Success Manifesto

Eearlier today my dog, Maura, ran away while I was taking her for a walk at my mom's house in New Jersey. She darted across the yard into the woods despite my angry yells. Although we have a 2-acre yard, I've always walked her on a leash. Otherwise, she runs away. As I ran after her, I was picturing her dead body on the road after being hit by a car, which is what happened to the dog I grew up with.

Today, when I finally caught her, I decided to try something new. Instead of yelling at her, I showed her love. Instead of angrily pulling her on the leash, I kept her leash off and let her follow me home (which to my surprise, she did!).

Often times, parents are the largest deterrents of their children taking risks to follow their dreams. Not out of anger, but out of love. They are afraid to give their child freedom for the same reason I'm afraid of walking Maura without a leash. Today I learned that what you resist, persists. If you believe in people more than you fear for them, you may just be surprised.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 03:21 PM | Permalink

A lot has changed in my diet since my last post on the subject. While I haven't been reading a lot, I've been really paying attention to my body and learning from the feedback it gives me. Here is a summary:

• For now, I've decided to not only have raw food in social situations. If I can get it, I will have it, but I don't think it is worth the difficulty to always eat raw.
• In my opinion, eating less food makes me feel a lot more energetic. Also, not eating before I go to bed makes a HUGE, positive difference in how I feel when I wake up. Both of these are easy to test on your own.
  
• I've been needing less sleep. I've been waking up naturally after 6 hours feeling refreshed.
  
• I don't feel particularly more energetic during the day. I was pretty good on being 'high energy' before the diet.
  
• I'm having difficulty with cravings, especially when my girl friend buys ice cream or cooks meals that I know would taste great. Also, there are always five restaurants in view practically no matter where you are in the city. This makes it difficult.
  
• It is hard to stop thinking about food. I'm literally thinking about my next meal before I finish a meal.
  
• Even though I've learned so much about food this summer, I've realized more and more how little I know. As such, It is hard for me to enjoy many foods because I'm always worrying about possible negative effects. I need to relax, which is easier said then done. Especially, when I've been hearing how so many things lead to cancer. Worrying so much probably counteracts a lot of the health benefits I'm looking for.
  
• Changing diet is very difficult (but worth it). I think things like entrepreneurship have been easier for me!!

Related to health, I had an interesting conversation with my mom today about death. We were talking about one of my dogs (I love dogs!!!), which is already 7 years old, which I guess means she's in her fifties. We got Ginger (that's her name) when I was in 9th grade and my other dog, who I had grown up with, was hit by a car. To me, the curse of owning dogs is that you know you will have to watch it die even if you get it when it is a puppy. Would the curse of having super-health, be knowing that you would have to watch everybody you were once close with die?

Posted by Michael Simmons at 01:54 AM | Permalink

Today Sheena and I had a nice meeting with the VP of Student Affairs at all of NYU, who is just starting at NYU after leaving Stanford as the Dean of Students. Basically, we introduced our company to him and expressed interest in NYU purchasing copies for students.

Even though it was a short meeting, we spent about 5 hours preparing. We gave him a book and a folder with our bios, press, flyers, business cards, and testimonials. The next step is to drop off about 30 books in his office on Tuesday, which he will distribute to various deans, administrators, and university leaders. If he likes the book, he will recommend it to these opinion influencers and see how it can fit in his programs. If he doesn't he will just show it to them as something a NYU student has done. Hopefully he likes it :)

Again, the more I meet people at the top level at NYU, the more I'm impressed. NYU has had incredible momentum as a school over the past decade and I really think it is going incredible places.

As for other parts of NYU marketing:

• I made the mistake of giving the bookstore 250 flyers, which cost $.25 each. I gave it to the manager when she was really busy and she probably didn't notice me. While I saw that they had hung up posters, I didn't see the flyers anywhere. I have a feeling that they are in the trash. I feel like it is unprofessional to ask if they still have them and if they do whether I can have the ones that they didn't use back. I probably should still make the phone call though!!
  
• Posters have been hung up in all freshman dorms to my knowledge.
  
• We have had difficulty getting in touch with contacts at specific dorms so we will probably have to table in a week or two. In retrospect, we should have done planning earlier in the summer!

