Mind Petals

The Young Entrepreneur Gets A MacBook

Thursday, March 22 by David Askaripour in Life | 18 Comments

Remember a few months ago when I told you about someone spilling a drink on my one and only laptop during my New Year’s Eve party? Well, it’s been nearly 3 months and last week I was finally united with another computer – my new baby black MacBook.

Wow, it’s like I stepped into the light after switching from PC to Mac. The entire experience is so different. Everything seems slicker, easier to use, more intuitive, and all around “just better.”

I’m definitely lovin’ my new Mac and I can’t see myself purchasing another PC in my life. It’s great to be back in the swing of things after these past few months of traveling back to my former college’s computer lab, borrowing my friend’s computer, and basically signing online wherever I could: libraries, back home (Long Island), internet cafes, etc…

I learned a few lessons throughout this experience, but the most important was to “keep on moving no matter what.” When something such as your computer gets fried, you better become opportunistic and find anyway to continue your work.

Also, “don’t be afraid to ask for help.” I was lucky enough to have good friends and family who I was able to depend on during my time without a computer. Without them, my life would have been a living hell. Thanks guys, much appreciated.

So let’s hear it: are many of you young entrepreneurs using Macs or are you loyal PC users? There’s a poll running on MP Nation so head on over and vote.

Send A “Real” Letter Once In A While

Wednesday, March 21 by David Askaripour in Marketing | 5 Comments

Last night I was invited to sit in on a conference called covering real estate, flipping homes, and investing in properties. I was surprised to learn that the speaker, a super successful real estate investor, found most of her clients by looking up the names of lawyers in the yellow book and sending them fancy — wedding invitation style — letters introducing who she was and the type of homes she was looking to buy.

She stressed the point of purchasing fancy stationary for the following reasons:

• It gets past the gatekeepers who screen all mail
• It’s more memorable and leaves a good impression with people
• It shows that you are a person of quality and prestige

Every 90 days this real estate investor sends a few hundred of these fancy letters with top-notch envelopes to lawyers who would be interested liquidating homes for their clients — such as divorce and real estate lawyers.

Her advice got me thinking and I believe that there is merit in using snail mail as an effective means of marketing and communication with your friends, clients, and prospects.

I know… I know… we’re all so caught up in this web era and most of us cringe at the thought of circumventing the all-might email. But looking back, every time I send a hand written letter to someone, I always get a different response than I’d get with an email.

People seem to appreciate hand written letters more than emails. They understand that you took time out of your day to sit down and actually write out a message.

There’s also a palpability factor here: people want to hold things, feel things, and intimately experience things. The desire to physically hold something and read it will never be trumped by the net (well, at least not for me ).

Give it a shot. If time permits, send someone a nice letter instead of an email. I can almost guarantee that you’ll experience praise and joy from the recipient.

Take Baby Steps and Improve Your Self Control

Tuesday, March 20 by David Askaripour in Life | 6 Comments

Last night before you went to bed you made a list of things to do:

1. Fax Carolina the W9 tax forms
2. Call Joe at 9am and talk about upgrading his service
3. Email your hosting company to increase your server capacity
4. Meet your mom for lunch
5. Read 15 pages from your new favorite book, The Alchemist

You woke up today and this is what happened:

1. You filled out the W9 form but never faxed it to Carolina
2. You called Joe 3 hours late, at 12pm, and weren’t able to reach him
3. You totally forgot to call the hosting company
4. You met your Mom at the wrong restaurant for lunch
5. You ended up reading only 5 pages of The Alchemist

We young entrepreneurs are notorious for not following through. Sometimes we make excuses, other times we totally forget because we weren’t that interested in the first place, and other times we outright decide “we’ll do it when we feel like it.”

This is all good and well – I’m totally with “doing what we want, when we want.” In fact, that’s how I live my life and it’s one of the luxuries of going into business for yourself.

But there’s a thin line between “doing what you want” and “not following through” on the goals and tasks that you set for yourself.

That’s ok, we’re not perfect and improvements can be made. We can adjust our habits and get with the program. If you find yourself losing control of your plans and falling behind on everything, then take baby steps towards getting back on track.

We all become complacent and get “lazy” from time to time. No doubt. But if you continue to slip-up and disregard the responsibilities that you have set for yourself, then you are doomed.

Just like anything else in life, you can gain strength by practicing. When you go to the gym and hit the weights, your muscles gain strength. The same works with the brain.

Richard Restak, a neurologist at George Washington Medical School states:

If self-control can be depleted like a muscle, then it can also be built up, too.

Everyday, take measures to improve upon the day before. Make conscious efforts to get things done. Don’t set impracticable goals and try to accomplish the world in one day, take small steps and do things little by little.

Instead of having to fax 5 people, schedule 2 faxes for the day. Instead of inking in 4 meetings, plan for 2. The more feasible your goals, the better the chances of you getting them done.

Here’s a quiz, designed by Kathleen Vohs, to help you asses your self control:

never = 1

sometimes = 2

frequently = 3

almost always = 4

___ How often do you hit the snooze button on the alarm clock?

___ Do you find that even when you try to control your emotions, others can tell what you are feeling?

___ On days when you feel tired and lethargic are you unable to get yourself to the gym or exercise class?

___ Do people say you have no patience?

___ At the end of a party, how often do you regret some of the things you’ve said?

___ Do you have a problem controlling your urges? For instance, have you found you can’t control your desire to drink alcohol or to gamble?

