Success Manifesto

On my way home from visiting my family and friends in New Hampshire last
night, I had a few crises and realizations that I’d like to share: Crisis 1: I
needed to get back to New York by Sunday morning, because Michael and I have a
friend from Holland coming to visit us. I needed a ride to Boston so that I
could catch a train back to New York, but this had turned out to be more
difficult to arrange than I had thought it would be. Crisis 2: I lost my wallet
– which had everything in it: credit cards, driver’s license, school id,
insurance card, library card, social security card, gift cards, money… Crisis 3:
As I was going through Connecticut (2 hours into my journey) I realized that I
had the keys to my mother’s car which I had been using while I was visiting. It
was her only set and she had reminded me of this and how important it was that I
not lose them many times throughout the trip. She had no way to use her car
without the keys. Realization 1: I am richly blessed with the best family and
friends anybody could ever ask for, both in New Hampshire and New York. My
mother and my amazing friends Audrey and Steve all spent so much time helping me
look for my wallet and put things in perspective. Audrey gave me cash to take
the bus and Steve drove me to Boston. My mom called this morning to say she had
found my wallet. Michael created a relaxing atmosphere with candles and soothing
music to calm me when I got home. They did all of these things for me, but what
really made me appreciate them was all the unconditional love I could feel.
Realization 2: Logically, I knew the whole time that these problems were only
trivial. I’ve dealt with issues thousands of times more serious than this in my
life and I know that there are people who deal with problems thousands of times
more difficult than I ever have! But there are times when logic just goes out
the window, and you have to just trust that life will take you where you need to
go. Realization 3: It’s really amazing to me how much we rely on little plastic
cards for so many things in our lives! With my wallet gone, I told myself how
all I had really lost was some plastic and paper but thinking about all the
things that stuff symbolized: my identity, money (which in itself really
symbolizes anything you can buy), it didn’t really help. It’s very interesting
to think about how much we rely on these things that didn’t even exist a couple
hundred years ago.

Posted by Sheena Lindahl at 03:23 PM | Permalink

On my way home from visiting my family and friends in New Hampshire last
night, I had a few crises and realizations that I’d like to share: Crisis 1: I
needed to get back to New York by Sunday morning, because Michael and I have a
friend from Holland coming to visit us. I needed a ride to Boston so that I
could catch a train back to New York, but this had turned out to be more
difficult to arrange than I had thought it would be. Crisis 2: I lost my wallet
– which had everything in it: credit cards, driver’s license, school id,
insurance card, library card, social security card, gift cards, money… Crisis 3:
As I was going through Connecticut (2 hours into my journey) I realized that I
had the keys to my mother’s car which I had been using while I was visiting. It
was her only set and she had reminded me of this and how important it was that I
not lose them many times throughout the trip. She had no way to use her car
without the keys. Realization 1: I am richly blessed with the best family and
friends anybody could ever ask for, both in New Hampshire and New York. My
mother and my amazing friends Audrey and Steve all spent so much time helping me
look for my wallet and put things in perspective. Audrey gave me cash to take
the bus and Steve drove me to Boston. My mom called this morning to say she had
found my wallet. Michael created a relaxing atmosphere with candles and soothing
music to calm me when I got home. They did all of these things for me, but what
really made me appreciate them was all the unconditional love I could feel.
Realization 2: Logically, I knew the whole time that these problems were only
trivial. I’ve dealt with issues thousands of times more serious than this in my
life and I know that there are people who deal with problems thousands of times
more difficult than I ever have! But there are times when logic just goes out
the window, and you have to just trust that life will take you where you need to
go. Realization 3: It’s really amazing to me how much we rely on little plastic
cards for so many things in our lives! With my wallet gone, I told myself how
all I had really lost was some plastic and paper but thinking about all the
things that stuff symbolized: my identity, money (which in itself really
symbolizes anything you can buy), it didn’t really help. It’s very interesting
to think about how much we rely on these things that didn’t even exist a couple
hundred years ago.

Posted by Sheena Lindahl at 03:23 PM | Permalink

I obviously haven’t been very good at writing for my
online journal! I always seem to have something else prioritized above it and
then when I go to write, I’ve lost the passion I had for what I was going to
write about. I’m going to try to spend even just a few minutes getting entries
up from now on – so please forgive any spelling errors, etc. My goal for now is
just to get things up!