Posted by Michael Simmons at 01:23 AM | Permalink

You may remember a August 22nd post entitled Adrenaline. In this post, I talked about an all-nighter I was in the process of having. For the days following the all-nighter, I wasn't able to catch up on sleep and I noticed my mind was cloudly. Yesterday and today I have a cold. Now I know why I don't do all-nighters any more. But, sometimes it's nice to do things to remember why we don't do it. Isn't it?

Posted by Michael Simmons at 11:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Tabling at the NYU career fair went fairly well two days ago. Special thanks to the NYU Office of Career Services for letting us table for free and saving us over $200. At our table, we had flyers, a banner, books, and information about the company and unpaid internship available.

Some observations:

• It is very funny to look at the different types of job seekers. Some were unshaven in shorts while others were in expensive suits. Some had there resumes binded while others had the worst resume layout I've ever seen.
  
• We started off many conversations by asking people what they were interested in. Some were quick to respond with their interests or admitting that they were open. Others seemed to pause nervously, covertly glance at our materials, and tell us they were interested in marketing and student success, which happened to be exactly what we were looking for. Coincidence?
  
• Standing for four hours is not easy.
  
• Saying what our company vision is and who we were hundreds of times allowed us to get a much clearer picture of what the company is.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 11:02 AM | Permalink

A lot of people never start businesses because they believe they don't have enough money to do so. Unfortunately, these same people don't realize that many of the world's most successful companies were started on a shoe-string budget by an entrepreneur with limited resources. Below is a list of tips to help you save money when you're first starting a company:

• Manage your finances in MS Excel, not Quickbooks.
  
• Manage your contacts in MS Outlook, not ACT.
  
• Get free legal and accounting advice from law/business students or lawyers/accountants who are willing to do pro-bono (free) work.
  
• Look for and join organizations that support youth entrepreneurs and small business owners.
  
• Hire unpaid interns and make their job exciting.
  
• Partner with somebody instead of paying them.
  
• Use credit cards.
  
• Get free, professional advice from SCORE, Teachers, and Professors.
  
• Get investments from family and friends.
  
• Find organizations who incubate startup companies or companies who might have office space that might be willing to let an aspiring entrepreneur use it. Perhaps, your school will let you use their copy machines and phone lines.
  
• Swap services with a company instead of paying them.
  
• Learn how to do graphic design and web design yourself. If you have these two skills, the startup costs of every business you have in the future will be dramatically reduced.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

One of the happiest moments that I have in life is when I get into a state where I feel like anything is possible and I'm extremely inspired. It reminds me of how a young child might feel when exposed to something new that opens a completely new way of seeing the world. In these states, I can lose track of time and journal/think for hours. I would say I have this state a few times a month, but I wouldn't be surprised if many of the results of my life hinged on these moments and the decisions made in them.

It's a very odd thing to me. For the past two weeks, I've haven't been doing as well as I would like and feeling overwhelmed. All of a sudden I can see what's important and what's not. From this realization, I am now focused and committed on what's important.

For the past two weeks, while I've been focusing a lot on Extreme Entrepreneurship, I've been lapsing on my health and relationship focus. When it should be the other way around. Altough it may take longer, I think the best way to build the life and business I want is to focus on things that may not pay off immediately the way 1,000 new book orders tomorrow might. I think I need to think about slowing things down when school starts so I can keep my priorities.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 12:47 AM | Permalink

Success depends on our will and ability to see and make the best decisions available to us in each moment. Each of our choices ultimately takes us down a path of success or distress.

- Michael Simmons, author, The Student Success Manifesto

Posted by Michael Simmons at 12:59 AM | Permalink

Looking back through old entries I've posted, I notice that the majority of my entries highlight postive parts of my life. When negative events are happening I put a positive spin on them or I avoid talking about them. In other words, let's say there is a scale that goes from 1-10 with 10 being the best thing I could ever blog about. It is much easier to blog about stuff that falls in the 4-10 range. Once events gets in the 1-3 range, it becomes a lot more challenging to write about them.

Why is it so hard to blog in the 1-3 range?
Well, for one reason, some 1-3 range blog entries may make somebody else look bad and burn bridges (ie - arguments with loved ones). So, obviously there is a limit to what I will post about. But more so, I believe that me blogging in the 4-10 range stems from my fear that people may not consider me as much of an authority if I don't always follow my own advice. But the truth of the matter is that I don't always follow my own advice, although I try darn hard. In fact, I think the weakness of many self-development books is that the authors only highlight the positive sides of their strategies.

