Ken Zolot
tells how when he was young he felt like he didn’t really fit into the world of
school and the traditional way of doing things. He was very curious, restless
and refused to play by the rules. He has taken that curiosity to the world of
business. Some of the things that I have learned from him is that I need to be
brave enough to do things and try something new even if I feel unprepared and
inexperienced. Some of the key character traits that Ken mentions that he
learned from his family’s example are: accountability, responsibility, and
punctuality. He says that many people can fix a technical problem, but few have
the character to be responsible and accountable.
Whenever we
work at a new venture it is very easy to fall in love with it, even if it’s not
going anywhere. I need to ask ourselves ‘’who cares?’’ about what we do, who
could be interested, and how what we do can fix people’s problems.
This week I
learned about customer service. I learned why Zappos pays new employees to quitin an effort to keep only the right people. Those people who stay are more
willing to adopt the company’s culture and provide an exceptionally good
customer service. Zappos is more profitable in the long run because of having
the right people on board.
I also
learned the concept of lifetime value of a customer. A customer’s profitability
for a company increases over time as increased revenue offsets acquisition,
marketing, and administrative costs of serving the same customer. Satisfied
customers are more likely to return and even recommend the company to their
friends and family creating positive referrals. A satisfied customer invites,
on average, 5 people. A dissatisfied customer tells 11 people about his
experience, on average.
I am making
some progress with my $100 dollar challenge. More importantly, I am making
mistakes. I had some problems with the recipe of the crepes and the ingredients.
Fortunately, I started small so I can easily correct it now.
Today, my
wife and I visited some of my wife’s relatives. As we visited her uncle
Guillermo I met Jose, who is married to my wife’s cousin. Jose comes from Costa
Rica but he moved to Mexico because of his wife. As we were talking about our
jobs and education Jose mentioned how he is starting a construction business and
he wants to make it grow into a successful construction company. He said that
in Mexico there is a lot of money to be made and that he is very excited and
optimistic to have so many opportunities available for him now that he became a
permanent resident. He made me feel optimistic with his comments; he is definitely
a person that I want to stay in contact with.
From this video: http://www.actonhero.org/celebrating-heroes/stories-of-heroes/index.php?hero=ben-brigham
Bud Brigham
came from humble origins in a broken home growing up in Odessa Texas, but he
knew from the very beginning that he wanted to be an entrepreneur. I learned
from him that I need to start young and be the best I can be. A great lesson
from him, that I want to apply to my life, is that he surrounded himself with
bright people who shared his value system; I know that by doing that I can be positively
influenced by those people and learn from them without even noticing it. I have
heard before that we become the average of the five people we spend more time
with so we’d better spend time with people who will help us be better. Bud
Brigham mentions that he has received a lot of support from his wife and that
his family has given purpose to his life.
An
interesting detail about him is that he follows the objectivist philosophy.
This week I got to learn a Little bit
about marketing. One of the key things that I will take with me is Seth Godin’s
metaphor of the purple cow. He explains how during a trip in Europe he was
really amazed at the beautiful cows he saw near the highway, but after a while
they became boring; so much that the only way to get his attention would be to
see something completely out of the ordinary (a purple cow for instance). In
the world of social media and smartphones even a purple cow can become dull and
boring after a while. I was thinking a lot about how companies advertise their products
and about the very few examples that have been remarkable enough to be
remembered. I need to find a way to be like them and give personality to my
product in a unique an attractive way.
I made some progress with the $100
challenge: I created an elevator pitch and identified my target market,
competition, and competitive advantage. I also started creating a plan for more
specific things like the marketing strategies I will use, the materials I will
use to create food stand, the table I will use, the materials for the signs,
the table cloth, etc.
I am
becoming a little bit negative about the future. I see how difficult it is to
start a business. Even getting out of debt and making ends meet with a stable
job is difficult for me right now. I have a good job and make more money than
most college students in my country, but I can’t pay my credit cards off since
more unexpected expenses (like fines, emergencies, and taxes) keep coming. I
start to feel terrified about losing or quitting my job.
The only
thing that makes me feel a little bit optimistic about my situation is reading
about successful entrepreneurs who started from zero, like Desh Deshpande who
arrived in the U.S with $8 USD in his pocket and became a billionaire. I also
get courage from the stories of entrepreneurs who arrived to Mexico without an
education and without speaking Spanish and became very successful (like Julian
Slim, father of Carlos Slim).
I’m trying
to obtain more experience and knowledge outside from school and work by taking
courses, investing, and become more involved with entrepreneurs in the
community in order to learn from them.
I haven’t
had a lot of progress with the $100 project, other than deciding the source of
funding.
This week I
really enjoyed Reading about the different stages of a small business and the
common mistakes that business owners make in the book ‘’The E-Myth Revisited’’
by Michael E. Gerber. In chapter 4 he talks about the ‘’Adolescence’’ stage of
a business in which a business owner asks for help and hires someone to help;
eventually, lack of clear communication and ambiguous situations take their
toll and the relationship between the owner and the employee ends abruptly.
This happened to me recently when I had to
fire my employee as he was breaking my rules, not being profitable, and taking
advantage of my trust. I realize now that I made a mistake in not being clear
with my rules and expectations, and giving in whenever he needed something ‘’for
his family’’ to the point of not benefiting at all from the business myself.
That situation couldn’t last forever.
I continued
working on my $100 project. I started thinking about more specific details for
it. The most important part of it is that I remembered the first time I tried
to complete the challenge, how it ate up too much time and how I can use the time
more effectively this time.
I realized that my mistake was that I focused too
much on obtaining low prices by buying from wholesalers in downtown Mexico
City; that meant that I had to spend around 4 hours every weekend trying to get
all the materials, end I got very frustrated when some of them became harder to
find than I thought at first. This time I will focus more on working and
selling than in buying.
This week I
realized that I can still be creative. It feels like if my mind had been numb
for a while and now it is stretching and working hard again.
My wife has
an idea for a company she would like to create in the future. As we were
talking about it, I gave her some advise based on what I have learned by
reading ‘’The Lean Startup’’ (by Eric Ries) and how I think she could test her
idea, turn it into a business and make it scalable. I was very surprised that I
was able to come up with those ideas after struggling so much last week trying
to come up with business ideas for my $100 project.
As I went
over this week’s material, I was especially moved by President’s Hinckley
testimony in the dedication of the building that bears his name. It was an invitation to me to be more
faithful and trust that the Lord can help me with the challenges I face.
I have a few
ideas chosen for the $100 project but, most importantly, I feel a new
determination to make a real effort to make it work and learn from it.
I am also
paying more attention the problems I find every day and I’m writing them down.
I think that if I do this consistently for the rest of my life, I will become
more creative and maybe I will find a business opportunity that I can take
advantage of.
Tom Monaghan
was raised in an orphanage. From humble beginnings, he turned DomiNick’s Pizza
into the world famous Domino’s Pizza building a revolutionary business around
pizza delivery. As he became richer and successful, he became obsessed with ‘’toys’’
and impressing others with his success and the things his money could buy.
One day,
when he was reading a book written by C.S Lewis, he realized that he wasn’t
living his principles and that something had to change in his life. His priorities
changed and he sold the company. From then on he has dedicated his life to help
others through education. He uses his money to as much good as he can.
I can see
how sometimes I focus too much on my desire to be successful, even to the point
of wanting to compare myself to others. That is not correct, and doesn’t lead
to true happiness. Tom Monaghan is an example of a person who was brave enough
to realize that he was doing wrong and change his course in order to be truly
happy.