Posted by Sheena Lindahl at 03:21 PM | Permalink

I obviously haven’t been very good at writing for my
online journal! I always seem to have something else prioritized above it and
then when I go to write, I’ve lost the passion I had for what I was going to
write about. I’m going to try to spend even just a few minutes getting entries
up from now on – so please forgive any spelling errors, etc. My goal for now is
just to get things up!

Posted by Sheena Lindahl at 03:21 PM | Permalink

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to hear Kaleil speak and then talk with him briefly afterwards. For those of you who don't know him, he was the main character in Startup.com, a movie which follows Kaleil raising over $60 million and then eventually losing $50 million of it. In addition, he is writing a book on entrepreneurship, which is coming out in the Spring. I think it will be very well received based on the concepts he brought up in his talk.

He definitely has a good blend of charisma, determination, and centeredness. It is interesting to see how the movie depicted him very much differently (more selfish) in my opinion. I wonder if this depiction hurts him when he meets new people.

At any rate, I followed up with an email, sent my book, and asked if we could meet. Hopefully, we can build a mutually-beneficial relationship.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 11:11 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (24)

You know those moments where something happens and you realize how much you've changed over a certain amount of time. For example, maybe you go home after being gone for a long time or maybe you have this realization on New Year's evening when you're reflecting.

Well, when I was walking down the street eating a whole cucumber like one would eat a corn dog, I realized that I had changed. (For those who are new to this blog, I eat a primarly raw, organic, vegan diet. If you're curious about that type of diet, you can read my earlier blog entries.)

Posted by Michael Simmons at 11:00 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (27)

If you do happen to forget this and walk so quickly that you almost fall over it, avoid eye contact with others, calmly swipe your MetroCard, and disappear.

If you can't avoid looking to see if anybody noticed and realize that a group of surrounding rush hour commuters are staring at you, some laughing out loud and some laughing silently, you should: laugh with them and play down the situation with one of the following comments:

1. "Just one of those days (add a slight 'what can you do?' shrug of the shoulders)."
   
2. Pat the turnstyle like you're patting the back of a horse and say something like, "Yep. Yep. This thing isn't go anywhere." Then procede as if nothing had happened.

At any rate, if you can downplay awkward situations within the right range, you are gold. Below are some situations you might find this advice helpful with:

1. You finish a really good conversation with somebody you just met or only sort of know and say good bye to each other. Then you constantly see each other through out the night. Should you say 'hello' when you see each other again at the event? the second time? the third time? If you happen to make eye contact, should you quickly look away?
   
2. You're walking down the street or hallway with somebody you sort of want to impress. You see a friend or acquaintace walking by and you wave to them and say 'hi', but they keep on walking because they didn't see you.
   
3. You say what you think is a really funny joke and get no response at a speaking engagement. You repeat it again, but with more detail because you thought people didn't understand it the first time, but you get a similarly quiet response again.

Ed Note: Sheena is at a Business Today Conference. She normally edits out corny, unfunny, and nonsensical parts of my entries.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 09:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (37)

It is weird, but only 24 hours ago, I sat here wondering what the results of over a month of work (from many people) would be. I knew that I had never worked on a project where I worked so hard and so long with so much uncertainty of whether the goal had been achieved so close to the end. However, I knew one thing was certain. All of the orders had been made and there was nothing I could do, but enter them into Amazon and wait.

As I sat here, I remember thinking:

1. "What if it were to fail?" Would it make us lose credibility to the thousands of people that knew we had been working so hard towards the goal? What would the people who had been asking, "So how is the bestseller campaign going?" every time I saw them, think?
   
2. Similarly, I wondered, "What if it were to succeed?" How would our lives change? How would life of the company change?

When I had this realization, I looked over at Sheena who was also diligently entering in the orders, and said, "Well hun, I don't think we're going to make it." I tried to make it sound like, "Oh well, we can get them next time," but I was still disappointed.

Amazon's sales rank system doesn't update automatically after each order is entered, but instead does so ever hour. Therefore, after we entered in all the orders, we just had to wait and refresh the browser button intermittently, hoping for a big jump.

That jump came in the early afternoon today and the book officially became a bestseller! In retrospect, I learned quite a large amount from the process that I will share in a near future entry.

