China develops advanced brain-like computer

The brain-like computer with over 100 million neurons. [Photo/zhejianglab.com Innovation - Chinadaily.com.cn]

China Focus: China develops advanced brain-like computer

HANGZHOU - A brain-like computer with over 100 million neurons, the first of its kind in China, has been developed by researchers in East China's Zhejiang province.

Zhejiang University and Zhejiang Lab on Tuesday jointly introduced the newly developed computer named Darwin Mouse.

This high-tech device contains 792 second-generation brain-like Darwin chips developed by Zhejiang University, said Zhu Shiqiang, director of Zhejiang Lab.

It supports 120 million spiking neurons and nearly 100 billion synapses, which are equivalent to the number of neurons in the brain of a mouse. The average power consumption of the computer comes in at only 350-500 watts.

"Just like building blocks, we integrated the 792 brain-like computing chips into three standard server chassis to form a powerful rack-mounted brain-like computer," said Pan Gang, leader of the research team, from College of Computer Science and Technology, Zhejiang University.

Meanwhile, the team also developed an operating system specifically designed for brain-like computers, named Darwin OS, which realizes effective management and scheduling of the hardware resources and supports operations and applications of brain-like computers.

According to researchers, brain-like computing refers to the use of hardware and software to simulate the structure and operating mechanism of the brain's neural network and construct a new artificial intelligence paradigm. It is an innovative computing architecture that is regarded as one of the important ways to solve complex computing-related problems in fields, such as artificial intelligence.

Pan added that this type of brain-like computer has been able to perform a variety of intelligent tasks, such as enabling the collaboration of multiple robots in simulated flood-fighting-and-rescue operations, simulating different regions of the brain and providing faster and large-scale simulation tools for scientific research. Besides, it has also realized "mind typing" through real-time decoding of electroencephalogram (EEG) signals.

"By simulating the human brain, we will be able to understand the working principles of different parts of the brain, which will help cure certain brain diseases that otherwise cannot be diagnosed through biomedical approaches," said Pan. "In the future, brain-like computers will have broader application prospects including three major areas of artificial intelligence, brain science and brain diseases."

"Brain-like computing is expected to emerge as an important form of computing in the future," said Wu Zhaohui, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and president of Zhejiang University.

"It is the latest achievement of the brain science and artificial intelligence research project (referred to as the Double Brain Project). By emulating the structure and mechanism of the brain, this project is expected to develop a new computer architecture that will lead the future," said Wu.

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如何查看自己的手机是否支持北斗卫星导航系统 - How to check if your phone supports BeiDou Navigation Satellite System

China's version of GPS now has more satellites than US original

https://youtu.be/pKUBulJ5YOU

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馬來西亞人，剛剛查了，有19個北斗在守護著這裡。 

 

To find out whether your device can search for a BeiDou navigation satellite, download the androiTS GPS Test app from AppGallery, then check the satellite searching results. Satellites with an ID of 200 and above belong to the BeiDou navigation system, as shown in the following figure on right> 


For Huawei users, log in to the Huawei official website, search for your model, and go to the specifications page. Find out the navigation system type supported by your device under LOCATION. Currently, Huawei mobile devices support the following navigation systems: GPS/AGPS/Glonass/BeiDou/Galileo. Contact an authorized Huwei Customer Service Center if you can't find relevant information.

The Secrets of Beidou Navigation System

https://youtu.be/Klv2xax5d5U

北斗导航卫星已经开始服务全球了，你还不知道怎么使用吗？

https://youtu.be/MOVQ71k9cvk

What are the unique features BeiDou offers that GPS doesn't?

https://youtu.be/i6geYTpVw_o  

北斗卫星导航系统都能干什么？

https://youtu.be/APf7cYVmHWo

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 APA model of the BeiDou Navigation System is displayed during the 12th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition in Zhuhai earlier this month

China's largest carrier rocket Long March-5 makes new flight; BDS-3 satellite system (GPS) to complete before June 2020, Space Station operational in 2022

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 BDS, the Beidou Navigation Satellite System from China

 

China's homegrown BeiDou Navigation Satellite System is going global

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How Smart is China's answer to GPS?

