Diary of a Gen-Y Entrepreneur by David Mullings

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Even Brilliant People Need The Right Opportunities

Entrepreneurs love to point to the success of "self-made" people like Bill Gates as proof that hard work, solid ideas and solid execution are the most important factors for success.

But is that really true?

Malcolm Gladwell, the famous author of The Tipping Point and Blink, has a new book on the way called Outliers and it seeks to explain that opportunities due to your environment have more to do with your success than just your smarts.

In a recent interview for New York Magazine titled Geek Pop Star, he pointed out the advantages Bill Gates had because of his family and location:

Gladwell cites a body of research finding that the “magic number for true expertise” is 10,000 hours of practice. “Practice isn’t the thing you do once you’re good,” Gladwell writes.

“It’s the thing you do that makes you good.” Gladwell shows how Gates accumulated his 10,000 hours while in middle and high school in Seattle thanks to a series of nine incredibly fortunate opportunities—ranging from the fact that his private school had a computer club with access to (and money for) a sophisticated computer, to his childhood home’s proximity to the University of Washington, where he had access to an even more sophisticated computer.

“By the time Gates dropped out of Harvard after his sophomore year to try his hand at his own computer software company,” Gladwell writes, “he’d been programming practically nonstop for seven consecutive years. He was way past 10,000 hours.” Yes, Gates is obviously brilliant, Gladwell concludes, but without the lucky breaks he had as a kid, he never could have had the opportunity to fulfill the true potential of that brilliance.

How many similarly brilliant people never get that opportunity?

I repeat the last question: How many similarly brilliant people never get that opportunity?

Success is not due to just yourself, but the environment and people you surround yourself with. That is why networking is so integral - who you know, who knows you and who you can raise capital from.

Your environment can play a real role in making things easier. Of course, that does not mean that one should look at their surroundings and resign themselves to failure.

Nothing worth having is easy to achieve.

If your current environment is not the best for your venture, it just means that you work harder and smarter, while finding ways to alter your surroundings to improve your chances of success.

Gladwell himself is a beneficiary of circumstances - His Jamaican mother was able to leave her small Jamaican town, eventually marry an Englishman and raise a family in Ontario.

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Is There Meaning In The Work You Do?

I came across a great post by Umair Haque over at Harvard Business Publishing titled How to Build a Next-Gen Business Now.

He lays out five steps to build such a business but it was the fifth step that caught my attention because it spoke to our Realvibez Media business.

This final step - rediscovering meaning in the work we do - isn't just the most difficult to come to grips with. It's also the most critical - because though the other steps are necessary, they're not sufficient. Without a deeply felt - and a powerfully lived - sense of meaning, every business will devolve to what the investment banks became: machines engineered with relentless precision to destroy long-run value, often implosively so.

We have found it easier to stick with our venture even when the money is not coming in because it wasn't founded just because we wanted to make money. It has more meaning than that to us - empowering Caribbean entertainment to earn more revenue on a global scale.

It is taking longer to get where we want and we started by focusing on the music industry, now slowly moving into the television and film industry, but it will get there and we keep working hard because there is meaning in the work we do.

Guy Kawasaki in The Art of the Start, starts chapter 1 with GIST (Great Ideas For Starting Thing) and number one is the following:

Make Meaning - The best reason to start an organization is to make meaning - to create a product or service that makes the world a better place. So your first task is to decide how you can make meaning.

Are you doing what you are doing to just make money or to also make meaning?

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Business.com Case Study: Ignore The Laughter Of Other People

Every entrepreneur has had some person laugh at their idea, but few have had thousands or hundreds of thousands laugh at their idea.

I personally know someone who had the chance to invest in MTV at the inception but laughed at the entrepreneur and asked him why would anyone watch music on television.

Never let the naysayers dent your resolve, just make sure you can answer their question satisfactorily for yourself, your potential staff and your potential investors, even if you are the only one in all the above.

Business.com is now the leading business search directory in the USA but it had humble beginnings. In 1999, Jake Winebaum and Sky Dayton bought just the domain name for US$7.5 million, a record at the time.