Now that the campaign is over, it is back to blogging and for that matter life as "normal". Hope you had a good weekend.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 08:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (37)

Below is an excerpt of an email sent to me today by Sheena:

The mice are coming out already and it's only 4:30 pm. I scared it pretty bad with a penny to get it out of the pan on the stove but could you please look into a have a heart trap today? I think it has moved into a necessary "realm of action".

Posted by Michael Simmons at 05:12 PM | Permalink

With about 180 books being sold thus far, 100 or more books need to be sold to reach the bestseller list on Saturday, November 22^nd. All the work that various people have done on this project comes down to this week. At this point it is really all or nothing. Either The Student Success Manifesto becomes a bestseller or it doesn't!

Only time will tell.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 01:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (14)

I write now with cutting-edge news on the Mouse in the House saga (hopefully, the final part of a trilogy):

1. Mouse in the House
   
2. Mouse in the House Update #2

Apparently, there is a whole mouse problem on our street. So the grand daughter of my land lord came home with a plethora of mouse traps one day. She came with poison, something that had a smell that mice don't like, and a trap that is very sticky and makes it so the mouse can't get away. She made me promise to put out the traps, even after I said I didn't want to. So I took them to please her and haven't done anything with them. A few days later, I heard that she had caught two mice and so I thought "The Mouse in the House" saga was over....until now!

Here are some startling observations/thoughts:

1. Tonight, I've been hearing the thrashing a plastic bag in the cabinet. Sheena's been asleep and I've sort of just been ignoring it.
   
2. While I was hearing these sounds, I suddenly saw a mouse appear four feet away from me, on the other side of the room from where the sounds were coming. Upon seeing it, I immediately jumped in the air completely shocked. The mouse did something similar and ran back to where it came from. With this observation I realized that withstanding the possiblity that it rustled the plastic bag and went 20-feet across the room wihout me seeing it in less than 5 seconds, there are at least two mice. However, I'm not ruling out the possiblity of the one mouse bag rustling / running across the room combo. I've seen movies where individuals try to make noise from various locations at the same time so that their prey thinks that it is surrounded or at least outnumbered.
   
3. A few minutes later the mouse reappeared. This time I was a combination of shocked, angry, and quite frankly frightened. However, this time anger was the strongest emotion. Sheena and I could have easily put out the traps, but we decided not too. At this point, I feel like the mouse or mice are taking advantage of us. I mean, come on!!
   
4. Since the incident, I've been sitting with my feet resting on another chair for fear of the mouse running up to my feet, biting them and then running up my leg and under my clothes. Yes, I know this scenario may be unrealistic, but (a) You can never be too sure and (b) I underestimated it once, and I don't want to again. The pain in my back has been increasing with this un-ergonomic posture over the past few minutes, but I'm sure the mouse biting scenario would be more painful.
   
5. If there are, in fact, two mice, are they related (ie - brother/sister, mother/son)? If so, are there other siblings?
   
6. How did the mice get to the third floor? Did they take the stairs? Climb up a pipe?
   
7. The obvious question I've been asking myself for the past few minutes is, "What do I do now?" Some possiblities that went through my mind include:
   1. Buying a have-a-heart trap.
      
   2. Putting out a normal trap, but I'm still against that.
      
   3. Putting away all food. However, we've already done this.
      
   4. Not doing anything tonight and then hoping that Sheena discovers the problem and fixes it before I wake up tomorrow morning.
      
   5. Accept the new living situation

Update (5 minutes later): I think a lot of conflicts arise out of misunderstanding. If the two sides could communicate with each other and see how the other side sees the world, the conflicts would often be dematerialized. Unfortunately, I realized that the mice and I coming to an understanding is impossible. We live in completely different worlds - the mice in our cabinets and me in front of the computer, on the bed, on the subway, or at school. How can we ever hope to understand each other, save getting consulting from Sonya, Animal Planet's pet psychic.

On a more serious note, I do think it's sad the evil what happens to animals at
the hands of humans. I can do certain things like adopt-a-pet, wear non-animal-based products, etc., but just by living in our system, I'm probably doing more damage. In this way, I feel sort of helpless and hypocritical. Is it really possibly to help the mouse? Is it worth my time? Will it make a difference? Although, I talk about the mouse, the mouse could be a sweat shop in asia producing appareal, child slaves in Africa producing Hershey's chocolate, companies destroying rain forests to create paper-baased products, electrical equipment being powered ultimately by polluting fossil fuels. What are we to do?

