Shane Pearlman

I’m going to get a bit naked here. Maybe I’ve been reading Naomi’s blog too much (don’t worry, my mom washed my mouth out with soap as a kid, so I’ll never talk like her). A few days ago Julie and I took a series of walks, whose dialog revolved around perception, motivation and sex. I asked Naomi for advice because I wanted a woman’s view and found out that she and her lad had a similar dialog. So for the woman’s perspective, check out her post (should be up tomorrow).

Our dialog over the last weeks have made me think a lot about setting the stage for success and giving someone what they need to perform. What food feeds their soul? What projects do they excel at? What feedback do they need? What turns them on and gets them going?
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So far we have some really funny, deep and practical answers and comments in response to the interview questions. Have you done it yet? Go to Interviewing You: the Entrepreneur and check out the questions, post the answers on your blog and link back to the post. We are giving away free publicity and your book of choice from my reading list to our 2 favorites. Don’t forget to ask a question at the end you would love to have everyone answer!

ok - my turn:
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I have been preparing questions for a series of upcoming interviews with a few budding and successful entrepreneurs. As I was chatting with Jarkko on IM, he asked: “Are you sending the questions out to entrepreneurs or posting them on your blog for visitors to answer?”

I suddenly realized, we have almost 500 subscribers and many of you are indy or run companies and blog as well. If you ask me, your answers are definitely going to be way more interesting than anyone I line up.

So, I challenge you!

Answer the questions I wrote below on your own blog. Come up with your own interesting question you wish you could ask other entrepreneurs. Explore the journey from technician to entrepreneur. Then link back here and comment so we can all go check it out.

I will compile a complete list of the respondents and do a brief promo of the top 10 most interesting responses! Peter & I will pick one lucky person with our favorite interview and one person who came up with the best original question not on our list and buy you each one book from my personal reading list.

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I started climbing again today. Sitting on the ground stretching, my climbing shoes and my chalk bag at my side, I watched a few people prepare for their ascent. On goes the harness, then the rope gets looped in and tied off in some crazy fancy eight knot that should save your life as you plunge into the abyss. Your buddy checks you. Each buckle gets reviewed, your knot is inspected. Chalk bag, check. Additional cams, clips, check. You approach the wall.

“Is the Belay on?”

“Belaying”, replies your buddy, pulling snuggly on the rope to confirm tension.

“Climbing”, you state. But you don’t grab stone yet.

“Climb on.” Ok, it’s time to begin the ascent.

For a lot of beginning climbers, this routine feels ridiculous and a hindrance. Each step is choreographed, an intricate dance of preparation. That ritual of communication was truly annoying to me until I got dropped 18 feet on my ass. Turn out my buddy was busy with a different ritual, introducing himself to the belayer next to him (and a might beautiful belayer she was).

The point: if you have a business team, do you have a communication ritual? How about with your clients? Is consistent and reliable or are you about to get dropped on your ass?
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con·fec·tion·al [kuhn-fek-shuh-nl]
noun

1. An isolated place set aside for work, which drives specific urges for constant munching, often followed by bloated vocal remorse. [See cubicle or home office]
2. A cathartic apology, often to a loved one, that is driven by the guilt of having ignored them while gorging on the sweet fruits of one’s labor [See workaholic]
3. A place where creative inspiration, which drives the process of compounding, preparing, or making something delectable, begin with a burst of honest revelation.

Use:

“18,000 lines of code and 3 quarts of Hagendaaz littered the floor of Peter’s confectional.”

“While working from his confectional, Shane realized that if his client was going to make him eat all those business cards for the second time, maybe they should have been made out of chocolate.“

We had one of those epiphanys on Sunday while walking down the street to surf Sharks (inspiring name huh). Peter & I were discussing the value of attending TED in 2008 and whether it is worth the $12,000 it costs if we manage to get tickets. For a 12k entry cost, he wanted to make sure that beyond learning, we drove some business from that investment. As we walked along, Peter wondered out loud how we could find an opening to give our elevator speech when we met people. After all, it isn’t your standard technical business conference but more of an orgy of learning.

I thought about it and bit and realized, we don’t. We go there to make friends. We meet cool people who are as passionate about learning, people and technology as we are. People who can afford a $6,000 ticket and a week in Monterey, Ca. If you made a good enough connection, you follow up later. That is when you talk business.

The epiphany: All sales is nothing more than making friends. Giving your elevator speech, using the word which, all that crap, does you no good if you didn’t make a friend. As my wife told me not too long ago, stop thinking so much about your business and just try to have fun for goodness sakes.
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Don’t wait to deliver bad news hoping that you might fix everything with a mad sprint to the finish. All-nighters suck. And if you lead a team, overtime is a myth.

There are times when optimism has gotten us in trouble. I’ve noticed this in a lot of freelancers. After all, we can do it all! We think, “gosh this deadline is looking tight, looks like I get to do another few all-nighters. No worries, I can pull this off.” We have all done our fair share. Some times we even glorify it like it is a badge of honor. Peter has done six all-nighters this year and not a single one of them turned out to be necessary.

I have been thinking a lot about the myth of overtime. Every time we have had our team push really hard doing “overtime”, we always have an accompanying undertime following it. I think most people only have a certain number of viable work hours in them in an given period. I find I am happier and more productive, as is our whole crew, when we are not being rushed and have time to explore ideas, make mistakes and enjoy our life. A periodic push is rewarding, but is it as necessary as modern thinking makes it out to be?
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We just finished our business retreat and I am pontificating our one year goals. Last year was a huge year for us as we transitioned from two professional technicians to budding entrepreneurs. A little time in the woods, some long walks on the coast and we come out of seclusion with a strong vision and some big goals. All right, let’s do this:

In 2008, we are going to gross a million dollars and still have a life.

Now, if I laid that statement at the feet of most contractors, some might say “that’s cool” and offer a generic smile while others would certainly laugh at me. After all, we are a pretty long (long, long) way from making a million this year.

I can hear the voice now. I knew that guy in high school. There is nooo waaaaay he can make a million dollars. And the voice is right. There is no way that we could pull that off. But what they don’t know, and maybe you don’t know, is that we are not afraid to change. We will change and grow and become the leaders and team it takes to achieve the goals we are setting.
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I’m going to start off by actively apologizing to Eric. I was a doubting mustafa and I was wrong.

In my 10 steps to generating new business, I stated the number one key to success was to get out of your house. What ensued was a calm debate between Eric and I on whether or not you can network and build a viable client base without leaving your house through the medium of communities on the web.

My (old) stance: All REAL project deals happen offline.

Eric’s stance: Online networks are a viable source of projects.

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tech·neu·ro·tic [tek-no-raw-tik]
adjective

1. A blogging disorder in which feelings of ranking anxiety, obsessive “do they like me?” thoughts, compulsive stats checking and even physical complaints in various degrees and patterns dominate the personality.
2. Compulsive gadget buying behavior fueled by the impossible ideal that you can own a piece of technology that is not already obsolete.
3. An obsessive character trait that drives most avant guard technological inventions such as the robot roach and the Moller Sky car

Use: “A rash of techneurotic behavior assaulted the blog community during the Great Subscriber Crash of 07”