Last year I also bought Garmin Glo 2, which easily connects through Bluetooth to iPhone and makes time tracking 100% reliable (compared to iPhone’s GPS, which regularly misses the finish line).

For this last track day, the weather was perfect – sunny and around 20c. My goal for the day was 1:45. On the first session, I hit 1:45.99 and then had issues getting below that.

The track was pretty slippery due to an unknown reason (other drivers had the same issue). That, in combination with the Michelin Pilot Sport 4s that get very hot on the track very quickly and there was some unintentional sliding:

Because of my sliding and drifting, my reflexes were wrong, and I let go of the steering wheel before catching the car. I plan on improving my reflexes and working on keeping my hands on the steering wheel at all times, even when sliding. That said, as long as the car is not in the barrier, it’s a win in my book.

In the last lap of the day, I managed 1:45.24. There’s still lots of room for improvement, but I’m pretty happy with the result, especially on PS4S road tires, which only managed about 4 laps per session before getting too hot (after already letting out air to drop 1+ bar for hot tires).

There were a lot of different cars – from STIs, Caymans, 911s, M3s, a bunch of different racing and drift cars, and also an F8.

The whole event took more or less the whole day because there were that many cars (over 100).

I did not go to the event to break time records as the roads are very slippery. But that meant I could have a different type of fun:

Here’s one slide from the outside:

And a sideways start:

I tried a fast drive with the last session but could only shave about a second from the fun slidey time.

There were also a bunch of drifters that looked like they had a really good time.

We arrived the day before because you start early. Like 4:30 wake-up early. And when you get to the bottom at 5:30 you’re far from being the first.

The collection of cars was amazing. It was probably 95% Porsches, but all kinds and years – from 959, 991.2 Speedster, GT4RS (pre-production), a ton of GT3s and GT4s, and a really nice Ferrari 812.

The morning was rainy but then it slowly got better and before noon, we had nice warm and sunny weather.

The Boxster with top-down was absolutely amazing and just made everything that much better. The Michelin Pilot Sport 4S also did amazingly well in all conditions: cold and wet in the morning and warm and dry in the afternoon. You could always lean on the tires and know that you’ll have reliable grip.

We repeated the drive the next day and got some amazing photos.

But the best photo of the trip/month/year came from a friend who had a drone and captured this amazing photo:

Stunning!

I hope this happens every year now as we’d love to repeat the trip. It was one of the best ways to spend a weekend.

When we got there though, they said the Ferraris will be replaced with McLarens 620R. No complaints from me.

The day started with the briefing, followed by a lap with an instructor in an M2 and then the Vantage and 620R.

The first drive was in the Vantage. I explained I’ve done track days before but don’t know the track. The instructor was great – he kept the instructions clear and precise but also did not try to slow me down. I left the car very happy.

Unfortunately, the whole day left a bad taste in my mouth due to the drive with the 620R. Something that should’ve been the highlight, became a frustration. The instructor did not allow manual gearshift (even though it’s a DCT he said that I could miss-shift and destroy the transmission – which is of course total nonsense), left the transmission in normal mode (which means it shifted in the middle of the corner), and then, even though the car is much, much faster than the Vantage, did not provide any instructions at all (like braking zones which are completely different in a car like 620R).

This was such a shame. I might have been tempted to repeat the experience but now that I know it’s a toss on who you get instructing you, I’m not willing to risk it. It’s also a shame because everyone else was incredibly welcoming and pleasant.

And the cars? Well, the Vantage was unsurprisingly very heavy but surprisingly squirmy under braking – not sure if that was due to the state of the brakes or normal, but it was definitely not confidence-inspiring.

The 620R was a total rocket. It’s on a completely different level and obviously intended for the track. Just a shame I couldn’t feel more comfortable pushing it with my instructor. The brake zone is way later than you expect and the speeds at the end of the straight are clearly high, even though I never checked how high.

I also bought their 3D camera recording and the quality is so bad, it’s hilarious.

The whole experience was a great bang for the buck, you just need to cross your fingers to get a good instructor. And don’t allow people to try to bullshit you that you can miss-shift on modern DCT transmissions. You can’t, the software doesn’t allow it.

One of the must-reads for negotiations but I’ve come to it very late. It does have some really interesting and unique insights which will be helpful in the future.

