“The number of lines of communications grow exponentially
based on the number of people involved in a project.”
- Bryce’s Law

INTRODUCTION

In an earlier bulletin, I discussed the various types of information resources found in an information system, the average number of each resource, along with the number of design decisions associated with each; see:

No. 10 - Managing Design Complexity
http://www.phmainstreet.com/mba/ss050207.pdf

The issue of managing complexity is not simple. As our information systems continue to grow in magnitude, so do the costs associated with maintaining and updating them to suit the
current requirements of the company. Today’s systems have grown into such uncontrollable behemoths that companies either elect to outsource them (thereby transferring the headache to someone else), let them run unchecked in end-users departments (whereby data and process redundancies run rampant), or they try to rewrite the system in its entirety (aka, a “Mission Impossible” project).

Compounding the problem of complexity is a vicious circle phenomenon that occurs during development projects. This circle is actually quite simple to understand and explain:

1. First, we start with a simple system.

2. Inevitably, changing user information requirements trigger a need to change the system.

3. To implement the change, more pieces and parts (resources) are required.

4. The change requires new or different people to implement it.

5. Due to inconsistencies in development (lack of standards), each developer is allowed to implement their piece of the puzzle as they see fit. Consequently, communications suffers thereby hindering development time.

6. Poor communications makes the overall system less manageable which adds to the problem of complexity whereby we become dependent on people to maintain different pieces of the system.

This results in a vicious circle whereby complexity is compounded with every development project. Instead of our systems becoming easier to manage, they are becoming much more complicated. So much so, no one person can visualize the system in its entirety.

UNDERSTANDING COMMUNICATIONS

To truly understand how communications compounds complexity, let’s begin by understanding the number of lines of communications between people. Interestingly, the number of lines of communications grow exponentially based on the number of people involved. For example:

Number of People: 2
Lines of Communications: 1

Number of People: 3
Lines of Communications: 3

Number of People: 4
Lines of Communications: 6

Number of People: 5
Lines of Communications: 10

As if maintaining the number of lines of communications isn’t enough, we must consider the content of the communications. Even if our lines of communications are well maintained, if there are no standards in terms of terminology and work effort, a “Tower of Babel” effect will result whereby developers trip over each other in an uncoordinated manner. Without standardization, systems become more difficult to maintain and modify, thereby compounding the complexity problem.

CONCLUSION

The failure of the ability of one person to handle the relationships of the entire system is due partially to the complexity of the system and partially to our failure to develop concepts which enables us to impose structure on this complexity. Because of this lack of structure, the designer cannot communicate properly with the user in defining requirements or in relating a solution for these requirements. The designer cannot properly communicate with the programmers and ultimately with the people who will be using, modifying and maintaining the system after it has been developed. In fact, the programmer cannot properly communicate with the computer due to the unstructured nature of requirements and the complexity of the processes needed to implement large systems.

Finally, this difficulty in communications manifests itself in the unreliability of each information resource in a system. As we have more and more interconnected resources, so that the failure of any resource results in the failure of the whole system, the reliability of each resource must increase, rather than decrease, in order to prevent the entire system from failing. Needless to say, the more complex the system, the less
likely it is that each of its resources will be more reliable when they are developed from difficult-to-communicate requirements that are implemented in difficult-to-communicate code.

In one sense, we are looking for a solution analogous to the Industrial Revolution when there was the transition of a cottage industry to the industrial enterprise. To do so requires standardization of terminology and basic development concepts. Without such standardization, large systems will continue to grow in complexity. But with standardization and some commonsense management, not only can we begin to reduce the level of
complexity, we can turn systems development from an art to a science.

Tim Bryce is the Managing Director of M. Bryce & Associates (MBA) of Palm Harbor, Florida, a management consulting firm specializing in Information Resource Management (IRM). Mr. Bryce has over 30 years of experience in the field. He is available for training and consulting on an international basis. His corporate web page is at =>http://www.phmainstreet.com/mba/ He can be contacted at: timb001@phmainstreet.com Copyright © 2006 MBA. All rights reserved.

Are you self employed or are you considering it? Do you handle the bookkeeping by yourself? Are you seriously considering buying accounting software? Before you tackle the challenges of bookkeeping, ask yourself the following questions:

• “What type of business do I have?”
• “If somebody approached me with a similiar business as mine, would I be willing to do their bookkeeping?”
• If the answer is, “No, I’m not willing to do their bookkeeping,” then ask
• “Why not?”