They instantly became the laughing stock of the tech world.

In 1997, the domain name had sold for US$150,000, then a record as well.

They set out to build a business directory and in 2007, sold Business.com for US$345 million. Dow Jones, The New York Times, IAC/Interactive Corp. and News Corp. all attempted to buy it but the winner was R.H. Donnelley Corp., one of the largest telephone directory publishers in the US.

Jake and Sky had the last laugh.

The most important asset for an entrepreneur is not having public support, it is believing in your vision.

As Henry Ford said (and Mike Michalowicz promotes as the greatest entrepreneurship lesson in his book The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur):

If you think you can, or you think you can't, then you're right

Don't get caught up with what other people think about your idea.

Focus on executing your vision.

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Inspiring Others Is Important

I am currently in Jamaica and was invited on Tuesday to be a guest lecturer at the H.E.A.R.T. VTDI in Kingston by Dennis Howard, the UWI lecturer who brought me down in February to speak at the Global Reggae Conference.

It was a last-minute request but I was prepared and was able to speak to a class of students focusing on artist management in the music industry. The topic that evening was music videos and the Internet.

One of the students joined Realvibez.tv yesterday and wrote a blog post that gives a far better account than I could ever give. He wrote:

I got up this morning feeling good, the reason why yesterday I went to my artist managment class as always, about midway in the class a guest lecturer came in...his name was David Mullings, keep in mind I'm seeing this guy for the first time.

However, he proceeded to introduce himself to the class and started to give us a comprehensive overview of the internet and some of the various social networks that were available as well as effective. Mr. Mullings also went on to introduce the class to his Realvibez website which everyone found rather interesting, he told us what was offered by Realvibez and the whole movement of the company.

So as an upcoming artist I had to be a part of this new phenomenon that is taking over...believe me when I tell u being enlightened by someone never makes you inferior it makes you greater, because you now possess the knowledge on how to approach any situation hands on...so for me blogging is new amongst a few more things that I'm gradually familiarizing myself with...so I just want to thank Mr. David Mullings again for opening my eyes to other possibilities and avenues in this music industry truly appreciated.

That is all that I can ask for when I speak to students.

I ended up giving a second guest lecture to a UWI class while on Shaggy's music video set yesterday and will post about that tomorrow.

Are you trying to inspire others?

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Do You Visualize Your Desired Outcome Before Pursuing It?

In the book The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur that I recently endorsed, Mike Michalowicz speaks early on about the importance of visualizing your goal before setting out to achieve it.

He quotes Bob Marley as the best example of doing this and achieving success.

Before Bob was a household name, he famously said:

My music will go on forever. Maybe is a fool who says that, but when I know facts, mi talk facts. My music will go on forever

Buddha said something similar thousands of years ago:

All that we are is the result of what we have thought

How often do you visualize the outcome of a meeting before heading into it?

What about the outcome of your business or assignment at work/school?

This is one of the fundamental differences between those who achieve and those who don't: Mental attitude.

Mike also quotes Henry Ford:

If you think you can or think you can't, you are right

When I was growing up and regularly attended swimming classes in Jamaica, my swim teacher, Mr. Lopez, had one rule:

"Can't" is a four-letter badword

That always stuck with me. We could never tell him that we can't swim 10 laps, can't do the butterfly or can't hold our breath for 60 seconds.

He was like Yoda: There is no "can't", only "try"

I set out a 15-year plan broken into blocks of 5 years when I was 15 with the goal of positively influencing others, especially young Jamaicans.

I am now 27 and I have already achieved that goal and now focus on building on that foundation.

I started this blog to be able to share my lessons with others and inspire people. That too has come true and I always believed it was going to happen. I have met my fair share of people who think I am crazy for having such big goals or think I am too young to provide any useful advice, but I have never once let them trample my dreams.

Do you have "Big Hairy Audacious Goals" (BHAGS) as Jim Collins, author Good To Great and Built To Last, would say?

