Success Manifesto

Today was just one of those days where I've been laughing to myself, sometimes for a reason or sometimes for none. Even as I write this entry, I just sort of want to laught out loud.

Below is a quick recap of the day:

1. I dropped off the book at the printer.
   
2. I submitted the book for the American Library Association's Best Book for Young Adults award. We find out on Sunday if it is nominated to go to the next round!
   
3. An executive from Sony spoke to my Entertainment Marketing class. It was very interesting to see how much the industry has shrunk because of file sharing and what they have planned for the future.
   
4. Danny Schechter (the news dissector) spoke to my TV & Information Explosion class. He is a media critic and showed some really interesting clips about the deception of the media. I'm going to start reading his weblog.
   
5. I met up with Aleks Kulczuga (a good friend/NYU alumni I haven't seen in awhile) and Mahesh Krishnamurti (publisher and CFO of Worth magazine) at the W Hotel in Mid-town. We had a great, philosophical conversation about the best ways to make a difference in the world.
   
6. I enjoyed an 11:00pm dinner with Sheena at a Thai restaurant in Brooklyn.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 01:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (7)

I just got off the phone with Dhrumil Purohit (see pic above), the principal & creative director of Dharma Boost who I met a few months ago through Doug Evans, founder of Servador who I met a few months before that at a National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) New York Metro Advisory Board Meeting, which I got invited to because I was an alumni of NFTE, which I got a scholarship to because I was the first place winner in the Fleet Youth Entrepreneur of the Year Award for New York City for 2000, which I found and applied for after randomly spending 7 hours one day in late January 2001 looking for entrepreneur awards (funny how things work).

Anyway, DharmaBoost, which does web, ecommerce, print, and new media design, may be helping to make the Amazon.com bestseller campaign a success. More on this later.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 02:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (3)

Today I found out that Amazon.com is offering 30% off on books over $15. As luck would have it, my book costs $14.95. To take advantage of the opportunity, I submitted for a price change, which takes 4-7 business days. Even though this leaves a lot of buffer time until the 15th, I'm still nervous that something will go wrong so I will be following up with Amazon as much as I need to.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 01:13 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (2)

ZDNet -10/29 - Google is in talks with several publishers to build a service that would allow Web surfers to search the full text of books online, according to a report this week from Publishers Weekly's online site. Google spokesman David Krane declined to comment. But such a service would likely allow people to query a database for keywords and then view exerpts from books where those keywords appear, according to the report. So far, Google has made agreements that give it the ability to scan as many as 60,000 titles, the report said.

The discussions come after a newly introduced service from Amazon.com called "Search Inside the Book," which is similar to the one Google is reportedly discussing. Amazon's book search, which launched last week, lets people search millions of pages of books for keywords, view passages and purchase books directly from the site.

1. When I type "The Student Success Manifesto" in Amazon's search, only my ebook comes up now. In fact, the only way I can find to get to my paperback book on Amazon's system is by going to the ebook page and then clicking on a link. This is definitely annoying.
   
2. With the text of books being fully searchable, finding content online changes. Google would probably either integrate the book results with the Internet results or give it its own category. Either way, I imagine this would have a positive effect on the publishing industry as a whole.
   
3. The potential for book marketers to alter the content of books they're marketing to target specific key words or phrases is interesting. This is already widely done on web sites, but with books it may be a touchy subject.
   
4. Perhaps publishing companies will hire copy editors to create multiple versions of books with each version targeting a different key word. If done in the right way, I could see being a the top of a key word resulting in thousands of purchases over the course of a year.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 08:36 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (9)

The over $10,000 in accounts receivable (money coming in) still hasn't arrived yet, which has been very difficult. Although, I've always heard that cash flow was the #1 reason businesses fail, I couldn't fully grasp the concept until now. We're lucky we have low overhead (operating costs) and small cash needs.

Thanks to Doug Evans, a mentor and CEO of Servador, we found a new potential book printer,RJ Communications, that gave us a great quote of $3,540 for 2000 books. With the print on demand company we've been using, Lightning Source, the price would have been $7,541.50 for the same amount. Tomorrow morning, I'm going to call RJ Communications and see if they can get us the books by November 15th (Amazon.com Bestseller Day) and whether they will allow us to pay the full amount when the books are shipped, instead of 50% upfront.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 10:22 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (2)

In a quick rush to leave the house today, I shaved very quickly without confirming that I had shaved adequately. You can imagine my disappointment when I got to school and realized that I had missed a little tuft of 4-6 strands of 3-day old hair on my upper right lip. After confirming the presense of the suspect hairs with a quick lick of the tongue, I knew I had to do something. My first reaction was to try and pull each hair out with my fingers when I was alone in the bathroom. However, a combination of the pain and my short nails (grinded down by nearly two decades of nail biting), made me realize that I would need a different strategy.