Strongly recommended.

tl;dr

Listen to your counterpart. Use positive, easy-going voice. You should (almost) never be assertive in negotiations. Use mirroring (repeating words) and labelling (validating emotions). Get the counterpart to say “no” early. Use calibrated questions that start with “what,” “how,” and “why”. Three negotiation types (analyst, accommodator, assertive) – each one needs to be handled differently.

Summary

“I’m just asking questions,” I said. “It’s a passive-aggressive approach. I just ask the same three or four open-ended questions over and over and over and over. They get worn out answering and give me everything I want.”

Listening

Psychotherapy research shows that when individuals feel listened to, they tend to listen to themselves more carefully and to openly evaluate and clarify their own thoughts and feelings.

Your goal at the outset is to extract and observe as much information as possible and to reveal all surprises.

In some standoffs, we had as many as five people on the line, analyzing the information as it came in, offering behind-the-scenes input and guidance to our man on the phone.

For those people who view negotiation as a battle of arguments, it’s the voices in their own head that are overwhelming them. When they’re not talking, they’re thinking about their arguments, and when they are talking, they’re making their arguments.

Make your sole and all-encompassing focus the other person and what they have to say.

Voice

Your most powerful tool in any verbal communication is your voice.

Most of the time, you should be using the positive/playful voice. It’s the voice of an easygoing, good-natured person. Your attitude is light and encouraging. Other two: late-night DJ, assertive (used rarely).

You can be very direct and to the point as long as you create safety by a tone of voice that says I’m okay, you’re okay, let’s figure things out.

Put a smile on your face when talking.

Mirroring

A “mirror” is when you repeat the last three words (or the critical one to three words) of what someone has just said.

Four steps for mirroring:

1. Use the late-night FM DJ voice. 
2. Start with “I’m sorry …”
3. Mirror.
4. Silence. At least four seconds, to let the mirror work its magic on your counterpart.
5. Repeat.

Labelling

Emotions aren’t the obstacles, they are the means.

Labeling is a way of validating someone’s emotion by acknowledging it.

Labels almost always begin with roughly the same words: It seems like… It sounds like… It looks like…

I’ve found the phrase “Look, I’m an asshole” to be an amazingly effective way to make problems go away.

The faster we can interrupt the amygdala’s reaction to real or imaginary threats, the faster we can clear the road of obstacles, and the quicker we can generate feelings of safety, well-being, and trust.

We do that by labeling the fears. These labels are so powerful because they bathe the fears in sunlight, bleaching them of their power and showing our counterpart that we understand.

Accusation audit: to prepare for the meeting, list every terrible thing your counterpart could say about you. 

After Anna labeled Angela’s fears, Angela’s first instinct was to add nuance and detail to those fears. And that detail gave Anna the power to accomplish what she wanted from the negotiation.

Imagine yourself in your counterpart’s situation.

The reasons why a counterpart will not make an agreement with you are often more powerful than why they will make a deal, so focus first on clearing the barriers to agreement.

Pause. After you label a barrier or mirror a statement, let it sink in.

Label your counterpart’s fears to diffuse their power.

Yes and No

Pushing hard for “Yes” doesn’t get a negotiator any closer to a win; it just angers the other side.

“No” is the start of the negotiation, not the end of it. 

Then, after pausing, ask solution-based questions or simply label their effect: “What about this doesn’t work for you?” “What would you need to make it work?” “It seems like there’s something here that bothers you.” 

People have a need to say, “No.” So don’t just hope to hear it at some point; get them to say it early.

Sure, the word they’ll say right off is “Yes,” but that word is only a tool to get this blowhard to go away. They’ll weasel out later, claiming changing conditions, budget issues, the weather.

There are actually three kinds of “Yes”: Counterfeit, Confirmation (no promise), and Commitment.

Using all your skills to create rapport, agreement, and connection with a counterpart is useful, but ultimately that connection is useless unless the other person feels that they are equally as responsible, if not solely responsible, for creating the connection and the new ideas they have.

Everyone you meet is driven by two primal urges: the need to feel safe and secure, and the need to feel in control. If you satisfy those drives, you’re in the door.

If your biggest fear is “No,” you can’t negotiate. You’re the hostage of “Yes.”

“No” helps people feel safe, secure, emotionally comfortable, and in control of their decisions;

Email magic: how never to be ignored again. You provoke a “No” with this one-sentence question: “Have you given up on this project?”

