P90X

Some of you may know that I have been doing P90X. I wanted to share some of things I've learned from dedicating almost 6 months of my workout life to it:

1. Be prepared for P90X to rule your agenda. There is some major sacrifices involved. I do my workouts in the evening when the kids are in bed. That means that the glass of wine or four with diner is scratched 6 days a week. Or if you workout at lunch and all of sudden there is a business lunch, you will need to prepare and either do it in the morning or evening. It's a constant battle.

2. Make sure that what you need to workout is portable. That includes ripping all the dvd's to your mobile device like your phone, portable media player, tablet or laptop. It's the only way you can stick to the schedule since no one stays locked at home for 3 months straight. Invariably you will have to workout somewhere that is not your basement or living room and will need that dreaded pull-up bar and your spreadsheets to write down your progress.

3. In the videos, Tony Horton, keeps mentioning to write it down. He is not kidding. I'm a competitive person and the only way I can continue and motivate myself to improve is by knowing if what I'm doing is actually working. The spreadsheet I use even includes weight loss and measurements and keeps me on schedule since it's built in.

4. Try to get a group of people together to do it. It's a lot more motivating to know that you are not alone doing it and "X" it to get better results than your friends. Put bets into the equation if you want to incentivize things up even more. Use the group to share all the body aches, anecdotes and to motivate each other to keep going. I personally created a Facebook group so we could share those stories and keep in touch.

5. P90X is not for everyone. They do try to pitch the program to every age group, fitness level and sex but I think that you need to have been somewhat athletic in your life to be able to go through it. That said, I'm sure some people that have never worked out in their life's and are overweight will find the courage and the dedication to do it but they will be the exception. Think of doing 349 or more abdominal repetition in 16 mins 3 times a week, 6 sets of varied style pull-ups to failure combined with 12 different styles of push-ups and some other back exercises in an hour, it's hard! Of course you can use chairs for pull-ups and go on your knees for push-ups but it's still very very very hard to do all week long.

6. I can vouch for it. After all the scary things I just mentioned you might be thinking why would I do this. If you do stick to it, watch out! It works. I am a huge fan and Carey, my significant other ;), will tell you, she is tired of me talking about it. I'm one of those annoying apostles that keeps talking about it. Maybe it's to make all that pain worthwhile....

Any P90X related opinions, stories or experiences to share?  I've love to hear!

Jobs Thruth

Here are a few of the quotes from Steve Jobs that make me relate to him on a startup point of view.

1.“Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.”  -via
2. “You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new.”– Inc. Magazine
3. “So we went to Atari and said, ‘Hey, we’ve got this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we’ll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we’ll come work for you.’ And they said, ‘No.’ So then we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said, ‘Hey, we don’t need you. You haven’t got through college yet.” – Classic Gaming
4.“I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.” -All Things Digital 5
5. “It’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.” – Businessweek

6. “The problem with the Internet startup craze isn’t that too many people are starting companies; it’s that too many people aren’t sticking with it. That’s somewhat understandable, because there are many moments that are filled with despair and agony, when you have to fire people and cancel things and deal with very difficult situations. That’s when you find out who you are and what your values are.

7. To write a novel, you have to read a novel––one that reads like a mystery to most people. They’re not going to learn slash q-z any more than they’re going to learn Morse code. That is what Macintosh is all about.” Playboy


Because he came from the garage startup scenario I think he really understood entrepreneurship and what it takes to get to success. Let's just try to emulate what he did.

Typical Startup Experience

I meet a lot of entrepreneurs in what I do and most of us have a similar story. I felt like sharing one story would be sharing a thousand. I'm sure you will recognize or see yourself in this adventure from a friend of mine, Mark Rosenberger.

Mark was working at a large corporation, Bell Canada, and saw opportunities from diverse issues that were related to his work. He could not be alone with those problems and if he could solve some of those he thought he would have a good case for a viable business that would meet the need of a large target market. Time goes by, the idea matures and you get the feeling that you need to "do it". You become restless and decide it's time. Mark takes the plunge into the unknown. Tagle is born.

Having a family to support, time is of the essence. As all first time entrepreneurs, investors are not throwing money at you. You put in your own money and some from your friends, family and fools. You flush ideas out, you get a prototype and get to a point were you attract attention from others. Mark was onto something and was lucky enough to get and angel investor on board. Working with his team from across the globe and with poverty knocking at his door, Tagle develops a robust set of tools to manage files with the philosophy that Drag and Drop is the easiest way. They go for a consumer approach and launch a beta. Friends and users start using the product but things don't go gangbusters on the first iteration. That's when a good entrepreneur comes alive.

Tagle pivots and refocuses towards a business to business play. This comes with letting people go which is alway one of the hardest things to do. The new team is woking hard and zeroes in on tools that their new target market absolutely needs. They simplify their approach and go for in their backyard customers. Being from Alberta they set their sight on the oil and gas market as a beachhead. Not long after their pivot the best part of being an entrepreneur happens. Their first customer signs up. The first contract is never big money but it shows that the decisions you made were the right ones plus any kind of money coming in makes you feel like things are on a roll. Tagle then receives even more attention and that's when people start to take notice and want to join the party. Ganesh Murdeshwar, an experienced business man with lots of oil and gas experience, joins the ranks and brings a fresh breath to Tagle and much needed cash injection.

Soon after, other customers sign up and things feel like you have made it. In a sense you did but many more battles are to come, headaches to cure and hard decisions to make. Somehow it's all worth it.

Of course not everyone makes it but if you are thinking of making that jump or are in the process of getting things rolling, it's a great ride no matter what happens.

Does this experience feel like deja vu to you?

Startup Wisdom

Here are some things to think of when you are in a startup. These come from my experiences founding Blackline GPS and budtobud and might reflect yours as well.

1. Nothing is simple but
2. Everything is doable.
3. Talk about what you are doing to a broad range of people. The feedback is extremely valuable.
4. Pitch all the time. That's how you get good and how you validate your ideas.
5. Be prepared to be on the clock 24hrs. That includes your dreams since sometimes good things come out of those half asleep ones.
6. What the company starts out to be might not be what it ends up being. Both Blackline GPS and budtobud changed directions.
7. Fail early so you can be better quicker.
8. Think big all the time but start small.
9. Don't be afraid to give some of the company for real value. Basically don't be Gollum.
10. Make sure you have fun and that means surround yourself with people you like in and out of the office.

What would you add?

It's a start!

I guess you have to start somewhere when a new blog is born. You could say I am nervous about a few things related to blogging. First, knowing that everyone has access to my written words is a bit nerve racking since english is not my first language and I don't consider myself a writer by any stretch;  I still type looking at my keyboard most of the time and everyone that knows me will tell you I am very frugal with the written word when communicating. I also have a bit of apprehension since I don't think my point of view is better or worse than anyone else and have only shared my mind with small groups before except for a few speeches, presentations and being on panels.
Since blogging is supposed to be an expression of yourself and a way to participate in debates and conversations I shouldn't worry about these things and that's why I'm making the plunge and jumping into the unknown. Well here it goes. (Loud thunk no one heard....) ;)