, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Trends from Entrepreneurs’ Starts on NPR

National Public Radio (NPR) has a great podcast called “How I Built This” anchored by Guy Raz. From the show:

How I Built This is a podcast about innovators, entrepreneurs, and idealists, and the stories behind the movements they built. Each episode is a narrative journey marked by triumphs, failures, serendipity and insight — told by the founders of some of the world’s best known companies and brands.

There are some really fascinating stories including Spanx’s Sarah Blakely, WeWork’s Miguel McKelvey, and Airbnb’s Joe Gebbia.
Here are some trends I heard from these stories:
  • They’re opportunistic. Patagonia’s Yvon Chouinard started life out by becoming a metal worker to make climbing equipment when he couldn’t find what he wanted.
  • They start things with people they haven’t known for a while… or they go it alone.WeWork’s Miguel McKelvey shared how he met his cofounder through his roommate after he wanted to work in NYC. He moved there. He met Adam Neumann who was highly complementary in skill sets and the ability to hook people on vision and sell.
  • They fake the sh!t out of it. Spanx’s Sarah Blakely would pop up her display in department stores on her own without getting official consent. People thought she was legit and bought her product.
  • There’s the hustle we all think we’re doing, and there’s the hustle they do. It’s next level. Toms’ Blake Mycoskie rolled from idea to idea, startup to startup – from a laundry delivery service for his college peers to doing giant advertising displays on the side of buildings only after seeing them work in LA. Then, he spent weeks in S. America to help hand-craft over 2,000 pairs of shoes when orders started piling up when he first started.

Go listen to the podcast. It’ll be motivating and inspirational.

What podcasts do you listen to?
/by
, , , ,

100 Strangers, 100 Days – A New Journey to Inspire

Yes, that’s right… today’s Wednesday, and I “missed” yesterday’s blog post. Actually, that was on purpose because I’m shifting blogging back down to ONCE a week – weekly on Wednesdays. Why? Because I have started a little side project called 100 Strangers, 100 Days.
You might be able to guess what it’s about already… I’m meeting 100 Strangers over the course of 100 Days. I started last Saturday, September 17th. I should be wrapped up with my 100thStranger on December 26! How wild is that?
This little project (I laugh as I type “little” because it’s actually, I think, quite a big undertaking) came to me as I was hiking on Stone Mountain that Saturday morning for the sunrise, as I often do. As I walked, I realized a gentleman who was walking beside me for the last 5 minutes. I told myself I might as well say hello to him, and then, the lightbulb came on…
Everyone is fascinating and has some story to tell. I’m fortunate and grateful to have met some really amazing people. These amazing people have shaped who I am, and I’m proud of who I am and who I am becoming. I have looked at relationships as incredibly special to me – a realization surfaced from my time at Emory. That is, how much people and connections mean to me.
So on my hike, ironically, I didn’t end up meeting the man walking beside me as my mind went straight into thinking about documenting how I meet others – by reaching out, saying hello, and digging just a little bit deeper… with Strangers.
For whatever reason, the number 100 crept into my head for both 100 Strangers and 100 Days – had a nice ring to it. I thought about 30 days, but that didn’t seem very ambitious. 50 just sounded like an odd number. So 100 Strangers. 100 Days. Let’s go.
The purpose of this project is many, many fold.
  • To inspire connections. I want people to get out from their cellphones texting and “Snapchatting” to get to know people around them. Myself, I see so many people in my office, but do not say hello. I may say, “hi”, or give a friendly nod, but that’s the extent. I want to connect, and I believe we should all connect as social organisms. Plus, serendipity is a wonderful thing.
  • To motivate action. Like I said, 100 days is, I think, ambitious. I thought of the idea for this and within two hours, I was interviewing my first Stranger. Within 6 hours I had the website up. I want others who have passions or questions or a project in their heads to turn those questions to answers… to turn ideas into reality. I’m an entrepreneur because I execute. I want others to realize it’s not hard to start something magical.
  • To challenge myself. I wrote Postmortem of a Failed Startup: Lessons for Success last year. This could very well be another book down the line for me. That, and I want another personal/ passion project other than the passion for the startup I work for.
  • With 1 Stranger per 1 Day, I want to show it’s not hard to get out of our comfort zone. Just one little connection per 24 hours. It’s an exercise not to rush 100 connections, but to illustrate it’s possible on a consistent basis.
  • Show the world we can be compassionate and vulnerable. I can ask some deep, personal questions to which I hope to hear truths. I want to challenge others to be vulnerable to not just answering questions to me, but to sharing their story with the world (and their picture). It’s an incredible thing to ask, but I want to ask to let others make that choice… not me make that choice for them (which I have a terrible tendency to do – make choices for others). It’s a trust thing.
  •  To encourage us to get to know those who we don’t consider Strangers. I have friends now sharing THEIR answers to questions like they were Strangers. They want to share with me! Meanwhile, I have friends now asking THEIR friends these questions because they want to know what motivates them. It’s exciting to watch as we consider how people around us could be Strangers in some way, too.
  • To change the world for the greater through entrepreneurial endeavors. I have no idea where this is going to go other than 100 Strangers… 100 Days. I may ask some more friendlier faces as I realize, too, that some familiar faces are just surface-level connections. As I said earlier, I want deeper connections, so maybe I go beyond Strangers. I don’t know if this will be a book. I don’t know if this will amount to anything “commercially viable”, but I’m good with that. I hope this journey motivates bigger effects on us as a community, as a nation, as a race. We all have common threads as well as beautiful differences. I want us to embrace each other and the effects of this journey for greateraspirations whatever they may be.

