Innoveering Nebraska

My friend Mary Kay and I have been walking at the local zoo (the Henry Doorly Zoo) every Sunday.  Lately it’s been cooler and we’ve been visiting the butterfly pavilion to warm up.  I’ve enjoyed it immensely.  The multitude of beautiful, varied, delicate, fluttering butterflies remind me greatly of entrepreneurial dreams.  Think about it, they’re both unique, erratic, ephemeral and yet hardier than they seem.   

Three weeks ago we saw a terrible site at the exit of the pavilion.  A boy crushed the body of a beautiful butterfly when his parents told him he couldn’t take it with him.   They seemed ashamed of his behavior, but didn’t reprimand him as he threw the dying butterfly down on the path where it fluttered its wings a bit before lying still. 

This disturbing image has stuck with me the last few weeks, popping into my head at unexpected moments.  It’s a powerful image and reminds me greatly of how alarmingly common it is for childish people to squash other people’s entrepreneurial dreams like that little boy crushed the butterfly.  It’s also common for the people around them to not like what they’re doing, but to not call them on their behavior. 

The moral of the tale?  The next time you see someone squashing someone else’s dream, speak up.  And if you’re ever tempted to squash a dream yourself, please pause and remember that little boy and the butterfly.  Is it really your place to kill that particular butterfly dream?

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P.S. The Henry Doorly Zoo is one of the many reasons I love living in Nebraska.

Last night I took my beloved dog, Eleanor, to a fundraiser swim being held by the Omaha Humane Society at one of the closing city public pools.  We met our neighbors John, Norma and Bailey there - much to everyone’s enjoyment. 

The pool was one of the new kinds - with two water slides, a lake-like ramp in the shallow end and water fountains that shoot up and down in various locations.  Two little diving boards, but no high dives. 

Eleanor loves water and dogs and it was a lot of fun to watch her with the two together.  So I did a lot of watching.  It was fascinating.  The people interacting with each other, the dogs interacting with each other, people and dogs interacting together.  There was a lot of risk taking happening in all these interactions.  Lots of trust all around and occasionally some panic. 

The most fascinating was the two water slides.  It was impossible to predict which dogs would make it up the steps and down the slide. 

Which reminds me of people.  I think it’s difficult, if not impossible, to predict who will rise to the occasion, take the right series of risks and succeed in business.  This means we can continue to guess wrongly or we can choose not to pass any judgment and to maybe even offer a little encouragment to everyone we interact with to persevere with their ventures.  For me, the second option seems by far the more productive and compassionate.  I suspect your dog would agree. 

Below is Eleanor venturing forth to enjoy the water and other dogs.

I’ve been contemplating what I love most about my self-employed status.  There’s an addictive feeling of contentment which arises from a sense that there is a direct correlation between the work I do and the rewards (financial, satisfaction of helping others, building something worthwhile, etc.) I receive.  I’m not saying that a formula runs this correlation (at least not any simple formula).  Instead I’m confident that, if I’m creative and work hard, eventually there will be positive results. 

But contentment doesn’t explain it all.  Which is why I’ve found myself contemplating this issue so often lately. 

I’ve decided the big explanation has more to do with chickens.  Specifically free range versus cooped up chickens. 

Have you ever seen Food Inc.?  It’s a documentary about the food industry and where our food comes from today.  In it there are images of these chickens with chest muscles so large that they can only take a few steps before they fall down.  They can’t fly at all and don’t even try.  They’re cooped up together in this large one story structure where they mingle like drunks at a bad party in a too small ballroom.  They’ve been bred for large chest muscles because of our great fondness for chicken breasts.

The big breasted cooped up chickens are well fed, they get to socialize a lot and nothing much is expected of them.  They’re probably happy – mostly because they don’t know anything different from their current circumstances. 

But if you put a free range chicken in that place the free range chicken would be miserable because it is accustomed to the freedom and thrill of dodging predators, hunting down a juicy insect, flapping it’s wings and all other types of chicken joys and trials large and small.  Milling about in a room waiting for dinner or the time to become dinner would be a bore for the free range chicken. 

Which doesn’t mean that it’s evil to be cooped up.  The chicken coop has it’s advantages.  Even a free range chicken might want to rest in a coop every now and then. 

But once you’ve been free range, you know when you’re cooped up. 

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On the Fourth of July the History Channel ran an America the Story of Us marathon and I DVRed every single episode.  I love the series and have never been able to see all of it. I’m slowly watching them one by one now and savoring every little bit.  Yesterday I learned that NASA has used (and may or may not continue to use) whale oil in space.  Apparently it’s the perfect lubricant for space exploration because it doesn’t freeze at the low temperatures found there.  Imagine that, an 1800′s relict enabling the exploration of space.   

Today my favorite quote came from a guidebook that was given to new immigrants at Ellis Island.

Forget your customs and ideals.  Select a goal and pursue it with all your might.  You will experience bad times.  But sooner or later you will achieve your goal.  Don’t take a moments rest.  Run. 

