For this edition of Entrepreneur University we turn to master networker Ivan Misner. Ivan is the Founder & Chairman of BNI (Business Network Int’l.). BNI was founded in 1985. The organization has over 4,200 chapters throughout every populated continent of the world. Last year alone, BNI generated millions referrals resulting in billions of dollars worth of business for its members. Ivan shares with us the top 10 traits that you need to become a master networker:

Networking is more than just shaking hands and passing out business cards. Based on a survey I conducted of more than 2,000 people throughout the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, it’s about building your “social capital.” The highest-rated traits in the survey were the ones related to developing and maintaining good relationships. For years I’ve been teaching people that this process is more about “farming” than it is about “hunting.” It’s about cultivating relationships with other business professionals. It’s about realizing the capital that comes from building social relationships.

The following traits were ranked in order of their perceived importance to networking. They’re the traits that will make you a “master networker.”

1. Follows up on referrals. This was ranked as the No. 1 trait of successful networkers. If you present an opportunity, whether it’s a simple piece of information, a special contact or a qualified business referral, to someone who consistently fails to follow up successfully, it’s no secret that you’ll eventually stop wasting your time with this person.

2. Positive attitude. A consistently negative attitude makes people dislike being around you and drives away referrals; a positive attitude makes people want to associate and cooperate with you. Positive business professionals are like magnets. Others want to be around them and will send their friends, family and associates to them.

3. Enthusiastic/motivated. Think about the people you know. Who gets the most referrals? People who show the most motivation, right? It’s been said that the best sales characteristic is enthusiasm. To be respected within our networks, we at least need to sell ourselves with enthusiasm. Once we’ve done an effective job of selling ourselves, we’ll be able to reap the reward of seeing our contacts sell us to others! That’s motivation in and of itself!

4. Trustworthy. When you refer one person to another, you’re putting your reputation on the line. You have to be able to trust your referral partner and be trusted in return. Neither you nor anyone else will refer a contact or valuable information to someone who can’t be trusted to handle it well.

5. Good listening skills. Our success as networkers depends on how well we can listen and learn. The faster you and your networking partner learn what you need to know about each other, the faster you’ll establish a valuable relationship. Communicate well, and listen well.

6. Networks always. Master networkers are never off duty. Networking is so natural to them that they can be found networking in the grocery store line, at the doctor’s office and while picking the kids up from school, as well as at the chamber mixers and networking meetings.

7. Thanks people. Gratitude is sorely lacking in today’s business world. Expressing gratitude to business associates and clients is just another building block in the cultivation of relationships that will lead to increased referrals. People like to refer others to business professionals that go above and beyond. Thanking others at every opportunity will help you stand out from the crowd.

8. Enjoys helping. Helping others can be done in a variety of ways, from literally showing up to help with an office move to clipping a helpful and interesting article and mailing it to an associate or client. Master networkers keep their eyes and ears open for opportunities to advance other people’s interests whenever they can.

9. Sincere. Insincerity is like a cake without frosting! You can offer the help, the thanks, the listening ear, but if you aren’t sincerely interested in the other person, they’ll know it! Those who have developed successful networking skills convey their sincerity at every turn. One of the best ways to develop this trait is to give the individual with whom you’re developing a referral relationship your undivided attention.

10. Works their network. It’s not net-sit or net-eat, it’s net-work, and master networkers don’t let any opportunity to work their networks pass them by. They manage their contacts with contact management software, organize their e-mail address files and carry their referral partners’ business cards as well as their own. They set up appointments to get better acquainted with new contacts so that they can learn as much about them as possible so that they can truly become part of each other’s networks.

Do you see the trend with these ten points? They all tie in to long-term relationship building, not to stalking the prey for the big kill. People who take the time to build their social capital are the ones who will have new business referred to them over and over. The key is to build mutually beneficial business relationships. Only then will you succeed as a master networker.