Here’s my first bet: you don’t want to do bookkeeping for another company, even if it is the same type as your own.

Here’s my second bet: the reason you don’t want to do bookkeeping for another business is because you know you are inadequately trained for the job. What if you made mistakes? How does this sound: incorrect income taxes, incorrect sales taxes, and incorrect employment taxes? Don’t forget the potential for penalties and interest on those incorrect taxes, and the time involved to file amended tax returns. And how about the pure embarrassment of going through all that? You shudder at the thought of it.

And yet this is exactly your position if you are not trained thoroughly in accounting principles, yet do your own bookkeeping.

Ask this question: “If I don’t feel comfortable doing bookkeeping for someone else, why am I doing my own?” How wise would you consider a business owner who found a plumber (or a lawyer, or a retailer, or whatever you are) to take care of the books to save some money? How well would that business do? How long would it last?

You’ve seen it, that popular accounting package in the membership warehouse store. Can you hear it, sitting patiently on the shelf? It whispers, “You need me. You don’t need to know anything about accounting to use me. Just think how much money I’ll save you, and how easy I’ll make things.”

Be careful about falling for the “do-it-yourself” seduction. That well-known package doesn’t tell you several important things:

1. Which version? Software packages may list version differences on the back of the box, but you may not clearly understand what these differences mean, or more importantly, their ramifications for your unique business.

2. Getting it right? There no internally established system for double checking your entries, so you have no way to be certain you are doing them right. Even if you get the entries mostly right, ask yourself: is mostly right good enough for my business? Is mostly right the most profitable course of action? Is mostly right an acceptable defense in an IRS audit?

3. Substantial set-up. That box does not clearly state that there is potentially a substantial amount of setting-up that remains after the initial set-up “interview,” and that this process involves unfamiliar terminology that isn’t clearly explained. This is especially true for product-based companies.

4. No tech-support. Most readily available packages are packed with terrific features at an incredible price, but something important may be missing: technical support. Be sure to factor this into your decision before buying.

5. Still need an accountant. The software box does not tell you that you still need an accountant. Far too many people, to their business’s detriment, make the assumption that having accounting software eliminates or greatly reduces the need for an accountant.

Ask yourself one final question: “Which does my business deserve: a plumber (or lawyer, or retailer, or whatever you are) taking care of the books, or a competent and caring bookkeeper?” The health and future of your business may depend upon your answer.

About the Author:

Jennifer A. Thieme is dedicated to helping small business owners get the most from their accounting software. She’s the owner of Solid Rock Accounting Services and has been in the bookkeeping, income tax, and payroll business for nine years. She’s a Certified QuickBooks Pro Advisor, and a Registered Tax Preparer. Jennifer specializes in diagnosing and resolving accounting and QuickBooks issues, and also offers training, general bookkeeping, income tax, and payroll services. Call or email today for free QuickBooks software trials, free payroll quotes, and a free initial consultation. Visit her link above for contact information.

Recently Egypt ranked number 12, at Kearney, in a list of top offshore outsourcing destinations and with that the nation’s share for the offshore activities and call centre gaps up but still at very small scale with global market.

As predicted by one of the analyst, it will show a growth more than 50 per cent over the next one year or so. Egypt can be for Europe like India is to the American Xceed, Egypt’s leading call centre organizations has over 1,210 seat operation for a new government subsidized high technical smart village just outside the Cairo where salaries for staff-employees, working on offshore outsourcing accounts ranges from 200 to 250 £ per month.

The organization, whose clients are likes General Motors, Oracle and Microsoft, are not having problem to pick the best candidates for Offshore Outsourcing with more than 17,000 resume received for each of the position Chief Executive Officer of Xceed Company, Adel Danish, spoke to silicon.com at the organization’s Egypt headquarters said that the nation is the best candidate and ideally situated for near-shore outsourcing services, destination for European organizations. And further he added that Egypt can be for Europe like India is for Americans in the business of Offshore Outsourcing.