Wow!  How amazing is that?  Can you imagine showing up to a new job and being handed that pamphlet?  What would you think?  How great a company would that be to work for?  How great a country is that to live in?  Oh I hope we still hand out similar pamphlets to new immigrants.  I also wish that we’d hand out similar pamphlets to our existing citizens. 

Had you forgotten how wonderful a place we live for encouraging and enabling entrepreneurship?  I had until I listened to that quote.  I wish I had that pamphlet to sprinkle all over town – at the library and the post office and the coffee shop where all the entrepreneurs hang out like exotic safari animals at a watering hole. 

Your country needs you.  Select a goal.  Get to work.  Don’t take a moments rest.  Run.  Sooner or later you will achieve your goal.

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With a title like Crush It! Why Now is the Time to Cash in on Your Passion and my previous experience with Gary Vaynerchuk’s insightful but very colorful presentations, I was more than a little nervous when I started reading this book.  I had nothing to fear.  Unlike Hugh MacLeod‘s (Ignore Everybody), Vaynerchuk is a perfect gentleman in print. 

Interestingly, while MacLeod advocates for always retaining a “real” job and treating your passion as a hobby you generate some income from, Vaynerchuk strongly advocates for pursuing your passion with hussle and making an average to great income from doing and talking about what you love. 

From Vaynerchuk’s view, you’ll never need a vacation if you’re doing what you love.  This is a message I initially believed was in contrast to the lifestyle Tim Ferriss advocates in The 4-Hour Work Week.  They aren’t though.  Ferriss wants us to find a business model that doesn’t take much of our time so that we can pursue our passions., while Veynerchuk wants us to make our living with our passions.  Both achieve the same goal: income and time devoted to doing what we love. 

Crush It! is filled with a healthy balance of both inspirational and practical advice.  It’s also the type of advice I really appreciate.  Veynerchuk doesn’t tell us exactly what to do.  Instead he shares an outline of advice with enough examples for each of us to imagine how we could apply his methods to our individual circumstances.  This type of advice seems easy to give when you’re reading it, but I know from experience that it takes more thought and effort than any set of specific directions. 

Which brings me to the greatest value in Crush It!  It’s plain that Veynerchuk not only cares about his audiences and wishes each of us success – he believes each of us is capable of succeeding.  That’s a powerful read for anyone. 

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This weekend’s Wall Street Journal includes an opinion piece on page A13 by Peggy Noonan entitled “Road to the Nut House.”  It contains a call-out quote which reads “You have to be crazy to run for president. Seriously, you do.”  The quote caught my eye and got me thinking.

To a lot of society, entrepreneurs are a little bit crazy.  We’ve given up the warmth and safety of receiving a guaranteed paycheck.  Instead, to quote Mike Frecks (my serial entrepreneur uncle), as an entrepreneur you “eat what you kill.”  Hmm guaranteed paycheck for showing up and doing what your boss says vs. eating what you kill.  We must be crazy.

That is, we must be crazy unless that guaranteed paycheck isn’t as guaranteed as it used to be.  Unless you’re more creative and can do your work better outside of 8am-5pm and the physical box your boss wants you to work in.  Unless the U.S. economy is shifting away from outsource-able algorithmic (legal research, medical diagnostic, software coding, etc.) work.  Unless you can kill and eat more than your guaranteed paycheck.  Unless you believe you have more to contribute to the world through your work than your job description or boss permits.

In his latest book, Drive, Daniel Pink writes “…submerging part of our nature in the name of economic survival can be a sensible move. My ancestors did it; so did yours.  And there are times, even now when we have no other choice.”  There are times when we have no other choice.  Which means that there are also times when we do have other choices.

It’s important to recognize the times when we do and don’t have choices.  It’s also important that we make the right decisions for ourselves and our loved ones at these times.  Not recognizing these moments or opting not to make a deliberate decision can cause you a lot of future heartache – especially near the end of your life.

Maybe your choice isn’t to step outside of the box entirely (perhaps that seems a little too crazy).  For you it might be time to find a better box, better boss, better organization or a better job description.  For others, your circumstances may have led you to the point where it seems crazy to cling to the soul shredding guaranteed paycheck.  For me, I realized I was at a point where my life could go two directions.  One had a “guaranteed” paycheck, but only promised variations of the same work for the rest of my working life.  The other was much less certain, with the only guarantees being that there would be adventure, discovery and growth.  I chose the crazy option – it was the only sane thing to do.

Check out the documentary Lemonade if you’re struggling with either making this decision or having it made for you.  If you’re considering making the leap, but aren’t yet certain, check out Gary Vaynerchuk ‘s Web 2.0 Expo talk for some inspiration (warning Mom, he uses some four letter words).   

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Yesterday I spent the afternoon helping a friend with some manual labor related to a business endeavor she has next week. The work didn’t require much thought – we were describing and pricing items. But I had a lot of fun. We giggled, we laughed and we talked, talked, talked as we worked through the stack of items.

