groaned about having to fill out the longer form, I’d point out that they only needed to provide estimates for most of the extra questions (statistically, if someone slightly overestimated one figure, someone else would balance that out by underestimating). I’d also point out they could probably get all the information they required from their last income tax form. If someone hadn’t kept their income tax form and was concerned about providing any inconsistent data? I told them not to worry, because Revenue Canada is not allowed to see their census form, Stats Can is not allowed to see their income tax form (which is why they don’t just take the data from that), the data is all aggregated and, again, Estimates Are OK.This groaning was far from universal — strangely enough, I had to talk some people who had a hobby garden in their backyards out of trying to claim the longer agricultural form to fill out — but I quickly became used to having some people act reluctant about accepting the longer agricultural form.So, on with the story at hand: During one of my trips I came to one farm with clearly only one entrance to the residence, from a road well within my territory, to a home well within my territory. With agricultural form in hand, I knocked on the door and it was answered by a woman. I explained I was here to drop off a form for the census. She looked at the form then told me she will not fill it out. No explanation. She just said she would not fill it out.This wasn’t entirely unusual or unexpected (although up to that point I faced zero resistance — only, in a couple of cases, some antsy migrant workers hurriedly running off to hide in barns.Some people think they aren’t required to respond to the census and consider it to be the government being too “big brother”. So I politely explained to the woman that all the information she provides will be kept private, and won’t be shared with any other government authorities. I was about to explain there are benefits to the census, e.g., ensuring that the appropriate level of health services, police services, etc, are provided to different areas. But before I could, she again said “There is no requirement for me to fill out the form.”So I read to her from a paper we were provided politely explaining that a census form is required to be filled out by every residence in Canada.Then she says she was already given a form. I asked if someone came up to this property? (Because that would mean another census taker erroneously came into my territory). No.Finally, she explained that she had received special permission from someone in the government to not fill out the agricultural form. Taken aback, I asked her where she got that advice from, and she said she had spoken to someone from the census office, and she was told that she wouldn’t be required to fill out a form for this address because they already had a form for another part of their farm operating out of the neighbouring territory.So, I thought to myself “why the hell didn’t you tell me this to begin with instead of wasting everyone’s time?”, but instead I said to her something like “Okay, I was completely unaware of that. How about I leave a form with you, and you give my supervisor a call at this number. Then if you don’t need to complete the form, just throw it out. He can also let me know if I don’t need to get a form back from you.” She seemed very agreeable to this. So I apologized for taking up her time, and headed off.This was in the days before everyone had mobile phones. So instead of driving home, calling my supervisor, finding my way back to where I had left off (which wasn’t at a convenient intersection), and getting back to the job at hand, I decided to continue going door-to-door and following up the next morning.The next day, before I could call my supervisor, he called me.He was a former highschool principal whom I had the pleasure of working with on other contract jobs with the government (Elections Canada, specifically), so he knew me fairly well. He said to me “Hey, I got a complaint from a woman. Don’t worry about it. I know you, and I think this is completely out of character, but she complained that you were very rude and aggressive. She said you threatened to call in the police and get her fined if she didn’t take a form from you, and other things that strike me as very unlikely.” So I told him my side of the story. He said, “You did the right thing. We verified that part of her farm operation is in the next territory, she’s already received a form for it there, and Stats Can doesn’t need her to fill out a second form. The other operation doesn’t have a separate residence, so she can fill that data in on the one form. I told her she can dispose of the form you left with her, and we’ll follow up on her complaint. As far as I’m concerned, that’s the end of that. Keep up the good work.”

