… Politicians are still politicians (surprise, surprise) and I’m completely disenfranchised about our country’s leaders and the system they’re beholden to.

365 days ago I told the world I’d voted for Barack Obama. I even found a group of like minded people and we all got together election night. We were more hopeful for our country than I remember feeling in a long time. I’ve been reflecting on that and the previous year over the last few days. Here’s what I’ve come up with.

The whole deal reminds me athletics and high school. Picture the quarterback(s) of your high school football team. They were it. Even if the team sucked, even if we lost every game, they still owned the place. They were the quarterback of the football team for Pete’s sake. True, if they win a state championship, they get hoisted on a shoulder and dance with the homecoming queen, but if they loose, are they really any less in control of their limited domain? They still dance with the homecoming queen. But you know what? High school ended. And a tiny few of those quarterback gods who roamed the halls, well they were good enough to graduate to playing on a University football team, and their reign moved up a notch. They ruled and roamed and were so cool. They quarterbacked on the BYU (insert your college here) football team. There were bad ass. If you met them, even saw them, you told people, you talked about it. But you know what? College ended. And then a lot of things changed. A tiny, tiny few of those uber studs went on to quarterback football in the NFL. We gathered the family and watched them defeat their enemies every Sunday. But if they didn’t defeat and win and perform, we shook our fist and yelled at the TV or booed in the stadiums. Popularity became performance, performance became popularity. Over time and judged by history, an even tinier few of those warriors became Payton Manning or Brett Favre or John Elway or Dan Marino or Joe Montana or Johnny Unitas or Roger Staubach–the best of all time. That group of players where judged by how many touchdowns they threw, how many games they won, how many championship trophies they have on their mantel. They are judged on performance in the big leagues, and if they don’t perform, they’re not popular. Quite a difference between that and high school. It’s why we call them professionals. They perform.

Our politicians are high school football quarterbacks (shoot, some of them are high school kickers, some I read about are even the water boy). They’re not judged or accountable for real performance. They’re going through the motions so we all think they’re cool, so that they can be reelected in the greatest coolness competition and system the world has ever known. Too often, they spend energy on massive wastes of time pandering to what they expect will gain them favor with their constituents. The system (just like high school) rewards it. We don’t just need a Joe Montana president, we need Joe Montana politicians across the board. Guys that audible the right play and throw touchdowns when game is on the line. But guess what? Joe Montana politicians can’t exist, can’t function, without the NFL.

So a year has gone by. Change didn’t happen. For all that President Obama promised, I see very little that the day he won the election wouldn’t have been handled the same way as John McCain, or anyone else for that matter. Same types of people got appointments, same types of decisions are happening, same bickering and pointing blame, same posturing and positioning for 10 minutes of fame. Am I regretful that I voted for Obama? No. McCain would have done things different, but in this perverse way, all the exact same. And at least Obama inspired me for a time, maybe that’s all I can hope for. 3rd party candidates might be better, but the problem is, they can’t get elected, they can’t even make the high school football team. I’m disappointed mostly. There are no doubt vast differences among politicians and the actions they take and their priorities, but in the end, they’re all still playing with other 17 year olds on Friday nights in front of 500 people at Budge Field at Burley High. It’s business as usual, and most damningly, politics as usual. Can’t we figure out a way as a country to get NFL players playing in the Super Bowl on Sunday at the new Cowboys stadium in front of 100,000 people and millions more on TV?

We so greatly revere our Founding Fathers in this country, and the system they came up with (rightfully so). 222 years ago they took what the world had tried to that point, applied their own learnings and intelligence, and came up with the best system. But honestly? They came up with high school football. Unless as a country we can affect structural changes, nothing will change. Processes and systems are what we’re controlled and bound by now. Politicians can’t help but be politicians, no more than a high school football quarterback can help being the most popular kid in school. The world is different now, change is happening faster. Maybe we should look forward to the future for our country and our government and our citizens, rather than always looking over 200 years to the past.

I hoped things might change 365 days ago, but alas, for that to happen, we need the NFL, not high school athletics and cliques. Sorry Mr. Obama. I still think history will show that you were a good (maybe great) high school quarterback. But that’s not good enough for me. Your promise of change rings hollow to me now, but maybe that’s really not your fault. Maybe its our fault for not being intelligent enough to demand real foundational change. Here’s to your reelection in 3 years time, I know that’s what you’re already thinking about.

Posted over at www.launchup.org how my accident derailed LaunchUp for a few months.

We’ll be having our 3rd next week. Wednesday November 11th at 6:00 p.m. at Marketsplash/Logoworks in Lindon.

Companies presenting will be MuseBuzz, PageMass, and SocialToo.

Paul Brockbank (LogoWorks CEO) will be handling the entrepreneur amp session.

And we’re serving Pumpkin Pie with Whipping Cream!!