With that I said, I really want to build my brand around always speaking the full truth about my journey. In so doing, I believe that I will fill an important, largely unment need for people who want to pursue a life of passion, purpose, and prosperity. Readers can learn about my successes AND my mistakes as they happen. Although I may lose readers, I hope that others may be able to see and appreciate a truer version of my journey toward a vision. Also, to be completely honest, it feels good to tell the truth.

A Few "1-3" Entries

• I have difficulty working with people in teams (downside of being an only child). In late May, we hired another NYU student to help with building a database of student entrepreneurship clubs. We paid him $12/hr for 10 hours a week over 8 weeks (a.k.a. - $980). The arrangement ended up not working out very well for us. I believe this was due in part to my weakness in motivating and managing other people.
  
• This summer I've been focusing a lot on success from fullness. In other words, passionately pursuing a vision, but loving each moment of the way. However, right now I'm unfortunately leaning more towards just pursuing success. This has been putting strain on my body and even my relationship with Sheena. While it may work in the short-term, it certainly won't in the long-term.
  
• Sheena and I have been having difficulty figuring out an exact vision for the company. I have a tendency to come up with ideas and start implementing them based on the vision I see. This leaves Sheena either following my vision or going off in a different direction. I need to be committed to reaching shared understandings. As an entrepreneur, I can see working with people as my next hurdle. For Extreme Entrepreneurship to go to the next few levels, it will be crucial for me to surmount it.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 10:18 PM | Permalink

Late this afternoon, I left a message with Patrick Combs, the author of Major in Success, an award-winning book that I would very highly suggest to everybody (that's why I called him). To my surprise, he called me back soon after and we had a great conversation.

The major take away I had is that I shouldn't be afraid to be myself. Since writing the book, I've had a concern that other students would perceive me as cocky for writing a success book for students my same age. Our conversation reminded me of the following quote:

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?"
- Nelson Mandela

Posted by Michael Simmons at 07:48 PM | Permalink

How do you land your dream job, win the world's most prestigious scholarships, and get into your top school choices? Conventionally, students are taught that the main way to achieve these things are by getting great grades in the right classes and getting great summer jobs in the right fields.

This strategy may have been a safe bet for awhile, but it simply isn't anymore. With more and more people applying to the same positions, competition is spiking dramatically. Simply working harder or taking a test prep course isn't enough anymore. In fact, it's risky.

The best way to achieve massive success is to passionately plan, prioritize, and pursue your vision today, not tomorrow! Landing your dream job, winning the world's most prestigious scholarships, and getting into your top choice school has more to do with the choices you make today rather than how well you fill out your application. College students from across the country, even from the most prestigious universities, learned this lesson the hard way last year when fewer positions were available and recruiters had stacks of hundreds of resumes.

Below are some examples of students who planned, prioritized, and pursued their vision early and achieved massive results:

• Successful serial entrepreneur, Joshua Newman, was offered a senior technology analyst position before he graduated from Yale by one of his former clients over dinner.
  
• Devi Sridhar won the Rhodes Scholarship, the nation's most prestigious scholarship, when she didn't even decide to apply until a few months before the application was due. Some of the people that didn't end up winning had been preparing for over three years. She had done most of the work in the years prior when she was pursuing her vision.
  
• Jamie Gonzalez, a successful student entrepreneur from the University of Oklahoma, got the highest job offer in his class even though he had a paltry 2.4 GPA.

1. You?re failing if you?re not making enough mistakes. One thing successful people have in common is that they fail a lot. The average millionaire goes bankrupt more than once. Pursue your dreams and use failures as stepping stones. ?Every adversity carries with it the seeds of a greater benefit.? ? Napoleon Hill, Best-Selling Author, Think and Grow Rich

2. If you don?t have skeptics, than you?re not thinking big enough. To be in the top .000000001% you cannot follow the road most taken. You must create your own. ?If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it.? ? Albert Einstein

3. Never take a job for money. Like a business, we all have tangible and intangible assets. Intangible benefits to our brand, network, growth, and knowledge are more important than our salary or hourly wage when choosing a career. ?If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.? ? Benjamin Franklin

