Business | Life Putting - Dan Putt

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What’s your motivation?

Published on October 11, 2007 in business, future and personal.

As I was getting ready to leave my apartment this morning, I suddenly thought to myself: What’s motivating me to do what I’m about to do today? There’s a lot of potential answers to that question, some that are “noble,” such as “I’m determined to take one step closer to making the world a better place,” or “I’ll make my vision more of a reality today,” and then there are the seemingly more likely answers: (based on fear) “I need to start generating more income today,” “I need to figure out a way to make more money today,” “I need to connect with someone who gets me closer to making more money today…” You see the theme there. It’s not that I’m money hungry, but the truth is those are all driven by fear. But even those are not the “right,” answers to this question for me.

The easiest way to see your driving motivation is to see what you do each day, and how you feel about doing it. If you go to a job everyday that feels terrible, you may be motivated more out of fear that you can’t find any other sources of income, aren’t good enough to find the right job for you, or you’re afraid of putting yourself out there. Or maybe you’re motivated by your kids, and your drive to provide and care for them. Motivation are neither good nor bad, they just are. This morning I realized a key motivator for me ultimately is to avoid rejection (as you can tell by this post, I’m working through it). That is, I try to frame my days in such a way that I encounter as few opportunities for rejection as possible. And if I do hit points of rejection they are easy to take, such as email rejections. The interesting thing is that part of my work to avoid rejection, that is social rejection following the “what do you do,” cocktail question, is to go out and do seemingly scary things. I connect with all sorts of interesting people, put my money on the line, expose my ideas to incredibly smart and talented people, all so I have something I can say I do that doesn’t draw scary reactions. So I walk this tight rope, carefully balancing myself in a place where rejection is unlikely.

I want to be careful here so that I’m not beating myself up for beating myself up, but it’s a powerful revelation to see emotionally what drives you day in and day out. As an entrepreneur, rejection is a big part of your growth and discovery process. Rejection is what forces you to challenge where you are and what you’re trying to accomplish. It forces growth and change. It’s a very good thing. So by understanding what my motivation is, I can understand that twinge of discomfort within when I move myself into “dangerous” situations. My body knows the rules, it knows what it is trying to protect me from, and it’s giving me all the signs to get out of what I’m doing. I’m heading for rejection. But this is in finding where the growth occurs. I once heard that feeling uncomfortable means you have an opportunity to grow. Things seem hard? You are growing. So ultimately it’s about finding your current source of motivation, determining whether or not that serves your life goals, and then figuring out how best to use your current motivation to grow, learn, and create a new driver that serves you.

Long time…

Published on October 4, 2007 in business, future, mom and personal.

(shot at sunset in Guanacaste, Costa Rica…beautiful place)

It’s been awhile since I last posted to this blog. It’s not because I’ve been particularly busy, it’s just that I fell out of that “blogging state of mind,” where you can constantly see blog worthy topics in your day to day life.

Anyway, those of you who know me and have followed this blog know that over the last almost 2 years now, since my mom passed away, I’ve really been spending a lot of time thinking about “my purpose.” After my mom passed away, it really became important for me to do things that had a deeper meaning, a deeper connection to who I am and what I have to offer, than just to do things for the sake of being busy. I put myself in between quite a rock and a hard place: I wouldn’t act unless there was meaning, and I couldn’t find meaning if I wasn’t acting. I guess this was just my route through the “dark, dark wood.”

The “dark, dark, wood,” is that very confusing, self journey that we all go through at some point or another in our lives. If you’ve ever asked “what am I doing with my life.” or “how can I be happy?” Then you most likely have spent some time here, but believe it or not, it’s a very good thing. It’s your time spent there where you dig deep within, asking key questions about who you are, what drives you, what pleases you, what triggers anger, sadness, action. It’s the place where you can really learn who you are. I’ve spent a lot of time there over the last few years. I want to be clear that I have been pretty happy over this time, actually very happy. I just always felt an itch of confusion about my life that I’ve been working through. An itch that led me to really ask “what should I do next?”

I was fortunate that itch led me to ask a lot of powerful questions, and to seek advice from some very smart people. That itch led me to the place where I am now: a moment of clarity. I know what I want to do next. I want to focus on inspiring others to go into the “dark, dark wood,” and come out on the other side with the same sense of empowerment and clarity I feel now.