Evan Carmichael

Setting Your Own Hours
There are some people who just can’t do the nine to five routine. Maybe you don’t like the two hour commute you have to make every day to get to work and come home or maybe you’re the kind of person who works until three in the morning and can’t wake up in time to get downtown for that eight o’clock meeting. So what’s the solution? Become an entrepreneur! Owning your own business allows you to create a work schedule that best fits your lifestyle. Whether you work best late at night or early in the morning, you can design a work timetable around it. You can also make sure to pencil in that extra time to spend with your friends and family, take care of children at home, or just plain have fun!

Opportunity
Have you had great ideas only to watch other people become enormously successful off of them because you didn’t take action? More and more people are realizing the tremendous gains that are to be had by setting up their own business. Over the past decade, total US small business wealth grew from $3.4 trillion to $8.3 trillion. Small businesses have also traditionally outperformed their large corporate counterparts. From 1998 to 1999 small business income grew 7.9%, far outpacing the 5% growth in corporate income. Some of the more popular areas for entrepreneurs include services (37.6% of new companies), retailing (22.7%), construction (10%), financial & insurance (10%), wholesaling (8%), transportation (5%), and manufacturing (5%). Is it time for you to finally take one of your million dollar ideas and actually fly with it?

Taxes
Another big opportunity for entrepreneurs today is taxes. If you have a home office you can write off part of your mortgage, taxes, gas and electric bills, phone bills, internet bills and other computer related expenses such as hardware and software. You can also deduct your car payments and cell phone bills. You can write off association dues, related books and magazines, client entertainment, and travel to events, meetings, and conferences. Even if you spend the same amount of money as you did as an employee, you will end up paying far fewer taxes to the government because as an entrepreneur, that spending can now be considered a business expense and is at least partially tax deductible. Also, since employees pay their taxes first and entrepreneurs pay their taxes last, it is the entrepreneurs with sound tax advice who can avoid overpaying the government and the middle class employees who end up carrying the larger tax load in our society! Which category would you rather be in?

More Responsibility
Do you go home at night and feel like you have accomplished something every day? Do you get the opportunity to stretch your mind, take on new challenges, and do something meaningful in your work? Do you feel like you have a purpose to fulfill that isn’t being accomplished through your work life? This is especially important for young potential entrepreneurs. Young people are no longer willing to accept working in a junior position doing data entry for five years before actually seeing a client and getting hands on experience. The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics claims that 87 percent of American workers do not enjoy their jobs! If this sounds like you, maybe it’s time for you to become an entrepreneur and find a meaningful way to fulfill your purpose.

“If I’m Working This Hard… It Might As Well Be For Myself!”
This is the ultimate question that many future entrepreneurs eventually ask themselves. These people do not see the logic in working ten, twelve, fourteen or more hours a day so that someone else can get rich. They would rather invest the time in themselves and their own business and reap the full rewards from it!

In addition to having more and more reasons to start their own businesses, young people are discovering that the emerging entrepreneurial trends are giving them a much more supportive environment to fly in… (see my continued post next Friday)

Evan Carmichael

Following last week’s post on the importance of Document Titles (The 15 Most Important Onsite SEO Factors: Part 1 – The Document Title) I wanted to continue the discussion on Onsite SEO Factors today and talk about the use of Meta Tags.

Meta Keywords

There are two key Meta Tags that most people look at when they talk about SEO: Meta Keywords and Meta Description. Meta Keywords allow you to enter in descriptive words and phrases that you feel best showcase what your page is all about. They are placed between the and tags in the HTML and look something like this:
Right now, as an example, the Young Entrepreneur blog Meta Keywords tag looks like this:

Make sure to put in keywords that are related to your website and are potential descriptors that you think your clients would type in when looking for your services.

Meta Description

The Meta Description tag allows you to add more context to the keywords and put in a paragraph about the website in full sentence format. The key here is to write out a description instead of just listing a series of keywords. In HTML the tag looks like this:

Our blog Meta Description, as an example, is: 

Does Google Care?

Meta Tags have gotten a lot of attention recently because Google has essentially dropped their importance from their index. The Meta Keywords are no longer paid attention to and the Meta Description, while not used for the ranking relevance, is still important as it is used to display the text to the user in the search results. For example, if you type in “Young Entrepreneur Blog” into Google you will see that our blog comes up #1 and the description under it is “Tools and resources for Entrepreneurs and business minded individuals who are growing their business.” It is the same description that we used in the Meta Description Tag. So while the Meta Tags won’t help you rank higher in Google, they can help convince people to click on your site from the listings in Google.

