My friend Patrick Vlaskovits, author of The Entrepreneur's Guide to Customer Development, gave a talk recently with his co-author, Brant Cooper, about "The Permanent Tomorrow." He's given this talk in a few places, and I caught him down in Orange County last week.

In the talk, Brant and Patrick discussed a lot of the big trends happening in the tech, manufacturing, and service industries, and how entrepreneurs (and intrapreneurs) can best take advantage of them.

They have a new book coming out very soon called The Lean Entrepreneur, for people who have "already bought into Lean Startup, Customer Development, Design Thinking and other iterative, customer-centric methods of product development [and] want to know how to apply these to their business." Sounds awesome -- can't wait for it come out.

I think Patrick and Brant hit on the big trends pretty succinctly. I'm personally excited about the potential for many of these changes once a critical mass of designers and developers gets fluent enough at them to really make substantial moves forward. I'm personally interested in innovation in areas that improve people's lives in fundamental ways and are not purely informational in nature.

Below are some of my notes on their talk.

I.               Disruptive wave is building
a.     Smartphones
b.     Online edu
c.      3D printing

d.     crowdfunding
i.     cultural technology

II.             Gilded Age
a.     railroads, telegraphs were disruptive

III.           Future wave: volatile, uncertain, opportunity

IV.            Frictionless economy
a.     new entrepreneurs creating new value for new customers

V.              Lean entrepreneurs surf uncertainty

VI.            Innovation spectrum
a.     sustaining innovation
b.     re-segmented low cost
c.      re-segmented niche
d.     rippling innovation
e.     disruptive innovation

VII.          Customer interaction and segmentation
a.     Betabrands

VIII.        Viability testing
a.     build prototype to allow others to have experience
b.     Litmotors
c.      Olloclip

IX.            Data and actionable metrics
a.     Kissmetrics
b.     intuit

i.     horizon planning (entrepreneurship in big organization)

1.     horizon 1: current products, execution, known
2.     horizon 2: startups proven that they’ve got something
a.     now need to figure out biz model

3.     horizon 3: a bunch of little startups that are experiments inside larger org

a.     marketing issues: release under separate domain/”labs”/brand

b.     legal issues: allow entrepreneurs to do whatever want as long as follow guidelines legal prescribed ahead of time so don’t need to get approval each time

c.      HR/cultural issues: allow ppl to spend part-time on cooler H3 projects alogn with H1 projects

ii.     use metrics to go between phases

iii.     how to take customers from satisfied to passionate

1.     charity/cause marketing
2.     packaging
3.     great UX

iv.     Love metric/NPS/must-have score
1.     If 40% of ppl would be very disappointed if product went away, then you have passionate customers

X.              Fishing analogy
a.     if you’re going to go fishing, use different techniques for different customers

i.     instead of trying too many gadgets/value props at once, try one at a time in earnest

b.     Anti-segments: hooking the wrong type of customer

i.     qualify people out

XI.            Market segmentation
a.     demographics less useful
b.     "Jobs to be done" model

A couple good friends recommended Iron John by Robert Bly to me, and I recently finished it. It was a dense, interesting book examining modern masculinity and what men and women can learn about "manhood" from myths and stories of cultures around the world.

The idea is that "men" in modern society have a lot less of a foundation and context in which to grow and find strength than they did in prior generations, and there are lessons to be learned from the way more "primitive" cultures do male initiation through stories and physical acts.


Overall, I found the book enjoyable, and the literary interpretations of multiple texts reminded me of high school English (the good parts). I found the anthropological details and the studies of initiation rites around the world the most compelling as lessons to learn from. I found the heavy and "between the lines" interpretations of the stories and texts to be a bit over the top at times; I'm still skeptical that fairy tales and myths have that many secrets hidden in the diction and language/style to learn from.

My notes are below. I find myself now thinking about how I can grow and improve as a man based on the big lessons in the book and what institutions and activities can help with that growth for me and other men.

Big lessons

• Breaking from the mother
• Finding a male mother/male mentor
• Physical initiation rite prepares and matures men
• Inner warriors and kings can be cultivated and re-discovered
• Proper respect and fighting technique for mature relationship with Woman

