As I was talking with a friend about mental toughness, he mentioned “The Last Dance” documentary about Michael Jordan a few times. I hadn’t watched it, and my interest was piqued even though I usually read in my downtime. (Side note: I share a birthday with MJ, so I’ve been a fan since childhood.) Today I watched some of the documentary. I was impressed. As can be expected when someone is striving for greatness, he had many behind-the-scenes struggles that most people never saw.

Jordan was the best player in the NBA in the late ’80s and early ’90s. NBA Scoring Champion, Defensive Player of the Year, All-Star . . . he won pretty much every individual accolade. Yet his team had yet to make it to the NBA finals. The strategy was to get MJ the ball and he’d make something happen. It worked, but it wasn’t enough to win a title.

The Bulls changed coaches and the strategy started to change. The legendary Phil Jackson wanted to play a triangle offense, but Jordan wasn’t a fan of it. He was used to having the ball, and Jackson’s offense would take it away from him. The triangle offense involved moving the ball around to everyone in a strategic manner, giving everyone a variety of scoring opportunities. Jordan reluctantly embraced it and they made it to the NBA Finals the next year, 1991. In game five, instead of forcing shots, MJ repeatedly passed to his wide-open teammate, John Paxson. Paxson rose to the occasion each time and lifted the Bulls to a victory and their first NBA championship. This game was pivotal in many ways. Most importantly, Jordan finally learned to appreciate team ball.

After the title win, Jordan focused on becoming a better leader. He was determined to win another title. He realized the Bulls could be great with team ball—and they could be elite if they all consistently played at a high level and with a high level of confidence. Jordan focused on making his teammates better. He led by example, giving 100% in every practice and demanding the same from his team.

The Bulls went on to win six NBA championships in three-peats in ’91–’93 and ’96–’98. Many still consider Jordan the best player of all time.

Jordan was an incredible player for many years. But in my opinion, when he started focusing on leading by example and making his teammates better, that’s when he began to achieve greatness.

Teamwork is dream work!

When I was in the corporate world, the path was clear. You show up and do good work and you’ll be promoted. I didn’t have to put much thought into it. It was known. Chatting with a friend today reminded me that I had to unlearn this and take a different approach as an entrepreneur.

My first few years at CCAW, I worked hard. That hard work was rewarded with (in my eyes) marginal progress, and I was nowhere near where I wanted to be. I couldn’t see a path to get there, either. I’d applied what I’d learned in corporate America, but it wasn’t working very well. Our revenue was growing, but I was struggling in many areas. It felt like I was on a hamster wheel spending more time working in the business than on it. I was stressed and working a ridiculous number of hours.

I eventually decided to take a step back. I realized that I was hoping things would just fall into place. It wasn’t working out like that. I spent time crystalizing where I wanted to be and pinpointing what was preventing me from getting there. I realized that to reach my destination in a healthy way, I would have to be much more intentional. I would need to rebuild our operational foundation and change our pricing strategy. I estimated that it would take a few months and that our revenue would decline during that period.

The process ending up taking a year and reduced revenue almost 30%, from $688,000 to $485,000. It was extremely painful and I was scared. I wasn’t sure that we’d survive this self-inflicted pain. Vendors were asking why we weren’t buying as much and we faced a cash crunch. Ultimately, though, it proved to be the right call. We built a stronger operational foundation and were positioned for growth. The next year, annual revenue was $793,000 and the following year it surpassed $1 million. We were rolling. I was still stressed, but I felt like I could work on the business more and continue to grow.

My takeaway from this experience was that intentionality is powerful. If I want something, I need to articulate it clearly (to myself and others), put in time and effort, and align my decisions with what I want to make happen. That means that sometimes I’ll have to endure short-term pain to reach my ultimate destination, but that’s OK. I have to be intentional about what I do in the present to reach a particular destination. I won’t just miraculously end up there.

Today marked the end of my twenty-ninth week of working from home (mostly). Here are my takeaways from week twenty-nine:

• Time management – This week I focused on being proactive about what I spend my time on. I noticed a big difference. I didn’t get as much done in certain areas, but overall, I’m happy with my progress.
• Podcast – I was invited to participate in a podcast this week. I wasn’t sure what I was getting myself into (this was a first), but I accepted. The moderator made me feel comfortable, and the other participants were great. We talked about mentorship, which I’m passionate about. A terrific experience!
• Students – As I said in a recent post, I really want to help entrepreneurial students reach their full potential. My earlier post led to a great conversation with a student today. I’ll continue looking for ways to help students.  

Week twenty-nine was a busy one (this seems to be the norm). Looking forward to refining how I organize my work next week.

I’ll continue to learn from this unique situation, adjust as necessary, and share my experience.