___ How often do you act on the first impulse you have?

___ Do your friends tell you that you’re bad with money and unable to manage your finances?

___ TOTAL

Scoring: How muscular is your restraint?

* 26-32: Weak. Start flexing today. You need to bulk up.
* 19-25: All right. Nice tone, but a few problem areas.
* 8-18: Strong. You could put the world on your shoulders.

Why Would I Want to Work for Your Startup?

Tuesday, March 20 by David Askaripour in Start-Ups | 14 Comments

Free food, ping pong tables, pool tables, rock climbing, free doctor checkups, oil changes, car washes, free haircuts, swimming pools, and even a shuttle service fully equipped with wireless internet access that’ll pick you up and drop you back home after work.

That’s it, I’m quitting being an entrepreneur and going to work for Google! Yeah, the above luxuries are all a part of the Google experience for each and every employee.

Ok, I kid… I kid… I’m staying an entrepreneur and not going to work for Google, but talk about benefits, eh? These are the types of benefits that make people — the rest of corporate Americans — feel live they’re in slavery.

People working at Google truly appreciate these benefits. In fact, for some employees, it was the reason that they took the job. This 23 year-old programmer’s decision to work at Google was partly based upon their shuttle service:

Michael Gaiman, a 23-year-old Web applications engineer who lives in San Francisco and was recently hired, said he turned down an offer from Apple before accepting the job at Google. “It definitely was a factor,” Gaiman said of the shuttle.

What can we learn from Google? We can learn to make our work environments fun, relaxed, and chill. When employees — or partners in most of our cases — are happy where they work, then productivity and overall mood enhances. Days seem brighter and work seems lighter.

Here are some ideas that you may want to consider:

Games, Toys, and Fun

Liven things up and install a pool table or pong table in your office. Something to have fun with and take a break from things. Clear your head. Have some fun. Relax those muscles. You may want to install a Wii and play some tennis. Oh, and on the weekends, have a beer pong tournament – who doesn’t like beer pong?

Food! Food! Food!

Provide some free food every once in a while. Order a pizza. Get some takeout. Take everyone out to lunch. People always appreciate a meal and will love the person — or company — that feeds them. Even if it’s as small as brining in some candy or snacks to munch on, it’ll pull a smile on their faces.

Events, Parties, Gatherings

Round up the team and get the hell out of the office. Take a day or an entire weekend and go to an event, have a party, go clubbing, drink some wine, go to Six Flags, whatever. It doesn’t matter. Just get out and do something together. Have the company cover the expenses. When you do things together, you’ll become a tighter team.

Have any ideas to share about making the work environment fun and a better place to work? Share your stories with the Mind Petals Community.

Are Colleges Starting to Appreciate The Young Entrepreneur?

Monday, March 19 by David Askaripour in School | 3 Comments

Wall Street Journal published an interesting article today called Entrepreneurship 101. Mind Petals advisor, Dan Putt, sent the article my way and boy was I glad to read it… it made my day to hear that colleges are actually starting to wakeup and come to terms that entrepreneurship can’t be ignored. They are starting to see the light, little by little.

Here are some excerpts from the article:

Kudos to Arizona State! Now this is a college that appreciates young entrepreneurs and I hope that other colleges around the country will follow in their footsteps and start setting up similar funds.

So many of us have excellent, excellent ideas but don’t have a dime to invest into the business. Sure, bootstrapping is great but if you can attain the support of your college and get some financial help, then even better.

Duh… yes, “many of us are likely” to work for ourselves one day. I’m still so shocked to see that universities are just realizing this fact now. Why couldn’t you see that 5 years ago? Ok, so it’s time to play catch-up. We’ll forgive your ignorance by starting some funds for our startups.

Right on! Stop wasting those dorm rooms for regular living – turn some of those babies into incubator rooms. This is exactly what colleges should be doing – providing housing specifically for teams of young entrepreneurs.

Why aren’t all colleges doing this? Believe me, I highly doubt money is an issues, especially with the rising costs of tuition. Each and every college should have a living wing for entrepreneurs who want to live together – no excuses.

If your college currently doesn’t offer this type of dorming, you should do something about it! You should rebel.

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Let’s keep it going. Now that colleges are jumping onboard, let’s hope – no, let’s demand – that the momentum keeps up.

Well you can’t teach us to be innovative, creative, and hungry to succeed – that’s for sure. But you can provide us the necessary tools to succeed. You can teach us laws, intellectual property, how to get funding, etc…

Young entrepreneurs, this is great news! We are bringing about change and the world can no longer ignore us. This is just the beginning and we’ll soon see more and more universities stop playing dumb and wakeup from their long naps. Kudos to us!

Update: Here’s a video from Robert Shedd’s blog:

Big-Talking Entrepreneurs

Monday, March 19 by Brian Lash in Life | 5 Comments

Have you ever met a big-talking entrepreneur?

The type who flaps his gums to you about bioreactors and continuous circuits and other high-tech whozits ‘n whatzats. Who asks about your business to test your intellect and decide whether or not the small neurons shooting in your head – which naturally pale in comparison to his – are worth his time. Who will sooner explain why an entrepreneur’s success “isn’t so impressive” than celebrate another’s good fortune.

Indeed entrepreneurship brings you in contact with a lot of interesting people. More times than not they’re bright, hard-working individuals who are humble about their accomplishments.

Then there are the big-talkers, or the guys of the variety I described above.