That’s right

“That’s right” is great, but if “you’re right,” nothing changes.

Use a summary to trigger a “that’s right.” The building blocks of a good summary are a label combined with paraphrasing.

Bend their reality

We don’t compromise because it’s right; we compromise because it is easy and because it saves face.

Distilled to its essence, we compromise to be safe.

Deadlines are often arbitrary, almost always flexible, and hardly ever trigger the consequences we think—or are told—they will.

“No deal is better than a bad deal.”

Hiding your deadlines dramatically increases the risk of an impasse.

And second, when an opponent knows your deadline, he’ll get to the real deal- and concession-making more quickly.

In other words, while we may use logic to reason ourselves toward a decision, the actual decision making is governed by emotion.

Most people make an irrational choice to let the dollar slip through their fingers rather than to accept a derisory offer, because the negative emotional value of unfairness outweighs the positive rational value of the money.

To get real leverage, you have to persuade them that they have something concrete to lose if the deal falls through.

1. Anchor their emotions

By anchoring their emotions in preparation for a loss, you inflame the other side’s loss aversion so that they’ll jump at the chance to avoid it. 

2. Let the other guy go first . . . most of the time.

But going first is not necessarily the best thing when it comes to negotiating price. That’s why I suggest you let the other side anchor monetary negotiations. That said, you’ve got to be careful when you let the other guy anchor. You have to prepare yourself psychically to withstand the first offer.

3. Establish a range

Understand, if you offer a range (and it’s a good idea to do so) expect them to come in at the low end.

4. Pivot to nonmonetary terms

After you’ve anchored them high, you can make your offer seem reasonable by offering things that aren’t important to you but could be important to them.

5. When you do talk numbers, use odd ones

The biggest thing to remember is that numbers that end in 0 inevitably feel like temporary placeholders, guesstimates that you can easily be negotiated off of. Say, $37,263—feels like a figure that you came to as a result of thoughtful calculation. Such numbers feel serious and permanent to your counterpart, so use them to fortify your offers.

6. Surprise with a gift

Add reciprocity.

Create illusion of control

Instead of asking some closed-ended question with a single correct answer, he’d asked an open-ended, yet calibrated one that forced the other guy to pause and actually think about how to solve the problem.

“Hey, dog, how do I know she’s all right?”

Giving your counterpart the illusion of control by asking calibrated questions—by asking for help—is one of the most powerful tools for suspending unbelief.

What was a showdown—“I’m going to leave” versus “You can’t leave”—and asked questions that led the patient to solve his own problem . . . in the way the doctor wanted.

One of the greatest-of-all-time calibrated questions: “How am I supposed to do that?”

Calibrated questions have the power to educate your counterpart on what the problem is rather than causing conflict by telling them what the problem is.

First off, calibrated questions avoid verbs or words like “can,” “is,” “are,” “do,” or “does.” These are closed-ended questions that can be answered with a simple “yes” or a “no.” Instead, they start with a list of words people know as reporter’s questions: “who,” “what,” “when,” “where,” “why,” and “how.” Those words inspire your counterpart to think and then speak expansively.

But let me cut the list even further: it’s best to start with “what,” “how,” and sometimes “why.”

The very first thing I talk about when I’m training new negotiators is the critical importance of self-control. If you can’t control your own emotions, how can you expect to influence the emotions of another party?

You have to keep away from knee-jerk, passionate reactions. Pause. Think. Let the passion dissipate.

Who has control in a conversation, the guy listening or the guy talking? The listener, of course.

Guarantee execution

The kidnapper who was negotiating with Julie seemed extremely perplexed by her persistent questions, and he kept asking for time to think. That slowed everything down, but he never got angry with Julie. Answering questions gave him the illusion that he had control of the negotiation.

Calibrated “How” questions are a surefire way to keep negotiations going. They put the pressure on your counterpart to come up with answers, and to contemplate your problems when making their demands.

Causing the other side to work that hard and forcing that much internal coordination in service of our own goals was unprecedented.

When implementation happens by committee, the support of that committee is key. Simply ask “What do your colleagues see as their main challenges in this area?”

You see, body language and tone of voice—not words—are our most powerful assessment tools.

The Rule of Three is simply getting the other guy to agree to the same thing three times in the same conversation.

