jonathan@visiontechteam.com

2013: A Reflection and Goals for the NEXT Year, Part 2

January 31, 2014 by [email protected] Leave a Comment

Ok so this post is about a month overdue, it’s a follow up to part one. Better late than never though. A lot has changed in the past month, so I’ll do my best to keep this 2013-related.

My Biggest Lessons from 2013

Don’t lose the forest for the trees. It’s so easy to get caught up in a project, deal, business challenge, etc, and spend so much time and emotional energy on it. One of the biggest things I learned this year is that most of the small stuff, despite how important it may seem in the moment, won’t really matter much 5 years from now. It doesn’t affect my vision that much, and getting caught up in it can actually distract my energies from my greater vision in life.

Look inside for strength. Develop spiritually.

This year has been a spiritual path for me, I just didn’t know it until the last couple of months. It wasn’t intentional, but it was deep, powerful, sometimes enlightening, and sometimes painful. Now I’m on this path more consciously into 2014. I’ve found an incredible spiritual mentor/guide, I’m reading a ton of new books, and have been meditating consistently.

Despite being a self-proclaimed atheist all my life, I’m finding god in my own way, and feeling a lot stronger in all that I do as a result. Not to mention happier. I’ll write another post later on my concept of god, inner and outer, as I develop these ideas more clearly for myself.

Physical neglect affects all else. Sleep. Eat. Exercise. Have sex. Meditate.

I’ve committed to sleeping 7+ hours a night pretty consistently, working out every day, started for martial arts classes, am eating great, and spending more time outside. These things should be simple and obvious, but I’ve burned out multiple times over the last couple of years, pushing myself so hard based on my idea of who an entrepreneur is… based on my work ethic, based on my past and my future. I’ve now clearly realized that the better health I’m in, the clearer decisions I can make, the better and more focused my work is, and therefore the less hours I have to actually work. I’m a lot more effective, and a lot happier.

I’ve also realized that it doesn’t take that much effort. A 20 minute workout each day can make a huge difference. Changing up my diet doesn’t take much work or money either, and most of the time I was sacrificing sleep to ‘get more done’ I was actually being super ineffective.

Simplicity. Simple means focus. Greater energy where it matters, rather than scattered.

Building something complex is easy. Being busy is easy. Scattering your energy all over the place to make ends meet is easy (though it’s hard work). Simplicity is actually harder to stick to, but ultimately gets better results, and is more sustainable and more scalable. I’m still working on simplifying a lot of my business life, but I’ve made a ton of progress in the last few months, and it’s really improved my profits.

The biggest thing here has been setting rules for what projects to take on and what to pass on, despite being good opportunities. I run opportunities and clients through a value system now, rather than just jumping on something because it seems lucrative. There’s a lot more to this, but that’s for another post.

Trust myself, listen to myself deeply, but be skeptical of my ego.

I’ve realized that most of the time, my intuition is right, while my ‘logic’ often leads me down roads of complexity. Logic says take the big project for a big check. Intuition says avoid that client because they don’t fit my values well, and the short term pay off will result in a long term headache. Each time I’ve followed the logic approach this year, I’ve gotten the headache. Each time I’ve followed intuition, things have worked out for the best, and again I’ve been a lot happier.

This has also caused me to make some bolder decisions, like committed myself to NEXT despite short term financial success being elsewhere, which has been probably the best decision of my life to date.

No one else will take and ‘run’ and grow your company for you. Build good systems and hire good people to improve and manage those systems.

I hired an operations team at the beginning of the year and thought that would take care of everything. Some things improved, but ultimately I trusted too much and had to dig myself out of a hole. I’ve realized that even if I hire good people, it’s my responsibility to build systems in my business, to build a good leadership team, and to make great growth decisions and evolve the business model. No one’s going to do that for me, at least not with my level of commitment, but that doesn’t mean I can’t scale or free myself from day-to-day operations.

Best and most sustainable approach to growth: great operations, superb product delivery – NOT “sales” (except through natural networking).