They’re arrogant and they talk over you. They concern themselves more with describing their businesses than asking about your own. And they only associate with people who can help them.

My short experience has brought me into contact with this sort of entrepreneur – call him Pete – and I fortunately see him on an almost-daily basis. I say “fortunately” because knowing guys like this serve us well: They illustrate what not to be like.

When I hear myself saying something that sounds like it would come from Pete’s mouth, or doing something that seems like something Pete would do, I take a corrective measure.

You can too: Occasionally it means changing our tone of voice. Other times it implies closing our mouths altogether.

But at every interval it reminds us to take some deliberate measure to consciously monitor our behavior.

Maybe you’ve had an experience of a similar sort learning what not to say or do by the example of another (big-talker or otherwise).

If so, share it here.

Brian Lash is founder of The Tipping Blog and writes about the entrepreneurial experience at BrianLash.com

You’re working on what? “Me too.”

Sunday, March 18 by Brian Lash in Innovation | 1 Comment

When I tell an entrepreneur about a new product or service idea, he’ll ask, “Has it been done before?”

A lot of entrepreneurs – myself included – think along these lines; We hear a new idea and want to know if it’s truly innovative. And we consider our own ideas in light of those products and services that already exist.

But in so doing we exaggerate the relevance of first mover advantage.

FMA says that when a firm is first to enter a market with a new offering, it has demand and supply-side advantages over its competitors by virtue of its favorable timing. That’s because it can do a few things that later entrants (supposedly) can’t, such as:

• winning a spot in the market’s mind
• locking up key resources, and
• price skimming

So the theory goes.

But FMA is tough to prove empirically. Many street-savvy entrepreneurs put absolutely no stock in it. Others believe its advantages, if calculable, are fleeting.

That’s because “me too” companies (i.e. those firms that ride the market waves created by successful offerings which precede them) command several advantages of their own.

Consider Facebook (MySpace). Six Apart’s TypePad (Blogger). Apple’s iPod.

Companies of this variety are able to exist in the same market as — and in some cases usurp the power of — entrenched players.

That’s because they must:

• invest less in R&D and market research, and
• spend less time and money readying the market for its innovation (consider that while Rio had to spend millions telling the marketplace what an mp3 player is and does, Apple – who incidentally followed Rio – delivered its offering to an informed marketplace. And won to the tune of billions in revenues.)

Not bad.

The point is that there’s often plenty of room for more than one heavyweight in a marketplace. And that while that fact is often lost on we innovation-obsessed entrepreneurs (“I needs to do something new – something that’s never been done before”), it’s worth considering when we next evaluate a market opportunity.

If nothing else, we’ll know that our attempts to develop “me too” offerings put us in good company.

Brian Lash is founder of The Tipping Blog and writes about the entrepreneurial experience at BrianLash.com

The “Others’ Mistakes” Fallacy

Sunday, March 18 by Brian Lash in Life | 1 Comment

Every weekend I help my parents at their small business (it’s a mom ‘n pop convenience store). It keeps my feet on the ground, it reminds me of the importance of a few business fundamentals (like treating customers better than they expect to be treated when they walk through the front door), and it puts me in touch with a lot of interesting people.

Recently I was working with my mom when a friend of the family stopped for lunch. Pleasant man; Invariably he asks how college is going, and about what I plan to do when I graduate.

I told him that I’m not sure yet – that I’m working a few channels, but that I intend to be in business for myself.

“Get a job,” he told me.

Hate that.

He followed up by saying

“Go to work for someone else. Learn from his mistakes.”

That’s a little better – at least he supports his argument with some logic. And it’s buttressed by the adage, “A smart man learns from his mistakes. A wise man learns from the mistakes of others.”

I nevertheless take exception with this line of thought. Because it’s an oversimplification. Because it’s an easy way to encourage entrepreneurs to take up “real jobs.” And because it’s the product of a culture that is paralyzed by a fear of mistakes.

I argue here that while working for other entrepreneurs can afford up-and-comers valuable insights into the entrepreneurial experience, it’s only one way to learn. And moreover, it may be an inferior way.

It’s an argument for learning to start a business the way we learned to ride bikes: By falling, by trying again, and by making our own mistakes.

Because those lessons stick with us.

We can always (re: should always) have a mentor. In the bike analogy, a parent or a friend to coax us on our way. In business, someone who’s been there before, and who will challenge us to reach higher, perform better.

But for the time we spend working for someone else we (probably) aren’t in business for ourselves. And that sets a hurdle for what we must learn from “real jobs” in order that they should compensate not only for the time we could have spent developing our own enterprises, but also for what we could have learned by making our own errors. By testing the waters. By operating without a safety net.

Why assume that working under another entrepreneur is the best – or worse, the only – way to acquire the skills and abilities to start businesses?

Why not make some mistakes of our own?

Brian Lash is founder of The Tipping Blog and writes about the entrepreneurial experience at BrianLash.com

How’s the Chicken Noodle Soup? Sure, it’s a Great Choice!

Saturday, March 17 by David Askaripour in Operations | 2 Comments

Go to any restaurant in the world and randomly choose any dish off of the menu and ask the waiter if it’s a good meal. 99% of the time – no matter what you pick – you are going to hear something like: “That’s a wonderful choice. It’s excellent!”

Go ahead and ask how the dog shit with tartar sauce is and she’ll say: “Wonderful!”