Another point to keep in mind is that while Google has downgraded the importance of Meta Tags, other search engines haven’t and because Meta Tags are essentially hidden (they cannot be seen on the page unless you view the HTML source), it’s still a good idea to include them because every little bit of SEO work helps!

Evan Carmichael

Venture Capital – What Happens In The Meeting

Meetings with venture capitalists are also referred to as “the dog & pony show.” It provides the first opportunity for investors to meet the management of your company face to face and assess the people behind the business. You could have a brilliant business plan backed by poor management. This will only become apparent to the venture capitalist in the meeting.

There is an old British banking expression that asks: “Is someone the horse for the course?” In other words, do you have the right management team for the task at hand. It then follows that different horses are needed for different courses.

The point of this initial meeting is to test the management face to face. The venture capitalist wants to build confidence with the management team.

The intermediary’s prime role is to get a “dog & pony show” together with a number of venture capitalists.

The venture capitalist may question your business plan to test you. Make sure to have someone with you who understands the finances and who knows the product or technology.

The meeting will usually start off with a 5 minute update as to what has happened since you submitted your business plan. The rest of the meeting will be a question and answer session.

People like to do business with people who they have an affinity for. The development of trust between yourself and the investor is paramount. They must get a feeling that they can work with you and that there is positive chemistry.

As an example, an entrepreneur who walks into a meeting dripping in gold, diamonds and flamboyant suits will have a hard time raising capital because the venture capitalists will not feel comfortable with this person.

Venture Capital – Major Questions You Should Be Prepared For

The first meeting is primarily a question and answer session to see if you have the right management team in place. However, the venture capitalist can have specific questions for you to test such things as your technology. They may bring in a technology expert to get further clarification on points made in your business plan.

The venture capitalist can also use this meeting to test you on sensitive areas such as your company valuation and the eventual exit strategy. Investors will not want to go too far down the road with you if you cannot agree to basic terms with them. If you think your company valuation is $100 million and they determine your value to be $20 million, you have a sizable gap that may be too large to close and come to mutually acceptable terms on.

Another potential problem is that if you are wedded to your company and do not ever want to sell, it decreases the likelihood of an investor exit which lowers your chance of receiving the necessary capital you need to grow.

Venture Capital – Important Business Plan Questions They Will Ask

The main questions about your business plan will surround the assumptions you have made. Mistakes are most often made at the assumption level. Prepare for your assumptions to be tested.

Avoid unstated or assumed assumptions. Make sure to write down every assumption that you have made in your financial projections. This is a critical part of developing the persuasion chain and convincing the venture capitalist to understand your numbers and eventually invest in your company.

You must be confident when walking in the room and in answering every question if you hope to instill confidence in the venture capitalists.

Venture Capital – Other Information The Venture Capitalist Will Ask For

Venture capitalists will not go into too much detail in the first meeting.

They essentially want to meet your team and assess them. They will then decide if they want to move forward with you or not and begin their due diligence procedure, a process which continues right up until closing day.

Ultimately the potential investors wants to make sure that they clearly understand how your business operates and how your team can work together to fulfill the objectives of the company.

Venture Capital – Length And Objective Of The First Meeting

The first meeting will very rarely last more than an hour. It is really designed solely to understand if you have the “horses for the courses.” This can certainly be understood in that first hour. The due diligence process will then follow.

Your objective is to persuade the venture capitalist to move to the next level.

Evan Carmichael

John H. Johnson went from living on welfare to living in extreme wealth, becoming the first African American to make it onto the Forbes 400 list of the nation’s richest individuals. By the time he died in 2005, his empire was worth an estimated $600 million. Not only did he amass great wealth, but he also gave African Americans a voice at a time when they were both relatively invisible and discriminated against in the mainstream culture.