Preface

• Modern masculinity
  
• Male initiation
  
• Second father
  
• Old stories don't work
  
• Not challenge to women's movement
  
• Savage man vs wild man
  
• Men's grief
  
• Wild man examines own wound
  
• Stories are the reservoir of old knowledge
  

Ch 1: the pillow and the key

• Changing models of manhood in America
  
• Soft male, nice guys
  
• Not happy, not life giving
  
• Remoteness from fathers
  
• Receptivity not enough to carry relationship
  
• Young men not able to show resolve
  

Finding Iron John

• Grimm Brothers story
  
• Every man has inner wild man side, hairy primate
  
• Hard work to find it inside
  
• Deep male feels risky
  

• Loss of golden ball that unites all kids under 8 before have split off
  
• Finding ball back requires going into male sphere, not asking woman for it
  
• Not compatible with niceness
  
• Wild man energy taken with resolve not cruelty
  
• Bucketing out water from pond in which wild man lives
  
• Freud, Jung
  
• Psyche likes making deals
  
• Wild man gives golden ball back if boy opens cage but boy runs away
  
• Schools and church teach against this
  

• Older adult finally ready to converse with wild man, full of grief 
  
• Key to open cage is under mother's pillow
  
• Pillow is where mother puts dreams for boy
  
• The key has to be stolen
  
• Mother would lose her boy if gave him key
  
• Confront family and say won't carry shame anymore
  
• Dance crazy and let yourself go
  

• Wild man let free
  
• Boy must carry John out of courtyard
  
• Must be ok with hair, body, etc.
  

Going off with wild man

• Modern boys don't get initiation
  
• Need intervention of older men to break bond with parents and become man
  
• Few men's clubs left
  
• Boys talk ugly to moms to make break
  
• Older men need to take over
  
• Industrial revolution pulled fathers away
  

Remote father

• If son doesn't see what dad does everyday all day, doesn't develop as close of bond and malehood
  
• Starts to think dad's work evil
  

Zeus energy

• Healthy male power
  
• Mom gives son bad view of dad
  
• Obsession with mom until about 35-40, then want to see dad for real
  
• Discover for self what father masculinity is, good and bad
  
• Stories good guide free from modern issues
  
• Hindus offer Shiva, good and bad
  
• Hawaiian kahuna
  
• Divine associated with mad dancers, hair, power, not just niceness
  
• Ability to shout
  
• Dionysus
  
• Kala energy, shouting
  
• Not domination
  

Ch 2: when one hair turns gold

• Initiation of boy in many cultures starts with meaningful infliction of pain
  
• Old men tell young story of original man
  

Wild man brings son to forest

• Took him to golden spring and asked him to guard
  
• Boy had wounded finger, dipped in pond and had it turn to gold
  
• Wounds are inward and outward injuries
  
• Not receiving blessing from father
  
• Not seeing father when small is injury
  
• Critical father is injury
  
• Father gives blow, son remembers for years
  
• Father gives blow with axe
  
• Mother pours on shame
  
• Beatings and blows to self esteem
  
• Being lied to by men is injury
  
• Gang members try to learn discipline and loyalty from each other instead of from older men
  
• Few soul unions with other men in modern times
  
• Infantile grandiosity beaten down by shame blows
  
• Blows to princehood
  
• Everyone has something wrong
  
• When people identify as wounded child, radiates destruction
  
• Recovery and initiation critical
  
• Grandiose road, Depressed road both bad
  
• When key remains under mom's pillow, stay stuck
  
• Even when steal key, can complain of wound for a while, still not good
  
• Look for mentor who possesses right attributes
  
• Can't just be wild man immediately (grandiose)
  
• Manic excitement, victim excitement: 2 bad paths 
  
• Male mother figure is the solution
  
• If instead of first two bad paths, climb onto shoulders of wild man, then 3 good things happen: wound seen as gift, secret spring will appear, and the energy of the sun will go into man's body
  

Water is sacred spring

• Holy wells in mythology
  
• Water of soul life
  
• Being both fisherman and fish
  
• Being active with soul
  
• Gold on fingertip won't wash away
  
• From old myths across world same image
  
• Divinity inside you
  
• Mentor guides you to your own gold
  
• Initiation is knowing when to dip wound in water in front of mentor
  

• Where your wound is (drunk dad, shaming mom, etc.) is not your place of shame but the place from which you'll find your gift to the community
  

• No polarization of earth and sky for genders
  
• Water both masculine and feminine
  
• Sky and earth both masculine and feminine, not just male sky and female earth and water
  

The second day

• Boy lets hair fall into spring by accident
  
• Wounds ate impersonal, need to be lifted up
  
• Hair symbol of animals, sexuality, excess, spontaneity -- all good 
  
• Boys instinctively drawn to hunting
  
• Hair is intuitions that come when unobserved
  
• When human takes action, soul adds to it
  
• Dream manifests in response to action
  

The third day

• Boy tries hard not to move finger
  
• Looked at face in water and hair fell into spring and turned gold
  
• Looking at own face in mirror powerful
  
• Look for your other half, hidden half, soul
  
• He does what you don't do
  
• Your shadow
  

Going out into world

• When man sees glimpse of true self, gets golden head
  
• Wild man as meditation instructor
  
• Initiation is expanding sideways into wilderness, forest
  
• Iron John is initiation story
  
• Teaches man power he has
  
• Fails at wild man's trials three times but attempt more important than success
  
• Told to leave forest but gets gift of being able to come to forest edge if in trouble and get help from wild man
  

Ch. 3: road of ashes, descent, and grief

• In childhood we know we belong to grandeur and try to forget details that don't meet that
  