Finding the photo is difficult. It's easier to determine if someone's a scammer based on the activity that they do. And the conversations that they have with you. Do some research and find sites that you can search this picture and find out if it's a scammer or not. Your best bet would be on Pinterest and Instagram they seem to be allowed to post pictures of scammers.But I want to list some things that scammers do for you to learn and others who might be reading this answer. it is my hope that no one will ever be scammed again and if I can warn anyone based on my past experience as a victim I will do so.I'm sorry to be the one to tell you but you are the victim of a romance scam. The person you are talking to is not a US military personnel.What I've learned since I was victimized, is they use cards like Amazon & iTune and the like, that they request from their victims to buy access to Wi-Fi from internet cafes, where their communications can't be traced back to them somehow.To confirm, he's not a real soldier. He is a foreign National who stole the identity of an American soldier pretending to be on active duty in war zone. In an attempt to make you fall in love with him with the ultimate goal of getting you to send tons of money to him.Some other warning signs are as follows:If your boyfriend girlfriend/future husband/wife is asking you to do the following or has exhibited this behavior, it is a most likely a scam:Moves to private messaging site immediately after meeting you on Facebook or SnapChat or Instagram or some dating or social media site. Often times they delete the site you met them on right after they asked you to move to a more private messaging siteProfesses love to you very quickly & seems to quote poems and song lyrics along with using their own sort of broken language, as they profess their love and devotion quickly. They also showed concern for your health and love for your family.Promises marriage as soon as he/she gets to state for leave that they asked you to pay for.They Requests money (wire transfers) and Amazon, iTune ,Verizon, etc gift cards, for medicine, religious practices, and leaves to come home, internet access, complete job assignments, help sick friend, get him out of trouble, or anything that sounds fishy.Below is an email response I received after I sent an inquiry to the US government when I discovered I was scammed. I received this wonderful response back with lots of useful links on how to find and report your scammer. And how to learn more about Romance Scams.Right now you can also copy the picture she gave you and do a google image search and you will hopefully see the pictures of the real person she is impersonating. this doesn't always work and take some digging. if you find the real person you can direct message them and alert them that their image is being used for scamming.Good Luck to you and I'm sorry this may be happening to you. please continue reading the government response I received below it's very informative.   You have contacted an email that is monitored by the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command. Unfortunately, this is a common concern. We assure you there is never any reason to send money to anyone claiming to be a Soldier online. If you have only spoken with this person online, it is likely they are not a U.S. Soldier at all. If this is a suspected imposter social media profile, we urge you to report it to that platform as soon as possible. Please continue reading for more resources and answers to other frequently asked questions:  How to report an imposter Facebook profile: Caution-https://www.facebook.com/help/16... < Caution-https://www.facebook.com/help/16... >   Answers to frequently asked questions:  - Soldiers and their loved ones are not charged money so that the Soldier can go on leave.  - Soldiers are not charged money for secure communications or leave.  - Soldiers do not need permission to get married.  - Soldiers emails are in this format: john.doe.mil@mail.mil < Caution-mailto: john.doe.mil@mail.mil > anything ending in .us or .com is not an official email account.  - Soldiers have medical insurance, which pays for their medical costs when treated at civilian health care facilities worldwide – family and friends do not need to pay their medical expenses.  - Military aircraft are not used to transport Privately Owned Vehicles.  - Army financial offices are not used to help Soldiers buy or sell items of any kind.  - Soldiers deployed to Combat Zones do not need to solicit money from the public to feed or house themselves or their troops.  - Deployed Soldiers do not find large unclaimed sums of money and need your help to get that money out of the country.  Anyone who tells you one of the above-listed conditions/circumstances is true is likely posing as a Soldier and trying to steal money from you.  We would urge you to immediately cease all contact with this individual.  For more information on avoiding online scams and to report this crime, please see the following sites and articles:   This article may help clarify some of the tricks social media scammers try to use to take advantage of people: Caution-https://www.army.mil/article/61432/< Caution-https://www.army.mil/article/61432/>   CID advises vigilance against 'romance scams,' scammers impersonating Soldiers  Caution-https://www.army.mil/article/180749 < Caution-https://www.army.mil/article/180749 >   FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center: Caution-http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx< Caution-http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx>   U.S. Army investigators warn public against romance scams: Caution-https://www.army.mil/article/130...