I was so glad I did too. Although the video has a very slow start, it lays a great foundation for the big take-aways at the end. In the talk, Bret Victor talks about living your life based on a principle–your personal principle which governs your decisions. Although the concept is simple, the implications are profound–if you can discover your principle.

Bret does a good job of showing his principles, which is “creators need to immediately see direct change”. He also provides the principles of Elizabeth Cady Stanton (“women’s suffrage”), Larry Tesler (“no modes”) and a few more. Towards the end of his talk, Bret provides a simple way to test your principle using a yes/no question format.

Discovering one’s principle has got to take some serious soul-searching. Unfortunately, it’s not something that is given to you by your parents or something that is explicitly laid before you when you get your driver’s license or when you turn 21.  For me, I had to look into my repeated patterns of decision making. I tried to look at how I spend the majority of my free time and my procrastination time. I had to look for common themes and for common passion boosters.

After two weeks of trying to define my guiding principle, I believe I have found it. Now, I’m all for tweaking and fine-tuning it, but the smile I get when I think of what I currently have, makes me feel like I’m on the right path. The beauty of it is now I can guide my decisions off of my principle, and quickly determine whether I should or shouldn’t embark on an endeavor.

Alright, alright. Without further ado, I believe my guiding principle is to: amplify great ideas effectively

That’s it.

Like I said, it makes me smile and the vision I get from thinking about it fits snuggly around some of the major events that have happened in my life. Agreeably “amplifying great ideas effectively” is a bit too broad/vague, and for that, I gladly will partake in adjustments as they become apparent.

Now, I could get into super detail of why I think this is my guiding principle, but I’ll save that for when we talk in person, or maybe a different time when I feel like writing it down.

For now, I’m going to run with it. 🙂

What do you do in your procrastination time? What are re-occurring decisions and themes? What’s your guiding principle?

View from Hotel Vitale of Bay Bridge at sunrise

Bright and early, Chip and I met up at 7am for breakfast at the hotel’s restaurant–the Americano. Having already met Chip in February back in Fort Lauderdale while he gave a talk there, we were able to catch up since then. After breakfast, we left the big city and headed to Palo Alto.

Our first stop, the Palo Alto City Hall for a hearing on the external renovation of a Joie de Vivre hotel project. Chip’s team was presenting the exterior plans to the committee. Although we listened to some dry dialog, it was actually interesting and insightful to see the process.

Being that the actual hotel project was in walking distance, we headed over so we could get a glimpse at the progress. The building was formerly a senior citizens home and it’s also the tallest building in the area. After seeing the gutted-out building and envisioning it’s potential, we departed.

View from the top (one of the highest buildings in Palo Alto)

Chip asked me if I wanted to go see Steve Jobs’ house. Immediately I responded with something of the likes of, ” YES, WE HAVE TO!”. It turned out that Chip had yet to visit it as well so he was excited to see it too. After some directions were given to us and some Google Map searching, we found it. I had to get a photo taken in front of the house (and of course check-in on Foursquare). Interestingly, a stray beagle dog was wandering around the neighborhood and walked over to us. We tried to read the collar for a name or address. About that same time, a lady from Steve Jobs’ house came running out and told us thanks for grabbing the dog. She went back in the house and Chip and I looked at each other like “Woah, I think we just touched Steve Jobs’ dog”. Whether or not that’s true, we still will always believe that that was Steve Jobs’ beagle. 🙂

Miss you Steve!

Next, we headed to the Standford Dish. The Dish has a 3.3 mile walking/running path that is apparently a popular destination among the locals. We put on our running shoes and commenced the loop. Of the many epic topics that were discussed on the journey, I did learn about Chip’s next [potential] endeavor. Not sure if I should say what it is, but to help narrow the subject matter down I’ll let you know it doesn’t involve emotional equations nor hotels–oh and he also really loves attending Burning Man Festivals. 😉

After the loop, we headed back to San Fransico and had to make a stop at two of Chip’s hotels–the Hotel Del Sol and the Phoenix. The Hotel Del Sol was very colorful with its “west coast spirit” theme. Shortly after, we went to the Phoenix. The Phoenix was Chip’s first hotel, which he purchased back when he was 26 with the help of some investors. Being at the place that started it all was really cool/inspirational to see.