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China successfully launches 1st Mars probe

Live: China's inaugurates first Mars exploration mission Tianwen-1 in southern Hainan Province

https://youtu.be/V9BsqPqqQbg

Mission marks nation's official start of interplanetary probe era

https://youtu.be/U9OTyGXJMic

China's Long March-5 Y4 carrier rocket, carrying the Mars probe, blasted off at 12:41 p.m., July 23, 2020, from Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in south China's Hainan Province.

2020 can be regarded as the year of Mars. Following Sunday's launch of the UAE's Mars probe, China inaugurates its first Mars exploration mission Tianwen-1 in Wenchang Space Launch Center in southern Hainan Province. After the launch via a Long March-5 carrier rocket, the Mars probe will conduct a series of tasks and explorations on the red planet.

Hailed as Earth's sister planet, Mars has become the priority planet in deep space exploration. Can Mars be turned into a second habitat for humans? What will our lives be like if we settle on Mars in the future? Join CGTN to get a closer look at Mars and explore the beauty of the mysterious planet.

Photo: Guo Wenbin/Our Space Photo: Guo Wenbin/Our Space  

China successfully launched its first Mars probe, named Tianwen-1, via a Long March-5 Y4 carrier rocket from Wenchang Space Launch Center in South China's Hainan Province into planned orbit on Thursday. The move heralds a new era in China's deep-space exploration, which has steadily progressed beyond moon probes to interplanetary missions, mission commanders and developers said.

After a flight of around 2,000 seconds, the probe entered the planned Earth-Mars transfer orbit, officially embarking on its journey to the Red Planet, according to the China National Space Administration (CNSA)on Thursday.

China's Tianwen-1 Mars probe is expected to reach Mars' gravity field in February 2021, about seven months after the launch. If it succeeds, Tianwen-1 will be the first Mars expedition to complete orbiting, landing and roving in a single mission in humanity's history.

According to the CNSA, the project is set to achieve a series of technological advances, including Mars orbit insertion, long-term automatic probe management, long distance communication and Mars surface roving capabilities.

The interplanetary mission will also mark China's establishment of a complete deep-space exploration project system, covering design, production, flight mission and scientific research.

The mission also involves international cooperation, as the European Space Agency and Argentina will participate by taking part in spacecraft monitoring and controlling, the Global Times has learned from the CNSA.

Moreover, China is also working with countries including France and Austria on payload scaling and data analysis for the mission.

Infographic: Global Times

The Thursday launch mission was the fifth flight of the Long March-5 carrier rocket series, the strongest member of China's launch vehicle family. The last launch mission of the Long March-5B, a smaller variant of the Long March 5, took place on May 5, also from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in Hainan.

The Thursday launch also marked the first time the Long March-5 was put to practical mission use, the rocket developer China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT) under the state-owned space giant China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) told the Global Times on Thursday.

"The completion of the first practical mission would indicate that the Long March-5 series has officially joined service," Wang Jue, chief commander of the Long March-5 rocket model, told the Global Times.

Long March-5 has a 5-meter diameter core stage and four 3.35-meter diameter boosters, and is 57 meters long with a take-off weight of around 870 tons and thrust of 1,000 tons. It has raised the country's Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO) launch capability from 5 tons to 14 tons.

The Long March-5 Y4 carrier rocket has reached an escape velocity of over 11.2 kilometers per second, managing to send the probe into planned orbit, and according to Li Dong, chief designer of the Long March-5, "this speed set a new fastest flight speed record for China's launch vehicles."

The Tianwen-1 Mars probe, which weighs about five tons, is also the heaviest deep space probe that China has ever sent into space, and is one ton heavier than the Chang'e-4 lunar probe, which China successfully sent to the dark side of the moon in January 2019, the CALT noted.

