I’ve spoken to several entrepreneurs this week as well as spent some time thinking about my past endeavors, and one thought keeps popping in my head: “tinker, don’t perfect.” When I look back on some things that I’ve worked on, some of them things I REALLY was passionate about (have some thoughts about passion, but that’s another post), I realize that a common theme was I was trying to finish them before I started them. A good example was All is Well.
My basic plan and goal with All is Well was to take an this image that my sister had found after my mom had passed away (to the right) and put it on t-shirts using cafepress, create a simple website to tell the story and sell the shirts, then split the proceeds between the company and several causes my mom cared about. It quite frankly was a simple process, one that could have been wrapped up in a week or two. And I was very close to doing just that…until I had a problem. The programmer I was working with had basically agreed to put the site together for a very low rate because of the nature of the project. Unfortunately they got stuck on one issue with cafepress and integrating it within wordpress. Now at this time you could actually buy the t-shirts on cafepress (in fact you still can) but I became obsessed with the site being perfect before I told anyone about it. So I waited, and waited, and waited, and slowly I realized the programmer had moved on to something else. The 2 week project became a month long project, which became a 3 month long project, and now a 2 year project. With each passing day, I beat myself up more for it not being completed, perfect, and live. And the more I beat myself up about it, the less time I wanted to spend on it.
Now I will say that there is certainly a whole other layer of issues related to this particular project, and a lot of emotions attached to it, but the point I’m trying to make here is that I was afraid to do anything until I thought it was perfect. If I had just been willing to accept that perfection, if ever possible, comes with time and tinkering, I most likely would have just gone with what I had, or actually gone with the simplest path to what matters: spreading the message through selling shirts. So I guess there are 2 lessons I’m seeing here: 1.) tinker, don’t perfect 2.) remember what’s important. What’s the goal? Don’t get bogged down on all sorts little things that in the end don’t mean all that much to what you’re trying to do.
So whatever you’re working on, give yourself a break. It is not going to be perfect right away if ever. But you’re better off playing and sharing and testing, than hiding and perfecting. Get out there and see what happens.
I’m a big Zappos.com fan. I think every pair of shoes I currently own came via Zappos.com. Their selection and service are amazing, and they make the shoe buying experience very simple. But the thing I really love about Zappos (which I know has been discussed to death on the internet), is their company culture.
Today I was listening to an interview (yes, another mixergy interview) with Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, someone I’ve come to really admire. In the interview he tells the whole story about the founding of Zappos, how he first got involved as an investor and then later on as CEO, and how the company’s legendary culture evolved. I realized in listening to Tony talk, the key to their success, one of the key factors in the evolution of their famed culture, was the ability to think and act in the long term. I think this is one of those things that you always hear (just like following your passion) but very few people have the courage to actually do it. It’s clear that Hsieh and his team have a long term vision for the company, and they’re willing to allow it to evolve. The thing about having a long term perspective is you can absorb short term costs such as their legendary $2,000 offer to pay new hires to quit, or their 365 day return policy because over the course of 5 or 10 years those policies will pay off big. In fact in the interview Hsieh even says he could instantly add to the bottom line by shutting down their 24/7 call center, and most likely it would have very little effect on sales over the course of 6-12 months. But the worsened customer experience would eventually eat into their most valuable asset (perceived high quality of service), and start to hurt sales.
The more books I read and interviews I listen to about people who do big, remarkable things, and I’d put Hsieh and his team’s work at Zappos in this category, the more I see the importance of thinking and acting with the long term in mind.
I feel like this is a question I’m constantly asking, and perhaps that is part of the issue, but I feel like I’m really at decision point on what to do next. As I touched on in this post, I had a big project I was working on come to an end in May / June and since then I’ve been thinking a lot about the question: “what to do next?” Now don’t get me wrong, my current situation is actually very good. I’ve got a very good consulting gig working on a startup that is not short on energy, excitement, or capital. It’s been fun to work with people who really passionate about what they’re doing, and it’s been nice to not worry about paying my bills. It has been a great summer experience, and at the very least I’ve helped get an interesting concept off the ground and assist another entrepreneur in pursuing his dream, all while putting a little money in my pocket (I’ll share concept when it is live). That’s a good thing, but truth be told I know that this is only another project for me. I know that 6 months from now I’d like to be back on my own, pursuing a concept, industry, niche I feel more personally connected to.
