Matthew Wayne Selznick

Dear Entrepreneur / CEO,

Before we begin to work together, I think it’s important that you understand what you’re getting in me beyond the measurable skills and experience. We don’t want any surprises, after all.

First, this list of ten lessons is required reading. Also, you should take in my interpretation of the DIY ethic, as it illuminates much of what I do and who I am.

I’ll wait.

Okay, you’re back? If you’re still with me, that’s a great start. If you understand and accept those things, we’re on our way.

Origins

Regardless of the nature of my involvement in your business endeavor, it’s important that you know a little bit about what went into making me the person I am today. I’m a creator — a writer, musician… I make things. Coming from an often barely middle-class background and having moved out on my own at the age of eighteen, I learned very quickly that if I wanted to make music or stories or any kind of art, me and my friends had to do it all ourselves. We were punk rock in that sense — put on our own shows, print and distribute our own ‘zines, do our own promotion and so on.

This taught me that the audience and the performer — the customer and the provider — are peers. Neither one is more important than the other, and each is less without the other. It taught me the same thing about people I worked with. It taught me to approach everyone as if they deserved my respect and my trust and to adjust that respect and trust according to their actions. I learned that people who demand respect often reveal themselves deserving of only contempt.

Perhaps surprisingly, this was excellent training for what would be the centerpiece of my professional career for twenty years: Customer service.

It’s All Customer Service

You see, the opinion that we are all peers led me not to the conclusion that the customer was always right, but that I always wanted to make it right for the customer. After all, me and the customer, we are the same. Also, as someone who is both provider and consumer, I came to have a keen understanding of the customer’s perspective. Later, as I became more and more involved with technology and the Internet, this grew to include the user’s perspective.

Here’s what I believe: A good user experience / customer service experience has more impact on the user / customer than any feature, bell / whistle, sale, bargain or deal. In fact, people will pay more / be more engaged if they are confident the people behind the experience are respectable and respect and value them.

In retail, this is the circle of service and sales: Excellent customer service leads to customer sales and customer loyalty which leads to higher profits which enables the company to provide excellent customer service… and on and on in a positive feedback loop of mutual benefit.

In information services and software, it’s much the same. Really, what it comes down to is a very human thing: we want to support, and be supported by, our friends.

You want your company, your service, your application, to be so well respected, depended upon and loved by your customers that they are as loyal to you as they are to their best friend.

Adjust that: You and your customer should be as loyal to each other as best friends. It’s a relationship built on respect between peers.

So here’s where you and I might run into trouble.

The First Hurdle

Your business endeavor is your baby, sprung whole cloth and fully formed from the sweat of your brow. You probably have a lot riding on its success; understandably, you may be very attached to your particular vision.

If you and I are talking about working together, chances are I see something special in your vision, too. Of course, my feelings about it are never going to be as pure, as driven and dedicated, as your own. It’s impossible. It’s your kid. I might love it like a sibling or even stepchild, but that’s your entrepreneurial blood running through its veins.

There’s a plus side to that. My small distance, my very-slightly removed perspective allows me to see things about your baby you’re just too in love to notice. Little faults and hidden potential, both.

Here’s the thing. Because I am very attached to your endeavor, and because I am literally attached — connected, associated with, related to — that endeavor, I want it to succeed and I want it to reflect the best possible attitudes, practices and behavior.

Specifically, I’m going to want the endeavor to treat users, customers, employees and even competitors with the respect with which we interact with our beloved friends and peers. If I see it falling short, I’m not going to be quiet about it.

I’m going to criticize. I’m going to nitpick. I’m going to throw ideas and suggestions at you that may be so far removed from your initial vision, you’ll wonder why in the hell you provide me with free coffee and all those silly start-up perks.

I’ll need you to remember that I do this because I’m giving your endeavor my time, my energy and most importantly, my creativity and commitment. I want us to succeed, and I want us to do so by being the best in the eyes of our users and customers.

If you can deal with that with an open mind, I guarantee we’ll have some spirited discussions, some rocky days, and in the end learn and grow from the experience. Oh, and the endeavor will be stronger than the sum of our parts. Let’s not forget that.

Still there? Fantastic.

There’s one more thing.

The Deal Breaker

Your drive to succeed may tempt you to take shortcuts. Some might be financial and economic in nature. Some might be moral or ethical in nature. I’m here to tell you right now, I won’t suffer it.

If you take yourself down the low road, you take the company and you take the product and the customer with you — even if the user / consumer isn’t obviously impacted by the path you took. What’s more, you take me with you, because I’ll be associated with you when your actions come to light.

They always come to light. You know that.

See, your life, your identity, your reputation might be one and the same with your endeavor. Me, I built up a personal reputation and a loyal community of friends and peers long before our involvement, and I won’t tolerate having that reputation and those relationships damaged due to your bad choices.

So I’m going to speak up. Harp, even. I won’t leave you alone about the shareware you distribute to the office without paying the developer. I’ll strongly advise you against the pirated cable television boxes. I’ll urge you to soften your negative language about our competitors. I’ll antagonize you, loudly, when you bend the labor laws even a little bit. And I will absolutely call you out when you treat, in any way, the users, customers, employees and competitors with anything less than the respect they deserve.

This is where I lose most of you. That’s okay. Better now than later, believe me. Best of luck; you’re going to need it.

Down To You And Me

For that dwindling few still reading, know this: if you can deal with a critic, a skeptic, a gadfly and an instigator on the payroll, I’ll pay you back with dedication, innovation, creativity and regular challenges to your assumptions. You must know that challenge drives progress. You know what that’s worth, and you’re not afraid of it. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be picking up the phone and calling me, right now.

We’re going to learn a lot from each other. We’re going to do something great, you and I.

Let’s get started.

Sincerely,

Matthew Wayne Selznick
760-964-8044