Yesterday I shared some ideas about how to position yourself to find a co-founder. If you’re like most founders, you’re a first-timer, and you may not have hiring experience. You’re ill-equipped to evaluate whether a potential co-founder is a good fit. So what do you do?

At CCAW I was in that situation. I was on a hamster wheel and desperately trying to get off. I was looking for my first in-office hire (we had distributed team members), and I was struggling. Trying to figure out whether a candidate was a good fit was much harder than I had expected.

At the time, I was subleasing office space from an EO Atlanta member. He’d been an entrepreneur for almost two decades. I regularly talked with him about things I was trying to figure out. Those informal conversations were invaluable. When I told him about my hiring problem, he made an amazing offer. “How about I interview one of your candidates and you sit in. I can show you better than I can tell you.” I happily agreed. I was able to watch him in action, and I learned a ton. He was able to help me realize the candidate wasn’t the right one.

Finding the right co-founder is critical. If you have someone in mind, consider getting input from credible people. If you and the candidates are having conversations or doing things together to get to know one another, consider inviting someone to join you—a credible entrepreneur would be good if you know one. If you’ve raised capital from credible investors, consider getting their input. Whomever you ask to join you, make sure they have a track record of evaluating talent or some experience with entrepreneurial partnerships. Your goal is to have them compensation for your blind spots.

Finding a co-founder is no walk in the park, but there are things you can do to make it a bit easier (notice I didn’t say easy). Getting the perspective of credible people can help you avoid a bad partnership and quickly confirm when you’ve found someone great!

One of the mistakes I made early was choosing to be a solo founder. Over the last year, I’ve been intentional about sharing with early founders the importance of having a founding team. Some still think the solo route is best, but most tell me they want a co-founder. But finding one is easier said than done—especially for nontechnical founders seeking a technical founder.

Nontechnical founders who want to build a technology company face a dilemma. They can’t build the product. They must find a technical co-founder (or a senior developer they don’t have to manage closely). Otherwise the company never progresses beyond the idea stage. Technical solo founders face a host of other challenges, but they can at least build the product. Putting the product in users’ hands can generate traction —a powerful recruiting tool. It’s easier to recruit a co-founder when you can show that you’ve already acquired customers or users.

So how does a nontechnical founder find a technical co-founder? There’s no silver bullet, but a good start is to hang around the hoop. The hoop is anywhere good technical talent might be found: meetups, conferences, pitch competitions, slack channels . . . you get the idea. Colleges are also great resources. Loitering around a school won’t help, but you can reach out to computer science professors and leaders of student clubs. If you’ve got a good idea, can tell a story, and talk to enough people, the odds are in your favor.

The difficulty of finding a co-founder is a problem I’ve heard about often enough that it warrants deeper thought. I’ll discuss it with others and, I hope, come up with a more comprehensive set of ideas for solving it. If I do, I’ll be sure to share it!

Today I was asked an interesting question: do I complete against other investors for deals? I decided to share my thoughts (based on limited experience). Some things to consider:

Rounds – Investment rounds frequently aren’t filled by a single investor (for one reason or another). Investors often work together toward a common goal of providing enough capital for the round to be closed.

Expertise – Many investors are great in one sector (e.g., healthcare) and good in lots of others. When an investor comes across a company in an industry they’re not great in, they may seek the perspective of one who knows the sector well.

Awareness – Investors sometimes make each other aware of founders and companies because it’s impossible to know all of them.

Stage – Investors often focus on a specific stage of investment. Outlander Labs is pre-seed, for example. Other stages include idea, seed, and series A, among others. If two investors are focused on the same industry but different stages, they’re probably not competing.

Community – For investors to do well, the overall community needs to do well. Investors know this, so they tend to cooperate rather than compete with each other.  

LPs – Venture capital funds usually raise money to invest by obtaining capital commitments from limited partners (LPs). The relationship between LPs and venture funds is important. Great LPs can be helpful to funds. They can be sources of deals and also provide expertise. Sometimes LPs can be invested in multiple funds, which is useful because having LPs in common can be a relational bridge between investors.

In my opinion, the answer to the question, at least from a high level, is “no.” I’m sure there are exceptions on a deal-by-deal basis. I don’t see other investors as competition. I see them as peers working toward a common goal: helping great founders and companies reach their full potential!

In college, I had a nice side hustle. It was just me, working with a network of installers and vendors to complete customization projects on my friends’ vehicles. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was on to something. The problem I identified for this side hustle was the same problem I would solve with CCAW years later. Hindsight is 20/20, but I wish someone had helped me understand that I’d stumbled on a problem that a big company could be built to solve.

Today I spoke with two bright college students. They’ve launched an early version of an app and are about to start getting feedback from customers. They’re inexperienced and have a long way to go, but I was impressed. They’ve managed to put together a team of twelve people, build a product, and pitch venture capitalists. All while finishing their undergraduate degrees. When I think back to where I was at twenty . . . well, these two founders are light years ahead.