So with that said, the question is: Where do I begin? How do I build a sustainable (and profitable) enterprise around solving this problem for others? How have people answered the question “what should I do with my life,” in the past? How can I make it better. It’s all a complicated puzzle that I look forward to trying to solve…

Book Review: Let my People Go Surfing

Published on July 16, 2007 in books, business and goals.

I just finished the part personal bio / part company bio /part corporate philosophy by Patagonia founder and major environmental activist, Yvon Chouinard: Let my People Go Surfing: Education of a Reluctant Businessman.

(via Laram777)

Y.C., as he is sometimes known, is really an amazing guy who really is proof of the power behind finding and pursuing your passion. Yvon started Chouinard Equipment because he loved climbing but found the limited equipment for sale to be poorly built and expensive. So he went to work creating items he would prefer to use on his climbing trips, and in the process created high quality equipment other climbers happily paid to use. As demand grew for his products, he began hiring other climbers to build and test Chouinard Equipment items. His two top priorities for his business were making the very best equipment in the world, and having enough money to pay for his own personal climbing treks. In fact, this is what he encouraged all his employees to do. Work enough to keep the company going successfully, and make enough money to go off and do their own adventures. Despite growing Chouinard Equipment and eventually starting Patagonia from Chouinard into a $300M a year company, this philosophy of “Let my people go Surfing,” still stands today. Work should be part of life, a means to living and adventure, instead of an inhibitor. So if you are on time with your work and the waves are good at the moment, surf’s up!I love this.

There’s many great lessons in this book on business, entrepreneurship, and life. His passion for great products, great customer service, and environmental responsibility are very clear in his story. I’m amazed at his company’s commitment to be part of the world ecosystem instead of sitting atop it. He takes the notion of “sustainability” to a whole different level. He’s not set on keeping his company around for 100’s of years just by consistently generating profits, but he also intends on creating a Net positive effect on the environment to ensure there will be places natural enough and customers healthy enough to use Patagonia’s products. As part of this mission he consistently pushes environmentally positive innovation throughout the company, reducing waste to 0 in their manufacturing process. Patagonia also pays a self imposed “environmental harm” tax of 1% of Revenue, every year, good or bad. It’s not something he does to be good. It’s something he does because he believes it is necessary.

There are many great lessons in this book about building a happy and extremely productive workplace that provides a higher quality of life for customers and employees alike, but perhaps my favorite lesson was his approach to life in general. Like Richard Branson, it’s clear YC is out for the adventure of life. He often speaks of the “zen of climbing” which is all about enjoying the moment. Take note of how your body feels with the current hold, how this point in the mountain or wall feels, smells, and looks. Soak it all up, and enjoy it. There’s more climbing moments than moments of completion. If you keep looking up to the top for where you’re supposed to go, you may make a mistake and lose it all, or even worse you may miss the very best part: the journey. The point of climbing isn’t just to get to the top, after all the top is where you’ll spend the least amount of your time. The point of the climb is to test your strength, have fun, feel the aliveness of each grip and step along the way.

The “zen of climbing” should apply to everyday living. Sometimes we get too bogged down on the peak we’re climbing and how far to go that we fail to realize the value of the moment we’re in. If you focus on the moment, the fun and challenge of the journey, you make life pretty damn good. You will, after all, spend most of your time in the journey.

Macbook vs Motorola Q

Published on July 9, 2007 in business, stocks and tech.

Well I never thought I would say this, but apparently the Motorola Q is a more durable device than my once trusty Macbook. Last Friday my macbook’s hard drive crashed complelety, rendering the computer useless and wiping all my data clean in the process. (fortunately I’ve backed up most important items in one way or another) My Motorola Q on the other hand, despite all sorts of crappy design flaws, continues to work properly. Motorola 1, Apple Macbook 0. I guess beauty and good design doesn’t always win.

If you aren’t backing up your important data, do it now. Crashes do happen and they suck.

useful link:

Jungle Disk

The Rules

Published on July 9, 2007 in business and uniqe ability.

(image via flickr user stevegarfield)

What’s your “bedtime?” No you didn’t grow out of it, I bet you still have a time you think you “should” get to bed by. We all have these sets of rules we follow day in and day out. Rules are good because they add structure in guidance to your life. They let you run on autopilot a lot of times based on the routines you created within them. But rules also can be dangerous. They can wall you off from a place you are trying to go, or even worse pin you between a rock and a hard place. Sometimes it’s important to really sit down and think, “what are my rules?”