Approaching mid-afternoon, we went to our final stop, the Ferry Building Marketplace. There, we ate lunch and started wrapping up the day. I got Chip to sign my book and from there we departed as Chip had to prepare for a workshop he was giving over the weekend.

The day was jam-packed with great dialog and plenty of observations.  I had much to digest and ponder over. I learned a lot and still am learning more from Chip (by means of his other book that I’m currently reading called Peak).

I’m very grateful for the opportunity that I was afforded (and a big shout out to Tim Ferriss and his blog/tweet). After getting to learn more about Chip and Joie de Vivre and especially after getting to hangout with him for the day, I wanted to do my best in sharing what I gathered and learned.

So, without further ado, here are my 3 lessons that I learned from Chip:

Lesson 1: Niche it Down

As a boutique hotel company, one of the most interesting things I learned was how Chip designed each one of his hotels differently. What I really appreciated was that each hotel had its own 5 adjectives to describe the atmosphere and aesthetics. For instance, Hotel Vitale’s adjectives were: modern, urbane, fresh, revitalizing, and nurturing. Furthermore, each hotel is compared to a magazine, in which the readers of that magazine are the target customer of that hotel. The magazine that resonated through Hotel Vitale was Dwell. As a recipient of the Dwell magazine myself, I think they did a phenomenal job of matching the hotel experience to the magazine feel. (Their Silicon Valley Avante Hotel is fittingly based off the Wired Magazine.)

It seems that niching down product and market has always been something innate to Chip. At age 26, Chip opened up his first Hotel called the Phoenix. Despite some initial opposition of the direction to take it, Chip stuck with his intuition and made the hotel the popular destination for rock bands. Cleverly, Chip made sure the band managers (the decision makers) got extra pampering and when word spread, soon all touring bands knew where to stay when in San Francisco.

Chip in front of his first hotel, The Phoenix

Lesson 2: Assemble the Best Team

As Chip had authored a critically acclaimed business book (Peak) and had now published a book on human emotions (Emotional Equations), I was very curious to meet the Joie de Vivre team.

Furthermore, when I read Emotional Equations, I read about some of the questions that Chip (or his hiring staff) would ask potential employees and execs. The questions were deep/heavy but essential in screening and learning the emotional intelligence of these individuals.

Well after firsthand witnessing the staff at his hotels, I could really tell a sense of integrity and sincerity.  Everyone was dignified and cared highly for the position. It was very refreshing to see. No wonder Joie de Vivre received the Best Places to Work in the Bay Area Award in 2010 (ranked sixth). It makes me want to attend Chip’s workshops that he conducts for his staff.

Watching Chip interact with his employees, business partners and contractors was an evident demonstration of the respect and trust Chip gives them. And in return, everyone gave him respect and excellent service.

It’s important to note that Joie de Vivre survived two “once-in-a-lifetime” economic downturns in the same decade. There’s no way the company could have survived such turbulent times unless the proper team had been assembled.

Lesson 3: You Must Really, Really Care About People

After reading his book, staying at his hotel and then conversing with Chip, saying that Chip cares would be an understatement. Whether you want to talk about his employees, customers, investors, the environment or anyone else in Chip’s proximity, his caring nature is felt by all.

As previously mentioned, I had the opportunity of joining Chip to a few of his other hotels and at each location, Chip not only greeted all employees with a smile, but he called them by their names. That’s a fantastic feat when your company has over a thousand employees (not sure if he knows all their names but I’m sure he knows MANY).

What may be bigger demonstrations of his caring demeanor is that he has written two major books. The first book published in 2007, entitled Peak, is designed around helping business owners to focus on their employees, customers and investors in a Maslow-of-Heirarchy-sort-of-way. The book is highly praised and is even handed out to each employee of Zappos. The second major book Chip has written is Emotional Equations, which demonstrates Chip’s ability to diagnose and prescribe helpful remedies for downtrodden employees. Subsequently, Chip offers workshops to his employees based off of the principles of the two books.