The opportunity wasn’t a good investment fit, but I wanted to help these two grow. Instead of giving them a cold “no thanks,” I (along with my team member) used the second half of the meeting to coach them. I asked them questions that got them thinking about their problem and solution from different perspectives. We discussed alternative ways to achieve their objective. We gave them honest and candid feedback.

When the conversation ended, I was excited. Not about where they are now, but about their future. These two founders have entrepreneurial drive and hustle for sure. They need coaching and mentoring to help them reach their full potential. Hopefully our session today was a step in that direction.

After reflecting on this and my own journey, I’ve decided to find ways to spend time working with entrepreneurial college students. I’m not exactly sure what this will look like, but I know it’s something I want to do, so I’m going to make it happen. I have a new project! I’m excited to give back and help entrepreneurial students head toward success.

Friday marked the end of my twenty-eighth week of working from home (mostly). Here are my takeaways from week twenty-eight:

• Groove – This week, I felt like I was in a good rhythm and beginning to hit my groove. Looking back at my calendar, the week was busy with lots of meetings, but it felt less hectic. I’m starting to get used to this new pace and seeing early signs of balance.
• Giving back – I write daily, mainly in an effort to help others. This week I had conversations with five unrelated people who mentioned that my writings are helpful. This felt great! It was encouraging. I’m happy that others find value in my thoughts and experiences.
• Education – I participated in some meetings that educated me on topics I want to master. They reminded me how important it is for me to be intentional and seek out ways to continue to better myself and work toward goals I’ve set for myself.

Week twenty-eight was a busy week, but it didn’t feel as busy as it was. I’m looking forward to settling further into my new groove this coming week.

I’ll continue to learn from this unique situation, adjust as necessary, and share my experience.

I had a good conversation with a friend today. We both advise early entrepreneurs. Today we talked about things we’ve learned and best practices. Since we’re doing the same thing in different ways, we can help each other by talking through our experiences and sharing our perspectives.

One thing I’ve learned that I told my friend about has to do with asking versus telling. When you’re experienced, you can see things that novices can’t. When someone’s in a difficult situation that you’ve been in, the natural inclination is to help them avoid the pain that awaits by telling them what they should do or shouldn’t do. This can be helpful, but it’s not the best approach. You’ve set them up for future pain. Yes, you’ve helped them avoid pain today, but you’ve scotched their opportunity to learn. The next time they have to deal with something similar and you’re not around, they won’t know what to do.

When I work with entrepreneurs, I ask questions. My hope is that by thinking through the answer, they’ll connect the dots and learn something that will help them avoid pain both now and later. If I’ve had a relevant experience, I share it with them, of course. But my questions have been more helpful. I’ve noticed that entrepreneurs who’ve answered them feel like they’ve figured out what to do themselves, through learning, which is powerful.

If you want to help people, don’t spoon-feed them information—encourage them to reason . . . analyze . . . think. You’ll be fortifying them against future tribulations.  

Early in my founder journey, I had an overwhelming feeling that I had to have all the answers. I felt like it was expected of me. Whenever the team asked a question, especially about direction, I thought I should know the answer. I worried that they would lose confidence in me if I didn’t. As I worked with suppliers, it was the same. I felt like I had to have an answer or they would look at CCAW differently. Even when speaking with entrepreneurial peers, I felt the same self-imposed pressure. It was ludicrous.

As I settled into running a company and leading a team, I became more self-aware (partly through reflection on failures and partly from people pointing out my shortcomings). I realized there were things I was really good at and felt confident answering questions about. Other things I was inexperienced in or just plain bad at, and I wasn’t well equipped to answer questions about them. As I matured, I stopped trying to come up with a good-sounding answer that would let me squirm out of the corner I was in when the true answer was “I don’t know.”

Those three words are simple, powerful, and scary all at the same time. They’re scary because you’re admitting you have a knowledge gap. This can feel uncomfortable (it was for me), but it helps to think of saying them as acknowledging that you’re human. They’re powerful because they signal self-awareness, confidence, and honesty, and they give you the opportunity to learn something. And they’re simple because . . . well . . . they’re only three words.

Nowadays, when I’m asked about something outside my wheelhouse, I usually admit my ignorance (I still slip up, though). I try to turn it into an opportunity to learn. Usually I say something like, “Honestly, I’m not sure, but I’m actively seeking different perspectives on this. I’d love to hear yours.” People will tell me what they think, which adds to my fund of knowledge. Or they’ll admit they don’t know either, which reassures me that I’m not the only one.

When I speak with entrepreneurs now, I try to tell them what I wish someone had told me early on. It’s OK to not know. In fact, it’s normal. You’re human and no one expects you to have all the answers!