At rival Egyptian Call Centre Company, the sales manager Raya told that they will be as competitive as and cheaper than India by more than 20-30 per cent on very high quality call centre services. But currently we have graduate output of just 260,000 every year, the nation acknowledges with the building up its internal Information Technology and call centre skills to be vital, if Egypt wants to achieve the kind of scale that countries like India and eastern European destinations are doing, then it will allow competing with the Czech Republic and Hungary.

The CEO of the newly created Egyptian government-funded, ITIDA-Information Technology Industry Development Agency, told that one of the big and key challenges
for Egypt is to develop its own expertise so it can challenge the International Offshore Outsourcing organizations and compete against nations likes of India, Ireland and Eastern Europe.

Additional information for this article found at http://www.softwareoutsourcing.ibusinessdot.com About TatvaSoft: A professional software development company specializing in software developmenton outsource basis.

Jim
TatvaSoft - Software Development India
http://www.tatvasoft.com
+91 79 40038222
jim at tatvasoft.com

Google has released its calendar feature. As with most things google releases I love it. I know what you’re thinking. What’s the big deal its just an ordinary calendar program. Oh on the contrary. Google realizes we are becoming web social people. The google calendar not only lets you manage your own events but you can share and control others as well. You can make your events public so others can search for them, or leave them as private if you do not want anyone to know what you’re up to. There is a feature to import other calendars. For example I imported US holidays and the Chicago Cubs Schedule. Another great feature is the ability to send updates to your cell phone in the form of a text message. Most major cell phone providers are supported. This is perfect for the person on the go. For me it means I do not need a palm pilot or hand held of any kind. As long as I have my cell phone (don’t leave home without it) I have my schedule.

To use google calendar you need to have a google account. To get a google account you need to be invited or I believe you can sign up with a mobile device. Or if you are really having trouble visit my website and I will try to help you out.

This is a great new feature offered by google. I highly recommend giving it a try. There are plenty of other perks that I did not mention here.

Matt Christensen
http://www.mattchristensen.net

What is the meaning of the term Software?

Generally, the term software is associated with computer software, which is an indispensable part of the computer system that stores and process all encoded information or computer instructions on PC. They have very vast scope in computer world.

Software is processed by computer systems, programs and other data. Being totally opposite to hardware, which is used to store or execute the software, software is connected with random access memory and then carry out the work in central processing unit. Usually, software is a coded machine language that is not easy to understand for the users.

Software & Use

Softwares convert tough machine language into simple usable language to make it really easy for users to understand. As softwares understand machine language that consists of several groups of binary values, which gives processor instructions and data. Generally, every operating system has its own software that requires an individual processor.

Secondly, software acts as a connector between electronic hardware and data that enables a user to operate the series of data instructions with the help of software. Further, software can use any kind of data such as output/input. Sometimes the output of software can be input for software. It also provides an interface between hardware, data and other software.

Types of Software

According to their usages, softwares are classified into three broad categories; system software, application software and programming software. With the help of system software, a user can run computer hardware and computer system including operating system, device drivers, diagnostic tools, servers, windowing systems and some more.

Whereas, application software helps users to perform one or more tasks simultaneously. Application software also enables users to perform all applications like office suites, business software, databases and games. Programming software carries some functional tools that help the programmer to make some difficult computer programs. They also provide some useful tools like text editor, compiler, interpreter, linker and debugger etc.

Author is an IT expert.

for more information, visit offshore software development india.

Are you looking for church management software that fits your ministry and your pocket? Would you like to try out the latest applications but don’t want to commit yourself?

Whether you’re looking a solution for a small church with just a few members or a sophisticated solution for a church with hundreds of members, there will be a software solution to match your needs.

Before you start surfing the net looking for a solution, consider what exactly you are looking for. Do you need it primarily to manage your accounting function, are you looking for something that will create your church website, or maybe you just want something to manage the task of creating your church directory (groan!). Make a list of the essential and desirables that you are looking for first.

Free Church Software

Many of the most reputable companies providing church management software solutions offer a free trial to enable you to try their system for yourself. This is an ideal way to try out, without risk, the latest softwares that may offer the solution that you have been seeking.

Traditional uses of church software include management of financial and accounting functions.

It is now possible to find software that will manage your membership, create a church calendar, keep records of donations, manage your church library, publish your church bulletin, update your church directory, integrate church music, worship songs and data projection.

In short, if there is something you need done in your church, there’s almost certainly software that will do it for you!