I was recently asked to do this by a friend who has been coaching and encouraging me, and the results were fascinating. I realized that I have strange rules about work, rules that can be helpful to a point but are more often a burden. For example, I’m fortunate to have a very flexible work schedule. I do need to be available during “normal” business hours for phone calls and a few timely emails, but for the most part I can do the majority of my work at anytime since it’s of the digital variety. Yet for some reason I have set in my mind that I “need” to be working from at least 8am to 5pm M-F. This doesn’t make any sense at all. Part of my entrepreneurial drive comes from a belief that there’s so much opportunity in overcoming the “norm” (ie 9-5 workday). In my head I believe that people have different productive schedules, with some preferring to work late nights while others prefer to be early birds, some prefer to take big midday breaks, and some like to leave work at noon. It doesn’t really matter what your schedule is as long as you are able to successfully complete your tasks. Yet here I am following the industrial workday schedule because sometime in the past I equated working to be in “work” mode on certain hours and days. Part of this rule, which I believe I added to in college sometime, is work is defined as sitting at a computer making phone calls and writing emails, with an occasional meeting mixed in. It’s amazing that my body knows and follows these rules, and it’s even more amazing when I “break” them (going to gym midday, taking a day off, etc) I feel “bad.” A rule would be useless, without an enforcer. This is an example of a rule that is good to a certain extent. Afterall, I do have a lot of flexibilty in my schedule and the rule helps keep things in order. No matter what my rules, I could never define “work” as watching TV all day. This keeps me away from that. But the rule does more harm than good. It prevents me from loving and living in the very best of my current situation: freedom.

What sort of rules have you set for yourself? Take some time to write them out, and then really think about them. Are there some holding you back? Why? It might be time to let them go, break your own rules by making new ones and use them to take you where you want to go.

Losing my Virginity…

Published on June 22, 2007 in books, business, future and goals.

by Richard Branson.

I took some time a few weeks ago to re-read one of my favorite entrepreneurial books, Richard Branson’s Losing my Virginity. I love this book and consider it a must read for not only potential entrepreneurs but anyone who aspires to get all they can out of life. I could go on and on about this detailed, educational, and downright fun book, but instead I want to talk about a key lesson I pulled out of it: Life’s a game…if you play it.

The remarkable playfulness of Richard Branson is easy to pick up in this book immediately. He doesn’t ever get wrapped up in what he should or shouldn’t do, what he can or can’t do, what he knows or doesn’t know. He looks at opportunities, asks himself “Is that something I’ll have fun doing ?” If yes, then he acts on it. Now. I’m sure you’re thinking, “well he’s a billionaire, he doesn’t have anything to lose. He could lose lots and lots of money and still have more.” True, but the reason he is a billionaire is due to his playful nature. It’s not about the money. The money is an important part of the equation but for him it is icing on the cake. He goes after businesses that would be fun and potentially disruptive. With this approach he’s developed many successful and large businesses from Virgin Atlantic (airlines) to Virgin Mobile, Virgin Rails, Virgin Lottery etc…

What’s money for anyway? To make things happen. After years of building up the very successful Virgin Records he could’ve retired to a life of relaxation on his tropical getaway at Necker Island. But instead when an American lawyer called him up and said, “You should start an airline,” he said…that sounds like fun, I’ll do it (in the process leveraging and risking his Virgin Records success). By the way, he had no airline experience other than being a passenger like most of us. After a few years of struggles he pushed through, and Virgin Atlantic continues on as a successful airline. For him the process was what he sought, the experience, the thrill, the excitement, and the opportunity. Sure, he wanted it to be successful, but by focusing on the fun and possibility he ensured it would.

It’s easy to think ok, if I can just get this website working, then people will come and use it, and I’ll sell it for millions. This could happen, and does for some. But what about going out and just doing something that would be a lot of fun and not worrying about the end result just yet? Yes, this sounds risky, but isn’t the prospect of not living even more risky? I heard a great quote about Tiger Woods recently…supposedly he said “I strive for performance, not results.” This is a little more serious sounding than going out and doing what would be fun, but it’s basically the same message. Life’s about the journey, not the destination. Branson is an example of where a fun journey can take you.