I’ve built an awesome client base through doing great work, being honest, and getting great referrals. Each time a deal got ‘sold’ for me, it didn’t work out well either for me or for the client. I don’t think that the service industry needs ‘sales’ to succeed, at least not in the traditional sense, but rather just great delivery. The results and reputation sell themselves and can result in exponential growth. “Selling” to new people each time requires a lot more effort, both up front and long term.

Follow passion, joy, and meaning.

Purpose. Not just the money. With this advice, I’ve co-created Maverick NEXT with Yanik. While financially sustainable in itself, we didn’t launch NEXT as a ‘money project’ but as a passion and mission project for us both, integrate our collected purpose – and for me personally also for greater joy and meaning, creating the kind of peer network I’ve always wanted to have.

Last year at Underground 9, someone asked Yanik “Would you ever do a Maverick Business Adventures for young entrepreneurs?” … and Yanik said he’d consider it if the right person and the right deal came along to run it. This is something I’d been thinking about for some time before, but really just didn’t have the balls to bring it up. Within weeks, we were talking about a young entrepreneur network concept, and 2 months later we conceptualized Maverick NEXT.

I don’t need to “prove myself” to create massive value.

Focus on the value, not the ego, not external validation or comparisons. I used to think that I needed to build a certain size business, like a million dollars in revenue or something, to start really having an impact on young entrepreneurs. This was just a limiting belief holding me back from being of the greatest service to the world, an excuse made up by my ego.

At Eben Pagan’s Accelerate, I had a great conversation with one of the speakers Matthew Monahan, a young entrepreneur who sold his company for $100M to Ancestry.com at 29 years old. He made me realize that I really have nothing to prove, that all that matters is the actual impact I have on people’s lives through the work that I do, not the credentials to do that work. That’s all that gets measured by the right people. I’m so grateful for Matthew because that conversation probably helped me skip a couple of years of pursuing all the wrong things, instead of jumping straight to pursuing my purpose.

My primary goals for 2014:

Grow my web architecture agency to $300,000 (about double this year’s revenue), while removing myself from about 80% of operations. I plan to keep a leadership position to direct the team, and do some creative direction on client projects. And of course, continually improve our systems.
Grow Maverick NEXT to 50 active members. My BHAG is to grow NEXT to 100 active members, but honestly it’s a lot more about the quality of the network and their experience, not the number, so I’d be happy with 50 awesome members whose lives and businesses we get to transform.
Become conversationally fluent in Spanish. Carried this over from last year and the year before that… so what’s different this year? Use Duolingo – it’s fun, and almost addictive, or at least habitual – and competitive. I plan to spend a good portion of 2015 in a Spanish speaking country, so this is really important now!
Move to San Diego, ideally by the beach. Currently planning on spending 6 months there in 2014, hopping around different AirBnB spots. Next stop: The Philippines!
Spend a week on a tropical island, doing almost nothing for the whole week. I’ve traveled a lot, but haven’t taken a real vacation since Marketer’s Cruise a year ago, and before that Aruba after my college graduation 3 years ago. I really look forward to just sitting on a hammock under a palm tree on a sunny tropical island, doing pretty much nothing.
Put on an incredible NEXT Summit with 100+ attendees. More on this coming very soon, but basically it will be an event for young entrepreneurs to get together and learn from really high level Maverick Entrepreneurs. All NEXT members will attend as part of their membership, and we’ll make tickets available for sale to guest attendees. It will be epic.
Spiritual development: get comfortable with and get to know my own inner god, and pull that god source into my life more actively, more consciously.
Get in the best shape of my life to date. Ally and I are keeping each other accountable on this one, and so far we’re on a good track.
Possibly: launch a SaaS product in the copywriting industry. This is a secret for now, and while it’s a really exciting concept, I’m not sure if now is the right time given my other major goals for the year.

I’ll keep this blog updated with my progress, especially on the NEXT stuff, and as always look forward to your feedback. I’m so grateful to have these incredible lessons from the past year, and ambitious goals for this year.

What are your lessons from last year? Goals for this year? I’d love your comments below.