I know I’ve talked much about finding a purpose and pursuing a passion, but I’ve backed off that a bit. There is something very heavy in telling yourself that you must find and work on your passion, your calling. Especially when you’re like me, and you are interested and excited about all sorts of things. How do you pick one thing when you have ten that seem interesting in front of you? Add to that the weight of picking the one that is your purpose, and you end up stuck…as I have been many times before. I will say though, I don’t really feel stuck at the moment. I’m moving forward and picking up skills and connections that will help me down the road, but I still am in the same position of not knowing exactly what road I want to at least try and go down. Simply put: I’m not sure what to do next. I don’t want to carry all that pressure of finding my calling, and I don’t want to just go with the flow like a stick in the stream. I want to go forward with something that is especially interesting to me, something that feels good, but I am not worried about it being “it.” I just want to feel close personally to what I’m working on (I will not make the mistake again of investing time, energy, and money into something that I don’t care about, no matter how good of an idea it seems).
I do consider myself very lucky to still be in a position in my life where I can seriously ask this question, and at least feel like I’m in a position to pursue the answer. My responsibilities are fairly light, and I’ve been at this long enough to have a good group of people around me who support whatever I want to do. I look at the world and honestly feel that I could do anything. I’ve always felt that way. Or maybe deep down I don’t. Maybe that is why I can never seem to answer that question because if I don’t answer it, then I don’t have to do it. OK now I’m just making things complicated.
Man this post seems like a giant circle, perhaps that is part of the issue here. I think part of my answering this question is to write more. I want to write here more. I think I want to list things I know I don’t like / want. I want to go back and explore my past writings, maybe even update my careerography, reach out to more people I admire, but what else?
Well it’s official, or at least it feels that way. I don’t think we’re going to ever sell the GJG directly to users profitably. It doesn’t mean that GJG is a flawed concept, it just means that Chris and I are unable to sell it effectively with our approach. And we’re just sick of trying to sell it. So how do you know whether you need to work through something or you need to cut your losses? In other words how do you know when something is a good hitter in a slump or just a bad hitter. The good news is there are lots of lessons in this experiment that I can take with me into the future…lessons that can only help me on my entrepreneurial path.
10 lessons
1. Don’t ever do something primarily to make money quickly. It will take way more time, money, and effort to get something going than you could ever think, no matter how quick and easy it appears. So if you have no interest in the particular subject you think you can make money working on, then don’t go anywhere near it.
2. (building on the last one)…Being an entrepreneur requires passion. It sounds cliched but if you took money out of the equation, would you work on whatever it is you’re working on? If the answer is no, then you need to re-evaluate.
3. Just because something seems like a good idea, and it’s based on very sound assumptions, it does not mean it’s a good idea for you to work on. We really nailed the economic trends that could have put GJG at the front of rising tide (the search numbers have tripled since we started), but that was not enough to make it work for us. Tying in with the 2 points above, you need more than just a good idea to make something work.
4. Get in front of your business and your customers as soon as possible. We hid for nearly 6 months with GJG. We hoped that it would somehow work and come together without us really ever getting out and talking to other people and even more importantly our potential customers. This again goes back into 1 and 2 because we weren’t really that interested in the subject, we were just hoping it would make us money. We learned more about the business and our potential customers in 3 days of phone calls than we had learned in 6 months of researching, reading, and testing. Get in front of people (customers, other entrepreneurs, potential investors, partners, friends) on an idea ASAP. And going with the lesson learned in 1 and 2, the more excited and passionate you are about something, the more excited you’ll be about telling the world. I guess a good rule of thumb is, if you wouldn’t want your face and name next to an article about your business in the New York Times, then it’s probably time to re-evaluate.
5. Talking and brainstorming are very important in entrepreneurship, and time must be made for them. It’s way too easy to get swept into each day’s activities and completely push off the big picture discussions. In GJG we kept talking about having big idea discussions, but only had a few over the course of 6 months. Make time for connecting, talking, brainstorming around your business. It energizes, and strengthens the long term picture, which provides a backbone for the day to day…thus helping you ride out more of the ups and downs.
6. Planning is important, especially in times of uncertainty. We struggled to really consistently make plans that went beyond a few days with GJG, so we were always sort of scrambling based on the data of the last 3 hours. It’s very important to lay out a plan that is specific and easy to follow, and that has clear success metrics, deadlines, and decision points. We always went on with GJG with the notion that we were just one or two changes away from making it work. If we had been more serious about keeping a plan, with deadlines, milestones, and success metrics we may have pulled the plug or switched directions earlier. By following a moving target, we struggled to really make clear decisions. This again ties in with 1-2.
