So I got a haircut over the weekend. I haven’t had short hair in at least four or five years.

Before on the left, after on the right.

Yup, he definitely would.

Ashley hand sewed the WordPress logo onto Riley’s hoodie. Like a boss.

{openx:1}

Since I’ve started using the new bbPress plugin more, I find myself wanting the same thing there. I want to quickly see new topics and replies, the same as I can via the Recent Comments widget. So, I created the Dashboard Forum Activity plugin to do just that.

Dashboard Forum Activity

You can download Dashboard Forum Activity from the WordPress.org Plugin Directory. The plugin will add a widget to your Dashboard (only if you are an admin, or more specifically have the manage_options capability) showing newly created topics and replies on your bbPress-powered forum.

From the widget you can jump in and edit any topics or replies, as well as view them on the front end of the site. (Almost the) Same as the Recent Comments widget.

I have further plans for this plugin, but wanted to start simple and get it out. I’ve started using it today as well, and already enjoy it. I hope you will too!

This plugin slows down the dropdown so that it only opens up after a moment’s hesitation on the Admin Bar. It only effects logged in users, so shouldn’t add any overhead to your site.

You can download the Admin Bar Hover Intent plugin from the WordPress Plugin Directory.

That’s pretty much it, since this plugin is pretty straightforward. Hope you find it useful!

The bulk of the photos are of Riley. He is a two year old bug, a breed of dog that is a mix between a Boston Terrier and a Pug. He’s cute.

There is also a picture of Indie in there too. She’s slightly older than Riley, and I actually adopted her first, so I couldn’t leave her out of this gallery.

All photos here were taken by the very talented Destany Maddox.

Originally I was supposed to arrive at 4:00pm Monday in Indianapolis. Instead, my connecting flight in Denver, Colorado was delayed by about one and a half hours to de-ice the plane. I wasn’t upset about it, since I enjoy the airplanes I’m in staying airborne. But while we originally thought I would be back in time to make the drive back up to Fort Wayne before the big storm hit, the delay put us kinda sorta right in the middle of it.

Ashley and I made it just outside of Indianapolis proper before the ice really started coming down. The central part of the state was supposed to see the ice, while the northeast (or Fort Wayne) was to see large amounts of snow. By the time we hit Noblesville, about 90 miles from Fort Wayne, we decided it would be best to rest for the night and get moving again early in the morning.

This is the fun part. Just by chance, we pulled off and found a Cambria Suites hotel for an easy $99/night. We hadn’t heard of the chain before, so were a bit weary of trying it out. It turns out the place is awesome.

I later found out that Cambria is a relatively new chain of hotels, only a couple of years old, and has a very modern style. We would definitely stay there again.

The ironic part is that after our safety plan sort of backfired when we slid off the road this morning into snow in the median on 69 south. We were pulled out by a tow truck and made it back to town a couple of hours later than intended. But hey, we’re home now right? Survived another winter experience.

I only have this frustration with others because I see the same thing in myself. I despise credit before it’s due because I hate my own tendency toward it. In the past I’ve sought positive feedback (read: ego stroking) for work that was not much more than a good idea. I’ve had plenty of good ideas. But good ideas aren’t worth congratulations or accolade on their own. Good ideas are only worth a damn once they’ve come to fruition.

In my experience, this entrepreneurial jumping-of-the-gun happens in the form of landing pages, tweets, and in some cases full fledged video announcements.

Up front credit poisons a new business because:

• it encourages creatives to pause to accept congratulations, rather than focus on the work,
• it can create tasks and events that distract from creating the thing, and
• credit makes one immediately public, and immediately responsible for delivering on what’s promised.

A Totally Unique and Original Example

Apple doesn’t preview their products, they only announce products when they are for sale. Only via rumor sites and leaks will you ever hear about anything Apple is working on. Why is this?

I don’t know the exact reasons, but I have to imagine they don’t want to be caught with their pants down. Think of it this way. It’s hard enough to deliver on the things you actually do, let alone the things you promise on. No matter what your business is, reputation matters. And leaving people wondering whether or not you are working on something is better than them finding out that what you have been working on will never see the light of day.