25 Things You Don’t Know About Me

January 8, 2014 by [email protected] 3 Comments

It’s my 25th birthday today. A quarter century.

25 is also the age limit for Maverick NEXT, and I believe it’s a pivotal year for many young leaders. While the number itself can feel somewhat arbitrary, I think that most things are largely arbitrary until we give them our own meaning. To me, 25 represents entering a new phase of life, where the creativity, determination, and inspiration of my youth meets a higher wisdom, spiritual awareness, and most importantly right action. It’s the year of really creating something meaningful in the world, to set the tone for the next quarter century of my life and my service to the world.

That was just a short rant – this post is actually about vulnerability. One of my personal goals this year is to become more vulnerable, more authentic. Not just with those closest to me – but with the world. To be honest about my past, present, and future. My faults, mistakes, and shortcomings, along with my accomplishments, dreams, and ambitions.

So I’m starting with the 25 things you probably don’t know about me. If you know me closely, some of these are apparent, but many are news to my closest friends as well as distant acquaintances.

Some are deep, some are light and silly.

1. I am insecure and struggle with fear, depression, and anxiety… despite my outward confidence and “success.”

2. I believe that I’m destined for greatness, to create something influential and meaningful in the world, and leave a huge legacy.

3. I don’t really know what that “greatness” is, despite my sometimes outward definiteness of purpose, but I believe it. At times though, I question whether I really am, or if I am just delusional – though I guess that’s up to me to define with my actions.

4. I genuinely compare myself to Steve Jobs. While giving me great drive, this usually leads to unhappiness.

5. I was bullied a lot as a child. Part of it was because I was an immigrant, “poor” by American standards, was raised by a single mother, etc – and part because I was just so damn introverted that I appeared to have serious social anxiety issues.

6. In my youth, I responded to bullying by becoming a rebellious punk, then a ‘gangsta’ – and while I quickly matured, I kept my rebellious nature for a long time. I was even politically active in high school, largely against the administration, and didn’t trust authorities.

7. I got virtually straight A’s in high school and graduated Cum Laude from a top university (Brandeis) with a double major. Yet I don’t have much faith in formal education, especially not for entrepreneurs or others pursuing a more independent career. I believe public education reform is long overdue, and I believe that the way that ‘higher education’ is sold (yes, SOLD, at hundreds of thousands of dollars per student) in society is largely a scam.

8. I am really bad at finishing things through to success. I am really good at starting things that would be successful, if someone finished them.

9. I’m for the legalization of almost every drug, except maybe heroin and similar highly addictive and deadly substances.

10. I don’t “read” that much, but I typically go through 1 – 2 audiobooks a week. If adding reading and audio, I’ve gone through over 400 books and programs since I started my personal development journey at 19. Not including college related reading.

11. My favorite movies currently are: jOBS and Alice In Wonderland.

12. I’m a pantheistic atheist/humanist searching for god.

13. I don’t care that much about money.

14. In my spare time (okay – I don’t usually have spare time, but in my car alone for example), I freestyle to myself and write rap verses.

15. Until recently, I was relatively undeveloped ‘as a man’ – always searching for a father figure. This caused tension in past relationships with adult males and mentors, and disappointed me; I was looking for something that wasn’t there. I’ve now developed my own inner strength, my manhood.

16. My favorite artist/band is Pink Floyd. Before that, it was probably Eminem.

17. I don’t drink much or smoke tobacco, but I’ve had some of my happiest and most insightful moments with a glass of cognac in one hand and a cigar in the other.

18. Since I’ve started my company, I’ve had one real vacation – 3 years ago in Aruba – that I was totally disconnected for a week. Outside of that, the most I’ve been disconnected at a time is 2 days. One my goals for 2014 is to take another complete vacation, sitting under a palm tree on a hammock for a week on a tropical island, doing pretty much nothing.

19. My social circle ranges from Maverick millionaire entrepreneurs, to artists and musicians, to spiritual masters, to the world’s best pickup artists – but I’m not actually in any of these demographics myself.

20. I worry about appearing too egotistical, and that worry drives a lot of my behavior. At the same time, I worry about living too small.