Be positive, surround yourself with positive people, seek out tons of advice and don't let the naysayers win.

Remember, "Can't" is a four-letter badword.

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Innovators Are Better Than Inventors?

I recently picked up Finding An Angel Investor in a Day to see what kind of advice was in there and to get additional info on term sheets.

I found the following breakdown very interesting: Three Types of Entrepreneur

Inventors
They create a completely novel idea or invention. Such ideas or inventions are revolutionary. They're often called "disruptive technologies" because they displace whatever came before. They include products such as the copying machine, the web browser and the cell phone.

Innovators
They take existing products, technology or ideas and change them or apply them to new uses. Bringing a product like Teflon, which was developed for industrial use, to the consumer market, is an example of an innovation.

Introducers

They take an existing product and find a new market for it. The new market can be geographic, such as taking a product developed in Asia and introducing it in the United States of America, or demographic, such as taking a product designed for businesses and introducing it to consumers.

It is much easier and cheaper to be an Innovator or Introducer than to be an Inventor. Inventors also seem to get the short end of the stick a number of times:

• Computer mouse - Xerox (not Logitech)
• DOS - IBM (not Microsoft)
• Cellular phone - Motorola (who is hurting and wants to sell that part)
• Portable music player - Sony (now Apple runs the show)
• Commercial Word Processing software - WordPerfect (not Microsoft WORD)
• Spreadsheet program - Lotus 1-2-3 (Not Microsoft Excel)
• Personal computers - Altair (not Dell or HP)
• Web Browser - Netscape (Not Internet Explorer)
• Search Engine - ALIWEB (Not Yahoo)
• Pay-per-click Advertising - Overture (Not Google)

Even though there are plenty of examples where the inventor makes a fortune (Thomas Edison for example), the pattern is clear, especially in the latter half of the 20th century and now the 21st century

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My Letter Published In Inc. Magazine October 2008 Issue

The 3rd quarter has started nicely - The entrepreneurship book I endorsed is on sale and doing well, The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur, we have a meeting with a potential investor on Sunday who approached us and I am in Inc. magazine's October 2008 issue.

The Inc. magazine presence is only a published letter in response to an article from this summer but it still gets my name and company name out there - which helps with thought leadership and recognition.

I have already had 2 companies contact me since yesterday because of it so clearly it is a good thing.

The original article was The Get Ahead Guide: ScanDigital Processes 100,000 Images a Month and my comment was here.

Inc. contacted me shortly after to include it in the September issue. I was excited but kept quiet, in case it fell through.

It was pulled because that issue was the big Inc. 500 issue.

Yesterday a rep from a company emailed me and mentioned that he found out about us due to my Inc. letter and he also liked what I said.

So my letter, or a truncated version of it, is in the October 2008 issue - read it here.

Maybe I can use that to impress some of the potential investors in order to prove that we have good business sense :-)

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Nancy Pelosi Obviously Did Not Read 'How To Win Friends and Influence People"

As much as I am supporting Barack Obama this year and believe that the Republicans have screwed America with their de-regulation mantra and "deficits don't matter" approach, I call it as I see it.

Every person who is trying to get a deal to go their way needs to learn from Nancy Pelosi.

Don't make her mistake.

If you want a person to do something, don't scold them BEFORE they do it! 

If she had read and followed Dale Carnegie's great book, How To Wi Friends and Influence People, she would have not said what she said yesterday and instead done the following:

• Begin in a friendly way 
• Respect others’ opinions. Never say, "You're wrong."
• Get the other person saying "yes, yes" as soon as possible
• Talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person.
• Call attention to people's errors indirectly
• Let the other person save face
• Try to make the other person happy about doing things you suggest

Of course, you only do these things if you want to influence that person and/or win them as a friend.

If you don't want either, then by all means, throw this out the window like Nancy Pelosi.

This is why business people make better politicians than politicians make business people (except Al Gore it seems) - we business people are always negotiating and we don't like to posture (we also don't have to pander during an election cycle).