On another serious side note, I found myself wanting to delete my serious thoughts in the last paragraph for fear that people would think I'm too animal-friendly or to environmentally-friendly. It seems so silly that being those things could be consdered 'uncool'.

Anyway, as Yoda would say it, "Off to bed, I am".

Posted by Michael Simmons at 12:56 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (24)

Sales
As of right now, we have 174 people who've pre-ordered the book for the Amazon.com bestseller. This is less than half of our original goal of 400. However, we have a few hundred books in the sales pipeline (which may or may not materialize) and many email newsletters, which have not been sent out yet.

Bestseller Date
We've decided to move the bestseller day to November 22^nd, one week after the original bestseller day. This was a challenging decision because we lose the PR hook of it being my birthday and because it pushes back the date people who preordered the book receive it. We're compensating for this inconvenience to our customers by contacting them via email and apologizing for the delay, telling them exactly when they can expect to receive the book, and reminding them that they are entitled to a refund if they so desire.

Cash Flow
In addition, we're still being faced with cash flow problems. The books are at the printer, but they need the first half of the payment ($1,880), to proceed. However, we're still waiting on the check from NYU for over 600 books, which we invoiced for 10 weeks ago, which would allow us to pay this.

Video-Recording
Although my keynote address went very well, the tape we have is a blank! This is very disappointing because we spent the whole day preparing for it and testing it. Ryan Allis was kind enough to let us use his camera so he is checking today on whether there was a mix up with one of his tapes. The worst case scenario is that we will have to record it again next week.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 03:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (4)

Somehow, I'm #1 for "tenth commandment" on google. My mom would be happy for me (as I'm Jewish).

Also, I noticed that somebody came to the site after searching for "what to do about mouse droppings in house". They were directed to my Mouse in House entry. Hopefully, they found what they were looking for.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 09:34 PM | Permalink

"If you are facing the right direction, all you need to do is keep walking."
- Buddhist proverb

Since starting a business, I've felt a very strong desire to be successful at a young age. One of the main reasons for this is that doing entrepreneurial things is more unique when you're young and therefore receives more praise. If I were doing the same things I'm doing now and I was 10 years older or 20 years older, people might really question if I'm doing the right thing. A successful business for a college student might be a failing business for an adult.

The problem with my desire to be really successful at a young age is that I feel rushed. With this feeling, I sometimes see myself making decisions for the short-term instead of the long-term. I love everything I'm doing to death, but at the same time, I have difficulty taking breaks from it and getting perspective. Having talked with people who are in their fifties who have had this same "rushed" feeling since they were young and haven't taken a vacation in years, I'm not sure I want to continue this "rushed" feeling anymore. I once read a statistic that said the average American spends their entire career feeling like they're 40 hours behind where they'd like be in terms of work. So maybe we all feel this "rushed" feeling. Isn't it ironic that the people who live in the best economic system in the world feel like they are so far behind always?

Now that I think about it, I can remember from a very young age wanting to become very successful at a young age and then retire. This idea seems to be embedded into our culture to the point where people sacrifice decades of their life to an end that may never come. And the reason it may never come may not be because it hasn't been acheived, but because we have spent our whole developing a mindset where we sacrifice for the future and avoid the present. A person who spends their whole life worrying about money, doesn't suddenly live in peace after it is acheived (at least most of the time). Which leads me to my next conclusion...

Be careful what you choose to spend time being good at. Every second you invest in a strength, you become more invested in it and down the road it becomes that much harder to invest yourself in new areas when it makes the most sense. In this way, our greatest strength may become our greatest weakness.

What does it mean to have a great future? My professional responsibility and leadership professor made a good point the other day. He said that people who believe that they can have a better future are willing to sacrifice their present-moment to achieve it. Peole who don't have great prospects for the future tend to live more in the present-moment.

What does it mean to be a great student? This may be a generalization, but I feel like many people who get extremely high grades become defined by their grades whether they realize it or not. Even if they don't believe in high grades anymore, it is hard to stop getting them after years of hard work staying up all night or working hard on weekends. It is hard to go to a career where grades aren't valued.

