Sitting on a patio enjoying the summer night I had goosebumps while reading Richard Branson’s latest book Business Stripped Bare. For those of you not familiar with Richard, he is the greatest pure entrepreneur the world has ever seen. The few books he has written are absolute gems; real world guides to the business battlefield from a General who has conquered them. This particular section from his chapter on Entrepreneurship & Leadership deserves to - no absolutely - must be shared:
To be a serious entrepreneur,you have to be prepared to step off the precipice. Yes, it’s dangerous. There can be times, having jumped, when you find yourself in free fall without a parachute…Then you reach out and grab a ledge with your fingertips — and claw your way back to safety.
For the last few weeks I have been working out in my building’s gym. While I prefer going to a larger gym, I’ve found this allows me to workout every morning without taking up any time commuting to and from. The one difficulty I have found is a lack of equipment variety or a good friend to spot me. This can make jumping from one weight up to another a struggle. One exercise I always require a spotter on is the dumbell bench press. I have been trying to go from 40lb weights 45lbs for the past week with no luck (guys: I’ve always had a weak chest in proportion to my body). This morning I arrive at the gym, grab the 40lb weights and begin my set. I struggle to get the weights up a bit more than usual, but power through and complete my set. I am thinking about how I am going to break through to 45lbs without a spotter to help on lift off when something catches my eye. Turns out I’d just completed a set with the 50lb dumbbells. Hmmm, that’s interesting.
We often hear about the power of thought, of belief, and of knowing without significant differentiation. This can often lead to individuals failing at tasks before proclaiming “But I said to myself ‘I can do it!’”. What we need to understand is the differing levels of belief. Deep down we all understand these different levels. Lets use Bob as an example. Bob thinks he will one day be rich, believes he could find another job whenever he chooses and knows when he jumps up gravity brings him down.
Satellite radio is great. It is a quality of life improvement each and everyone of you should be taking advantage of. Unfortunately it looks like Sirius XM’s financial difficulties are continuing and their time may be numbered. In this post I am going to discuss some of the mistakes I feel they made and offer some advice that may apply to your own business.
Underestimating consumer apathy. Until you have worked on the marketing and sales side of a product campaign you do not realize just how passive our population has become. As a society our natural reaction to advertising has been to shut off our reactions and at least attempt to ignore incoming messages. A more evolved filtration system would be much more effective than apathy, but apathy is what we have developed. Satellite radio offers one of those “I don’t know how I lived without this” experiences which can make for difficult business planning. It brings to mind similar products like the Magic Bullet and Sleep Number Bed. These two companies have managed to be successful where Sirius XM has failed, how come?
Since the venture capital of the dot com era dried up many amazing companies have been started on 5% of the budget they would have had 2-3 years prior. Often these companies end up being far more financially successful because they are structured to be profitable as soon as possible. Sirius XM is an example of the complete opposite. Starting off with significant capital they signed celebrities like Howard Stern & Oprah to huge contracts in an attempt to attract listeners who would eventually generate the cashflow they needed. Unfortunately, due to point #1, this never happened. Sirius XM has a subscriber base of 18.5 million with, I imagine, an average user fee of $10 per month. That is revenues of $185 million a month. You would think these guys could be turning a profit for that. Unfortunately the debt servicing on money borrowed to support massive contracts, such as the 500 million dollar contract with Stern, chews up these revenues and more. The company should have focused on creating a gradual revenue stream through subscribers to high quality music and news stations first, then used this revenue to purchase celebrity talent once there was a secure user base and profitable business model in place.
Knowing your market is extremely important. For instance, I am someone who loves music of almost all genres but does not purchase or download a lot of music. I’m also not cool enough to know who is the next best group. Satellite radio is perfect for me, because it allows me to enjoy numerous genres and up and coming bands without anyspecific knowledge or research.
Here is a great video of Gary Vaynerchuk from the 140 characters conference. Gary has grown his online following (and his business) to enormous levels over the past 24 months utilizing twitter, facebook and caring. Yup, caring. With 600,000 Twitter followers he still insists on replying to every email or message and always addresses those who offer him critical feedback.
I’ve spent the last week rewriting major parts of this site (you’ll see these changes shortly) as well as some projects you can expect to see manifested in the next month.
Needless to say writing a lengthly blog article isn’t in the cards right now, so I thought I would share a video of a presentation I did earlier this year at a Leadership Summit at the University of British Columbia.
While my presentation is professional, the video camera isn’t. Reminds me of watching the classic guru’s earliest movies. Read the rest of this entry »
This is a really simple post, but some great advice none the less. This is from a series of articles I wrote using different perspectives (IE single guy, coach and entrepreneur).