• Flying people: The Little Prince, Don Juan
  
• Grandiose ascenders
  
• Ascent as revolt against female earthiness
  
• Boy into bird like creature
  

• Passivity, naïveté, numbness
  
• Men moving into passivity, women into activity
  
• Boy learns to sulk, be passive to own hurts
  

Naïveté

• More in touch with women's pain
  
• Listening to others' pain different from carrying it
  
• Believes in own and others sincerity
  
• Unaware of boundaries
  
• Gives away eggs
  
• Wants ecstasy through feminine
  
• Sink into a mood like a hole, attached, can't separate
  
• Mood trance: not present to wife
  
• Lacks natural brutality, instead waits until major wounding
  
• Timing off
  
• Link to betrayal, lies
  

Numbness

• Mother's protection makes numb when replaces father's protection
  
• Numbness in chest
  
• Not finding own feelings
  

Story

• After boy ascends and knows gold, Iron John sends him into world to know poverty but tells him that if ever needs help to come to edge of forest, call his name, and he has gold riches
  
• Boy goes to town, gets job in kitchen (descent from king's son to kitchen helper)
  
• Lowly work path to getting past naïveté
  

Catathesis

• Greek name for "drop"
  
• Next step in initiation is rat's hole, darker way, way down and out
  
• College education, entitlement to homeless lowest rank: important for growth
  
• Old shame surfaces, old man comes out
  
• Men fail to notice own suffering
  
• Wound, kitchen work, is a door
  
• Lives the shaming, multiplies inner effect to draw contrast
  
• Requires fall from status with consciousness
  
• Divorce feels like a discharge
  
• Use divorce as invitation to catathesis to enter wound as door and come out different at end
  
• Conscious act of descent
  
• Grief is conscious, intentioned; depression external, unconscious
  
• Repentance
  
• 12 steps of AA
  
• Discovering the dark side of mother earth
  
• Only the wild man can stand up to her
  
• Baba Yaga
  
• Boat tusked, dark queen, Grendel face
  
• Not about killing her but developing energy as intense as hers
  
• When achieve that, she will ask him what he wants to know
  

Taking the road of ashes

• Descent or kitchen work can take 3 other forms: Taking the path of ashes, learning to shudder, moving from mother's world to father's world
  

Ashes and cinders work

• In fairy stories like Cinderella this is the right task
  
• Cinder biters of Norway
  
• Ash Wednesday
  
• Ashes remind of death, kill inner infantile
  
• Disneyland (our culture) means no ashes
  
• Coolness of American men haven't found own ashes
  
• Catathesis about abrupt social change
  

Learning to shudder

• Feel strong emotion, let out physical feeling like grief, shock, anger
  
• Boys do this well but then numb themselves
  

Going from mother's house to father's house

• Boy cannot change into man without intervention of older men unlike girl who can change into woman just by bodily changes
  
• Because both initially raised by mother
  
• Clean break with mother required
  
• Convincing comfort loving young man inside to die
  
• Increases stomach for ashes, terrifying facts, grows ability to shudder
  

Ch 4: hunger for the king in the time of no father

• modern: "there is not enough father"
  
• Father hunger like lacking protein
  
• Women cannot replace it
  

Distrust of older men

• Poorer bonding between father and son with each generation
  
• Son couldn't see father working anymore
  
• Imagines his father as suspicious
  

Temperament without teaching

• Just see dad's temperament at end of workday but no teaching
  
• Touchy mood, shame, hate of job
  
• Before, could teach physical skills
  

Disappearance of positive kings

• Darkened father
  
• Father feebled
  
• Rejected
  

• How can son view future for self if father viewed negatively
  
• Some go to darkness of own
  
• Some compelled to be bright against darkness of father
  
• Redeeming darkened father by becoming enlightened
  
• Bird like modern men: charming, open to addiction
  

Story

• Descents like Joseph, Job
  
• Second king appears in picture
  
• Boy takes job as kitchen helper
  
• Cook gives him order to carry food to king
  
• Gold hair helps us to survive in adolescence but sore point later
  
• Why do we have so much hunger for the king? Celebrities, teachers, mentors, gurus
  
• Want praise and validation badly
  
• Small glimpse allowed of king but then ends quickly
  
• Flash of light then back to darkness
  
• Addiction is attempt to break limitations of reality
  
• Singles bars are visits to the king extended too long
  

• King and queen have long history in stories
  
• 3 kings: upper sacred, earthly middle political, inner king 
  

Sacred king

• Sacred king rearranges molecules of ppl like a magnet
  
• Sacred king blesses
  
• Encourages creativity as his realm
  

Earthly king

• Mesopotamian king
  
• Rejection of political kings
  
• Now live in national enquirer
  
• Fathers appear broken like fallen kings
  

Inner king

• Connected to our inner passion
  
• Knew what wanted inside
  
• Dies in young age
  
• Controls our moods
  
• When my king is weak, ask wife what to do
  
• Step 1: Finding Your king: Attention to tiny desires, hints of what one likes
  
• What were the delights we felt as kids before gave control to those we had to please?
  