7. A partnership is built on open communication. With GJG we started early on with a company email list where open discussions where encouraged. These discussions were not just about GJG, but about life, entrepreneurship, personal development, and especially ways to communicate between partners. It certainly allowed for issues between partners to get out while they were relatively small, and so they were discussed and worked out before blowing way up. A partnership is very much like a romantic relationship. Without open communication and a mechanism to get out frustrations, they will never succeed. It’s hard enough being an entrepreneur, much less an entrepreneur by yourself facing off against your partner. If you can’t discuss your dreams and your FEARS with your partner, then you need to find someone else to work with.
8. Don’t try to create and sell a product you wouldn’t buy. This is very similar to 1 and 2, but important enough to state separately. It’s hard enough to create and sell something, much less something that you don’t really care about (no matter how much sense it makes). GJG is not a product I would have ever bought. Even in the outside chance I may have looked for a product like that, I would have NEVER bought it in the manner we were selling it. That disconnect had to show in the product and the marketing, and certainly had to hurt our chances. Entrepreneurship is about creating something that solves a problem and then scaling it. The best way to understand the problem you want to solve is to have it or live it. So if you’re creating something that you solves a problem you don’t have or understand and you would never buy or use it, then you need to re-evaluate a bit.
9. waiting doesn’t feel good. We had tons of waiting scenarios with GJG, whether it was waiting on a programmer to do something, or for people to come to the site, or for people to buy, we had a lot of moments where we sat and watched our inboxes and analytics accounts. Watching and waiting does not feel good, and it does not help your business. It drains you, and it distracts you. Both of these things fulfill a need to feel like you’re working, but neither of them help you make progress. I guess it’s more likely that you’ll stare at these two things if you’re not crazy about your product, your customer, amd the subject matter. But waiting is more than just watching these two things. It’s waiting on an email when a phone call could get the answer now. It’s waiting on one person, when others could potentially help you.
10. Ask for help, early and often. We did get good about reaching out to others for help along the way, but it took us several months to get there. People really do want to help, so go out and ask them for it. If you feel like there are certain people you can’t ask for help because of what you’re working on, then you need to see number 8 above.
So while I’m not happy about the money and time lost in the GJG experiment, I don’t have any regrets because of the many lessons I learned along the way. I guess the hardest lesson, and one that I didn’t put above, was knowing when to quit. We probably went way too far into this process because we convinced ourselves this was our only and best option. It wasn’t until a moment of just intense frustration this week where we realized it was time to make a big direction change. I can’t say I really have a good idea when it’s time to switch directions other than you can just feel it. Oh well, on to the next thing…
In my first week in awhile of being more systematic about my todo list, I’ve decided to grade my effectiveness this week and it wasn’t pretty. Of the 50+ items I had on there (some as simple as write and mail thank you note or email so and so), I probably completed around 50%. In the past I used to make todo list items such as “launch website,” which really is a project and not a todo item. As a result the project was the item on the list I would avoid because it required too many steps before crossing it off. A year after reading Getting things Done, I’ve gotten better at what I put on the list, but it is a work in progress. If my todo list has been filled with projects instead of tasks, then I would have considered 50% very good, but I can’t use that excuse this time. I simply didn’t get enough of my tasks going to make progress. At least now I can see where I fell behind, and start to ask “Why?” Some thoughts:
Email is a major time sink. I’ve know this for a very long time, I’ve even written about it, but I continue to fall for it. There’s just something so satisfying about getting and responding to messages. I also know that the constant flow of email helps to overcome the loneliness when you’re working virtually (and not in an office). I would estimate that 30% of all email activity could be called “productive.” The rest is really distraction. And on that same thought, I would say that email unless controlled and managed properly, causes more harm than good. I guess I’m an addict. In fact thinking about how it feels to sit at my desk with my email closed, I can picture the anxiety and the sense unknown. If there aren’t emails to respond to or write, then what in the world shall I do? So my goal next week is to try some email rules such as only checking it at certain times of the day (a la 4 hour workweek) I am going to test this firefox plugin to assist with this.
Task scheduling – We all have things we don’t really want to do. I’ve found that by some strange coincidence, of the unfinished items on my list for the week, a vast majority of them I was not looking forward to working on. I avoided them basically. I avoided them because they were boring, or scary, or too hard, or in direct conflict with a comfortable habit. The only time I ever really considered working on these tasks was at the end of the day, and then it was easy to say “well I do that tomorrow.” There’s no doubt some of these items weren’t completed because frankly they were unnecessary, but for the rest of them I allowed myself to not do them. In order to “set myself up for success,” I’m going to put reminders in my calendar to complete these tasks at a time in the day where I feel at my best. I think for me the optimal time to “face the music” is between 11am and 2pm. I will set reminders for 11am.