What does it mean to be successful? I sometimes feel like any success I've received thus far, makes me only want it more and faster.

I believe that many of the things one could want in this life (i.e. - happiness, peace) are available to us every moment. We simply have to "be the change we want to see", no matter how hard it might be, how (un)successful we are, how good our grades are, who we know, or how caught up we are in life's little dilemmas. When interacting with young children, I often see them cry over what I think is something silly like being picked last for a team. I invariably say, "Don't cry, it's not that important." Maybe I should be saying the same thing to myself when I get worked up over things that are small in the big scheme of things.

In the end, I think the quote at the beginning of this entry has a lot of wisdom. I need to take a deep breathe, think more about where my current path is going, face in the right direction, and have the best walk ever. If I'm going in the wrong direction, my speed doesn't matter at all!

Have a great night.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 08:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

At some point around 1:00pm today, I veered off my to do list, which included going to two classes and a group meeting. Nearly three hours later, I think I might have made the wrong choice for the wrong reason.

The reason I made the choice is because I was in a state of 'flow' while doing my work, a state where I lose sense of time/hunger and become very interested in what I'm doing. This state can be extremely effective in terms of getting work done and being creative. One specific memory is spending seven hours on a random day in January of 2001, searching for entrepreneurship awards on Yahoo, many of which I eventually won. These awards changed my life.

With that said, this great strength has also turned into a great weakness. For example:

1. If Sheena tries to talk with me when I'm in this state, I often don't hear her or even worse get angry. Somehow, I've managed to pretend to listen without really doing so. This has backfired a few times (2 out of 10 times - she would argue more. I would argue less) when she tells me something very important like what airline I'm taking and I don't realize I don't know the airline until I'm in a cab on the way to the airport.
   
2. I end up doing whatever grabs my attention instead of what I've decided beforehand is most important. I've noticed that when I'm in different states of being, I have different priorities. The most obvious example of this is when I wake up, but am really tired. I can't tell you how many times I've extended my sleeping time after deciding that going to an early morning class wasn't as important as I thought it was the night before.
   
3. I have this sense of urgency and instead of priorities, I see everything I have to do at once and I get overwhelmed, start to rush, jump from one task to another, and feel guilty about it.

1. Spend more time creating a prioritized, manageable to do list.
   
2. Take breaks often to return to baseline state and reflect upon what happened and plan what is going to happen next.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 04:49 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (1)

I just got off the phone after having a great conversation with my mom. Besides this being her first cell phone conversation where somebody had called her, she was actually out shopping for books on raw food and kitchen appliances (a.k.a., juicer / dehydrator / processor) for my birthday. Being that my mom doesn't agree with my mostly raw food diet, I feel especially and sincerely loved.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 12:16 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (1)

I got back home to our apartment in Brooklyn yesterday at around 3:00am after four intense, but energetic days of Extreme Entrepreneurship (literally). Surpisingly, I was not tired and I randomly decided to read Life Is Love, Enjoy It Lately, I've been more introspective and have started asking basic life questions like 'Who am I?' and 'Why am I here?' again.

Yesterday's talk went very well in terms of the delivery. The room was fairly full so I would guess that there was about 300 students in the audience. Sheena and I spent all day preparing logistically and mentally. The video-recording, which I haven't watched yet should be pretty good.

I decided to start off the talk with a twist that I've never used. I started off by asking the audience how many people had started a business. 5% of the people raised their hand. I then nodded my head in approval of the 95% and said, "I want to share with you two conclusions I've come to based on research I've been doing very recently." I then went to the flip chart and revealed the two conclusions:

1. You must have a business degree to start a business.
   
2. You must have at least four years of real world experience.

• No money
  
• No time
  
• No ideas
  
• No experience
  
• etc.

You will hear all of these reasons and more from your friends, your mentors, your parents, your advisors, and many other loved ones who only have the best intentions for you.