How not to sell…

Published on April 25, 2007 in business and tech.

In trying to setup my HSA (Health Savings Account), I’ve been venturing into the world of horrible bureaucratic websites that require you to download PDF’s to get any information. I was fortunate to find a human friendly site in Vimo, which does a pretty good job of rating and explaining the different HSA options. It guided me to an HSA administrator I’ve heard good things about from other people called Exante Bank, so I went over to their site and was quickly frustrated.

I will pay someone a $100 if they can tell me what the fees / costs or even benefits are associated with having Exante manage your HSA because I’ll be damned if it’s anywhere on the site. But then again maybe I’m in the minority here in wanting to know what something is going to cost me before I go through application process. Perhaps there are lots of people out there who just like the name and don’t need to weigh the pro’s and cons. They can be persuaded to buy with a vague FAQ section and some pictures of happy people. Now I understand that HSA’s are a new thing and people need to be told what the general benefits are, but I’d also LOVE to know the benefits of putting my HSA in your hands instead of someone else. Hey, I’m ready to be sold, sell me!

This is a classic example of a site that is built purely from the perspective of the company/site owner and not from that of a potential customer. If a potential customer had built this site (or a smart selling company) it would hit you with the benefits right when you landed there. It would be extremely easy to navigate, and display all the costs/fees along with benefits in a clear box or diagram. It would display stories of successful customers, and it would show any press mentions they had. Maybe it would even show me / tell me their management features and just how EASY it is to mange my HSA with Exante. Actually, come to think of it, it would look a lot like this (just with HSA info)

Instead, you’ve annoyed me enough to look elsewhere.

Evolution of Electricity

Published on April 23, 2007 in Links, business, future and tech.

I’m officially obsessed with the TED talks website. For those of you who don’t know, TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is a conference held once a year to bring the best minds in the fields above together. It’s mission is simple: Spreading Ideas. Every year they get some of the best minds together and have them speak. They record every speaker and have 100’s of past talks posted on their website, which I’ve become obsessed with recently.

I really enjoyed a speech given by Amazon’s visionary Founder, Jeff Bezos in which he compares the state of the internet industry today to that of the electric appliance industry of 1916. I couldn’t agree more.

I went to Thomas Edison’s Ft. Myers home about 3 years ago, and I remember having this very same thought as I walked through his workshop with his scattered impressive collection of inventions. I couldn’t help but notice that at that time electricity was seen really as only useful for lighting and some heating. All the wiring and infrastructure that went into place was designed to deliver electricity just to do these two functions. In fact (as you’ll see in the video) the first electric appliances plugged into the grid with plugs that were nothing more than light bulb sockets. These first generic electric appliances were merely an indicator of things to come, a true unlocking of the power and versatility of electricity.

Interestingly enough the internet’s story is very similar to that of electricity. It runs through a wire to our homes, but is unable to offer any value until we actually plug into it. It was started really to create a communication network between computers, then built out to facilitate communication between people, and has exploded to facilitate self expression, commerce, and information sharing. But we’ve really only begun plugging our first appliance’s light socket plugs into the grid. Just as electricity’s infrastructure enabled a universe of appliances that bettered our lives (from the A/C to TV, to the computer and internet itself), so too will the very young internet infrastructure.

I’ve heard people say that all the good ideas are taken and the “gold rush,” is over. I’d say, we’ve only just begun. Exciting times ahead.

Check out the video.

Wow

Published on April 5, 2007 in Links and business.

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry…
[youtube]MaIq9o1H1yo[/youtube]

But I do know 2 things:
1.) They paid way too much to produce this video
2.) They probably should get this thing off of Youtube ASAP because instead of attracting new recruits, it repels them.

(from Ben)

Financial Infrastructure

Published on April 4, 2007 in business, goals, personal and stocks.

Ok as promised here is a glimpse at my personal financial infrastructure inspired by Ben Casnocha’s post awhile back. I am still working on it, and it’s difficult to truly stick to due to my current work situation which involves spurts of income instead of a consistent monthly flow, but it is at least a framework for how I manage my money.