21. As a kid, I was naturally good at drawing, chess, and piano.

22. When I was 14, I had a demo CD of my rap. It had like 15 tracks – hopefully you will never hear them, as many of the lyrics were violent, depressing, or ignorant. Like most rap.

23. I don’t really know what my ‘gift’ is. Connecting people? Inspiring? Teaching? Building companies? Technical intelligence? Visionary? I’m relatively good at these, but I don’t know what to focus on to become my best self and be of greatest service to the world.

24. I’ve been trying to stop biting my nails for as long as I can remember. It’s my most annoying vice and I can’t seem to get rid of it.

25. Since 19, my biggest goal was to become a millionaire by 25. I’ve ‘failed’ but that’s okay – because I’ve become rich in so many other ways that are more important, and I know the millionaire milestone is not far down the road, when I focus on that – but it’s also becoming so much less important to me.

Thanks for reading. Today, I’m most grateful for all the people in my life that have been there to positively influence me over the years, and those who will be there for the journey in the coming years. There are too many to name, and I’m so grateful for that. Thank you.

2013: A Reflection and Goals For NEXT Year, Part One

December 23, 2013 by [email protected] 1 Comment

At the end of every year I journal about my lessons from the past year, remember the year’s highlights and experiences, and set goals for the new year. Last year I started the tradition of publishing some of these musings here on my blog.

The post below is organized into my trips/events, news and other happenings, major personal lessons learned, and finally goals for the coming year.

UPDATE: I’ve organized this into two blog posts. Part One below includes Trips, Events, and Milestones of 2013.

Part Two (coming after Christmas) will include my biggest Lessons from 2013 and Goals for 2014. Stay tuned.

Trips, Travel, and Events of 2013

January: Marketer’s Cruise (included Mexico, Jamaica, and the Caymen Islands). We rode on dune buggies in Mexico, climbed the Dunn’s River Falls in Jamaica, and relaxed on the beach at the Caymen Islands – all with a bunch of fun Internet marketers.

February/March: Underground Online Seminar 9. This was especially meaningful for me this year as I organized much of the young entrepreneur scholarship experience, made lots of amazing new friends in the process, and even got a little bit of stage time.

March: Two week trip to Malaysia and the Philippines. From visiting MindValley to meeting my whole team and their families, this was a truly transformational experience. You can read about that here.

April: Went to Montreal, Canada to celebrate Larry and Perry Yu’s 21st birthdays! Good times and first time to Canada.

May: Chicago Maverick Multiplier Retreat. Probably the most intimate and impactful Maverick gathering I’d ever been to, and really learned to be open and vulnerable, while also having a lot of fun (Zombie Bar Crawl anyone?) Here’s a quick video recap of the experience:

May/June: Austin, where Ally worked for Sophia at Maverick Events to help coordinate the Amazing Selling Machine event. Hung out with some friends in Austin, and decided definitely on which apartment to stay in, where we signed the lease shortly after, committing to move in September.

July: Charleston – Maverick Family Freedom, teaching kids and teenagers entrepreneurship and values… probably the most rewarding event of the year for me. You can read all about that one here.

July: Baltimore – stayed with Maverick Adam Summers for a week, and in the process made a great new friend. Also attended Russell Brunson’s and Daegan Smith’s Invisible Funnel Mastermind there, where I learned a lot of cool new marketing strategies.

August: Chicago for Eben Pagan’s Accelerate Event. This merits an entire post in itself, but I never got to it. It was another life changing event for me, both in terms of the business content, and the personal and spiritual growth I experienced there. I got a 3 minute stage spot to present what we were doing with NEXT at the time, here’s the clip:

August: Las Vegas for RSD World Summit. RSD is a big web design client of mine, and Nick Kho (“Papa”) is a good personal friend, so I attend a lot of their events (even though I’m in a happy relationship with Ally and not exactly learning ‘pickup’ lol) … I found it to be a really unique form of personal development from which I benefitted greatly, and made some new friends.