Retirement is not in this company’s vocabulary,” Johnson once said. “If you are well and able to work, you can stay at the company and that’s what I plan to do.” And, that is exactly what he did. Right up until the time of his death, Johnson continued to play an active role in the company. Although he named his daughter, Linda Johnson Rice, CEO of the company, he remained the inspiration behind its every move. He rose from the despair of welfare to become named the Greatest Minority Entrepreneur in U.S. History by Baylor University in 2003. A true rags to riches story, how did Johnson achieve the American Dream?

I was a working child. I learned how to work before I learned how to play. Both my mother and I were determined that we weren’t going to stay on welfare. We always worked toward doing better, toward having a better life. We never had any doubts that we would.

Dream small dreams. If you make them too big, you get overwhelmed and you don’t do anything. If you make small goals and accomplish them, it gives you the confidence to go on to higher goals.  

The word I wanted to hear, then and now, was success. The energy I sought, then and now, was the energy that comes from focusing all your powers, like a beam, on a single point. I used to lock myself up in my office and say the word success out loud, over and over, like a Buddhist monk chanting his mantra. I used to say to myself, ‘John Johnson you can make it, John Johnson, you can make it, John Johnson, you can make it. John Johnson you can make it, John Johnson, you can and must make it. 

I’m convinced that the only way to get ahead in this world is to live and sell dangerously. You’ve got to live beyond your means. You’ve got to commit yourself to an act or vision that pulls you further than you want to go and forces you to use your hidden strengths.

Long shots do come in and hard work, dedication and perseverance will overcome almost any prejudice and open almost any door.

I would tell young people to start where they are with what they have and that the secret of a big success is starting with a small success and dreaming bigger and bigger dreams, I would tell them also that a young Black woman or a young Black man can’t dream too much today or dare too much if he or she works hard, perseveres and dedicates themselves to excellence. 

When I see a barrier, I cry and I curse, and then I get a ladder and climb over it. Failure is a word I don’t accept.

Evan Carmichael

For this edition of Entrepreneur University we turn to business coach and marketing consultant Elizabeth Mullen. Elizabeth’s professional background includes an eclectic mix of professions and small businesses. Elizabeth shares with us how to tap into your natural motivation:

What would it take for you to run a marathon? Or complete that project you’ve been putting off? What would it take for you to clear off your desk, or start your dream business? What might you accomplish if you knew that your every action had multiple and far-reaching positive results?

Whatever your goal (or albatross), today’s idea is meant to assist you in attaining it by tapping your natural motivation to take daily action… and follow through to completion.

Most marathon runners I know, for instance, make their runs about more than speed and distance– they choose charities or causes to run for. This serves as leverage and a powerful motivator. But if you really asked even a casual morning jogger what is motivating him/her move forward, they may tell you that secretly they run for world peace, a loved one, or a principal…

It is to this level I wish to direct your attention. A woman I know, for instance, runs for world peace, another for the happiness of a troubled relative. Still other people run for “principals” like freedom or persistence, or ideals like making the world a better place. This is not only nice, but a powerful way to insure that they keep going. More importantly it gives the runner enjoyment along the way.

Running is but one venue where this principal works. Most people realize that doing anything for their own personal victory can get them to start the “race,” but rarely brings them to the finish. This is because as human beings, we are wired to be able to do more for others than we can for ourselves. Recognizing this, and utilizing it, is our natural motivation, and power and strength too.

So how can this principal energize your daily life? How can you use it to put yourself into movement right now?

Regardless of the task, the principal of “doing for” will empower and inspire action– so choose something that really juices you to MOVE! Maybe ironing can be about smoothing the tough spots in a loved-one’s life. Perhaps cleaning your desk can be a testament to the principal of simplicity. Maybe your housework can be about making the world a better place… Or getting in shape about shaping your community. What else would excite you to act? What else would make you feel good to take steps to that end?

So go ahead and try this: choose a task you’ve either dreaded, procrastinated, been afraid of, or simply must complete. Make it all about someone else… or something greater than yourself. Link up your thoughts and emotions with that greater goal.. and get moving on the ’smaller’ one.