• Step 2: Long grieving over dead inner king
  
• Step 3: Once resuscitated requires feeding king properly
  

Double stream inside sacred king

• Second darker side of king encouraging disorder
  
• Poison king
  
• Destructive trickster and playful trickster
  

Double stream inside father

• Have to deal with that part of the father who hit us with an axe (myth)
  
• Beatings
  
• Abandonment
  
• Some feel strong blood tie to fathers
  

Longing to live with the king

• Son must furnish house in mind to prepare for king to visit
  
• Add rooms for father's dark side and rooms for light side
  
• Talk to friends of father
  
• Make and furnish two rooms
  
• Invite mentor in with two rooms
  

The male as a set apart being

• Fetus begins female
  
• Father set apart from wife and kids
  

Ch 5: the meeting with the goblin in the garden

• Maternal feminine and private feminine
  
• Boy meets gold-loving feminine
  
• Spiritual, playful
  
• Moon energy
  
• Moon attracted to sun
  
• Meeting the king's daughter
  
• Fruitful meeting with woman only after both have done the work, ashes
  

Boy expelled from kitchen to garden work

• Took off head cover in heat and showed gold hair
  
• Princess makes him get flowers to trick him and take his hat off and does this a few times giving him gold coins but she doesnt win; he holds hat and refuses coins
  
• Acts of serendipity between man and woman make you think comes from other world
  
• Woman who starts things, asks for flowers
  
• King's daughter so from holy world
  
• Likes gold, gold hair
  
• She knows something
  
• Garden work for boy; natural plants developed by intent in walled garden
  
• Mercury's well/fountain
  
• Hermetically sealed
  
• Hermes guides cultivation, alchemy
  
• Walled garden (university)
  
• Hortis conclutis (walled garden), poem
  
• Garden is place to flee from world, distrust, haven to develop introversion
  
• Cultivation
  
• Initiation asks every young man to develop a lover inside him
  
• Learn poems, music, garden work
  
• Robert Moore: "appreciative consciousness"
  
• Lovers full of praise
  
• When man falls in love, he's in the garden
  
• Attention to boundaries to prevent care taking all the time
  
• Addiction to perfection means no garden
  
• Garden is personal space and time
  

The woman with golden hair

• Gold woman's beauty may just hide insecurity
  
• Marilyn Monroe
  
• But inside highly vulnerable girl
  
• Falling in love with beautiful woman across the room may mean he has soul work to do; go to river, write poetry
  
• Wild woman
  
• Divine feminine each woman partakes of
  
• Mans decisive move towards legends
  
• World of law vs world of legends
  
• Instigating woman who looks both ways
  
• Shakti
  
• Czarina
  

Saturn is g-d of ashes

• Condensed
  
• Driven
  
• Bitter
  
• Correct failure
  

Hermes allows quick messages between parts of body

• He is mercury
  
• Wednesday, mercredi
  
• Witty contributions
  
• Can't hold in fingers quicksilver
  
• Freudian slip is Hermes precision
  
• Choosing of wild flowers rather than tame
  
• Mercury is nearest plan to sun
  
• Mercury can liquefy gold and silver
  
• Flow between masculine and feminine
  
• Hermes and Aphrodite work well together
  
• Hermaphrodite
  
• Artist should be cautious to show gold quickly
  
• Hermes hermetically seals spaces
  

Ch 6: to bring the interior warriors out to dance

• Can't give sword to man who can't dance
  

The warriors inside

• Inner warrior stands up to defend own mood but if crushed too early by dominating dysfunctional family, can lose it
  
• When parents don't respect child's boundary and castle sovereignty by yelling and stuffing food in mouth, it makes child feel invaded and shamed
  