4. Good grades and test scores are risky. The opposite of good is great. By achieving our school system?s goals, we are set up to be good, but not great. We must create our own path in life. Like a business creates a business plan, individuals must create a life plan. ?There is no correlation between high SAT scores, good grades, and money.? ? Thomas Stanley, author, The Millionaire Mind

5. Experience and knowledge can make you close-minded. By having experience of how things should be, we become close-minded to how they could be. Today?s youth, the first generation to grow up with the Internet, have access to and the ability to implement new opportunities that adults can not see. ?Young people will dominate most of the twenty-first century.? ? Don Tapscott, best-selling author, Growing Up Digital

6. If you are comfortable, than you?re obsolete. By being comfortable being uncomfortable, we create new possibilities in our lives that allow us to excel over others who refuse to change or grow. ?Restlessness and discontent are the first necessities of progress.? ? Thomas Edison

   Don?t pursue backup plans. Because of fear of failure, many people pursue careers that are safe, but that they are not passionate about. By doing this they set themselves up to be average. Individuals who plan, prioritize, and pursue their vision are bound to succeed. ?Most people live and die with their music unplayed. They never dare to try.? ? Mary Kay Ash, founder, Mary Kay Cosmetics

7. Don?t always listen to your friends and family. While your friends and family may have the best intentions for you, their first reaction is often to shelter you from being hurt instead of encouraging you to take risks and pursue your dreams. ?Be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best - night and day - to make you everybody else.? ? E.E. Cummings, poet

8. Pursue Extreme Endeavors. Pursue unconventional, success activities that you friends only dream about such as; making a job in a company or your own business, taking time off from school, shadowing a role model, attending interesting and relevant seminars/conferences, and conducting informational interviews. ?In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different.? ? Coco Chanel

9. Plan, prioritize, and pursue your vision before you graduate. It is better to have a quarter-life crisis than a mid-life crisis. The decisions that you make now determine whether you have a life of success or distress. "The time is always right to do what is right.? ? Martin Luther King

Posted by Michael Simmons at 08:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

About 13 hours ago, I sat down to check my email before going to bed. While I did check my email, I never went to bed making today the first impromptu all-nighter I've had for over two years. The excitement of marketing at NYU and all the possibilities of life and the company have kept me running on adrenaline and inspiration. I'm not even tired now. Some things I did were:

• Submitted an application to have the book posted on Amazon.com.
  
• Took a web marketing crash-course from my friend and marketing guru's web site.
  
• Made a few posts on a youth entrepreneurship community site.
  
• Worked on a web site membership system that will launch next week.

Life is good. Life is good.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 01:09 PM | Permalink

"I just finished reading your book and I'd like to congratulate you. It is very inspiring and it made me realize that I've been losing time thinking that I need a degree in order to follow my dreams. I am very passionate about creating a day/night care center for children where the main goal is to teach them basic computer skills..."
- Stern School of Business, Nermis Rosario, Sophomore

"Just wanted to say thank you for your site. Your goals/plan have inspired me to persue my own business. I've been into business for a few years now (I'm 18) and have dreamed of owning large corporations, airlines, and what ever else I can get my hands on..."
- Lance Frasier, Student

Posted by Michael Simmons at 08:50 PM | Permalink

This entry is a follow up on a July 9th blog entry I made entitled "Preliminary Idea of Student Authors".

NYU has been extremely helpful thus far (much more than I expected). Some people that have been very helpful are:

• VP for Student Affairs & Services, Career Services
  
• VP for Student Affairs & Services, Housing & Residence Life
  
• Associate Director, Advising & Student Services, Stern School of Business
  
• Dean, Stern School of Business
  
• Manager, Public Affairs, Stern School of Business
  
• VP of Budget/Resource Planning, Campus Stores

Moving forward, we'd like to make inroads with:

• President, NYU
• Director of Admissions
  
• Manager, Public Affairs (all-NYU)
  
• VP for Student Affairs & Services, Office of Student Life
  
• Director, NYU Press

One question I've asked myself is, "Why would NYU be so supportive of a student author?" I think it is because it helps NYU administrators accomplish two goals:

1. As a student of NYU, I am their product. The more successful I become and the more people know about my success, the more I serve as a testimonial for NYU.
   
