(Please take the time to watch the video.  Trust me, Raul Midon is amazing!)

Most entrepreneurs focus on the cash flow, team, market, and product, but neglect one of the most important factors in the success of the startup - morale.  Morale is the thing that keeps you working at 2am in the morning; morale is the element that keeps spirits high when cash flow is running low.  Without high company morale, your startup will feel like it is failing even when things are going very well.

I’ve recently been plagued by low moral.  I had low energy during my startup meetings and I found myself arguing with Yu-kai all the time.  Maybe creating an internet startup from scratch that changes the advertisement game is too hard? Perhaps I should just take the Tim Ferriss approach and create a business that is focused on driving revenue and nothing more.  A self-automated business that allows me to do what I want when I want does sound pretty sexy.

Yesterday I decided to change my state of mind.  I decided to throw out all of my thoughts about Viralogy and focus on it with a blank slate.  This is the list I came up with:

1. We just closed a round of funding (our first ever!)
2. The team is financially secure
3. Talking to agencies at conferences has shown that there is a high demand for our service
4. We have sold our product to clients and validated our model
5. We’re looking to hire a full-time developer and full-time sales person and have the cash to pay them!

I realized that Viralogy has been doing much better than it has ever been before!  Why then do I have such low morale?

Like Raul Midon says, “It’s all a State of Mind.”  I have the choice of viewing my company in a positive or in a negative light.  Ultimately, I believe it is the entrepreneur’s duty to think of everything as the glass half full.  We entrepreneurs have the special ability to see the positive in things that others see as only negative.  Without this special quality, I believe an entrepreneur will never be able to achieve huge success.

So aside from it being a state of mind, how can we learn from this so that you can apply the lessons to your startup team and make sure that everything is always at a high point?  Here are the lessons that I have learned:

1. Don’t mistake failure for a lack of patience

Let me set the scenario:

Your team gets an amazing idea!  You and your team are so excited that you start building the product right away.  Two weeks into the build of the product and your team starts getting frustrated because it hasn’t been finished yet.  Since the product isn’t finished, your team thinks of another “great” idea and starts to build that one.

See the problem here?

It’s easy to mistake a failing product with an unfinished product.  In the startup world, speed is key, but if you don’t have the patience to see a feature all the way through to the end and really test if it is a viable model, then you’re just going to end up chasing your tail in circles.

The solution: Set concrete milestones for the completion, promotion, and validation of your product.  Make sure you write down your milestones on your PB Works (my system manager of choice), and adhere to your milestones until your set deadlines are complete.  Here are sample milestones for a product that you can use:

1. Development
2. Marketing
3. Feedback research and analysis
4. Revision
5. Viability decision

2. Meeting Effectiveness

I love chit-chatting with my team and goofing off, at the same time, the team must always feel like they are accomplishing something during the meeting.  There’s no point in meeting with your team unless you guys actually get things done.

Too often I find that meetings are a great time to complain about the company and just talk about what’s frustrating the person about the company (this is NOT Viralogy by the way.  It’s other companies that I’m involved with).  Instead of thinking about a solution, the meetings turn into a playground for complaints and no one gets anything positive from the meeting.

The solution: All meetings must have the following:

1. Purpose (the agenda - which should be emailed prior to the meeting)
2. Leader
3. Minute taker
4. Actionable next steps
5. Set end time

If you have an end-time, then you won’t stay on one topic for 30 minutes just because people have something to say about it. At the end of your meeting, each person should know exactly what next steps he or she should take to move the company forward

But always keep in mind: the meetings must be fun and lively.  Kid around with your team, make a joke, make fun of a team member, and just have a plain good time.  The best meetings I’ve been in are productive AND fun.

3. Feature Creep

Developers hate this.  I’m guilty of it all the time because I constantly find ways to “improve” an idea or feature.  Feature Creep happens when you decide to add more features to a product that is already being developed.  When you keep adding features to the development of a product, deadlines get postponed, feature become unpolished, and the team is demoralized because the product is not ideal.

The solution: Details, details, details!  When you build a product, make sure that everything is detailed out to the last step.  I suggest creating mockups of what the final product will look like, what each feature of the product is for, and detail exactly how everything will look and work as a final product.  In this way, no one has any debates about what the final product will do.

Furthermore, I suggest keeping the first public version of the product as simple as possible.  Your product should do one thing and do it well! Gosh that is so important!  If you get anything from this post, this is it - do one thing and be the best at it!

4. Manage Expectations

This is by far the most important point that I will make on this post.  Carefully manage your team expectations because the team morale greatly depends on it.  Here is an example from Viralogy:

We had the expectation of making revenue with Viralogy by July of this year.  However, we had not yet projected when the final version of the Viralogy platform would be finished.  Furthermore, we did not even finalize what the final version of Viralogy would look like.