Some questions/thoughts that raced through my mind were:

1. Should I buy a disposable shaver?
   
2. Maybe I should put my hand in front of my mouth when I talk and make it look like I'm thinking.
   
3. When I talk with people, maybe I should look to the right side of them so they only see the left side of my face.

I now that in the big scheme of things, I may not be better off for devoting so much of my mental energy to 4-6 pieces of hair. And furthermore, writing a blog entry about it may be throwing good time after bad time. But, in an altruistic sort of a way, I want you to know one thing. If this ever happens to you whether it be with shaving, a bad hair day, or some weird skin blemish that came from nowhere, I just want you to know that I understand. I understand.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 12:43 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (2)

Yesterday, I did Bikram Yoga (with a mentor who works at The BlackStone Group) for the first time. The main difference between Bikram Yoga and normal yoga is that the room is 105 degree Fahrenheit. Besides being sore, the session was very poweful. Last night and today, I have a lot of energy and feel more centered. Perhaps this will become a staple of my exercise diet.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 05:25 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (18)

"If you intend to start a full-time, incorporated business, the odds that the business will survive at least eight years with you as the owner are better than one in four; and the odds of its surviving at least years with a new owner are another one in four. So the eight-year survival rate for incorporated startups is about 50%."

Source: Bygrave, William D., The Portable MBA in Entrepreneurship (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1997), p.10.

This statement may come as a surprise to you if you've heard the statistic that four out of five businesses fail within the first five years. The reason the failure rate is so high with that statistic is that sole propietorships are included. Including sole propietorships pushes up the failure percentage because:

1. Most businesses are sole propietorships.
   
2. Sole propietorships are very easy to form and are mostly for small businesses that don't plan to grow large. As such, many of them may be part-time and not taken as seriously.
   
3. The 80% failure rate doesn't take into account that many of the owners of sole propietorships may have left the business for one of many reasons, not including bankruptcy.

1. Large businesses are laying off more people than they are hiring.
   
2. A business hierarchy is structured as a pyramid. Therefore, as you get closer to the top, competition is more fierce.
   
3. You take the risk of the company going bankrupt, the company being restructured, your division being discontinued, or you being fired for something you did or did not do (politics).
   
4. If you leave a company, you get severance based on how long you've been working there. If you start a company and leave it, you either profit from its sale or you own a percentage of it that you can later sell.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 05:04 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (9)

If life runs in cycles, then I'm definitely on a good cycle. I just had another hour and a half, inspiring conversation. This time it was with another entrepreneur my age who found the site through Google. He is working on starting an organization called Youth Network for Enlightened Wealth (Y-NEW). Below is a description of the company:

Y-NEW is dedicated to inspiring young entrepreneurs to create prosperity using enlightened principles.

Young people have more opportunities and tools available to improve the financial and social condition of the world than ever before in history. They are motivated to impact society positively and contribute to the higher good of humankind.

Research finds that young people are volunteering at rates higher than previous generations. They understand that all humans are part of a global community, and want to take action to form a more a better world. The data is clear: young people are ready to serve.

However, most opportunities for service provide little to no economic incentive, and often do not focus on true internal change. Y-NEW seeks to change that common assumption. Now is time that the younger generations must choose to take responsibility for themselves and the state of the world, and they shouldn?t have to sacrifice their financial freedom in order to serve their fellow citizens.

Y-NEW is founded on the belief that personal prosperity is an honorable life goal, as long as one uses it for the good of others. Y-NEW also believes that wealth combined with service is one of the most ? if not the most ? powerful catalysts for change in the world. Y-NEW gives young entrepreneurs the tools they need to succeed financially, psychologically, spiritually, and physically, and to create abundance in the world while serving others.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 07:22 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (2)

Wow! I just got off the phone with another mentor (from the New Venture Mentor Program). I called him for the first time only knowing that he had experience with:

• Business Idea Refinement
  
• Food/Grocery/Packaged Goods
  
• Retailing

So much of what I have accomplished, am accomplishing, and will accomplish is due to individuals and organizations helping me! As such, I think it goes without saying that I owe it to my mentors, to return the same service to others. More on scalable, win-win ways of doing this later!

Posted by Michael Simmons at 05:26 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (2)

Today, I had the great opportunity to have an hour and forty-five minute lunch with an editor at a major publishing house, who happens to be the wife of one of my mentors from the NYU Alumni Mentor Connections Program. The meeting was more of an informational interview than a meeting to talk about the book. Due to a combination of her personality, the personal connection, and the fact that my book didn't fit into the types of books she specializes in, I got some really candid advice about the publishing industry that is extremely helpful in choosing how to go forward! I will go into more detail about my full thoughts on the publishing industry and what I've learned in a future entry or "special report".

Sheena and I still have to meet to make a decision (surprisingly hard to do even though we live with each other), but two possible paths we can take at this point are:

1. Become an Amazon.com bestseller on November 15th. Use this a leverage to go for a major publishing contract.
   
2. Become an Amazon.com bestseller on November 15th. Use this as leverage to get a distributor to get into major book stores and launch a major press campaign.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 04:13 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (10)

Today, The National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) ordered 100 books for a speaking engagement I am doing to NFTE students in Florida on November 5th.