Liars start talking about him, her, it, one, they, and their rather than I, in order to put some distance between themselves and the lie. They also discovered that liars tend to speak in more complex sentences in an attempt to win over their suspicious counterparts.

The more in love they are with “I,” “me,” and “my” the less important they are. The harder it is to get a first person pronoun out of a negotiator’s mouth, the more important they are.

The reality is people are often tired of being hammered with their own name in negotiations.

The best way to get your counterparts to lower their demands is to say “No” using “How” questions. These responses will sound so much like counterbids that your counterparts will often keep bidding against themselves.

Some version of “Your offer is very generous, I’m sorry, that just doesn’t work for me” is an elegant second way to say “No.”

You can ignore the so-called negotiating experts who say apologies are always signs of weakness.

“Yes” is nothing without “How.” Asking “How,” knowing “How,” and defining “How” are all part of the effective negotiator’s arsenal.

Bargain hard

Three negotiation types.

ANALYST

• Analysts are methodical and diligent. They are not in a big rush.
• Analysts often speak in a way that is distant and cold instead of soothing.
• Analysts hate surprises.
• Are hypersensitive to reciprocity.
• Asking too many questions to start is a bad idea. Use clear data to drive your reason; don’t ad-lib; use data comparisons to disagree and focus on the facts; warn them of issues early; and avoid surprises.

ACCOMMODATOR

• The most important thing to this type of negotiator is the time spent building the relationship.
• Their goal is to be on great terms with their counterpart. They love the win-win.
• Of the three types, they are most likely to build great rapport without actually accomplishing anything.
• They will yield a concession to appease or acquiesce and hope the other side reciprocates.
• If they’re your counterpart, be sociable and friendly.

ASSERTIVE

• The Assertive type believes time is money; every wasted minute is a wasted dollar.
• Assertives are fiery people who love winning above all else, often at the expense of others.
• They focus on their own goals rather than people. And they tell rather than ask.
• It’s best to focus on what they have to say, because once they are convinced you understand them, then and only then will they listen for your point of view.

Before you can even think about bargaining effectively, you have to understand your counterpart’s “normal.” 

Don’t treat others the way you want to be treated; treat them the way they need to be treated.

No matter what happens, the point here is to sponge up information from your counterpart. Letting your counterpart anchor first will give you a tremendous feel for him. All you need to learn is how to take the first punch.

When you want to flip a dubious counterpart to your side, ask them, “Why would you do that?” but in a way that the “that” favors you.

Steps:

1. Set your target price (your goal).

2. Set your first offer at 65 percent of your target price.

3. Calculate three raises of decreasing increments (to 85, 95, and 100 percent).         

4. Use lots of empathy and different ways of saying “No” to get the other side to counter before you increase your offer. 

5. When calculating the final amount, use precise, nonround numbers like, say, $37,893 rather than $38,000. It gives the number credibility and weight.         

6. On your final number, throw in a nonmonetary item (that they probably don’t want) to show you’re at your limit.

The party who feels they have more to lose and are the most afraid of that loss has less leverage, and vice versa.

As effective negotiators have long known and psychologists have repeatedly proved, potential losses loom larger in the human mind than do similar gains.

Once you’ve understood your counterpart’s worldview, you can build influence.

In other words: listen, listen again, and listen some more.

If you can trigger that instinct, that sense that, “Oh, we see the world the same way,” then you immediately gain influence.

During a typical business meeting, the first few minutes, before you actually get down to business, and the last few moments, as everyone is leaving, often tell you more about the other side than anything in between.

The track day was a success as there were around 40 cars. Most notably, there were two brand new 992 GT3s, a 991.2 GT3RS, two 991 GT3s, a ton of other Porsches, and also two Yaris GRs. Even so, I had more than enough driving and multiple empty laps. Awesome fun.

My Driving

I did almost 150km in the two hours of driving. My best lap of the day was 1:47.9, which is nothing to write home about. It’s about two seconds faster than my best lap in the GT86 on Cup 2 tires. I’m expecting easy 2-3 seconds of improvement with Cup 2 tires and better driving.

That said, that lap was done in the first half an hour. After that, my racing app/phone had constant issues with GPS and did not record times. This is a real shame as I think I improved my lines in the second part of the afternoon. I’ll be ordering an external GPS receiver to get better reliability.

I’m happy with the first day on the track, but it’s clear I have lots of space for improvement.