If every person who reads this post mails a copy of this great book to Nancy Pelosi's Capitol Hill office, I think she will get the point. 

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Focus On Needs, Not Wants or Desires

It seems normal for humans to become slaves to their wants and desires but we have to overcome those, especially in business.

I was able to overcome many of mine (especially the desire to be liked by lots of people) thanks to Buddhism, Taoism and discussions with my father.

The Tao Te Ching says:

He whose desires are few gets them; he whose desires are many goes astray.

The Second Noble Truth in Buddhism says:

It is craving which renews being and is accompanied by relish and lust, relishing this and that: in other words, craving for sensual desires, craving for being, craving for non-being. But whereon does this craving arise and flourish? Wherever there is what seems lovable and gratifying, thereon it arises and flourishes.

There is this Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering:such was the vision, insight, wisdom, knowing and light that arose in me about things not heard before.

This Noble Truth must be penetrated to by abandoning the origin of suffering....

This Noble Truth has been penetrated to by abandoning the origin of suffering: such was the vision, insight, wisdom, knowing and light that arose in me about things not heard before.

"Craving" here should be read as "Attachment" to things, sometimes referred to as desire, but not always the same.

My father taught me that the value of a person is not determined by how others view them, but by what you know about yourself, your capabilities and your beliefs. He also said that I should use my own yardstick to measure success, not the yardsticks of everyone else.

We all want and desire a ton of things for our business ventures or personal lives but focusing on those is unwise.

Robert and I love to make lists of what we would love to have for Realvibez whenever new technology appears. We include the prices of each item and then we do something I think few people do:

We cross out everything that we don't actually need to get to the next stage

It has helped us to set our priorities straight every time and forced us to focus on the important things.

I challenge you to write a list of all the things you want or desire for your business or personal life, add the costs and then begin cutting away the things that you don't actually need.

You will be surprised at the final result.

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Awareness is Over-rated, Focus on Positive Opinion

The heading of this blog post was what Deborah Meyer, the Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of Chrysler had to say during her presentation at MIXX in New York City on Monday.

Her presentation was focused on Dynamic Digital Strategies and she did a great job. She explained that in the past, automakers were focused on "building awareness" and forcing prospective customers to follow a specific sequence of steps to learn about a vehicle and then purchase.

Those days are done.

With the rise of the web and search engines, a prospective customer is just as likely to go straight to Edmunds.com for information on a specific model or category as to go to the automaker's own site.

She also pointed out that people already have their opinion of a car brand before they decide what vehicles to look at so "influencing opinion is key".

I can attest to that - I never look at American cars when I consider fuel-efficient cars, Japan owns that unique selling point and it is extremely hard to change my mind about that (same goes for price too). When I think Luxury, I look at European cars, Exotic - Italian mostly and Sports car - finally I look at the Corvette and Viper, but pay close attention to rally-bred cars (my favourite) and European cars like Porsche, BMW and Audi.

If GM was to spend money trying to make me aware of a new vehicle without trying to influence my opinion of the brand, it would be a complete waste of money.

GM is trying hard to influence opinion with the Chevy Volt - "We are just as green as Toyota" - but that's not working because Toyota got the green cred long before GM and GM killed the Saturn EV1.

GM is "Hummer" and a car company that fought better mileage standards for cars - they have their work cut out for them.

With Realvibez.tv, we have undertaken the same thing - evaluating attitudes towards the brand, company and website in different target segments.

This is also why we have not pushed hard to promote the site and do not focus on growing traffic yet - The user experience is not at the level we need in order to generate the opinion we desire from the average visitor or the potential advertiser.

This is also why we have not pushed hard to promote the site and do not focus on growing traffic yet - The user experience is not at the level we need in order to generate the opinion we desire from the average visitor or the potential advertiser.

The new and much much better site is in the works and if we spent time and money marketing the current site, we would have to spend 3 times as much to influence opinions.

It is far smarter to wait until we have the user experience and property we want to begin marketing and influencing opinion. In the meantime, we will work on improving what we already have.