It’s going a great night of great entrepreneurial mojo, you won’t want to miss it! I hope to see you there.

Here are the glorious details: LaunchUp #3

Finally, we are also building a list of those that want to support first-time technology entrepreneurs in Utah. You can join the LaunchUp community. It will help us track those that want to help, and then we’ll be also publish everyone’s name on the LaunchUp community page soon.

Help spread the word!

The number 3 is great. It’s more than just one, more than a couple, but a lot less than too many (like as in 10). It’s a number that if you limit yourself to, you have to make some trade-offs. Top 3 priorities, 3 dream trips, 3 people you’d most like to meet, etc. You have to focus to get down to 3. I guess what I’m saying is Top 10 lists are overrated.

I want to start periodically doing what I’m going to call the Rapid 3 here on my blog. I’ve found that if you can ask someone successful 3 targeted questions and get back 3 focused answers you can learn a lot in a very short period of time.

To kick it off, I couldn’t think of anyone better at communicating simple yet powerful ideas in short and sweet format than Guy Kawasaki–he does this regularly in his business books, Rules for Revolutionaries is my favorite book of his. Guy’s been a trusted advisor to me and Doba for about 2.5 years now. So here we go:

- What’s the most important thing every aspiring entrepreneur needs to know?

The most important thing is that sales fixes everything. That is, as long as you’re generating sales, you’re in the game. All the “vision,” “promise,” “passion,” and “partnerships” don’t mean much unless you have sales. I’m not saying you should sell products that are junk or not finished just to make a buck because “returns break everything.” But great entrepreneurs ship.

- What’s the biggest mistake you see first time entrepreneurs make, and how do they avoid it?

First-time entrepreneurs never make their “conservative” financial projects. As a rule of thumb, I add one year to the ship date and divide by 100 whenever I hear a forecast. The best way to avoid it is to make a bottom-up forecast. That is, starting from $0, figure out how you’ll make each dollar of sales. Most entrepreneurs do a top-down analysis and “conservatively” assume they can get 1% of a multi-billion market.

- Is it harder or easier in 2009 to be an entrepreneur compared to 1999? Why? And how should that impact actions you take as an entrepreneur?

There’s good news and bad news. The bad news is that it’s harder because people are spending less. The good news is that costs are much lower–tools, people, marketing, and infrastructure. The thing is to build your business out now while costs are low so that when spending returns, you’re off to the races.

I cannot help it: I have to plug something I’m doing. Your readers should use Alltop to stay on top of news, tips, and tricks at http://smallbusiness.alltop.com/ and http://ecommerce.alltop.com/.

What do you think? Would you answer this Rapid 3 differently than Guy? Thanks for the insights Guy!!

I hope you like the 3rd version of my blog.

I’ve been working with Tim and the team at Out:think over the past few weeks to come up with it. Guy Kawasaki introduced me to them and they’ve been great to work with!

(Speaking of Guy Kawasaki, I’ve got his answers to my first Rapid 3 interview I’ll be posting this week)

Let me know if you see any weirdness with the site.

Hoping the new design moves forward my continual and everlasting quest for awesomeness.

I’m in India again for business, checking on the new platform we’ve been collaborating with Impetus on building for Doba and eventually Catalog Science.

I brought Amy this time, and since on previous trips I end up pretty much worthless for a week when trying to jump right into work the day after you get here (11.5 hour time diff), we decided to take a few days to adjust to the time change, then hit work hard at the Impetus offices in Indore. So we came to Aurangabad. There’s not much to do (planned), but there are a few caves close, and mostly we’re just letting time (and ambien) get us on the right schedule.

When we got here, the Lemontree Hotel upgraded us to a suite. It was a nice room. But there was some sort of weird smell that came from around the bed, almost like one of those musty fragrance plug-ins, but we couldn’t find it. We concluded it might be mold or mildew. Smells can give me pretty bad migraine headaches, so when I come to India, it’s a crap shoot, since this place smells (good and bad) pretty much on a scale of 9/10. I was dealing with it by sleeping with my head at the foot of the bead. Then the front desk calls in a frantic, “There’s XYZ important politician coming in 30 minutes, he’s really a big wig, and we don’t have any of the larger rooms he needs, it’s an emergency! I shouldn’t call you, I feel bad, but would you switch rooms?”

I’m a nice guy, they had upgraded us for free, and I’m thinking, maybe the new room won’t have this smell that’s got my head pounding for about 3 days straight. So we switched. Guess what? New room? Worse. Different smells entirely, but definitely worse.

So here are the lessons:

A. If things can get worse, they probably will.
B. Don’t let the fear of things being worse keep you from acting.
C. Keep trying till you find an option that isn’t worse, eventually you’ll find one that’s better.

Stumbling onto something better while on a road that was leading you to worse is the formula for finding a successful product, solution, or situation.

