Small Thinkers

I’ve come to notice more and more now that I don’t easily get along with the people I meet in public. I mean this in the context of me being polite and personable (sometimes I’m not). It has nothing to do with my actions, it’s my mindset. I’ve discussed this with a few of my friends before, but it has become even more apparent recently. We just don’t think like other people and its makes it difficult to share our ideas, our thoughts, and our visions.

For the last 2 years, I’ve surrounded myself by entrepreneurs. We all get along - even the folks I meet through Club Entrepreneur are great! They understand where I come from, and most importantly, where I want to go. It’s easy to talk to them, they have similar aspirations. They want to achieve great things, and change the world! Its why get to call ourselves by a different name, Entrepreneurs.

I know some people consider us elitists, especially in the academic sectors. Entrepreneurs think different, learn differently and need to apply their knowledge right away. We are “tryers” and “testers”. I myself am also a confident and slightly egotistical person, it’s partially why I’m not afraid to succeed, or fail for that matter. We push through, we know anything is possible and we want to make it happen.

But there are small thinkers out there. People you meet in casual conversation at Starbucks, or the night clubs. Even friends of friends. They don’t see the world the same way. For instance, I met a few new people last evening. One is a teacher, a few others just graduated college and looking for jobs. – don’t get me wrong, I know how these people think, I respect their goals of getting good jobs – we all introduced ourselves, and starting hanging out. We shared some laughs and had a few drinks.

It came to the point where they wanted to know what I did. I excitedly told them about my goals and the businesses I am starting, and want to start. I got a skeptical head nod, “That sounds great, I hope it works out.” Some of them were a little more excited to hear I have created a system to help them party, but were really only interested in being consumers.

As I hung out with these people longer, and we got more into the meat of who we were. Then it all fell apart. It began with the teacher explaining that she had graduated with honors, and highest GPA, etc. Not that she was bragging – I asked. I explained my situation of moving from ASU to the College of Entrepreneurship. I followed that with, “Not that education gives me my success. There are plenty of greats that changed the world and never even completed college.” And that’s the disconnect.

I believe I can be one of those greats. They think it’s a celebrity status. But who am I to doubt myself and what I can achieve? Who are they to think it’s not possible? Point is, it’s becoming more and more difficult to find people to relate to, who understand or at least embrace mine and my friends’ ambition. I am a social person, and I want to meet new people (even non entrepreneurs), but a lot of them don’t get it, and that’s frustrating...

So, I leave you with this:

"Don't let the opinions of the average man sway you. Dream, and he thinks you're crazy. Succeed, and he thinks you're lucky. Acquire wealth, and he thinks you're greedy. Pay no attention. He simply doesn't understand. " - Robert G. Allen

A Bit of the Weekend

In the lightheartedness of this weekend I just want to share something funny with you. This is the first video post I've done. A friend showed this to me in the humor of my business Responsible Partying Made Simple. DUI's aren't a laughing matter! But this is funny...



Also, if you know him, my best friend Trevor proposed to his girlfriend at The Big Bang on Saturday. He wrote a song for her and performed it in front of 100 strangers then popped the question at the end. We spent the first half of the night hiding him at Uno's Pizzeria across the street until he was up. Oh the laughs we shared. It was an exciting time so tell him congrats if you see him around.

Not Sunday, Club Entrepreneur

I had an extraordinary experience tonight, and I just couldn’t wait to post it. Tonight’s Club Entrepreneur meeting was out of this world! First of all our speaker, Ingrid Vanderveldt was excellent. It brought me back to the good ol’ days of hanging with Peter at ASU’s Barrett Honors College. She was so eager to help everyone! You could tell she has a natural passion for entrepreneurship. Her enthusiasm for business and the Club was uncanny. I was very glad to have her in our company. We had some what of a low turnout, but I feel bad for all those that missed the meeting. The entrepreneurial energy in the room this evening was mesmerizing.

