Two Great Leadership Speeches

I’ve run into two outstanding leadership speeches recently. The first is by General Welsh, commander of the U.S. Air Force in Europe. It is from a recent speech to the Cadet Wing at the Air Force Academy. I remember some good speeches while I was a cadet, but none as impressive as this. I particularly liked how he called everyone, even lieutenants, by their first names and gave the whole speech without any notes. Kudos to the Association of Graduates for sending out a link with the speech.

General Welsh Speech to USAFA

The second video came via my wife Sue, who in turned got it from her boss Toby. The concept that “people don’t buy what you do but why you do it” is fascinating. There are lots of good examples and anecdotes as well.

How Great Leaders Inspire Action by Simon Sinek

Good Articles About Pricing Software

I was having lunch recently with a fellow owner of a small software business. We were discussing pricing strategy and I followed up with the list of my favorite articles related to pricing software. I have been interested in pricing theory ever since my graduate studies at the London School of Economics and even taught Microeconomics for a time the Colorado Springs campus of Regis University. When it comes to pricing your own software, it can literally be a make or break decision for your company.

The first three links are from Eric Sink. I first read his “Closing the Gap” articles a number of years ago in The Best Software Writing 1 edited by Joel Spolsky. It very closely mirrored by own thoughts on how to run a business and how to sell software without the hype and the pressure that is so often used. Eric articulates his concepts and vision brilliantly. I bought the book mentioned above after reading Joel on Software for years before that. Joel has many great opinions on running a software company and other topics. His Camels and Rubber Duckies is a great article. I frequently tell our propective customers that we proudly post our prices on our site and never use the “How Much Money Have You Got” pricing that Joel picks apart in his article.

Product Pricing Primer: http://www.ericsink.com/bos/Product_Pricing.html

Closing the Gap, Part 1:  http://www.ericsink.com/bos/Closing_the_Gap_Part_1.html

Closing the Gap, Part 2: http://www.ericsink.com/bos/Closing_the_Gap_Part_2.html

Camels and Rubber Duckies: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/CamelsandRubberDuckies.html

Joining the 21st Century

Although I have written three books, presented at numerous conferences, and publish the quarterly EnterPage newsletter, this is my first blog post. My focus will be primarily technical, with (hopefully) interesting insights into .NET, ToolBook, HTML, JavaScript, and Flex/Flash. I will also add some content on topics related to running your own small software company as well as whatever random subjects come up. I hope you join me for the ride.