How can we make money with a product without even knowing in concrete detail what the final product will look like and how we’re going to sell it?

This is what I mean by managing team expectations.  Because we expected to make revenue by July, we had low moral when we didn’t.

The solution: It’s all about setting concrete milestones.  Know what the final product will look like, know how long it will take to build, and most of all, make sure your entire team is on the same page.

Seriously people!  It seems like such common sense but it you don’t proactively manage your team’s expectations and make sure everyone is on the same page, people will get disappointed!

—

Life is a state of mind.  You can choose to be happy today with what you have achieved thus far.  You can still be ambitious and have future goals that will be hard to achieve, but the fact that you haven’t achieved them yet should not disappoint you.

Girlfriends are hard to keep happy no matter what.  As a young entrepreneur with very little income, it’s even harder to keep the boss happy.

Kim and I got into one of our worsts fights last week.  I don’t even know what started it; all I know is that it was the first time I felt her disdain, frustration, and anger with my career choice.  She has been the most understanding, wonderful person this past year and a half, but everyone reaches a breaking point.

At the climax of the fight, I realized what a terrible boyfriend I had been.  I made a promise to her and myself that I would not only make more time for her, but that I would use my time efficiently to make her happy.

You see, I have to approach this how I approach my company.  In my company, I can’t spend all my time doing C level work or just working for the sake of work; I have to efficiently use my time in the most productive way possible.  My job is to keep the company moving forward, not just surviving in one place.   Likewise, my job is to keep our relationship moving forward, and not just surviving in one place.

Here is how you can keep your girlfriend happy as an entrepreneur:

1. Wake up early

Such a simple piece of advice, but just so hard to execute.  Sleeping in late is the vice of the entrepreneur; we love to wake up late and stay up all night (usually past 3am) working on our projects.

A few things you can do to get your ass out of bed: set three alarms so that if the first one doesn’t work, the next two will; place the alarm away from your bed so that you have to stand up to turn it off; schedule early morning phone call meetings so that you’re forced to wake up early.

It’s a known fact that girlfriends love to go out at night.  Wake up early, work your ass off until the evening, and spend the night making her happy.  Trust me, this small piece of advice is going to do wonders for your relationship.

2. Don’t fall victim to cuddling

Man this is difficult! If cuddling was an Olympic sport, my girlfriend would win the gold medal.

Cuddling is like C-level work:  It’s the useless, pointless emails that you send; it’s the 2-hour long team meetings that are completely unnecessary.  You know why cuddling is a trap?  It’s because girls love to do it, but it doesn’t count as “doing fun stuff together” or “spending quality time together.”

Girlfriends want to be taken out; they want to engage in active activities with you.  Therefore, cut the unnecessary afternoon cuddling sessions and spend them either “spending quality time together” or working hard so that you can take her out in the evening.

3. Plan activities that don’t cost a lot of money and that don’t take up the whole day

Not everything costs money fellas.  Take your girlfriend out to a picnic, to a matinee movie, to the museum, or teach her how to play the guitar, skate, or surf.  All of these don’t cost a cent or cost very little.

Make her feel special and plan out these fun days that don’t cost a lot of money.  It takes up less time than cuddling, and it will count towards “spending quality time together.”

4. Plan out a relationship schedule much like how you plan out your business schedule

Yes, I know this sounds kind of weird, but it really does help.  My girlfriend and I now schedule a week of fun!

For example, check out this coming week:

• Monday: I’m taking her skating at Mile Square Park
• Tuesday: Movie Matinee (we’re watching Slumdog Millionaire)
• Friday: Disneyland fireworks
• Saturday: Picnic at the park

You know how much the above is going to cost me?  $30 - the cost of two matinee movie tickets, cheese, crackers, and wine.  By planning out the week, you do a couple of things:

1. You optimized your time so that every moment that you’re spending with her is not idle time; rather, it’s fun quality time
2. She can’t rationally complain that you guys don’t do anything fun together anymore because the proof will be in your calendar!

5. Don’t take out your stress on her

I’ve been guilty of this.  Entrepreneurship can be stressful, and people take their stress out on the people that they love the most.  What’s the best way to maintain your level of stress?  For me, it’s following steps 1-4 above.

Waking up early and cutting out cuddling time optimizes my time to do work and keep pushing my company forward.  Planning activities that don’t cost a lot of money and planning everything out a week in advance keeps my time as productive as possible and it means the time I spend with my girlfriend is always “quality fun time.”

By following steps 1-4, I have been able to achieve 5, which leads to a happy, healthy relationship.

I hope this helps and please share your tips in the comments section!

If you had the opportunity to find happiness in every region of the world, would you do it?  I would too

My good friends from around the world are competing for the opportunity to do just that.  The opportunity is called Expedition 206, where the winning team will travel to 206 countries in 1 year and tape, blog, and Tweet about their adventures and the people they meet.