But before you take these reasons to heart, I ask to you to think for a second….What would have happened if somebody had told these arguments to and convinced:

1. Bill Gates who left Harvard to start Microsoft
   
2. Michael Dell who left the University of Texas to start Dell
   
3. Shawn Fanning who left Northeastern University to start Napster
   
4. Milton Hershey who opened his first candy shop when he was 18-years-old
   
5. Fred Smith who while attending Yale received “C” on the Fedex business plan and still decided to start his business.
   
6. Steve Jobs who left Reed University to start Apple.
   
7. William Hewlett and David Packard who started HP out of a garage after graduating Stanford.
   
8. Or the thousands of other youth who have started a business and been successful in some way.

Imagine the potential that would have been stifled if these visionaries had not started businesses when they were young! Imagine how our world would have been different without an HP, a Napster, a Dell, a Microsoft, a Fedex, a Hersheys, or an Apple.

The downside of the talk is that is started late and I felt rushed. I think this came across in the talk. In addition, I really didn't have enough time to talk about the Amazon offer as much as I would have liked. As a result, only about five people purchased the book, which was definitely disconcerting. I definitely have to get better at selling, especially when it is stuff that I believe in so strongly.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 02:04 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (12)

...His name was Fleming, and he was a poor Scottish farmer. One day, while trying to make a living for his family, he heard a cry for help coming from a nearby bog. He dropped his tools and ran to the bog. There, mired to his waist in black muck, was a terrified boy, screaming and struggling to free himself. Farmer Fleming saved the lad from what could have been a slow and terrifying death.

The next day, a fancy carriage pulled up to the Scotsman's sparse surroundings. An elegantly dressed nobleman stepped out and introduced himself as the father of the boy Farmer Fleming had saved.

"I want to repay you," said the nobleman. "You saved my son's life."

"No, I can't accept payment for what I did," the Scottish farmer replied waving off the offer. At that moment, the farmer's own son came to the door of the family hovel.

"Is that your son?" the nobleman asked.

"Yes," the farmer replied proudly.

"I'll make you a deal. Let me provide him with the level of education my own son will enjoy. If the lad is anything like his father, he'll no doubt grow to be a man we both will be proud of." And that he did. Farmer Fleming's son attended the very best schools and in time, graduated from St. Mary's Hospital Medical School in London, and went on to become known throughout the world as the noted Sir Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of Penicillin.

Years afterward, the same nobleman's son who was saved from the bog was stricken with pneumonia.

What saved his life this time? Penicillin.

The name of the nobleman? Lord Randolph Churchill. His son's name?
Sir Winston Churchill.

Someone once said: What goes around comes around.
Work like you don't need the money.
Love like you've never been hurt.
Dance like nobody's watching.
Sing like nobody's listening.
Live like it's Heaven on Earth.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 11:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (5)

Things have been hectic for the past few days. Wednesday, I went to Florida to speak to a group of 100 high school students about my story and experiences with the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship. After I spoke, I met up with a very close friend who lives in Florida, who I first met three years ago at Operation Enterprise. We ended up watching the Matrix and staying up until 5:00am talking about life. At 7:00am, I woke up and I caught a 11:20am flight to New York.

Upon, getting to New York, I was hit with a few days of procrastination and started to frantically prepare for the CEO and Entrepreneurship Education conferences with Sheena. Later that night (Thursday), Sheena and I took a delayed flight to Chicago. We ended up staying up until 4:00am, with most of the time at Kinkos making a banner and doing other Kinkos-like stuff.

Surprisingly high on energy and spirits (the non-alcoholic kind) for having only five hours of sleep in the past two days, I attended day one of the CEO conference today. I had the honor of introducing John Hughes, a very successful entrepreneur and entrepreneurship education philanthropist, to a 1,100-person audience in the following room:

Tomorrow, my keynote will be one of the most significant ones I've ever made. The conference staff actually has her as my moderator. She better do a god introduction or I will say bad things about her in my speech :) There are 387 chairs in the room and I will be one of two speakers. One thing that worries me is that, it is late in the day so some schools may leave early. I have a feeling that it will go well though. I can just feel it. We've sold about 15 books, but the key for sales will be speaking.

Sheena brought up a good point today, while we were eating dinner in the main ballroom with 1,100 people. So far the book has reached 1,100 people so it was interesting to look at the room and visually see the number of people the book has touched.

Chicago is pretty, but I will have no time to enjoy it as I depart tomorrow evening. Ahh, the life of an entrepreneur...to be continued...

Posted by Michael Simmons at 04:36 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (2)

I thought that you all might be interested in the conference below. The expo only costs $35.00 to attend and registration includes a 1-year subscription to Black Enterprise Magazine or Entrepreneur Magazine. In addition, they're offering full scholarships for qualified attendees!