Do you want to know what I say to that? I say bullshit. It doesn’t matter what dinner you choose; you can throw a dart at the menu and pick a meal and you’ll get the same old, memorized, half-assed response every…single…time…

So what’s the lesson here? The lesson is to be open, honest, and upfront with all of the services that your business offers. You may have a wide variety of services that meet different needs for different clients.

Don’t be a fool by letting your customers think that any one of your service will meet their needs just because they happen to ask you about that particular service first.

In other words, if they are interested in a particular services that is $50.00 per month and “they” think that it can work for their business but you know that the $9.99 per month service will work just fine for what they need, then don’t keep them in the dark.

Be an honest entrepreneur and sell them the cheaper service that works best for them, not the more expensive services just to make an extra few bucks while cheating the customer – nobody wins.

Questioning the Professor-Entrepreneur

Friday, March 16 by Brian Lash in School | 5 Comments

A friend of mine needed to interview an entrepreneur to fulfill a requirement for his Strategic Management class. His professor — a self-proclaimed entrepreneur — requires as much.

I agreed to the interview on the grounds that I would be helping a buddy. Anyway, I was curious.

I mean, what’s an entrepreneur-professor?

With few exceptions (a la the successful entrepreneur who becomes a Professor of Entrepreneurship late in life because he can no longer live the entrepreneurial lifestyle), aren’t professors the antithesis of entrepreneurs? The ones who ready us for — ugh — “real jobs?” For the corporate ladder and cubicles and pensions and 401k’s?

My friend had four pages of questions for me. They were dull. They were academic.

Here’s one of my favorites:

What’s he mean by “gaps?” Opportunity gaps? Or sensitive points in the business model that required extra attention? In either case, why not say as much?

The other questions were equally dull: “What was your greatest strength when you started? What’s your greatest strength today? What was your greatest weakness? Your greatest weakness today?”

As we proceeded through the Q&A session I began to think of the other entrepreneurs who were answering these questions. What did they think of the interview? And of the professor who developed such “textbook” questions?
I don’t mean to pick on this guy; After all, there’s a good chance I don’t understand his motivations. Perhaps he’s going to “wow” his students when he explains that the point of the exercise was to show them that entrepreneurship can’t be captured in the responses to a series of one-dimensional questions.

…right.

I criticize the academic’s approach because it’s so, well… academic. I felt like I was answering questions for a survey. Questions that were of little consequence to the broader picture of the entrepreneurial experience.

But maybe I’m biased — I’m certainly predisposed to question the professor-entrepreneur.

But that’s because I (like most entrepreneurs I know) have adopted the philosophy that unless you’ve started a business, unless you’ve developed an uncommon way — by virtue of your hard work, innovation, and thoughtful execution — to solve some problem, you’re not an entrepreneur. And if that’s the case, what business do you have teaching it?

Brian Lash is founder of The Tipping Blog and writes about the entrepreneurial experience at BrianLash.com

Are You Watching TV Right Now?

Friday, March 16 by David Askaripour in Life | 11 Comments

Don’t you just love some good ol’ TV? It would be so easy to say that I hardly ever watch television and that it’s bad for the entrepreneur because you can be spending your time doing something more productive, say, like running your business.

But let’s keep it real here, most of us watch TV and love it. I think it’s fair to say that most of us young entrepreneurs do more business running than TV watching, otherwise, I doubt that we’d ever been successful with our ventures.

I used to fight watching TV so badly! I used to say: “I’m an entrepreneur, I shouldn’t be watching TV at all. I should be spending most of my time running the business. TV is only going to ruin my creativity and turn my mind into slushy waste.”

But extremes don’t sit well with the entrepreneur – especially the young entrepreneur. It’s pretty extreme when you decide to cut yourself off from TV altogether.

When you live your life through extremes, you develop a dogmatic way of seeing things; you miss out on opportunities, and you become too strict for your own good. Here’s a good mantra: “everything with moderation.”

Like anything else — beer, partying, eating, sex (hmm… maybe not this one) — TV should be consumed in moderation. Too much of anything isn’t good. Too much of TV will, no doubt, turn your mind into slush.

Personally, I like to stick to a set of shows that I watch every week. Other than that, much time isn’t spent on the tube. Rome, Sopranos, House, Lost, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Prison Break, and Entourage are all must-sees for me.

I’m definitely in love with these shows with a sprinkle of National Geographic, Animal Channel, and the occasional MTV from time to time.

Com’on, we’re entrepreneurs. We deserve some TV time every once and a while. TV is a great way to take a break, let your mind relax, and refresh for another round of intense work.

When I’m having a busy day, I’ll take short 15 minutes breaks every once in a while and watch something to settle my mind. Sure, a walk or run would also do the trick but we don’t always have to time to get up, go outside, and start exercising.

What about you… Do you watch TV at all? If so, what shows do you like?

Stay Calm, Breathe, and Relax

Thursday, March 15 by David Askaripour in Life | 4 Comments

Let’s face it, running a business isn’t always the most fun thing to do in the world. Running a business is like a rollercoaster – a series of ups, downs, and turns. Some days you’ll feel like you’re on top of the world and other days you’ll feel like you’re in absolute hell.

If there’s one thing I learned as a leader and entrepreneur, it’s to remain calm, cool, and collected no matter what. No matter how bad the situation is — losing a client, crashing a server, deleting your saved information, destroying your computer, or having your girlfriend break your heart while finding out that you didn’t get accepted into your dream college, etc… — you must be able to keep a clear head.