Short Term Cash needs-

1. Combo of a HSBC and Chase Checking account- I just opened an HSBC checking account for reasons listed below, but for the time being I’m keeping my Chase Checking account open because it has atm’s just about anywhere I go, but most of my checking account activities will be conducted through HSBC going forward. I keep less than $1000 in my checking account at anytime (except when paying rent).

Medium Cash Needs -

I love my HSBC savings account (which is paying 6% on new money until April 30th(?), especially linked with my HSBC checking account. This is a no brainer, and if you don’t have one you need to get one. I really have been happy with their services, but just do a google search for “online savings,” to see the hundreds of others that offer a similar service.

How to use it: Your online savings account should really be the place where you keep the majority of your short term money, or money you’ll need access to say in the next year. Because you’ll earn interest on any money in the account, you’ll want to make sure your paychecks or direct deposits get in there asap. My goal is to keep my checking account as empty as possible because I don’t earn anything in there. I actually just added an HSBC checking account so I can withdraw money at HSBC ATMs (which are everywhere here in NYC) directly from my savings. I also can make instant transfers between my HSBC savings and checking ensuring that the only time money comes out of savings is when I need to pay bills or write checks. More time in savings = more FREE money made on interest. Even if you don’t have an HSBC checking account, you can still can transfer money between your own checking account and a savings account in under 4 days for free (usually, but make sure your bank doesn’t charge).

My goal is to keep 4-6 months worth of expenses in my HSBC savings account where I have easy access to it in case of an emergency. Once I have more than 4-6 month’s of savings (more like 4 months lately) then I move money into my personal investment account (below).

Long Term (1-10 years)
Any money that I don’t need access to for at least one year but under 10 I’ll keep in my scottrade account. In this account, my investments will be limited to stocks based on the Hidden Gems picks and a few of my own personal picks. I limit my holdings so that no stock at one time makes up more than 10% of the portfolio. I do keep about $1k in cash on hand at any one time to do short term options trades.

Long term retirement
I have some inheritance money from my mother in a managed investment account and I don’t plan on touching it for any reason except for a real estate investment and/or seed capital. I also will be open to investment opportunities in the next 5 years. The goal for that money is to let it grow and leave that money with my kids for them to have for college and adulthood. I’ll also continue to contribute to my own IRA.

Healthcare:
I consistently contribute the max allowed for HSA’s while young and healthy with minimal health care costs. This way I can build up a nice tax free savings to spend on health care in the future when they will be more expensive. This has been extremely dififcult to setup thus far in NYC, but I am very close to getting this all setup. I’m in the process of setting up an HSA with my broker so that I can minimize fees and maximize the returns on my healthcare savings.

Credit Cards:

I’m a big fan of credit cards. I know they are extremely dangerous if you are not watching them carefully, but you can really take advantage of them. I have 2 personal credit cards and 1 business. I only use 1 of my personal credit cards consistently, a Chase Rewards card that I have 0% interest on until April of 08. I earn rewards for the this card AND I earn interest on money I spend.

Here’s how:

I only spend within my monthly budget ( I try), so I always have the money on hand to pay off my credit card in full but because I have 0% interest on it for so long I don’t. Instead I put the difference between what I paid and what I owe into my HSBC savings account where I earn between 5-6% interest. As long as I keep a close watch on what I owe, and make sure I continually maintain that amount in my HSBC savings account I’ll have no problem paying off the card in a year, all while making money on THEIR money. Again, credit cards can be dangerous if you slip up on payments , but if you are careful you can use them to your advantage. The float can work for you even on a monthly basis. Just make sure you never carry a balance that is charged interest.

Spending..
I budget my spending for 4-6 months at a time using quicken for PC and adjust my holdings accordingly. I spend as much as my monthly spending on credit card as possible (as mentioned), but also always withdraw cash from ATM in $100 increments within my budget. Once a month I’ll spend a Sunday evaluating my spending, my contributions to hsa, medium term cash, long term investments, and staying within my budgets.

So there it is for now. It’s not perfect by any means, but it works for me right now. The real key is to at least spend some time thinking about your money and different ways you could manage it, otherwise you’ll just spend it until it’s gone. I’d recommend a personal money management software such as Quicken or Microsoft Money (even though they both are crappy in my opinion) which can automatically download your financial statements and categorize your spending.

Take a closer look at your own finances, you’d be amazed at where your money is going.