For further information and reviews on all the free trials & church management software providers, visit Free Trials - Church Management Software

This article was submitted by Jennifer Carter of Church Software Reviews

Does the thought of bookkeeping scare you? Do you dread sitting down at your computer and entering all your receipts, deposits, and making sure everything is documented right for taxes? Never fear, there is a new, more affordable solution to having your bookkeeping done. Two words-Virtual Assistant. The industry of virtual assistance is relatively new, though the concept has been around for some time. With the age of computers, it has made the opportunity for small business owners to outsource their bookkeeping (and administrative tasks-but that is another article) to a qualified individual. This saves time, headache, and the possibility of error. How does this work? Below are some of your questions answered by several experienced Virtual Assistants (VAs).

Is a Virtual Assistant the same as a CPA?

No. Usually a Virtual Assistant will work along side of your CPA. Depending on your Virtual Assistant and their experience, they will handle the daily accounting needs all the way to filing your taxes. Many Virtual Assistants will work with your CPA to be sure your books are in correct order. A Virtual Assistant who is just your bookkeeper will make sure the company is set up correctly (working with your CPA) and entries are posted correctly. A CPA will do the sales, unemployment taxes, and payroll IF the Virtual Assistant is not qualified. Cheryl Almstrom of Effective Office Services once calculated with one client she had cut his bookkeeping costs by 75% over his previous accountant. By finding the right Virtual Assistant, to meet your needs, there can be a tremendous amount of money saved.

Education

The Virtual Assistants who donated their time and information to this article had a vast amount of experience and training. Some had learned “on the job” bookkeeping, while others had courses and degrees. Some had been doing bookkeeping from a couple years to twenty years. All are dedicated to making sure your books are kept up to date.

Sharing Information with your Virtual Assistant

The wonderful thing about the technology today, is that you don’t ever have to leave your office to get your bookkeeping done. You can choose to enter your information into a spreadsheet set up by your Virtual Assistant (and then email a copy), fax over all the information needed, send everything postal mail, or have your Virtual Assistant pick up and drop off your reports. You can even have the Virtual Assistant work on your computer without having to be in your office with secure online software. Some clients give the Virtual Assistant access to their accounts online to check and balance. It is what you feel comfortable doing and what works best for you and your Virtual Assistant.

You can have your Virtual Assistant print out reports and fax or email them to you. You can keep a copy of the updated file on your desktop by having them send you the file. Depending on how you and your Virtual Assistant set up your relationship, there a multitude of ways to keep you up to date on your books.

Software

The wonderful news is that you, as the client, wouldn’t even need bookkeeping software. Many of the vas I spoke with use QuickBooks, Quicken, and Excel (to name a few). Virtual Assistants have the software on their own computer, and can do your bookkeeping using that software.

The beauty of having a Virtual Assistant is exactly what it says-they are virtual. You don’t have to hire an in-house bookkeeper and provide the space or equipment. Additionally, Virtual Assistants only charge for the time they work. There are no breaks or having to find work for them to fill their hours. A Virtual Assistant can take away the stress and time of doing the books, and allow you to focus on your business.

If you feel you would like to explore the possibility of having a Virtual Assistant work with you on your bookkeeping (or other administrative tasks), you will find a list of all the Virtual Assistants who contributed to this article at this link http://www.jerpat.org/moretime4u/articles/bookkeepers.htm.

An additional article with more information on bookkeeping can be found at http://www.jerpat.org/moretime4u/doyouresist.htm.

This is the age of globalization. The vast earth is no longer unfathomed. We can reach every corner of the earth within a few hours due to excellent modern communication. A person sitting in India can talk to another person sitting in Canada. The revolution in telecommunication has brought the people of different parts of the world closer. Taking the advantage of this revolution, the large multinational companies thought to make profit in their business in a new way. They started to outsource a part of their business in other parts of the world where the manpower is efficient and cheaper. The developing countries like India, China, Mexico, Philippines were the obvious choice as there is no dearth of talent and cheap manpower here.

China, Singapore, Philippines, Taiwan took the lead in outsourcing of manufacturing the hardware parts while India carved a niche in the software outsourcing process. China remained behind in the software outsourcing field because it does not have command over English. English is not taught in the schools of China as it as taught in India. The British had ruled India a century ago, so the influence of English language remained throughout India. It is taught as a second language in every Indian state. There are many English medium schools in India where the medium of instruction is English. Students coming out these schools can talk in English smartly. Almost all big multinational companies are located in the USA, England and other countries of Europe and America where the medium of instruction is English. Since there are many English speaking people in India, many large multinational companies have outsourced a part of their business to India.