(you just may find yourself getting much more than you bargained for…)

Evan Carmichael

Entrepreneurship is quickly becoming the driving force of the new economy. Startup entrepreneurs are generating impressive economic growth, powering the job market, and creating innovative solutions for today’s emerging needs.

In 2002, one in ten Americans were creating or growing their own business. This was a remarkable 50 percent higher than levels in 1998. With a recent Angus Reid poll suggesting that 70 percent of today’s youth are likely or more than somewhat likely to engage in entrepreneurial activity, there is little doubt that the Age of the Entrepreneur will be sustained throughout multiple generations.

There are a number of reasons why ordinary people decide to become entrepreneurs. Some of the more common ones include:

Stop Working For “The Man”
Are you tired of taking orders from above? Fed up with dealing with incompetent superiors? Do you want to stop worrying about the prospect of being fired or laid off? Do you want to be able to fly your own plane and control your own destiny? A 2003 Ananova article suggests that 56 percent of workers find their managers to be incompetent. Imagine going to the office every day and having to work underneath someone whose decision making ability you don’t respect! Is this the person you want determining how far your career will go? According to a 1997 Towers Perrin Workplace study of 2,500 American workers, only 45 percent of them believed that the job promotions in their companies were conducted fairly. Becoming an entrepreneur ensures that you finally have control over your future, and chances are you’ll get along much better with the management!

Stressed At Work
Instead of spending money on costly recruitment, training, and benefits programs for new employees, it is cheaper for companies to make their existing staff work longer hours, leaving them with less time at home with their family and for their many other responsibilities. As a result, employee stress levels in North America and Europe are at all time highs and many employees are breaking out on their own. According to the Canadian Mental Health Association, 43 percent of Canadians are feeling overwhelmed by their job. Furthermore, in 1999, The Conference Board of Canada reported that the stress levels of the average Canadian worker are much higher than they were 10 years ago. In the United States, a study conducted by the New York-based nonprofit Families and Work Institute, found that 46 percent of respondents reported feeling overworked in one way or another. The same survey found that those who felt overworked were more likely to neglect themselves and were less likely to feel they were having successful personal and family relationships. It’s no wonder people are leaving their jobs to become entrepreneurs, start their own businesses, and determine their own work schedules and quality of life!

Frustrated At Work
Have you had enough of incompetent management not listening to your creative ideas? Do you want to work in an environment where you can be more entrepreneurial and make sure your ideas are paid attention to and acted upon? According to a Washington Post article, in a survey of over 800 mid-career executives, unhappiness and dissatisfaction levels are at 40-year highs. Furthermore, 40 percent of those interviewed reported that they hated what they did, double the level reported four decades ago. Imagine going into work every day and absolutely hating what you are doing! If this sounds like your work environment, it may be time to free yourself from the shackles that chain you to your job and start your own business.

Work Too Boring
Are you no longer satisfied doing data entry, manual labor or telemarketing? Is your job not stimulating your brain or making full use of your talents? Do you want to be challenged mentally and open your own business as a way to achieve this goal? According to an article in Forbes, helplessness and boredom was the number two reason why people are dissatisfied with their jobs, just behind having heavy workloads. One respondent said, “The work is unchallenging so I don’t have any inspiration to perform better.” People want to be challenged in their daily lives and if they cannot get it by working for someone else, many decide to do it for themselves!

Evan Carmichael

This month I want to start a new series looking at the 15 most important onsite SEO factors that can help determine where you rank with Google. Today I’m going to discuss the document title.

Document Title

The document title is the text located at the very top of your browser above the line where you see the url of the website. If you visit the Young Entrepreneur blog home page, for example at http://www.youngentrepreneur.com/blog/, the document title is YoungEntrepreneur.com Blog.

If you look at the HTML of a website, the document title is put between the tags .

The document title is the most important element that Google looks at in terms of onsite SEO factors. The reason why it is so important is because Google will look at the first 100 characters, or so, of your document title. This means you have 100 characters to describe what is on the page below so chances are the keywords you put in this description will be highly relevant to the content on the page.

Once you have found the keywords you want to optimize for (see: The Foolproof Way To Finding The Best Keywords For Your Site), make sure to put them in your title tag. The most important keywords should be at the front and then add the not as important ones in afterwards.

