The Beginning for me

I wanted to give everyone a little bit of background about how and why I started to be more entrepreneurial. It all started my second semester freshman year after I met my current girlfriend, Cailen. Through her I was introduced to a book called Rich Dad Poor Dad written by Robert Kiyosaki. The basic premise of the book is that Robert's father was a school teacher who made a decent salary but was always at the mercy of his boss and the school. After taking a shot at a political office and losing, his father was black listed and out of work. His friend's father on the other hand owned multiple businesses, of the ones mentioned most, are real estate. Through his "rich dad" Robert learned about assets and liabilities (your house is a liability until you sell it and it is only an asset if you made money on it. Your car is also a liability.) A Liability is something that takes money out of your pocket each month/year where as an asset is something that puts money in your pocket each month/year. He learned about working for yourself and having your money work harder than you do, growing while you're sleeping, on vacation or any other time. All of this really resonated with me. I am sure it is the time that I read it as well, with more and more insecurity over pensions and retirement benefits. This book really got me started and interested in real estate which luckily enough is a passion for me. I would however recommend reading the book even if real estate isn't your passion or what you would like to work in. Through this book and many others which I will talk about I really started to develop my own inner compass. These books have given me the vision of working on building businesses that can grow and give me income without my direct contact or management. Through college and further readings I really discovered that I want to work hard at setting up systems and business that give me passive income so I can give back to the community, travel and spend time with my family rather than be a slave to a company, boss or even my own small business.

What I wish I knew Freshman Year

Some of these things will only work in a small school, (I go to a small liberal arts college about 2,600 students)

-Make face time with all of the professors in your major, even if you don't have a class with them yet

-Keep your door open when you're in your room –you will have more friends that way

-Join clubs, sports teams, or fraternity. They may get a bad rep but the interpersonal skills are worth it.

-Go to the career center and polish a resume so you can start sending it out your JUNIOR year. (You will thank me for this one)

-Workout – you will get more respect playing a pickup game football or when you're with a group of girls

-Some nights going out with your buddies is better than doing your work just be ready for the consequences.

-Have fun and live it up – Bromance (the worst show ever) Monday's, Tuesday Trivia, $6 pies on Wednesday, Thursday night wing night, and Friday night we celebrate kicking another schools ass in hockey. I may not go out every night but it is nice to have options and different friends to hang out with- especially your senior year live it up and have fun with your friends because you will most likely never be in this close knit of a situation ever again.

Let me know some things you guys like to do and what you miss/wish you knew from your college days.

Exciting Semester

This is my final semester in college. It is a little bit scary going into your spring semester with only minimal prospects of a job.  I am going to try not to do what a lot of people do…wish the time away worrying about the future.  I have to say that I'm very excited about this semester.  I am taking three very interesting classes; Real Estate Value Creation, Current Topics in Financial Management, and an Independent Study in which I am going to try to launch a business by the end of the semester (4 months away).  This will be a very exhilarating semester for me, and I am glad to take full advantage of everything the college has to offer; not just classes but also the workout facilities, the sports teams and of course the social life. 

That being said, why not take a look over your life and think about some of the things you may take for granted because you are worrying about what may or may not happen.  I don't like the expression "Live in the Moment" because that goes against our natural inclination, we are hunter-gatherers, and we like plan for the future.  However, sometimes we're so focused on what lies around the corner, we neglect to appreciate what we have right now.  The truth is, unfortunately, that sometimes we don't truly see things, until they are gone.  So take a moment and think about some things that you currently overlook and don't take full advantage of: a gym membership, a club you joined, or a sports team that you sometimes skip out on.  While you're reflecting and evaluating your life, why not think about things you sometimes take for granted: your husband/wife, your children's art work, or your next-door neighbor.  Take a moment to be grateful for what you have right now.  I guarantee if you lend a helping hand to someone, it will come back ten-fold to you.  Remember, don't wait until it's gone to fully value something, be thankful for what you have every day.  Let me know some things that you are grateful for, if you can't think of anything off the bat be thankful for the internet connection / computer you have in front of you giving you the ability to read this.

 

You Can’t Hide From the Numbers

Taking measurements is a sobering experience, especially when you take measurements with your girlfriend / significant other. As I said before I am starting a year long workout routine that I am very excited about. I have always been healthy and active my whole life, playing three sports in high school, making Varsity Baseball in College and playing College Ice Hockey. I have also gone to the gym intermittently throughout my four years but I regret that I haven't really taken full advantage of the facilities that I had at my disposal. I am a pretty skinny guy, about 6' 3" and 180lbs depending on the day. Because of hockey, I always knew that I needed to work on my legs and develop them to become better; however I would always fall into the male vanity and go straight to chest and bicep exercises for the most part ignoring my legs. As the title says, you can't hide from numbers and it was eye opening to see how small my thighs are compared to what strong, sturdy, legs should be (especially on a tall guy). So in planning a workout, exercise, or training routine you should measure yourself to not only track progress but to also give you some motivation to get moving and either grow where you need to grow or shrink what you need to shrink. If anyone else has any other good motivation / tracking ideas please comment and let me know. I will keep you updated in how much I change throughout my routine.