For more information, visit their web site.

The organization that is running the conference is A Million for Us. Their mission is to promote entrepreneurship as an alternative in career development for young college graduates and they're in the process of raising a $1 million fund to be used for loans/grants for young entrepreneurs (18-30) who want to launch a business.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 09:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The past week has been controlled chaos with extreme focus on reaching the Amazon.com bestseller goal. We are expecting a minimum of 400 purchases and hoping for over 1,000.

Many people have offered to help. Thank you! Sheena and I are both really psyched at the potential of the message being spread to so many people. It just feels really good to pursue a goal where our company can profit, but at the same time make a large impact.

As we grow, we're going to be thinking more about the specific outcomes we want to create and how we're going to measure them. Right now, our main outcome is for students to create a life plan (like a business plan, but for an individual) and then follow their plan. We really think that if students asked themselves simple, but important questions like entrepreneurs do when starting a business, they could make much better decisions about life and set the foundation for creating a life of passion, purpose, and prosperity. The book and over $1,600 in gifts for purchasing the book are all aimed to this end.

As I do when I pursue most of my goals, I'm erasing any doubt I have in my mind that the goal will be reached (at least theoretically). Sometimes, I'll be riding the subway or walking somewhere at the end of the day and I'll think to myself, "What the hell are you doing? You're wasting you're time." But 99% of the time, I've just been super-motivated lately.

Progress Update

1. Revised Strategy. We are now using a revised pre-order strategy to achieve the bestseller goal. Instead of trying to get all of the orders from Amazon on November 15th, we're going to collect orders from people through our web site and then key them in on the 15th.
   
2. Finalized over $1,600 in give aways.
   
3. Created a sales letter.
   
4. Set up PayPal e-commerce system
   
5. Created a database of:
   • 50 invidual supporters
     
   • 60 list-owners (some who we know and some who we don't)
     
   • 71 collegiate entrepreneurship clubs
     
   • 250 entrepreneurship teachers
     
   • 25 potential bulk purchasers that we know

1. Contacting these people in our database.
   
2. Finalizing the delivery of some of the give aways.
   
3. Planning the PR for when the goal is reached.

$1,600+ in Give Aways

1. Autographed Copy of The Student Success Manifesto: Buy one copy of the book, and get another one signed. This offer is only valid for the first 100 purchases. ($14.95 value, yours free!)
   
2. Mentoring for One Year: Gain direct access to Michael Simmons, author of The Student Success Manifesto, with your questions via his home phone line. ($395 value, yours free!)
   
3. Summer 2004 Self-Development Conference: Network with motivated students from across the country and learn from the authors of The Student Success Manifesto and other exceptional speakers both young and old. This event promises to be a life-changing experience. ($695 value, yours free!)
   
4. Internship and Entrepreneurship Resource Guides: Save hours of your time combing the Internet, by getting hundreds of the very best internship and entrepreneurship resources at your finger tips. ($24.95 value, yours free!)
   
5. Michael Simmons' Extreme Entrepreneurship Video: A keynote talk from the 2003 national Collegiate Entrepreneurs' Organization conference. ($19.95 value, yours free!)
   
   
6. Extreme Entrepreneurship University: Craft your own life plan (like a business plan, but for an individual) with word-by-word, in-depth guidance from the founders of Extreme Entrepreneurship. The course utilizes insightful assignments, which each receive detailed feedback and advice. When it's done, each student will have everything they need to go forth and pursue a life of passion, purpose, and prosperity. ($495 value, yours free!)
   
7. Desktop Background & Screen Saver: Empower yourself with a "Be the Change You Want to See" screen saver and background ($9.95 value, yours free!)
   
8. Zero to One Million eBook: Zero to One Million is a guide for aspiring entrepreneurs that explains how to build a company to one million dollars in sales written by Ryan Allis, an author who did just that by the time he was 17. ($15.95 value, yours free!)
   
9. The Student Success Manifesto eBook: Read the electronic version of The Student Success Manifesto with video clips with the founders of Monster.com, Dell, Barnes & Noble, and Nantucket Nectars. ($14.95 value, yours free!)

1. Buy one copy of the book for yourself (if you haven't already) and copies for your friends or others who you think would enjoy it as a holiday gift.
   