Thank you NFTE!

Posted by Michael Simmons at 10:11 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (4)

"I would like to write a book, but I am unsure where to start. Do I put the book together first then seek out publishers or vice versa?"
- Charles

Charles,

Great question. The answer really depends on your goals. Let me explain each approach some more:

The conventional approach to publishing is to write a book proposal (like a business plan, but for a book) and then find a literary agent. The literary agent will help you refine the proposal, hopefully find an interested publisher, and then professionally negotiate on your behalf. In return, your agent will get 15% of the deal. Once you have a contract, the agent will also help manage the relationship with the publishing house.

I took the approach of self-publishing. The main disadvantages to this approach are:

1. It takes longer to self-publish and sell to a publisher than it does to go straight to a publisher.
   
2. It takes your time and money to professionally produce a book.
   
3. You take on the risk of the book having poor sales and not being able to find a publisher as a result.

1. You test out and refine an idea.
   
2. If you are able to garner good sales, you have potential of getting a publisher in addition to getting a good deal with the publisher. This occurs because you took on the risk and have proved the product's potential to a certain point.
   
3. You have creative liberty.
   
4. You have a high profit margin.
   
5. You learn a lot about the industry by producing your own book and it is cheaper to do than ever.
   
6. Depending on the publisher, you may not have to spend the time to write out a detailed book proposal since the book and its sales speak for themselves to a certain point.

1. What Color is Your Parachute, Richard Nelson Bolles
   
2. The Celestine Prophecy, James Redfield
   
3. The Elements of Style, William Strunk, Jr.
   
4. In Search of Excellence, Tom Peters
   
5. A Time to Kill, John Grisham

Posted by Michael Simmons at 09:46 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (6)

Every few weeks (fine, every few days), I go to Google and type in Michael Simmons. Each and every time, I appear as the second and third Michael Simmons. While, I'm happy to have moved up, part of me still wants that number spot. Part of me wants to be the #1 Michael Simmons out there (at least according to Google). All I have to say is, "Michael Simmons. Watch your back."

Posted by Michael Simmons at 12:23 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (1)

"I learned that sometimes when a lot of people say you're wrong, you may actually be wrong."

- John Katzman, Founder, The Princeton Review (In response to a question about a major lesson he had learned from his career at a Center for Communication event.

Side note: I thought that this quote was funny and that it shows that the "break all the rules" mentality is not always right.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 12:13 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (11)

My very close friend and former business partner, Cal, made a post about the corporate interviewing process he is going through. A process he is going through even though he knows he will reject the job if he is offered one. At the risk of being non-political, I'm going to completely disagree with Cal. At the risk of being more non-political, I'm going to be more frank than I normally am and perhaps alienate some people.

I believe that people too often pursue that, which at some core level is not right for them and at some obvious level is not exciting for them. I think people do this for a few reasons:

1. To prove that they could succeed in the conventional way.
   
2. To "feel" like they are doing the right thing.
   
3. To pursue a 'safe' path so a passionate, but 'risky' path could be pursued in the future.

Today, I went to another RoadTrip Nation event to watch the screening of their newest documentary where three students take a 21-day road trip to interview very successful individuals. What seemed common among all of the inviduals was that they were willing take on "dedicated poverty". In other words, once these people graduated, they were willing to take on "ramen-noodle (sp?)" lifestyles so they could pursue their passion. And as a result of pursuing their passion, they excelled. And as a result of excelling, they became successful on their own standards and society's standards.

I believe two basic ideas:

1. If people spent less time being busy on stuff they're not passionate about, they would have more time for stuff they are passionate about.
   
2. If people spent less time on items that aren't very valuable to them, they would have more financial freedom.

If people didn't spend so much time and money on stuff that isn't important, they would have more time to pursue what they really want.

I learned the power of this when I took a semester off. After 13 years of getting up at 7:00am to catch a yellow school bus and take classes that mostly weren't appealing, I decided that I needed a break. Although A's and B's made mom happy, I stopped blaming boring classes on myself. Memorizing and getting by wasn't enough. Taking a semester off was difficult because everybody told me I shouldn't. My mom spoke VERY strongly with her words (yelling) and actions (not supporting me with rent/food money).

In the end, taking the time off was one of the best decisions I ever made. I dramatically decreased my expenses, but I pursued my passion 24/7 doing whatever the hell I wanted, when I wanted to and ironically choosing to write a book, when writing was always my worst subject.