Some common mistakes to avoid are:

Don’t use standard document titles.

Many websites have a document title of “Home” or “Welcome” or generic ones like “index1″. Some of them are even left blank! The chances of you ranking in Google for a keyword like Welcome is going to be pretty rare so make sure to get your important keywords up in your document title! The best thing about it is that while a lot of SEO work goes against making a good looking page, as I’ll discuss in future posts, the title tag is not usually looked at by your viewing audience. This means that editing your title tag doesn’t take away from the user experience and it helps you gain ground in Google’s search engine.

Don’t put your company name in

Another common mistake is putting your company name in at the top of each title tag. Chances are you are going to rank for your company name anyway, especially if it’s in your domain name. For example, it would be hard for anybody to outrank youngentrepreneur.com for the keywords “young entrepreneur”. Instead of taking up valuable real estate for your company name, use that space to put in your keywords. If you have to put in your company name then put it at the far right of the title tag instead of at the beginning. Remember that the closer the keyword is to the left, the more importance it is given.

Use different titles for each page

Finally, you want to make sure that each page on your site has a different title tag. Many entrepreneurs end up using the exact same document title for all the urls on their domain. It’s important to remember that each page can rank independently of your home page so you want to optimize each one as much as possible. This starts with having a unique title tag for every page of content you have.
http://www.YoungEntrepreneur.com gets over 395,000 entrepreneurs coming to the site each month and only 46% go directly to the home page! The key to driving all that traffic is having well optimized subpages that Google can find so we don’t rely just on the home page.

Evan Carmichael

Venture Capital – What The Proposal / Executive Summary Looks Like

Make it so that your mother or grandmother can understand it. Entrepreneurs too often fill their business plans with of acronyms, tech terms, and buzz words. Intermediaries can usually tell after the first paragraph how difficult it will be to raise capital for your business.

Condense what you do and what you want into a statement that you can make very promptly in seconds or minutes. If you cannot communicate quickly, you will lose the investor’s interest.

You need to have a logical persuasion chain. You must persuade the venture capitalist to invest in your company just as you would persuade a customer to buy your product or service.

If you cannot explain your business on the back of an envelope, you will not get financed. You need to grab the investor’s attention in the first 3 to 5 minutes. If you cannot get their basic interest, you will not get their money.

Venture capitalists see 2 to 3 deals per day and will say no most of the time. You need to distinguish yourself through clarity.

Prepare an elevator pitch. Imagine getting on an elevator at the 20 th floor of a building with the venture capitalists and getting a commitment by the time you reach the lobby.

Harold Ross’ first prospective for the New Yorker was no more than couple hundred words. It was so clearly laid out that you could read it today, 80 years later and still recognize that it describes the New Yorker.

The venture capitalists will also look to the people behind the company. They are looking to see what the reputations of your chairman and board of directors are. This will help create credibility and trust.

Venture Capital – Why The Venture Capitalist Is Interested In You

Venture capitalists want to make money. They will either see you as an entry point into a new industry that that has potential or one where they are already invested in but you provide an exceptional case.

The venture capitalist makes their decision on two variables: greed and the probability of failure or success. If your company presents a great deal but is accompanied by extraordinarily high risks, the venture capitalist will not invest.

Venture Capital – How To Handle Confidentiality

An intermediary should always sign a confidentiality or non-disclosure agreement (NDA). It is a 1 to 5 page document that acknowledges you have sensitive information that if released could harm your business and it should not be shared.

Venture capitalists, however, will not normally sign a confidentiality agreement. They see so many companies in the same industry that they cannot sign one agreement and risk not being able to invest in other potential good deals.

Venture Capital – What Venture Capitalists Are Looking For

Venture capitalists are in business to make money. They have to have the ability to select companies that will make more money than their rivals.

There are 2 types of companies. The first is a lifestyle business. These types of companies are centered around the lifestyle of the entrepreneurs. The owners will use the business to drive expensive cars and purchase big houses. These are not businesses that attract venture capital.

