Listening to FON
I had the pleasure of spending time with Martin V. recently while he negotiated and presented FON to a couple of major players on the west coast. For me it was a true learning experience. Its one thing to read about a entrepeneurs accomplishments or to even listen to them brag about it on TV (Trump?) but its a very different story to see it in person. The one thing I took away from watching Martin was his honesty. He answered questions honestly, he showed his cards willingly without being prompted and I think the people we dealt with saw that he wasn’t hiding anything. I for the most part I just listened.
Now dealing with the board of advisors for FON I am trying to encourage the same type of honesty. How I’m I doing this? Well, just by listening. Not to say they aren’t honest, but people generally stop being frank when they feel their thoughts aren’t welcome or appreciated. The biggest issue so far has been those who want to keep their Wi-Fi hotspots wide open while being members of FON. I actually thought they were perhaps a small group and not representative of open Wi-Fi hotspots in general but the more I listen, the more I realize this group of people is larger then I imagined. So FON has to do something to make them happy.
Listening is important but hard for me to do, I generally prefer to talk more then I listen. But listening has paid off for me recently. I might try to make a habit of it.