Sure, easier said than done. Isn’t everything? But without equanimity, you can never become a powerful leader, let alone an effective entrepreneur.

Punching the walls until your knuckles bleed

Think about it: what happened the last time something went wrong. Did you start punching walls, cursing at the top of your lungs, and start releasing your anger on anything that has a heart pulse within a 3-mile radius?

Staying calm and thinking out the situation

Or… did you get angry, but were able to stay calm, thinking relatively clearly, and be able to make rational decisions (not emotional ones)?

Learn how to control your emotions

If you are of the former mindset after a problem, then you may want to start practicing how to stay calm after a tragic event. It’s hard, I know, but you don’t want to be one of those people who make “emotional” decisions in the heat of the moment. You’ll almost always regret those sort of rash decisions.

When something hits the fan and your world feels like it’s coming to an end, then the first thing that you need to do is “breathe….breathe…breathe…” Try and think about what exactly happened, assess the damage, then calmly start thinking of solutions.

Try and isolate what “just happened” from “what you need to do” to remedy the situation. Call me weird, but I am a firm believer that everything that happens in life happens for a reason – mistakes, problems, and mishaps included. A reason that will probably make more sense down the line. Problems are usually blessings in disguise.

This is the life we chose

That’s what it’s all about, baby! That’s what we live for. We’re entrepreneurs – we fall down, hurt ourselves, and get right back up to do it again.

How do you deal with problems?

What’s Your Entrepreneurial Legend?

Wednesday, March 14 by David Askaripour in Life | 1 Comment

I couldn’t see it at first, but the more and more I live the life of an entrepreneur, the more that I see that “entrepreneurship” isn’t only about business, money, marketing, innovation, funding, etc…

It’s a Life Thing

The more I think about, the more that I see entrepreneurship as a way of life. There can be many forms of entrepreneurship. Many ways to bring about change. Many ways to help people.

The entrepreneur can be the Red Cross nurse who has raised funding from the government to help AIDS victims in Africa.

The entrepreneur can be suburban kid who gives 10% of his allowance to homeless people living on the street.

The entrepreneur can be public speaker who goes from school to school motivating kids to strive for better grades and go to college.

Entrepreneurship and bringing about change are one in the same

All to often we equate entrepreneurship with coming up with an idea, starting a business, and making money off that idea.

Nah…nah… it’s so much more than that and I have to admit, I didn’t understand that in the beginning.

The Red Cross nurse, the teenage kid, and the public speaker…. these are all entrepreneurs. They all have ideas. So what if they don’t run their own businesses or have some grand scheme to make millions – that’s not what defines us.

We each have a Legend to follow

It’s not what we think about, the ideas that we come up with, or the dreams that we have… it’s about what we do as people – our actions define who we are in life.

Each of us have different paths, courses, or legends to follow in life. Our legends are our individual blueprints and course of action to bring about change — in our own life, the lives of others, or both.

Whether it’s making millions, starting a company, or helping feed the hungry… we all have legends that unite us. And in that sense, entrepreneurs come in different shapes, forms, and sizes – not just the ones who create companies.

What’s your legend?

Lessons from the Field (A Top-10 List)

Wednesday, March 14 by Brian Lash in Start-Ups | Leave a Comment

In the spring of my junior year of college I spent some time working for a local tech startup. It was a neat opportunity to gain some entrepreneurial experience while making some money and “learning by doing.”

The company was developing social computing software with a mobile spin, and was readying for its first (gated) release to the local college community.

I entered the firm at a stage when the only guys involved were its founder and the software architect, so there was plenty of opportunity to get my hands dirty.

I share the Top 10 lessons I took from that experience here:

1. Brevity counts:

   People are busy. They only listen when they know you’ll respect their time.

2. Be proactive:

   The launch was released to about 200 users, but not one of them would have logged on had they not been recruited by someone.

3. Take feedback seriously:

   I remember when a group of students was solicited for its thoughts on a set of possible names for the company’s product. Interestingly, the name that was adopted didn’t win the kind of support you would expect for the name of a company’s flagship product.

4. Your market will tell you what it wants – or doesn’t want – from your product:

   There are exceptions, but generally the market knows more about its wants than you do. Your product must conform to its needs, wants, and expectations. Ask what they are, then conform.

5. Assigning “big” titles is a two-edged sword:

   People see through it. If an employee – especially an entrepreneur-employee – is given a big title without big authority and responsibility to match, s/he will resent you.

6. College students will work for less than you think:

   I was amazed – The project had eight student-leaders – people who met and planned and invested real time into the product launch – and I was the only one on the company books as an employee.

7. …but their work won’t be the quality you expect:

   There’s a difference – a big difference – between brainpower and performance potential.

8. Some employees weren’t meant for entrepreneurial work:

   After an interval with the firm I was able to recruit an employee who would report to me. I selected a female colleague from my school’s business program because I knew she was a hard worker, and because I saw a good fit. And she would have been, had the firm been more mechanistic, more bureaucratic (read: less entrepreneurial). I selected her based on the wrong criteria and later paid for the decision in the form of an ugly break-up.

9. Appreciate informed dissent:

   I made a terrible call about the product’s release date: I wanted to launch on a Friday night, which seemed to me like that time when people are most looking for something fun and relaxing to do on the Internet. When my group of peers disagreed with me, a part of me resented them. Then I realized how right they were – that no one wants to spend their Friday night networking on a computer. They got their way. I got over myself. And the product launch – thanks to their dissent – was saved.