< Caution-https://www.army.mil/article/130...>   DOD warns troops, families to be cybercrime smart -Caution-http://www.army.mil/article/1450...< Caution-http://www.army.mil/article/1450...>   Use caution with social networking  Caution-https://www.army.mil/article/146...< Caution-https://www.army.mil/article/146...>    Please see our frequently asked questions section under scams and legal issues. Caution-http://www.army.mil/faq/ < Caution-http://www.army.mil/faq/ > or visit Caution-http://www.cid.army.mil/ < Caution-http://www.cid.army.mil/ >.  The challenge with most scams is determining if an individual is a legitimate member of the US Army. Based on the Privacy Act of 1974, we cannot provide this information. If concerned about a scam you may contact the Better Business Bureau (if it involves a solicitation for money), or local law enforcement. If you're involved in a Facebook or dating site scam, you are free to contact us direct; (571) 305-4056.   If you have a social security number, you can find information about Soldiers online at Caution-https://www.dmdc.osd.mil/appj/sc... < Caution-https://www.dmdc.osd.mil/appj/sc... > . While this is a free search, it does not help you locate a retiree, but it can tell you if the Soldier is active duty or not.  If more information is needed such as current duty station or location, you can contact the Commander Soldier's Records Data Center (SRDC) by phone or mail and they will help you locate individuals on active duty only, not retirees. There is a fee of $3.50 for businesses to use this service. The check or money order must be made out to the U.S. Treasury. It is not refundable. The address is:  Commander Soldier's Records Data Center (SRDC) 8899 East 56th Street Indianapolis, IN 46249-5301 Phone: 1-866-771-6357  In addition, it is not possible to remove social networking site profiles without legitimate proof of identity theft or a scam. If you suspect fraud on this site, take a screenshot of any advances for money or impersonations and report the account on the social networking platform immediately.  Please submit all information you have on this incident to Caution-www.ic3.gov < Caution-http://www.ic3.gov > (FBI website, Internet Criminal Complaint Center), immediately stop contact with the scammer (you are potentially providing them more information which can be used to scam you), and learn how to protect yourself against these scams at Caution-http://www.ftc.gov < Caution-http://www.ftc.gov > (Federal Trade Commission's website)

Easy to follow instructions can be found here Tax on shopping and servicesThe process works like this.Get a VAT 407 form from the retailer - they might ask for proof that you’re eligible, for example your passport.Show the goods, the completed form and your receipts to customs at the point when you leave the EU (this might not be in the UK).Customs will approve your form if everything is in order. You then take the approved form to get paid.The best place to get the form is from a retailer on the airport when leaving.

DISCLAIMER — Please do not read this if you are in an environment where you are forbidden from laughing.I have a SUPERPOWER! :DMy superpower is to somehow make every one of my solo airplane experience embarrassing.Amongst all those experiences, there is one that has always stayed with me. This one in particular because it was the first one. Back then I was only 17 years old.I was travelling from Ahmedabad to Dubai on an Emirates flight in an economy class. I had got a window seat and there was a man seating to my right on the aisle seat.As this was my first solo airplane experience, my mom was worried about my safety. She is well aware about my careless attitude when performing the most simplistic tasks at hand - especially at the airport. She had made me memorise all the checkpoints that I would come across on the airport before I could board my flight. At one point I was just annoyed because she thought I was that stupid. Also, she had warned me that I better not mess up or else……(Some of you would would know where I am going with this!)Okay then, coming back to the story —The return journey was quite comfortable and we were only 10 minutes away from landing. The air hostess appeared in the passageway to brief us about the landing procedure and instructed us to put on our seat belts.I had woken up from a deep sleep and I instinctively went on to tie my seat belt as per the instruction I had just heard."Ladies and Gentlemen, Welcome to *didnt hear what she said exactly* where the local time is 18:10. We are expected to land in the next 10 minutes. The outside temperature is 24 degree Celsius. For your comfort and safety please remain with your seat-belt fastened until the aircraft comes to a complete stop and the seat-belt sign has been switched off.