99U

Last spring I was honored to be asked to speak at the 99U conference.  It is a really well done event. They launch the speeches over the year to keep people engaged with the event.  Pretty smart.

The audience is filled with creative people so I spoke about embracing those talents as an entrepreneur to build the life that works for each individual.

Here is the speech:

Comments (Archived):

  1. Great speech! & Nice jacket :)One of the most difficult things to do as a creative person is to leave your job and become the entrepreneur. When I left my job to start my company, i had one of the partners guarantee me a salary for 3 months. The salary was about 60% of what I was getting at my job so it wasn’t much. It was extremely difficult during those 3 months and each day was a 24-hour, crazy intense day of constant building of the company and building sales. The stress levels were through the roof- beyond explanation.In month 4, we signed on our first merchant and became profitable. The rest is history but the point is that what’s holding the creative people back to become entrepreneurs is the fact that we’re not rich yet by any means and we need to support ourselves and the people we love. The current job is supporting that and it’s nearly impossible to take that leap of faith to leave your job even though you’ll win long term, because you can’t lose short term.So basically you love the people in your life so much that you can’t take this leap of faith because of your fear that you won’t be able to provide for them.I started companies before, but what actually started the profitable company was leaving the Job and actually taking that leap of faith to commit for 3 months. In my mind, 3 months is all anyone needs if you commit every day.Thanks Gotham Gal for inspiring the creative heads and showing them how they can not only earn way more being an entrepreneur, it’s your own lifestyle, way more meaningful/rewarding and of-course more fun!

    1. Gotham Gal

      definitely more rewarding and fun!

  2. johndodds

    Late to this. Really enjoyed it and while I’ve always loathed the five year question, that’s more to do with its place in the armoury of lazy recruiters than anything else. That said, it also points to the difference between those people who believe they can actually influence to a significant degree what happens in that time-frame and those, like me, who have so far failed to do so.

    1. Gotham Gal

      Thanks