Cambrick Yard LLC

A Conundrum: Shall We “Kill it” or “Crush it?”

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT

At Cambrick Yard we have faced some serious dilemmas in trying to develop a new kind of media company, but this one really vexes us: Should we be trying to kill it or crush it?

We've always been in the market for a term to describe what we want CY team members to do. If you're invested, excited, and feeling like you want to strut around triumphantly after you're done doing some work, you're probably "killing it" … or maybe "crushing it?" That's the part we can't figure out.

The Case For "Killing It"

We naturally gravitated towards this term. We'd be chatting and say "so-and-so is totally killing it out there today." Moreover while we would sometimes use "crush it," we knew that we had appropriated this from Gary V, so we preferred the "killing it" version because it was more ours.

The Case for "Crushing It"

Unfortunately "killing it" has a bit of a violent tone to it. When you tell someone "we need you to crush it" if they don't understand what you mean they will generally ask what you're talking about. When you say "we need you to kill it" they often back away slowly and call their District Attorney to explain that they had nothing to do with whatever criminal activity we're involved in and to express their willingness to turn state's evidence.

So obviously we're faced with a serious problem: Should we "kill it" and risk looking like psychopaths, or "crush it" and risk having to cut a huge royalty check to Gary V? Either way we'd just like everyone who works with us to know we're speaking figuratively and just want you to be invested in what you're doing. We need you to be doing awesome work, but don't actually kill or crush anything.

The Number One Secret to Making Money: Adding Value

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Are you interested in learning my secret technique for making more money? Most people spend considerable time wishing they were earning more, but not very much time thinking about why they deserve to earn more. There is one foundational habit that you need to develop if you want to make as much money possible. No matter what you're doing, you should always ask yourself: Am I just working or am I adding value?

Many people confuse the two concepts and exhibit a tendency to look at their lives in terms of how much work they've done. I'll define work very broadly as "the act of doing something we don't want to do." Interestingly this broad definition is pretty much how people expect to derive their compensation. In actuality this metric has virtually nothing to do with how much you will, nor how much you should get paid.

If I go out in the yard, dig a hole and then fill it in, I've done some work, but that's all I've done. I might feel like I should be paid for my inconvenience but I doubt my wife is going to agree with me. I haven't achieved anything and I haven't added any value. No one is any better off, so why should I be rewarded?

Many people tend to try to walk the line of providing only as much value as will keep them from getting fired from their job and think they've done themselves a favor. They don't want to give a penny more value than they feel they're being paid for. Aside from the fact that you're unlikely to get a raise or promotion this way, you're actually doing a worse job than you think. When your boss is determining your "value" he or she is probably adding in several bonuses of which you're not aware:

The time he or she would have to spend finding and training your replacement.
The morale hit the team might take from your being fired.
The stress, guilt and discomfort of having to fire you.

You have all those advantages on your side. If you're still walking the line of just barely providing value even with those bonuses you're probably doing a really awful job.

The key here is thinking long-term — not simply reaching for the immediate gratification you can receive by putting in the bare minimum to get your paycheck. Overall, you will probably get paid in proportion to the value you add, even if it's not in cash. At my first job as a computer geek, they were pretty strict about the hours being from 8 to 5. I didn't much care for that and because it was a big corporation salaries didn't move around that much so I knew I wasn't going to get as much of a raise as I wanted. You know what happened when I showed up at 10:30? Nothing. Because everyone knew they were getting more value out of me than they were paying. If they could make it up to me by looking the other way when I showed up late, then they were more than willing to do so.

I wanted to write about this topic early on this blog because I imagine I'll refer to it in many future posts. People spend way too much of their lives trying to find ways of getting paid without adding value. Looking at your life in terms of how much you've worked versus how much value you've added is a great way to wind up getting poorly compensated for your time.

A Results-Only Work Environment Better Have Results

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

I first heard of "Results-Only Work Environments" (ROWE) in the book Work Sucks. We'd describe a ROWE as an environment where work is about producing RESULTS. To say we're strong advocates of this approach is an understatement. It's the way we want to be treated, so it's the only way we're comfortable treating others. But it can be an adjustment for many people. To some a ROWE sounds like a utopia, but you have to remember that it means you're on the hook for producing like you've never produced before.

Why "Results-Only?"

To us the reasons for a ROWE are pretty self-evident, but since it seems to be revolutionary to most people we should probably explain why we favor one.

The first thing that springs to mind is: Why is the burden of proof on us in the first place? Why wouldn't you want to base compensation on results? In fact I've never heard a satisfactory alternative. Conventional wisdom often seems to be "I can't tell what my staff is producing, so I need them to sit in a chair in a office."

There are so many examples of inefficiencies in treating staff like children. We're not babysitters. We trust our staff to make the best decisions about how to use their time. I don't want to check up on you and you don't want to be checked up on.

Are You Sure You Can Handle It?

Unfortunately the same expectations that have programmed managers to equate attendance with productivity have infected most of the rest of us too. Part of why a ROWE probably sounds wonderful to you is because you are thinking in largely the same vein. "No one's watching over me? That will be so relaxing!"

While this environment frees you from the burden of having to prove your productivity by your presence, it also removes that crutch. Many people aren't exactly killing it at their jobs. They show up from 9 to 5 and do what they're told, but they're generally disinterested. That's not going to cut it when you're being judged solely by results.

When we give someone ownership of a problem it becomes their problem. You're in charge of delivering results. No matter how inconvenient it may be. You're in charge of your time, but you're wholly responsible for handling anything that arises. Think HARD about that. Freedom = responsibility.

This obviously brings a great deal of freedom, but freedom isn't the only advantage of this style of work. Once you stop looking at how much effort you're putting forth and start looking at how much value you're adding, you'll find it helps everywhere in your life. We've found that reality has a tendency to reward results and not effort, so it's good to get in the practice of delivering those results.

Why Cambrick Yard?

Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Scanning the sky today I feel a twinge of sadness at the distinct absence of flying cars and personal jet packs. When I was young I was assured that these would be a common feature of the future. If you're anything like me, today's world may not be the utopian future you were expecting, but let me assure you of something: We are living in a future in many ways more wonderful than what we visualized when we were young. Most people still haven't recognized this promise, but at Cambrick Yard we're trying to help people capitalize on it.

The future we're living in may not offer flying cars but it offers you something much more valuable: freedom. People have options today that they never would have conceived of even fifteen years ago. The rise of the Internet offers you nearly unfettered access to information and tools that can allow you to do nearly whatever you want. While no amount of stress and strain is going to get you your readily-available jet pack, freedom is right there for the taking.

A simple example of a freedom available to you today is your work environment. Do you work when, where and how you want? Why not? We have a results-only work environment here for many reasons, but one of the simplest reasons is because we can. Getting paid to go to a specific place to work may have made sense in an era of manufacturing, but today tools and information are at your fingertips. This is an obvious freedom that should be widely available, but few are experiencing it.

At Cambrick Yard we're also working on the other side of the equation. The availability of information is a driver of today's freedoms, but society needs more and more of it. Every piece of information that we can put out there for consumption is one more step towards someone else's freedom. We provide content and information products to help others achieve their goals.

We founded Cambrick Yard to help build the future in which we want to live. We've all been struck by how the web has enabled us to build things we're passionate about quickly and connect with the people who want access to them. We want to help you be free to do whatever you want, whether that's by joining our staff or just using our products. Coming from a company that writes about travel and entertainment as well as finance and business this may sound grandiose, but we truly believe it. You have an unprecedented opportunity to be free and Cambrick Yard wants to help you realize it.