…..We thank you for choosing Emirates and hope you've enjoyed the flight with us. We look forward to serving you again soon. Thank you and Good Evening!!"I adjusted my seat and looked outside the window. The view was beautiful. It was a beautiful landscape of desert. Artistic layers of sand dunes. Just wow!In the next 5 seconds, the expression on my face turned from a mesmerised “Awww” to a shocking “What the fuck?”I was suddenly repeating the air hostess’s instruction in my mind.“We are expected to land in the next 10 minutes.”If we are landing in Dubai in the next 10 minutes - where the hell are all the buildings? Where did they go?Where is the Sheikh Zayed Road? Where is the Burj Khalifa?Oh my God! I was going to get a panic attack. As far as my eyes could wander, all I could witness was an unending desert.Then I remembered that there were two flights taking off from the gate where I was waiting in Ahmedabad. One to Dubai and the other to Saudi Arabia. Also, there was only one jet bridge which later branched into two different gates. So, for some reason I thought I must have turned to the wrong side.Also, the geography of the unending desert matched more with Saudi Arabia than Dubai.All I could think was about the last line my mom had told me, “Ruchi, you better not mess up or else……”I had to take some action.I started fumbling with the front seat pocket to search for my boarding pass to ensure if my check-in was done for the right destination. In that case, at least I wouldn't be blamed. But unfortunately, I couldn't find it.I was waiting to get hold of the air hostess so that I could clear the doubt in person but none came around as they were preparing for the landing.Then I did something stupid.I asked the man next to me.From his appearance (he was wearing an untucked old white shirt with loose khaki colored pants and simple men sandals), he seemed to be from the working class. I am not being judgemental - just observant.I asked him “Sir, I am a little confused about where this flight is heading. Is it going to Saudi Arabia?”He looked at me with confusion as he didn't understand a word I had just said.So I asked the same thing in Hindi.And there I saw it - the exact expression that I had a few minutes back. An expression filled with shock, surprise and a nearing PANIC ATTACK.He said, “Dekhiye, aap mujhe darra rahi hai. Main pehli baar plane mai baitha hu. Mujhe Dubai jana hai (almost pleading now). Aur mujhe english bhi nahi aati (on the verge of an attack)”Translation <“Look, you are scaring me. I am travelling by an airplane for the first time. I want to go to Dubai. And I cant even speak in English”>I wanted to console him but I had to take care of my own panic attack.But before I could say anything, there was an announcement."Ladies and Gentlemen, Welcome to the Dubai International Airport”.Upon hearing that, my panic attack expression changed to a sigh of relief as I was no more going to be screwed by my mom. You see, I was never scared of landing in a foreign country (not even if it was North Korea). This would tell you a lot about my priorities.But in this process I forgot about the man who was sitting next to me and who I had almost given a heart attack. He was mumbling something in tension. May be a prayer.I waved at him and told, “Oh Sir Jee! Dont worry. Mubarak ho! Hum Dubai pahuch gaye”, I said with a such a huge smile that after a few seconds it looked plain creepy.Translation <“Oh Sir! Do not worry. Congratulations! We have landed in Dubai”>He was shocked. He didn't know how to react and stared at me furiously. I just kept my mouth shut and continued to cover it with my creepy smile.P.S. Even to this day, after 7 long years, I still wonder if he thought that I was playing a prank on him. LOL———————————————————————————————————Who the hell am I?Just an extant member of the subtribe Hominina who is trying to survive the chaos of evolution. Still alive. See you on the other side :)Have a good day buddy!

Ah well let's see. An insurance claim form is used to make a claim against your insurance for financial, repair or replacement of something depending on your insurance. Not everything will qualify so you actually have to read the small print.

I raised $500,000 at 19. I was on my way to change the world. Three years later everything burned down.This post is not about how to shoot for the stars or run a company. Others are better at that.This is about what not to do.I’ve made every mistake possible. But ironically, I’m constantly meeting teams doing the exact same things that caused my first startup to implode. Everything I’m writing about I’ve experienced first hand through my own startups as well as various businesses I’ve been involved in. It’s been all my fault and this is my story.Some of you will disagree with me. Others will have things to add. I’m happy to discuss in the comments.Here’s my attempt.ZUCKERBERG SYNDROMMy girlfriend didn’t know what I was working on for nine months. I slept with a chair blocking the front door. My phone was tapped. Corporate America and Uncle Sam were listening. Someone was going to kill me to steal the idea.I really believed this. So I did everything possible (literally) to avoid getting feedback out of the fear of having our idea stolen.Ultimately, secrecy and stupidity killed us. Three years and hundreds of thousands later, we released an alpha version to a modest 30 people for the first time. Everyone hated it. Our capital was gone. Our morale: zero.I see this all the time. Startup founders hiding their ideas because