So stay tuned and check out these beautiful Strangers on http://100strangers100days.com – I’m on Day 12 today. Also, you can follow the journey via Twitter @StrangersXDays or Instagram @StrangersXDays.
/by
, , , ,

I Became a Transparent Eye-ball One Morning to Find Inspiration

As I sat atop Stone Mountain watching the sun crest over the horizon, I didn’t really actually have any points of inspiration other than, “this would be a great photo for Instagram”. *sigh* Instead, it would be on the hike down that ideas started to flood me.
Every once in a while, it’s good to disappear for a few hours to find inspiration. Everyday, I’m stretching myself as I teach myself programming, put together recommendations for a client, meet new people, etc. After a while, I’m stretched out and exhausted… consumed by everyday life, I’ve focused on the tactical and left off the strategic.
A month ago, I hiked up Stone Mountain at 6AM on a Saturday to catch the sunrise. This was me being a “transparent eyeball” searching for inspiration — famous transcendentalistauthor, Ralph Waldo Emerson’s metaphor for absorbing the world and having a deeper connection with people and nature.
Depiction of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “transparent eyeball” from his composition Nature. Image source: Wikipedia.org.
As I was hiking back down, clear-headed, ideas flooded me. It was like a shot of adrenaline, but for my mind. I came up with several blog posts including The Mountain Biking Lesson That Gets Us Past What Stops Us, subject for my 100thblog post, and this post. I even had startup ideas that I put on my List – ideas to test later.
Otherwise, there was an amazing, rejuvenating feeling not just from the early hike and sense accomplishment, but it was the energy from other hikers. Everyone who passed by smiled and said, “good morning!” There was a sense of connection the community and the goodness in people.
I write this not just as a motivation to find inspiration in simplicity, creativity, and even transcendentalism, but as a realization of the bigger world beyond lines of code and product demos. It’s easy to keep plugged in and plugging away, but it can wear you out. Sometimes, the best inspiration and work you can do is to disappear. You’d be surprised by the results.
How do you find inspiration and motivation? Where do you go when you need to “disappear”?
/by
, , , , , , ,

Getting Through Dark Moments and the Most Vulnerable Story I’ve Ever Told Publicly

In light of troughs and darkness, the smallest things can be inspirational. I know what it’s like to be in that trough, and I know what it’s like to feel a bit lost. If you’re an entrepreneur, this can be an hourly thing. Where do you go for inspiration? For motivation when you feel a tinge of failure? Sometimes, you have to dig deep to find the greater goal that reignites the fire within. And sometimes, you need someone to pour a little gas on the spark to get you fired up.