The powerful launch capability of the Long March-5 rocket has advanced the country's deep-space exploration to a new starting point in interplanetary expeditions, and a new era of planet probes beyond the moon has officially been ushered in as the first Mars probe begins, Li Minghua, CALT's Party chief, announced upon the successful launch on Thursday.

The Long March-5 carrier rocket is expected to launch another Chang'e-5, weighing about eight tons, which aims to undertake the country's first moon sample return mission, set to take place before the end of this year. The Long March-5B will launch the core module of the country's first space station around March 2021, Lou Luliang, the rocket series vice chief designer, revealed to the Global Times.

Infographic: Global Times

Challenges ahead

Mars, one of Earth's closest neighbor planets in the solar system, has the most similar environment to Earth's. Human beings have made 44 Mars mission attempts, and only 24 of them succeeded.

The minimum distance between Mars and Earth is about 55 million kilometers, and the two planets only come that close every 26 months. The Mars exploration window is open between July and August.

No country other than China has ever set the goals of orbiting, landing and roving the Red Planet in its first mission attempt, and the successful launch will only mark the beginning of a long expedition full of challenges, and uncertainties also remain, observers noted.

According to the CASC on Tuesday, only a handful of Mars missions have been able to land on the planet and conduct roving explorations.

China's Mars orbiter will carry seven scientific payloads, while the rover will have six, according to the CASC. Safely landing the Mars rover after the probe enters the planet's orbit, which will take around seven minutes, will be one of the most decisive stages of the whole mission. During those seven minutes, the probe needs to slow down from more than 20,000 kilometers per hour to zero, which poses a grave challenge to its surface heat-resistance capability.

To overcome that, CALT has developed a new material structure, which is more advanced than that for the US Apollo flight, to ensure the safety of the probe in the deceleration process.

Besides China, the US and the UAE are also launching their Mars missions this summer.

The first Arab space mission to Mars, an unmanned probe dubbed Hope, blasted off from Japan on Monday, in a bid to reveal more about the atmosphere of the Red Planet.

NASA moved its first launch attempt of its Mars 2020 mission to no earlier than July 30, according to the US space agency's official website.

ExoMars, a cooperation program between Europe and Russia, earlier announced that it will be delayed to 2022.

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It pays to learn from China

Malaysia can achieve high income nation through Belt and Road initiative, says minister

https://youtu.be/IjEEOkPW8Zc

MALACCA: Malaysia can learn from China which is skilled in attracting and profiting from the knowledge and skills of its human capital, said Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong.

The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department said China was creating an innovative economy and not just a high-income one driven by strong domestic consumption.

“China’s leadership is building on ambitious growth targets based on equality, efficiency and evaluation. We need to emulate this trait,” he said. Dr Wee was speaking at the opening ceremony of the 8th World Chinese Economic Summit (WCES)

WCES is organised by the Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute (Asli) with the aim of promoting global and regional dialogue on the emergence of China as the world’s largest economy and bringing together the global Chinese diaspora.

Dr Wee said that Malaysia, through its participation in China’s Belt and Road initiative, would be able to achieve its aim of becoming a high-income economy by 2020.

Movers and shakers: Dr Wee (centre) flanked by former Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou (Wee’s right) and WCES founder and patron and Country Heights Group of Companies founder Tan Sri Lee Kim Yew cutting ribbons at the opening ceremony of the 8th WCES in Malacca. Also joining them are (from left) WCES co-chairmain Datuk Seri David Yeat, Asli CEO Tan Sri Michael Yeoh, Asli and Sunway Group chairman Tan Sri Jeffrey Cheah, Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Seri Mah Siew Keong, former Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Malacca Chief Minister Datuk Seri Idris Haron, former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, former Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, former Thai Deputy Prime Minister Dr Surakiart Sathirathai, Quest International University Perak chief operating officer Nicholas Goh, Mah Sing Group marketing and innovation general manager Lily Lee and Star Media Group Bhd editor-in-chief Datuk Leanne Goh.