On top of that I have something to share about the core purpose of the club. We are an organization about helping entrepreneurs fast track their business and bring them new opportunities. I feel sad for those few that show up and don’t take advantage of the people they could meet. Luckily, this evening I found someone I could truly help. She’s interested in developing a unique reverse business website, but couldn’t seem to get herself out of her seat to seek out the help she needed. So I asked her what she needed the most and introduced her to someone who could help. A web developer I know, Jeremy was more than happy to sit down with her and talk about the site. That right there is what Club E is about. I wish and hope that everyone experiences that kind of potential when they attend Club Entrepreneur.

Also, on a personal level, I had the opportunity to help a wonderful woman with her business ideas. To give you a taste of the caliber of this woman I’ll tell you a bit about her. I was first introduced to Leslie over email. She had sought out Peter for more information on the Club and College, but to what extent I did not know. I asked her about it tonight and as it turns out she had read about Club E in the paper and persistently called GCU to find out information on the club and Peter. Finally she got a hold of a secretary we (the core E students) all know there. She was unable to tell Leslie the date of the meeting but she was able to give her the place. Leslie went as far as to call Bamboo Club (our event location) to find the date of the meeting through our reservation. Luckily our secretary also disclosed Peter’s email and we were able to talk to her then. As you can tell, Leslie’s passion for entrepreneurship comes from deep within her. She’s unstoppable. I even quote her as saying, “Even if I didn’t get a hold of you guys over email, I would have been here for the meeting and met you eventually.”

I spoke with Leslie for a good hour about her business ideas with my business partner Toby. In fact, we closed out the place and were the last one’s to leave. She is extremely passionate about her ideas, entrepreneurship, and learning more about business. We tore through her ideas, built on them, found new revenue streams and really brought her ideas to life. I think we had helped her see the light in the possibilities of entrepreneurship. It made me feel like I was at my beginnings again. When I had ideas spilling out of my ears, and lost sleep muscling over them. Just with my conversation with her I was invigorated to achieve great things. I had been feeling kind of down lately, even considered redoing my vision board background as a pick-me-up. However, Leslie saved me. I’m grateful to have finally met her in person. – Funny side note, I just happened to catch her at the event as she was walking by. I introduced myself not even knowing that she had been the person I was talking with over email. I caught her completely off guard. Over our emails she had thought Merlin was a woman. Well surprise, surprise. :-)

I could not have asked for a better evening. Thank you all who made it a wonderful. I now have to go walk the dog…

Stammtisch

As you may know, I am of German decent. I was born there and in fact, am still a German citizen. I moved here when I was two years old with my mother, and every year or so I would go back to visit family. However, the last couple years I haven’t had the same opportunities, time or money to go visit. I had begun to notice that I was losing my ability to speak German. It became harder and harder to construct sentences, and I was losing my vocabulary. I was out of practice and it worried me. My German heritage is important to me and I don’t want to lose my ability to communicate with my family.

Just in time to save the day I found a fix. I met a guy from Munich at the last Club Entrepreneur meeting. Through casual conversation he had mention that he is a part of a group of Germans that meet and talk. They call themselves the Tempe Stammtisch; roughly translated its means regulars table. They meet every week at Boulders on Broadway, and it is the perfect opportunity for me to get back into practice.

Last Friday was the second time I attended, and I absolutely love it. I am usually uncomfortable speaking German here in the states - I never liked it when people spoke a language I didn’t understand around me, and didn’t want to put that on someone else. But with this group I feel completely comfortable. I show up, chitchat about whatever for a couple hours, and head on my way. I’ve already noticed my German becoming stronger.

The people are great. Typical European culture and very inviting. They took me in right away and just started conversing with me. We don’t really talk about anything specific. More or less we just hang out and chat about whatever comes to mind. They tell stories, jokes, make bets with each other. Its great fun.

I’m very grateful that I found these people. They don’t know it, but they have helped me hang on to something that I hold dear. I was afraid that with my busy life I might not be able to make it back to Germany to fix my language skills, but now I don’t have any worries.

Reflection on Life

"Let him who would enjoy a good future waste none of his present." - Roger Babson

This is just one of the quotes I live by. This one in particular is something I'd like to address today. I ran across a website on my friend's Facebook profile today. The site is for Race Charities an organization dedicated to the awareness of early-stage cancer and its detection. RACE was founded by the family of a girl, Glory Gensch, who died 1 year after her diagnosis at the age of 23. Unfortunately she was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer.