The amazing part is that we get to choose who goes on the trip! Check out my descriptions for the teams below and then decide who you want to vote for.

The Teams:

Team WOW

Brendan - Brendan is a rock star who currently lives in China.  He has done various video shows over there and does the funniest “Chinese call” for a waitress.  He’s such a fun loving guy with a big heart - you can truly tell that he cares about the people he meets.

Greer - When I first met Greer, I thought that she was a nice, tranquil girl who liked to play by the rules.  As I got to know her, I realized that she is much more of an adventurer than I am and could probably beat me at many extreme sports.  I’ll never forget her and Justin’s dance routine and her Capoeira skills.

Erin - Erin is a sweetheart.  I had the opportunity to work with Erin and had a blast because of her energy and enthusiasm.  Erin actually just got married last week so wish her congratulations!

Team Sha-ba-ba-doo

Sam - Sam and I had a blast during our time together.  The guy is a Chinese male cheerleader from Canada - what’s not to like?  My most memorable moment was when he spontaneously started jamming on the piano and we all sang along to With or Without You by U2.  I can’t wait until he becomes a Chinese Pop Star!

Dave - Dave and I didn’t really have the opportunity to bond.  Like Tony (in the team below), Dave can captivate an audience with his words.  He can really jam on his harmonica so he and Sam could make an awesome musical duo.

Josephine - Josephine is a go-getter.  She loves to compete and I can tell that she really wants to win this.  Josephine has the language skills, travel experience, and will power to make the yearlong trip.

Team The Mix

Antonio - Antonio is a Shaolin Master from Mexico City.  I’m totally serious!  I’m jealous of his facial hair because mine only grows out in small patches; it’s quite sad.  I had the opportunity to collaborate with Antonio on multiple projects and I feel he is one of the strongest people in this competition.  I know I’ll be visiting him sometime in the future in Mexico City to hang out and train in the art of Shaolin. Hermano, te deseo todo lo mejor!

Kelly - Kelly knows how to have an awesome time.  During the U2 concert, Kelly and I snuck down to the pit by utilizing a weapon that no man can resist - a French accent.  I swear we were so close that we could almost touch Bono.  I guarantee that if Kelly goes on the trip, you will always have something entertaining to watch.

Tony - My boy Tony is a storyteller.  I greatly admire his ability because I’m more of a listener and responder than a captivator.   His attention to detail in his videos and his straight up passion for this opportunity is exactly what this expedition needs to be successful.

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So which team will you choose?  Leave us a comment below letting us know which team you voted for.

May the best team win!

I spent all of last week with people from Spain, Belgium, Denmark, Australia, and many other regions of the world.  Each one was a world traveler, film maker, and an amazing creative mind that completely blew away my artistic skill set.

To be perfectly honest, I was at first intimated to be in their presence.  I have pretty much spent my entire life in Southern California, while my new friends had traveled to all 5 continents and even studied with Shaolin Masters in China.

I wanted to live their lives; I wanted to be them.

I began to imagine myself as a world traveler. I probed the minds of my friends and wrote down notes about where to stay in certain countries.  I google searched English teaching programs abroad and even calculated the amount of income I would need to comfortably travel from country to country.

Before I could get carried away in my thinking process, my friends began to ask me about my startup experience.  They asked me how to start a company, how to incorporate it, and how to build a team.  They told me how lucky I was to make a solid salary and not have to worry about attempting to live off of $12,000 a year.  They told me how lucky I was to have a supportive family and girlfriend that have helped me on my journey as an entrepreneur.

They wanted to live my life; they wanted to be me.

Wanting what others have is a disease that can consume your entire life if you don’t cure it.  I’ve had this disease through a majority of my life, and last week I felt the symptoms acting up again.

But then, your comments on my previous blog post made me realize that one can always long for more; however, it is the appreciation of what you currently have that will lead to happiness.

I used to believe that accepting happiness with your current state of being meant settling for something short of your dreams.  But I was wrong.  I now realize that loving your present self is the highest form of happiness and acceptance.

How I learned to love my present self

1. I wrote a blog post about my insecurities and fears

This helped me cleanse myself of my bottled up frustration.  When I write, I’m able to pour my feelings out to the world and become vulnerable.  Though this may sound scary, it’s one of the best ways to realize that you’re not alone in the world and that there are many people who are going through the same things that you are going through.

2. I read your insightful, well thought out comments

A sincere thank you to all of your great comments.  You made me realize that the grass really is greener on the other side and that I have to focus on what I HAVE rather than on what I wish I had.

