For those of you who know me, I’m going to finally admit open and honestly that I kind of have a brogrammer thing going on. It’s funny; whatever. Anyways, I wanted to share some things i’ve picked up over the years i’ve been going to the gym that I believe can be applied to life in general. Hopefully your brain will get that same awesome pump you experience after doing a few sets on the bench.

I’ll give you the lesson, where I see this at the gym, an example of where you may see this outside the gym, and wrap up with some inspiration that might help it sink in.

You may notice that I only refer to 2 places: At the gym & Outside the gym. Why?

Because that’s all there is.

1. Progress over pride.
   • At the gym: You refuse to perform a specific movement because you are afraid of how it may appear to others, that you won’t perform the movement very well, or that it’s just not “manly” enough.
   • Outside the gym: You get in a heated debate with someone only to realize that you were wrong. Embarrassed, you change the subject and choose not to learn from the experience.
   • Inspiration: “Discipline is based on pride, on meticulous attention to details, and on mutual respect and confidence. Discipline must be a habit so ingrained that it is stronger than the excitement of the goal or the fear of failure.” – Gary Ryan Blair
2. The first rep is always the hardest.
   • At the gym: I give you a weight you have never “officially” lifted before, so you start to get unsure of yourself. I watch you tremble with the first rep but then confidently pop off 8 more. What happened? You became more knowledgeable of your physical limitations – which were actually higher than you realized. You stopped riding the brake and started pushing the gas.
   • Outside the gym: It’s New Years Day and you have a shiny new list of the things you’ve always wanted to try and goals you want to meet. You soon realize that creating goals is much easier than creating change and taking that first step is much tougher than you initially thought.
   • Inspiration: ”Face new challenges, seize new opportunities, test your resources against the unknown and in the process, discover your own unique potential.” – John Amatt
3. The last reps are the ones that count.
   • At the gym: You are in the middle of doing a set of crunches and realize the movement is starting to get really difficult. You could quit now but then remember why you are doing crunches in the first place. It’s a decision you will face every single time you are at the gym — consider it an opportunity to practice making the decision to continue forward.
   • Outside the gym: As a skilled developer, you like to frequently challenge yourself with new problems that lie just outside of your current ability. Sometimes solving new problems takes longer than you expected and were much more difficult than you estimated but after everything, you are now more capable than before.
   • Inspiration: “Life has no smooth road for any of us; and in the bracing atmosphere of a high aim the very roughness stimulates the climber to steadier steps, till the legend, over steep ways to the stars, fulfills itself.” – W. C. Doane
4. You may even eventually like the pain.
   • At the gym: When you’re new to working out, you will feel discomfort and even pain. Not the “oh shit I just broke something” kind of pain but the kind that makes you question how much more work you want to put in. After a few weeks, the pain you previously felt loses it’s sharpness and it just becomes that annoying thing you have to force yourself to work through. Eventually, you realize that sensation you previously referred to as “pain” is just the side effect of growing your own determination.
   • Outside the gym: You are trying to raise money for a startup but keep hearing “No” from potential investors. Instead of thinking it as rejection, you instead see it as an opportunity to improve your company and eventually convert a non-believer into an evangelist.
   • Inspiration: “I assess the power of a will by how much resistance, pain, torture it endures and knows how to turn to its advantage.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
5. It’s always good to have a spotter.
   • At the gym: Like me. I’m awesome and I also accept credit cards.
   • Outside the gym: Who are the people that challenge you every day? If the answer is yourself, you need to get out more.
   • Inspiration: ”If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.” – Isaac Newton

I’ll leave you with a last piece of inspiration that I hope digests slowly like a nice blend of casein and fish oil. “There are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those we ourselves erect”. Damn, that was a Reagan quote. Let’s go with: “Do or do not. There is no try.”

Those who call your ideas “genius” are equally as useless as those who call your ideas “moronic”. Look for feedback that stems from insight rather than words that play to your ego or lack thereof.

With the new year and all, I wanted to try an exercise where I attempt to identify the five most important lessons in life that i’ve learned so far, so that I can look back and remember them when times get tough.

1. Do what you love

This is probably the most important lesson of all. It’s not what your parents want for you and it’s definitely not what your significant other wants for you. It all boils down to being honest with yourself to the point where you can say with complete conviction that “I was put on this earth for x y and z” (of course, these can change over time). Anything else and you’re just. cheating yourself

2. Surround yourself with people you love

What good is it If you’re pursuing your goals and passions just by yourself? Would life be better if you were doing them with your best friend? Or family? Going through the trenches alone is a suicide mission. Nothing of significant importance was accomplished by a single individual.