2. The Student Success Manifesto helps students make the most of their NYU experience.

• All of the current student success books are broadly focused. There are no very well-written student success guides for specific schools written by successful students who go to those schools (at least to my knowledge). While these books would not have a broad appeal, they could have a few thousand sales a year and they would be trojan horses for other Extreme Entrepreneurship products to get into schools.
  
• Schools would support their student authors for the reasons given above.
  
• Authoring a short guide would be a good credential, be easy, and bring in some good money for student authors.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 06:20 PM | Permalink

I hope to make an entry two weeks from now with the same title, but with an exclamation point instead of a question mark. Below are some recent developments:

• Today the NYU book store bought 15 copies of my book. We gave the purchaser this document along with a book and media kit.
  
• In the past week, two organizations have expressed interest in buying 500+ copies. They are both tentative, but the possibility is very exciting none-the-less.
  
• There are also two other large, but even more tentative, orders in the works.
  
• Next week is going to be freshman orientation with thousands of freshman on NYU's campus and we couldn't be more ready for them.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 05:32 PM | Permalink

The more we get of something, the less we appreciate it. Or so it goes for most of us.

After (and during) a conversation I just had with my mom on the telephone, I realized how little appreciation I've shown her over the years. I've realized this in small ways before, but this time, I realized it more than I ever have. As a result, I started crying, something I do very, very rarely.

Soon after having me, my mom worked full-time and graduated college at the same time. When I was eight years old and my dad died, she raised me by herself. As I started to excel in sports in grade school, my mom drove me to all sorts of matches and practices 4-5 times/week up until I got my license when I was 17. All the while, she believed in me more than I believed in myself, until finally my confidence was unstoppable in life.

But as is with most things we have a lot of, I rarely appreciated it. Instead I only saw our arguments and differences. Moving forward. I want to be more appreciative and supportive of those closest to me no matter how hard this is. Ironically, I know that doing this will be harder than making the first million or even ten million, but I think it is well worth the effort.

I find it a sad thing that it is often easier to be nicer to a stranger than it is to those closest to us. I want to do everything I can to change this starting today!!

Posted by Michael Simmons at 10:10 PM | Permalink

We are all ships in a massively powerful, but invisible ocean. Just because the wind and water may take us on paths where there are a lot of other ships, it doesn't mean we're going in the right direction. I believe that for individuals to achieve true success they need to raise their own sails and chart their own course.

- Michael Simmons, author, The Student Success Manifesto

Posted by Michael Simmons at 04:37 PM | Permalink

I'm really looking forward to my classes this fall. I spent a lot of time picking some really good professors/classes as you can see below.

Entertainment Marketing: Al Lieberman has extensive international and domestic marketing and advertising management experience with global communications companies. He has been a Executive Vice President at Young & Rubicam, World-Wide Director of Marketing at Simon and Schuster, and CEO/founder of Grey Entertainment.

Professional Responsibility and Leadership: Bruce Buchanan is the director of the Stern School Markets, Ethics, and Law Program, and the C.W. Nichols Professor of Business Ethics. His numerous publications have appeared in Marketing Science, Journal of Marketing Research, Psychometrika, Journal of Mathematical Psychology, Harvard Business Review and other journals. Professor Buchanan received his Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his Doctor of Philosophy in business economics from Columbia University.

Nutrition and Health: Sharron Dalton - web site unavailable due to blackout.

Patterns of Entrepreneurship: Elizabeth Ingrassia is a seasoned entrepreneur, having starting several businesses in the retail, wholesale, licensing and Internet sectors. In 1999, she founded Eluxury.com, an internet retailer selling exclusive luxury goods. Ms. Ingrassia currently runs Harvard Managment Group, Inc., a boutique consulting firm specializing in startup issues and fund raising. She also advises early and later staged companies in the areas of marketing, sales communications, strategy, and product development. Ms. Ingrassia holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA from Boston College, where she was Captain of the Womens Varisty Tennis Team.

TV and the Information Explosion: Michael Rosenblum is leading the drive for video literacy, and the complete rethinking of how television is made and controlled, Rosenblum has been on the leading edge of the digital video revolution for more than a decade. His work has included: the creation of 'VJ' units for BBC and Oxygen, the complete conversion of The Voice of America, the United States Government's broadcasting agency (and the largest broadcaster in the world), from short wave radio to television broadcasting and webcasting using the 'VJ' paradigm (1998-present), as well as the construction of NYT Television, a New York Times Company, and currently the largest producer of non-fiction television in the U.S. Rosenblum was both the Founder and President of NYT TV (based on the 'VJ' paradigm, 1996-1998). He was also the President and Founder of Video News International, a global, VJ-driven news gathering company, with more than 100 journalists around the world (1993-1996).