The types of processes outsourced are Customer Support, Technical Support and Backend processes. India has begun to be known as the center of Back office operations for the entire world. Many large multinational Banks have decided to shift their back office work to India. HSBC, Aviva Life Insurance, ABN Amro Bank have announced that they would recruit thousands of Indians in their Call Centers, which have been set up in cities like Bangalore, Kolkata and Delhi. The Call Center business has set a new era for global business. While the big companies can concentrate more on their business by drastically cutting their maintenance costs, the educated and well versed youth of developing countries like India, Mexico can earn some quick money and become a part of international business. There are about 4 lacks people working in different call centers in India.

This is the age of liberalization. Almost all countries of the world are now following the path of liberal economy. They have come to realize that it is the only way of development. The mobile phones manufactured in China are sold the world over similarly the software developed in India is utilized in the entire world. Thus a sense of mutual benefit has developed in the companies across the world. The governments of many countries have allowed the multinational companies to conduct their business in their own way in different parts of the world so that the people can get benefit in one way or the other way. India opened its gate for the multinational companies in the nineties, since then Indian economy has been growing by leaps and bound. The big companies have set up their business centers here and as a result the business process outsourcing has generated millions of dollar for India. The multinational companies have got good service and have been able to cut down their cost, thus gaining the other way.

Reasons and advantages of outsourcing

Cost Benefits – In many call centers in the USA and Europe labor cost are the main operating cost, but in India it is just a fraction. In the U.S. a call center employee can expect $20,000 per year for answering customer queries over the phone but in India the cost can come down to $2,000 per year, which is 10% of the U.S. Cost. The companies have saved millions of dollar from this cheap workforce.

Skilled manpower- Most of the call centers in western countries recruit high school graduates for their work but in India they can easily get graduate students as each year millions of students graduate who can speak English very well but can not find high paying jobs. As for India the call center jobs are well paid, the employees take it as their full time job, whereas call center jobs are still considered as part time jobs in the west.

Taking all these facts into consideration, the companies have got phenomenal success in all respects while outsourcing their processes to India. This has opened the gate for more and more processes coming to India. Insurance, Banking, HR, Mortgage, Finance and Accounting are some of the most popular off shoring processes. By 2008 HR will be $40 billion market, while Finance & Accounting will be $20 billion market.

Some of the top companies of the world who outsource their business are:

Convergys, Dell, GE, American Express, Amazon, Sprint and many others.

The author of this article is Priya Ranjan Das who is the editor of the site http://bponews.org.

The e-mail id of the author is: prdsanch@sify.com.

A few weeks ago I touched on the subject of getting other people to do your work for you. I want to cover this topic in a bit more detail as outsourcing is a superb way of saving yourself both time and money.

By way of example, let me start with a short story

At 8.30pm one night last week, I started to wonder whether it would be possible to automate a particular part of one of my website design processes. At present I do this task semi-manually and it takes me about 4 hours to generate a multi-page website.

Anyway, by 8.45pm I had scratched out an outline of what I would need a new custom piece of software to do to automate this task and by 8.59pm the ‘project’ was advertised on one of the main freelance websites….

Within 2 minutes I had the first bid from a programmer….

Within 15 minutes I had four more bids….

Within 45 minutes I had accepted a bid and the programmer was working on the project.

Two days and $75 later (and with less than an hours work required by me) and I had a brand new piece of custom software which can complete the task in question in seconds rather than hours!

With several excellent freelance sites around nowadays, it is very easy to find a programmer/web designer/writer/whatever that will be happy to work with you and the cost (as illustrated above) will often be far less than you might expect.

If you spend some time thinking about the type of tasks you could outsource, I am sure you will soon come up with a fairly substantial list. The following are just a few ideas:

Website design
Website maintenance
Copywriting
General writing - for example of an entire eBook!
Software design/creation (for your own use or resale)
Graphic design
Script installation (and creation)
Dealing with your support emails
Finding new affiliates
Finding new link exchange partners

And so the list goes on….

