My birthday just passed. Normally I’d take my family to a nice restaurant and that’s our treat. This year, because of covid, that went out the window. We’d stay home. Because I “lost” something, I asked myself how can I celebrate my birthday this year? I came up with 3 things: Gratitude Acknowledgement of what an incredible year this has been Spend it with my family...
I love metaphors. I’ve learned I use them more than the average person. I did it so often and so easily most of my life I didn’t even realize it. Now I see it, and lean into it. I use metaphors to describe abstract or complicated ideas or even feelings and turn them into something easily relatable. One of my favorite metaphors is thinking of myself as a gunslinger. I think of watching...
I speak with people quite a bit who beat themselves up with all their “failure” stories. They think their failures mean they are not successful. The reality is failure is a necessary part of success. There is no one in the world that hasn’t failed, multiple times, at everything. The most successful people have the biggest failure stories. Myself included. We are taught to not speak of them, to...
I’ve been dealing with complicated feelings lately. It’s this idea that while people out there are struggling, unprecedented unemployment and uncertainty, that at the same time I’m in a good place, emotionally and financially. I actually feel like I’m thriving. As someone that’s gone through tough times in the past, I’ve always prepared myself for the worst. I’ve never shaken the fear that...
As I write this we’re over 1 month into covid-19 quarantine. My kids were sent home for March Break last month and told they’d not be coming back for 2 more weeks. That’s been extended indefinitely. Everything has been turned on its ear since then. For the past couple of years I’ve been trying to work out “What’s Next?” for me, and that question now has entirely new meaning. As I wrestle with...
I’ve been dealing with the “What’s Next?” question for myself for some time. I’ve spent a lot of time writing about it for my blog. I’ve learned many people carry that question with them and it has resonated. Now “What’s Next?” is a bigger question than it’s ever been. With my background, I feel uniquely qualified to help people work...
I’ve always been forced into action, usually for straight up survival reasons. If I didn’t make money, if I didn’t generate income, I’d be screwed. Often the things I did ran their course, and it was time for me to move on. There was no choice about it. For the first time in my life, I’m not in this position. I’m in a very comfortable place, yet I’m...
For the last few years that I’ve been exploring “What’s Next?” I’ve been very successful at learning what it isn’t. As I test, explore, research, and play with ideas I’ve built a very long laundry list of things I don’t want to do. This includes everything from the fact that I don’t want to go into work somewhere, it has to be done from my...
For so many people, whether or not they will voice this, when asked “What do you want?” the (secret) answer is: “More”. More money, more “stuff”, more house, more vacation, more whatever. The thing is, when you get “more”, the answer still remains “more”. I can remember 10 years ago figuring out my monthly budget. If I could generate...
I’ve spoken quite a bit about sleeping on the floor of my office for 2 years at the start of my DJ career, but it wasn’t all clear sailing from then on. One of the biggest struggles of life came AFTER my DJ career had ended. In the year 2000 I got myself banned from the United States for DJing without a work visa. Getting the right paperwork proved difficult, and eventually I just...
My memoirs of my rave years has just been released, titled Requiem For My Rave. A requiem is an act of remembrance. The second part of the title refers to “my” rave. This thing that I created and suffered in service for. I started writing the book at the conclusion of my rave company, Hullabaloo, in 2005. I finished the first draft in 2009. I then hit “save” and ten years...
While my story reads pretty good, and I’ve had a lot of success in my life, the reality is every accomplishment took a lot of time and hard work. “The reality is great highs, terrible lows and unrelenting stress. Don’t think people want to hear about the last two.” – Elon Musk I could write a similarly sized bio of all the hardship and stress I’ve gone through. In fact, I have...
I came across this great article and video about how Entrepreneurs are helping shape the Flint, Michigan despite all the scandals and bad news coming from there. “Starting a business in an impoverished city in the midst of a public health crisis sounds counterintuitive at best. But Flint’s new founders have their reasons. Rents are low. Competition is scarce. And most important: The city...
This past week I accompanied my wife to a friend’s house for a party. The friend is a college professor who was celebrating getting tenure at their college. Their house was filled with people I don’t know, and almost everyone there was an academic. Talk about being out of my element. Listening to conversations about university, PHD dissertations, academic fraud, and other topics I...
Counter to all the messaging online about easy success in whatever it is you are looking at, the reality is it doesn’t exist. Starting a business takes time, years, without exception. Every one I’ve created has taken years. Years of struggle. Years of learning. Years of figuring out what it is you don’t know, filling in those gaps, and building the business brick by brick. One...
Previously, I’ve written about a new business taking 3 years. I think that’s a good number. There’s a lot you don’t know at the start that you will learn over 3 years. I try to get people to focus on a 3 to 5 year journey, since that’s far more realistic than overnight success, or a direct arrow up. As I reflect when writing on this blog, I can put a date of when...
I like this proverb quite a bit. I don’t think people realize the situation they are in when they owe money. You have this thing hanging over you and everything you do. A pet elephant that needs to be fed. I have made a decision to live debt free. Not only do I not carry credit card debt (paid off every month), I aggressively paid off my house. All large purchases are saved for in advance...
I read a lot of articles these days about maintaining a Work/Life Balance. It’s good that people realize the importance of having a healthy life outside of their work. I’m not sure when it started to be looked at as more important, but it’s something I’ve always lived. A friend of mine used to joke that I was “successfully underemployed” because my work week...
I came across a quote this week from Arnold Schwarzenegger about how he is NOT a self-made man, despite often being described as that. Everyone needs help and gets help to be a success. People like to say they are self-made, but leave out parts of their story. Usually those parts are not insignificant. I like to think of myself as bullshit free, and I like to think of myself as self-made because...
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson posted this recently, talking about how a dream of his was crushed but only now many years later does he see what opportunities opened up because of it. I really related to this because I have a similar story. I file this one under “Hard lessons learned”. Back in 2000 I was in the peak of my DJ career. I was performing around the world...
I feel like I’m in a unique situation. I write to share my experiences and lessons learned, but am doing so from a position of success. So much success, that I’m not looking to sell anything. So that allows me to be honest, and tell things like how they are/were. At the same time, these true stories I feel run so counter to the “instant success formulas” being peddled...
There’s a simple trait I’ve seen amongst successful entrepreneurs, and it seems to separate those that achieve from those that just dream: Taking Action. From first hand experience and observation, those simple 2 words seems to make the difference. Taking Action means just do it, just go for it, just start it. Whatever your business is, do it. It does not mean “find more busy...
When speaking to people today starting out their businesses, one of the pieces of advice I will generally give is that this is going to take longer than you thought or hoped for. My rule of thumb, based on my own experiences, is that you better be committed to seeing it through for 3 years. Three years to figure out your market, grow the business to something that can support your goal of success...
This was originally posted at my DJ site, anabolic-frolic.com. StealthSeminar, a webinar software company I co-founded in 2010, just celebrated its users generating over 1 billion dollars (USD) using the platform. What’s more amazing is that the software that I created and has been used by over 20 million people owes its existence to my DJ past, and specifically technology I created to host the...
There’s a few stories from history of early explorers literally burning their ships, so that there was no way to go home, and the men were then committed to success or die. I realized as part of my story, I had done a figurative “burning of the ship” as I embarked on new business ventures. I purposely avoided getting a job, or any other work, other than attempt at building my...