This one is really simple. I bought a $500 pair of Logitech THX approved 5.1 speakers when I first moved into my apartment. I mounted 2 above my bed, 1 by the window and the other 2 run to the in suite bathroom. These speakers hook up to my satellite radio or Ipod and I can turn the music on or off easily for the rear (bathroom) speakers.
Coach Dan: Music is one of the best ways to change your mood, get you pumped up and ready to take on the day. You will be amazed how much more enjoyable your morning routine can be with your favourite music or comedy show playing.
In last weeks post I looked at the reasons why our unconscious often encourages the deferred life plan. This week we look at a few strategies to break free and live the life we want today.
Just Jump & Don’t Look Back
We all feel that urge. We’ve read about Gates, Branson or Jobs and are inspired. We want to say “The hell with it,” burn the boats and leave ourselves with success as our only option. Perhaps you’ve fantasized about telling your boss how horrible her perfume is or sending your friends a postcard from your new European address. While it does take tremendous courage, burning the boats can be an excellent approach to take and will leave you motivated and inspired. You may want to consider the following:
Having 3-12 months of expenses in a savings account OR
Insuring you have a good connection with a business owner who will always be willing to take you on for an hourly job (waiter, valet, retail etc) so you have a fall back to pay the bills OR
You have a friend or family member who, in their support of your venture, agrees that you can live on their couch and out of their fridge if all else fails.
In his book The Monk & The Riddle Randy Komisar discusses the “Deferred Life Plan” as follows:
Step One: Do What You Have To Do
Step Two: Do What You Want To Do
The idea of this plan is drilled into us from childhood. Themes of putting your time in, earning your dessert or learning to walk before you run are common. The truth is the deferred life plan is a game of carrot and stick that doesn’t need to be played.
So why do we put off what we want to do indefinitely? If you believe we’re all rational beings, which I do, it really makes no sense that we would delay what we claim we really want to do in order to live an existence we don’t really enjoy. So what’s really going on here?
Let me provide a little background so the examples of the article make sense. About 3 months ago I resolved not to have a single sip of alcohol for one year. There were many reasons for this which are not the subject of this article. Here are two reasons just to hold you over. Firstly I feel we use alcohol as a crutch to avoid pain that would otherwise motivate us to improve or change. Instead of learning to let loose, dance, or talk to strangers naturally we turn to a social lubricant to make it easier. Removing this lubricant fosters growth. Secondly I see it as an excellent social experiment which will certainly result in a book deal.
So that brings us to the point of this article. What have I learnt about my peers and identity role from this experience.
You may have noticed a severe lack of articles from me over the past 2 months. Have no fear, I haven’t forgotten how to write. In fact I have just completed the first draft of my first, so far untitled, book. As I work with my editor and consider my publishing options I will be releasing bits and pieces as blog articles for your feedback. Enjoy.
In poker there is a term sunk cost. It refers to money you have already bet that can not be recovered unless you win the hand. Good poker players know that you need to bet based on the following factors: Your odds of winning, how much you will win, and how much you must bet to play. Each bet must be looked at as an individual decision with no emotional attachment to money previously bet. The idea is that often players will keep betting and lose significant money because they are emotionally attached to money they have already bet when they should actually cut their loses and accept their previous bets as a sunk cost.
I learnt about this poker rule during my days living in my Fraternity days and have since applied it to all aspects of my life. It is one of the most important lessons I have to teach you and will fundamentally change how you view business and relationships. Everyday is a new bet.
Sitting on a patio enjoying the summer night I had goosebumps while reading Richard Branson’s latest book Business Stripped Bare. For those of you not familiar with Richard, he is the greatest pure entrepreneur the world has ever seen. The few books he has written are absolute gems; real world guides to the business battlefield from a General who has conquered them. This particular section from his chapter on Entrepreneurship & Leadership deserves to - no absolutely - must be shared:
For the last few weeks I have been working out in my building’s gym. While I prefer going to a larger gym, I’ve found this allows me to workout every morning without taking up any time commuting to and from. The one difficulty I have found is a lack of equipment variety or a good friend to spot me. This can make jumping from one weight up to another a struggle. One exercise I always require a spotter on is the dumbell bench press. I have been trying to go from 40lb weights 45lbs for the past week with no luck (guys: I’ve always had a weak chest in proportion to my body). This morning I arrive at the gym, grab the 40lb weights and begin my set. I struggle to get the weights up a bit more than usual, but power through and complete my set. I am thinking about how I am going to break through to 45lbs without a spotter to help on lift off when something catches my eye. Turns out I’d just completed a set with the 50lb dumbbells. Hmmm, that’s interesting.
