The Studio / Books
A book by Dave Dlaney
Thoughts on life and entrepreneurship. Building a business is hard as hell. During many of those weeks, it is going to feel like you are working 400 hours a week. It is a grind. Do not let anybody tell you otherwise.
Dear Friend,
I tried to take shortcuts. I will admit it, I was attracted to the get rich quick parts of the world of entrepreneurship. And I bought into the lie that you could simply set up a website and start making lots of money. I guess I wanted to make money without working too hard. I wanted the easy route. But boy was I in for a strong dose of reality.
Over the last 10 years I have had high highs and crushing lows in my entrepreneurial journey. The world of startups can be both heaven and hell. It can be super hard but also so wonderful as well. It is fast moving and full of incredibly talented individuals.
The ideas contained in this little book are a few selected from my personal approach to life and business. Some of what you see here are things that I read to myself every morning during my daily practice. They are often simple but not easy.
You may not agree with everything I have written. But that is ok. Everybody is different. I hope you give this a read and it makes you think about your life and work. Maybe it will catalyze some of your own personal ideas and principles and be a jumping off point that you can build upon. Like the "Yes and" theory of improv.
I originally wrote over 127 pages for this until I finally just threw away most everything and packed in the good stuff that I truly believe in. There is no need to read something with a bunch of filler in it. When we designed this document we also tried to strip away all the extra junk and just provide a focused, easy to read design.
I wish you the best on your entrepreneurial journey but more importantly, your life journey. Please let me know if there is ever anything I can do to help you out.
Kind regards,
Dave
Part one
Holy crap! We should shout every morning upon waking up. We are so incredibly lucky that we are alive. We basically won the lottery. The life lottery.
The average world income is about $7,000 a year. If you make over $43k a year you are richer than 99% of the world. Only 15% of the world has a car. 80% of the world does not have their own computer. We are blessed!
I keep two pieces of paper close: my Ideal Day and my Eulogy. You will find copies of both at the bottom of this book. They are the clearest picture I have of what I am aiming at and what I want said about me when I am gone.
"Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult, once we truly understand and accept it, then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters."M. Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled
Life is basically a bunch of experiments. You go out there and just try stuff out.
"Life is an improvisation. You have no idea what is going to happen next and you are mainly just making things up as you go along."Stephen Colbert
The only constant is change. The average worker has 17 jobs in their life. They often switch jobs every seven and a half years. 424 of the companies in the Fortune 500 from 1914, one hundred years ago, have gone out of business. Life is constantly moving and changing. It is like being a surfer, you just gotta keep surfing.
This is about the small lies and tweaks of the truth. I am committing to being more honest with myself and others, including about my businesses and their finances. Life is too short to be around toxic people.
You have to work with people. Really good people. Good people bring you energy. Keep looking. Find your good people.
It is broken. It smells. It has many many problems. But yet it is beautiful too. The people are beautiful. Pain and suffering, yes. All over. But also humanity. Beautiful things. Great people.
Life is about giving. Say you want one person to help you, then help 20 people out first. If you want to make $1, strive to first give away at least $20 in value. Give give give, and if you are lucky you might receive.
You are weird. Heck, everybody is weird. Just be you.
Compassion literally means "to suffer with." Strive to be empathetic, including in tech centers like Silicon Valley and New York.
Part two
It is not going to happen. You are not going to find a magical product and quickly set up a business. And that business is not going to immediately run itself with only a few hours of work a week. Building a business is hard as hell. It takes years. During many of those weeks, it is going to feel like you are working 400 hours a week. It is a grind. Do not let anybody tell you otherwise.
Startups are hard. 90% of new business experiments fail. The average startup founder salary is just $35,000 a year. Do this for the right reason and not just for money.
Build it. Whatever it is that you have in your mind. Go for it. Take a handful of sand and drop it on top of the pile. Keep building.
On the value of work and providing for a family: let us try to do our life's best work. Let us really care about the work we do.
A job is something you do for money. A passion is something you would do for free. The membership question for my entrepreneurship group: "If you could not make any money from your business or project, how long would you run it for?"
Boundaries are essential. Some experiments worth trying: leaving the office by 5 PM sharp, exercising 3 times a week, not working Sundays, turning off screens at 9:30 pm, not checking the phone before the morning routine, and a full "Monk Day."
Happiness and contentment do not come from external things like parties and beaches. It comes from the inside. It comes from friends, and family. And working on stuff you love.
Success is more than being rich.
"Success is working on things I enjoy with people I like, feeling free to choose what I work on, and having enough money to live without financial stress."Josh Kaufman
"Success is not just what you achieve, but also what you help others achieve."Adam Grant
On judging people: strive to treat all people equally.
"The true measure of a man is how he treats somebody that can do nothing for him."Samuel Johnson
Nobody knows what will happen with a business. A buddy of mine ran careful UberX calculations, then UberX cut rates 40% and the math fell apart overnight. Pretty much everybody is just winging it.
A prayer for humility: "Dear God, please make me invisible. May I be truly humble and have quiet confidence. May I freely share my talents without any desire to impress anyone."
Business is simple. It is not easy. Not at all. But it is simple. Create valuable goods and services. With your people. Get attention. Present the offer and price to your customers. Sell and make a profit. Keep everything organized.
Celebrate every small win, and celebrate other people's wins too.
Most of my ideas have not worked. But that does not really matter. There is value in just putting it out there. So whatever you are working on, or thinking about working on, then just go for it.
Persistence is vital.
"Ultimately, life is a sentence of failures, punctuated only by the briefest of successes."James Altucher
"I am convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance."Steve Jobs
Dave Craige is the director of The Studio, a marketing and design firm. His flagship projects are a fashion website that 25 million people visited, a private entrepreneurship group whose members' sites reach over 100 million people a year, and 3 books. He strives to help other people build great things, especially by using the web and technology. He lives in Colorado and enjoys skateboarding, salsa dancing, and dirt biking.
A simple apartment. Devices off at 9:30pm, bed before midnight. Wake up refreshed, pray, Spanish on DuoLingo, review the Eulogy and Ideal Day. Paleo breakfast, green smoothie, shower. Chill time. Drive a simple clean car, a 12-minute stress-free commute, to The Studio. Work with a great team with upbeat chill music. Green smoothie in the afternoon, 10 breath meditations.
Financial goal: comfortably support a family, save about 50% of the paycheck, live well below my means, use a 2x1 miles card for free travel. Yoga class. Dinner, an evening walk or dirt bike ride. Read, bed, sleep well.
Ten things I want to be known for:
Written and produced at The Studio. Build great things.
More from Dave: The Studio · About Dave
Originally published May 22, 2014 on Medium. This edition lives at thestudio.io/400.