The Car

I was driving with PSM off, but that does not fully disable the nannies. So I still felt it helping, and I’m assuming it was mostly braking the rear tires in the corners (I can feel the brake pedal vibrating). I’m planning to do a physical cut-off and see how the car drives then. I’m expecting I’ll have to be way more careful, though.

Other than that, the car felt really good. I was the most impressed by brakes since they had zero fade even after the whole afternoon. Currently, the only mod is the plastic brake ducts from a GT3 for better airflow. I still have stainless steel brake lines planned for install and better brake fluid. I’m still on the fence about the GT3 brake cylinder which is supposed to give you a harder brake pedal as I have sort of gotten used to the soft stock pedal.

I was running Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires, and while they are great on the street, they were not the best on the track. The fronts were also in pretty bad shape after the track day. I’ll probably go with Cup 2 on this car as well, once I feel these have been used up.

The fuel consumption for the afternoon on the track was 26.9 l/100km.

Summary

After the track day, it was top-down for part of the drive home and that’s where the Boxster really shines. Shifting through gears and listening to the exhaust note with the sun setting, it’s what spirited driving is all about.

It was the perfect way to spend the Sunday.

Talking to potential customers about your idea is not enough. You need to ask the right questions, the right way to get relevant answers. Great book, re-read it once already. Should’ve taken the advice in the book to heart for at least one of our projects.

Start from Zero which I reviewed a few weeks ago has very similar concepts. The main difference being The Mom Test is focused on the customer interviews and it’s written much better.

tl;dr

Ask about the customer’s life (problems, cares, constraints, goals), not about the idea. With requests, you need to find the root cause. Get commitments to the next step. Keep having conversations until you stop hearing new stuff. If you aren’t finding consistent problems, you don’t have a specific enough segment. Avoid receiving compliments. Talk less.

Summary

• Bad customer conversations aren’t just useless. Worse, they convince you that you’re on the right path.
• Mom was unable to lie to us because we never talked about our idea.
• The Mom Test:
  • Talk about their life instead of your idea
  • Ask about specifics in the past instead of generics or opinions about the future
  • Talk less and listen more
• Good question / bad question
• Whenever possible, you want to be shown, not told by your customers. Learn through their actions instead of their opinions.
• The questions to ask are about your customers’ lives: their problems, cares, constraints, and goals.
• It boils down to this: you aren’t allowed to tell them what their problem is, and in return, they aren’t allowed to tell you what to build. They own the problem, you own the solution.
• You want facts and commitments, not compliments.
• When someone starts talking about what they “always” or “usually” or “never” or “would” do, they are giving you generic and hypothetical fluff.
• Ask when it last happened, for them to talk you through it, how they solved it, and what else they tried.
• To get toward this truth, you just need to reject their generic claims, incidental complaints, and fluffy promises.
• When you hear a request, it’s your job to understand the motivations which led to it. You do that by digging around the question to find the root cause.
• Questions to dig into feature requests:
• Questions to dig into emotional signals:
• Rule of thumb: If you’ve mentioned your idea, people will try to protect your feelings.
• Rule of thumb: The more you’re talking, the worse you’re doing.
• You can tell it’s an important question when the answer to it could completely change (or disprove) your business.
• Every time you talk to someone, you should be asking a question which has the potential to completely destroy your currently imagined business.
• Rule of thumb: You should be terrified of at least one of the questions you’re asking in every conversation.
• Rule of thumb: There’s more reliable information in a “meh” than a “Wow!” You can’t build a business on a lukewarm response.
• Most people have lots of problems which they don’t actually care enough about to fix, but which they’ll happily tell you the details of if you ask them.
• Product risk — Can I build it? Can I grow it? Will they keep using it?
• Market risk — Do they want it? Will they pay? Are there enough of them?
• Always pre-plan the 3 most important things you want to learn from any given type of person.
• Decide what to ask with your team in a calm environment.
• Learning about a customer and their problems works better as a quick and casual chat than a long, formal meeting.
• Rule of thumb: If it feels like they’re doing you a favour by talking to you, it’s probably too formal.
• It only takes 5 minutes to learn whether a problem exists and is important. Learning how someone currently achieves a certain goal or solves a problem is also quick.
• Rule of thumb: Give as little information as possible about your idea while still nudging the discussion in a useful direction.
• In sales, moving a sales relationship to the next stage is called “advancement”.
• Commitment — They are showing they’re serious by giving up something they value such as time, reputation, or money.
• Advancement — They are moving to the next step of your real-world funnel and getting closer to a sale.
• A meeting has succeeded when it ends with a commitment to advance to the next step.
• The real failure is listed above as #2: not even asking.
• Rule of thumb: If you don’t know what happens next after a product or sales meeting, the meeting was pointless.
• Commitment can be cash, but doesn’t have to be.
• The major currencies are time, reputation risk, and cash.
• The worst meetings are the wishy-washy ones that you leave with neither rejection nor advancement.
• A lost meeting can often be saved by just pushing for a commitment at the end while you’re being brushed off with a compliment.
• Rule of thumb: It’s not a real lead until you’ve given them a concrete chance to reject you.
• The goal of cold conversations is to stop having them. You hustle together the first one or two from wherever you can, and then, if you treat people’s time respectfully and are genuinely trying to solve their problem, those cold conversations start turning into warm intros.
• What can you offer them that will make them want to talk to you?
  • Organise meetups
    • Want to figure out the problems HR professionals have? Organise an event called “HR professionals happy hour”.
  • Speaking & teaching
• Warm intros are the goal. Conversations are infinitely easier when you get an intro through a mutual friend that establishes your credibility and reason for being there.
• Our 5 advisors each had around a half percent of equity and basically just made credible intros.

