Aaron Speaks!

Learned wisdom on the path of entrepreneurship

How Physics and Business are the Same

Dec 3

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Back in my junior year of high school I was first introduced to the kind of Newtonian Mechanics physics that can be both incredibly useful in real life use (looking at the where forces are applied in a system, calculating collisions and projectile flight paths) and can also be a total pain in the ass. The reason it’s a total pain in the ass in that when analyzing any system to see what the result will be given a specific set of starting conditions, the most important aspect of the analysis is not being able to do the math involved. Really, for all intents and purposes, pretty much all math you use in Newtonian Physics doesn’t get any more difficult than basic algebra. No, the hard part about analyzing these systems actually comes in setting up the analysis. See, you have to be able to look at a given system and be able to set up how the equations interact and which forces are being applied where. Once you have the whole thing set up – once the framework is in place to analyze the system, then the actual process of calculating the results is fairly trivial.

gantt chartSo what does this have to do with business? Maybe nothing. But as I was staring at an example chart in Tom’s Planner today (which is a beta version of an online Gantt Chart tool) I started looking at all the steps listed in that chart. I began thinking that the real key to getting a long project isn’t about being able to execute all the individual steps. In most cases, the steps are easy, can be figured out, or can be farmed out to a VA if that’s something you’re cool with.

No, the difficult part is actually planning the whole project out. It’s figuring out how all the little pieces interact, knowing which dominoes need to fall first, and which parts of the project can run on their own while others are taken care of concurrently. Charting the path from where you are to a completed project is the difficult aspect of any project, and it’s also, not surprisingly, the most important part as well. I guess that’s why the people who are able to plan things out, manage people, fit people in to the tasks at hand, and assess the progress of the whole end up making the big bucks, and the individuals who execute the tasks get laid off when they’re not needed.

It kind of makes me miss physics.

But I think I might need to go to business school.

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Oh Maslow, Why Do You Trouble Me So?

Dec 2

Posted by Aaron in mindset | No Comments

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

As humans, it seems that we are genetically programmed to always want more. And I suppose there is an excellent reason for the desire to always want more, to always feel that more is necessary in order to be happy and fulfilled. As much as it sucks to lose a job and then have to realign your priorities while living on unemployment, it would suck an order of magnitude more to think you are set with food for the winter, and then have mold ruin all your grain, and then starve to death with nothing to eat. So I can understand the need to always reach for more, to feel that another step has to be taken, that your situation can always be improved.

And from this, we come to Maslow.

About 10 days ago or so at a friend’s party I ended up talking to one of the girls there – who I guess had recently finished an MBA program – and we got to talking about needs as humans. My generation has so much in its favor – so many choices, so much freedom, and often so much ease at our fingertips – yet this almost paradoxically has created seemingly greater unhappiness in our culture. Maybe it stems from this feeling that nearly anything is possible and that we all can be amazingly successful. Perhaps for many people, anything short of brilliance and achievements that set the world on fire can lead to feelings of inadequacy.

But as we talked we got onto the subject of Abraham Maslow and some of the work he did with the human condition and what people search for. He came to some really interesting (and, if you’re anything like me, really frustrating) conclusions regarding what he referred to as a “Hierarchy of Needs”. Essentially, humans are creatures that are, by nature, almost never satisfied. We have basic needs which are those we require to sustain us and keep us alive. But once we have secured enough food and water to keep up alive for a while and we are not constantly worried about death by starvation, we start to look for a safe place to live – somewhere to be sheltered from the elements or from any creatures looking to do us harm. And, having satisfied those basic needs, we don’t just stop and say “Hey, this is pretty cool, I think I’m probably not going to die anytime soon. Sweet!” Nope, we start thinking “well, I’m a bit lonely now. Some other people might be nice to have around. And women. Women! They look nice. Let’s find at least one of those.”

So, having found a group of people to interact with, and a good woman to love and be loved by, do we think we have a  pretty wonderful life? Maybe. But we’ll still probably want more. We want to feel good at something, and be recognized for that. So should we become chief or leader of our little group, with everyone looking up to us for advice and wisdom, what should we feel? Powerful? Satisfied in our place in the world? Well, it’s possible. But… what are we here for? What is our purpose? Can we leave the world a better place in some way? What if no one remembers us when we’re gone?

And so we come to the angst of my generation. Here in the United States, in this 21st century, when you look at people who have grown up in middle class or above families, no other group in history has had so much opportunity for education, for self-expression, for intellectual curiosity, and for choice. We may worry about car payments, but the chance we are worrying about food and shelter is pretty low. Most of us have a support network, and the safety net the government provides is there as well. And without the burden of so many basic needs worries, many of us are experiencing feelings of confusion, many are feeling lost knowing that there is something we should be doing, something we’ll be amazing at and recognized for, or some way to contribute back to the world. But for many of us, we lack the tools or training to figure out what the contribution can be. Rather than figuring out jobs that pay well, many of us are focusing on careers that will make us happy and leave us feeling fulfilled.