of the fear that someone will steal it. Remember: no one cares about you. Your biggest issue is getting discovered. If someone steals your idea, that means you’re doing something right.Because of this syndrome, most startups are wasting their time and money building products no one wants. Why? Lack of testing. The biggest mistake a company can make (product wise) is to avoid talking to and testing with potential and current users. Every day. It’s also one of the main reasons startup’s fail.If you’re not constantly releasing and looking for feedback you’re either a) delusional (me) thinking too many people will sign up/buy your product and you won’t be able to scale b) scared that it’s not good enough (me) or c) someone will steal your idea (as I was).A. SCALING“Your priority, in short, is proving that people will use your product at all. If they won’t, then it won’t matter if you can’t scale. If they will, then you will figure out a way to scale. I’ve never seen a startup die because it couldn’t scale fast enough. I’ve seen hundreds of startups die because people refused to embrace their product.” — Guy Kawasaki [Emphasis mine]I’ve done this and I’ve experienced this in the past three startups I’ve worked in. It’s completely delusional. If five out of five people tell you that they wouldn’t use your product (before you build), quit. If eight out of ten people tell you that they hate this feature and you empirically see that they’re not using it, kill it. Don’t assume. Always be testing.More on feedback below.b. TESTINGSee point A.C. STEALING(!)No one will steal your idea. It takes time, money, skills and immorality to steal. Not everyone is born that lucky.Most importantly, no one cares about your idea.They’ll only start caring when there’s a massive amount of initial traction (50,000+ users). By then, you’ve already established a strong user/customer base and it’s too late for the others.HIRING FOR WEAKNESSOnly hire for a strength that needs to be filled in your company. Never for a weakness.Not once did any of the startups I worked in hire for a strength. I repetitively recommended hiring people purely out of loneliness, fear and scarcity repetitively. Each time it sunk us deeper.But what does that mean?Hiring for a weakness means that you attempt to fill a weakness in the fundamenetals in your company by hiring for a weakness. Example: If you’re building a product and it’s not gaining traction and your company doesn’t have inherent fundamentals, hiring Ryan Holiday to sell your product won’t help. You can’t fight weakness with weakness.However, if you have a rockstar engineering team and you want to add a marketing person to help take the product get to another level, then you’re adding a strength.Hiring for weakness also means:a. You hire a B+ player instead of a A+ player.b. You hire people so that they go through the struggle with you, so that they share your fears and paranoia. Not so they execute on what’s needed.c. Hiring someone to fill a position. Not to compliment the rest of the company.d. Hiring someone and not having any idea of what the hell you want them to do.e. It means hiring someone because you think there’s no one else. Scarcity.f. Hiring a client’s friend. Because you’re scared.It’s ultimately about the fundamentals. If the fundamentals of the product and the team aren’t there, adding someone is just adding a weakness. It won’t help, because it’s not a strength.PAINTER’S DILEMMAApproving emails? One week treks. Our first wireframes? $40K and four months. Did we have a working product after all this? No. We failed.The Painter’s Dilemma is when you’re so deep in the details of your project that you don’t even know what the idea is anymore. You’re blind. When you’re too deep you need help.How to solve it? Stop. Talk to people. Get feedback. Iterate and build. Release. Breathe.Repeat the loop.The more feedback you get the healthier you and your product are.FEEDBACK*I can’t emphasize this enough. If you don’t get feedback (everyday) you will die. I never got feedback. EVER. Well, until the cash ran out. Oops.If you’re not getting qualitiative and quantitive feedback/data everyday, the cancer will start.It’s easy: speak to people, Google Analytics, send surveys. Just don’t hide from it.*This is the crucial and worth a dedicated blog post in the future.COMMUNICATE“Don’t talk to him, he doesn’t understand. He’s out of the picture next funding round anyways.” I hid everything internally. It was easy, we were in 5 different countries! Our developers were remote (I’ll get to that) and Basecamp was our only means of communication. In other startups, I wouldn’t included people from discussions because “it isn’t necessary. That isn’t their job”New features, awful designs, conniving plans were all pushed through a funnel. I was the leader of the deceiving. Architecting a blue print to push my own delusional “never test and succeed” agenda. My style? The longer the email the less likely someone important will read it. What a strategy. As always, the CEO is the biggest idiot.I don’t care if you’re a church, a tech startup or a non-profit. If you don’t have a system of communication in place that keeps everyone aware of what everyone is doing in the company, in real-time, for every milestone, everyday, you will die very soon.Lesson: Live and breath Scrum.SCREW LAWYERSLawyers are