Many of you know that I've been taking a blogging sabbatical while we launch Moolala. In some ways it's been amazingly freeing but there are other times I've got ideas bouncing around that I'd really like to share.

Yesterday I sat down with Kevin Miller for an episode of his Free Agent Underground Podcast.  We talked about figuring out your life calling (one of my favorite subjects) and he got me to share several different stories from my early days in business and a lot about our philosophy in launching Moolala.

Most people will just hear the audio version of this when it comes out as his next podcast episode, but they do a live video feed for his Free Agent Academy members...and Kevin was kind enough to provide me with the recording.  So here it is...unedited...for your viewing enjoyment.

Lots of people have ideas.  Very few people act on them.  Between having an idea and shipping it is the real work, the execution.  

Without the ability to execute an idea is just that, an idea.

Zuckerberg had something the Winklevi did not, the ability to execute, quickly.

The magic is in the execution.

...nothing is important.

Surplus is the extra left over from a transaction.  Surpluses can be leveraged to make change.

There are two ways to leverage surpluses:

Make surpluses in an unrelated way and route them to where they are needed.

or

Do what creates the surpluses.

If you want to make change you need to be doing one or the other.

How do you create surplus?

Contrary to popular belief, you don't win by coming up with something better.  You win by having a better story.

Here's the rub. You can't just tell the winner's story better than the winner.  You have to tell a different story.

What story are you telling?

1. Find people who share a dream

2. Connect them to each other

3. Take them where they want to go

Here's the secret.  You don't need everybody.

You need 1000 true fans.  People who will cross the street to join you in what you're doing.

A few questions for the journey:

Who are you upsetting?

Who are you connecting?

Who are you leading?

Very few people have a habit of delivering early.  Most people wait until the last minute to start on a project and then deliver right before (or more often right after) the deadline.  I've found this to be especially true with graphic designers and web developers, but I think most of us are guilty of this at some point.  

Here's a really good approach to deadlines I learned from Seth Godin during SAMBA. 

Don't use other people's deadlines and never do anything at the last minute. 

If someone gives you a deadline, don't use it.  Instead set your own deadline ahead of theirs.  Get in the habit of shipping early. You'll exceed the other person's expectations.

How do you treat deadlines?

1. When you take someone else's money you answer to them.  This will force you to make decisions differently and sometimes not in the best interest of the company (your company). 

2. Constraints force creativity.  It's really healthy to ask questions like how would we do this with less money?  How could we do this with no traditional marketing?  How could we do this with less employees?  

3. You might love what you're doing and want to stick with it long term. Which leads us to the next point.

4. If you take in investors they'll want an exit, that's why they made the investment in the first place.  What happens if they want out and you want to stay in?

5. You don't have anything to lose.  Seriously, this is a big deal.  You don't have a ton of money to build a business, so you don't have a lot to lose.  Big companies have everything to lose.  You don't, you can take risks they can't, take advantage of it.

Here's a great free resource from Seth Godin on Bootstrapping.