3 Traits of Successful People

0 comments on this article Posted by Jesse in Career Advice, Entrepreneurship, Opinion on December 12th, 2011 , tagged with , , , .

In my quest for professional success, I’ve spent a great deal time studying and observing the career trajectories of the highly accomplished. What I’ve discovered is actually very simple. Successful people come in all shapes and sizes. They work in different industries, fighting for different causes. But regardless of their industry, all successful people have three traits. Intelligence. Work ethic. A strong network.

Intelligence

It seems pretty straight forward. Either you’re born with high intelligence or you are not. To a certain degree this is true. However, there are plenty of intelligent people who squandered their natural mental capacity. Intelligence goes beyond IQ. Intelligent people know what their strengths are, what their weaknesses are, and how to maximize their productivity based on this assessment. They also work to improve themselves in the areas that they’re deficient in. They’re constantly learning. Which brings us to the second trait among successul people, work ethic.

Work Ethic

Tim Ferriss may have popularized the notion of a 4-Hour work week but most successful people work harder than everyone else. It’s that simple. Steve Jobs and Jeffrey Katzenberg are a few names that come to mind. Successful people aren’t always the smartest people, but they are the hardest workers. I truly believe this. Last one in, first one out doesn’t cut it. That doesn’t move you ahead of the pack. It’s the person that’s willing to put in the hours on direct work and work related activities (i.e. blogging, self-education, etc) that improves themselves and rockets past the competition. Even intelligence and hard work will only get you so far. The third trait of success, in my opinion, is the most important…the strength of your network.

A Strong Network

All successful people have a strong network. They have a network of people who believe in them, trust them, and will help them. A network can’t be handed down to someone. It’s something that you earn. You earn it by being intelligent, working hard, and making the effort to connect with people and bringing value to the relationship. Your network is what will get your client leads, job recommendations, and deal flow. Success isn’t a solo endeavor. You need people around you to help you get to where you need to be. Having a strong network can catapult careers to the highest of levels.

It’s pretty simple. Those who have achieved greatness possess those three traits. And the best part is, anyone can can acquire each of these three traits. A $100,000 college education or entrance into a secret society is not necessary for success.  You need only the desire and willingness to make it happen . So go out there, work hard, learn more, and network like crazy. Success is an option that everyone has.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • HackerNews
  • email

Be Extraordinary

0 comments on this article Posted by Jesse in Career Advice, Entrepreneurship on December 8th, 2011 , tagged with , .

I was having a conversation with an advisor the other day about startups. Among other things, we were discussing my mobile venture and I had expressed apprehension about finding funding in the coming year. Aside from the fact the fact that I shouldn’t even be worrying about this (I don’t even have a finished product), he offered me a sound reminder:

 

“Be Extraordinary.”

 

There are so many factors out of your control when it comes to funding, but the one thing you can control is your product. You have 100% control in that respect. Knowing that, your goal should be to make the most extraordinary product you can possibly create. There will always be funding available, no matter what the overall market is like, if you create something amazing.

As much as I like to follow the venture capital news and speculate what the future holds, it was apparent that I need to refocus. I need to concentrate on getting an MVP public and iterating from there. As Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh says,

“Follow the vision…not the money.”

Share and Enjoy:
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • HackerNews
  • email

Learning to Code: Day 3

0 comments on this article Posted by Jesse in Programming on November 24th, 2011 , tagged with , .

So it’s day three of my coding education. I’ve taken a few days off because I’m trying to get over flu-like symptoms. But I have not given up on my quest to learn coding. I picked up where I left off, adding a stylesheet to an HTML document.

I’ve never created a stylesheet from scratch. I’ve only edited existing stylesheets in WordPress (can’t you tell?) So, I had to read up on where to start. In theory, it doesn’t seem too bad. I had to add style tags in the header tags. I followed the lesson to a T so I could add a navigation menu, different fonts, and color. I added the stylesheet to the existing document I started on Day 2.

One fact I should point out is, I added the stylesheet directly in the HTML code. I did not create a separate stylesheet and insert that in. That will be my next challenge as well as refining the look that I’ve already created.

You can see below the progress I made:

Share and Enjoy:
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • HackerNews
  • email

What I Learned From Creating My First Pitch Deck

2 comments on this article Posted by Jesse in Career Advice, Entrepreneurship on November 21st, 2011 , tagged with .

I recently created my first pitch deck. The objective being to raise seed money to develop a mobile app. It was the first time I had made a presentation like this and I made some rookie mistakes.  I had the good fortune of having a former Idealab executive review my deck and show me the presentation’s weaknesses. There are some great resources out there for what to include in your deck (Here’s a Quora discussion), but let me share what I learned in this process.

Less is More

My first presentation had a TON of text. I thought I needed paragraphs to clearly articulate the product and my vision. When I looked at the deck after I was done with it, even I was bored. Your deck should only have bullet points. Keep is as simple as possible. Highlight only the essentials. Legendary venture capitalist Vinod Khosla has a five second rule. He says that you should be able to remember what the deck said after only five seconds of viewing it. My first shot would have failed this test.