Asking for and framing the meeting

• The framing format I like has 5 key elements.
  • You’re an entrepreneur trying to solve horrible problem X, usher in wonderful vision Y, or fix stagnant industry Z. Don’t mention your idea.
  • Frame expectations by mentioning what stage you’re at and, if it’s true, that you don’t have anything to sell.
  • Show weakness and give them a chance to help by mentioning your specific problem that you’re looking for answers on. This will also clarify that you’re not a time waster.
  • Put them on a pedestal by showing how much they, in particular, can help.
  • Ask for help.
• In shorter form: Vision / Framing / Weakness / Pedestal / Ask
• Here’s what it might look like before you have a product:
• These conversations are easy to screw up. As such, you need to be the one in control. You set the agenda, you keep it on topic, and you propose next
• In terms of mindset, don’t go into these discussions looking for customers. It creates a needy vibe and forfeits the position of power. Instead, go in search of industry and customer advisors.
• Rule of thumb: Keep having conversations until you stop hearing new stuff.

Segmentation

• If you start too generic, everything is watered down. Your marketing message is generic. You suffer feature creep.
• Before we can serve everyone, we have to serve someone.
• But making a so-so product for a bunch of audiences isn’t quite the same as making an incredible product for one.
• In these cases, talking to an industry expert can be hugely informative to provide you with a taxonomy of the industry.
• Rule of thumb: If you aren’t finding consistent problems and goals, you don’t yet have a specific enough customer segment.

Customer slicing

• This drilling down into ever more specific groups is called Customer Slicing. You take a segment and then keep slicing off better and better sub-sets of it until you’ve got a tangible sense of who you can go talk to and where you can find them.
• A customer segment isn’t very useful if there’s no way you can get in touch!
• Once we know a group’s existing behaviours, it’s incredibly easy to get in touch with them.
• Rule of thumb: Good customer segments are a who-where pair. If you don’t know where to go to find your customers, keep slicing your segment into smaller pieces until you do.
• Avoiding bottlenecks has three parts: prepping, reviewing, and taking good notes.
• Prepping
  • Your most important preparation work is to ensure you know your current list of 3 big questions.
  • Spend up to an hour writing down your best guesses about what the person you’re about to talk to cares about and wants.
  • While prepping, if you come across a question which could be answered with desk research, take a moment to do it. You want to move past the obvious stuff and spend your conversations finding answers the internet can’t give you.
  • If you leave part of the company out of the prep, then you end up missing their concerns in the customer conversations.
  • “If this company fails, what is most likely to have killed it?”
  • “What would have to be true for this to be a huge success?”
• Reviewing
  • After a conversation, just review your notes with your team and update your beliefs and 3 big questions as appropriate.
  • The goal is to ensure the learning is now on paper and in everyone’s head instead of just in yours.