10. Inauthentic delegation is ineffective:

    The owner disagreed with me about the tone of an e-mail I wanted to send. He re-wrote my message and forwarded it to me so I could see the changes. When I explained that I had reservations taking his approach he said, “Well this is the one I’m sending.” I left the firm shortly thereafter.

Brian Lash is founder of The Tipping Blog and writes about the entrepreneurial experience at BrianLash.com

Water The Entrepreneurship Seed Within You

Monday, March 12 by David Askaripour in Life | 2 Comments

“Scientist agree that nearly all individuals develop undetectable cancer about six times in a seventy-year life span. Yet only one in three of these people actually develops overgrown and detectable cancer” (The Green Tea Book, pg 53).

Wow, isn’t that crazy. Most people have some form of cancer hiding out in their bodies and they don’t even know it. It’s not only crazy, but scary. Luckily, most peoples’ cancer doesn’t metastasize and remains inactive for the duration of their lives.

While reading this interesting and disturbing fact, I couldn’t help but try and apply a similar notion to the world of young entrepreneurs. Like cancer, I would say that many people are born with the entrepreneurship seed.

What’s the seed? Just an analogy I like to use that explains the inherit ability to create and run a business. The natural ability to lead and influence people. And the hunger to bring about change.

Many of us are born with this seed, but, sadly enough, many of us will go through our lives not detecting our potential; not pushing forward with our dreams to become a successful entrepreneur; continuing to follow when we should be leading; and living through a life of fear instead being courageous and bold.

Just as the caner remains dormant in most people, the entrepreneurship seed remains unfertilized, malnourished, and incapable from blossoming into a beautiful flower of success.

Scientist say that “healthy diets, lifestyle, and exercising” help minimize and inhibit cancerous cells from continuing to mutate. But for us young entrepreneurs, there are other inhibiting factors.

Our parents push (and sometimes force) us to become hard working 9 to 5ers. Our college professors groom us for years on how to become effective “employees” and our friends nag us to “get a job” and to “stop dreaming.”

It appears as though the world is out to destroy the seeds of entrepreneurship. There are so, so, so many factors that make it ridiculously easy for a would-be entrepreneur to turn their backs on entrepreneurship and take the “safe” road to employment and growing someone else’s company for the rest of their lives.

Sure, there is no problem being an employee and working for someone else for the rest of your life. That can be very rewarding and honorable. But there is a problem when you constantly deny your desires, deny your abilities, and deny your hunger to unleash yourself as an entrepreneur. That’s the real problem.

We need to stop starving our entrepreneur seed and start watering them. Let them grow. Let them flourish. Let the world lavish in the fruits that your flowers will bear.

Last time I checked, each person had only one life to live. Only one chance to be alive. And as each day passes, your time on this Earth come to a closer end.

Time is of the essence. If you have that inexplicable feeling of entrepreneurship; that feeling to change the world; that feeling to build something; then unleash yourself.

Unlock your potential and share your dream with the world.

What kind of car do you drive?

Sunday, March 11 by Brian Lash in Operations | 6 Comments

What kind of car do you drive? Cell phone do you use? What brand of watch do you wear? What home do you live in? Have you outfitted it with luxury furniture and plasma screen TVs? Or did you furnish it with some IKEA essentials on a bargain budget? And where do you work? Play?

It’s no secret that entrepreneurs manage a ton of tensions. Some of those are non-financial, like the balance we must strike between work and family. Others, like fundamental decisions about how to spend our hard-earned money, naturally are.

For many of us the tendency is to maximize what we can afford. “Why should I buy a used Civic with 80,000 miles,” we reason, “when I can afford the new model?” We apply similar logic when buying cell phones and watches and new home.

But there’s a problem: Maximizing what we can reasonably afford often doesn’t translate to the best use of our money.

That’s because an S Class Mercedes-Benz can’t make sales. Because a Rolex watch won’t help us to decide which new markets to pursue. Because an over-the-top wardrobe from a high-profile designer can’t make our companies more operationally fit.

I mean that we’re constantly managing tensions between fundamental questions of form and function. Between how we interpret our needs, and the way we expect our solutions to those needs to perform. And this tension applies equally to the way we spend money in our businesses.

Writes Guy Kawasaki, former Chief Evangelist at Apple and founder of Garage.com, “When spending money, always focus on the function you need, not the form it takes. For example, proper accounting does not mean retaining a big-name firm (form) and then assuming the job will get done (function).”

I had the opportunity to learn a valuable lesson in “form versus function” not long ago when I traveled to the offices of a local robotics firm. The company is located in a run-down part of town. So run-down, in fact, that I was unsettled as I walked to its front door.

When I arrived I was instructed to wait in a cramped area where I tried to sip from a water fountain that didn’t work. When the Director of Sales and Estimation came to greet me, he brought me to a cluttered room. As I sat down, I noticed that the furniture looked like a collection of items from employees’ homes. The stuffing was falling from chair.

From my description you may think the company is in shambles. It isn’t. In fact, it’s one of the fastest-growing robotics firms in Pittsburgh.

I point to their example here because it illustrates what happens when we begin thinking critically about form and function. Because the robotics firm values function, it has saved cash to reinvest in its growth. That means more resources to invest in finding and growing profitable customers. And more cash on the bottom line.

I admit that this isn’t easy – that it takes a great amount of restraint to forfeit an affordable expense in lieu of that which is most practical.

