I had been thinking of the idea a lot lately and stumbled across a video giving a similar but different perspective. Check it out

Not Every Failure Is A Learning Experience from Ross Kimbarovsky on Vimeo.

Check out the video here

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I had run into the videos from the Web 2.0 expos a million times but this was one of the better speeches. Gary’s site is Wine Library and has been getting a lot of notice in the last couple years. Check it out for all things wine related.

The more I thought about how to create an entrepreneur, the more significant traits came to mind. The first, and most important is that of EXPERIENCE. It trumps all. Period. You learn to keep your hands up by getting hit in the face, and you get to Carnegie Hall by logging over 10,000 hours of practice with your instrument. This Blog cannot give you that.

The next is the people you spend your time with. You constantly hear phrases like “You are a combination of the 5 people you spend the most time with”. The older I get, the more I recognize the impact important people have had on my life (peers, mentors, family, etc.) This blog cannot give you that.

The third I believe is that of reading/education. I read almost entirely non-fiction, and each book has given me new insights and a piece of the author’s perspective. For this reason, I’m starting an occasional article series titled “Required Reading”. There’s a long list of books I could recommend off the top of my head, but I want to go in depth with each to analyze key points and ideas; something I wish I would’ve had when I was reading them.

To kick off the series, I want to start with the book The 4 Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss. I’ve been a huge fan of Tim’s for a long time and read his blog on a regular basis. It has been criticized that it is just a compilation of many other topics, but this is exactly why I’m starting with it. At its core, The 4 Hour Workweek is a about developing skills, working more efficiently, travel, and countless business strategies. The huge reason I find the book so valuable however, is Tim’s twist on each, as well as his view that each of these is interdependent. As a self proclaimed “lifehacker”, Tim breaks down the fundamentals of effective modern business practices and tosses the rest. These basics drastically changed the way I view both business and life, and I return to sections of the book often to revisit the ideas.

For business, Tim describes the “80/20 Rule” as the foundation for time management. The idea is that 80% of your income/productivity/results come from 20% of your effort/clients/time. Anyone that has spent obscene amounts of time dealing with an unruly client only to have the client buy little or nothing understands this idea. The Tim Ferriss solution? Give the customer the proportionate amount of time and energy that they contribute to your business. If they go with another company, you will save yourself the headache of dealing with them. If they continue to work with you, you have set a standard that professional and efficient business dealings will be expected. The big fish is usually experienced enough to know what they need ahead of time while a poorly organized business is more likely to be the squeaky wheel. Only give them the grease they deserve.

On the other hand, The 4 Hour Workweek preaches that being the squeaky wheel is a must in all aspects of life. This isn’t the same squeaky wheel as the unruly client, but rather a person that will persist and take bold chances where others would be too afraid. You want something? Call until you get a no. When you get a no, move on until you get another no. Find the yes. You want to write a book? Write it. Don’t underestimate yourself. You want to start a business? Do it. The 1,000 people that talk about will underestimate themselves and not follow through. Ask for forgiveness, not permission. Etc. Etc. Etc.

This is THE MOST IMPORTANT theme the book communicates. The idea that risk and failure are requirements on the road to success. For that matter, you shouldn’t aim for the common definition of success. Go for the top and use the potential huge payoff as fuel to push through the hurdles. If 90% of people strive for moderate success, then going for the top means you only have to compete with 10%. I love every application of this idea.

As for specific business models, Tim outlines several in particular. The least effective I feel is to write and market an ebook… I think in 2007, when the 4 Hour Workweek was written, the general public trusted ebook authors a lot more than today. Once the web was flooded with ebooks that were worthless, people realized that anyone could write one. I think that realization undermined the credibility of the market and it is on the down slope. Aside from ebooks, Tim describes a small business that doesn’t try to “reinvent the wheel”. AKA become the middle man with a product that people would buy, but isn’t widely known or available. While I don’t think this idea will produce the next Google, if a middle man style business is structured properly it can put extra passive income in the owner’s pocket with minimal time investment. From this philosophy the phrase “4 Hour Workweek” is born.

The latter topics of the book I found less helpful. Just the phrase “mini-retirements” makes me cringe. Tim’s philosophy is that an entrepreneur should build a business and at frequent intervals go on a long “mini-reitrement” regardless of the implications this has on their business. Upon returning, the refreshed entrepreneur can start a new business that will ignite more passion in them… The concept makes sense in a quasilogical way, but the time, effort, and risk involved in a new venture is daunting. To subject yourself to that throughout your life seems a bit unrealistic. The idea that people shouldn’t spend the best years of their lives focusing only on work is a great point though. A healthy medium of a self sustaining business and more frequent vacations should replace the term “mini-retirements”. Despite the strange logic in parts of the section, the travel advice is extremely helpful.

Overall The 4 Hour Workweek is a must read for any entrepreneur. The perspective Ferriss offers is like steroids for your Entrepreneurially muscle. With the case studies and easy outlines, I found myself thinking constantly throughout the day about side projects I would like to start. My copy of the book looks like a college textbook with dozens of tabs, a self made reference list, and countless highlights. While it won’t give you the detail that some other books offer, it was an extremely helpful jumping off point for future books and topics that I found interesting. Today Timothy Ferriss has become a successful Angel Investor and continues to write on the side.