2. Tell organizations, who have an email list or who might be interested in making a bulk purchase, about the book.
   
3. If you have an email list and would like to mention The Student Success Manifesto, please contact me.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 08:27 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (5)

Why Starting a Business Now May Be the Best Way to Achieve Your Dreams

Young Money Magazine - October/November 2003
by Michael Simmons

According to a 1997 Gallup study, 7 out of 10 high school students say they want to start their own business. And why not? Starting and running your own business while still in school is a great opportunity to grow, learn, network, and accumulate wealth. However, only a tiny proportion of students actually start a business.

Because of a lack of direct experience with entrepreneurship, students develop unfounded beliefs about it that can stop them from starting a company. In this article, I will address these ?The 7 Myths of Student Entrepreneurship?:

1. I don?t have enough money Many of America?s largest corporations started on a shoestring budget out of somebody?s garage. A successful Web development company a friend and I started in high school cost only $80 to set up. To compensate for a low budget, you have to be creative, resourceful and make realistic plans. To get in the right frame of mind, you may want to read Seth Godin's e-booklet, The Bootstrapper's Bible, available on Amazon.com.

2. I don?t have enough time Many of America?s largest corporations were started in people?s spare time. Perfect examples are Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, and Dell, all of which were started on part-time schedules. All of us have 24 hours in a day. If the business is important to you, you will prioritize it over less important activities and create a business model that fits your schedule. For example, one student at California State University started a business teaching financial skills to high school students during summers. With the money he earned from starting the business, he is putting himself and his brother through school in addition to paying off all of his other expenses.

3. I?m not smart enoughSays who? SATs and grades have very little correlation to people?s potential to be successful entrepreneurs. In fact, 50% of millionaire entrepreneurs never graduated college and 75% of U.S. presidents were in the lower-half club in high school, according to Mathew Lesko in his book, Free Money to Change Your Life. Some examples of businesses started by individuals while still in school are Microsoft, Dell, Napster, Netscape, Fedex, Apple, Tripod, and TheGlobe.com.

4. I?m not creative so I can?t come up with good ideasThere are many books in the library or book store with low-cost business ideas. One specific book of ideas for student entrepreneurs is Generation Inc.: The 100 Best Businesses for Young Entrepreneurs. Or you can find young entrepreneurs at your school or in the media and ask them how they came up with their business idea. Networking with other youth entrepreneurs will also adjust your own mindset to be open to ideas for a business. Also, there area lot of business ideas already out there that work, that you could replicate or modify slightly.

5. I can?t because the economy is bad Many of the most successful corporations were started during recessions. During recessions talent is easier and cheaper to find, rent is lower, and there is less competition. All of this adds up to recessions being one of the most opportune times to start a business.

6. I don?t have enough experience Microsoft, Dell, Kinkos, and Yahoo are just a few of the many successful companies started by people with no business experience. Your experience can certainly affect the success of your company, but you have to start somewhere. If your first business fails financially, then you still will have gained the unique experience, learning, network and growth from running the business that will give you an edge over your peers. I?ve heard many people say they?d rather employ somebody with a failed business than somebody with no experience at all. Companies would rather you fail and learn on your dime than on their dime.

7. I can?t because I?m afraid of failing According to most statistics, the majority of businesses fail financially after the first few years. In fact, the most successful people in the long-term often have the most failures in their life. So, it is OK to fail. The key is whether you fall forward. You can fall forward in front of your other classmates with the network, experience, and personal growth you got from starting your business. According to Napoleon Hill, a bestselling author who researched the habits of extremely successful people such as Andrew Carnegie, Thomas Edison, and Henry Ford, Every failure has within it the seeds for equal or greater success. It is your decision whether you plant these seeds.

Now that you are more aware of unfounded beliefs that you or others may have, you are more prepared to make the decision of whether or not student entrepreneurship is right for you. Below are resources to take advantage of as you begin your journey:

• Youth Venture (http://www.youthventure.org)

• Students in Free Enterprise (http://www.sife.org)

• Collegiate Entrepreneurs? Organization (http://www.c-e-o.org)

• Service Corps of Retired Executives (http://www.score.org)

• Professors, mentor networks, or entrepreneurship centers at your school
  

Posted by Michael Simmons at 06:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (29)