Staying at the Hotel Vitale, I experienced how the hotel firsthand cared about me. Walking into my room, I stumbled upon a card welcoming me and also letting me know that the staff was there for me if I needed. About 20 minutes later as I was sorting my stuff, I received a courtesy phone call asking if everything was good and if I needed anything–talk about customer service. I even appreciated how they had a little card next to my nightstand informing me of the upcoming weather and temperatures.

Regardless if it’s upper management caring for employees, or employees caring for the customers, there is a whole lot of caring going on. At the end of the day, that is what good experiences are made of and what makes cheerleading customers and everlasting employees.

All in all, I learned much, much more, but these three lessons above are the fundamentals. In fact, from his book Emotional Equations, I have a pages of notes and reminders that I made for myself. Now that I’m embarking on Peak, I’m eagerly anticipating many new insights that I can apply to business and life. When you get the chance, read Chip’s books, listen to one of his talks, attend one of his workshops–you will be glad you did!

NEW – “How to Become an Effective CEO: Chief Emotions Officer” bit.ly/zo5Cjb

— Tim Ferriss (@tferriss) January 19, 2012

The post started out by Tim Ferriss introducing Chip Conley, who is an author and founder of Joie de Vivre Hospitality. After the brief introduction, Chip, stepped in and started the discussion of how to be an Chief Emotional Officer.

Chip had just finished his new book, Emotional Equations, where he dives deep into the trenches of 19 meaty emotions. Through his research, Chip has compromised helpful equations (yup, like math equations) to derive at how each of the 19 emotions are produced. For example, Anxiety = Uncertainty x Powerless. Broken down, the level of uncertainty and the level of powerless you are currently undergoing will exponentially produce your level of anxiety. Cool, right? Formulas are an effective way to learning how to increase or decrease results.

Back to the blog post, Chip briefly upacks 4 of his 19 equations– Despair, Happiness, Anxiety and Awe. For each equation, he reveals keys to reducing or elevating each of the equations. Going through a time currently in my life with many uncertainties (try starting your own business and dropping any salaries you had before), I gravitated to the Anxiety equation.

At the end of the enlightening post, a contest was posed and to enter you needed to answer 3 questions. The contest winner would get to spend the day with Chip, plane tickets and two nights at his famous Hotel Vitale.

So, I told myself “It’s time to get Vulnerable! (thanks to Brene Brown)” and I wrote my answers to the 3 questions.

Two weeks later, I received an email from Chip that I won. 🙂

Since January we were keeping in touch, figuring out the optimal time for me to fly out to San Francisco. Chip is not only an author but also a major speaker, with 120 speaking engagements around the globe this year alone. Finally, we scheduled the meet up for May 3rd. The plane tickets were purchased and I picked up a copy of Emotional Equations to delve deeper into all 19 emotional equations.

One of my answers to the contest entry was that I would share what I learned from Chip to as many people as I could. As such, my following post will be my learnings from my time spent with Chip. Stay tuned!

I arrived on a Tuesday night and got picked up by my good Bay Area friend, David. The following day (5/2/12) was the Startup Conference in Mountain View, headed up by Alain Raynaud. With a conference jam-packed with success/failure stories, pitches and tips, I had much to absorb.

Of the many points I took home, some of the most memorable tips dealt with co-founder issues (talk given by Alain Raynaud), the role of CEO and founders (talks given by Steven Aldrich and Jerry Kaplan), and the game of pitching (live pitching critiques performed by Dave McClure and Thomas Korte). It was also great to hear VC Tim Draper as he shared his stories of funding Hotmail before they even had a montization stragety or when Tim sang his infamous “Riskmaster” song.

Takeaways:

The 5 biggest mistakes co-founder make in the beginning, according to Alain Raynaud are:

• Not sharing your idea because you think someone will steal it
• Splitting equity evenly amongst all founders
• Not choosing the CEO yet
• Having full-time co-founders with part-time co-founders
• Having a great team yet no developer

In regards to the role of CEO, Steven Aldrich shared an important point of whether you wish to be rich or be king, referring to the CEO as the king.