3. I spent a week with a group of amazing people from all around the world

The principle behind this is change.  I was in a new city with a group of completely new people for a week, which provided the perfect environment for me to reevaluate my life.  When you get away from the routine, you’re able to look at your life from a third person perspective and focus on the things in life that make you happy.

—

I didn’t go through any fancy meditation techniques, nor did I read any self-help blogs or books.  My realization came from my willingness to expose myself to the world and receive feedback from the people I respect the most.  You don’t have to do it through a blog post like I did; instead, you can have a heart-to-heart with a best friend, mentor, or teacher.

Are you happy RIGHT NOW?  If not, what’s holding you back?

Photo by Barbara

This is a guest post by my good friend Carlos Miceli who blogs at Owl Sparks.

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We are a “hype” culture.

Every time some topic gets some buzz going on, we start associating it with as many stories, movies, and anecdotes as possible.

Why? Because it sells. It makes the topic recyclable.

There’s one worrying consequence because of this: Glamour.

This is what’s happening with entrepreneurship. It’s been glamourized, and we are ignoring it.

We are focusing on the nice part, we are embracing incomplete versions of what being an entrepreneur is like. Countless people are choosing the path without really knowing why (yes, we are that susceptible).

Their lack of work and life experience, combined with society’s pressure to succeed, makes them rush to the prettiest goal possible. And what’s prettier than running your own company, doing what you want, how you want?

Besides listening to all the Mark Zuckenbergs and Steve Jobs, we should also be listening to all the people that failed at it. Not because fear of failure should affect our goals, but because only when you’re ready to overcome the things that others before you couldn’t, it’s when you will realize that the goal is truly your own.

Two quotes from my friend Stephen Dodson:

- “People are too focused with the end result of success, not necessarily the process of getting there or the field they’re in. I think one of the great human tragedies is the disconnect between what people think will make them happy and what actually does.”

- “All successful people feel some type of urgency to be successful, but taken to an extreme, this causes people to over-prioritize signaling, and undervalue what’s really important: Life is time.  Make sure you spend it well.”

To hell with books and blogs about things that you can only learn by doing.

Listen to those who tell you what sucks about this lifestyle more than what’s great about it, because there are already hundreds of people out there trying sell you the “dream”.

Entrepreneurship is hard. Statistically speaking, it’s probably not for you.

So don’t buy into the glamour, know yourself, do some research, accept luck and most importantly, be ready to work your ass off.

Oh, and don’t rush into novelty. It’s never as good as it sounds.

Now, you can start your own company. Good luck.

[Photo by: Miss Lulu]

My friends are living their passions.  They’re living location independently in Thailand, New Zealand, and Italy, they’ve quit their full-time and become life coaches, and many have decided to pursue a startup company and try to build an empire.

I feel it’s great that we’re encouraging people to pursue their passions.  It would be great to simplify my life, own less material possessions, and live on a modest income in a remote country enjoying the simple things in life.  But I feel like I just can’t do it. What about the responsibilities that I have because I come from a single-parent, middle-income home that depends on me for its financial future?

My Mom, Dad, and Brother are all depending on me to succeed.  My Mom was hit hard with this economic recession and has lost a majority of her retirement, meaning I will need to support her retirement so that she can live comfortably after 65.  My Dad has his own construction company but has never saved more than $1,000 in his life.  He won’t be able to do the intensive work required for his construction company for much longer, so I will need to make enough money so that my Dad can retire comfortably.  My Brother is going to school and I feel he will do well in life, but the level of income he aspires for will not cover our family responsibilities.  I will be the sole provider for my family.

Are you in this boat?  We talk about sacrificing our full-time jobs and taking a risk to build a startup, but we neglect to talk about the other things we sacrifice.  If you quit your full-time and move back home, that’s a strain on your family’s income.

Lets explore these “passion myths” to find out if they will lead to happiness or stress in your life…

The Myth: Quit your full-time and start your company

I did this exact thing.  I chased my “passion” by quitting my full-time job, moving back home to save money, and working non-stop to build a successful company.

For two years I did pretty decently:  I worked on something I love and I paid my bills on time, what could be better?

It wasn’t until the middle of this year that I realized I have absolutely nothing in my savings account.  Even worse, I had nothing in a 401K or a Roth IRA.  How could I?  I barely made enough money to pay off my student loans and phone bill.

I realized that I fell into a trap.  I was blinded by my passion and ignored the fact that I was living paycheck to paycheck.

The Reality: Be prepared for emotional strain, for financial stress, and to risk a stable retirement.  Hey, I’m the biggest proponent of starting your own company and I still think you should do it, but you need to be aware that you’re not just sacrificing your current stability, you’re sacrificing your future stability as well.

The Myth: Location Independence

It would be a dream to move to Spain or Japan, blog about my experiences, and pick up a job that would sustain my girlfriend and me.  To be honest, I think it would be quit easy to do it because I’ve seen so many of my friends online do it.

