Is Entrepreneurship a Personality Disorder?

Fred Wilson is one of my favorite bloggers, and he listed his answers to “10 Questions About Entrepreneurship” - including referring to it as a personality disorder, and questioning whether or not entrepreneurs are happier than “regular” folks.

For one, it may not be a disorder (because that carries a certain negative connotation) but it definitely is a personality aberration.   I mean, who would consider high-level OCD coupled with ADHD, severe insomnia, extreme excitability, and mood swings a “disorder”……oh, wait…All those traits could also be referred to as passion, drive, ambition, and a quest to make the world a better place and achieve self-fulfillment.  It just depends on whether or not you’re trying to sell medication

As to whether or not we’re happier - I think our mood swings take us higher (it’s the self fulfillment thing), and the lows don’t take us quite as low, since a successful entrepreneur learns at a very earl age to embrace a challenge as opposed to let it keep them down too long.   Now, that is completely achievable outside of our little sphere of crazy people, but I think it affects entrepreneurs at a much higher rate than your cubicle warrior.  Hence, I would suggest entrepreneurs are, on average, slightly happier.

He also talks a bit about how Indeed is making job searching more intelligent. This sounds kind of like some stuff we’re working on with HHOD.  I wonder if Fred would be interesting in hearing about that?

*crickets*

And, yes, I know that these posts are a bit older, but I only get to my aggregator about once a week these days.  I’ve been too busy running around and talking about HHOD to schools and finding out exactly how cool our idea is.

29 Apr 08 | Entrepreneurship | Comments (0)

Finally - talking about the Startup.

So, a few times around here, I have alluded to “The Startup”….never being in a position to talk about it until today. Let’s get to the meaty details.

What is it? - HomeworkHelponDemand.com - an online resource that will finally make all those potentially educational resources out there on the Internet easy to find, evaluate, and put to use. We’re talking about a complete shift in the way kids, parents, and teachers use the Internet in relation to school.

We’re not releasing much more information about exactly how we are doing what we do until we are a little farther along - but if you go to the site and sign up, you can get access to early-bird previews and VIP access to some information.

I am very, very excited about this - not just because I think it’s an absolutely great idea that will create a very profitable business…..I also feel very strongly about the mission of this business. You see, on a daily basis we find new web businesses out there that are compelling, cool, or even revolutionary in their creation or application of technology. Twitter is a business that comes to mind that is very ‘cool’.

One thing that’s different about HHOD is that our impact won’t just be measured in return on the VC investment, Fast Company covers (although that would be sweet), or how many ripples we can make in the blogosphere. Our impact will be measured in levels of improvement for students, increase in efficiency for teachers, expansion of the parent’s role in their child’s education - things that, at the end of the day, are what really, truly matter.

You can read my first post on our company blog to see why this is important. When 50% of the kids in your hometown aren’t going to graduate from high school, you really don’t care much about the social grid (although we have that), ajax (that too), or bright and shiny graphics (again..) - what you really want to do is give these kids, their teachers, and their parents the tools to access the greatest learning resource of our time effectively and safely.

That’s what we’re here to do. Stay tuned (and, by all means, go to the site, fill out the form, and stay up to date with what’s going on)

01 Apr 08 | Entrepreneurship | Comments (0)

Why “Good Enough” Generally Isn’t.

In the world of someone who wants to accomplish great things, there is no room for the term “Good Enough.” Because, in reality, that ENOUGH point is always moving. Move forward and get better or get out of business.

Sometimes, I find myself lulled into complacency when it comes to the quality of my work - mostly due to the hypnotic effect of crossing things off my ‘to-do’ list. So, I do things like I did Friday, and slap up a contact page for the website we’re launching in a couple months (your typical “coming soon - give us your email” page) that I think looks “good enough.” Then, after a couple emails get tossed around, I find myself slightly embarrassed, since the page obviously wasn’t good enough.

It’s a little thing, I know. But it’s the little things that add up to big things, so you might as well get in the habit of consistent excellence if you want to make it.

On a related note, I’ll actually be announcing what the startup site is in the next week or two, after we get a little more paperwork filed. It is the best project I’ve ever been involved in, and I truly believe we can change the world with it. I’ll keep you posted.

17 Mar 08 | Entrepreneurship | Comments (0)

Affiliate Marketing Introduction

One thing I’m starting to explore is the wide, wide world of affiliate marketing.  Clayton got me into the idea - and I figured that I have made a pretty decent living running online campaigns that deliver solid ROI for other people.

So, why not take a stab myself.  I’d like to think  I can select affiliate offers that have a good chance of paying off.  I’m a really good SEO and PPC manager - and those are the main channels I’ll be working in.

This should be pretty interesting.

You’ll notice an ad in my sidebar.  This is for Motive Interactive - the first network I joined.  So far, I’ve been stoked to see the offers they have, and my account rep has been very helpful.  This is why I’m posting the ad.  To be sure, if you sign up from here, I get a kick back, but I won’t ever post something here I don’t have reason to believe in.

13 Mar 08 | Entrepreneurship | Comments (0)