I wanted to provide you with a few sites, quotes, pictures that has kept me fighting over my entrepreneurial endeavor, too. Hopefully, one of these will inspire you to dig deep and to keep pursuing greater things for you and for those around you.

  • You’re Never Too Old To Start A New Venture, Look At These Famous Entrepreneurs – Digital Synopsis. Like Gordon Gecko in Wall Street 2 said, “[…] the one thing I learned in jail is that money is not the prime asset in life. Time is.” Don’t waste your time, but also, don’t be afraid to fail. Don’t be afraid to start something. This article has some great graphics of how old different entrepreneurs were when they started their ventures as well as a depiction of various entrepreneurs with their different ideas both successful and failed ones.
There are TON of inspirational stuff, but I just can’t seem to find them right now. I’ve gotten a mental block. I think in the end, the below graphic is so great, and so true. 
I’m going to go ahead and make a stop right here like a bus. I’m going to share a somewhat long story below, so you can quit reading here, if you’d like. If so, perhaps you can share some inspirational quotes, stories, articles, or videos of your own? How do you keep motivated?
——————————————————————————-
Here’s One of the Most Vulnerable Stories I’ve Ever Shared Publicly
I’m sharing one of the worst kept personal secrets so maybe you can draw some inspiration from there…

I love soccer. It’s the greatest passion in the world for me. Heck, I ran away from home once because my dad told me I wouldn’t be a pro when I was young. Up until high school, I hadn’t played in a competitive league — just rec ball. My freshman year in high school, I was given little chance to make it onto either the JV or Varsity team competing against some really great players who had played at the top level of competitive leagues (Classic, Premier…). I practiced and practiced… a lot on my own. And freshman year, I made the JV team. It was one of the greatest moments in my life. We went undefeated — something like 11-0-1 or 10-0-1 scoring 39 goals for with only 1 against.

Sophomore year, I tried out again. I made the JV squad again, and a few of my peers got pulled up into Varsity. That year, I also earned the Coach’s Award.
Junior year… this was it. This was my year to shine! My year to break into the Varsity squad. I played pretty well, and was confident to get in, even riding the wave of the Coach’s Award from the year earlier. Come time to check the board for my name… NOPE. I didn’t make it. In fact, I wasn’t even allowed to play on the JV team. It was the HARDEST day of my life. Having to traverse the halls with all my peers knowing that I didn’t make the team was extremely difficult. It was probably the hardest day of my life holding back tears throughout the day. That day, I went to the park on my own, and just practiced. I did that just about everyday after school to get ready for senior year tryouts vowing to make the team then. 
Come senior year, I was stoked. I had joined some competition teams since freshman year, and I’d been practicing day in, day out ever since last year’s debacle. Rain or shine, I was out there. I practiced with friends, and if they couldn’t, I practiced and worked on drills on my own. Heck, I even quit orchestra to devote more time after-school to soccer. Come tryouts I was ready. I played pretty solid, so I was ready for my time to shine this time… I didn’t make it again. To know that I failed AGAIN at something that meant so much to me was just… awful. I didn’t know how I was supposed to keep going with the one thing that I loved. At the start of French classes, we used to always start things off going around the room saying what we did yesterday in French. I was a broken record — “J’ ai joué au foot” (I played soccer). What a flop! What a loser to fail AGAIN at his own passion! Well, that day, just like the 365 days before, I went out to the park with a ball and played on my own. 
Fast forward, and when I entered Tech as a freshman, I found out they had a club team. PERFECT! Yet another chance for me to break into the squad. And without much suspense for (since I’m writing too much), I made the Tech Team. It was an amazing feeling. It wasn’t a varsity team, but it was a team that represented the school. My best friends these days are from that Tech team. We were good. And right now, I play every once in a while on some different leagues throughout Atlanta with the expectations to win the game, the league, whatever. Now, I’m playing WITH those amazing athletes that I had always looked up to.
I’m definitely not the best, but I’ve come to enjoy soccer that much more. I’ve made some great relationships, and it’s still probably my greatest passion. However, I don’t think I’ll be playing the English Premier League anytime soon. I’m okay with that.
The moral of the story: If you work hard at your passions, you may still fail. However, you can’t keep your head down because you don’t know what great opportunities may lay in wait. 

/by