I’ve first learned about Dane a few years back when he launched his TheFoundation software course. I didn’t join but learned a lot from the free material he provided with the launch. I loved the concept of idea extraction and wanted to test it out but was working on a project that was going really well. Fast forward a few years and a painful lesson learned and he jumps back into my feed at just the right time. I found that he renamed the course to Start from Zero and you can start the learning with a book.

Dane talks a lot about mindset which I fully skipped (he seems very passionate about it though), as I’ve read a ton about that in my early 20s and don’t need a kick in my behind anymore. His software building section is a good summary for the concept of getting people to tell you what they actually need instead of guessing, building, and hoping to sell it.

I’ve also continued further into his funnel to the video interviews and have not been disappointed. Highly recommended.

tl;dr

Focus on the customer and what result they want. Reach out to people in a niche and interview them about their pain points. Build a product for cheap and get it quickly into customers’ hands. Record the result and then use online sales to get more customers like them.

Summary

• Customer — Uses A Mechanism — To Get A Result
• My focus is on a customer and the result they want. The mechanisms could be infinite.
• Carl’s story
  • He asked them a powerful question, “What do you use Microsoft Excel for in your business?”
  • Microsoft Excel is a hotbed for potential products because companies use it to cobble together solutions for their various business needs.
  • Then Carl asked a second question, “How does that process work for you right now?”
  • So then Carl asked, “What would your dream solution be?”

Chapter 10: The Surveyor

• Apply pattern recognition to existing successful businesses using this framework: Customer, Pain, Solution, Offer.
• Business Model:
  • Automated sales (people sign up without speaking to me).
  • Recurring revenue (people pay me monthly for years).
  • I sell tools (instead of providing a service).
  • I get paid upfront.

Chapter 11: The Tiller

• Tilling is akin to finding the person or niche market (the land) working with them to find the pain (seed you will plant) that will be solved for them.
• The ego is deadly. Remember, success is not about being right. It’s about surrendering to what works.
• For a seed to grow, it helps to be rooted within a deep pain. A real, deep pain.
• The Five Question Framework
  • Over the course of the last year, what has been your most persistent and present problem?
  • How do you currently go about solving that problem?
  • What happens if you don’t solve that problem?
  • What would your dream solution be? (Or) If you could wave a magic wand how would you solve this problem?
  • Would that be worth paying for, and if so, how much?

Chapter 12: The Planter

• The high goals of the Humble Product Creator are to get the product built quickly, with limited financial risk, and to get results for the first group of customers with the product.
• Here are the four killers of a great product.
  • Does the customer currently do this activity outside of the product?
  • Does it require a great change of behavior?
  • Is the burden to use the product high?
  • Does the product deliver an end result clearly?

Chapter 13: The Gardener

• Get the concept tested or built. Get it into the hands of your first customer. Get that first customer a result (treat them with the care of a newborn baby). Repeat with your next few customers. Get all of your customers’ results. Document the results as case studies and stories. Create one focused marketing process using your case studies to convert paying customers. Promote the case studies within the niche market. (Tip: Master a single traffic source first, before you expand.)
• There is no better marketing mechanism I’ve found than demonstrating proof.
• I don’t like looking for competition because it scares me out of action.
• Stay focused on what keeps your business moving forward; there’s always room for another excellent solution.

Chapter 14: Using Words That Sell

• [End Result a Customer Wants] + [In a Specific Period of Time] + [Addressing Objections]
• Then I’d ask them…
  • What are your favorite products as a video editor?
  • Where do you visit online to get good information?
  • What online video editing communities do you hang out in?
• I can run ads where he visits online and see about running ads inside the community he visits or talk to other video editors there.
• Because as a salesman with a noble intention you are directly helping someone get a perfect match.

We picked the car up a day after we landed. The photos don’t show how tiny the car really is. This latest version has a lot more aggressive frontend and stance which really suits it. The previous generations always looked too soft to me but I wouldn’t be embarrassed to be seen in this one.

It was amazing how I felt completely at home after just 5 minutes in the car. Everything is where it should be. The steering wheel, the gearbox, the pedals. You just get in and drive.

Engine & Gearbox

This was the base 1.5, 130 HP model. And it was… slow. Very slow. There is absolutely no way I would buy the car with this engine. Anything above 70 kmh and you feel like you’re squeezing everything from the car – while barely being able to overtake someone. And forget about overtaking anyone uphill. The new 2.0, 184 HP would probably fit the car perfectly.