The second type of company is a gazelle. These companies are run by entrepreneurs who want to build world-class organizations.

There are three ways for a venture capitalist to exit from your business: acquisition, public offering or management buyout. Half of the decision to invest in your company is derived from if the venture capitalist can see a clear exit.

An example of a gazelle is Hewlett-Packard. Mr. Hewlett and Mr. Packard wanted to build a world class company. They recognized that they did not have the necessary skills so they hired professional management and became mentors and the elderly statesmen for the company. They were able to exit from the company and it became a huge success.

Venture Capital – How Many Venture Capitalists You Should Contact

If you approach them on your own, your personal time constraints will dictate how many you can contact.

It is an intermediary’s job to determine how many to approach. The intermediary will take you to a larger number of venture capitalists because you cannot guarantee that all of them will be interested. A further number will provide unattractive term sheets. The end goal is to get a reasonable offer on the table from a reputable venture capitalist.

If the venture capitalist has lots of funds and is looking for deals, it is easier to raise capital. In today’s market, venture capitalists are saddled with too many problems from their current portfolio companies.

It is the job of the intermediaries to know which venture capitalists are tapped out and which are looking to invest. They must have a knowledge of the market and know who to take your proposal to.

There is a danger of “over shopping” the deal if you go to too many venture capital companies.

If you are turned down by 4 to 5 highly targeted venture capitalists, something is wrong. Either your company has fundamental flaws, your terms are unreasonable, or your business does not reflect current market trends.

Evan Carmichael

Chris Gardner wears a $10,000 watch on each wrist. On the right hand is a Cartier set to Chicago time, and on the left is a Roger Dubuis set to South African time. “I was late once and it cost me $50,000,” explains Gardner. “I figure it was cheaper to wear two watches.” For a man who not too long ago had only two suits to his name and could not even afford to pay rent, Gardner has come a long way. From living on the streets and bathing in public restrooms to owning a successful multi-million dollar stock brokerage firm, Gardner is living out the American dream.

“One of the things young people always ask me about is what is the secret to success,” says Gardner. “The secret is there is no secret. It’s the basics. Blocking and tackling.” Gardner has gone from homeless to Hollywood, rising from the depths and despair of poverty to become not only a millionaire stockbroker and successful entrepreneur and author, but also the star of a major motion picture. How did he do it?

My first ambition in life was to be Miles Davis. I didn’t want to be a trumpet player, an artist or a jazz musician – I literally wanted to be Miles. My mom said to me, ‘Baby, you can’t be Miles. There ain’t but one, and he got that job.’ But I made a commitment at an early age that I wanted to be world class at something. At 18, Miles Davis was in New York playing with Charlie Parker and John Coltrane. At the same age, I was playing with some cats named Pookie and Ray Ray. It wasn’t going to happen. But I made a commitment to be world class at something. 

The truth is, I was homeless before Chris came, I just didn’t know. I was just functionally homeless – living with friends, staying a night over here, a couple of days over there. Now, with Chris, I had to face it. I was homeless, but I wasn’t hopeless. I knew a better day was coming.

It’s not just my story. It’s the story of a lot of people who grew up and took a lot of crap – and decided, ‘I’m going the other way.’

One of the things young people always ask me about is what is the secret to success. The secret is there is no secret. It’s the basics. Blocking and tackling. Stay in school. It’s what will give you options. You don’t want to try to do this thing the way that I did.

Baby steps count, as long as you are going forward. You add them all up, and one day you look back and you’ll be surprised at where you might get to.

Find something that you love. Something that gets you so excited you can’t wait to get out of bed in the morning. Whatever you’re going to do is going to be tough enough. Find something that gets you so excited that the sun can’t come up early enough in the morning because you want to go do your thing. Forget about money. Be happy.

The money thing will come. I know so many people who have so much more money than I. They are miserable. It is so important to be happy. I went to some very successful business people when I was trying to open the doors of my company, and none of them would give me the time of day. I made a promise to myself and to God. I said, ‘God, if you ever let me get to a certain level, I am not going to be like that.’

The cavalry ain’t coming. You’ve got to do this yourself. 

Evan Carmichael