3. Challenge the impossible

Grand ideas call for challenging the previously considered “impossible”. Every single thing in this world came from an individual who said “this can be improved” or “this IS possible”. Every single thing. Be that person. Things can be improved. Always.

4. Don’t be afraid of making mistakes or failing

If you follow the above point of challenging the impossible, you will fail. No doubt about it. But is that really a bad thing? Everyone encounters resistance at some point as they go through life. By definition, innovators aren’t immediately understood by the masses. Realize that because of this, you will run into huge pitfalls that will need to be overcome. If it were easy to innovate, everyone would be doing it. Take pride in that fact.

5. Realize that every cloud has a silver lining

No matter how bad things may get, realize that there is always a positive lesson to be learned. What is the use of punishment with no lesson? Absolutely worthless. Those who punish, for the most part, are interested in teaching you a lesson. Is that lesson worthwhile? Learn it.

Aaaaaaaaand that’s it. First post of 2011

People often ask me what it was that made me want to be an entrepreneur at such a young age. I usually reply with “#1: i’m not young. And #2: I have a burning, dripping, agonizing desire to do something incredible. Something that after being created, takes a life on its own and becomes bigger than you and everyone involved. Now, these top 10 reasons are clearly derived from my own personal experiences but if I were to give you any other reasons to do a startup, I would be cheating you. Without further ado:

10. You get to fail. Over and over.

• When you are running a startup, you don’t have the luxury of time. You need to be able to put your product out in the web even before your product is 100% complete. Doing so facilitates a higher rate of failure but hopefully, a higher rate of customer suggestions. and yea… even complaints. At this stage, every bit of feedback you get from your customers should be your guiding light as to how you should improve your product.

9. Sleep matters less

• The funny things about running your own startup is that, by nature, sleep becomes less important. This is probably due to the fact that if you don’t deliver your next product, you will be out on the street before your DNS can propagate. You should wake up excited knowing that you have another day to bring your product to the next level!

8. Customers get to yell at you

• To have the opportunity to have your customer tell you EXACTLY WHAT IS WRONG with your product is a gold mine. Every single problem that you listen to may feel like a razorblade slicing your company to pieces but really, it is an opportunity to fix that lagging spot of your company and really make the customer say WOW! Building up your weaknesses can be a core competency. Woody Benson calls this petri dish marketing. Sample just a few, get some feedback, then iterate.

7. You are accountable for everything that is wrong

• But then again, you are accountable for almost everything that is right. To be in the position to determine your own destiny: to succeed or fail, is one of the most rewarding part of being an entrepreneur. No guts, no glory. If you really believe in what you are doing, you will throw everything that you have on the line and mean it!

6. You sometimes end up sacrificing things that matter to you

• Now I’m clearly not experienced enough in the field to truly know what I’m talking about for this one but I’ve heard various successful entrepreneurs detail their experiences as all-consuming, sometimes being to the detriment of their loved ones. While working on HaveMyShift, I went from having a normal life, with school and hanging out with friends to going to work, taking a break by working out, and then going back to work. Someone once asked me what I did for fun and I gave them a blank stare for a bit. Oh yea… I do like to have fun! I’m still working on that whole work-life balance thing.

5. People have to rely on you

• A successful company rarely comes from a single individual. The overwhelming majority of successful companies come from small, smart and skilled teams of people that require every person to be operating at 100%. Knowing that, you need to trust every single person in your company to really be executing well.

4. Increase the likelihood of getting carpal tunnel

• I never thought I could be on the computer more than I was while a developer at Metromix and working on HaveMyShift at night but wow. I surpassed even my own expectations, easily. I’m not saying this will happen to you but in my case, since I do the majority of work and communication on my laptop, it’s definitely my #1 most important physical possession at this point.

3. You sometimes forget to eat

• Mix together a bunch of excitement with a heavy dose of work and meetings, add in a helping of coffee and it is really easy to forget to eat. Now, it’s definitely not an everyday thing but just yesterday, I ate breakfast at 9 o clock. PM. Is that a priorities problem or is that normal or what?

2. Make little to no money!

• When you first start, you will not be making any money. Unless you are funded, your sole income rests in the company you are working on. The good thing is that if you can execute, you can make many multiples of what you originally thought you could ever make.

1. You have to

• Face it. Working for anyone else just makes you feel like a complete tool. Your boss gives you jobs and tasks that would never help you realize what your real potential is. Now, that’s not to say that there aren’t incredible bosses that can help you grow in amazing ways but for me, if I wasn’t following my own dreams, my life would probably feel like a Starbucks Turkey Bacon Breakfast Sandwich. An unfulfilling and mediocre substitute to the real Bacon/Sausage Sandwich. Gimmie the real deal!

There you have it. My top 10 reasons I am an entrepreneur. What are the top 10 reasons YOU are an entrepreneur?