Like all things, situation would dictate.

What we are really talking about is motivation. The executives must figure out the most effective way to motivate sales people.

Hint: Most sales people are in sales to make money. Normally, it is not a philanthropic effort.

• 1 week ago

I was also surprised at Bolt not running hard. As some of the athletic pundits are saying, I think it was grandstanding and an act of poor sportsmanship. I think he is an incredible athlete, but he has poor manners. On the flip side, he was very respecting of his competitors and the Olympics as a whole during his televised interview (surprisingly).

As a former sales rep for a $20B+ company, I think the act of just making your number and not "killing it" is more a creature of poor company culture, practices, and expectations at the executive level of the company.

For instance, at my previous employer, 20% was added to whatever number you brought in the previous year as the quota for the following year. Not making the quota caused extreme ridicule and a very high risk of job termination. So, reps simply do what the company incentivizes, beat their quota by a few dollars and sit out until the next year. Why? Because if they beat the previous year it becomes harder by an order of magnitude to beat your quota the next.

Alternatively, reps kill their number thereby "burning" out their territory for the following year and all the while knowing they will just leave the company at the end of the year.

Either way the company loses.

How might a company take care of this problem? Pay their people so well they don't want to leave. Understand the changing nature of their business. Stock options. A pay structure that encourages people to work hard throughout the year. (QOL) Quality of life benefits...whether it be company car or extravagant vacations, etc

• 1 week ago

While it seems like a decent idea, I wouldn't want to make the tax code anymore difficult. Also, since most people are still apathetic when it comes to voting and politics in general, I am guessing the participation rate in a program like this would be low relative to the size of the population.

One idea I do like which comes out of Congress is a bill to put a line on our tax forms that allows anyone who feels they do not pay enough in taxes to pay more as a donation to the federal govn't. To paraphrase the Congressman who put the bill together "It would be a great injustice to those wishing to pay more taxes not to be able to do so." Unfortunately, it probably won't make it to the President's desk.

• 19 weeks ago

This is an exceptional post. As an investor, you must take it personally to fully realize what happened along the way. "Gaffing" it off and trying to keep it impersonal to keep the process from "elongating" sets the stage for the same mistakes to be had twice. I also believe that "experience is what you get when you don't get what you want." As they say, live and learn.

It is more painful for the entrepreneur because of the emotional and financial consequences. Still, investors don't like to see a company fail and it can be painful for them to watch. I don't think Seth was trying to say VC's feel more pain. I do think he was just enlightening people that investors do care and are often hurt when companies fail.

• 28 weeks ago

chris, you can choose a different display method,the "drop out" so when someone hits the comment link the comments slide out from the post. As of right now, the traditional method for comment display is not on the homepage right underdneath every post, but to have a comment link that is clicked on to either reveal the comments with the "drop out" method or the traditional method where the user clicks the comment link and is taken to a separate page.

As for the second, I am assuming you installed our Wordpress plugin and not our generic code. If this is the case then there is likely something unique to your theme that we will have to make a special adjustment for you. I'll reach out to you through email.

• 37 weeks ago