• Inner boy in messed up family gets killed, can't grow up
  

The outer or disciplined warrior

• 3 soil layers: king, warrior, farmer
  
• 3 ceremonies, 3 ways of living life
  
• Warrior in service to true king
  
• Role of strategy
  

Eternal or sacred warrior

• Divine battlefields
  
• Aries not present on modern battlefield
  
• Matter of aggression looks different when you've been invaded
  
• Warrior made irrelevant in mechanized war
  
• Man must be able to defend on own space
  
• Outer world connected to inner world
  

The story, the battle scene

• Kingdom invaded
  
• King in story goes to war
  
• Boy in garden given lame horse, wants to help in war
  
• Boy goes to forest and asks iron John for war horse
  
• He receives it and army of iron soldiers
  
• Triumphs
  
• returns horse and army to Iron John and comes back anonymously
  
• Made fun of in court because warrior identity was secret
  
• Kingdom invaded like boys psyche invaded
  
• When king losing battle, time for warrior to fight 
  
• Must kill all to the end, no halfway measures
  
• Need decisive move
  
• Right for boy to be in contact with enemy directly, not through someone
  

Gaining four-legged horse

• Instead of three-legged horse he got before
  
• Four is right number
  
• Horse is animal side of human
  
• Fourth leg is shamed leg
  
• When we were tiny, horse galloped happily with four legs
  
• Boy's horse needs to be brought to mentor Wild man
  
• Ask him for better horse, Even to ride temporarily
  
• Work to prevent further shaming
  
• Work to get in contact with four-legged original horse
  

Warriorhood in education

• Disappearance of fierce debates in teaching
  
• Warriorhood just left to sports now
  
• Warrior acts in business
  
• Japanese business culture
  
• Sense of duty
  

Creation myth

• Modern man needs sword to cut psychic umbilical chord with mother
  
• Cut us from self pity, victim hood, rage
  
• Divine cutter myth of creating world by separating opposites
  

Warriorhood in marriage and relationships

• Conscious fighting is productive
  
• Never seen parents fighting productively
  
• Husband fights in office
  
• Adult warrior can get hit and still maintain form and courage
  
• Knows rules of war
  
• Doesn't take cheap shots or use word "always"
  
• Fight clean
  
• Interior warrior can help fight on human plane instead of damaging battles on divine, poisonous plane
  

Iron vs copper

• When vutra sword does its proper cutting, man less needy and can face world of opposites
  
• Child in messed up family may feel intense tension between cold father and warm mother
  
• Child goes from iron work to copper work, becoming a bridge of that good conductor
  
• Boy conducts intense emotions from others through him to earth
  
• Can conduct intense ones without heating up because good conductor
  
• Son loses his distinctiveness as a man by becoming conductor
  
• Need to see father step up against mother's abuse
  
• Father must set limits to mother's raging or else children become copper wires to dissipate others emotions and ground them like electricity
  
• If not, will be conductor as adult and find more situations to be such bridge
  
• False androgyny
  
• Can have boundaries in marriage that allow different points of view
  

Living between the opposites

• Accepting both to survive
  
• Rejoicing in both
  

When Paris chooses

• Choosing the one precious thing requires our warrior
  
• As long as nothing is clear, the king sleeps on
  
• Choosing our one path in life wakes up our king
  
• Requires courage to say no to many paths available
  
• Break addiction to harmony
  

Moving from copper to iron

• Imagine bringing inner warriors back to life
  
• Find your boundaries
  
• Put the doorknob to ur room on the inside and in your control
  
• Don't let others shame you. Name the shame they're trying to put on you. 
  
• Talk about reality and do the hard work instead of talking about dreams
  
• Communicate about reality. Name the conduction. Say you won't be conductor for someone anymore. 
  

Ch 7: Riding the red, black, and white horses

• In other tribes, when adolescents begin acting out, the tribe starts terrifying initiations kept secret which produce real men
  
• Our society just backs away
  

Overview of classic initiation

• Linear process of five stages
  
• Overall initiation resembles a sphere
  

• Step 1. Bonding with mother and separation from mother. First part we do ok, second not. 
  
• 2. Bonding with father and separation from father. First part delayed, second maybe never. 
  
• 3. Arrival of male mother or mentor who helps man rebuild greatness. Haphazard if at all
  
• 4. Apprenticeship to hurricane energy like wild man culminating with a drink from divine water. Such a drink adolescents are yearning for. 
  
• 5. Marriage to holy woman or queen
  

• Conscious mother vs unconscious mother who doesn't want to release grasp
  
• Must steal key from possessive mother
  
• Psychic incest between mother and son
  
• Mom sharing too much info
  
• Mother looks to son for companionship
  
• Substitute husband
  
• Elders are those responsible to start initiation
  
• Men feel guilt when can't rescue mother and then punish themselves with career or wife or something bad for them
  
• Need male mother mentor
  

The story chest full of golden apples

• Men need to be able to be in warrior mode and dancing mode
  
• Daughter wants to know identity of secret knight
  
• Throws dinner and throws golden apple to see who catches
  
• Boy asks Iron John for horse and armor and help to catch ball
  
• He catches but gallops off after
  
• Repeats twice and king tells men to chase knight with sword
  
• Gets leg wound and loses helmet, all see he has golden hair
  

• Apples golden
  
• Old ritual
  

Threshold space

• Ritual space entered by threshold
  
• Change only in ritual space
  
• Ceremony before
  
• Heated space
  
• animal displays of beauty, dances
  
• Boy rides to display without shame
  

Red white and black horses on 3 days

• Strong associations of colors historically
  
• 3 phases of life all need to go through
  

Ch 8: the wound by the kings men

• Wound slows him down and deepens feeling
  
• Wounds as part of ritual initiation
  
• boar wound myths
  
• Wound as male womb
  
• Gives second heart
  

Story

• Boy gives apples to gardener's kids
  
• Called in by king and admits to being knight
  
• Directly asks to have daughter for wife
  
• Before refused public acknowledgment
  
• But can now acknowledge
  
• Can now join with feminine after doing full masculine walk
  
• Can now show golden hair
  

Wild man and his qualities

• Has been ignored by our society for a while and feared
  
• Love of ordinary things and animals
  
• Lame Deer, native American autobiography
  
• Positive side of male sexuality
  
• His wants are to be trusted
  
• Prepares emotional body that can take grief and intensity
  
• Prefer Intensity even with risk of fall
  
• Importance of kitchen ashes work
  

Community of beings in grown man

• King
  
• Lover (garden)
  