Be Visual

Along the same lines of less text is be more visual. Your presentation should have large graphics, select charts, and good color combinations. If we follow Vinod Khosla’s 5 second rule, what’s going to make a greater impact in 5 seconds, bullet point text or an image? Visuals in your presentation aide in the story telling process, which is the third lesson I learned with this pitch deck.

Tell A Story

The point of the deck is to get the investor excited about your product and confident in your team. In order to do that, you must build momentum within the deck. My deck had no flow, there were slides out of place, leaving the viewer confused.  For example, I didn’t articulate the market opportunity well enough and I didn’t connect the MVP to the roadmap, to the monetization strategy. It was a really disjointed presentation. A strong presentation will have a naturally developing story that’s easy to follow and elicits excitement from the audience.

At some point, if you’re going to build a venture backed company, you’re going to need to create a presentation. There are so many obstacles facing an entrepreneur when building a company and raising capital, there is no need to make your life more difficult with a poor presentation. I hope these lessons make building your deck a little bit easier.

–

As I was writing this post, I stumbled upon Dress Rush’s pitch deck. This 500 Startups company does an amazing job with their deck. There are few words, very visual, and tells an clear story that everyone wants to be a part of.

The actual Dress Rush Pitch Deck

Dress Rush’s Online Tutorial to Creating an Online Pitch Deck

Share and Enjoy:
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • HackerNews
  • email

Overcoming Fear

0 comments on this article Posted by Jesse in Career Advice, Entrepreneurship, Opinion on November 20th, 2011 , tagged with .

Fear defeats more people than any other one thing in the world.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Fear is a funny thing. Men have grappled with fear for hundreds of years. It has this undeniable control over a great majority of us. We all suffer from fear to some degree. But those who can overcome fear, become motivated by it, can achieve success.

I’ve endured fear my entire life. At times it has paralyzed me, other times it’s taken me to new heights. Fear is something that will never go away, but it is something that I’m learning to overcome. Moving forward, I must remember the breakthroughs I’ve had despite my fears.

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.

- Mark Twain

I can remember three distinct moments in the last five years where I faced fear head on. I’m talking about major life events, not the accompanying fear that follow me when asking a girl out. The first moment was moving to Thailand. Second, moving to Los Angeles. Third, quitting my job and starting my own company. I vividly remember each of these events, why I was scared, and how I grew because of I stood up to that fear.

The common thread between these three moments in my life was the fear of uncertainty. Each time, I jumped off a metaphorical cliff not knowing my outcome. And each time I landed on my feet and improved myself and my life. That’s why I must continue to conquer fear head on and take risks, no matter my fear, because something good will come out of it.

As I read this post, it’s evident to me (and probably you) that it’s not a message for others (like I intended it to be) but rather an open letter to myself reaffirming my faith in myself. I am on the verge of embarking on an entirely new business venture. I’m making the leap from service guy to product guy. It’s my first venture where seed capital will be invested entirely on the notion of my entrepreneurial potential. It’s extremely exciting and equally terrifying. Fear of failure is coursing through my body. But that is not the mentality I need before I start this journey. No, I must be mindful of the fear I’ve faced in the past and the triumphs I’ve enjoyed by moving forward despite my fear.

If any young professional is reading this, please leave knowing this. Fear will never go away, but neither will the regret of not facing your fear. Stand up to fear, be courageous, and make a bet on yourself.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • HackerNews
  • email

Learning to Code: Day 2

0 comments on this article Posted by Jesse in Programming on November 17th, 2011 , tagged with , .

Alright kiddos. Today I continued my trek to becoming a more technical professional. I had the good fortune of going to my friend Barce’s place and getting one on one tutorial from an experienced programmer. We went over the higher level functions of each programming component and then got down to the nitty gritty.

I started out by downloading TextWrangler so I can write my HTML code. From there I just watched Barce, looked at the source code from his website, and recalled my basic HTML knowledge to produce the screenshot below. Beautiful right? I know, it lacks any CSS styling, but that’s my next step.

The next steps moving forward are for me to familiarize myself with the HTML 5 code (Which I gather is just a lot easier to write than regular HTML) and start to learn CSS 3. I need to learn how to integrate CSS into my HTML code as well as how exactly to write CSS from scratch. I’m excited for this screenshot to evolve over the next few weeks. Fingers crossed that it doesn’t turn out like a GeoCities website :)

Share and Enjoy:
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • HackerNews
  • email

Learning to Code: Day 1

0 comments on this article Posted by Jesse in Programming on November 15th, 2011 , tagged with .

Yesterday I proclaimed that I would learn to code. It’s not the first time I’ve expressed interest in learning to code, but it is the most serious I’ve been when making the proclamation. Now…where to start?

“Learning to code” is such a general term, I should be more specific. I need to learn JavaScript, HTML 5, and CSS 3. I’ve been told the best order to learn these languages is HTML 5, CSS 3, JavaScript. Keep in mind, I’m less interested in back end architecture and more front end development. If you think I’ve been misinformed, please let me know in the comments.

