Goofiness and a Good Cause

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Oct 312009

Earlier today I stumbled across a website celebrating what it calls “Movember”, which is the whole month of November being dedicated to the growing of mustaches.  Yeah, it sounds pretty weird. But the whole point of it is to join up, grow your stache, and raise awareness (and money) for prostate cancer research. And really, when it comes down to it, growing a mustache and raising money for prostate cancer (and testicular cancer) research are both awesome things.

I’ve always wanted to have a reason to grow out my stache. At my last job I used to shave every day. As soon as I quit, I think I went almost 3 weeks without shaving. Now, my facial hair doesn’t grow very fast, so the result wasn’t amazing or anything, but it was satisfying in a manly, chicks-can’t-do-this sort of way. So yeah, I’m growing a stache.

I guess my other motivation comes from my grandfather, who passed away earlier this year due to prostate cancer. A really high percentage of men end up getting prostate cancer but it really doesn’t get as much attention as some other cancers.

Hopefully events like Movember help change that a little bit, and do a little bit of good.

Oh, and if you want to join my team, it’s called Stachetaculous and you can join up at http://us.movember.com/

Here’s my day 1 photo (fully clean shaven for the first time in a couple months):

movember 1

Posted by Aaron at 7:16 pm

Writing for Writing's Sake

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Oct 292009

Yeah, that’s what I’m doing right now. While my dinner gets cold. Just felt like I should write something. Are you as bored as I am by this? Yeah, thought so.

I’ll try again tomorrow.

Posted by Aaron at 8:46 pm

Efficiency vs. Effectiveness

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Oct 222009
Efficient

Efficient

Alright I’m filing this one under ‘business details’ because it has to do with, well, business I guess.

How do you define efficiency? What about effectiveness?

I learned some really interesting lessons last night and I met someone who I really admire and who has some amazing potential for what he is doing but has not discovered how to be effective. Let me explain. But first, some background:

I went to an entrepreneur meetup group last night in SF – something I try to when I can because of the knowledge I can generally suck up from people – and they were having a talk given by someone who left his job a few years ago and has been living an extreme example of the mobile lifestyle for the past couple years. He basically works as a consultant for all number of things, and drives to multiple towns, meeting people and expanding his personal network through face-to-face contact. I don’t think he makes much money, but what he has done allows him to live on a lower income. For example: he sleeps in his car often, uses a gym to shower at, and, being an engineer, has systems set up for where he shops and when all in order to significantly minimize his costs.

I mean, the guy is really incredible – the extent to which he has gone to facilitate his mobile lifestyle is beyond impressive. I loved hearing his stories and think that he should absolutely blog on a regular basis because even though not all of his lessons and systems will work for most people, they are just fascinating.

He has become incredibly efficient at what he does – which is meeting people face to face, possibly performing some computer-related jobs for them, and traveling and living in different towns on a very low budget. I don’t know that I could ever implement the systems he has created to generate such amazing efficiencies in stretching his cash to the maximum.

Effective

Effective

But is he effective?

If what he is doing is trying to generate an income to allow him to live his chosen lifestyle is the manner most aligned with his values and needs, I would have to say no. He’s truly an engaging guy and incredibly earnest about what he is doing, but it feels like what he is doing is tantamount to being a door-to-door salesman today in the internet and information age. No matter how good a door-to-door salesman is at getting his prospects converted into buyers, he will never be able to reach the volume of people the internet allows one to reach these days. He may have a prospect—>buyer conversion rate as high as 50% (incredibly high) but if he can only visit 30 people each day he will never be as effective at generating revenue as someone with a website collecting 5,000 visits a day with a 2% conversion rate.

And so last nights speaker got me thinking. How can I be effective in what I am doing? He certainly could by leveraging the internet, blogs, and social media to enhance and grow his personal network all across the United States and the world. And the best part is, he could do it no matter where he travels.

I wish I had as clear an idea for myself as I do for him. Oh, well, I did just discover that when you google “Aaron Burke” this blog is the #2 result. I guess I am very effective at being me. Or am I efficient? Damn.

Posted by Aaron at 11:14 pm Tagged with: , , ,

My first entrepreneurial business trip

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Oct 202009

I’m always happy to come down and visit LA, but I’m always happy to leave too. Every time I am here, it seems like it it more and more different from Northern California. The flatness of the city, the endless streets, the gorgeous cars everywhere, the sprawling residential areas lines with palm trees, and the warm nights perfect for relaxing at a bar or outdoor restaurant. The is much to like and enjoy here, but the pace of life doesn’t quite mesh with what I have become accustomed to.

This trip, more than anything, brought back a lot of memories for me and reminders of time spent in LA in years past. Visiting my best friend down here, we would fill our nights with music, good food, alcohol, and LA nightlife. My brain is soaked and imbued with the residue of flying down LA streets with windows down, or a top down, beats thumping and getting us ready for the hours are partying to come. And then the feel of emerging hours later, sky still dark but night still warm, heading back to the apartment for a Corona before bed.

I miss those LA times.

….

Business-wise, this trip was successful. We put together a solid plan for the next month and more, got our shit together, and figured out how to do some product and ad copy testing on the cheap before we pour money into a first production run. I think we may still be unsure what distribution type we want to focus on, but we’re close. And this was the first time I met one of my business partners (the wonders of Skype and video messaging had allowed me to see him and feel like I had met him without ever being within 300 miles of him.)

What amazes me so much about this process is how difficult and confusing some things seem before you do them, but how simple and self-explanatory they can seem afterwards. I come into this with a base of a lot of reading, but not much in terms of actual firsthand experience. It is worth 10 times as much as any theoretical or case study knowledge. I guess that’s why doctors have to spend so much time learning by working with real patients before they can ever practice medicine alone.

Thank god I’m not a doctor. Business is so much easier.

Posted by Aaron at 11:02 am
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