September: moved to Austin with Ally! Lots of furniture assembling and setting up a new life while balancing launching NEXT and other business responsibilities.

September/October: went to Southern California for a couple of weeks shortly after moving to Austin. Stayed with Maverick, and good friend, Damien Zamora of GoMobileSolutions for over a week in Orange County, drove to San Diego for a weekend for the Mind Movies mastermind party, and went up to Santa Barbara for several days for Ontropalooza, which was also a blast where we got to catch up with a lot of friends and Mavericks who were there.

Also went to LA for Yanik’s 40th birthday. This was so fulfilling to watch – not only because of Yanik’s impact on me to date, but even more so just seeing how much impact he has had on so many people. About 40 Mavericks showed up in LA to surprise Yanik, and everyone put together this awesome video for him, even those who couldn’t make it (including Tony Hseih, Sir Richard Branson, and some other business icons) talking about how much they appreciate him and their funniest moments together. It was truly inspiring and heart warming to watch.

October: Maverick Multiplier Retreat in Las Vegas. This was really fun and educational. From meeting Steve Pavlina, to visiting Opportunity Village, to running around Vegas in ‘Kings and Queens’ costumes, this definitely marks a fun and unique memory for 2013. Here’s a quick video recap:

November: held the NEXT Think Tank event here in Austin, for 20 successful young entrepreneurs 25 and under. The weekend was transformational for most attendees, but probably even more so for myself, as it really solidified on a deep, deep level what I am doing in the world. More on this later. Speakers/mentors included: Ryan Deiss, Robert Hirsch, Noah Kagan, Paul Kirchoff, Matt Clark, Josh Lee… and of course our very own Yanik Silver.

We also did some indoor skydiving, which was a first for me and almost everyone there.

Here’s a quick video recap. There’s a more complete one coming soon:

November: Las Vegas, again (3rd time this year! And again, not to party). This time, for a mastermind at Tony Hseih’s home in downtown Vegas, after getting the downtown project tour. Kudos to Nick Kho for putting on this awesome event. Along with John Assaraf, Dave Van Hoose, Tony Hseih, and some other really speakers and entrepreneurs, I spoke there for 15 minutes with a focus on web design and conversions.

Presenting on Web Design At Tony Hseih’s place in downtown Vegas

A couple of NEXT Members attended too, such as Matej Bester and Larry Yu.

Larry Yu with Tony Hseih, in the “Jungle Room” at his place.

And finally, now I’m going home for the holidays for a couple of weeks to see friends and family and celebrate the New Year 🙂

Outside of travel, here are some other updates, news, and happenings of 2013…

These are mostly chronological, though some are throughout the year:

Maverick CORE Solutions: launched and closed this brand in early 2013. It just wasn’t worked the way we planned, so I rebranded my main services company back to Purpose Inspired Marketing and left the rest of the business model (vendor referral network) on hold, hopefully to be relaunched in 2014.

Scaled and downsized: I hired an operations management team, doubled my design and development team, and doubled my client base and average revenue, and then scaled back down to a leaner, more focused operation all within about 4 months. It’s a long story, but I just felt that I was on a track to successful unhappiness, and putting all my time and energy into something outside of my purpose. This gave me the experience of a larger operation, and then refocused me back on what’s important.

Conceptualized NEXT with Yanik: the couple of months after Underground 9, I was working on a concept for young entrepreneurs. Part of that concept was for higher level, successful young entrepreneurs, which aligned with Yanik’s previous vision for a group called Maverick NEXT. Through some unique synchronisities, we decided to start Maverick NEXT. This was in May, and we spent the next 3 months or so ironing out the concept and getting ready to ‘launch’ it to a small group of select young entrepreneurs.

The big idea behind NEXT: bring together already successful young entrepreneurs 25 and under in an exclusive network where they can lean on each other, Maverick1000 members as mentors, and access a series of transformational events throughout the year and unique entrepreneurial education… all with the overarching goal of helping them each co-create the NEXT, and best, chapter of their entrepreneurial journeys, personal happiness, and impact in the world.