“China can appeal to a variety of demographics within Malaysia. By utilising the diversity and skills of the multi-ethnic Malaysian workforce, China can further capitalise on business ventures in the region.

“This can include leveraging on the country’s Mandarin-speaking citizens in order to effortlessly conduct business, or using Malaysia’s large Muslim population to expand investment into the Middle East,” Dr Wee said.

One of the projects that came into the picture as an effect of Belt and Road was the Melaka Gateway that attracted an investment of RM43bil from China.

China’s southern province of Guangdong, which has established a friendly state and province relationship with Malacca, has expressed its interest in investing RM8bil in an energy project in the state that will create between 5,000 and 20,000 jobs for the locals, Dr Wee said.

On e-commerce, which currently contri­butes 16% to the GDP, he said that only 55% of local consumers use the Internet for shopping.

The appointment of Chinese Internet billionaire Jack Ma of Alibaba Group as the Government’s digital economy adviser will help tap the vast potential of that market.

The e-commerce market (excluding e-services) in Malaysia for this year was expected to reach US$991.1mil (RM4.3bil) in revenue, while the global e-commerce industry was projected to surpass US$3.5 trillion (RM15.3 trillion) within the next five years, said Dr Wee.

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In "American , Asean , Azmi Sharom , China , Economy and Business , Malaysia , Military , Obama , Politics , South China Sea , USA , US Hypocrisy"

Connected by mountains and waters

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The best leaders are learners

One year ago, at a youth camp, a student who had been put in charge of his group confided in me that leading his team members wasn’t going as well as he had thought it would. “I’m just not cut out to be a leader,” he said, as he related to me what he thought a leader should have, which he didn’t: humour, confidence, wisdom and courage.

My reply to him, as one still understanding the ropes of what it truly means to lead was, “all these can be learnt, if you put your heart to it”.

It is said that there are approximately 50,000 books on leadership that are published annually – and this number may well be a conservative estimate – but if there is one indication that there is no final “destination” in this journey of becoming a leader, it is the countless number of resources that teach us how to better develop our awareness and management of ourselves and others.

Leadership is a relational endeavour; one cannot claim to be a leader without being able to inspire an action or a reaction in others. And because relationships are complex, one can only lead to the extent that he or she learns.

On the surface, it is painfully obvious that learning is imperative for any human enterprise – but I’d argue that in the long run, learning qualifies you to lead more than anything else (beyond promotions, positions, placement and power).

Here are three reasons why:

1 Learning equalises the years

How often have you heard the Chinese adage (often spoken by the elderly to the young), “I eat more salt than you eat rice”?

What is it about being “older” that makes one a wiser and better decision-maker? I’m convinced that the difference is not a matter of “years”, but a matter of “experience”.

We learn from our experiences, and our past outcomes that resulted in both positive and negative actions inform us as we negotiate between present choices.

But if experiences make us wiser, how do we attain more “experience”? Is “experience” purely a byproduct of the passing years, or can we, in the words of Sir Isaac Newton, see further into the future “by standing on the shoulders of giants”?

When we capitalise on the learnings and lessons of others and apply them in our lives, we are able to short-circuit the common bind of “years equals to experience” and accelerate our growth without wasting the time others have wasted.

Great leaders often ask themselves, “How can I avoid making the same mistakes, or how can I replicate others’ successes and take them further?”

2 Learning keeps you humble

Learning and humility feed off each other. On the other hand, the antithesis of humility, which is pride, has the sinister ability to deceive anyone into believing that he or she has “arrived”, that there is no need to adapt or change further, because he or she is superior and above reproach.

In contrast, great leaders are often the most humble people who are secure in themselves and do not see the need to put others down to elevate themselves.

John F. Kennedy once said “Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other”.

Interestingly, most US Presidents were avid readers who invested much of their time in learning, despite their busy schedules.

It is said that Theodore Roosevelt read two books a day, while Abraham Lincoln, who had only one year of formal education, attributed his successful political career to his habit of reading.