Me? I’m switching rooms again tonight. Very well might be worse. But there’s always that chance that it will be better.

If you’re a student at a college/university in Utah (currently attending or graduated in 2009), and you have a business, any business, you need to apply for the Utah Student 25.

If you know a student with this criteria, you can nominate them.

This is a great program to recognizes the top student-founded businesses in Utah.

And if you want to see some great companies profiled, make sure you register to attend the Utah Student 25 Awards Gala on November 5th.

Finally, I’d appreciate everyone helping to spread the word about this great opportunity for Utah college students.

I tweeted this morning: “Good entrepreneurs are like weather in UT today: unsettled, interesting, risky. Thunderstorms beat blue skies any day.”

What do I mean by that? Well, I should probably show you the weather forecast for Utah today as a start:

And here’s from the Hazardous Weather Outlook:

Numerous showers and thunderstorms are expected across the outlook area once again this afternoon and evening as a pacific storm system continues to sit and spin over utah. A few of these storms may become strong to severe…With hail and locally heavy rainfall possible. This may allow for localized flash flooding across flood prone areas of southern utah.

Sounds like as far as the weather goes today, it is going to be disruptive, unpredictable, unsettled, interesting, risky, and maybe downright a little bit dangerous. Sound like you or anyone you know? I could keep going, but I’ll let you continue to draw the correlations in your head (or in the comments).

I think clear, windless, blue sky days are totally boring. On days like those, they should just say, we have no weather to report for today. Weather is an action word. And on days when they do actually have something of merit to report on the weather (like today in Utah), get ready for some fun!

Entrepreneurship is the same. It’s an action word.

Go act.

Last week I was talking with someone and made a comment along these lines:

“I’ve been really lucky with Doba and the success I’ve had as an entrepreneur.”

He immediately said to not take offense, but that it bugs him when successful people say they’re “lucky”, because I tried when other people sat at home and didn’t do anything. He had done the same thing for his successful website development and design business: he went out and made it happen. In his mid-sized town, about 50% of the people he knows always talk about starting a business, but never do.

I think 50% is about ballpark for people I know too. Maybe it’s the debt, the perceived risk, the working for free, the hard times it brings to families and marriages, etc. that keep people from taking the leap.

I was relaying this conversation to my wife, and she quipped, “Luck is not getting killed by a giant boulder.”

Good point. Pure luck has no place in discussions about entrepreneurship. There is such a thing as being in the right place at the right time, and being benefited from things you don’t control. But that’s not luck. Roman philosopher Seneca nailed it almost 2,000 years ago:

“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”

My advice? If you’ve talked or thought about starting a business recently, take a day off from work, from family, and from play and take a bit of a leap. Seriously. Work for 8 hours on your business idea. See if you can’t get a jump start on some preparation.

I dare you to do it. Shoot, I double dog dare you.

And when you do it (or if you’ve already seen preparation pay off) I want to know about it. Comment or email me about your 8 hour leap or other experiences. Prove Mr. Seneca right.

Take 5 minutes and go fill out this week’s Entrepreneur Magazine blog Four for Friday .

It’s a weekly selection of four questions related to entrepreneurship.

This week: Inspiration, Hiring, Personal Politics, Dogfooding.

You can find my answers in the comments.

P.S. – Four For Friday was created by Mikal Belicove, author and Entrepreneur Magazine columnist, and my Blog Father.

A couple days ago, I got a knock on my door, and a guy that was wearing blue rubber gloves was there when I opened it. He said something like: “I lost my job a while back, and got sick of not working, so I’m out providing a service today. I’ll clean out your garbage cans for $10 each, or two for $15. I use a pressure washer and industrial strength bleach and I literally climb inside them and scrub them by hand.”

I hired him on the spot, for two reasons: 1. my garbage cans were nasty; 2. I’d have hired him anyway, because here’s a guy down on his luck making his own.

We got talking after he was done, and he said he’d been laid off from doing sales, and realized that if he could find a service that’s unique that people need, and then just work hard, he’d be able to make something happen. He says a lot of days, he makes $300-$400, and he even has an “employee” for times when lots of people are home.

Going door to door offering to scrub people’s garbage cans out in 100 degree UT end of summer heat (imagine the can he told me about with a full gallon of milk that had spilled out and sat for a LONG time or the one filled with what looked like months and months of dog poop) isn’t glamourous entrepreneurship ala Bill Gates and Richard Branson and Michael Dell and Donald Trump and Oprah Winfrey.

But this guy gets it. Opportunity is what you make it. Loosing his job wasn’t in his control. Rolling up his sleeves, getting dirty (literally in his case), and having the courage to act: all very much in his control. To me, he hits the core definition of an entrepreneur square on the head.

So find a product or service that’s unique that people need (and will pay for), get off your butt, get to work, and make your own opportunity!