I just stumbled across Neil Patel’s Blog and one post in particular stood out to me. How Not to Market Your Startup. It outlines the pitfalls to avoid with early internet startup businesses and in depth reasoning behind them. While the latter seem pretty obvious (don’t bribe your customers), his discussion of Search Engine Optimization and Digg/ Technorati/ TechCrunch strategies are awesome. I highly recommend the blog overall

I would definitely be interested in reading the “How TO Market Your Startup” however…

I stumbled across this article by Google’s long time Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt describing everything about Google’s own IPO. 5-10 minute read and fascinating. I especially like their choice to use an auction format rather than a more traditional method.

The article can be found here

“The harder you are on yourself, the easier life will be”

At first I dismissed it pretty quickly, but for some reason it stuck in the back of my head and I ended up analyzing both what it meant and why life would be easier. The answer I think is twofold. First, the idea of standards comes into play. While having high standards and expectations is something that is important in any part of life, the most rigid standards should be on yourself.

He was average height, Caucasian, wore glasses, was well dressed, and well polished. We had continued to catch up on occasion through events with mutual friends and one such night out in New York he began telling me about a business he had started working with called Vael Project. I was curious about what venture he would invest his time and energy into so I asked “Vael Project huh, what do you guys do?”. In response he plopped his foot on the small table at the lounge we had met up at to show us the shoes he was wearing.

I was intrigued both because I knew little about the men’s footwear business but also at the quality of shoe that had now taken its place next to my Heineken. To appease my curiosity I asked how business was. He responded, “Well I’ve almost maxed out my credit cards, I barely eat or sleep, but business is picking up and we’re getting orders”. With a response like that I knew we’d get along.

When I interviewed him, we began talking about what a normal workweek was like. “My workweek starts on Sunday at 1 pm. When dealing with China you have to be on their schedule. Our Thursday is their Friday you know?” To accommodate this, Sunday-Wednesday are dedicated to organizing orders, checking in on previous orders and making sure incoming inventory makes it to where it needs to go. By Wednesday the orders must be finalized to send out the following day or Vael risks losing another week to the time change. “From there, Fridays and Saturdays are usually for cleaning things here and taking care of web designs and orders from shops. Then Sunday at 1 pm we gotta get back on the orders and follow up.”

After hearing this grueling schedule, I commented on the toll it must take. Matt responded with, “I’ve lost close to 30 pounds since starting with Vael. There’s a lot of nights I wake up in a panic at 2:30 in the morning to double check emails and make sure things are getting done. I promised myself that while some people might be smarter, I would work twice as hard and think twice as hard as them”. Like with any business run primarily through the web, hiccups occur and a single missed email could have major consequences.

As a final word of advice to start up entrepreneurs or those with an already existing business, Matt’s advice is “Make decisions as they come. It’s not always the perfect decision that’s the best but the one that helps the company get over the problems they face at that exact time. If you put decisions off, waiting for the perfect solution a lot of times the problems will get much bigger. You can fix problems later and learn from your mistakes but you can’t move forward without actually doing something.”

Like the industry standard, orders must be placed with factories 3-6 months before the shoes will actually be released. This means that at any given time, the company must be 3-6 months ahead of trends to trump the competition.

As a personal favorite, Matt likes the Brogue style and says he wears them daily in all conditions.

I cannot stop watching this show. When I have down time in my day, it’s what I turn on. In the midst of “reality” TV where the biggest drama is which spoiled Kardashian is pregnant or another girl fight on Jersey Shore, this is a show that is actually reality. I reached a point when scrolling through my channels where I would rather go the way of Oedipus and gouge my own eyes out rather than spend another minute staring at mindless television.

The premise: 5 “sharks”, or venture capitalists, are placed in a room facing a large wooden door. Entrepreneurs needing funding enter the room and state both the amount of investment they need, and what stake in their company they are willing to part with for it. From here the negotiations unfold and the drama is played out. Sounds pretty basic right? The twist is that the “sharks” are putting up their own money and each has reach billionaire status on their own in various realms so their investments are legitimate. If you’re looking for a show with quotes like “Don’t cry about money, it will never cry for you” and “I like you but I don’t want to murder my money so I’m out”, then this show is the ticket.

Why is this show the epitome of reality? Because money effects American’s lives more than any other material substance. A homeless person on Skid Row still has soup kitchens that will serve them (I’ve both served and been served the food) but when it comes to free money, it doesn’t exist. Over and over again there are stories like “I have put every cent of my life savings into this company” and the guest won’t get an investment because their idea/company/product/expenses/personality are sub par. It can’t get more real life than that.

Frankly I don’t care if you watch it or not. ABC isn’t paying me and I’m not making money on this post but the lessons are invaluable for any entrepreneur. It’s literally like sitting in on a venture capitalist meeting.

Watch it here or if you like melting your brain here’s something more your speed: Gym, tanning, laundry

I might do a post soon analyzing the strategies on both sides of the negotiating table, and the pitfalls that the guests constantly make.