Great TED talk by Brene Brown on Shame and its role in innovation and society.

YouTube Link to Brown Shame Talk:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psN1DORYYV0

Terrific Roosevelt quote from it for all you entrepreneurs in the arena…I'll call it the Entrepreneur's Manifesto:

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. "

Below is the overview from my talk this year at the Credit Suisse Entrepreneurs' Summit at Sundance. Maria at BuiltInChicago (click to join) encouraged me to post on this, so here goes…

The Hero’s Journey

Matthew McCall

Partner at New World Ventures and Co-Founder of Draper Fisher Jurvetson Portage Venture Partners

As one of the most respected venture capitalists in the country, Matthew McCall has plenty of hands-on experience and advice for entrepreneurs. But he took a less literal tone in his breakout session to talk about the soul and spirit of entrepreneurship.

“The entrepreneur at the end of the day is really a hero,” McCall says. “It’s someone who’s stepping out of the bounds of the safe life and doing something greater.”

Citing references from mythologist Joseph Campbell, Karl Jung, and Buddhist and Hindu culture, McCall described the path of an entrepreneur. “Here’s what makes the hero’s journey scary: evolution always occurs on the fringe. It never occurs in the middle, which means, by definition, you’re not following someone else’s path. You’re on the edge of society. You’re doing something someone hasn’t done before which means there is no roadmap. There is no safety net.”

For many of the attendees in the room, McCall’s insights struck a chord, especially when he talked about the perseverance and willpower that entrepreneurs must possess. “When you hit a wall it’s the universe’s way of telling you not to stop. What happens in adversity? Some people narrow their view. Great entrepreneurs are continually widening it. Great companies are willed into existence.”

Sharing some of his personal experiences with highs and lows, McCall says, “Look, the venture world, it ain’t as sexy as everyone thinks it is. In 2000 I thought I was going to be a janitor. All of my companies were tanking. I mean, I would just literally go from board meeting to board meeting firing people.” Like the entrepreneurs he invests in, McCall had to ride out the storm, persevering and eventually turning around his business.

For many entrepreneurs, success also depends on adaptability and embracing new directions as they present themselves. Says McCall, “Life is synchronistic. Stuff just happens. That’s why Joseph Campbell says, ‘Abandon the life you’ve planned and embrace the life that’s awaiting you.’ Think about what we heard about Pandora and Facebook and all these other stories, they didn’t stay with the path that was originally planned. If you can predict it, it’s not the revolution.”

He encouraged the audience to remain true to their vision, even when facing uncertainty and fear. He described greed, fear, and avarice as “the dragons inside” that keep people from realizing their dreams.

McCall also believes strongly in the work of karma – or, as he says quite simply, “Do things for people.” He is quick to offer help and advice to entrepreneurs, students, and other investors, and believes that his good deeds return to him many times over.

When asked by an audience member what he looks for in evaluating entrepreneurs to invest in, McCall replied, “I see one of two failures. Either you have a CEO who can’t think big enough but he or she is very good at operationalizing something really small, so that’s a lifestyle business, not a VC play. The other side is someone who has got this incredible vision, but when it comes down to operationalizing it, they can’t.”

McCall believes that anyone who founds a start-up will have to face the prospect of failure, and cannot be daunted by it. “You can’t say, ‘Woe is me, I failed. I’m embarrassed. I’m humiliated. I can’t do this again.’ You’re now no longer embracing the hero’s journey. In fact, you’re terrified of the hero’s journey. You have to say, ‘I just had this experience and it was amazing because I learned all this and I’m still alive.’ And then you open up to the synchronicities.”

 

Great piece from Aaron Levie, the founder and CEO of Box.net titled Be On A Mission That Doesn't Suck. In essence, he talks about the important of the purpose/reason of what you are doing. Without a sense of purpose beyond making money, flipping your company or being involved with a hip company, you will eventually come to dread your role/job. 

"As I thought about it more, I realized it was the mission we were on that compelled me to keep at it…As best as I can tell, this is the most important factor – in addition to the people that you work with every day – that separates going into the office and dreading your job or having the time of your life."

Great companies come from great missions and sense of purpose.

The best missions, it would seem, are those keep you cranking day after day. They’re ambitious, improbable, and fundamentally thrilling. Some of the loftiest are missions that can never quite be fulfilled. Google’s famously is “to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.” Starbucks wants to “inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time.” Whole Foods believes that“companies, like individuals, must assume their share of responsibility as tenants of Planet Earth.” — Be on a Mission that Doesn't Suck (Levie)

What is your firm's mission (not something like being the best at selling xyz but something aspirational like the above)? If you don't have one/know it, time to get crackin'…

An awesome quote about perspective for entrepreneurs out in the battle field from Jung (thanks to Carter Cast for sending over).