Too much wiggle room – I will pat myself on the back for creating a weekly todo and goals list on Sunday afternoon and really taking the time to think the week through, but I left out a very critical component of this: reviewing it daily. My plan was to combine my weekly goals / todo list with my working system of writing daily tasks in a notebook each morning, crossing off completed items and adding notes throughout the day. The interesting thing was I stopped using the notepad completely this week, almost as if I didn’t need that after doing the work on Sunday. I’ve known for awhile that I can significantly boost productivity simply by creating my todo list the day before in my notebook, and then trying to complete as many tasks in the first hour of my day as possible before checking my email. I’ve done this several times with amazing results, yet I keep reverting to old habits. Next week a goal is to return to this system. I’ll compare my paper todo for the day vs my google doc for the week each night / evening as well as prepare the next day’s list.
So those are some thoughts from my big push to developing my personal organization and task management system. Perhaps I’ll keep updating as I refine and improve…in fact if I do (keep posting) then you’ll know I”m doing well with following my weekly goals. A goal for this week was to get up at least 2 blog posts…this takes me halfway there.
I don’t know how I stumbled on to this post, but it was really thought provoking for me. At first I wanted to get defensive, think about why she was wrong and point out that she had contradicted this post many times in the past both in one of her books and in other blog posts (as pointed out by several readers in the comments). Apparently she even ended one of her books with the statement: “People will choose to work because they love what they do. ” – Penelope Trunk, in ‘The end of work as we know it.’
But in the end I really enjoyed this post because it end challenged my beliefs, and expanded my perspective. Anyway instead of rewriting a blog post, I’m just going to copy from an email conversation I had with my friend on this post (note: these are from several emails, and I realize a lot of rambling):
It seems like there are a lot of people in the comments that felt really good after reading this post. It, at least momentarily, squashed all their doubts about their lives. They weren’t missing out on something great after all. Maybe they feel relieved because they can point to this and say: “Whew, see…it’s not my fault.” I feel like the strong reaction shows an underlying doubt. There is a part of them that still believes in this fairytale.
Why do such a high % of people in their 20’s believe in this notion, while a very low % in their 40s+ say that it is garbage and that “reality has set in.”
Maybe the reason why most people think this advice is BS is because they stopped thinking about what they loved the second “reality set in..” ie, bills. Dreams can’t pay bills, and paying bills requires you make money, and generally the most accepted way to make money is to get a job. Job takes up time and dreams are pushed aside, before long you don’t really know what you love but you know how to make money, and that can feel good too. Perhaps the key to finding what you love is to KEEP looking. Not waiting, but looking.
I think there are other issues at play here… Most don’t know what they really would love to do. Think about all the people who think they want to be entrepreneurs, movie stars, singers, actors…do you think that the would all LOVE to do these things? Or are most just looking at what others have and thinking that is something they would like to have. I would imagine that a lot of the commenters on that site fit in this category. Look at early stages of American idol…most of those people really believe they would like to be singers, but I’m willing to bet that only a very small percentage of them actually would love to sing. 99% of them are there because they want to get famous and rich.
maybe another issue is that people are too specific when looking to do what they love. They define things too tightly. For example, what my friend Jerry has discovered he loves to do connect with people at a very deep level (as he calls it: “connections of the heart.”) He’s had 3-4 careers in his life that he has loved, but they all have this underlying theme. But what if he had confused an activity that involves connections of the heart with “his calling?” What if he thought that what he loved to do was be an actor (without realizing that what he loved about acting was it allowed him to have connections of the heart with the characters and audience)…so he went out and tried to be an actor, and it didn’t work. Does this mean he can’t do what he loves? No, it means he was too narrow in his focus. Keep trying things that interest and excite you, or in Jerry’s case that appealed to his interest in connecting with people… you will probably end up in another position where you can be excited, and in fact end up doing what you love….
I agree with the notion that believing in and seeking “the perfect job,” is quite a heavy burden. It’s not going to get you anywhere. So sitting around and hoping to see the perfect job hit the classifieds for you will not ever amount to anything. I also do believe that no matter how much you love what you do, it will always have moments that feel like work. It’s never all happiness…life is always great for anyone, nor should it be. As my mom said: “You need contrast.” So I think people are mislead there as well.