The gearbox is fantastic. Nice, short throw and a good mechanical feeling when shifting. The ratios are close so that you have lots of work/fun driving through the corners.

Handling

The underpowered engine means the car doesn’t feel at home on the highway. While my GT86 feels good above 130 kmh+, the Miata feels best only up to 100 kmh. Above that, there’s a lot of wind noise, and overtaking often means shifting two gears down.

But, once you turn for the hills and the twisties… well, there is nothing better. The engine doesn’t feel underpowered, because it has just enough grunt between 40 and 80 kmh. Even the exhaust sound is pretty good with the roof down. The driving position and pedals are absolutely perfect. Heel & toe is incredibly easy at any speed and a lot of that can be attributed to the bottom-mounted pedal.

The roads on Tenerife were made for this car and it was an absolute joy exploring the island.

Even though the car had almost bald tires at the back, it still gripped unbelievably well.

Fun Factor

The Miata is a proper toy. It’s lots of fun, really easy to drive, especially at low speed. Even a drive in the city with the roof down is a fun experience. The roof mechanism is amazing – you can put the roof up or down with one hand in less than 5 seconds.

All of that fun comes with a price though. The car’s practicality is horrendous. There is no glovebox. Almost no storage anywhere. The trunk is a joke. It would be fine for a weekend trip, but a week-long trip would require actual planning with the luggage.

Summary

Overall, I drove over 2000 km in almost two weeks on Tenerife. I got a good feeling for the car and it was an amazing experience.

I’d love to have it at home, though I’d probably decide on the bigger engine and the RF (hardtop) version for more day-to-day practicality. But it would be an option only as a second car, and I want to experience more cars first, especially something bigger than a four-cylinder.

This last weekend was perfect for this. My GT86’s clutch died after a dynamic session and I was stuck at home. So on Thursday, I opened a local rental car app and booked a 2019 Porsche Boxster GTS. To my pleasant surprise, the car was free and I had it booked from Friday noon to Sunday.

This is the infamous four-pot Boxster, albeit the more powerful 2.5 in GTS form. The car looks really good in this silver, though the black wheels get a bit lost from only a few ten meters away, and on absolutely all photos.

I haven’t driven that many cars to be able to properly compare the car, so my thoughts are mostly related based on how the car feels compared to my GT86.

The first impressions were not amazing. But over the course of the few days, the car has grown on me, a lot.

Engine & Gearbox

Mornings in the garage were pretty awesome. Roof down before start, then this:

A great way to start the day.

Since I haven’t driven previous versions of Boxster, or a 911, I did not mind the four-cylinder sound. It has a lot of pops and bangs that make it fun to listen to, especially with the roof down and when you find a nice tunnel.

The engine itself works best between 3k and 5.5k. Below that, there is turbo lag, and revving it higher doesn’t really make a big difference in sound or push. Not to mention, it’s already fast at those RPM. Really fast. For me, it was bordering on too much for our roads. I could’ve easily done with 50 HP less.

The PDK suits the engine and character of the car really well. I haven’t really missed the manual, though it would give a bit more to do between shifts. When you have an automatic, you drive a bit faster just because there is not much distraction and you can have your hands constantly on the wheel.

Handling

I drove it to my regular spots around LJ where I also drive my GT86. The Boxster feels way more like a GT than a small sports car on these corners. It feels a lot heavier though still planted.

Feedback is also missing – from the steering wheel and from below the butt. The car doesn’t move a lot (I also didn’t want to get it to move because rental), and when it does, you barely feel it.

It feels like a proper, grown-up car. It’s perfect for long-winded roads and cruising, but, at least for me, it felt a lot less at home on closed twisties where you’d want to trash it around.

Fun Factor

I really enjoyed the roofless driving. It’s a ton of fun and way more than expected. When the sun goes down and you turn for the mountain roads, it’s just pure joy.

A special occasion was also driving around town, even though Ljubljana is a very small one so the enjoyment there was pretty short-lived. Would love to drive it in a bigger city and just enjoy the surroundings.

One great thing about driving a roadster is that you don’t have to push that much to get enjoyment from the car. The roads where I trash my GT86 were fun at much lower speeds.

Summary

I thoroughly enjoyed the weekend. I got to drive one of the current benchmarks in sports cars. I would love to take it to a longer trip to the seaside with my significant other, but I will keep the GT86 for attacking the corners.