When it comes to learning, I’m someone who needs to know the whole picture first and then can break it down. Therefore I’m starting my self education on HTML 5 with just plain research about it. I want to know holistically how it works and why it’s better than other languages. Once I know this, I’ll be able to better grasp the concepts that I’m learning.

I’m going to start by going through crash course HTML 5 lessons to get my top level knowledge. From there, I’m going to learn from Lynda courses. Please send me other resources if you think there are better ones out there. Any tips are welcome if you think I’m going about this learning process wrong.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • HackerNews
  • email

I’m Going To Learn To Code

0 comments on this article Posted by Jesse in Entrepreneurship on November 15th, 2011 , tagged with , , , , .

Yes, you read that correctly. I plan on learning to code. As I continue to advance my career and veer towards the technology sector, it’s essential that I learn to code.

There are two types of founders, technical and non-technical. Being in technology and not having a programming background is a huge disadvantage. I’m tired of sitting on the sidelines with other “business” types who yearn for the ability to code. I need to teach myself the basics of programming.

I concede that I’ll never be a Zuckerberg like hacker who can stay up all night and hack his way into all the college dorm databases, but I don’t need to be. I just need to be able to create front end mobile and web interfaces and have a greater understanding of software architecture. I’ve been told to learn Javascript, CSS 3, and HTML 5. Sounds easy enough, but I’m well aware of the challenge in front of me.

How am I going to do this? Simple, the internet. There are great little companies that are popping up to teach everyone how to program. I’ve started to use Codeacademy and I’ve RSVPed for HackerTrail’s first class. I’ll probably supplement these with Lynda.com classes. Between these three resources, I should be able to grasp a good chunk of knowledge. I’m sure I’ll poke my friend Barce and have him teach me a thing or two as well. Barce, this is your warning :)

If you have any tips or resources that you’d like to share with me, I’m all ears. It’s imperative that I learn to code and I need to stop dicking around and learn.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • HackerNews
  • email

Brand Equity Is About Expectations

0 comments on this article Posted by Jesse in Opinion on November 13th, 2011 , tagged with .

My branding philosophy is simple: Branding is about expectations. That’s it.

Your brand is equal to the consumers’ expectations of your company.   High quality product/service creates high brand equity and low quality obviously correlates with poor brand equity.

Companies have to choose what they’re going to build their brand expectations around. Zappos chose customer service, Apple has innovation and design, and Trojan Condoms stand for peace of mind. Each of these companies have strong brand equity in different markets. They have high brand equity because people have expectations for these brands and they continually live up to the expectations.

Assess your company’s brand equity. Ask yourself, “What expectations do your consumers have when they use your product or service? Is it the same thing  you want consumers to expect? Is your company meeting expectations or exceeding them?”  Answering these questions early on will guide your company’s path to strong brand equity.

A common theme within this blog is keep things simple. Brand equity is no different. It’s all about expectations. Set them, exceed them, and watch your brand grow.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • HackerNews
  • email

What Is Most Crucial To A Startup? Idea or Execution?

0 comments on this article Posted by Jesse in Entrepreneurship, Opinion on November 1st, 2011 , tagged with , , , .

I was browsing Quora the other day and I came across this question:

Which is more crucial to the success of a startup? The idea or the execution?

There are some great answers in the thread, I highly recommend you take a look. While there are far more reputable voices weighing in, but I can’t help but add my two cents to the debate. My thoughts on the topic can be summed up with the food, peanut butter and jelly.

“It’s all about execution.” 

Execution is obviously critical to success. So much emphasis is put on execution because that’s how a company actually is built and makes money. The team takes an idea, and executes their plan to perfection, and creates a marvelous company. Strong executing teams can take any idea and make it into a reality. I can’t disagree with this thought process. But I can disagree with the idea portion of the question.

“Ideas are a dime a dozen.” 

I think this quote is bullshit.  I am a firm believer in a great idea. No great companies were built on a mediocre idea. Great companies were built on great ideas that push the boundaries of the possible. Great ideas are what push technology and our society to greater feats of accomplishment. Everything starts with an idea and people confuse this quote because they associate it with shitty ideas.

You have to have an idea to start a company. Your idea has to be unique in some fashion. No one is going to join your team or invest in you if you have a run of the mill idea. Those who dare to dream and create new ideas are those who will change the world. So bullshit to those that say ideas are a dime a dozen.

Like I originally said, my opinion on the subject is summed up with peanut butter and jelly. A peanut butter and jelly sandwich needs a perfect combination of each half to make a wonderful PB & J.  A successful startup is no different. Great ideas need execution and bad ideas executed well are still bad ideas. There must be a harmonious union of both idea and execution to create a successful startup. So instead of bantering more on the merits of the idea or the execution, let’s all go out there and execute the shit out of an amazing idea.

 

 


Share and Enjoy:
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • HackerNews
  • email
Previous entries
Recent entries