After all, two people in a one bedroom apartment can easily make enough to pay rent, eat good food, and enjoy the cultural experiences of the country.  So why haven’t I done it already?

The Reality: If I left for another country, I would feel like I’m turning my back on my family.  Who will take care of my Dad once he can’t do his job?  Who will take care of my Mom once she retires?  As the eldest, it is my responsibility to make sure that every member of my family will be well off.

Furthermore, what about saving for a wedding or for my kids’ college tuition?  I know I’m weird because I think about these things but if I don’t start saving now, my kids will have to struggle just like how I had to struggle to pay for my college education.

—

My family is not wealthy.  Sometimes I look at my friends with wealthy families and envy them NOT because they got everything they wanted while growing up, but because they won’t need to financially take care of their parents or siblings.

If you’re in the same situation, how can we position ourselves to do what we love to do AND take care of our families?  What are our best next steps?

This is a very important post for me and I plan to have an answer to it within a couple of days

Ramit Sethi taught me to organize my savings account to save for items/moments in my life that are important to me: House, Gifts, Car, Travel, Wedding, and Just for Fun.  Because I am now actively saving money for a goal, I am able to indulge my money on things without feeling guilty about it.  For example, this past weekend I took my girlfriend out to an indulging experience at a hotel and spa and used the money in my “Gift” mini account completely guilt free.

I felt like a personal finance PRO. Never before had I dropped so much money and felt guilt free about it!

I learned something else these past few months that is equally valuable for entrepreneurs - I learned how to budget my TIME so that I can spend my time guilt free. An entrepreneur always feels like there is work to do, but if you learn how to budget your time responsibly and accomplish your goals ahead of time, then you can indulge yourself with the time you’ve saved up.  Ultimately, this is great for your mind, health, and best of all, for your relationships.

Loving your work does NOT mean you should be a workaholic

For some reason we’ve turned into a culture that feels like the title “workaholic” should be worn like a badge of honor - I’ve seen my peers compare their number of work hours as if they were comparing penis sizes.

The number of hours you work does NOT matter.  What matters are the accomplishments that you achieve.  This is how I’ve done it and how you can do it too:

Step 1: Establish Monthly and Weekly Milestones

The funny thing about a startup is that entrepreneurs are only satisfied when they’re working and completing tasks.  However, don’t forget that aimlessly completing a multitude of tasks is useless if you’re not completing milestones and moving the company forward.

On your laptop, write down your goals for the next three months.  Limit yourself to 5 major milestones for each month.  These should be large major goals such as:

1. Hire a developer
2. Get feedback from users and analyze the data
3. Implement Crazy Egg and analyze user clicks on your site
4. Connect with 2 Venture Capitalists
5. Close 5 clients

Furthermore, breakdown each month into 4 weeks.  For each week, use a piece of paper to write down exactly 5 major milestones that you would like to hit.  Examples can be:

1. Write 3 blog posts and drive over 500 views on each one
2. Connect with 20 new people on Twitter and establish meaningful relationships with them
3. Redesign the logo
4. Create a job posting for a developer and interview at least 3 potential candidates
5. Apply to speak at 3 conferences about social media marketing

These are actionable milestones that you can concretely hit.

Step 2: Embrace unexpected projects

Do NOT be afraid of tasks that come up unexpectedly.  These unexpected tasks are inevitable and must be completed accordingly; however, never let unexpected tasks distract you from the IMPORTANT milestones that you need to hit.  Before engaging an unexpected task, ask yourself the following questions:

1. What is the priority of this unexpected task?
2. When do I have to complete this unexpected task by?
3. Will doing this unexpected task keep me from hitting my weekly/monthly milestones?

Once you answer these questions, you’ll be able to make an informed decision about how to proceed with the unexpected task.

Step 3: If you complete all of the tasks on your list, then you can spend the rest of your time guilt-free doing what you please

Breath in the feeling of accomplishment and spend time with your girlfriend (or boyfriend), friends, and family.  Since you’ve completed your important milestones, I want you to take the time to make the special ones in your life feel appreciated and valued.

I know you feel that since you’ve finished your milestones, you should get a head start on your other work.  Let me put a stop to this right now and say that it is ultimately in your company’s best interest that you relax, take your mind off of work, and spend it with your loved ones.  The last thing you want is an angry girlfriend (or boyfriend) who is on your case for not spending enough time with her.  This is a HUGE distraction and can lead to missed milestones because you’re trying to save your relationships.

Step 4: If you did not complete all of the goals on your list, then you need to adjust accordingly

If you did not accomplish your milestones, then any combination of 3 possible things could have occurred:

1. You set unrealistic milestones for yourself

If this is the case, then you should re-evaluate your goals and make sure that your milestones next month are adjusted according to your capabilities.  The goal is to set an ambitious goal that is possible for you to hit.  A missed milestone looks bad on you and is bad for team morale.