Mike Cassidy of Google, Microsoft, Xfire, Direct Hit fame ($1B), spoke at the DFJ CEO summit. When asked how hard does he burn his teams, he said home by 6:30 for balance (works email at night). Jason Fried wrote his team does more with their new 4 day week. Points out the law of diminishing returns, albeit more on the extreme.

“I have frequently seen people become neurotic when they content themselves with inadequate or wrong answers to the questions of life. They seek position, marriage, reputation, outward success, money, and remain unhappy and neurotic even when they have attained what they were seeking. Such people are usually confined within too narrow a spiritial horizon. Their life has not sufficient content, sufficient meaning. If they are enabled to develop into more spacious personalities, the neurosis generally disappears.”

My friends Eric Langsur and Brian Johnson forwarded this Frankl quote to me. I think it embodies the heart of success in entrepreneurship (the anti-build and flip approach):

“Again and again I therefore admonish my students in Europe and America: Don’t aim at success — the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long-run — in the long-run, I say! — success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think about it.” ~ Viktor Frankl from Man’s Search for Meaning

Given the rarified air that my children live in, their mother & I are doing everything we can to help them realize a) with good fortune comes a responsibility to help others and b) their world is not the norm. Two awesome ways is by opening up a family account at Kiva (we focus on women entrepreneurs…most bang for the buck of any demographic) and GiveForward (a New World portfolio company of ours that enables crowdfunding for medical expenses). It also teaches a life skill…hard to be focused on your own issues when you are helping another.

This is one of the most powerfully simple observations I have seen, summarizing how many of us live our lives. Thanks, Kirsten, for finding this! So simple and yet so difficult to live in the present — being grateful versus being fearful/anxious. More to come on my blog's new direction in the coming month.

Every once in a while, as a father, your children do something that amazes you and makes you incredibly proud to be a parent. My daughter was selected as one of fourteen United Nations GirlUp Ambassadors from over 400 applicants. She had been inspired, after reading Half the Sky, to travel around the US, raising money and giving speeches on behalf of girls around the world. She's even spoken on stage at the United Nations at the UN Social Innovation Summit. I just saw recently that the Half the Sky Foundation, started by the Kristof's, just wrote a piece on Avery. I share this link below with a sense of gratitude and amazement.

  GirlUp: Fourteen-Year-Old Avery McCall Raises $36,000 for Girls Worldwide

Pura Vida…have a great weekend!

The year 1871 holds a special place in Chicago history…it was the year of the great fire that leveled the city. It was also the year that some of the greatest designers, architects and minds came to Chicago to rebuild the city as a beacon for the future. Daniel Burnham, chief architect of the build, said "Make no small plans as they have no magic to stir men's blood".

The city has launched another chapter with the unveiling of a major tech center, 1871, in the heart of the city at the Merchandise Mart. A recent article, Factory Floor of the Future is Here, catches the essence and importance of 1871. Definitely worth a full read.

"Named for the year Chicago recreated itself following a great fire, the new incubator is scaled big to generate energy that radiates from the bullpen of desks across to the conference rooms, where ideas are vetted and deals are done to provide financing to move an idea into a business.

What attracts 400 applications from around the world to space at 1871? Talented people, universities, capital, mentoring and daily programming that brings in successful entrepreneurs and business people — all under one roof. The Universities of Chicago and Illinois, among others; a boot camp for entrepreneurs; and a venture capital company have offices at 1871; 36 workshops and programs are scheduled for May alone."

Matt Moog wrote a terrific blog post on 1871 earlier in the year in which he wrote:

"Why is it called 1871?  Historians will tell you that the story of the Great Chicago Fire isn’t really a story about a fire at all; it’s a story about what happened next. Just after the Chicago fire, the citizens of Chicago and the world came together  in one of the great entrepreneurial endeavors in history, to rebuild Chicago into the model of the modern city.  Today, the digital community of Chicago is coming together at a place called 1871 to build the businesses of our future. 1871 was a unique moment in history, the beginning of one of the greatest periods of innovation the world has ever known. The best engineers, designers and builders came together to revitalize Chicago using the latest technologies, and their work catalyzed decades of innovation. And that’s what 1871 is about: entrepreneurship, digital technology, and innovation in Chicago.

Chicago’s digital technology community has been growing steadily and methodically over the past decade. More than 25,000 people are employed by digital companies in Chicago.  In the last 2 to 3 years, our ecosystem has hit critical mass on the most important measures: availability of private capital, number of successful serial entrepreneurs, proliferation of community organizations, and a new level of government support. We’ve had more than 40 Chicago tech exits of greater than $100 million in the last decade. Since builtinchicago.org launched a little more than a year ago, it has drawn 250,000 users and has more than 7,000 members with profiles. 2011 was a record year with digital companies raising more than 1 billion dollars.  And the truth of the matter is, we are just getting started."

