Measuring a mere 5.2cm by 5.2cm, one of the most, if not the most formidable weapon in the Sticks & Stones arsenal happens to be our business cards. While the regular business card dimensions are 8.5cm by 5cm, ours are nearly half the size of normal cards. In many respects, this is where the differences in cards ends…or so it may seem.

The dancer who outdoes himself with new moves at the full moon festival, finds himself not only alone in his cold bed, but with a twisted back for all his trouble.

As mouthful as this proverb is, it sheds light on a host of things that cause many Start-ups to go the wrong way. In particular, the proverb forewarns people of what the urban youth call “being extra.” Urban Dictionary to the rescue. We will get back to this extra business a bit later on, back to the business cards. Capital constraints were a huge hallmark in the founding of Sticks & Stones so any decision that involved spending any monies was hotly debated, highly contested, and put through various rigorous stages of voting. Business cards were one such example. While they seemed like an important tool in presenting ourselves as a serious business to potential clients, spending money on them meant that we would either have to skip several meals, trek for several kilometres to go see said clients (or potential clients) or both. When we eventually came to a consensus that it was better to present a business card while sweaty & dusty from trekking to a meeting with a growling belly than to show up clean, full, and unprofessional, the next battle began. What should the cards look like? Surreptitiously, at this point we had finally settled on the Sticks & Stones logo after many drafts and even many more creative arguments. Thus we were all argued-out when the business card design argument arrived. We decided that we would keep it simple. Logo on one side, names, designation, email, telephone number, and web address on the other side… standard business card. However, we also wanted the card to truly remain and speak of who we are. Given that as an organisation we really did not have a pyramid structure, we decided that our designations would be totally removed, contrary to the usual corporate avenue. The last piece of the puzzle actually came to us by pure happenstance. Since we did not have lots of money to spare for cards, we decided to squeeze every bit of value from each of our cards. We switched the design up. We would make our business cards, half the size of regular business cards. That way, for every one business card that was to be printed, we would actually have 2 business cards. Talk about stretching the shilling! So whenever we gave out our business cards to clients, they always remarked at how ‘cute’ and ‘clever’ the little business cards were. All the while we knew, it was not a creative style or marketing gimmick— it was 2 guys, trying to make sure that they had business cards but also had a meal. The deal closer from the business cards then and even now turned out to be the designations: NOT the boss, Chief Rainmaker, Amateur Astronaut, Motivational Listener… Albert Einstein is quoted as having said

“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”

Just like our village dancer who throws in convoluted and acrobatic dance steps, most start-ups fall into the trap of tweaking what to start with is already a great idea. As the idea grows, it is tweaked and tweaked and tweaked until it is hardly recognisable from the first concept they had. We too have been victims of this tweaking. Whether it is an idea, company structure or operating plan, the notion that a complex, multilevel, multi-tiered, convoluted approach or plan is what will work is on most (if not on all) occasions very wrong. A good idea is always beset on all sides by pitfalls that threaten to suck the life out of it. Let’s take a look at some ways of avoiding these pitfalls: 1. Listen, Observe, Understand A few years ago, we went in for a meeting with a client (there were 5 of us at that time. ) We went in, we were well received, then I tore into an elevator pitch, went on to proclaim what we could do for the client, and then some more, and then some more. After about 7 minutes of me machine-gunning it, the CEO bellowed out “SHUT UP! Just for a few minutes. You don’t know what we want, you don’t know who we are, you don’t even know why we called you in, and you are already telling us solutions to questions you don’t know.” It was as embarrassing as experiences go. I was thoroughly & truly humbled. Although the meeting ended very well, from that day hence, I promised myself that any meetings and all meetings needed to be simple. They would be meetings to listen, to observe and to understand exactly what was needed. Any business big or small should always adhere to those 3 principles of simplicity: listen, observe, and understand. 2. Smoke & Mirrors In order to achieve any magic trick, a magician or performer applies distraction. This distraction serves to take the attention of the observer away from how the trick is performed. In essence, all magic tricks and performances are rudimentarily and intrinsically very simple. The ruse that is used to distract the observer on many occasions is also very simple. Keeping your attention on the trick rather than the ruse is how one learns magic. Any person leading or working for a business should always be able to decipher through the smoke and mirrors and ultimately, look at the trick behind these. Faking simplicity is very difficult. It is easier to conjure complexities than it is to fake simplicity. 3. Rule of Thirds Any creative or artist, who is good at their job, knows about the rule of thirds. It applies to everything. Any solution, any project, any approach that cannot be broken down into three simple principles is too complex. The questions that one must always ask should be: What does it do; Why does it do it; and How does it do it? A tightrope walk is based on three principles. The rope must be very taught. The artist must walk in a straight line. The artist must maintain balance. For a fire to burn it requires heat, oxygen and fuel. Any mathematical equation has three parts— a variable, a constant and an influencing factor (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division). Occam’s Razor dictates that in the scientific method, parsimony is an epistemological, metaphysical or heuristic preference, not an irrefutable principle of logic or a scientific result. What all this jibber-jabber means is that on most occasions, the simplest answer is the most correct answer. Keep your business plans, systems, aspirations, and inspirations simple. I would like to close with something our Chief Rainmaker always says,

“We should always try to take out as many elements as possible from a visual composition until a story can be fully and comprehensively told with as few elements as possible.

I like to think we did exactly that even from the start. We took out grand announcements & proclamations (mission, vision and other stuff some people put on their cards), we took out traditional titles and finally we essentially took out half a business card. In the words of the urban youth – Don’t be extra!