Reading this girls heart wrenching story set me up for a deep reflection of my own life. I began to ask myself "What would I do if I only have 1 year left?" - "Would I feel satisfied with my life?". Glory had just graduated from college. She had just stepped into the new life out of the institution. Did she feel like any of her present was wasted?

Glory was abruptly taken at a young age. But what about those who are still around? Are you wasted any of your present? You never know when your time is up, or how much you have left. Make the most of every moment you have now.

I spoke with a friend of mine, Kevin, the other day on this topic. We discussed an opportunity he had working for an MLM. At the time he was really stoked on it, but dropped after he felt like he was just selling stuff. He said something that struck the core entrepreneur in me.

"I rather be working towards my dream, than making easy money selling. I feel like my life is better spent even if I'm just sitting around dreaming about my success, rather than selling for someone else"

I try to live my life wasting none of the present and do something everyday that brings meaning to my existence. Even if I don't get to enjoy my "good future". I hope my achievements leave a legacy, like Glory, the wonderful girl who left RACE Charities to help those after her.

You've got to be kidding...

Paris Hilton and Entrepreneur?!?! Maybe it has been redefined since I last checked, but I don't think self-proclaimed "hot", skanky, rich kid makes you an entrepreneur. I'm referring to the latest news of Paris Hilton being offered $1MM to teach a class on "How to build you brand" at the next Learning Annex conference. The article was written in the New York Post on June 26th, 2007.

At most this tramp played off her father's brilliant brand of an international hotel. I don't think the girl has ever had an idea of her own. How could she?! She's too busy flirting with other rich kids at clubs on the Hills. I'm surprised the family friend Donald Trump hasn't slapped her yet.

I mean really, people. Do you truly want to hire the girl who just got out of jail for a DUI to teach a seminar?? The greatest achievement of her career is starring in the movie "House of Wax" - which was a flop - and I'm pretty sure she got killed off in it (thankfully!). Other than that she has a TV show about her and her skanky friends trotting around the United States hitting on folks in the country. *Guest starring this season is Jenna Jameson - a pornstar with a few clubs in her name. Jameson is more of an entrepreneur! At least she made her own money.

I know its not Sunday, but this upsets me. The media should really watch to whom they attached that word. My definition of an entrepreneur begins with achieving something that betters society. Something Ms. Hilton has not done at all.

Thinking Backwards

Sometimes the best way to solve a problem is working it backwards. We used to do this as kids with maze puzzles, and really early on with math; working the problem from the solution to find the beginning. This thought process works today as well because business is about solving problems... sometimes problem people don't even know they have. And there are a few really great business models that use this to the fullest advantage.

Reverse business models are systems are processes that take the "typically" way of doing things and flipping it backwards. For instance I met a guy in a Starbucks a while back that was developing a online system for fashion models to get work without going through an agency. The idea is that a person looking for a fashion model can go online and find the model themselves through a search engine. Instead of the old way of business where the agency hires the model then goes to find the work for them. This business model works in all kinds of industry from real estate, to advertising, and its making it easier for the "end user" to get exactly what they want or having what they want... find them.

A new company that just launched is Balihoo. "The Balihoo search engine enables advertisers and agencies to search for media properties that are most relevant to their advertising campaigns, gather and analyze information about those properties, and interact with media owners to build and execute media plans." Taking the old way of business and turning it around. The media sellers simply put their availability on Balihoo and wait. Balihoo then finds the available ad spots for media buyers based on their ad properties quicker and more effectively. Genius.

I've seen reverse thinking also take place in the advertising itself. Reminding the consumer of the end result before they get there. Telling them what they want (or in the case of my example, what they don't want) before they realize they have it. Guinness Beer produced a verity of specialty pint glasses and bottles for pubs to convey an anti-drunk driving message.

Thinking backwards stretches the imagination. A few great businesses have come out of it, and I'm sure there are many more. In any case, changing up the way some business is done is a good practice. Sometimes you find the "backwards" way is the most forward thinking.