After this taste of freedom, I decided to dedicate myself to pursuing my passion 100%! Looking back, I've done pretty well, but not 100%. Cal's entry renewed my vigor.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 10:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (3)

When I began college 3 ½ years ago, I was put into the
interesting situation of being on my own for the first time in a big city where
I knew nobody. I had made an agreement with my mother that if I went to NYU, she
would not have to financially support me anymore. When school began that August,
I had paid for half of the tuition, dorm, and meal plan charges that were due
that semester (through my summer work, scholarships and loans). My meal plan
consisted of 5 meals a week. I had no job and I had $30. Let me tell you, when
you’re put in a situation like this, you learn to be creative! I didn’t want the
people around me to know my circumstances because I didn’t think they would
understand. Sometimes I’d casually mention that I was paying for school, but for
the most part people didn’t really grasp the concept. I learned how to eat
cheap. My dorm had a kitchen, so Ramen Noodles were the way to go. Our dining
halls were “all-you-can-eat”, so I stocked up on cereal every time I ate there.
I used a $25 Barnes & Noble gift certificate to buy $1.00 bagels from the
Starbucks dining area. And so on. Getting to where I am now (despite our cash
flow issues) from where I was then has (in my opinion) been the greatest
achievement of my life. It has been an adventure with many ups and downs, but I
have learned many lessons along the way. It is a goal of mine to share my
experiences and help others who are in similar situations. I can think of a
thousand things I wish I had known when I was starting out on my own! While I
will continue writing on financial independence and creative ways to finance
your education in my online journal, I urge you to contact me directly if you
have questions!

Posted by Sheena Lindahl at 09:17 PM | Permalink

When I began college 3 ½ years ago, I was put into the
interesting situation of being on my own for the first time in a big city where
I knew nobody. I had made an agreement with my mother that if I went to NYU, she
would not have to financially support me anymore. When school began that August,
I had paid for half of the tuition, dorm, and meal plan charges that were due
that semester (through my summer work, scholarships and loans). My meal plan
consisted of 5 meals a week. I had no job and I had $30. Let me tell you, when
you’re put in a situation like this, you learn to be creative! I didn’t want the
people around me to know my circumstances because I didn’t think they would
understand. Sometimes I’d casually mention that I was paying for school, but for
the most part people didn’t really grasp the concept. I learned how to eat
cheap. My dorm had a kitchen, so Ramen Noodles were the way to go. Our dining
halls were “all-you-can-eat”, so I stocked up on cereal every time I ate there.
I used a $25 Barnes & Noble gift certificate to buy $1.00 bagels from the
Starbucks dining area. And so on. Getting to where I am now (despite our cash
flow issues) from where I was then has (in my opinion) been the greatest
achievement of my life. It has been an adventure with many ups and downs, but I
have learned many lessons along the way. It is a goal of mine to share my
experiences and help others who are in similar situations. I can think of a
thousand things I wish I had known when I was starting out on my own! While I
will continue writing on financial independence and creative ways to finance
your education in my online journal, I urge you to contact me directly if you
have questions!

Posted by Sheena Lindahl at 09:17 PM | Permalink

Michael mentioned in his blog today how
we were having cash flow difficulties. I would like to add a few things I've
learned from this experience as well: 1) As things become more comfortable, it
is easy to stop working hard. When you have no money, it’s easier to follow a
budget because you have no choice. This experience reminds me of all the
creative financing skills that I had when I was first becoming financially
independent (which I will talk about in a later entry), that I’ve gradually let
slip away. 2) You don’t need money to be happy. I’ll admit not having money
brings a lot of stress, but I don’t think it has to. I’m learning right now that
there are many things to make me happy other than my financial situation. To
look at this from another perspective (as an adventure, a story to remember from
my life) makes it actually rather interesting. 3) I’ve learned how to make
really awesome vegan bread-cookies. They are my own concoction of various
ingredients we've had lying around the house and are surprisingly
delicious...perhaps I should become a chef!

Posted by Sheena Lindahl at 09:03 PM | Permalink

Michael mentioned in his blog today how
we were having cash flow difficulties. I would like to add a few things I've
learned from this experience as well: 1) As things become more comfortable, it
is easy to stop working hard. When you have no money, it’s easier to follow a
budget because you have no choice. This experience reminds me of all the
creative financing skills that I had when I was first becoming financially
independent (which I will talk about in a later entry), that I’ve gradually let
slip away. 2) You don’t need money to be happy. I’ll admit not having money
brings a lot of stress, but I don’t think it has to. I’m learning right now that
there are many things to make me happy other than my financial situation. To
look at this from another perspective (as an adventure, a story to remember from
my life) makes it actually rather interesting. 3) I’ve learned how to make
really awesome vegan bread-cookies. They are my own concoction of various
ingredients we've had lying around the house and are surprisingly
delicious...perhaps I should become a chef!

Posted by Sheena Lindahl at 09:03 PM | Permalink

I was happy to wake up this morning and see that all the ratings for the book on Amazon.com were 5-stars today like the day before. Last night, I had a dream that somebody rated the book a 1 out of 5-stars and that 56 of 71 people agreed.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 03:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (5)

Follow up on ... Michael Simmons - Young Entrepreneur Journey: 900 and Counting

On September 9th, I made a posting about how we were waiting on $7,000 to come in. Well, this number has risen to $8,000. Everyay, Sheena and I go to the mailbox expecting a check, but instead get a bill or the most recent Land's End catalog. We've followed up with the organizations and it just takes a long time for their systems to process the checks.