2. You were distracted by too many unexpected tasks

Remember, unexpected tasks will always occur.  You must be disciplined and realize that many of these unexpected tasks are unimportant and will not push your company forward.  If you have trouble keeping this discipline, try this advanced technique that Yu-kai and I have tried:

Write down all of your unexpected tasks in a Notepad on your computer.  At the end of your day (perhaps at 12am or 1:00am depending on when you sleep), open up your notepad and complete all of the unexpected tasks before you go to bed.  Because you’re sleepy, you’ll rush through these tasks and get them done as quickly as possible.  This is a good thing because unexpected tasks are usually low in priority and just require simple grunt work.

3. You need to work harder

When you are working, I want you to hustle your ass off.  I’m very serious about my work time and don’t let anything distract me, that’s why I’m able to get so much done in a very little amount of time.  There are many things that you can do that will help you work harder and more effectively.

Step 5: At the end of the month, review your accomplishments and reassess your milestones

A startup is very volatile.  Goals for next month may quickly change and you’ll need to be able to adapt quickly to stay ahead of your competition.  The milestones that you write down on your paper are more like guidelines.  If priorities change during the week or month, don’t be afraid to change the milestones on your piece of paper.  You know what’s best for your company and you need to make sure that you’re hitting the right milestones that will position your company for success.

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These techniques have greatly helped me lead a more balanced, happier lifestyle.  Even more importantly , these techniques have allowed me to keep my girlfriend happy and in love with me.

Now that you know how to make free time available for yourself as an entrepreneur, go out and do it!

I spent my days at UCLA reading business books in class and building organizations instead of doing homework.  I disliked academics and forcing myself to do homework or pay attention in class would only cause me frustration.   I found that I would constantly ask myself, “When will I ever use these things in the real world?”

Is this you?  Are you thinking of dropping out of college to become the next Steve Jobs or Bill Gates and build a multi-billion dollar empire?  I had those dreams as well, but let me tell you from first-hand experience - the real world is no walk in the park.  I consistently find myself missing my undergrad days because it’s like playing a video game with the ability to hit the reset button when you mess up.  College is like a giant safety net that allows you to try and fail as many times as you want without any major consequences.

So before you give up on college, take a second and let me tell you why an entrepreneur should finish his or her undergraduate education.

A prime example

Before we go into detail about why you should not drop out of college, let me give you a prime example of how to do it the right way if you were to do it.

One of my favorite bloggers is Jenny Blake from Life After College.  In her 3rd year of college, she decided to take a 1 year break to pursue a startup venture with a professor.  She was the youngest in the group and learned a tremendous amount about how to build a company, what the real world was like, and most of all, she learned a great deal about herself.  After a year, she returned to college to finish her BA.

Key Takeaway: The important element of Jenny’s story is that she joined a startup with an experienced professor instead of venturing off on her own.  Because she joined a group of people that were older and more experienced than her, she was able to learn from their wisdom, get paid, get experience on her resume, and build a great relationship with a very valuable group of people. The purpose of the startup was NOT to make it rich and build a successful company; instead, the goal was to learn and grow a new set of skills.

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Well, Jenny is a unique case because she’s awesome.  If you’re a normal person like me, then you don’t have professors approaching you offering you a position in their startup.  So why not just drop out of college, save money by not having to pay tuition, and commit full time to your startup?  Here are the reasons you should stay in school and get your degree:

1. You know less than you think

I remember sitting in my apartment reading Guy Kawasaki’s 20/30/10 Rule of PowerPoint.  After reading that post I thought to myself, “I now know exactly what I need to know to pitch to VCs.  Time to build the business plan and get me some funding!”  That was about three years ago.  Looking back, I realize just how little I knew back then.  I was a naive little 21 year old with huge aspirations, but little in terms of practical experience.

Use college as a place to study entrepreneurs as much as you possibly can.  I don’t mean take entrepreneurship classes; I mean get on the phone and call young entrepreneurs from top companies and invite them to have a cup of tea with you.  Pick their brain, learn from them, and if you can, intern for them.  You need practical experience in a startup before you can successfully build your own.

2. If classes are boring, read business books or switch majors

I studied Economics and I hated it!  If you hate your major and think it’s worthless for the real world, does this mean that you should drop out to start your startup?

Of course not!

This just means that you’re in the wrong major.  I found myself in this situation and added a Philosophy minor to my curriculum.  Not only did I love these classes, but I actually used a lot of the writing techniques that I learned in a lot of my writing.