But understanding the tension – which is most fundamentally a tension between wants and needs – brings us a long way toward developing that discipline.

Brian Lash is founder of The Tipping Blog and writes about the entrepreneurial experience at BrianLash.com.

Move your workspace, Increase productivity

Saturday, March 10 by Brian Lash in Operations | 2 Comments

It’s amazing what happens when you change your workspace. I always took that idea with a grain of salt. After all, if you work hard – if you’re passionate – why should you need a change of scenery to be productive?

I learned why last night.

One of my buddies – a collaborator on a new venture – was staying in a local church after hours; to fulfill a Business Ethics class community service requirement, he struck an agreement with the church that he would stay on-hand until dawn. (For those who aren’t familiar with the practice, churches often provide temporary shelter to needy individuals without homes of their own).

Our local church – maybe it’s a rule of thumb, I don’t know – requires that one person stay on duty over the night on those nights when it houses the homeless. Probably a liability thing.

At any rate, my partner was to spend a full night at the church. When he explained as much to me, he claimed it would be great time for us to work, and to do so peacefully – What’s more, it would be a neat opportunity to serve both the church and those less fortunate who were housed there.

I was skeptical …and naïve. Because last night became one of the most productive days in the venture’s young life.
We worked more than five hours between 11pm and 5am. We pitched ideas. Shot them down. Made cases for some. Argued others.

Five hours. Doesn’t sound so long, I know. But it was a solid block of time without distractions. Best, we had no phone interruptions. Not because we didn’t take our calls, but because it was so late that no one needed anything from us.

To put a number to our productivity, we agreed in advance to brainstorm questions for a game we’re developing. I would have been happy with 100; We left with nearly 250.

The experience has made a believer out of me – there’s something to be said for changing your workspace. For abandoning your office in lieu of a quiet retreat where you can think in peace.

Anyone can find his or her own way to accomplish as much, but churches are a compelling, affordable start. I’ve heard (but can’t confirm) that a church will “rent” an unused room – sometimes on a monthly basis – to a member of its congregation in exchange for a small donation. You pay the church and inadvertently help charity. It makes the most of otherwise idle space. That’s win-win.

And that’s precisely what happened last night: My partner and I paid nothing but our community service in exchange for a place to work that was quiet, cozy, and detached from our familiar workspaces only a few blocks away.

You may be a skeptic – I was too. But it’s worth asking yourself how you could benefit by moving your own workspace. Because it may do wonders.

Brian Lash is founder of The Tipping Blog and writes about the entrepreneurial experience at BrianLash.com.

Keep Your Work Environment Fresh

Friday, March 9 by David Askaripour in Operations | 7 Comments

Come on, let’s face it, working from home can get pretty boring and monotonous at times. Of course, working anywhere other than a cubicle is Heaven, but even the confines of our own homes, dorm rooms, and garages can sometimes resemble a cubicle – without the boss breathing over your back, of course.

I think that it’s good for young entrepreneurs to get out of their normal working environments, pack up the laptop, and spend a day or two working somewhere new for the day.

When I found myself going a bit insane from sleeping and working in the same room – my NYC apartment – for months, I would pack up my computer, head on over to a local Starbucks, order some good green tea, and start working on a coffee table.

You should try it. You’d be surprised how refreshing it can feel when you change up your work environment every once in a while. Your mind will be allowed to start thinking in new ways when you start switching things up.

Heck, it doesn’t even have to be a coffee shop — at the very least, go to a different room and do your work there. Step out of your office, lie down on a couch somewhere, and get to work.

It’s fun to switch up your working environment. It keeps things fresh, spontaneous, and alive. And if you want to do something radical, why not get a shared office.

In this article, Where the Coffee Shop Meets the Cubicle , you’ll see that entrepreneurs are actually paying small amounts of money ($170 per month) to share office space, computer access, and even private conference rooms with other entrepreneurs.

I’d be interested to hear about other young entrepreneurs working environments. I recently met a few young entrepreneurs who are all running their startup and living in a house in Long Island, NY. Also, we all know of young entrepreneurs running their startups out of their dorm rooms.

What about you – where are you running your startup? Do you ever switch things up? Do you live with your partners, or do you all meet everyday to run the company?

Website Magazine – Where Have You Been All My Life?

Thursday, March 8 by David Askaripour in MP News | 5 Comments

Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Content Management Systems (CMS), programming, designing, social networking, Web 2.0, Google Page Rank (PR), organic listings, search engines, etc… We, young Internet-savvy entrepreneurs have become very familiar with these terms. In fact, many of us have become self-taught experts in some of these areas and have built entire businesses around them.

Last night when I was told about free magazine that focuses on all areas of the Internet and running websites, my eyes lit up and my heart sped up – I was absolutely stoked to find out that such a magazine existed and, even better, that it was for free!

Sure, I love Business 2.0 – it’s my favorite magazine. But after learning about this new magazine and reading the online version today, I now have two favorite magazines.

This magazine is great, because it really focuses on topics that are relevant to my life as an Internet entrepreneur running a website. Staying on top of the latest Web 2.0 trends, social networks, and the blogoshpere is definitely going to be much easier with this magazine.

As a young entrepreneur, I’m sure that your time is limited and what you read should – in some way – add value to your business. That is why it’s important to read “nichey” and highly focused content that isn’t going to waste your time.

Magazines are perfect for doing just that. They are easy to travel with and read while on the road or taking a break from your hectic schedule.

