Sunday, September 10, 2006

Erick Simpson Has Betrayed Me

As many of you know, I have wandered around a lot this year. On several occasions I have crossed paths with Erick Simpson. Whether we were appearing with Amy Luby or just sharing a cup of coffee, Erick and I have had many, many conversations about managed services. Phone calls, hallway meetings, etc.

I thought I knew everything he had to share on the subject.

As a friend, I assumed that he would tell me everything he knew.

Then I picked up his book.

When I got to page 23 I put it down.

I went and got a pen. Then I picked up the book again and started reading it over from page one. By the time I had made my way back to page 23 I knew that there was a lot about Erick's vision that I had not understood. Like the whole, huge, monster program that goes beyond the simple message "Managed Services good; Break-Fix bad."

After fifty pages I realized that I just missed breakfast.

This book is _packed_ with great information.

LESSON: Don't assume that you understand someone else's vision, model for success, or even standard operating procedures. Ever. Even after 10 conversations, or 20, or 50.

Maybe Erick didn't betray me. Maybe I tricked myself into thinking that we were doing the same thing, or had the same model.

I can't wait to finish the book.

More to come.

Your take-away: Go buy The Guide to a Successful Managed Services Practice by Erick Simpson.

-----

But wait. Did I write a book on service agreements? Yes. So why am I telling you to go buy Erick's book?

Simple. Your job is to work to improve your business. If you buy two books that specifically address how to be organize your business and be successful in your market space, you will have two perspectives on how to make yourself and your business more successful.

After all, over the next few years you know you'll buy several big, fat books on servers, SQL, Exchange, etc.

It is absolutely worthwhile to spend the price of two little books to focus ON your business.

Just do it.

4 comments:

  1. Anonymous11:37 PM

    Karl - thanks for the kind words. You've been a great friend and resource to the entire SMB Community. The title caught me quite off-guard (as you intended it to do for your readers) until I read the balance of the post!

    I look forward to many more conversations, phone calls, hallway meetings, etc...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Interesting after all this time, when I google Erick Simpson, this post is still number one....

    Stuart Crawford
    in San Diego, CA
    http://blog.itsuccessmentor.com

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yes, it's because I'm a leach.

    Whenever I can steal free publicity by using Erick Simpson's name, I do.

    You see, the search engines see the name Erick Simpson in context, especially with the words managed service, and they think it's good hit.

    People click on the link because it says Erick Simpson and managed service, and Google responds by raising this as a "good" hit for the terms Erick Simpson and managed service.

    :-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous7:29 AM

    ...the wonders of SEO

    ReplyDelete

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