• Warrior
  
• Wild man
  
• Trickster
  
• Mythologist or cook/magician/shaman
  
• Grief man: man's grief is unique but less allowed in culture
  

Story: wedding feast

• Parents of boy attend
  
• Iron John arrives as knight says was enchanted before
  
• Gives all his gold to boy
  
• Wild man becomes king
  

Epilogue

• Men learn to worship animals and their sorrow
  
• Wild man through the ages
  
• The animal g-d
  
• Esau hairy man in old testament
  
• Christianity antisexuality killed wild man
  

Jason Nazar was nice enough to run a free day-long workshop at UCLA Anderson on "How to Start a Business," and I checked it out. I find Jason to be a passionate, hard-working, and wise entrepreneur, and I wanted to see what I could learn from him.

Overall, I was astounded by the immense breadth and depth of resources he and his team at DocStoc have put together to help businesses. They basically have an e-book, video course, and "quick start guide" for every single topic/issue a business faces (pretty cool stuff).

Below are some of my notes and takeaways.

I. intro

II. Why start a business

a. Must have big burning why
i. If don’t have it, will use the “what” as excuses

b. Today is sharing what and how but won’t help if don’t know the why

c. He has huge sense of urgency for life
i. Sees big clock ticking down

III. Ideation
a. Fallacy of the “good idea”
i. No such thing as great idea; there are bad ideas and good businesses and good business owners/teams/execution
ii. Ideas don’t matter, execution does
iii. Don’t need a “good enough idea” to start
iv. Best ones start w/ something else someone else doing and do it better
v. Worst is when you want to start biz no one else is doing
1. We already know people’s problems and ways that work
vi. By sharing your ideas with others, you get feedback
1. You also make mental contract w/ others to commit to doing what you said you’re going to do, puts pressure on you to work on it
2. Secret reason of not sharing ideas w/ others: to not get ppl asking you what’s going on, want way to back out
vii. If someone shoots down your idea, it motivates you more
viii. Just take something you’re passionate and go with it

b. Idea checklist
i. to analyze if idea right one for you
ii. checklist
1. does it solve others’ problems
2. do a lot of ppl have it
3. am I passionate about the idea
4. am I willing to commit the next 5-10 years of my life to this idea
5. are others successfully doing something similar
6. does it have too many competitors
7. can I do something substantially different or better than others
8. can I build the business on my capital resources or what can raise
9. could I have an MVP and customers in 90 days or less
10. are potential customers giving overall positive feedback > 75% of time
11. do I have background/skillset compatible w/ biz
12. do I have acopmetitive advantage on how to get customers
13. if I don’t start this will someone else
14. can I court mentors who have been successful doing something similar
15. does it have a high likelihood of success
16. does the risk/reward match my person r/r
17. does it help me fulfill my purpose

iii. when evaluating many ideas, score each on how many points it has from this list

c. lifestyle vs. liquidity biz
i. lifestyle biz: live off profits now
1. $1M rev, $400K profit, sole owner
ii. liquidity biz: don’t take out money, go for exit
1. focus on growth, not profit

IV. protecting your idea
a. copyright
i. for work of authorship
ii. written work
iii. automatic

b. trademark
i. for logo/mark/short phrase
ii. do a search when naming your business
1. trademarkia
iii. process for filing is easy
iv. he’s a big fan of legalzoom for basic stuff like incorporation
v. value of attorney is analysis is whether something is infringing or not

c. patent
i. unless something highly specialized and technical, won’t make biz successful
1. if u genuinely invent a new process, then do it
2. if anything online, do not worry about getting a patent
a. likely unpatentable and won’t make diff
ii. first objective is getting customers

d. trade secret
e. NDAs
i. Most investors won’t sign
ii. Use for mergers/partners/complex deals
iii. Has entire course online about how to use them

V. Business plans
a. 3 things will make you successful as small biz
i. good product
ii. figuring out how to get customers
1. #1 biggest challenge
iii. making sure you have enough capital for biz

b. uses of bplan
i. raise money
ii. get partners
iii. get others interested in idea

c. crappy ppt can be enough for a bplan for these purposes

d. 10 key questions to address
i. what is prod/service in 30 seconds, explainable to a 5th grader
ii. what is unique value prop
1. what makes better/diff
iii. what is market opp

e. best format
i. powerpoint, not 40 page doc
iii. create ppt w/ about 15 slides, each one addresses one of the main questions
iv. for product, show multiple examples on slides
v. no more than 15-30 words per slide
vi. investors like picture books, not docs
vii. his is great example of visual deck w/ key info

f. financials
ii. what are core metrics
1. how long to reach profitability
a. restaurants want to achieve profitability w/in 1st year
iii. must be able to explain basic assumptions behind model
1. price per unit
2. how many orders
iv. also: use of funds