Launched NEXT: In early October, we soft launched NEXT, followed by a unique event for NEXT members and those at their caliber, The NEXT Think Tank in Austin. NEXT has grown to 13 founding members in the past couple of months, and they’re having a great experience so far, with some already seeing significant business growth from the connections and education, and others finally having found a community of people who get them.

Maverick NEXT is really the most exciting thing I’ve worked on in my life, and creating this vision will be the biggest focus of the next 3 years of my life. Not only is it fulfilling for me in a big way, but I also believe it’s the highest impact of anything I could possibly do with my time – because these young entrepreneurs really are the NEXT Generation of Mavericks – poised to transform the world for the better, and have a ripple impact for decades, maybe centuries to come, with what they do.

Personal Development at events: The year of traveling all around the country and the world, experiencing different cultures, learning at all kinds of unique seminars and masterminds, really expanded me intellectual, tactically, and spiritually. From becoming a better leader, better copywriter, better marketer, better manager, to finding my spiritual strength, to raising my cultural awareness, it’s been the most transformational year yet in terms of personal growth. Through all this travel, my personal network has also expanded tremendously, and I’ve cultivated the kind of inner circle that I’ve always wanted – of mentors, peers, friends, and partners.

Despite any current stress of overwhelm, I am probably the happiest I’ve ever been in my life to date. Not just on a surface level, but on a deep, internal spiritual level. And it’s only getting better.

Refocused Purpose Inspired Marketing: I refocused my web design agency as a boutique design firm, working with select clients who are really making a difference in the world with their work. This makes the “service” industry much more meaningful to me, as I feel I am doing a service to the world in serving my clients.

Just this month (December) I hired an awesome operations manager, Amy Derr, to help me run the company, so that we can scale our fulfillment better while I focus on creative direction for our clients, and my other purpose-driven pursuits (mainly NEXT).

Started Revenue Share Partnerships, some successful, some not: While I did some revenue sharing partnerships in 2012 and made a little bit of money, this is the first year I’ve partnered on something that’s actually creating sustainable profits, now and into the future. It’s really exciting and I’ll post more on this later.

At the same time, I had a few partnerships which I thought were going to work out really well, with a lot of profit for all involved, that didn’t do so well. I’ve learned a lot from both experiences, and am better off for it.

Moved to Austin with Ally: This marks the first time Ally and I are living together on our own, and in (my opinion at least) one of the best entrepreneurial cities in the country! Moving was actually very stressful and a bit more expensive than I expected, but the transition really transformed me. The environment here in Austin gives me more energy, clarity, and focus – nothing like what I had living in the northeast. Living together has also really improved my relationship with Ally, and we work well together 🙂

Our apartment is nice, and perfectly placed with the greenbelt (largest nature reserve in Austin) literally in our backyard, we’re a 10 minute drive to downtown, we have a pool, a gym, a business center, and really everything we could want here. The only thing ‘missing’ is the beach, hence the planned move to San Diego in June.

Austin, while feeling like home, is the first among many living destinations for the next 5+ years. Inspired by 4 Hour Work Week, I intend to move to a new place every 6 – 12 months for the next half a decade, to explore the world through cultural immersion, not touristy travel.

Started a new path of personal development… Mind, Body, Spirit: The last couple of months I’ve been exploring a new side of my personal growth – spiritual development. I’ve also realized just how much neglecting my body affects all other areas of my life, including my mental, financial, and spiritual aspects. As such, I’ve committed to a new path of spiritual growth, along with nurturing my body through exercise, great food (thanks to Ally, this is taken care of!), plenty of time in nature, and adequate restful sleep. This sounds easy – but as an entrepreneur workaholic, it’s actually quite difficult for me.

Fortunately, I’ve found myself an amazing spiritual mentor, and martial arts Sensei, who has agreed to work with me – Tristan Truscott of Satori Method. Also a client, I’m really excited to experience his teachings and to be a part of bringing his work to the world.

Part Two Coming Soon…

Clearly it’s been a really transformational year, personally and ‘professionally’ for me… look out for the next part of this post in the next few days, for a summary of my greatest lessons from the past year, and my major goals for 2014.