I actually believe people are completely confused as to what doing what you love means. It doesn’t mean there is a job out there just waiting for you to snatch it. It doesn’t mean that everything you enjoy doing should and can be a job or career path for you. I It means you continually move towards, experiment with, try things that interest or excite you, and you follow those feelings to new things. You do things that make you nervous (in a safe, structured way…no drugs, etc). You do things without worrying about what they may or may lead to in the future, you just do them because they excite you.
I think this pursuit of purpose is very similar to choosing a spouse. You certainly can’t ever know beforehand who is “the one.” You have to get in there and spend time with them. You have to experiment. Some people are “lucky” and know what they want, and get it. Others try and try and try, always bailing because it’s never just right. And others still never really believe they can find “the one,” so the settle for the one who will settle for them. But the truth is there is no perfect spouse, no perfect relationship. It takes a good fit and hard work to make a great relationship. But if you love someone, deep down, you want to work on it, you want to make it the best it can be.
perhaps again the issue isn’t about the end result, about finding and doing that thing you love…it’s about the seeking. If you are willing to seek and continue to seek throughout your life, then I’m willing to bet you’ll have a lot more exciting days than boring ones. Doing a lot of experimenting, a lot of “seeking,” inevitably means you’ll try a lot of things that don’t work.
just like an athlete…they are never in good shape, it’s not a place you ever get…it’s always just in front of you. So they try new training techniques, new machines, new supplements, new routines, new diets..constantly tweaking…and finding those that don’t work, those that fail, that is what ultimately makes them better.
Perhaps the “secret” to life then is: fail big and often. Failing is aliveness. Failure is a teacher. Failure paves the way for growth, and growth is living. So maybe the goal isn’t to try and find what you love, maybe it’s to try lots of things you might.
Once, when I was about 9 or 10, my father told me I could be whatever I wanted when I grew up, so long as I enjoyed it. I remember that precisely because it seemed so anomalous. It was like being told to use dry water. Whatever I thought he meant, I didn’t think he meant work could literally be fun—fun like playing. It took me years to grasp that.
I think I still struggle with this, even though I believe it in. I’ve only had flashes in my short work life where the work I was doing was actually fun, where I couldn’t believe that anyone, anywhere, could categorize it as “work.” I guess this is something that takes time to absorb and live… old habits and beliefs die hard.
By the time they reach an age to think about what they’d like to do, most kids have been thoroughly misled about the idea of loving one’s work. School has trained them to regard work as an unpleasant duty. Having a job is said to be even more onerous than schoolwork. And yet all the adults claim to like what they do. You can’t blame kids for thinking “I am not like these people; I am not suited to this world.”
Actually they’ve been told three lies: the stuff they’ve been taught to regard as work in school is not real work; grownup work is not (necessarily) worse than schoolwork; and many of the adults around them are lying when they say they like what they do.
I wonder if this is true? Do most people genuinely not like what they do? I realize that no matter what you do, there are always going to be parts you don’t like or get stressed over, or people you can’t stand, but I’m hopeful that we all have the possibility of spending most of our time doing something we generally enjoy. So what separates the few who do love what they do? How did they get there? I really like this:
It was not till I was in college that the idea of work finally broke free from the idea of making a living. Then the important question became not how to make money, but what to work on. Ideally these coincided, but some spectacular boundary cases (like Einstein in the patent office) proved they weren’t identical.
The definition of work was now to make some original contribution to the world, and in the process not to starve. But after the habit of so many years my idea of work still included a large component of pain. Work still seemed to require discipline, because only hard problems yielded grand results, and hard problems couldn’t literally be fun. Surely one had to force oneself to work on them.
If you think something’s supposed to hurt, you’re less likely to notice if you’re doing it wrong. That about sums up my experience of graduate school.
……..
Most people are doomed in childhood by accepting the axiom that work = pain. Those who escape this are nearly all lured onto the rocks by prestige or money. How many even discover something they love to work on? A few hundred thousand, perhaps, out of billions.