Of course, as with anything, there are a few things to be aware of when outsourcing so here are my top tips for a successful project:

1. Only post your project on the main freelance sites (list below). This will give you the best exposure and the highest level of competition from bidders. This means keen pricing and a good range of expertise from which to choose from.

2. When you post your project, ensure that you detail EXACTLY what is required. The more information the better. If you start adding to the brief after a freelancer has placed his/her bid, expect the price to rise….

3. Try and keep the brief as simple as possible. Remember that English may not be the first language of some of the freelancers and whilst I have never had any communication problems (in fact, most of the programmers I have used have a better standard of written English than the majority of my fellow countrymen!), it makes sense not to over-complicate matters with slang etc that may not be understood.

4. Don’t always opt for the lowest bid. All of the freelance sites listed below allow you to view feedback ratings for freelancers and I usually base my decision on this rating. I would rather pay a bit extra and use someone with a superb rating than save a bit of money and use a new freelancer. They may be great at what they do but unfortunately when you are dealing with people at a distance, you have no way of knowing and in my view, it isn’t worth the risk and potential extra hassle. Go with someone that has already proven themselves.

5. If your project is to create something that you want to resell (for example a software product or an eBook) make sure that you stress in the brief that at the end of the project, you will own the copyright and will have access to the source code/files. Obviously you want to ensure that the freelancer doesn’t come back to you in the future complaining that you are selling his/her work and that you can edit the product if you need to without having to find the original creator. It would also be wise to include a condition stating that the freelancer is not allowed to use your product in the future for someone else or indeed sell it themselves.

As for which freelance site to use, there are three that I recommend but my absolute fave is http://www.thetraderonline.com/scriptlance.html and this is definitely my ’site of choice’.

Alternatively, try www.eLance.com or www.Rentacoder.com

Copyright 2005 Richard Grady

Richard Grady has been helping ordinary people earn online since 1998. He writes a free newsletter which is published every two weeks. To subscribe (and claim your free gifts), visit: http://www.thetraderonline.com/newsletter.html

Let’s face it, it’s arguably a better choice to outsource any and all of your work that can be supplied by other means. There are a great number of businesses in the world that simply distribute other people’s work. You’ve heard about OPM, right? You know, Other People’s Money! Well how about OPW? Other People’s Work!

One of the smartest things I did in my business was to hire people smarter than me. (Okay, those that know me well are thinking, gee that wasn’t hard to do)! Seriously, one of the best ways to grow your business is to find others who possess the skills and/or talent that fill our weak spot (or void).

Most of us are good about hiring people to doing the things we don’t want to do. You know, maintenance, cleaning, trash, menial labor type jobs. We even look to certified public accountants (CPA) to handle our books at certain times of the year. However, many times when it comes to our main source of revenue (our business) we tend to keep matters close to the vest.

Don’t get me wrong, we need to protect our lively hood and should police our endeavors well. Many times I’ve found it necessary to have certain potential “work for hire” individuals, sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). Believe me, this is simply a good business practice! It protects you and your prospect from possible trade secret leaks. In many cases signing an NDA prevents private information from getting out in the first place.

It’s been my experience that most people have the false impression (a hallucination process) in which they believe it will “cost too much” to outsource it or “I’ll save money” by doing it myself (showing they may not value their time). When in fact it would “cost less” and “save money”, plus give more time to place towards other needs. In twenty years of creating and reproducing logos for the trade, there have been countless times I hear excuses for not outsourcing. Invariably it seems to always center on time and money!

It’s interesting to know some people would rather spend three, four or five hours scanning, digitizing and cleaning up their artwork as opposed to instantly emailing or faxing their need to an outside source. Blow’s me away! Why spend an entire afternoon or evening doing something you could spend three minutes of your time and $35 of your budget to get completed? Surely three to five hours of your time is worth more than $35!! I know some people just enjoy the process of creating whatever they’re creating. However, did you start a business to make money? You’ve heard it before “Treat it like a hobby, get paid like a hobby. Treat it like a business, get paid like a business!”

I encourage you to consider using third party suppliers to fulfill your needs. You may be surprised at how easy matters can be facilitated for you. Freeing you from always having to do everything yourself. It’s been reported that 70% of the senior citizen’s that have retired have agreed upon one thing. That one thing is this, if they had it all over to do again, the one thing would they do different is … take more risks!