Things have become more difficult in the past week as a result of making investments over the past month as if we we're going to receive the checks in the mail on the next day. Some lessons learned/thoughts are:

1. Be prepared for the worst case and best case scenario. In our case, we weren't prepared for some large orders and then the checks to take so long to process.
   
2. We're lucky we aren't at a cash intensive phase of our business where we have a large payroll to meet every other week.
   
3. I feel stupid having things like a $300 air purifier that I bought over the summer, while I'm changing my eating habits to fit the cash crunch.
   
4. I never want this to happen again!

Posted by Michael Simmons at 12:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (3)

"A gentleman worries whether he will find the Way, he does not worry that he may remain poor."

Although most people will argue that money is the not the most important thing in their life, many people treat it like it is. Some thoughts on why I think this happens are below:

1. People have a belief that if they worry about money now, then they won't have to worry about it in the future. On the one hand this makes sense, but on the other hand I think that worrying about money leads to more worrying about money.

   For example, last week was mid-term week at NYU, and students were very stressed out. However, in the midst of this, one student I spoke with made the statement that if she wasn't worrying about her mid-terms, she would be worried about something else. I think that this is very true. We all look forward to the weekends, winter breaks, and summers of life, but are those times completely worry-free? Are they what we expect? For me and most people I know, something else seems to always come up. Yet, like a donkey following a carrot, we seem to believe that a change in our external environment (ie - school, work) is more important than a change in our mindset.

   I would argue that one of the best ways to learn how not to be stressed is to learn how to be calm in the most difficult situations right now, in the present-moment. If we can accomplish this, then we can be calm anytime. Similarly, if we can learn to not worry about money even though we may have little at a given time, we can tear apart the invisible shackles that stop us from focusing on what's most important in life, whatever that may be for each of us.
   

2. Most people raise their costs lock-step with their rise of income. In other words, people buy more stuff when they make more money and still end up worrying about money. Why is this? Is this because of 'culture', advertisements, or something else?

   In the city, when I have the opportunity to speak with somebody who immigrated from another country (usually a poorer one), they talk about how Americans focus too much on money and not enough on family or community, like people in their own country do. Even though we're the richest country, we seem to worry about money the most.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 11:18 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (13)

How do I find a mentor if my school doesn't have a mentor program?
- Michelle

Michelle,
I have two strategies I would recommend using:

1. Informational Interviews.
   1. Find people who are successful in the careers you're thinking about pursuing. You can find these people online, in the media, or through existing contacts you have.
   2. Learn as much as you can about them.
      
   3. Call or email them, invite them out to lunch, and see if you can ask them questions about your career (they will always end up paying).
      
   4. If the meeting goes well, ask them if you can meet with them in the future and if they can refer you to three other people who might be able to offer assistance as well
   5. Send the person a thank you note and keep them updated on your progress.
2. If possible, join a local organization that helps young people succeed and that already has a mentor network you can leverage.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 09:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (26)

Today, I had two great conversations with youth entrepreneurs; Bryan Sims, founder of Brass Magazine and sophomore at the University of Oregon, and Stephen Douglass, a successful social entrepreneur and a junior at William & Mary. There is something incredibly inspiring about talking with successful youth versus talking with successful adults. There is about a 90% chance of severe "brain" storms tonight (excuse the pun, but I thought I would run with it despite its inherent corniness).

Posted by Michael Simmons at 08:17 PM | Permalink

This week has been incredibly
productive (despite my lack of blog entries). I basically rewrote most of the
workbook, and as a result it has improved by about 90%. It is extremely painful
to trash something you have spent a lot of time on, but in writing and business,
I’m finding that’s the way it has to be done. Often a lot of the preliminary
work is not what is published or used as the final project. So in a sense, the
preliminary work (like my first draft of the workbook) really feels like a waste
of time. However, it was definitely essential to do that work in order to really
understand and clarify my ideas about what I wanted to come out in my writing.
After months of working on the workbook, I sat down and in one day wrote 40
pages…and those 40 pages were better than almost anything I had written before.
Now I feel comfortable with the base and I’m working on tweaking minor details.
Perhaps it will not be so long until launch…

Posted by Sheena Lindahl at 05:04 PM | Permalink

This week has been incredibly
productive (despite my lack of blog entries). I basically rewrote most of the
workbook, and as a result it has improved by about 90%. It is extremely painful
to trash something you have spent a lot of time on, but in writing and business,
I’m finding that’s the way it has to be done. Often a lot of the preliminary
work is not what is published or used as the final project. So in a sense, the
preliminary work (like my first draft of the workbook) really feels like a waste
of time. However, it was definitely essential to do that work in order to really
understand and clarify my ideas about what I wanted to come out in my writing.
After months of working on the workbook, I sat down and in one day wrote 40
pages…and those 40 pages were better than almost anything I had written before.
Now I feel comfortable with the base and I’m working on tweaking minor details.
Perhaps it will not be so long until launch…