Posted by Michael Simmons at 11:44 AM | Permalink

9 reasons to abandon your fear of start-up and launch a business today

Entrepreneur.com - July 2002
by Michael Simmons

With the economic downturn, students in all the major business schools have been dropping out of their entrepreneurship classes and transferring back to classes where they think they have a secure future. Students and professionals who were once planning to start businesses now have decided to go back to their cushy jobs. Everything is going back to normal. Or at least that is how it looks. Below are nine reasons why any student should start a business:

1. You gain experience. Owning and running your own business is an incredible way to gain experience and credentials regardless of whether you decide to stay in business once you graduate. Jaime Gonzalez of Oklahoma State University received the highest job offer in his entire graduating class. Now, there are two kickers: First, he was the founder of an IT consulting company, and second, he had a 2.4 GPA. Hmmm...I wonder if starting a business helps in getting a better job when you graduate?
   
2. You have nothing to lose. I think it's safe to say that most students dip into their parents' checkbook when it comes time to pay the bills. In general, students aren't paying child support, rent, utilities and many other expenses. The worst thing that could happen if your business fails is that you get a job, have an incredible credential on your resume, and have experience that will increase your chances of success in the future. The best thing that can happen is that you'll become the next Microsoft. I don't know about you, but I think that is better than choosing between no job and jobs that you're in just for the money.
   
3. Two-thirds of millionaires are entrepreneurs, according to Thomas Stanley and William Dank, authors of The Millionaire Mind. If it's the money you want, then consider entrepreneurship. You receive not only a salary, but also a lot of money if you're lucky enough to sell your company or take it public. Michael Furdyk, a successful young entrepreneur, was able to sell his business, MyDesktop.com, for $1 million when he was 16 years old!
   
4. You develop networking skills. You've likely heard that your network increases your net worth. Consider the fact that by running a business and constantly being in a business community, you will develop excellent contacts. If you choose to get a job after you graduate, you will have a great pool of people who will be more than happy to hire you or send your resume to somebody who wants to.
   
5. You increase your value. Put simply, starting a business in college increases the value of "the brand called you" and gives you more options. For example, an entrepreneur with a large brand value can publish a book, star in a documentary movie (i.e., Startup.com), or go straight to the top of another company. I recently met one of the founders of Diversity Planet, a job site for minorities. He spent a year working very hard on the company and has since left to take a reporting job with Dateline NBC at the ripe age of 20! People don't often don't get an opportunity like that until they are much older.
   
6. Operating a profitable business in the long term is less risky than being an employee in the long term. For example, just look at the recent economic downturn. Tens of thousands of people have been laid off. I can guarantee the owners of profitable businesses are still with the business. They will be the last people to go down with a ship. Business owners can have multiple streams of incomes from different customers. If you're an employee, you only have one stream of income and therefore are bearing more risk.
   
7. You will learn more about yourself and what they don't teach or prepare you for in school. Furthermore, entrepreneurship is the combination of all the disciplines of business. It includes knowledge of marketing, accounting, management and operations. Already having knowledge of these topics before you take classes on them allows you to see more clearly how everything applies. Also, you will be able to learn early-on what subjects you like so you can make better decisions on what to major in and what industries to target.
   
8. It is yours. You make the rules, create your own hours, work from wherever you want and choose who you want to work with. You can also pick what interests you the most in the world and then start a business that is related to that topic in some way. If you like art, you can start a design business. If you like marketing, you can create or choose a product and then market it. If you like writing, you can write a book and do your own public relations and marketing. If you like the Internet, you can start a Web development business.
   
9. You'll grow. I personally have grown a lot from owning a business. I used to be terrified to speak in front of others. Now I look forward to it. Before owning a business, I had probably read a total of five books outside of school, and I only read them because my mom made me. Since starting my business, I've probably read more than 100 books. The business has also allowed me to learn more about myself. I know that I will be an entrepreneur forever in some way, shape or form!