School doesn’t prepare us for that. We don’t receive training on self-actualization. School can provide an environment where accomplishment is recognized and rewarded, but once we leave school this is frequently absent.

So how does one navigate in this new 21st century reality? How do we adapt our society to one in which, increasingly, the bottom tiers of this hierarchy of needs will almost automatically be fulfilled and people’s efforts will go towards satisfying the top tier? What training do we need to be providing our children to successfully navigate this new psychological reality?

Well, hopefully I’ll have it figured out a little better myself so I can be a good example and teacher to my children (once I find my way out of this selfish phase and feel mature enough to have them, that is.)

And good luck to any of you feeling lost because your life is too easy!

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Musings on the Meaning of Being Thankful

Nov 28

Posted by Aaron in errata | No Comments

As we as a society move further and further away from the idea of Thanksgiving – I mean, people now call it Turkey Day – I figured I’d put some thoughts in about thankfulness and why it’s important. I think that generally we don’t allow ourselves to take the time to think about what’s important in life and to appreciate what we have. Today for me is serving as a reminder that every moment doesn’t need to be filled with stimulation, or productivity, or exercise. I don’t have to pull out my phone to check email when I am sitting at a red light. I can pause, and maybe even spend some time with my thoughts.

It’s easy to get caught up in the momentum of our daily lives, and let the flow of moving swiftly from one thing to another be a strong guiding force. In fact, I think that modern society often demands this – a kind of expectation that things will always be busy, and that things should be busy. But when we are always focused on where to get to next, and what else to do, or what we should be doing, a kind of tunnel vision can envelop us that cuts us off from the interesting, the novel, and the beauty inherent in so much of the world. I can certainly get lost in the momentum of things as well, and I want to make it a priority to give myself the chance to be productive and feel good about what I am accomplishing, but also to be able to just sometimes pause. Stop and know that not only is it ok to slow down for a bit, but that to stop, to experience the world, and to notice is healthy. It’s what we’re here for.

So even though we’re a couple days past Thanksgiving now, I’m thankful for the world, for the people that make it so interesting, for the wind that is blowing the yellow, red, and brown leaves off of the trees on my street. I’m thankful that every day I can, if I choose, find something novel and new to try, to see, or I can find new people to meet.

Alright, enjoy the rest of your weekends.

This Mustache thing is getting ridiculous

Nov 17

Posted by Aaron in errata | No Comments

Since I said I was growing a mustache this month, I figure I might as well put an update or two on here, so that at the very least I can look back on this site in a couple of years and remember how goofy I looked.

week 2 stache

Yeah, that’s me at about 10 days in. On the plus side, I’ve received $100 in donations, so at least there is worth in this. I mean, $100 won’t cure cancer, but every amount helps fund needed research into ways to fight cancer. If it means I look funny for a month, well, I just think about all the people who go through chemotherapy and lose all their hair, and then it really doesn’t bother me to be growing a mustache at all.

WYSIWYG? I don’t think so.

Nov 2

Posted by Aaron in Gripes | No Comments

homerGarrr! Tangling with the demonic (not very) WYSIWYG Wordpress editor. I’m going to have to do some research to make some of the new pages I’m putting up here look nice and pretty. Why didn’t I study something useful in school like engineering or computer science instead of something with no applicability to any daily activity (neuroscience). The brain is insanely, awesomely cool, but we still don’t know how to hack it.

How Will Social Media Impact the Near Future?

Nov 2

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As someone operating primarily in the online domain for what I have been doing in the last year, I sometimes struggle with figuring out the impact of different social media strategies and how to quantitatively measure the impact that social media can have in any of my online pursuits. Frankly, there are times when it seems like using social media is a lot of work, but when you can generate real dialogue between you and a potential customer it becomes very worthwhile.

(I’ve also been experimenting with different ways to streamline updating content in different locations and Posterous may be an excellent tool for that.)

If you ever doubt the impact of social media -  now and in the future – take a look at this excellent short video, and wrap your head around some of those eye-popping stats. (I do have one critique though, which is that Facebook’s total time to reach 50 million viewers isn’t given – it just gives 100 million in 9 months, which ignores the years in which Facebook was primarily a tool for college kids to connect.) Regardless, still interesting stuff.

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Goofiness and a Good Cause

Oct 31

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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

Writing for Writing’s Sake

Oct 29

Posted by Aaron in errata | No Comments

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.

Efficiency vs. Effectiveness

Oct 22

Posted by Aaron in business details | No Comments

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.

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My first entrepreneurial business trip

Oct 20

Posted by Aaron in business details | No Comments

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.