Afterwards, sitting in my favorite coffee shop waiting for my next appointment of the day, I found myself reflecting on how important people are to business. And I’m not just talking about the various business experts needed at each stage of development in a business’s life. Those people are important too – and are worth another blog entry someday in the future.

But today I’m focused on the friends, family members and acquaintances that help out at some point with your business simply because they love you and/or they like being a part of building something new.

I’ve been on both sides of this equation and, when it’s my business, I’ve felt incredibly grateful, lucky and honored.  When I’m helping with someone else’s entrepreneurial venture, I’ve also felt these same three things – but in a different way.

I’ve given it some thought and I think the most similar feeling I’ve had is when a friend’s small child or teenager asks me to do to something with them. What the child, teenager and new venture have in common is that they’re all still in their early stages of development when the foundation of their characters is still being developed. It is an honor to be asked to be involved at this stage. You do feel lucky and grateful for the opportunity.

At least I think you do feel honored, lucky and grateful to be involved in the business venture if you are a developing entrepreneur yourself.  That‘s right, I said it.  I think an individual’s willingness to devote time and energy to the entrepreneurial endeavors of others is a useful and fairly reliable indicator of whether that person is going to grow into a entrepreneur themselves sometime in the future.  I concede that it might just be an indicator that you love someone enough to devote hours to a cause you think is futile and doomed.  Which means you really love that person.

So how to tell the difference?  Well blood and marriage for starters.  But other than that:

• Are you interested in hearing about other’s business adventures (even people not related to you)?
• Do you jump at the opportunity to help out with other‘s new ideas and ventures (whether for-profit or non-profit)?
• Do you follow through and actually show up when it’s time to do the work?
• Do you wish you could be as creative as the person with the new venture?

Congratulations, I think you’re a future entrepreneur!

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Yesterday I wrote about my belief that there are universal factors to waken entrepreneurs much like Sleeping Beauty was waken with a kiss.  I suspect the degree of intensity for each factor is unique to each potential entrepreneur.

Today I’d like to discuss what these factors may include.  Be assured, I don’t assert that this list is complete.  In fact, I’m very curious about what key factors I’ve forgotten – or which factors you don’t believe should be included on the list. 

In no particular order, here are the factors I think contribute to Sleeping Beauties waking up and becoming entrepreneurs. 

• A willingness to take risks (personal, financial, professional…).  This isn’t just big risks, but also a lowering of your internal threshold for taking small risks. 
• Believing so strongly in something (an idea, product, service, business model) that you’re willing to look silly or be belittled by others
• A dissatisfaction with the status quo in your current organization, situation, environment.  This dissatisfaction needs to rise to the level where you’re willing to take risks and venture out on your own. 
• An openness to and active interest in creativity and new thoughts, processes, ideas, strategies, etc. 
• Resolve to see the business through to its end - whatever that may be.  Entrepreneurs aren’t easy quitters, but they are smart quitters. 
• Flexibility to shift gears or change direction as needed.  This might be rephrased as an ability to roll with the punches – and the successes.

Is the man below a sleeping businessman or an entrepreneur waiting to be waken?  I suspect he’s an entrepreneur if his external environment and internal thought processes have increased the above factors to a level where he’s ready to take action.  Watch out world, the entrepreneurs are awakening!

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A recent TechCrunch blog entry asked “Can Entrepreneurs Be Made?”    The piece is a great summary of recent research in this field.  It’s also generated a lot of useful and fascinating discussions.

Most research indicates entrepreneurs are made.   How entrepreneurs are made is much less certain. 

I’ve given it some thought and believe most people (if not everyone) has the potential to become an entrepreneur.   That said, I don’t think there is a cookie-cutter factory method for making entrepreneurs.  Furthermore, without a large shift in our society, I doubt entrepreneurs can be mass produced.      

It’s a fanciful analogy, but I suspect entrepreneurs are Sleeping Beauties waiting to be waken by the right combination of factors (which probably don’t include any princes or kisses).   I suspect these “factors” are universal, but that the degree of intensity for each factor is unique to each potential entrepreneur. 

The No Idea Factory inspires entrepreneurs everywhere – and causes others to dream of an entrepreneur factory,

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I haven’t been posting as much lately, but I have been writing.  What I’ve been writing about are my adventures (successes, failures and the daily grind) in creating three new businesses. 

Each is very different from the others, but I love them all as though they were beloved pets.  I think pets are a good analogy for businesses.  You plan what type you’d like to obtain, train and nurture them as best you can and encounter many unexpected delights and expenses. 

I’m writing these posts as I go so that those of you who haven’t started a business have a chance to see what it’s really like.  Those of you who have started a business will probably enjoy knowing someone else has made even worse mistakes. 

I’m hopeful that I’m doing some things right – which is why I’m not posting these blogs right away.  Too many trade secrets!  I do eventually have to make a living with these businesses.  

In the meantime, I’ll post from time to time about ideas not related to the businesses.      

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