Keep Learning, Keep Growing, Achieve More

I decided to write a blog in 2009 just for a spot to keep my thoughts, keep myself focused and hopefully set myself up for something to come in the future. The New Year is an obvious time to re-center yourself and think about goals to achieve in the coming year. Many people think that making New Year's Resolutions are for quitters because come on how many people actually stick to it and it takes a different kind of mindset to not work on yourself until a pre-determined date. Come on now get your ass in gear and make yourself a priority. The New Year is a great time to set up goals for the coming year and to make sure that you are on the path that you would like to be on but don't wait until this point to change your habits if you realize that you are not on the right path. Also if you made some resolutions and a week later you haven't kept them, ask yourself why and modify your thinking, routine, or goals. I have made a lot of resolutions but the main one is a change in my schedule, I actually am scheduling time to achieve all of my resolutions. Yea it is great being in college and having a set schedule but things get hectic and you often lose touch of your goals, especially after Irish Car Bombs and friends' 21^st birthday parties. Some different goals that I am working on are completing a full year workout plan (broken down in to 6 week sections). Another goal is taking an hour and half every morning to complete one important task for the day, which I will determine the night before. (This trick is taken from the 4 Hour Work Week, by Timothy Ferris, which I will review in a later post). This year I am really going to focus on myself; health, training, securing a job for after graduation, and gaining more knowledge. As you go through your day think of time wasting activities that you just do out of habit, watching that reality T.V. show that you don't particularly like, surfing the web with no destination in mind and try to switch it out with a mind enriching activity, reading a book, learning a new trade, or taking on a DIY project. You will find that you probably have more energy and feel better about yourself if you keep on growing your mind. Let me know some of your resolutions and how you are going to incorporate them seamlessly in your life and I will let you know my progress with my goals.

You CAN Have Everything

Gone are the days of working for one company for 40 years, retiring at 65 and living out the rest of your days in Florida. How boring is that!? Yes, I know it is "safe, secure, and responsible" but if you really think about it, you are leaving your future up to someone else and to me that is not too responsible – that didn't work out too well for Enron employees and potentially some Big Three employees. Now I know my generation gets a bad rap for switching jobs every time the wind blows but who are you if you are not truly happy? How long can someone work 40 hours a week spending 10 hours a week in their car and without getting burnt out? I know people can do it and I think that that is great; my dad has worked at the same company for 29 years. It is just not my destiny. I would much rather own the company than work for the company. I would rather take mini-retirements (3-6 month vacations) throughout my life than to wait for my 20 year vacation when I am not young enough to enjoy it. I know not everyone is entrepreneurial and that is OK because the people that are need good, hard, honest workers to make their companies go and grow. I just want the older generations, baby boomers and some generation Xers, to not squash the creativity within their peers or children. I am not saying to tell them to be the next president or pro sport athlete but let them work out their creativity and also let them fail one or two times. They are more likely to learn their lesson that way and not turn into overzealous CEO's that think someone will bail them out. :cough: AIG :cough: In the previous post I mentioned that my parents were worried about me, but after we all finally sat down and talked about what I wanted to do with my life, they have become some of my biggest supporters often doing research and offering loans to help start some projects. That is what I call love and it is a winning combination because I get their support and insight and hell, if I strike it big, they get their beach house in the Caribbean. If you take away anything from this post, take away the fact that you control your future and you can have it now. Creativity can open up a lot of doors, and if you become the 30 or 40 year employee guy, take care of yourself now so you can enjoy your freedom when you finally get it.

"That is just a seed of an idea, and what do you need to make a seed grow?"

Idea Formulation…how do you do it? Once it's done, is it really? What is a good idea? These may seem like abstract questions but there are real ways to come up with and refine your ideas. I was never a lemonade stand kid, I sold candy for fundraising but that wasn't my idea…like every other kid I was forced to. I was never entrepreneurial either, I went in to college wanting to study psychology and political science so that I could go to law school and get a high paying, high power law job somewhere. I forgot to mention that I probably wouldn't have time to see my future wife, kids, buddies, or let alone have time to go to the gym and take care of myself. But thanks to my girlfriend, Cailen, I was shown the light in the spring semester of my freshman year. Much to the dismay of my parents, I changed my major from the safe secure jail sentence of going to years of law school and logging long hours at the office, to Entrepreneurial Studies and well having no specific job or skill set. I soon found out that my job would be to recognize good ideas and opportunities and my skill set would be to tune into my inner Benjamin Franklin and develop different business and money making, world bettering ideas.

So after 18 years of not thinking of ideas as businesses (as a kid I would always bitch about the tag on the back of the shirt bothering me, if only I could think of a better way back THEN…The Tagless Tee). I have for the last three years been spinning my wheels and churning out ideas. If I remember correctly I came up with about six business ideas in about 2 weeks the summer between my freshman and sophomore year. This is where idea formulation and germination come into play. Back then I was thinking mainly how to make money, not what I want to do or am passionate about. Since I was thinking in this way I always missed critical information. My parents were always happy and quick to point these "critical" mistakes out, hopefully stopping me from pursuing my ideas and from their point of view saving me from getting in trouble, hurt, or in debt. I always viewed their advice as a road block, believing parent knows best and getting really upset because I felt they were not behind me on my ideas. In reality I should have been thanking them for pointing out my mistakes. I should have written down every critique they had and went back to the drawing board to come up with ways to conquer or get around these "road blocks." After a very stressful and argument-riddled summer I started to think of these critiques as gifts (sounds pretty gay right?). While watching T.V. once I came across a quote to better describe what I am talking about. From the T.V. show 10 Items or Less;

"That is just a seed of an idea, and what do you need to make a seed grow?"

"Water?"

"No...manure, someone needs to #2 all over your idea."

So next time someone points out something wrong with your grand idea, don't dismiss it but grab it and internalize how you can take their crap and turn it in to manure. Let me know some people who routinely crap on your ideas and maybe some reasons why they do that.