A strong learning posture allows you to see from different perspectives, live in the experiences of others, and most importantly, empathise with other points-of-view.

It is only when a person is an avid learner that he or she is continually challenged in his or her current views, and thus able to grow in convictions. It is only when a cup is empty, that it can be filled.

Maintaining humility allows us to be intellectually curious – and curiosity always precedes discovery and creativity.

3 Learning enables you to give

Somewhere during my college years, an epiphany occurred to me: How much can I learn and grow, if I were to dedicate all my transit and waiting moments to learning something new?

In my frustration of waiting and chasing for buses to get to college, I found a treasure chest.

I had realised that an average Kuala Lumpur/Klang Valley resident would spend approximately 10 to 15 hours per week travelling, either by inching through heavy traffic or waiting at bus stops and light rail transit (LRT) stations, and what a waste of time it would be if all that time was given to staring into space or letting one’s thoughts run idle.

I then made a concrete decision to listen to podcasts, audio books (when I would be driving) or to read (when I was waiting for the bus or LRT), in order to redeem that precious time.

I have since listened to over 700 hours of podcasts on topics related to public speaking, general knowledge, story-telling, leadership, faith and personal development.

My greatest learning moments are no longer in the classroom, but in my car, when I am alone and can learn something new.

During the course of the last two years, as a teacher in a high-needs school and a church leader, these moments of learning and reflection allowed me to pass on what I learnt to my students and congregation.

Those opportunities gave me great pleasure, as I was communicating to others what I had learnt and internalised for myself. I never felt “burnt out” because the stream of learning was always flowing.

Leadership may have many faces, but all leaders have the same outstretched hand of giving. And we can only give from what we have learnt. The good news is that leadership can be learnt – if we put our hearts to it.

Contributed by Abel Cheah

Abel Cheah is associate manager in the Talent Acquisition team at Teach For Malaysia. He believes that leadership is something that is nurtured and cultivated. If you are interested in listening to podcasts, he highly recommends Umano (an app that narrates articles). He believes that the best leaders are great lovers of learning. You can get in touch with him at editor@leaderonomics.com

It's is our battle: Obama in Malaysia

The biggest takeaway from Barack Obama’s speech was that he really isn’t that interested in solving our domestic issues.

I WAS one of the lucky young leaders who attended the town hall meeting with United States President Barack Obama. It was an incredible experience and I was impressed by his energy, oratory and diplomacy.

However, that town hall meeting left our social and mainstream media buzzing with two issues – the questions raised by the participants and Obama’s quotes on affirmative action in Malaysia.

Many Malaysians viewed the less-than hard-questions asked Obama (such as the meaning of happiness) as a waste of an opportunity. They felt the most powerful man in the world needed to be asked some powerful questions.

I, too, had some serious questions for him. However, I am not, as some critics put it, “disappointed in the future leaders of Asean” for asking theirs.

Four hundred young people attended the town hall meeting but only eight questions were taken. Two were from the social media (curated by moderators and, therefore, bound to be “safe”). The social media questions and three others from the audience came from non-Malaysians, leaving the remaining questions for only three Malaysians.

Might it simply then had been an unfortunate coincidence that Obama happened to pick the three Malaysians, in a sea of raised hands, who chose not to ask about the TPPA (Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade Agreement) or human rights?

Obama is a role model to many. Not all young people are political journalists, critics of his foreign policy or otherwise determined to tembak him.

The Asean participants are my friends and fellow alumni of the US State Departmentsponsored exchange programmes. I know them well enough to know they have a different take to politics than we do.

Malaysians thrive on discussing issues of the day in a kopitiam, at a forum or via Twitter. We’re practically hardwired to talk politics. Contrastingly, my Asean friends are here on a leadership initiative. They’ve attended numerous programmes, conferences and workshops all geared towards helping them become leaders of civil society.