Copyright 2002 Entrepreneur.com. All Rights Reserved.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 01:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The difference between an interest and a commitment, is the difference between if and when. When we truly commit ourselves to success, it becomes inevitable.

- Michael Simmons, author, The Student Success Manifesto

Posted by Michael Simmons at 12:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

"...anybody who makes it, anybody who does achieve any level of success, that says to the rest of the world, 'This is possible.'" - Oprah Winfrey *

This quote summarizes my strong belief that any accomplishment one person can make or has made, anybody else can too. I think an interesting and saddening phenomenon is that most people disassociate themselves from people who've accomplished incredible feats. One of the major reasons I think this happens is because we only learn about 'extra-ordinary' people after they've become 'extra-ordinary'. We don't see or fully understand where they came from and how they got to where they are today.

As such, I think a powerful application of online journals (blogs) is to document, in real-time, ordinary people setting out to do extra-ordinary things. In the end, I hope my blog can work toward this end. I invite you to ask any questions you have about what I'm doing or how I'm doing it. I would also love to hear about what you'd like to see in this blog.

*Source: An interview with Oprah Winfrey on WCVB-TV 5 News CityLine (Boston, January 13, 2002).

Posted by Michael Simmons at 12:51 AM | Permalink

I was just thinking to myself about how my interests have changed an incredible amount over the past few years. It all started when I got the Internet and started designing web pages after my sophomore year of high school. I thought I would be doing that for the rest of my life. However, about a year later my interests moved on to the business world where I realized that I personally could make more of a difference and more money by managing other web designers.

At NYU, my career interests have spanned the following:

• Professional Entrepreneur
  
• Life Coach
  
• College Professor
  
• Author
  
• Consultant
  
• Speaker
  
• Government Office
  
• Company President

• youth empowerment
  
• entrepreneurship
  
• marketing
  
• management
  
• psychology
  
• health
  
• spirituality
  
• etc.

I've found college to be an incredible buffer period where I have the freedom and flexibility to pursue my passions and set my life up in a way so that when I graduate college, I can continue following my passion instead of a pay check.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 03:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

NYU orientation begins on 8/25 and lasts for about one week. Sheena and I have spent the last few days frantically getting our promotional materials together (something we should have done earlier). In the spring, I spent about 40 hours designing a brochure, but in an effort to clear space on my hard drive on Sunday, I accidentally deleted it! We're back on track now though. Below is digital version of what the poster will look like:

Sheena and I believe that targeting freshman before they've spent all their money and when they're very open to trying new things is key. We are going to be marketing through:

1. Tabling - Setting up and manning tables inside dorms
   
2. Postering - Placing posters with self-adhesive, tear-off pads in dorms and around campus
   
3. Flyering - Handing out flyers wherever we can
   
4. Speaking - Speaking wherever we can
   
5. Bookstore - Getting book placed in NYU bookstore (hopefully)
   
6. Seeding - Giving books to opinion influencers
   
7. NYU Part-Time Career Fair - Setting up a booth
   
8. T-shirts - Wearing Extreme Entrepreneurship t-shirts wherever we go.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 03:58 PM | Permalink

How do I break into and become successful at speaking at events?

Getting speaking gigs and then successfully delivery them may seem like a daunting task, but it is actually very easy. Over the years, I?ve developed a system of steps anybody can take to begin the road to becoming a successful public speaker.

All through out high school, I was terrified of public speaking. As a result, I rarely got to practice and I was always one of the worst speakers in every group I was a part of. Things started to change when I decided that being able to speak in front of an audience would be crucial to success in my career path. As a result of this realization, I committed myself to learning how the speaking profession works and getting my name out there. Although, I have a long way to go, I?ve been fairly successful thus far. And if I can do it, I guarantee you can if you are committed!

Get the Gig

1. Start Small. Offer to speak for free anywhere you can at first to build your track record.
   
2. Become an expert. This is easier than you think, especially when you narrow down the topic you want to be an expert in . You can begin identifying an area by thinking about where you are unique. Once you?ve identified a topic, you may want to establish more credibility by writing articles, gaining success, and/or winning awards in that area.
   
3. Video record a speaking engagement and send the tape to potential venues where you?d like to speak if they want reassurance that you?re a good speaker.
   
4. Leverage your network. Do you know anybody who runs an event or knows somebody who does, where you could be a speaker?
   
