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December 10, 2005

Deadlines make things happen

Fort Worth Business Press has the teen-entrepreneur story of Justin Avery Anderson, an 18 year old freshman at TCU who is two years into a moist granola business. It is a classic of the genre: kid makes a product he likes, friends and family love it, local market takes it on, Mom and friends pitch in to ramp up production.

What I like are the deadlines. Justin isn't just getting the “Hey, kids! Let's put on a show!” introduction to entrepreneurship. He lost his kitchen at the last minute and had to cold call all the caterers in town in order to deliver an order. When the market wanted to delay the launch of his fresh product for paperwork he put a deadline on them by arranging media coverage. Deadlines moved Justin's business ahead.

I love deadlines. Not the soft, self-imposed deadlines of personal goal setting, but the heavy, dangerous, externally imposed, stress-inducing, business-life-threatening deadlines that must-be-met-or-we're-dead.

Actually, I hate deadlines. I just love how they make things happen.

Posted by Bob Pritchett at December 10, 2005 9:33 AM

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