Their focus is to find solutions to poverty, climate change and human trafficking – not to zoom in on policy and trade agreements.

Their questions simply illustrate that they’re more concerned with bettering themselves and their world than turning everything into a debate. This was a town hall for young leaders on leadership. Expect some young (read: naïve) questions on leadership.

At one point during his address, Obama said “Malaysia will not progress if non-Muslims are not given equal opportunities.” I, like many others, took his sound bite to social media.

Many people went further, calling on Obama to pressure our government into reform, to “save us”! And of course we had people labelling Obama a hypocrite, his comment either ridiculous or irrelevant, and condemning those who looked to him as a saviour.

These reactions reminded me that we are once again stuck in our dichotomy of “accept wholesale or reject wholesale”.

I personally think the biggest takeaway from his speech was that he really isn’t that interested in solving our domestic issues.

Many times, he urged us to fight a good fight, but he made it a point to remind us that he has his own problems in America to solve. I couldn’t agree more.

Realistically, the US president has bigger problems to deal with than us.

Idealistically, we shouldn’t need him to help in any major way. My Sejarah textbook taught me that time and again when our rulers were faced with domestic problems, they opened themselves up to colonisation by seeking help from foreigners instead of facing up to their countrymen.

However, I disagree with those who dismiss Obama. Yes, this is an issue we’ve been dealing with for so long that the US president isn’t adding anything substantive to the debate, but that doesn’t make him irrelevant!

It’s like any other old debate such as abortion or creationism. You’re perfectly entitled to roll your eyes and say “Yeah, I’ve heard this one before,” but to some people it’s a big deal to have the leader of the free world publicly say, “I’m on your side.”

Others cite his domestic and foreign policy to label him a hypocrite, but you can agree with what he said yesterday without having to agree to what he said last year or did in Syria.

I highly appreciate the public relations value of the leader of the free world demonstrating an awareness of my cause, but it doesn’t have to follow that I adore him, agree with all his policies or think he’s Superman.

In a week’s time, people will forget what he said. But the fight goes on, right?

So, instead of obsessing over whether he had the right to say what he said, whether it matters that he said what he said, or making idle wishes that someone else had said what he said, let us focus on the more important part of his speech – that it’s our battle.

Open Season by Marina Tan

> Marina Tan won the 2012 English Speaking Union International Public Speaking competition. She is presently studying at Kolej Yayasan UEM and will be going to Yale University in the United States in August to pursue a double major in engineering and economics.

Marina Tan The Star-ESUM Public Speaking Competition 2011



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A Brain-Food Surprise!

A familiar brain-food takes on yet another starring role! Fat-rich fish.

Fat-rich fish is loaded with vitamin D. Neuroscientists now believe that your brain is the biggest beneficiary of vitamin D.

Consider vitamin D a stealth substance.....it is all around us, but increasingly elusive. You get vit D from the sun. We are told to stay out of the sun or use a sun screen. This makes sense, because of potential skin damage and related cancer concerns. The result, though, is that many people are deficient in vit D. A lack of vit D in the brain is not good news.

Here is what we know:

Too little Vit D in the adult brain increases the risk of stroke and dementia.

Vit D thins blood and protects neurons in your brain. Mood disorders are linked to low levels of vitamin D.

A link has been discovered between inadequate levels of vit D and autism and schizophrenia.

I have started to include more of these vitamin D rich foods in my diet:salmon, mackerel, sardines, shrimp, milk, and eggs

Recipes that use these foods could be considered a day of sunshine!

I have become very aware that I have one brain and that it is involved in every thing I do. I am doing my best to look after it.

For more on the brain benefits of fish check out Brain Bulletins 26 and 33 in the Brain Bulletin Archive.
In the last Brain Bulletin I told you that I had just started reading an amazing book:The End of Overeating by David Kessler

It is an absolutely remarkable book in that it approaches eating as a brain behaviour. I saw myself on just about every page. I could not read it fast enough!