5. Build trust with the event planners by strategically volunteering. You can do this by helping out at events, connecting them with other individuals who they might like to meet, or by simply asking them how you can help.
   
6. After you are finished speaking, ask for a testimonial from a student and the event planner so you can leverage your past speaking engagements for larger ones. Also, ask the event planners if they know any other organizations that you could speak at.

1. Practice. Take every chance you get to speak in front of an audience of any size. When you get the gig, deliver the presentation to your friends for feedback beforehand.
   
2. Visualize yourself speaking successfully.
   
3. Don?t wing it and don?t stress it. When you first start public speaking it is ok to use note cards. However, as you get more comfortable with your material it is good to stop using aids like note cards so you can focus your full attention on the audience.
   
4. Video record yourself speaking and critique yourself.
   
5. Take a public speaking class at your school.
   
6. Join or start a local Toastmasters club.
   
7. View tapes or live presentations of the world?s best public speakers.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 12:50 PM | Permalink

Today I spoke at the Lead America session at Bentley College for the second time. This time I did two sessions (one for middle school students and one for high school students). On three and a half hours of sleep, I delivered possibly my best presentations ever. I've been consistently been doing B+/A- speaking, but I feel like this was an A . I sold out of books and a lot of students came up afterwords, which really made me feel like I had made a difference.

Sheena and I are on a roll together with the business and the relationship. We really inspire each other. Working with other people on a partner/partner or boss/employee level has always been difficult for me, but it is really on the up and up.

While I ate fairly healthy last week, I probably ate the most I ever had in a one week period in my entire life time (as a result of the fast). While I was able to will-power through it, I noticed indigestion, fatigue, and head ache. In the future, I need to be more balanced instead of having ups and downs.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 11:15 PM | Permalink

I'm extremely interested in the power of networks. I was reminded of this when I read an article on Yahoo called, "Friendster Network Grows in Popularity", which is about a web site that used this power to grow to a few milllion registered users in a matter of months with very little money while still in beta.

Moving forward, the major way that Extreme Entrepreneurship will be marketed is through this power. Some ways Sheena and I are thinking about doing this are:

1. All authors having a blog (online journal).
   
2. Open Source: Creating a system where readers can evolve the Extreme Entrepreneurship philosophy by giving feedback and creating there own ideas.
   
3. Giving away the ebook for free.
   
4. Making it as easy and valuable as possible for people to tell others about Extreme Entrepreneurship.
   
5. Having an interactive workbook that generates word-of-mouth.
   

Posted by Michael Simmons at 02:46 AM | Permalink

Normally when it starts pouring in the middle of a sunny day, you find dryness and stay there until the storm passes. Today, for reasons I'm still not privy to, I decided to walk onward even though I wasn't in any particular hurry. Sometimes, when I managed to brush the water out of my eyes, I was able to make eye contact with somebody under one of the various awnings lining Court Street in Brooklyn. The looks I got seemed to either say, "What the hell do you think you're doing?" or "Aww..that's too bad. Better luck next time." I did make 2-3 eye contacts with people that seemed to be in my situation (neither hurrying or carrying an umbrella). Although, we did not exchange smiles, we exchanged meaningful head nods. As I entered my apartment with everything I was wearing and holding completely soaked, I thought to myself, "I have to do this more often."

Posted by Michael Simmons at 09:03 PM | Permalink

I just found out today that I might be addressing the freshman class at the Stern School of Business of New York University (my school). That's over 500 students and would be my biggest speaking engagement yet.

In addition, my girl friend has it potentially in the works for us to speak to all incoming freshman who are living in dorms. This would be thousands of students, but in small audiences.

I think we could add a lot to these audiences and really make a big difference on the school if we do a good job. This is all very exciting and now I need to brush up my speaking skills. The biggest thing I want to work on is relaxing enough to show my enthusiasm more.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 09:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

My girl friend bought two boxes of Tofutti Cuties today (if you haven't had one, you don't know what you're missing). I was able to resist for awhile, but they eventually broke me down. And I didn't just have one. I had 13!!! Damn my addictive personality.

Now, I'm off to journal and make sure it never happens again (after I buy two more boxes for my very angry girl friend who was also looking forward to some).

Posted by Michael Simmons at 07:05 PM | Permalink