Since I couldn’t get out of Economics as my major, I decided to make the best of it.  Instead of sleeping in class, I decided to read business books and learn as much as I could about business:

• E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber
• Good to Great by Jim Collins
• Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath
• Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi
• The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

It’s amazing how much you focus in class when you stop listening to the teacher and focus on something you’re interested in.

3. Hang out at the MBA School and find some mentors

If you find that your peers are not as focused on entrepreneurship as you are, then you need to surround yourself with people who are.  As an undergrad, I made it a point to eat lunch at the MBA School and meet at least one new MBA student everyday.  Because I forced myself to do it, I met some great people who guided me throughout my undergrad years and who introduced me to the people in the Entrepreneurship Organization (EO).  Because of my connections at the EO, I was able to meet some amazing students who introduced me to tech startup events in Los Angeles and to a few VCs.

4. Use your undergrad years as a practice ground

The number one reason you should stay in school is so that you can build a startup without the fear of failing.

When you fail during your 3rd year at college, then you can just brush your shoulders off, come up with a new idea, and try again your fourth year at college.  You have absolutely nothing to lose and a bundle of experience to gain.

But what about once you’re in the real world and you’ve graduated college?  What happens when your startup fails then?

To be honest, if you fail and you have no other previous experience, then you are in major problems.  Ask yourself these questions:

1. What high paying job does NOT require a college degree?
2. How long can you survive without generating a stable flow of income?
3. What capital will you use to build your next startup?
4. Do you have a skill or trade the people will pay you to perform?

If you fail and you have no college degree to fall back on, then I think you will be screwed.  Sure you can keep trying and trying, but understand that most startups fail and most small business owners are not living a rich and wealthy lifestyle.

—

Finish your undergraduate degree.  But don’t do it just for the sake of finishing; take advantage of every opportunity that your university offers.  I have given you some prime homework to do in the list above so get it moving and start your journey towards living the startup life!

Instead of giving you general advice, I thought I would tell you specifically how we recruited each member of the Future Delivery team.  In this way, you will be able to follow in our footsteps and possibly create a startup dream team of your own.

1. Yu-kai Chou

Future Delivery starts with Yu-kai Chou.

Yu-kai and I met as pledge brothers from the International Fraternity of Delta Sigma Pi.  I knew him as the Taiwanese fobby dude that had started his own companies.  Out of all of my friends from UCLA, I thought that Yu-kai was the most likely to be successful.

Lesson Learned: Yu-kai built an amazing personal brand as an undergrad.  Everyone knew him as the young entrepreneur who was constantly reading business books and that would go out of his way to help you out.  If you want people to work for your company, then you need to demonstrate that joining forces with you will lead them on the path to success.

Yu-kai Chou is the anchor, and his professionalism and impressive demeanor are what caused the first team members of Future Delivery to join.

2. Chief Marketing Officer

As an undergrad, I was motivated and ready to go into the corporate world.  I probably would have fully committed to the corporate world had it not been for a traumatizing recruiting season the Fall of my fourth year.  It was then that I realized that I needed to do something more with my life than simply get good grades in school.  Since I thought Yu-kai Chou was destined to be the most successful out of everyone in my network, I decided to hang out with him and hopefully have his professionalism rub off on me.

I was determined to work with Yu-kai, so I decided to prove myself by reading business books and doing research for him - keep in mind, I can be a very arrogant person and Yu-kai is one year younger than me.  This shows the impressive personal brand that Yu-kai had established.

In my head I thought, “If I prove myself to Yu-kai and build a company with him, there’s no way that I can lose!  I just need to prove to him that I deserve to be on his team.”  I therefore decided to start Bruin Consulting at UCLA to demonstrate my entrepreneurial ability.

Lesson Learned: Your network is more powerful than you realize. Find that impressive person in your network that you can learn from and hang out with him or her.

My Father once told me:

“Tell me who you hang out with, and I’ll tell you who you are”

Hang out with successful people and you will be successful.

3. Chief Technology Officer

We tried absolutely everything possible in our search for a lead developer: job boards; career fairs; I even walked into engineering classrooms and tried to talk students into joining Future Delivery.  Only one effort actually provided a substantial ROI on our efforts and introduced us to our current CTO.

I met the Head of the Engineering Department at a UCLA startup event.  We hit it off, so she offered to send her computer science students a job description for our position.

We interviewed a bunch of students and gave internship offers to 3 students.  One of the last people who reached out to us was the person who is our current CTO.  There was a schedule misunderstanding and I didn’t show up on the day that we scheduled our interview.  For a second I was tempted to skip this interview since we had already recruited 3 developers.  Man am I glad we didn’t skip it!

Lesson Learned: Use ALL of the resources available to you.  Don’t just use Twitter or Monster to look for people to recruit; try college campuses, department heads, counselors, and everything else out there.

