Hello again! Welcome, have a seat, get comfortable and let's talk. Last week I told you that over the next few weeks I would be blogging about our new program Start-Up Town and the wonderful world of entrepreneurship; specifically the challenges faced by young entrepreneurs. I've already discussed the way that young entrepreneurs can psyche themselves out by viewing their age as a hindrance and today I want to talk about one way to combat this mental roadblock: mentor-ship.

Most apprehensions that come with being a "young" entrepreneur have little to do with the "young" part and more to do with a perceived (or real) lack of experience in the business world or in the specific industry that the young entrepreneur is breaking into. My advice? Latch onto someone who is already doing it right! I don't know about you, but if I were learning how to swim, I'd want to be standing (or floating) next to the person that already knows how to keep their head above the water. Actually when it comes to finding a great mentor, it's not solely my advice, there are plenty of articles out there that provide tips and advice for young entrepreneurs.

Even the greatest of great historical figures, in fields ranging from the arts to the sciences, worked as apprentices and/or had mentors to guide them in the right direction. Here are a few examples of how having a mentor can benefit you. (You can read a full description of the benefits here.)

A good mentor will:

Provide Encouragement:

"A good mentor will motivate you with a simple statement that affirms you are on the right track even when things do not seem to be going well. They have the ability to reassure you that everything is going as it should be because they have been there before"; just like Mama used to do! Let's face it, things are not ALWAYS going to go as you thought they would, so it's nice to have someone there to acknowledge that and to keep you moving forward. (P.S You've chosen a REALLY great mentor if they also console you with a homemade PB&J and a glass of milk like Mama used to do.)

Reduce mistakes:

"Failure is only possible if you decide to figure out everything on your own." You will save yourself a lot of time and worry by having someone who can answer the questions you have about your business. They may not be able to answer every question, but sometimes just having someone to be a sounding board will help. So stop venting to your Carebears or that poster of Captain Planet on the back of your door (yeah, we know about that) and start working through the issues with someone who can prevent them before they arise.

Eliminate weaknesses:

"If you have a good mentor, understand that you are not always going to like them. Their primary role is to be your mentor and their secondary role is to be your friend. Your best friends see you as you are, your mentor sees you for who you can be." It's business, it's not personal, so heed the advice and know that what doesn't kill you will only make you stronger . . .and that if your mentor tells you something that REALLY gets to your feelings, you can always hug those Carebears.

Bring out your strengths:

"Talent cannot be taught which is why coaches are more valuable than players. Without good coaches, talent would be useless. A good mentor will help bring out the best in you when you don't necessarily see the qualities you possess." While you may be aware of your skill set, you might also be undermining it. Having an outside perspective of your talents and weaknesses will bring to light some attributes that you may not have even known about yourself. Always thought your were really quirky or strange (for liking Captain Planet)? Perhaps you just have untapped creative potential (and an undeniable love of the environment).

Honesty:

"A mentor will tell you the truth because their primary objective is to make sure you are successful." All great relationships start with honesty; in life and in business.

So how do you find this great mentor? Well there are a number of ways to do it, but I recommend finding someone who is attainable; someone with which you can communicate on a regular basis either in person, by phone, or by email. Your mentor should know who YOU are just as much as you know who they are. So try meeting someone at a networking event or within a business social circle. Your mentor does not have to look like you, sound like you, dress like you, or even love Captain Planet as much as you, but they should possess the professional and personal standards that you admire.

When you find a person, or multiple people, who you would like to mentor you, I suggest scheduling a time to speak with them in person and discuss what it is you want out of the relationship and how often you expect to communicate. If your person of choice does not have the time or does not want to make the obligation, ask them if they can suggest someone else to you. Great minds usually spend time with other great minds and you will be able to move on to another person who is qualified and who may be a better match for you.

Keep searching, the right mentor is out there!

"Student and teacher" courtesy Wonderlane via Flickr Creative Commons

You probably know Jeff Ma as one of the members of the infamous MIT Blackjack Team that went to Las Vegas and made millions of dollars by counting cards. ThinkTalk host Zack Sherwood interviewed Jeff about his experience as being the inspiration behind the novel Bringing Down The House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T.

Jason Calacanis is a serial entrepreneur, founder of Weblogs Inc and Mahalo.com and a general man-about-the-internet. Over the years he's had unprecedented success with startups and has doled out some very useful advice. I came across this video of Calacanis giving a lecture to some students at Penn State, and was really impressed with the way he tells his story and gives advice (hat tip Secrets of the Job Hunt).

What stood out most from his comments was this specific bit of advice:

What it takes to be an entrepreneur is to be about 6 months ahead of everyone else. That's it ... If you've got a six month lead on people that's all you need to see the business opportunity and get a really significant head start.

He goes on to detail how, specifically, with Weblogs Inc., all that he did was recognize a growing trend online and find a way to monetize it. He points out that he was ahead of the curve by about 6 months to a year, and as a result he found very significant success. All in all it's a great little video, and I highly recommend you check it out.