I still struggle with this. I feel like anything great worth doing will come with quite a bit of pain. I feel like on some level that doing what you love is like getting your body in shape after a long break from exercise. It’s going to take discipline, it’s going to hurt, and you’re going to hate it some, if not a lot of the time, at least to start. But after you break through the habits and your muscles begin to build, things get easier. I can see this approach will not get me anywhere, or at least the places I’m trying to go. Perhaps part of my problem has been I’ve been pushing so hard on doors that are meant to be easily pulled open…pushing harder does not get me any closer to opening it. That reminds me of this:
It’s really hard to let go of what I’ve been taught, and what I’ve told myself. Part of finding what you love to do, is not pushing through the pain but instead noticing it and reacting to it. More good quotes:
How much are you supposed to like what you do? Unless you know that, you don’t know when to stop searching. And if, like most people, you underestimate it, you’ll tend to stop searching too early. You’ll end up doing something chosen for you by your parents, or the desire to make money, or prestige—or sheer inertia.
I struggle with this as well. As I’ve said, I don’t think I’ve ever done anything that just felt so great, that felt like it was my “calling.” I’m not really looking for that because I don’t think I ever will. But I will give myself a pat on the back for continuing my search, seeking out new opportunities when the current one doesn’t at least feel right. Or as Paul later describes… I’ve never found something that I enjoyed enough that the concept of “spare time” seems mistaken. It seems that I continually put myself in work situations where I can’t wait to do something other than what I’m doing. Not exactly practicing what I preach. What you should do:
To be happy I think you have to be doing something you not only enjoy, but admire. You have to be able to say, at the end, wow, that’s pretty cool. This doesn’t mean you have to make something. If you learn how to hang glide, or to speak a foreign language fluently, that will be enough to make you say, for a while at least, wow, that’s pretty cool. What there has to be is a test.
What you should not do:
What you should not do, I think, is worry about the opinion of anyone beyond your friends. You shouldn’t worry about prestige. Prestige is the opinion of the rest of the world. When you can ask the opinions of people whose judgement you respect, what does it add to consider the opinions of people you don’t even know?
It’s really amazing how greatly this impacts people’s lives, including my own. How crazy is it that we could put ourselves in a position to do something we don’t like or hate, potentially for the rest of our lives, in hopes we look good to others? At the end of your life are you going to look back and say “Whew, I’m glad that I lived the way all those people thought I should?” I doubt it.
The other big force leading people astray is money. Money by itself is not that dangerous. When something pays well but is regarded with contempt, like telemarketing, or prostitution, or personal injury litigation, ambitious people aren’t tempted by it. That kind of work ends up being done by people who are “just trying to make a living.” (Tip: avoid any field whose practitioners say this.) The danger is when money is combined with prestige, as in, say, corporate law, or medicine. A comparatively safe and prosperous career with some automatic baseline prestige is dangerously tempting to someone young, who hasn’t thought much about what they really like.
The test of whether people love what they do is whether they’d do it even if they weren’t paid for it—even if they had to work at another job to make a living. How many corporate lawyers would do their current work if they had to do it for free, in their spare time, and take day jobs as waiters to support themselves?
This is something I think we’ve all heard at some point in our lives: “What would you do if you had 10 million dollars?” I think most people would say they would quit their jobs, retire to some beach house, and live happily ever after. We know this isn’t true. Spend some time and read about past lottery winners. They learn the hard way (yes, it’s hard) that money is not the answer. They often find themselves lost and completely unhappy. I think most people believe deep down there is some dollar amount that would make them happy for the rest of their lives. If they could just hit that, either through lottery winnings or their 401k or being an entrepreneur who sells their company, they think they will live happily ever after. These expectations are so high, that when some of the few actually hit this number they are usually overwhelmed and saddened. It’s hard not to think: “I made it, but is that all there is?”
This is why it makes so much sense to fill up your days doing something you enjoy, something you care about. Because if you can end the day generally feeling good about what you do, about your life, your loved ones, your path…then you can end the week feeling the same way, and then the month, and then the year, and then year after year..all feeling pretty good. You don’t need to hit the lottery or sell your company, because at the end of the day you feel good.
Finally, words of encouragement:
It’s hard to find work you love; it must be, if so few do. So don’t underestimate this task. And don’t feel bad if you haven’t succeeded yet. In fact, if you admit to yourself that you’re discontented, you’re a step ahead of most people, who are still in denial. If you’re surrounded by colleagues who claim to enjoy work that you find contemptible, odds are they’re lying to themselves. Not necessarily, but probably.
I guess I’m a step ahead, but that doesn’t mean I feel any closer getting somewhere. Whew, patience. Go read the article, it’s worth your time.
The biggest asset that I have is my time. I have to think about how to best invest my time. As a VC you can always raise more money. you can always get more money, hire more people…But you can never get back your time. I look at time as an investor having a finite asset….I’m not going to take my time and waste it.