Posted by Sheena Lindahl at 05:04 PM | Permalink

I’ve always enjoyed biographies. I remember one New Year’s Eve in high school when my friends were planning a big party that would start around 9pm with a dinner beforehand. I was anxious to celebrate, but had received plentiful subtle hints (and some not so subtle) that the dinner was to be for “couples only”, and since most of my friends were dating each other at the time and I wasn’t, that meant I had to spend most of the evening by myself. To keep from moping around I headed to Barnes Noble and came across a biography of Marilyn Monroe. I started reading and realized that there was so much in the story of her life that I could relate to. Since I was having trouble relating to some of my friends at the time, this was very powerful. I became absorbed in the story of her life. Since I’ve been in college I haven’t spent much time with biographies, though I’m not sure why. I recently splurged on Living History by Hillary Clinton, whom I admire very much. As I started reading, I had the same feelings I had when reading the Marilyn Monroe biography. I feel inspired and powerful. I think by reading biographies you are able to connect with the subject and realize that they are just “regular people”. I feel like I can live just as powerful a life as they can. I also read RoadTrip Nation by Nathan Gebhard and Mike Marriner from cover to cover on Friday. The book is a culmination of the two college students’ experience driving around the US in a RV, interviewing people (executives like Michael Dell and Leonard Riggio) that they found interesting. They made the interviews and their findings into a book. Reading this gave me the same feelings – that I have all the power to achieve what these people (both the authors and the people they interviewed) have. It has all spurred me into wanting to learn more about people I admire. It’s extremely motivating! I think that by listening to people’s stories, I can create a better story of my own.

Posted by Sheena Lindahl at 04:52 PM | Permalink

I’ve always enjoyed biographies. I remember one New Year’s Eve in high school when my friends were planning a big party that would start around 9pm with a dinner beforehand. I was anxious to celebrate, but had received plentiful subtle hints (and some not so subtle) that the dinner was to be for “couples only”, and since most of my friends were dating each other at the time and I wasn’t, that meant I had to spend most of the evening by myself. To keep from moping around I headed to Barnes Noble and came across a biography of Marilyn Monroe. I started reading and realized that there was so much in the story of her life that I could relate to. Since I was having trouble relating to some of my friends at the time, this was very powerful. I became absorbed in the story of her life. Since I’ve been in college I haven’t spent much time with biographies, though I’m not sure why. I recently splurged on Living History by Hillary Clinton, whom I admire very much. As I started reading, I had the same feelings I had when reading the Marilyn Monroe biography. I feel inspired and powerful. I think by reading biographies you are able to connect with the subject and realize that they are just “regular people”. I feel like I can live just as powerful a life as they can. I also read RoadTrip Nation by Nathan Gebhard and Mike Marriner from cover to cover on Friday. The book is a culmination of the two college students’ experience driving around the US in a RV, interviewing people (executives like Michael Dell and Leonard Riggio) that they found interesting. They made the interviews and their findings into a book. Reading this gave me the same feelings – that I have all the power to achieve what these people (both the authors and the people they interviewed) have. It has all spurred me into wanting to learn more about people I admire. It’s extremely motivating! I think that by listening to people’s stories, I can create a better story of my own.

Posted by Sheena Lindahl at 04:52 PM | Permalink

For the past year or so, I've been looking at life from a more systematic perspective. Specifically, I think the idea of mutually beneficial exchanges is interesting. The charts below illustrates its power:

Before an exchange

As you can see from the example above, both individuals received something that was greater in value (to them) then what they gave. As a result, both person A and person B were happier as a result of the exchange. Taking this a level higher, imagine the billions of exchanges that happen in the world everyday. What role (quantity and quality) do you want to play in all of these exchanges?

As an individual who wants to have a large social impact, I think it is really important to think about the various exchanges I'm a part of and ask important questions, which form the basis for mutually-beneficial exchanges. Some of these core questions are:

1. What products/services have I purchased, do I purchase, and do I plan to purchase? Are these products/services more valuable than the money I spend on them? Some examples of products/services types are:
   • clothing (shirts, hats, shoes, jackets, etc.)
     
   • food (alcohol, candy, healthy food, etc.)
     
   • entertainment
     
   • educational (books, college, etc.)
     
