Tyler Jorgenson

In January of this year I read The 4 Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferris.  The book came into my life at a time when I was making some big decisions and has been influential and inspiring.  After each chapter the author challenges the reader to take action.  One challenge is called ‘Finding Yoda’ and the reader is supposed to track down a big player in their industry and ask them a question or two.  If possible to reader should also ask for permission to follow up via email.  This was one of the few exercises in the book that I didn’t do immediately.  It’s taken me a while to actually do it, although I did place a couple phone calls.

Turns out it may be easier to meet some people in person.  The pics below show me meeting three of my Yodas.  Picture one is with Meg Whitman, two is with THE Seth Godin and three is with Chris Brogan.

Meeting Seth was by far the most influential encounter I have had this year.  His direct questioning of my current projects and passions caught me off guard and forced me to think about where I was and where I wanted to be.  His main advice was to pick one project and work on it full force rather than split up your time over many projects.  Set a date and ship, you can always do a version 2.0 later.  Seth responded to an email I sent him and is one of the most genuine people I’ve ever met.

Meg Whitman was nice and earthy.  I found her taller than expected but grounded.  We discussed business in California and the need to make the State business friendly so we can keep industry growing and job creation possible.

Chris Brogan was a bit of a surprise.  I didn’t know a ton about him other than following @ChrisBrogan on Twitter.  He discussed business in the modern age with an amazing style of humor, candor and intellect that I don’t believe I’ve ever encountered before.  One major tip that I got from Chris was that your blog posts are a legacy that keeps working after you’ve done the typing.  He had a fancy analogy about commerce, jokes and exchange but the meat of it is that if your posts solve one persons problem there are most likely other people that have that problem and it can help them too.  Next time you get an email from somebody asking for advice in your field answer it in the form of a blog post and then send the person the link.  It’s like you’re messing with Karma because you’re putting all this good information out there and you know it’s going to come back to you someday.

I leave you with a quote from one of Godin’s recent posts titled Heroes and mentors:

“Like a custom made suit, a mentor is a fine thing to have if you can find or afford it. But for the rest of us, heroes will have to do.”

My wife and I just moved our family to a new (bigger) house. Along with trying to get everything unpacked, organized, decorated, etc there is also the issue of meeting new people. We have a couple of friends that moved here before us but there are a host of people that we are get to meet. In meeting new people I am always trying to remember everybody’s names. I know that I feel good, important even, when someone remembers my name after just one introduction and I want people to know that I think they are important by remembering their names too. I found a website with a few name remembering tips. Here’s a sample:

Commit
Begin by making a commitment — a conscious decision — to remember people’s names.

Don’t let yourself off easy, blaming a “bad memory.” Forgetting names is due less to a bad memory than to a lack of application. Tell yourself — because it’s true — that you can remember names if you want to and if you work at it.

Next time you’re in a business or social setting make it a point to remember names, it makes people feel special.

I was invited to lunch today by a commercial lender that I met on the tram at Disneyland. During the meal we talked through a few deals I am currently working on and about some deals that we hoped to do in the coming months. While we were wrapping up our lunch at Mimi’s (it would have been sushi if it were my choice) the gentleman in the booth next to ours piped up and, after apologizing for eavesdropping and interrupting, mentioned that he is an investor and also represents clients that are looking for deals wherein they can invest their capital. We had a pleasant, but brief, conversation and exchanged cards with the promise to talk again very soon.

There are a lot of deals out there and a lot of capital still waiting to be invested. You never know where you’ll meet the person that can help you close your next deal, it could be on the tram at Disneyland or at a booth at a girly restaurant. Keep your eyes and ears open and make your own destiny.