Jul

14

UVEF Top 25 Under 5

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I’m sitting at the UVEF top 25 under 5 award ceremony and I’m listening to John Pestanna, co-founder of Omniture, speak on the opportunity in model trains especially in the down economy.

A distributor that refused them right before the crash and said “we don’t need you.” Recently, the same distributor said to John, “we need you.”
ExactRail can hire machinists and designers all day long because of the down economy.
The competition starts later. Small companies benefit from the lack of competition during a downturn.
How do you create, maintain and protect the culture?
He recommends the “22 Immutable Laws of Marketing.”
http://www.amazon.com/22-Immutable-Laws-Marketing-Violate/dp/0887306667
Sell, sell, sell.
Now for the top 25 under 5…

Last time I attended this an MLM called Xango won.

Jul

14

One of My Dad’s Favorite Poems

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I asked my Dad once about his favorite poems and he mentioned “if” by Rudyard Kipling. I am beginning to understand more and more each passing year his recommendation and how my perception of the poem relates to the history behind it.

On a day when, at UVEF, we celebrate the triumphs of 25 Utah companies and their growth, it is healthy perspective for us to remember a few excerpts (emphasized below) and lessons from this famous poem.

If

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on”;

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings – nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run –
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man my son!

To those of you who are new, or disaster stricken or veteran entrepreneurs (and I suspect each of us has or will or will again be part of all three groups), as we navigate triumph and disaster, may we not let either imposter change our “will…to…hold on,” and may we “fill [every single] minute with 60 seconds ‘worth of distance run.”

Jul

8

Web’s Best Guide for Entrepreneurs

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From Harvard Professor, a compilation of the best resources for entrepreneurs.