   • personal care (tooth paste,
     
   • etc.
2. Am I responsible for how the products I purchase are produced? For example, should I only buy products that are made in an environmentally and socially responsible way? Am I responsible for taking time to research companies I buy products from to see how they are made? Should I be willing to pay more for these products? If so, how much more? Some examples of issues that may be worth considering are:
   • Fair-trade coffee
     
   • Recycled paper
     
   • Sweat-shop free clothing
     
   • Dolphin-safe tuna
     
   • Low-emission automobiles
     
   • Animal-tested products
     
   • etc.
3. What intangible exchanges have I participated in, am I participating in, and do I plan to participate in? Examples of intangible exchanges might consist of are:
   • Yelling at someone
     
   • Embracing somone
     
   • "Being there when someone needs you"
     
   • etc.
4. What do I produce now? What do I plan to produce as a career? Is this the way I can add the most value to the world? How can I add the most value to the world?

Posted by Michael Simmons at 02:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

After three short weeks, we've decided to change Patricia's title from Intern to Consultant. This title more accurately reflects the major amount of creative energy she has been bringing to team.

Hopefully tomorrow will be another marathon day of progress.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 10:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (8)

1.5 days later and the story continues...

Sheena and I (read: Sheena. Yes, I do feel guilty about this), cleaned out the seeds and rat droppings from the cupboard this morning. Hearing no crumpling sounds during the day, we thought the story of the "Mouse in the House" had ended. In our minds, the mouse would find that its few months supply of super-food was gone, and move on to other apartments.

However, just moments ago, our hopes of a rodent-free apartment were dashed. Sheena and I witnessed the mouse boldly walking on our stove in plain sight, something it had never done before. When we sat at our computers, just witnessing the mouse's sheer audacity, some new questions/thoughts raced through my mind:

1. Is the mouse trying to send us a signal by coming out in the light when we could see it? As if to say, "I won't give up that easily. You may have taken away my super-food, but if I can smell wheat grass seeds through two layers of plastic bags; I can easily find your rice, your granola, and your fruit, which are a few cupboards over!"
   
2. Is it bad that we took away its main food source after it had become dependent on it? Does the same philosophy apply where you can't feed a wild animal for too long or it will forget how to hunt on its own?
   
3. How did the mouse get from the cupboard under the stove to the top of the stove? With his new mobility, should we begin wrapping up other food around the kitchen? Around the house! In our bags! When is safe to safe and can we afford to underestimate the mouse a second time?
   
4. What if in the time between when we found its hiding spot and when Sheena cleaned up, it took the wheat-grass seeds (one-by-one) to a new location, which we can not access? And what if it uses this new location as a base to look for new food sources in our kitchen?
   
5. Can a mouse eat through an inch of wood, given enough time?
   
6. How many city- and country-folk face the same problem? If I came up with a quick & easy, humane idea that would erase anybody's mouse menace forever, could I write an ebook or special report on the topic? Could I follow on the success of Who Moved My Cheese? and become an international best-seller?
   
7. As I ask Sheena for feedback on my blog entry for a third time, is she laughing with me or at me?

Despite this late breaking news, I think we're just going to keep the kitchen very clean and hope for the best. Hopefully, an update #3 will not be necessary.

That's the news and I'm Michael Simmons.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 08:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We're very tentatively exploring the idea of creating a community of extreme entrepreneur blogs. We would be very interested in your feedback on:

1. If you don't have a blog yet, would you be interested in having one if it were easy to set up and free? Why or why not?
   
2. Would you be interested in having your blog be part of the extreme entrepreneurship community? Why or why not? (This would be mean you'd get visitors from the network, but your site would have to have a similar look to other blogs in the network and be hosted by us.)

Posted by Michael Simmons at 06:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (14)

For the past few months, Sheena and I have been hearing bags crumpling in the cupboard under the stove where we keep all of our plastic bags. Our suspicions were confirmed a few weeks ago, when we discovered mouse droppings, or heaven forbid, rat droppings.

After this conclusion, we sort of went about our daily work routines still hearing sounds, but ignoring them. I don't know what we were expecting, since we didn't take any sort of action, but I think we both thought it would sort of disappear now that we had discovered it.

Today, we made a startling discovery that tells us that the mouse is here to stay. It has torn into a bag of wheatgrass seeds, removed all the seeds, and built a nest, replete with its own droppings. This discovery has certainly shifted the situation into our action threshold.

Sheena and I had a brief discussion on courses of action we could take before she went off to class. As I was raised to love animals by my mom who volunteers at a Wild Life Center every Sunday, we had trouble deciding what to do. Our best idea was to catch the mouse in a have-a-heart trap and let it loose in a local park. My counter-argument was that it would be too cold for the mouse to survive. We also both felt bad that we would have to destoy the nest due to the fact that it obviously took a long time to build.

This isn't the first time that I've been challenged to come up with a practical and compassionate solution to dealing with "pests". What should we do? On a larger scale, is it possible to be compassionate and practical with animals? As a consumer, I've indirectly participated in the destruction of many animal environments. Is it silly for me to pretend to be compassionate by helping one mouse, if all the products (environmentally-conscious or not) I buy do much more damage?