Take a few minutes to signup for a free subscription of Website Magazine. You’ll not only receive a free magazine in the mail, but you’ll be helping to support Mind Petals when you use the above link.

The (dis)Connected Entrepreneur

Thursday, March 8 by Brian Lash in Life | 2 Comments

My Dell’s Wireless Network Connection Status reads “Wireless network detected.” I use my cell phone to send my buddy in South Beach an SMS text, and to check for messages from my girlfriend in Miami.

I wait at my gate to board my JetBlue flight from Boston to Pittsburgh. My round-trip ticket cost less than $100.

The gentlemen seated at my right is lost in his BlackBerry. He may be reading an e-mail. He may be surfing the web.

He holds the power of the Internet in the palm of his hand.

We’ve all heard this story before. About a connected Earth. About the global economy. About a “flat world.”

And we’ve heard about it ad nauseum. That’s why this isn’t a re-hashing of the same “connected” story.

Instead, it’s a discussion of the ramifications of a connected world for the entrepreneur. I make the case that every good has a potential negative, but that we must consider the risks in light of the benefits.

Consider offshoring, say, manufacturing to China. We consider it relative to domestic production.

When you offshore, you get: Cheap materials and affordable labor. And convenience – it takes no more than two minutes to pull up a register of potential Chinese manufacturers.

You (may) sacrifice: Control. Because 1) You don’t own the overseas company, and 2) you aren’t around. Foreign producers know that we can’t board an international flight at the drop of a hat when something goes wrong. When their results don’t meet our expectations. When things just aren’t done right.

The example isn’t intended to illustrate that connectedness is bad, or that it’s always the wrong alternative. Of course not.

Instead, the point is to exercise caution. When offshoring manufacturing to China or engineering to India. When checking e-mail incessantly. Even when answering your cell phone during family time.

In the words of the gentleman at my side (who is still on his BlackBerry), “It can be a real burden.”

And that’s why we’ve got to use connectedness to our advantage, and to not let our obsession – with efficiency and convenience and connectedness – obscure our understanding of the business fundamentals that made us entrepreneurs.

Brian Lash is the founder of The Tipping Blog and writes about the entrepreneurial experience at BrianLash.com.

Are Young Entrepreneurs Cold Calling?

Wednesday, March 7 by David Askaripour in Operations | 6 Comments

It just came to me: I hardly ever hear of any young entrepreneurs cold calling for their startups. You know, picking up the phone and calling people who you don’t know in order to solicit their business. Probably one of the best examples of cold calling is what stockbrokers do all day long – make 500+ calls a day to try and convince you to invest in the next best stock of the world.

I’ll be honest, I absolutely hate cold calling and I’m sure that many young entrepreneurs share that same outlook. I know that many businesses need to cold call and it’s the natural way to do business for many sectors, but what about young entrepreneurs?

Maybe I have a biased outlook — okay, I do — because most of the young entrepreneurs I know are running Internet-based ventures and mainly rely on emails and newsletters to communicate with their existing clients and to find new ones.

Cold calling has never sat well with me. I try to put myself in shoes of the person being called and I ask myself: “would I want someone to call me out-of-the-blue without my consent?” No, not really.

I think this new era of young entrepreneurship has ushered in a new way communicating and reaching out to clients and cold calling is out and the Internet / warm calling is in.

Warm calling is what I bet most young entrepreneurs are doing (after emailing). Warm calling is placing a call to someone who is expecting the call – someone that you already know or that knows of your company beforehand.

Let’s figure out how young entrepreneurs are communicating. Post your means of getting new clients and communicating with your existing clients below in our poll:

Don’t Read This Article

Wednesday, March 7 by Brian Lash in Life | 2 Comments

Entrepreneurs… we’re avid readers. We pour over business periodicals. We study Harvard Business and MIT Sloan Management Reviews. We read books. And books. And more books still.

And many times our propensity to read is beneficial, like when we learn something useful about industry-wide trends, or when we discover new ways to start, grow, and run our companies.

Other times, though, it’s expensive. Because reading isn’t our work… building companies is. And sometimes we read when we could be winning a new customer, or closing a sale, or making a mistake.

I think the final point captures the essence of why we entrepreneurs read as much as we do; We don’t want to waste money. We don’t want to make the wrong move. We don’t want to be caught not knowing an industry detail that we could have learned if we had just read.

In other words, we don’t like to make mistakes.

Mind Petals contributor William Quisenberry addresses this topic in an article titled It Isn’t Where You Start that Matters. He writes, “…in our culture we come from the ‘microwave generation,’ we want everything correct and done in just a few seconds.”

“Another issue plaguing young ‘prenuers,” Quisenberry continues, “is also the fact that they place too much emphasis on their current situation or what they perceive as a negative or unstable foundation.”

Applied to this topic, Quisenberry encourages us to put down our books, and to abandon our entrepreneurs-as-sponges orientation. Because reading is simply a means to an end, and it might not be (re: probably isn’t) the best channel to bring us there.

Why not?

Because entrepreneurial reading is characterized by diminishing returns. That is, each additional resource we read adds more value, but adds incrementally less value than what we read before it.

And that makes intuitive sense: there’s only so much we need to know – that we can know – about trends in our environments. About the sales process. And how to build our companies.

Everything else we can learn by doing. Still, the point is not to stop reading. Not at all. Instead, the emphasis is to read selectively, and to ensure that it never inhibits our “get-to-it-iveness.”

Because too much reading is counterproductive. Not enough reading is cert