Nothing like a beautiful weekend and a cluttered garage to highlight the importance of understanding sunk costs and opportunity costs in a good decision making process. Head over to AskDong.com for a clear description on sunk cost and opportunity cost. At the same time, realize that though definitions maybe clear, to err is human. 

I don’t like clutter in my house. However, I do value the idea of establishing a clutter zone in the garage that holds our donation and potential garage sale pile. This Memorial Day, it was time to clear up the pile and organize it. As we started to sort through the pile, our discussion quickly turned to opportunity cost analysis of whether to hold a garage sale or not: would it be worth spending a good weekend (lets be honest, those are rare in Seattle, WA) by cleaning, tagging and waiting for a possible sale and making a few bucks? 

Framing issues from the perspective of opportunity costs can simplify the decision making process. However, letting go can still be a challenge —  wouldn’t someone pay $$ for that stuff that cost me $$$??? Whatever the previous investment or expense may have been, the feeling of being invested in the past makes it difficult to change tracks. Many projects follow this trend of throwing good money after the bad.  

Regardless, acknowledge and accept the sunk costs as sunk. Put a check for a failure and celebrate your learnings. And, establish milestones for regularly scheduled reviews with clear guidelines on funding expectations to avoid unpleasant surprises.

In case you’re wondering… within 2 hours the garage was cleaned and everything in the pile was donated to Goodwill. Yet, we still had time for a 5 mile hike in the woods that afternoon, and not to forget the wonderful feeling of free space next to the car in the garage.

We had a great visit to Japan. Kyoto was more beautiful than I remember, as cherry blossoms were everywhere. Tarkan (my 11-year-old son) and I had the opportunity to visit Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, Himeji, Hiroshima, Miyajima and Tokyo. I have published our trip photos on Flickr. I plan to get back to Japan as soon as I can.

Thanks to Ichiro Suzuki (Japanese-born baseball player who plays for Seattle Mariners), everyone in Japan seems to know about Seattle, Washington. This came in handy when trying to bridge the language gap.

Japanese culture is complex and deep, and full of contradictions: new vs old, traditional vs trendy, nature vs gadgets. There is a large emphasis on acceptance and integration in all parts of their lives, potentially influenced by Shinto religion. Elegance, beauty and design dominates their castles and shrines. Design, and more importantly attention to details, is everywhere, from subways to the tea ceremony. (more…)

“An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea.”

–Buddha

We all have ideas… They come out of nowhere: in the shower, while driving, over coffee, reading newspapers… But, without taking the time to develop your ideas, they are nothing but a thought, a blink in time.

In this blog, I’ll share my 5-step process of taking an idea and transforming it into a business concept blueprint. The goal of this exercise is to engage your thinking muscles. Here is a quick overview of the steps.

1. Dive into your problem space to refine your vision
2. Chisel out your opportunity and state your mission
3. Map out your product/service concept and strategy
4. Explore the profit potential
5. Write down your next steps and action plans

(more…)