I have to admit that time really does not enter the equation for me when making a decision all that often. I more or less think of it and treat it like an infinite, not finite resource. The truth is it is our most precious and most limited resource. I need to value my time more.
I finally got around to finishing the The Winning Investment Habits of Warren Buffett and George Soros as recommended by Ryan Allis way back when. It’s an interesting and fairly simple read (despite being huge) with a lot of fantastic insights for anyone looking to spend a little more time managing their investments (it’s a really hard time to do that, I know). There are a lot of practical tips in the book, and Ryan did an excellent job covering them in his post above, but I found some core life lessons in their winning habits as well. I’ve re-posted them below (these are my personal notes, so I apologize if they don’t make sense).
the reminder that my path is MY path: both Soros and Buffett went their own way. They never worried that they were entering the exit doors. They never did or do what they are “supposed to do.” They created a set of beliefs, and they stick to them, which has served them extremely well. There is no “right” path for me that someone else took. My path is mine. My belief and life criteria will define that path for me, and those are also MINE. They are borrowed and pulled from others, but I ultimately get to decide what ends up in there.
conventional wisdom gets you conventional results: I realized while reading their habits neither one of them follows any of the investment habits you often hear about on CNBC or read in Money magazine as the “right ones.” You would never hear Suzie Orman preaching these guy’s habits. For example neither one of them believes in diversification. Diversification is of course a way to manage risk, but they both feel they can adequately remove risk from a situation by spending time thinking and researching. They say if you spend enough time BEFORE buying you can remove the risk greatly, and if you remove the risk why wouldn’t you put all of your resources behind it? Soros put his entire fund’s assets ($7B + $3B on margin) into his trade against the Bank of England. He KNEW his downside was 5% or less but his upside was huge (he was right…$2B in net on that trade).
skip to work: Buffett has been quoted many times as saying that he literally skips to work. He says even that he has instructed Berkshire to hold seances for him after he dies, so that he can continue to actively invest. He simply loves it. It is clear $$$ has nothing to do with his drive. The same is true for Soros. Although they both hit their strides when they realized which sides of their businesses they wanted to be involved in day in and day out, and which parts to delegate. It seems pursuing something that makes you feel this good is ultimately the safest investment.
Happiness in the details: It’s clear these two both enjoy the process instead of the results. For Buffett it is pouring over annual reports and balance sheets. He LOVES that. He literally does it all the time. In fact he has often said he feels like he should pay to have his job (he does in many ways…a $100k salary for the last 30 years is absolute steal for shareholders). Soros is the same. He sees himself as a philosopher and investing is just a playground where he can test and prove or disprove his ideas. The $$$ is merely the vote tally on whether or not his hypothesis were correct.
thinking and just sitting are crucial: Soros says his favorite time is down time, his “thinking time.” He says times when you do nothing are just as, if not more, important than when you do something. Spending the time to think and process your thoughts is key to success he says. They say that some of the biggest mistakes people can make is thinking that they HAVE to do something everyday. There’s a great quote in the book that says something along the lines of “Why do people on wall street feel like they have to come and do SOMETHING everyday?…I find that there is very little I HAVE to do on a day to day basis. I’d much rather spend my time reading and researching on the beach, and only come in when I have to buy or sell something.” Buffett has a little less of a work / life balance than Soros it seems according to the book.
focus. Both of these guys have focused in on a few core competencies and an investment approach in which they specialize in. They rarely stray from these. This allows them to really hone their skills. I realized that I constantly jump from one space / field to the next based on stories I hear / read. The focus needs to be on a field with a criteria that fits uniquely me. This weekend while in cincy I helped Ethan (my little brother) practice basketball. His friend is very good at layups and I was showing ethan some techniques. He got frustrated when I told him that kid probably practices everyday and that is why he is so good. I was naturally a good basketball player but I also LOVED to play, so I played every single day for hours after school. These two things made me very good. I of course wanted to be good, but I didn’t practice because of that. I practiced because I liked to play. The same is true for why I read business books and magazines. I love the stories. I love the trends. I love hearing about the people. How can I find my basketball feeling again?
These guys stay within themselves. The book talks about the “loser” investor as one who is constantly adjusting their techniques based on the last story they heard. I’ve realized that when you don’t take the time to think about and find what you enjoy and are good at analyzing in the investment world, you tend to jump from one person’s ideas to another. The same is true in life I believe. I think it is why so many of those get rich infomercials work so well. It’s hitting people who have no idea what their core strengths and passions are, and aren’t seeing any good results in their current approach (most likely based on something someone else told them) so they are so willing to buy another idea, especially when it is presented so well. These guys (Buffett an Soros) have found the shoes they are comfortable in and they STICK to them, knowing that is where they are happiest, most comfortable and ultimately most successful. I will say though that the personal criteria for living for everyone always borrows from others ideas, the key is to borrow from those that you can truly make your own and not from those you hope you can absorb.