VI. setting up the business
a. right structure
i. LLC simplest, most popular, $800 to set up
1. Best for service biz
ii. C corp allows more complex ownership/management
1. Only if raising a bunch of money

b. filing and checking
i. LLC: articles of org, operating agmt
ii. EIN

c. licenses and insurance
i. Licenses123 free

VII. Corporate identity
a. Name, logo
i. Do trademark search
ii. Domain name, all social media
iii. Logo: 99designs
iv. Name something meaningful/important for you

b. Physical collateral
i. vistaprint

c. Phone
i. Google voice
ii. Ringcentral
iii. Onebox

d. Website
i. If your website is not your product use weebly, wix, site creator, intuit, wordpress
1. Istockphoto
2. Online commerce: shopify, volusion, magento, google checkout, paypal
ii. Mailchimp, constant contact, sendgrid
iii. Managing social media business presence course they have

VIII. Business operations
a. Location
i. Retail
1. Lock in a great long term space

ii. Office
1. Space not core to business
2. Don’t get locked in to long contract
a. 1 yr leases
3. Try to get option to extend
b. Professional vendors
i. Overcommunicate expectations of deliverable and prices
ii. Be clear of what u expect
iii. Put a cap on hours attorney can work

c. Tools/services
i. Paychex? Payroll, Trinet
ii. SohoOS for customers
iii. Have course on google analytics
iv. Basecamp

IX. Service-based businesses
a. You are your products
i. He did consulting before and developed philosophy of service
ii. Quality fantastic
iii. Understand underlying needs
iv. Agree on, overcommunicate
1. Final product deliverable definition
2. Timeline of delivery
3. Cost
v. Overdeliver on value

vi. Have a great consulting agreement in writing
1. On docstoc
b. Go right to getting customers
i. First bplan he ever wrote was for a paying client (bplan consulting service)
1. Just jumped into it, got 3 clients in 2 days, figured out all else afterwards

c. Scale expenses along w/ demand
i. Grow rev monthly, divert more and more portion of that onto business expenses
ii. As get more demand, charge more
iii. Scale by adding ppl

iv. The more money you charge, the more credibility you have
1. He got certified in hypnotherapy after college but never focused on it; what hypnotists charge affects how popular they are
2. Charge whatever amount you feel good about

X. Building and selling physical products
i. Slideware: PPT deck w/ visual representation of product to get first set of sales
b. Pre-sales contracts to fund initial inventory
i. Get positive terms on when paid
ii. Half up front to pay for initial orders
c. Where to sell products online
d. Selling IRL; Getting partnerships

XI. Building and selling online products
a. 3 golden rules
i. spend 10-50K to get it built
1. enough to get to first version to play with
2. spend this of your own money
ii. spend no more than 3-6 months to get it built
1. narrow feature scope
iii. 1st version needs to have something to be charging for immediately or can start scaling users very fast immediately

b. how to build online product
i. requirements doc
1. long outline detailing all features
ii. wireframes
iii. get a design done
1. 99designs
iv. developers/dev shop
v. hosting
c. getting feedback & users
i. see how ppl use your product
ii. his presentation: 7 ways to drive traffic for free
iii. usertesting.com

XII. raising money

a. 5 P’s
i. people
ii. product
iii. progress
1. momentum
iv. passion
1. we buy things on emotion and justify the logic
2. your passion is a commodity you can trade to get other things done in your business
v. persistence
1. in pushing for meetings

b. sources of capital
i. self
ii. friends & family
1. don’t raise money from ppl who if they lost it, they would give more than a second thought to it
iii. bank loans
1. need long history of relationship and profitable biz or collateral/personal or biz assets
2. start small line of credit and show that repaying over a long time
iv. angel investors
v. venture capitalists
c. how to do it
i. tell them what will do and timeline
ii. reach back out in advance of timeline and show that beat timeline and expectation
iii. show pattern of doing and exceeding what will do and when
iv. get multiple investors to show interest to get leverage
v. find businesses similar to yours that got investment, find out who invested, make contacts with those investors
d. mastering the pitch

XIV. getting customers
a. #1 reason why businesses fail
b. no classroom will teach; it’s experiential
c. if you’re committed, you can do it
d. if not motivated to start biz in next 3 hours, there’s nothing he can do
e. you can’t outsource sales & marketing
f. this has to be your #1 priority
g. the businesses that succeed are those that are the best marketed, not the ones with the best product
h. if you have demand for your service, you can always get capital for it
i. exercise
i. write down the #1 thing that if you got done today/this week/this month would be the most important for the biz
ii. track how much time spent
1. usually not much because it’s the hardest thing
j. in 1st 6 months, spend 50%+ of time getting customers