criminals.I spent $15,000 on legal documents/fees we never used. Every entrepreneur/startup I’m involved with thinks lawyers are the first step to success. Bullshit.DOCSAll the legal documents you ever need are available online. If you’re B2B, all companies that you’ll work with have their own standard LOEs, NDAs, etc., that they anyways steal from Fortune 500 companies. Request it. Then use it. B2C? Here.BUT I NEED A TRADEMARK!Unless you have 10,000 clients you don’t need to think about copyright or even the name. Prove the concept first. Worry later. If you do have to worry, those are very nice worries to have.PATENT IT!Patenting something that isn’t validated with at least 10,000 clients is moronic. Ironically, this is the only mistake my first startup didn’t follow through with (fully, at least).DECISION MAKINGI was traumatized from taking decisions. Most startups never take decisions. In other statups I work in, decisions took weeks. People join startups for the reason of avoiding bureaucracy but everyone still does it. Why? Lack of trust and overview of the team, so they choke the process (have I suggested Scrum?).The board should decide on the vision and the group should decide what to execute on by creating a backlog for the week. The team should then have the power to execute it. With a great communication process in place, teammates should be able to take decisions without reporting to anyone while keeping everyone updated with everything’s that going on, live. Have a flat structure to achieve this by using Scrum.Let people do their jobs. Trust them. Don’t have a tedious review process as most startups do. Don’t suffocate the system. Empower your people.Read Scrum by Jeff Sutherland on how to manage your team. Then read Team of Teams by General Stanley McChrystal for how to organize the information flow. Both books compliment each other perfectly.THE BOARDThe ideal board is 3–5 people maximum if you’re a startup. Anything above that means that either no decisions will ever be taken (my first company) or someone has a hidden agenda and profits from a discombobulated board.A business is not a democracy. Unanimous decisions don’t work and will never work.Who’s should I put on the Board?Only investors/shareholders who hold a large stake and are extremely active in the success of your venture.INVESTORSSmart Money vs Still MoneyJust because someone is offering you cash almost always means you shouldn’t accept it.Your investor can have the greatest contacts in the pharmecutical industry. She can be CEO of Merck. If she doesn’t have a massive network in whatever industry you’re in, it’s worthless. The money will be worth nothing. This is true 100% of the time.Always onboard investors that can help you in your niche industry.MEETINGSThis is my top 3 favorites. Most won’t agree with me on this.I’ve never been to a meeting that has made me money/funded my venture. I don’t think anyone has. Has anyone ever handed you a check at a meeting? I doubt it. Today, it usually happens by wire-transfer.Meetings are pointless. Every team I meet, consult for/work with all think that going to meetings is the most crucial part of business. Most importantly, the whole team should be there. Pick up the fucking phone. Travel is time and money expensive. Even if you’re taking a cab.I would fly 10,000 miles for a 3 hour meeting and then fly back to Europe that same day. $30K. Gone.“If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be: ‘meetings.’” - Dave BarryMost of the discussion can be ironed out over email and FaceTime.Ok yes, I agree. Meeting in person is important. But not until it’s necessary. Most of the time, it’s unecessary. And even when it is, it shouldn’t always be an excuse to leave work for a business lunch or to Shanghai for the day.Avoid meetings. Get more done.It’s a waste of time 99% of the time.FOUNDING PARTNERS = YOUR SPOUSEYou will be married to your partners and investors for the next 7–10 years. Choose wisely.Know your team. Speak to your investor’s enemies. Get references for everyone.Don’t be a deceiver. Use Scrum.WORKING HOURSWe worked 16 hour days. Yey! Startup life!No. Work 8–10 hours and you’ll get more done than working 18 hours a day. Don’t believe me. It’s proven.Working 18 hour days leads to a burn out, which leads to painter’s dilemma, then delusion, then deceiving others around you, then depression. Then it’s too late.Ultimately, the more you work the more mistakes you’re prone to make. Mistakes made are mistakes that need to be corrected. Mistakes that aren’t correct can take up to 24x longer to correct than if they were corrected immediately.But you can’t see that. You’re burned out. You’re in Painter.PRODUCT / MARKET VALIDATIONAnother reason I refused to test in the three product startups I was involved in was because “the ideas work successfully elsewhere. They will also work here.” Doesn’t work like that.Just because you’re making a mishmash of several products that have product/market validation elsewhere doesn’t mean people are willing to use your product. I have yet to meet a new founder who hasn’t claimed this.In order for someone to switch to your product, your product needs to be at least 8x better.*Is your product really 8x better than your biggest competitor? If the answer isn’t a clear yes, quit.