takeitupalevel.com

A lot of cool stuff has happened at Awesome Inc in its first month of operation. Like holding the first ever Forge Lexington meeting of over 65 entrepreneurs and investors.  Or the 4^th Geeks Night Out which had over 80 guests and featured a live DJ along with some fierce ping pong matches followed by a swing dance lesson from Premiere Dance.  Then there is the front page article on the Herald Leader Business Monday which promoted not only Awesome Inc but also the companies working out of the Awesome Space – aBetterOffice, APAX Software, BookExchange.com, Premiere Dance, Prosper MG – Done in: 60 seconds, Vision Business Solutions, and Xperience Education.  But all of this activity gets trumped by Awesome Inc’s most important contribution thus far – the small part it played in getting a homeless guy off the streets.

“I can cut in better than you,” yelled Pete from Main Street one night.  He was standing outside of Awesome Inc while I was on a ladder painting the front wall yellow.  My initial reaction was, “Oh great.  A homeless guy is critiquing my painting abilities.  I hope nobody heard him.  That would be a pretty serious blow to my confidence.”  I ignored him and figured he would go away.  Pete was persistent though and wasn’t going anywhere.  Instead he continued to tell me how bad of a painter I was and that he could do a professional quality job for just a sandwich and a drink.

I opened the door and let him in. He painted alongside Nathan and I for about an hour. He killed it and sure enough he didn’t ask for much. It was 2 am and I didn’t have a sandwich or drink for him so I gave him a $10 bill. I hesitantly gave him my phone number as well to call me and come back and do more work for us. About 3 weeks later, Pete had significantly contributed to painting the entire building and earned about $250.
I had no idea what Pete was doing with this money.  If I had to guess it would have been something irresponsible.  It wasn’t until he came by the Awesome Space one day and asked for a letter stating he had been doing part time work for Awesome Inc that I figured out what he was actually doing with the money.  He had been saving it (along with other income from side jobs, I’m sure) to get into a subsidized housing program and rent an apartment. 

Probably my favorite moment in the last month came when Pete came by not to do work, but to prove to us that he had closed on this apartment.  I’ll always remember driving Pete from the Awesome Space to his apartment the first night he stayed in it.  When we got there, Pete gave Luke, Matt and I the full tour which included his shoe collection in his closet featuring some Nike Jordan’s from the 90’s.

Pete’s off the street and in his new apartment.  And I think Awesome Inc played a role, even if it was only a small role. Pete is a quality guy who fell on some hard times.  He has a long way to go, but I believe in him.  Pete is available for inexpensive freelance painting and does a heck of a job. He is painting my friend Matt’s house this week.

I am excited about the potential of our new company, APAX Software.  The combination of two successful companies that started just over a year ago should result in one extremely successful company.  APAX was founded by a friend of mine Ryan and grew from 2 to 11 employees.  SFENITY was founded by myself, my brother Justin, and my friend Matt and grew from 3 to 9 employees.  We just made our first hire as the ‘new APAX’, so that puts us up to 21 employees.  I always preach about surrounding yourself with the right people and getting quality people on your team.  I am confident that our new combined team is comprised of quality people and look forward to building something awesome with these guys.

Luke and I traveled to Boulder, CO in August to visit TechStars and watch pitch day.  We met all ten 2008 teams as well as the founder David Cohen.  We learned a ton about what it will take to make something like this happen in Lexington.  We also met StartupWeekend founder Andrew Hyde and scored a StartupWeekend event for Lexington, KY on November 21 – 23, 2008. 

While we were there we found time to climb a mountain (probably not a mountain by CO resident standards, but a still a mountain by our standards), teach swing dance lessons, network with awesome people at TechCocktail, and attend a salsa dance party.

In September we went to San Fran to attend Mobilize. We met leaders in the mobile space, marketing geniuses, mobile investors, and one crazy taxi cab driver.  We also met some really interesting people hanging out around bonfires on the beach at night. 

Mobilize

“Why are you holding this contest”? That was a question that I became really good at answering throughout the last few months. The short answer - I want to achieve awesomeness in my life. Hopefully, the people that I get to meet with have accomplished something awesome in their life and getting to know people like that will ultimately help me do the same. Ok, there is my answer. Here are the results and what I learned.

I didn’t get to meet Harrison Ford, who was my number one target influential person for many apparent reasons. And yes, one of those reasons is his ridiculous good looks. However, I did get to meet with five awesome and influential people. Without further delay, the winner of my contest is Alex McKenzie who connected me with Jim Foglesong, Country Music Hall of Famer and former president of Capital Records. Jim signed several country music stars while at Capital Records including Garth Brooks, Reba McEntire, and George Strait.

The purpose of this contest was to connect with influential people and do two things:

1. Learn as much as I can from each person and use it in my attempt to achieve awesomeness.
2. Build some sort of relationship with each person so that they might remember who I am if I come calling on them in the future for help or advice.

While I didn’t get to meet nearly as many people or as influential of people as I had hoped, I feel that I did accomplish my goals with the people that I met. Let me share with you what I learned.

In all of my discussions I found two common themes. The first is that if you are going to be the best at whatever you choose to do in life, you need to be doing something you love. Jim Foglesong said it many times in our conversation, “I loved music, so it never felt like work”. Whether I was meeting with a championship coach, a business owner, or a musical artist, I could tell that work wasn’t the same thing to them as it was to most people. It was their passion and they woke up in the morning happy because they got to do what they love. The second common theme was to surround yourself with the right people. This means the right people for you. Sometimes this might be other hard working people, sometimes smart people, sometimes creative people. Whoever compliments you best and pushes you to be your best, this is who you need to surround yourself with in your quest for awesomeness.

There was one other finding that I really want to share with everyone. One of the questions I asked each person was, “Did you ever have to sacrifice anything that you wish you hadn’t?” The purpose of this question was to see if they ever felt like they had to ‘sell out’ or give into temptations or distractions that they might regret in the future. Of course I knew they had to sacrifice a lot in their journey in the form of time, leisure, and other opportunities, but I was more concerned with whether or not they had to cross any ethical or moral lines they had drawn. It was refreshing to find that none of the five interviewees had any regretful sacrifices on their road to success. Either they didn’t want me to know what they sacrificed and were really good at lying or they truly did stick to their core values and beliefs. And to me, that was a huge relief. A constant inner struggle of mine is how much do I have to give into this world and surrender in order to someday become influential myself so that I can change the world in a positive way. It was very inspiring to hear that I don’t have to sacrifice anything I don’t want to, most importantly my values, in order to achieve awesomeness.

List of influential people I met (in random order):

Robert Young – President of Tutt Inc., large construction company in Lexington, KY
Jim Foglesong – Country Music Hall of Fame and former President of Capital Records
David Emerson – Atttorney at law, owner of Emerson Law Office
Richard Ketch – Owner of R.J. Ketch Equine
Michael Burt – State championship girls basketball coach, Riverdale HS, TN

- If you want to hear more about my interviews with any of these influential people, just ask me.

So I definitely should have wrote this about a month ago, but here it is.  I am giving away $500 to the person that hooks me up with the most influential person for a 15-20 minute one on one meeting.  The idea is to connect me with the most difficult-to-reach, influential, or prestigious person possible.  I want you to shoot for the stars.  I’m talking about people like George Bush, Michael Jordan, or Harrison Ford.  Ok, that might be a little extreme, but you get the idea.  Here is a link with more information outlining the rules in detail.  Contact me if you have any questions. 

I will write about my experiences with these connections on this blog after the contest deadline.