XV. sales
a. 5 step sales process
i. gain interest
1. talk to them about them
2. give compliment
3. show you listened
4. never start talking about self; start talking about other person
5. 3 topics they care about: health, wealth, relationships

ii. establish credibility
1. past accomplishments
2. willingness to want to help
3. genuineness, transparency
4. ability to speak clearly and give metaphors others can apply to their lives
5. nothing more compelling in biz than one’s own certainty
a. currency like money that can be used in exchange for value/getting people to do things

iii. establish need
1. first actually understand the person and get them to know you understand
2. prospect must feel like you know what they need

iv. offer solution
1. my product is what fulfills the need you’re looking for
2. when they say “what do we do from here”/”next steps”/etc., you finish immediately w/ transaction

v. system to establish easy transaction

b. prospecting
i. 1 out of 10 who have an interest in your service, will actually buy when offered and qualified
1. need wide enough funnel
ii. way to talk to lots of ppl
iii. no’s get you 1 step closer to yes
iv. if you don’t believe in your product/service, really hard to exchange value

c. methods & types of sales
i. inside
ii. outside
d. sales is exchange of value; marketing is getting someone interested in exchange of value and driving ppl to u; PR is building awareness of product
i. key is exchange of value
e. reason we’re so adverse to getting sold is because ppl are always trying to give us something we don’t want instead of learning what we do want/need
f. when someone figures out what you want/need, much more impactful

XVI. Marketing & PR
a. Online marketing
i. "7 ways to get traffic online"
1. search engines
a. SEO
2. Referring traffic/press
a. Top blogs w/ contacts in his PPT
3. Social media
a. Infographics
4. Viral loop
a. Gamification
5. Solve a compelling need
6. Online partnerships / distribution deals
7. Refreshing content
b. Local guerilla marketing
c. Leveraging PR

XVII. Building a team
a. The bar for partners, employees, investors
i. 3 criteria
1. they are the best at what they do
2. no asshole policy
a. 1 bad person will kill the biz
b. must go extra mile to help someone else
3. work harder than everyone else
a. 12 hour day
b. in office until 11
c. work on weekends
ii. AGPIE values: accountability, growth, passion, integrity, excellence

b. Recruiting
i. Interviewing
1. What is the ideal position you’re looking for?
a. If not what you have, it’s a red flag
2. What do they do better than anyone else?
3. If I talk to 10 people you worked with before and what things about you bothered them, what would they say?
ii. If anything comes off as pompous/arrogant, one strike rule (done)
iii. Time to improve an employee is detrimental

c. Issues w/ partners, early employees and equity
i. Must have process in place for how to make decisions when you disagree
ii. Must discuss up front
iii. Prepare lots of if-then situations
1. If someone wants to leave, etc.
2. Gets pregnant
3. Not enough money earning
iv. Vesting
v. Paying equity for work
1. If typical rate is 10K, and my valuation is 1M, you can give 1%
a. But give 2% by valuing the risk higher
2. Board of advisor on 3 year vesting schedule
3. When getting service or value over time, don’t give equity all up front
d. Hiring/firing docs on docstoc
i. Job descriptions
ii. Job application
iii. Consent form for background check, criminal check
iv. Non-binding offer letter
v. Employment agreement w/ IP transfer
vi. Release of claims for termination, offering consideration
vii. Should have documented feedback over time
viii. Last day: vacation time, final day, etc.
e. Employees vs. contractors

XVIII. Financial planning/accounting

XIX. Business dashboard
a. KPIs
b. Key metrics
c. Benchmarking success

XX. Primary legal considerations
a. Working w/ biz attorneys
i. Get referral to someone who has dealt many times w/ ur situation
ii. Personality get along
iii. High level of competency in  your situation
b. Preventing and managing lawsuits
c. Enforcing your rights

XXI. Mentors, advisors, and boards
a. What you don’t know, you don’t know
b. Courting advisors
i. Find ppl you like, ask them to coffee, say what want to learn
c. Working with a board of directors

XXII. Buying and selling businesses
a. Finding businesses to buy
i. Franchisegator
ii. Bizbuy
b. Valuing
i. Multiple of net income

XXIII. Strategy
a. How to make right decisions
i. Docstoc matrix
1. “How to make decisions: 4 factors”
2. A: potential upside
3. B: likelihood of success
4. C: effort involved
5. D: strategic value
ii. Entire book/presentation on this on docstoc
b. Stay in the game: protect your downside risk

XXIV. Philosophies
a. Entrepreneurs’ dilemma
i. Stay attached to problem you’re trying to solve but flexible in solution you use
1. Be passionate about the problem
2. Don’t let ppl dissuade you from that
b. Entrepreneurs sell ether
c. Mistakes people make before starting a business
d. The one most important thing