(“Learning to Swim,” on flickr by sposta via CC – You can’t learn to swim until you jump in)
I feel like everyone I speak to these days has at least a “project or two,” they are working on. By project I mean they have something they are at least thinking about that hopefully could someday become a real working business that they would own and operate. At the moment, I certainly consider myself part of this group, and sometimes it’s really sort of depressing. I know so many of these “projects,” will never even see the light of day, and of those that do even fewer will ever get far enough to be considered a business. This seemingly harsh reality begs the internal question “Why am I any different?”
I think that more and more people from my generation are at least thinking about heading down the entrepreneurial path. The so called millenials have grown up with access to unlimited information across an unlimited spectrum of niches. We’ve been empowered to go out and learn about anything and everything we’re interested in with ease. We’ve also had front row seats to rise of the “young entrepreneur.” We’ve heard so much about people out of high school and college creating companies that are phenomenal successes. We idolize these people yet we also can’t help but ask “why not me?” This question is precisely why we are so fascinated with them. I’ve asked myself that question for at least 10 years now, going way back to my high school days where I became obsessed with the business world via the stock market (dotcom days, ah what a time to start investing!). Why couldn’t I potentially take my part in the American dream? It’s cheaper than ever to start a business. All the information, contacts, and products you may need are seconds away in a Google search. From the outside perspective the only thing that stands between you and your dream life/job is a smart programming partner and a few months (NOTE: most of the people I talk to are trying to create some sort of web focused business, so they need someone with programming skills). And that is why I think there are so many of us out there with projects.
But if projects are so easy to start, why aren’t more projects becoming working, real life businesses? Because I think very few project starters have the capability to start a business. Most of us want to learn to swim by merely dipping our toes in the water. We think we can expose ourself to gain without risking any of the potential failure, but the truth is the lessons from failure are what create opportunity for success. If you don’t attempt to swim by getting in the pool, you’ll never feel the struggle that is growth, the struggle that is learning. And very few people are prepared for a struggle.
I find comfort in that. Don’t get me wrong, I love the explosion in entrepreneurial mindset in this city and this country. I love that at least in our heads more and more us believe we are capable of doing something big on our own. We all benefit from this because the tinkering of potential entrepreneurs and current entrepreneurs is what pushes growth and innovation throughout. This constant push to create is what created the great environment we are in today. But now I’m seeing what separates someone building a project and someone building a company, and I have to really respect and admire the courage in the creators. Great things happen to those of us who are willing to put ourselves out there. I mean to really put yourself out there for something you believe in. “Putting yourself out there,” obviously has different meanings for different people, and you know ultimately what that means for you, but this is the only place where your “project” becomes a potential business.
For me I believe this means to stop hiding in confusion (I’m not quite sure what to work on),pick a path, and declare it to the world. For me putting myself out there isn’t about money because I’ve never been afraid to put money on the line (thanks to my days dotcom investing and bootstrapping a business in college by the nifty credit card balance transfer trick). My “putting myself out there,” is more about exposing myself completely to the criticism of others. I get out there by speaking up with my ideas, sharing them with as many people as I can, reaching to any and all who may be able to help, and learning from the feedback. Only by challenging myself to expose ideas to others, with a firm voice behind it, can I learn to swim (that’s part of the reason I’ve been blogging more lately..it’s amazing how much more you can write when you write what you’re truly thinking / feeling) and move my project on to a company.
process, one that could have been wrapped up in a week or two. And I was very close to doing just that…until I had a problem. The programmer I was working with had basically agreed to put the site together for a very low rate because of the nature of the project. Unfortunately they got stuck on one issue with cafepress and integrating it within wordpress. Now at this time you could actually buy the t-shirts on cafepress (in fact you still can) but I became obsessed with the site being perfect before I told anyone about it. So I waited, and waited, and waited, and slowly I realized the programmer had moved on to something else. The 2 week project became a month long project, which became a 3 month long project, and now a 2 year project. With each passing day, I beat myself up more for it not being completed, perfect, and live. And the more I beat myself up about it, the less time I wanted to spend on it.![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=205aff9d-fc4a-4cfd-a114-5e20953cd442)
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