Secondly, never pass up an opportunity.  Attend every event and interview every qualified person; you never know who you might meet.

4. Marketing Director

During the Summer of 2008, I needed to build a marketing team to market our product.  Since we needed to conserve cash flow, I decided to create a marketing internship program where I would teach undergrads about business and marketing, and in turn, they would help us market FD Career on their college campus.  It was one of the best things I’ve ever developed, and I have established life long friendships with many of the students.  The undergrad that stood out the most from the internship was Joseph Yi.  We ultimately gave him a full-time offer which he accepted.

Lesson Learned: Undergraduates are looking for something more than money; they’re looking for education and a stepping stone to advance them in their career.  I put in the time and effort to create this experience, and that’s why they put in their time and effort into Future Delivery.

5. Director of Company Relations

Yu-kai Chou met our Director of Company Relations at an event up in Northern California.  She was very interested in learning how to become an entrepreneur, so Yu-kai gave her some business books to read and podcasts to listen to.  I believe that in addition to helping her become an entrepreneur, Yu-kai was testing her to see if she would have what it takes to join our team.

Being the skeptical guy that I am, I told Yu-kai, “Dude, you expect too much of people.  I don’t think she’ll read or listen to those podcasts.”  Ironically, I had already forgotten that just 1 year ago, I was the one reading books that Yu-kai had recommended to me.

Well, it turns out that she not only read all of the books and listened to all of the podcasts, but she began to help Yu-kai find the best investor meetups.  After that, we welcomed her with open arms into our team and were happy to have a girl in the Future Delivery family.

Lesson Learned: If you have developed a high-quality personal brand that is open, friendly, and helpful, then people will want to associate with you so that they can learn from you.  Furthermore, you really need to take every opportunity that comes to you and help everyone that asks for help.  If you put in the time and effort for them, then they will put in the time and effort for you.

6. Lead Developer/Designer

Yu-kai and I met our Lead Developer/Designer through our personal blogs and Twitter profiles.  He left many thoughtful comments on our blog posts, so Yu-kai decided to reach out to him via Twitter and build a friendly relationship with him.  From their conversations, Yu-kai realized that he knew how to program, so Yu-kai casually asked him if he wanted to join the team.

Lesson Learned: Don’t be shy to ask your social media contacts to join your startup.  You don’t need to be in close proximity to work together; the entire Future Delivery team works virtually and meets up once a week via Skype.  Ask someone you trust to help out and see where it takes you.

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Now that you know how we did it, go out there and build a strong team for yourself!!!

The small conference room is sweaty because of the amount of nervous people crammed into it.  A Fortune 500 client is in the room, and the team is presenting our results for the past 3 months.  A quarterly review - our chance to justify why a client should keep paying us money for our work.

… Lights flash and I’m standing in front of a crowd of people.  I pick up my guitar, hit the chords, and the crowd sings along to my music.  Cameras flash, camcorders record, and I bask in the glory.  I get ready to play my solo and…

“Jun… Jun… It’s your turn to present”

Damn, just another day dream…

—

I saw Lights play in Hollywood last week:

There was a moment during the performance when she stopped and said, “The label put a different version of this song on the album, but I’m going to play it for you the way she wants to be played.”

Her music means so much to her that she humanizes it.  I realized that she would be playing her music regardless of the fame or money.  Her music is her life, and she would be happy playing it from anywhere in the world.

At that moment I thought to myself, “What do I love that much in this world?”  Is there something that I do that brings me this same level of satisfaction and happiness that I would do it regardless of money or recognition?  I’m sure like many of you, I still can’t answer that question…

—

I daydream a lot.  Sometimes I’m dunking on Lebron James, and other times I’m break dancing at the Red Bull Finals.  Does daydreaming mean I’m dissatisfied with my life?  Do artists dream about starting their own web startup like I dream about playing at sold out venues?

Lets take it one step further: If I successfully sold my company for millions, would I still find myself daydreaming another life?

Daydreams do signify a hint of dissatisfaction

For example, before I was with Kim, I would daydream about being with girls all day long.  Now that I’m with Kim, I’ve come to realize that I don’t daydream about girls at all anymore.  Sure Taylor Swift and Christina Ricci pop into my head from time to time, but I honestly don’t wonder what it would be like to be with someone else.

So if my feelings about relationships parallel my inner most feelings about my career, then I should not be daydreaming about living another life.  I should not be wishing that I was 8 inches taller, that I could sing, or that I didn’t have two left feet.

Accept your DNA

I feel that in order to find happiness in life, we must do these two things:

1. Embrace your DNA - Gary Vaynerchuk
2. Focus on your strengths, not your weaknesses - Tim Ferriss

Loving who I am and accepting the attributes that I have been given is very hard.  I hope that one day I’ll be able to come out of a daydream and realize that I’m actually living it.