*Read Hooked by Nir Eyal and Ryan Hoover for how to build habit forming products.RECREATING THE WHEEL“God gave you eyes, so plagarize.” -Michael LewisNo need to re-create the wheel. Everything is out there already for a reason. Use APIs, read books (many books), steal functions, designs, ideas, marketing slogans, branding, on boarding processes, software, colors, clients, everything from other people/companies who are successful.This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t test it in your own environment. You must validate every single function that you put out there. Use the Lean Startup KanBan by Ash Maurya for this.DILUTIONWe gave away 51% for our first funding round. How much did we plan to keep when we “exited?” Think about that. It doesn’t make sense.Startups do this all the time. If you retain 51% after the seed round, how much does the founding team plan to keep by Series B? 20%? If you take the average of what you got paid for equity after the exit + your salary you’ll be paying more in taxes with a minimum wage paycheck for the past 8 years it took you to exit. Might as well work in a shoe store.If you don’t have the bargaining power (a validated product) to raise money with, quit.GUYS IN SUITSOur tech partners wore suits. That made us comfortable. They ended up quoting $100k. We ended up with nothing.If you see tech people in suits, run.OUTSOURCINGI lost well over $100,000 for our first version that was outsourced. We were smart enough to not learn from our mistakes so we found another team to outsource with. Another hefty sum gone. Only myself to blame.I’ve had terrible experiences with outsourcing and great experiences with in-house development.However, many products (we all use everyday) have found great success in outsourcing. I also know many entrepreneurs who outsource and are extremely succesful. While there are massive benefits, there are also downfalls. If you plan to, find a free consulting company that has pre-screened teams.Either way, using Scrum increases your chances of success in-house or out.YOUR TEAMEntrepreneurs read about Steve Jobs’ management style and think he was a tyrant. So they curse at their employees and tell everyone that they are “shit.” They think that’s how a company should be run and that’s how teammates should be treated. Wrong. Treat your team like shit and you’ll get shit.Either way, that’s not how Steve Jobs did it. Steve Jobs empowered his team. He told them that what they’re outputting is shit because he knew that they could do better. Because they are the best in the industry. He made them feel good. He challenged them and today Apple is Apple because of that.On the other hand, I lied. Didn’t speak about the hard things and repressed whatever fear or worry we had. We were scared that someone would quit or that we would look bad if we showed our emotions in front of our investors.You should always be able to tell your teammates all the fears and worries you have. Chances are, if you’re worried about something, everyone is worried about the same thing. Bring it up. Talk about it. I keep mentioning Scrum* because it encourages team members telling each other what’s bothering them and what’s impending the growth progress. This is key to not failing.Not once, in any of the startups I was in, did I or others get credit for great work or for their ideas that ended up being implemented. Not once did anyone congratualte a teammate on a engineering triumph, a beautiful design or a new lead. Startups think “business is business. This isn’t a cute place to pat each other on the backs.”BUT THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT A BUSINESS SHOULD BE. You should be holding each other up, helping one another and listening to the problems in the team. Because ultimately, you’re on the same mission.The second the negativity flows in people become scared. They stop raising issues, telling you how they feel and how to improve the business. When that happens you start to slowly die because you’ve fell into dillusion that everything is working. Six months later, you’re on the street.Empower your team. Congratulate people. Love each other. When someone screws up, tell them that. But also tell them how to improve and ask them why they think they screwed up and how to make their job easier.You’re a team. Be one.*Believe it or not, I’m not affiliated with Scrum in anyway. I’m not even a Scrum Master.—When I reflect on all the stupidity I’ve personally done and the startups I’ve been involved in, I realize that the only thing I ever followed up through and executed with absolute perfection, were the things that eventually ended up killing us: not telling a soul what our idea was. Talking to lawyers. Partnering with bad teams. Hiring out of weakness. Going to too many meetings. No decision making system. Not using Scrum. Hiring people out of fear. Hiding from reality.Mistakes are simple to make but hard to correct. They’re usually the first option that pops up. But as entrepreneurs we do thing because they’re hard, not because they’re easy.Hard choices take a long time to get right. It takes guts, intuition, experience and lots of luck. But never settle. Never accept your situation.Life can always be better.…..This was originally posted on the NY Observer and our blog on Penta.Follow me @lukaivicev or contact me directly at luka@getpenta.com.

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