Thank you!

Have any big milestones yourself this past year – or any cool trips or experiences? Comment below 🙂

RANT On The Entrepreneurial Lifestyle

September 14, 2013 by [email protected] 8 Comments

This is a rant on the ‘entrepreneurial lifestyle’ – it’s been on my mind for some time now, and I finally decided it’s worth publicly ranting about. If you agree or disagree, I’d love your comments below.

Disclaimer #1: You might be directly offended by this post. Sorry I’m not sorry. Real Talk.

Disclaimer #2: I realize I’ve been guilty of this myself in the past. It was immature.

Posting pictures of yourself sipping a tropical drink on the beach is NOT the entrepreneurial lifestyle. Bragging about how little you work isn’t impressing (or attracting) anyone except a bunch of lazy people who have little if any desire to create something significant in the world. The same goes for pictures and memes of people ‘making money in their sleep.’ Let’s get real…

Every single entrepreneur worth remembering, from Richard Branson to Steve Jobs to Henry Ford, and those who built their successes more quietly have WORKED THEIR ASSES OFF. Every successful entrepreneur I know works extremely hard, or has for a significant portion of their lives and careers, to create something of massive value in the world (but, that depends on how you define entrepreneur).

If you’re an entrepreneur, you are driven by building your vision. You can’t NOT work hard. It’s not in your DNA.

You take risks. You dare to think different. You do things that haven’t been done before. You create, you innovate, you inspire, you lead, you manage, you put it all on the line because you believe in a bigger and better world. YOU WORK HARD to create it. Often times in the face of uncertainty, rapidly shifting market conditions, self-doubt, limited resources… you work hard because you believe in what you’re building.

80+ hour work week, intense focus, SACRIFICE… that’s the entrepreneurial lifestyle. Not sitting on a beach sipping a damn margarita.

I think this crazy misconception might come from how loosely we define ‘entrepreneur’ these days… MLM, affiliate marketing, etc are all great, but there’s a fine line (ok, maybe not so fine) between building a company and promoting a product/opportunity based on how you get to sit on the beach and ‘get money’ on the Internet. The latter is fine, but please stop calling it entrepreneurship.

The Four Hour Work Week? No. You didn’t get it.

Me with Tim Ferriss

Another crazy misconception comes from Tim Ferriss’s “The Four Hour Work Week.” I LOVE that book – in fact reading it over a dozen times in college played an instrumental role in creating the life that I have now (I also think Tim is a genius; I’m a huge fan and was fortunate enough to meet him and hang out for a bit). But Tim does NOT preach laziness. In fact, the opposite. It’s all about focusing less on money, and more on who you are becoming and what you are creating in the world. Tim himself works extremely hard, stays super focused, and is overwhelmingly driven to create something significant in the world during his life. The misleading title only refers to ‘work’ as ‘necessary things that you don’t really want to do, but HAVE to do for income generation or other logistical reasons’ (my definition) … reread the book, especially the Filling The Void chapter, and you’ll agree.

Real entrepreneurs don’t brag about how little they work.

Yes, they delegate, they create leverage, they often travel, and yes they can often afford a better ‘lifestyle’ than a typical employee. But the entrepreneurial lifestyle includes a ton of hard work, risk, and sacrifice. It’s rewarding, and can be exhausting, but they also have a massive amount of extra energy from their vision… so the long hours don’t feel like work, they feel like creation. Like art.

In fact, most successful entrepreneurs I know can’t even take long vacations. They get antsy because they are aware from what they are creating, from growth, progress, invention…

This doesn’t mean you don’t take time to rejuvenate.

Rejuvenating in the Philippines with my awesome web team… before and after months of hard work.

Now, I’m not saying Rejuvenation isn’t important. I’m not saying FUN and EXPERIENCE isn’t important either. It is. Sometimes you need to chill out, take time away from your business, have fun, experience something new, go on an adventure, or do absolutely nothing. Whether to relax and rejuvenate, or to get mental clarity to come up with better solutions and innovations. You want to avoid burn out (been there, done that) and a resulting depression (yes, many of us face this) from overworking.