Update (1 hour later): I've removed all the bags and seeds from the cupboard and left the cupboard open. As I can see the cupboard from my computer, I've discovered a few things:

1. The mouse is actually eating the wheat grass seeds, not necessarily sleeping on them. However, I wouldn't rule out the sleeping.
   
2. According to a health web site, benefits of wheat grass include, "increased energy and mental focus: reduced incidence of cancer; fewer colds; reduced incidence of diabetes; better weight control; and so much more." If this is all true for our mouse friend, then we may have a harder time catching it than we had planned.
   
3. The mouse is definitely a mouse and not a rat! As a result, I'm still taking the matter seriously, but have lowered its priority in the overall action threshold.

Questions to Self:

1. With so much space in the cupboard, why does the mouse choose to eat, go to the bathroom, and possibly sleep in the same place?
   
2. Why did the mouse remove all the seeds (presumably one-by-one) from the bag, which they were in? Wouldn't it have been easier to simply eat out of the bag?
   
3. How was the mouse able to smell the seeds through two layers of plastic bags in the first place?

Posted by Michael Simmons at 11:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

One of my best friends and former business partners has started a blog at http://www.inspiringmoniker.com. Cal is a senior at Dartmouth, has a non-fiction book deal with Random House, is interviewing presidential candidates for Dartmouth's humor magazine of which he is the president, and is great writer. I would definitely recommend visiting his blog daily!

Posted by Michael Simmons at 10:19 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (1)

Today I had my first meeting with my mentor from The New Venture Mentor Program, which is part of the 80K NYU Maximum Exposure Business Plan Competition. My mentor is currently the President of The Associated Blind and has a lot of publishing industry expertise including growing a company to 9 million in sales. After our nearly 2-hour meeting (the time definitely flew by!), I came away with three pages of notes. Below are some of the key take-aways I had:

1. Strategically leverage your assets. As the company grows, we will have content, which we can repurpose and license/franchise to different market niches and geographics. For example, if we were to write a book for student entrepreneurs by student entrepreneurs, 75% of the content might be applicable to anybody who wants to become an entrepreneur. Therefore, we could license the model and content to organizations from market niches such as inviduals with disabilities or individuals over 60 years old, both of which may be more prone to starting a business than the general population.
   
2. "As you do things, you become invested in them and think of them differently." I notice that one pitfall of students interested in entrepreneurship often make is that they get stuck in planning or coming up with a billion dollar idea and never actually start anything. If instead, they started small, but moved forward, they would begin to see more opportunities and move in the right direction instead of staying stagnant. For example, many Fortune 500 companies were started by "small-time" entrepreneurs who evolved their companies over the matter of a few decades.
   
3. The government is one of the largest competitor of information providers. In the past private enterprises were able to compete by organizing the information in a more usable way then the government. However, as the government digitizes and organizes more of its information, it becomes a larger competitor. While this doesn't affect me right now, I thought it was very interesting.
   
4. Be comfortable being uncomfortable. She said that during one period of her life, anytime she wanted to say, "Nahh, I don't want to do that", she would force herself to do it. I really like this idea of pursuing what one is uncomfortable with as a way to grow and I think I will start doing this more!

Posted by Michael Simmons at 10:24 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (8)

If you type in "Christopher Reeve wheel chair" into Yahoo, the entry I wrote on him is #1. More than the popularity of my blog, I think this says something about the quality of search results.

On a partial side note, it is interesting to think about the effects that search quality has on the world since 80% of people (I think that's accurate) use search engines to find information online. Webmasters who understand how search engine algorithms work can push their information to the forefront as opposed to quality information naturally pushing itself to the top.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 03:27 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (1)

Individual sales have been slow since the launch of the book. Most of our 1,000 purchases have come from bulk purchases. On the one hand I think it is great to get so many bulk purchases from organizations and conferences because these purchases can potentially be repeated as new students come in. It wouldn't be a bad thing if we had thousands/tens of thousands of books being sold to high schools, colleges, organizations, and conferences yearly. At the same time, I was really picturing the book spreading more through word-of-mouth among students.

Moving forward, we're really going to have to think about how we can get more students to do two things:

1. Purchase the book
   
2. Read the book

1. Why do people who are aware of the book choose not to purchase it? How can we influence these people to do so?
   
2. Why don't more people who purchase and download the book read it right away? How can we influence them do so?
   
3. What readers like the content of the book the most? How can they be targeted?
   
4. How can I get feedback from people who've read the book, but just think it's o.k. or don't really like it?

Posted by Michael Simmons at 01:37 PM | Permalink

Yesterday was a full day of work/fun. Sheena, Patricia, and I worked over 30 hours combined with Patricia coming to our home-office at 10:30am and leaving in the evening. Sheena worked the entire day on the workbook. Patricia worked on organizing our plans/strategies and finding resources, which we will put on the site with in the next month or two. I worked on organizing and beginning to pursue the Amazon bestseller strategy. The following is the powerpoint document that we created, which outlines our bestseller plans.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 01:04 PM | Permalink