In regards to the role of the founder, Jerry Kaplan mentioned these top 5 mistakes made

• Unclear goal and mission: write it down, read it often
• Trying to prove you’re smart: not sharing credit
• Greed: not raising enough capital, not distributing equity, only think about growing value
• Hiring people you like, not people you need. Biz/mktg people don’t like engineers; engineers don’t like biz/mtkg people
• Not knowing when to let go. Companies are like children, with different stages. Maybe you’re only good up to 150 employees and someone is better with 150+

And finally, as far as pitching goes, you better be prepared. We witnessed 7 startups pitch and be critiqued on the spot. Some of the notable pitching advice from Dave McClure and Thomas Korte were to keep it simple, state why you are different, then talk about traction, partnerships, etc. It’s also a major help if you can share parallels with similar companies or strategies that are working.

One last point I want to make is how failure is truly embraced in the valley. This notion is very evident when you consider how startup incubators plan on 80% of their startups to fail, with the top 20% to fare well while the top 10% to have successful exits. (Watch Dave McClure’s Keynote here.)

All in all, attending the conference was a great firsthand look at what’s going in the Startup Capital. The caliber and expertise there is fascinating and really something to aspire to. I was able to gather plenty of insights to apply to my ventures.

For those that have my same sentiments as above, you also like me are always searching and scouring your imagination for that revolutionary solution to a common problem. Although I’ve written out or at least thought many ideas were worth pursuing, I think we finally got one that has sticky potential.

We call it ConnectStrong.

In 7 words or less, ConnectStrong is: Connecting offline customers to your online presence. That’s what it’s all about.

You see, in the marketing world, we spend so much time developing the online presences for businesses, persons, places or things. And you may even focus on online strategies for acquiring online leads through SEO or paid methods. But what about all those offline current/potential customers that may use you frequently or may have used you once, that still aren’t connected to your online presence? If they use you frequently yet you aren’t connected, then you could be missing out on many word-of-mouth or connection-on-social-network opportunities. If I like/follow a brand, I’m more likely to share or retweet something about that brand to my friends.

Social networks aside, brands still need to gain user-generated-content (UGC) about them. Reputation and authenticity are becoming increasingly more important and meaningful. Why trust algorithms when we could make decisions from opinions of real people and family/friends? The need to provide the platform for your customers/fans to easily and conveniently review you is evident.

Building your tribe/community and a solid, user-generated, reputation should be your priority in your marketing and growing objectives.

The gap from offline to online, from analog to digital, from physical to logical, is there. And we, through ConnectStrong, aim to bridge that gap through trust, reason and convenience.

As a big believer in and enthusiast of TED, I listen/watch new talks often. Thankfully, I stumbled upon Brene Brown’s TEDTalk on Vulnerability (I give credit to my sister for pointing this specific talk to me first). Watching Brene discuss her years of research and summations of countless records from respondents, I became fixated as I felt the root of major problems in my life were being exposed. (Btw if you haven’t seen this video, do so now. And if you don’t like it, I’ll give you you’re money back–guaranteed! 🙂

After digesting Brene’s talk and evaluating my question of what is at the core of successful people, I think the answer was clear–vulnerability. Now, most definitely hard work, faith and opportune time can make someone’s success skyrocket, but the catalyst for success is initiated by putting oneself out there–namely, to be vulnerable to the internal and external forces of your actions.

To not raise your hand to comment, to not startup a business, to not get in front of a crowd to give a speech, to not say “I love you”, to not put yourself in uncomfortable situations,  to not invent a product for the public, to not ask for reviews, to not promise, etc. is to not get vulnerable. The people who are successful in any endeavor are the ones who got vulnerable, and threw themselves out there.

In regards to love, I think Simon Sinek shared a quote that said it best:

“Love is giving someone the power to destroy you…and trusting them not to.” – Unknown

— Simon Sinek (@simonsinek) December7, 2011

And in regards to just about everything else, Seth Godin gave wonderful tips here.

As with most advice or discipline we may receive, it’s much easier stating what needs to be done versus doing what needs to be done. However, just like when knowing your enemy’s attack you can defeat him, knowing the cause of your inaction will also allow you to defeat it.

I find I tell myself, “It’s time to get vulnerable!” a lot more now.