But this doesn’t mean that the entrepreneurial lifestyle is defined by relaxation, chilling out, and doing whatever you want whenever you want. It simply means you need to rejuvenate your body, mind, and spirit, so you can go back at the real entrepreneurial lifestyle (of hard work and creation) with ever more energy, creativity, and focus.

So next time you see someone on Facebook post a neat lifestyle picture promoting the entrepreneurial lifestyle, remind yourself: building a great business takes discipline, hard work, focus, and creativity. Maybe even drop a link to this post as a comment on their picture. If you want to live the ‘entrepreneurial lifestyle’ then be prepared to make sacrifices, work your ass off, and take less breaks than your employees… because you get to build something great. And that’s worth bragging about.

If you agree, disagree, or have a different perspective on this, I’d love your comments below.

A Note On Tribes and Accelerate Presentation

August 9, 2013 by [email protected] Leave a Comment

As a young entrepreneur, it’s lonely on the way up.

There’s a saying: It’s lonely at the top. Sometimes that’s true. When you’re successful, it’s often hard to find people to relate to. You certainly can’t relate to the masses. Most of the people you grew up with aren’t on the same page as you. Your environment just doesn’t push you to be your best.

This is why tribes like Maverick1000, EO, YPO and many mastermind groups exist. It’s not the only reason, but it’s a HUGE driver for their existence.

And while I believe it’s true that it’s lonely at the top, I’ve found this even truer:

It’s even lonelier on the way up.

As a young entrepreneur, your social decisions can dictate your future.

If you hang out with your peers, the ones you grew up with… you know, the ones who think you’re crazy, or amazing, or lucky or whatever. The ones who are partying it up every weekend in college. Or maybe they just got their first jobs after graduation, starting to really live in reality, and just learning to commiserate at the bar after work about their bosses, their hours, and talking about the good old days.

This group WILL NOT DRIVE YOU TO BE YOUR BEST.

They won’t.

In fact, this social structure will hold you back.

But here’s the deal: even if you’re fortunate enough to hangout with other successful entrepreneurs, people doing something significant, most of them are a generation older than you. They’re in a different world. They’re further a long in their journey.

They can be your mentors. You can look up to them. But it’s so hard to develop true friendships with them. To have unique and significant experiences with them. Even to party and celebrate with them.

So what are your choices?

Hangout with a social structure that holds you back, but maybe you have fun with… OR (if you’re fortunate enough) hangout with older entrepreneurs that push you and pull you up, but that might inadvertently rob you of your youthful experiences.

So what do you do?

Fuck both paths.

Don’t get me wrong, have your mentors. Hang out with those successful older entrepreneurs that pull you up.

But to be truly fulfilled in the now and experience the best of your youth while also becoming your best and creating your greatest future, you need to join or form a tribe.

A tribe of young entrepreneurs who are going in the same direction, with aligned values, and common futures.

A couple of years ago I first read Yanik’s 34 Rules For Entrepreneurs, and the rule that hit me most was #29:

“Mastermind and collaborate with other smart entrepreneurs if they have futures that are even bigger than their present.”

Another major lesson I learned from Yanik is the importance of enjoying the present, especially my youth.

Enjoy your youth and create the best future that you possibly can. Make your most meaningful memories while pushing yourself to achieve your greatest goals, purpose, and potential.

Find a tribe or form a tribe that helps you do that. It will probably make the greatest difference in your youth and your future.

And with that, I’m excited to launch a new tribe. A tribe to find and cultivate the Next Generation of Maverick Entrepreneurs. In partnership with Yanik Silver, we’re excited to pre-launch Maverick Next.

We’re only looking for a specific type of person: a young entrepreneur, 25 or younger, who already has a successful business, and who wants to make a significant impact in the world while living a fun, meaningful, and fulfilling life.

If that sounds like you, I invite you to pre-apply here.

Go out and find your tribe, or create it. It make will more difference than you can imagine on your growth, your memories, and your long term success.