 

"[Pura Vida] embodies a philosophy in which communal ties are strong and close; difficulties are overcome with a resilient and happy spirit, where life is enjoyed leisurely and to the full, and where fortune of whatever size is heartily celebrated."  – Tony Cousins

I have spent the past week in Costa Rica surfing, doing yoga, eating, recovering and relaxing. This is truly a different part of the world, whose charm was captured by my daughter after 3 weeks at an orphanage here. She was surprised how happy the impoverished, parentless children were, how cheerful the staff was and how welcoming the villagers were. They had little material wealth and little opportunity for advancement. It was only upon landing back on US soil, the land of opportunity, that gravity set in again. 

My journey to Costa Rican enlightenment had many more ironic and synchronistic twists and turns than my daughter's. I took a Vinyassa yoga class on my third day to detox and center myself. Unfortunately (and ironically), doing so in 96 degree heat with electricity out in the city after eating something disagreeable, landed me in bed for two days. My efforts to find my youthful surfing zen from growing up in La Jolla resulted (ironically) in badly bruised ribs which made bed that more enjoyable. Additionally, the resort I was at was full of self-contained 5 person families from the US. Half the trip shot and I was really regretting coming down during the "dry season" with temperatures too hot to zipline. To salvage a piece of the day, I went out at 5:30 to surf at sunset. I was definitely not living la Vida Pura but was sore, sick and alone (small violins please).

I should know from my own past posts that this is when the learning begins, and always from unexpected quarters. I was mesmerized by a local longboarder who would hang five (toes) on the front of the board, step on it and rotate the entire board 180 degrees while going down the wave. Eventually, I went in and sat on my board, watching him as the sun set, thinking I should tell him how amazing his surfing was but figured I'd leave before then. Synchronistically, he lost his board just at that moment and it came into shore. I could have let him get it but thought, hey, I could do two acts of kindness by getting his board and complimenting him. My good fortune…not his.

His name was Jochim from a small town in northern Costa Rica, had taught where I was taking surf lessons and now had his own small business selling excursions, renting bikes, etc. I mentioned how friendly everyone was in Tamarindo. Jochim smiled and said that while there was some crime in San Jose (& other urban areas), that generally crime was low and people generally content. Pura Vida (pure life) is the motto of the country. He said that when his friends and he go out, some one is always talking about how grateful he/she is for something, even the smallest things. He said he was Catholic but not a church goer but he would often be out surfing, with a beautiful sunset and he would look up and say thank you for such a wonderful afternoon. Friends would comment about how grateful they were for some development in their life. Because they enjoyed what they had, no matter how small versus what they didn't have, they could enjoy the present. Furthermore, they could be grateful in the midst of setback. Ironically, he pointed out that the temperatures of the dry season killed all the mosquitos so I could be down there without serious concern of airborne disease (while being laced in DEET)…synchronistic lesson right there about gratitude versus complaining. 

Gratitude has always struck me as one of those touchy feely, elusive concepts that had wiggled its way into most major philosophers/religions' core tenants. I've never really gotten it a deep level. At a high level, sure…be grateful for things around you, live a happy life. Ironically, it wasn't until my string of events & a talk with a local surfer in Costa Rica that it hit me. Gratitude is at the heart of resilience and integrity (see quote above)…and the life's blood of entrepreneurship and living a good life.

When things don't go as planned, we tend not to celebrate the small (or large) successes and fortunes of the day but rather what has gone wrong. The attitude and focus we bring to our thoughts/intentions fuses either positive or negative reality into our lives. Focus on the incredible development team you have or bemoan the issue they are having with the code; celebrate how healthy and fortunate your family is or worry about some minor issue; celebrate the large customer that been there always for you or obsess on the one you probably shouldn't be chasing. This is not to say celebrate mediocrity or let your kids gorge on TV and candy (set expectations and help them become their best). However, learn to be grateful. More importantly, seek it out…hunt for it in your every day, no matter how poorly things seem to be going. If you are grateful for what you have, you can live in and address the present versus fearing the future. I'll leave you with one last quote before signing off in Costa Rica to hit the surf…Pura Vida, my friends.

"When we are grateful we do not wish for more than we have, but appreciate that which is already present in our lives.  We do not chafe at the good fortune of others, or resent or mourn that which is missed, lost, gone, or never had.  The desire for more can be boundless and endless."    – Existential  Buddhist