Many of the questions that I get asked in my live presentations relate to eating. Usually about eating too much, or continually eating the wrong foods. I have told people for 25 years that you eat with your brain, not your mouth. The End of Overeating really illuminates how your brain interacts with food. You will enjoy it and remember, I don't get a penny for recommeding it.

Last week I was in Barrie, Ontario keynoting the Aim Language Learning Conference. I met lots of great people and I got to celebrate Canada Day in downtown Barrie. It was lots of fun! This week our daughter and soon to be son-in-law, Taryn and Jeff, get married. I get to spend the rest of the month presenting seminars in beautiful Vancouver.

Everyday new horizons appear in your life and new doors open all around you. Train your brain to look for them and......

Remember: "You are a genius!"

By Terry Small.
Terry Small is a brain expert who resides in Canada and believes that anyone can learn how to learn easier, better, faster, and that learning to learn is the most important skill a person can acquire.
www.terrysmall.com

Startups Are All About the Execution, So Tell Me How ?

When entrepreneurs come to me with that “million dollar idea,” I have to tell them that an idea alone is really worth nothing. It’s all about the execution, and investors invest in the people who can execute, or even better, have a history of successful execution. Execution is making things happen, and for startups it usually means making change happen, which is even more difficult.

Sean Covey image via FranklinCovey >>

For most people, execution is one of those things that seems obvious after the fact when done correctly, but is hard to specify for those trying to learn to do it better. Recently, I finished a new book on this subject, “The 4 Disciplines of Execution,” by Chris McChesney, Sean Covey, and Jim Huling, which seems to talk to startups as well as the corporate world it was written for.

These authors argue effectively that the hard part of executing most strategies is changing human behavior – first the people on your team, then partners, vendors, and most importantly, customers. No startup founder or leader can just order these changes to happen, because it isn’t that easy to get other people to change their ways. Changing yourself is tough enough.

Here are four key disciplines that I believe the best business leaders follow to expedite the change and forward progress implicit in the successful execution of a million dollar idea:

1. Focus always on one or two top priority goals. We all live with the stark reality that the more we try to do, the less well we do on any of the elements. Thus focus is a natural principle. Narrow you and your team’s focus to one or two wildly important goals, and don’t let these get lost in the whirlwind of daily urgent tasks and communications.
2. Identify and act on leading measures first. Some actions have more impact than others when reaching for a goal. Hold the lag measures for later (results available after the fact), and focus on lead measures first (predictive of achieving a goal). For example, more customer leads is predictive of more sales revenue later.
3. Define a compelling scoreboard. People on your team play differently when someone is keeping score, and even better when they are keeping score, and even better when they have defined how their score is measured. This is the discipline of engagement. If the scoreboard isn’t clear, play will be abandoned in the whirlwind of other activities.
4. Create a frequent forum for accountability. Unless we feel accountability, and see accountability on a regular cadence, it also disintegrates in the daily whirlwind. It’s even better if team members create their own commitments, which become promises to the team, rather than simply job performance. People want to make a contribution and win.

These four disciplines must be implemented as a process, not as an event. That means your team needs to see them as a normal and continuous focus, not a one-time push which fades in the rush of other daily priorities. The team needs to see the process practiced by the startup founder, as well as preached regularly.

Startup founders also need to realize that building and managing a company is quite different from learning to search for and solidify an idea that can grow into a company. Every entrepreneur has to navigate that personal change from thinking to doing to managing.

It’s not only the change from thinking to managing, but also the change and learning from constant iterations. Major changes, called pivots, are terrifying to a team that has put months of constant focus into executing what they thought was a great idea. If you don’t have an execution process, you have chaos.

Overall, every entrepreneur should be concerned if they don’t regularly feel stretched beyond their comfort zone, meaning mastering the art of execution if you are mainly creative, or developing creativity if you are mainly process driven. Don’t forget that the fun and challenge is in the learning, so enjoy the ride. The entrepreneur lifestyle is not meant to be comfortable.

Martin Zwilling, Contributor

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