Entrepreneurship is like crack

Thanks to the advent of video on the web content creation is getting more and more niche.  One of those niches is entrepreneurship.  Videos are popping up all over the web that have incredible insights from some of the best, most successful entrepreneurs in the world.

The tipping point for me was getting setup so I could watch it on my big screen TV from the comfort of my couch.  To my surprise it’s super easy to hookup your laptop to your TV, it took me less than 15 minutes and cost me less than $100.  Here’s a link to connect your laptop to your TV and here’s a mouse that will work on your couch.

Here are some of my favorites websites with videos for Entrepreneurs:

• TWIST (this week in start-ups) - Probably my favorite, Jason Calacanis does 2 hour interviews with top entrepreneurs, venture capitalist and business experts focused around educating and motivating start-ups.  The site is hard to navigate through older episodes, but their are some gems hidden in there.

• Mixergy - Similar to this week in start-ups but the interviews are 1 hour and the video quality is poor (just two people on web cams talking back and forth) but the content is golden.

• Entrepreneur.com - Interviews with some of best and brightest entrepreneurs

• Stanford - Presentations and interviews with entrepreneurs well organized and each video is separated by topic so you can quickly get the content you want.

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Ever since I saw that magical picture hanging on my cabin wall at summer camp in junior high I’ve had a dream to surf a big wave. The picture was of Laird Hamilton surfing a huge wave which looked unbelievable.  I remember telling my cabin mates it was probably computer generated because no one could survive falling on a wave that big.  Well clearly I was wrong and as I got older I realized people around the world were surfing huge waves and not only surviving but enjoying some of the most amazing experiences nature has to offer.

About three years ago I decided to make my dream a reality and set a goal to surf a 30 foot wave before I die.  The only problem is I’d been running companies for the last 7 years, I was out of shape and hardly surfed a dozen times a year.  Most people who brave huge waves are in incredibly good shape and have worked their way up to surfing big waves through 1000’s of hours in the water.  I was getting into something way out of my skill level and fitness level and it happened to have a severe consequence attached, death.

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It’s Friday the 13th, so here are my 13 rules for success.

1. Never give up. In my career I have missed payrolls, been behind on payments for every one of my credit cards and, at one point, had amassed more than $12,000 in overdraft fees at $20 each.  Looking back I can see that these were all stepping stones for me to achieve financial independence.  It’s tempting to quit when your financial situation is looking bleak, but as Thomas Edison said “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”
   

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I spent the weekend at Michael Robertson’s Ranch.  He is one of San Diego’s most successful Internet entrepreneurs.  He sold MP3.com for over $350M, he also started Lindows (Linux based windows), MP3Tunes.com (cloud based music) and Gizmo5 (voip).  There are rumors floating around that Michael sold the domain name MP3.com for $350M, got lucky and never built a great company.  That is, well, just a rumor.

What people don’t know unless they get a chance to talk to Michael is he built a great company, one that was exploding in organic traffic and revenue before it was purchased.  We all know that to generate explosive organic traffic and revenue you need a lot more than just a great domain name.

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I just finished reading the book “Referral of a lifetime” by Tim Templeton and Ken Blanchard.  It’s a quick and easy read to help you systematize your networking efforts.  I love systems, they set you free, so I’m a fan of this book.  The concept is basic, cold calls don’t work well and are painful, referrals are much more effective at helping you achieve success.  The good news is you don’t have to smooze at tons of awkward networking events to make this happen.  To generate referrals you need to keep in touch consistently, personally and systematically with the people you already know (which is most likely 200 or more according to statistics).

• Step 1
  Send out an email to all the people in your database letting them know that you are committed to keeping in better touch and if there is anything you can do for them “just let me know”

• Step 2
  Plan your calendar in advance for keeping in touch throughout the year. If you don’t have someone at your company who can manage the fulfillment of this system you can outsource this to a mail-house. Example:

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I had the good fortune of watching the Padres game from the owners box with Jeff Moorad yesterday.  Jeff has recently come to San Diego to take over leadership of the Padres as their new CEO.  Before this Jeff ran a successful turnaround of the Arizona Diamondbacks and before that was one of the most successful sports agents in both football and baseball. Jeff took time to share some of his lessons learned from his career and his strategy for the Padres.  Here are a few tips he shared.

• Set your goals according to your industry, not based on what the norms are.
  • He believes sports teams can and should be cash flow neutral.  Neutral? I thought he was really setting the bar low.  But I learned that sports teams are almost never cash flow positive, but almost always cash flow negative.  So while I thought his goal seemed to be shooting low, for his industry that was a high mark.
    
    
    
• Don’t micro manage, BUT hold people firmly to financial goals.
  • He made his success sound so easy. “I just hire the right people, and hold them accountable to their financial goals, if they are good they will figure it out eventually.”
    

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http://bit.ly/J7xkD

RankSpeed.com

I’m looking forward to the rise of more semantic products like this.

Shouldn’t entrepreneurs try many different opportunities so if one fails the other ones might make it?  No… and yes.  NO, meaning an entrepreneur should never try more than one opportunity at a time.  Yes, meaning if the opportunity doesn’t pan out quickly move on to the next.  Most of the time diversification is good, like when investing or dating, but the word diversification for entrepreneurs, especially in start-up situations, is deadly.

Here’s why diversification will kill a start-up

• Focusing on more than one thing guarantees mediocrity
  • It’s hard enough to build one really good widget (website, product, content etc.) but try building two at the same time and those widgets are going to be half as good as they would have been if you just picked one.

• Your competition already knows not to diversify
  • The competition is smart, someone over there already knows this lesson to stay focused and has all their resources focused on one widget, and it’s going to be amazing.  You can’t afford to have your competition  be focused and you be spread out.

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Our company is using Yammer (it’s like a private twitter/facebook for your office) for real-time collaboration but the unexpected benefit came from the real-time banter that has the office booming with laughter. Instant culture booster.