It’s always great to see when biblical principles are explained in a 21st century context.

There is more happiness in giving than there is in receiving

Timeline seems cool, just like Google’s method for indexing everything indexable on the Internet. But just like Google, the creep factor sets in even more.

Google knows a lot about you, me and your grandma. But, it’s safe to say Facebook knows more. With Timeline, we can see that Facebook’s vision is impressed on us, and that we will use Facebook to define and illustrate our lineage/ancestry. [*gets that weird feeling*] The creep factor sinks in again, what will they do with what they know?

The biggest difference, in debating who is creepier, is that Google will index the information it can index, with your consent or not (sure if you own your website you can put a robots.txt file up but who you are fooling). Note: Google does not have access to Facebook profiles. Facebook however, is a choice to join and share. And thankfully, you now can even prevent being Tagged in posts/images through pre-approval. I haven’t even mentioned Google+ yet, mainly because I think it’s still too early to say that it will stick with the masses.

Who do you think is creepier? What am I missing?

I have bought countless domains (over a hundred), all which were purchased with the intention of being developed into niche or behemoth websites. Unfortunately, with nearly a year that has gone by, I could probably count the number of sites that were actually developed from those domains on my two hands. Not very good odds, nor cost-effective. Or how about that new book I purchased from one of my favorite authors/mentors? Regrettably, I started the book, got a couple chapters in and within a couple weeks halted any advancement into the reading. Or how about that awesome software package deal I bought? Same story. I could probably identify many more failed attempts at a goal but I think the image has been painted.

After listening up on an audiotape from Napoleon Hill, one very strong realization for my discontinuation of the development of an idea was discovered. Hill talked about the notion that you cannot get something for nothing. For anything you wish to attain, you must first be willing to give up something. This is intuitive for many aspects of life. In order to buy that combo meal at the local fast food restaurant, you know it will cost $8. If you are hired for a full-time position, you realize that you will give up roughly 40-50 hours a week to your employer in order to receive that paycheck. Or if you are going to plant a garden you must first give up a section of your grass/lot. Something for something.

Now I’m all about planting trees (see previous post), but a very important question is raised before you are ready to plant any of your trees. To read that big book in its entirety, what am I going to give up? To develop out a website for that new domain I purchased, what am I going to give up? To gain a new certification/license, what will I give up?

For the aspiring entrepreneur, the payout for x numbers of hours of work is often unknown or it’s minimal in the beginning at best. In order for the entrepreneur to succeed, he/she must be willing to give up x number of hours a day/week/month in the development of the idea, business and/or network. Focusing on developing multiple businesses and ideas at the same time is difficult, (possibly suicide,) and severely runs the risk of compromising the success of any of the ventures. With 16 hours a day to use (assuming you sleep 8 hours a night), you must allocate your time wisely.

Now, the fact has been strongly pressed in my mind that before I can embark on anything that requires my most valuable resource of time, I must truly buy out the time from my schedule for it to succeed. If the time is not available especially for an extended period, I’m better off not attempting anything new until my schedule is freed up. The adage “just do it” is perfect, but only if you ready to give up something for something.

I ask myself more so than ever, why do I let my actions linger. Why don’t I jump on opportunities as they arise? That new, amazing awesome idea I just dreamt up, probably won’t be coming into fruition anytime soon. Why not?!

To try and put things in perspective these days, I try to remind myself of two things. First, I love recounting the old proverb (which I’ll probably write about again and again) that goes: “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is today.” Grasping the guts of that proverb makes me want to plant a million seeds today. It makes me realize that no matter what I plant today will be of value to me in 20 years (assuming I nurture it). The value can be a product, a lesson, a stepping-stone, etc.

The second thing I try to remind myself is that procrastination is one of the leading causes of failure. Basically, I’m doomed to fail if I don’t start today. Heck, how can I reach my goals if I don’t even take the first step? This train of thought has been sparking more embers lately.

Everyday I realize, that quite possibly, Nike has the best slogan ever created– Just Do It. So simple. So profound. One thing we can never buy back for any amount of money, is time. I have roughly 16 hours a day to spend, I better use them wisely.

Plant a tree today.