I would argue that not promising in advance also leaves a business more flexible. Without the pressure to deliver on public promises businesses can, to that extent at least, change their direction and offer something new, something better, or something completely different without any blowback.

Confession Time

I have more personal examples of this bad habit than I really want to show off. It’s why I can’t stand it so much in other startups.

I’ll tell you about one of my own.

I work a lot with WordPress, which is software for running websites. When I had the idea for writing a WordPress eBook in early 2008, I did something that any yahoo with a hosting account could do. I decided on a name, grabbed a domain, and threw up a pretty basic landing page. I probably spent 10 or more hours on that part of the project alone. Even now, the page doesn’t look terrible.

But I never wrote anything more than a few pages. I certainly never completed an eBook. And there the landing page has sit. Just sitting there. Taunting me.

A Restrained Path

My new approach is to stay quiet until I have something. Like, really something, not just a landing page. For instance, I won’t put up a landing page nowadays until I have a launch date solidified. It doesn’t have to be a public launch date (though it helps if it is), a private one will do — as long as you stick to it.

The safest bet is to not talk about something until it’s ready. That means it’s actually done.

There’s a downside to this approach. It will probably result in less “oohs” and fewer “aahs”. But that’s because we all complete and launch far fewer things than we have ideas for. Talk only when you have a product and can launch, and the ego stroking will be less frequent. But, when the project is complete and the praise comes in, it will be well deserved, and as such much sweeter.

Time. These competitions take time.

Every time I’ve entered a new business of mine into a competition, the business was something I was doing in addition to something else in life. At one point the other thing was college. Most recently the other thing is my day job, freelancing to pay the bills.

I’ve yet to be able to focus all of my attention on a new venture. This doesn’t mean no time is spent — it means long evening and weekend hours are spent. So the time I do have available to work should be spent on my business, and not on preparing for a competition.

To be fair, I believe the organizers behind business competitions have the best intentions. They are trying to provide initial capital for great business ideas. Unfortunately in the process, the winning business and (more importantly) the losing businesses have all, sort of, wasted their time.

I say sort of wasted their time because the hoops you have to jump through in business competitions aren’t 100% negative ones. But I’m not convinced they are entirely useful either. Often a startup is required to present a verbal and slide driven investor pitch, as well as provide a written business plan according to varying criteria. While investor pitches and business plans can be helpful, particularly if you’re going the investor route (not something I’m a fan of), there are better things to spend your time on in the initial stages of your business. Like your business.

Business competitions breed nasty intra-startup relations

Participating in these competitions compels you to not look kindly at your fellow entrepreneurs. After all, they are after the same prize money that you are. But in my experience, these fellow travelers are the most valuable people to get to know when building businesses. Instead of drawing these minds together in a mutually beneficial way, business competitions seem to set them against one another from the very start.

When I have competed, no matter how awesome my competitors’ ideas have been, I find a way to dislike and distance myself from them. After all, I want to win the money. And I want them to lose. So I’m focused on exactly the wrong thing: the negative, instead of what I can learn from them and how we might help each other out.

I could only be speaking for myself here. Maybe I’m a big jerk. But then again, I think we’re all a lot more alike than we want to admit sometimes. If I’ve had these thoughts I’m wiling to bet my fellow competitors have too.

A better way to promote new businesses

The solution I would suggest, in place of business competitions, is to invest what is usually dealt out as prize money in consistent entrepreneurial meetups in the same town.

I see a few direct benefits to spending the time, energy, and money on meetups instead of competitions:

• Rather than being rewarded before achieving success in their business, meetups can encourage and challenge entrepenuers to have patience and reap the rewards only after market-tested success.
• Rather than spending time and effort showcasing the business, time is spent networking and testing ideas among likeminded people.
• Meetups promote local entrepreneurial communities with no forced competition. This lack of competition will encourage caring about other’s successes.

In Fort Wayne I’ve come across two great examples of this taking place. One is the NIIC-hosted BizWiz program, specifically for high school and college entrepreneurs. Jumpstart260 is the other, where entrepreneurs and business owners meet regularly downtown.

If you are starting or might be starting a business int he area, make time for one of these events. You may just find the lack of competition a bit freeing.