Enjoy Alex’s recent Insider Fix newsletter featuring the latest entrepreneurial, legal, and one random fix to help you. Alex hopes that these three hacks to be so useful that they will multiply and provide you a 10-fold return.
Purposeful Thinking
I came across this Critical Thinking Skills Cheatsheet a few months ago. It’s a fantastic reality check whenever you totally fall head-over-heels in love with yourself or your dumb-ass ideas.
The military uses a concept called “Red Teaming” to poke holes at its own missions. If you can create a Red Team, do it. If you can’t, use the Cheatsheet.
It also pairs nicely with Dan Sullivan’s Impact Filter and Strategy Circle, both of which I use at least once a week.
Warranted Thoughts
Warranties. Let’s talk about ‘em.
Look at your customer contract. Does it have a warranty disclaimer in it? If not, you’re probably giving warranties to your customers whether you intend to or not.
We recommend to our clients that they start with either no warranties or the narrowest ones they can live with in their contracts. They can always give more voluntarily, later. Something to the effect of:
Except as expressly set forth herein, our service or product is being sold AS IS – WHERE IS, with no warranties whatsoever, express or implied. COMPANY EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION THE IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, WARRANTY OF FITNESS FOR PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND ALL WARRANTIES OF TITLE.
Parts of the above must be in ALL CAPS. Discuss it with your attorney.
If you have no broad disclaimers in your contracts, along with a strong “Integration Clause” (“This contract contains the entire agreement of the parties, and no oral representations exist that would alter the terms set forth herein…”), you’re leaving yourself open to a he-said-she-said about the actual warranties offered by the salesperson, and to a lawsuit over warranties implied in law.
Next up… limitations of liability.
Stop Worrying About What People Think of You and Start Being Yourself
The single greatest read about why you shouldn’t care what other people think of you is Taming the Mammoth: Why You Should Stop Caring What Other People Think. I first came across this great post by Tim Urban about 5 years ago and have since re-read it about a half-dozen times. Learn more about the Social Survival Mammoth pictured below at the article link above – enjoy!
