I spoke with my brother, Ken, during the past week, and we were talking about his business.  I’ve never fully understood Ken’s business, but he is, in his words, in the business of “Helping people realize their dreams of starting their own business.”  Ken is an internet and affiliate-marketing expert.  He runs successful conferences on the topic, writes software, writes books, and teaches people how to make money through affiliate marketing programs.  Now, a lot of people want to have their own business, and since Ken is in the business of helping people “realize their dreams,” I was a little surprised to hear him also say, “Some people shouldn’t run their own business.”  It just goes to show you, he’s an honest fellow.  And he’s right; some people don’t belong in the pool.  This morning, I thought of my conversation with Ken, when I saw some small critter making tiny waves in our pool.  The critter turned out to be a chipmunk, paddling furiously, getting nowhere, barely keeping its nose out of the water.  I pulled the chipmunk out of the pool, but for the record, chipmunks don’t swim well or for long, and don’t belong in the pool. 

If you jump in the pool and, unlike this morning’s chipmunk, you don’t go in over your head, there’s a good chance that you will quickly learn whether you should be in the pool at all.  If you find you can’t swim well, hopefully you will be able to climb out.  If you find that you can swim and you enjoy the pool, you will likely at some point in the future reach the SMOT – The Startup Moment of Truth.

I first heard the acronym SMOT in speaking with Doug Cahill, who is VP of Business Development at Bit9.  And he first heard it when working for Dave Lemont, who is the former CEO of AppIQ and founder of Lemont Consulting. (Dave, if you coined the term, please consider yourself credited). The Startup Moment of Truth is that point in a startup’s life when the market is ready, the product is ready, the channel is ready, and the company must make a decision to invest time, money, and all of its energy for the final big push.  Over the years, I’ve seen the moment of truth arrive for many companies.  Sometimes the CEO, the Founders, and the Board will make the final, big-push decision.  Other times they won’t, and the wave will pass over them.  It’s the lack of focus, the indecision, and the constant rethinking of the strategy that kills so many companies.  Which reminds me of another animal that is common around here – the squirrel.

Every fall, squirrels busily gather acorns for the winter.  As the moment of truth, the first big snow storm, gets closer and closer, the squirrels seem to become increasingly indecisive.  They dash into the road, they see a car coming, they dodge left, they veer right, back left, and then freeze, all too often in exactly the wrong spot.  And they fail in their SMOT.