This post originally appeared on VentureBent
Over 4th of July weekend I had a great talk with a friend’s Dad whose had a pretty stellar career in private equity. He probably still has American Online and couldn’t tell you what a hashtag is, but the guy is a total sage when it comes to business insight across the board.
We talked about how important it is to find a career that truly excites you: nothing new there. A more thought provoking conversation surrounded how we must objectively evaluate our personal strengths and weaknesses to see where we can win professionally. Its an incredible insight that I think is particularly important for entrepreneurs to think about.
If I was a betting man, or a …
Continue Reading
This post originally appeared on VentureBent – a blog syndicate I’m part of.
Its so important to finish in everything you do – especially as an entrepreneur. When you’re doing startups there is never enough time in the day. You’re forced to pick and choose your battles and devote less time to certain things you care about. A hierarchy results where some things get more time and attention than others. I’ve found this segmentation to be fine, but when you start cutting it short on things it can be a slippery slope.
Three things that have been consistently important to me throughout my entrepreneurial journey are my professional goals, fitness, and diet. Early on, I decided that my diet and fitness regimen …
Continue Reading
Being an entrepreneur can be a very isolating existence, especially in the early days. This definitely contributes to the emotional roller-coaster of building a startup. I hear about a lot of people who are “heads down” coding for weeks and even months at a time to get their product out there. This may be good for pushing the product along, but for your mental health its rough.
When we first have something we want to work on its incredibly exciting, but as we push forward its hard to maintain that momentum. I’ve found that collegial discourse around your project or building things in general can help maintain this. Theres a certain energy that exists among entrepreneurs that can be unlocked over a …
Continue Reading
You usually hear about people wanting to start companies because they have a problem they want solve or think they have some unique insight that might result in bags of cash. I think there is another reason that is spoken of less frequently.
When people would tell me how hard it was to build a company a certain itch would arise that made me wonder if I had what it took to start my own. In the current landscape, this feeling is amplified because you’re bombarded by success stories in the media. I find myself asking similar questions about aspirations in other fields. For example, I want to go through Marine training not because I truly feel called to serve our …
Continue Reading
A few weeks ago I went to TC Disrupt and spent some time walking through “startup alley” where new companies set up booths to demo their products. In a span of two days I came across 3 social calendaring apps, 3 mobile marketplace apps, and 2 mobile app directories. Its wild that even within a small microcosm significant overlap exists and I imagine theres far more companies are in these spaces then were at TC Disrupt.
When this occurs people react one of two ways. They comfort themselves by saying this is evidence that a market exists or they are overcome with anxiety that someone else is trying to solve the same problem. I don’t find fault with either of these reactions, but …
Continue Reading
I’m a firm believer in creating opportunities through hustling. One thing I’m starting to realize more and more is that you can create incredible opportunities by hustling online. Nothing supplants a face to face interaction regardless of the context, but a lot of times getting to that point can be difficult. Hustling online can help you get there.
If there is someone that you know you’d like to meet there is a ton of ways you can hustle online to facilitate that, without having a personal connection.
Blog comments
If the person you’re trying to get in front of maintains a blog that’s a great place to start. People always appreciate thoughtful comments like “great post”, but to start …
Continue Reading
I had a really interesting conversation about why we want to be entrepreneurs a few weeks back that made me take a good hard look in the mirror.
I think a lot of people say they want to be entrepreneurs without ever really taking a good hard look their core motivations, myself included. A few reasons why someone would opt for the entrepreneurial path:
Freedom that comes with being your own boss
The chance to create something people love
The challenge and creativity it takes to execute on a vision
A chance to make a lot of money, FAST
Some people just hate working for someone else or in a corporate environment
The friend I spoke with said that his main motivation to take the entrepreneurial leap, …
Continue Reading
Be a lot of things but don’t be indifferent