It takes a certain character and state-of-mind to start your own company. As I've blogged about before, the are characteristics of entrepreneurs that help them to rise above the rest. One of these is "hustle," which is aptly described by programmer and blogger Matt Nowack (found via this Lifehacker post):

If there is one key thing I could convey to anyone reading this is to hustle. You will never be prepared for the things you are capable of doing. You will achieve your greatest accomplishments not by building up a grand framework of skill and then deftly creating something glorious, but by starting small and persevering in making it better and better. It is never an easy road and you will gain a grand framework of skills, but you have to push your boundaries to grow.

I would love to put a triumphant "I'm just so damned smart and talented and handsome" paragraph here, but that's not the case. I just steeped myself in this stuff, I worked in git daily, I read about it, watched screencasts, I bought agile web development in rails, I got design patterns in ruby, I hustled. And you can do it too, take the first step today.

Personally, I think there is a certain, oh, 'lack of satisfaction' that you see in entrepreneurs. Nothing is ever enough. They cannot know too much or be too experienced. Satisfaction simply eludes them. So, it's not always a case of intelligence or intellect that propels them to success, just hard work and hustle. Which is kind of encouraging.

This quality, I'm sure, is something that venture capitalists pick up on when determining which organizations, and entrepreneurs, they back. And since we've been talking about venture capital a lot lately (stay tuned for our interview with Jonathan Aberman), this TechCrunch post by Sarah Lacy gives good insight into the inner-workings of the firms themselves.

Finally, there are things you will know and things you will not know about the intricacies of manning a start-up. One thing you may be sketchy on is the legal aspect of it. ReadWriteWeb has an excellent roundup of legal resources for start-ups and entrepreneurs. From blogs, article, online legal tools and law firms who specialize in this field, this RWW post is an excellent starting point for your legal needs.

Next week we will be sitting down with Jonathan Aberman, who runs the venture capital firm Amplifier Venture Partners (get your questions in!). We will be talking to Jonathan about what VC's look for and how entrepreneurs can get a leg up when trying to fund their company. So, in honor of that, and to get you started with some background for the show, I came across two excellent articles on venture capital.

The first comes from TechCrunch and details the top ten VC blogs from Larry Cheng, the managing partner of Volition Capital. These blogs are (obviously) a great resource to track for advice on venture capital, as well as a good way to keep current on what is happening in that world.

The other article, from ReadWriteWeb, discusses pitching to VC's. This is clearly an important part of the process, and post author Chris Cameron reminds us that it is important to do your homework before the pitch:

Having a basic knowledge of a firm's prior deals is not only good for learning about their habits, it also shows that you came prepared and are responsible to do what it takes to succeed. On another level, taking the time to learn about the people you are asking for money from is just a respectful thing to do and will save time for both parties.

Good stuff. So all you aspiring young collegiate entrepreneurs take note, and make sure you get your questions in for Jonathan Aberman.

Malcolm Gladwell's essay in this week's New Yorker tackles the characteristics of a few successful entrepreneurs (this, unfortunately, just links to the abstract. To read the whole thing, go to the newstand - now! - and buy a copy of the New Yorker), as well as the mistakes of failed. Gladwell looks at some existing research and books on entrepreneurship and highlights two models - the "risk-taker" and the "predator" model:

There is almost always, they conclude, a moment of great capital accumulation - a particular transaction that catapults him into prominence. The entrepreneur has access to that deal by virtue of occupying a "structural hole," a niche that gives him a unique perspective on a particular market. Villette and Vuillermot go on, "The businessman looks for partners to a transaction who do not have the same definition as he of the value of the goods exchanged, that is, who undervalue what they sell to him or overvalue what they buy from him in comparison to his own evaluation." He moves decisively. He repeats the good deal over and over again, until the opportunity closes, and - most crucially - his focus throughout that sequence is on hedging his bets and minimizing his chances of failure. The truly successful businessman, in Villette and Vuillermot's telling, is anything but a risk-taker. He is a predator, and predators seek to incur the least risk possible while hunting.

[...]

The risk-taking model suggests that the entrepreneur's chief advantage is one of temperament - he's braver than the rest of us are. In the predator's model, the entrepreneur's advantage is analytical - he's better at figuring out a sure thing than the rest of us.

What this says, then, is that many previous notions of the entrepreneur do not necessarily hold up. Among these would be the conception that failure is good for an entrepreneur, as it can be used to learn for future endeavors. But, rather than a shotgun spread approach of risk-failure-learn, risk-failure-learn, risk-success, it's much more worthwhile to be calculatingand analytical in the approach to entrepreneurship. Which, if you actually think about it, makes a hell of a lot of sense. Gladwell goes on to offer a number of examples (Ted Turner) for why and how this method works (all of which are worth reading). But for the aspring entrepreneur, the strength of the lessor resides in the charecteristics of entrepreneurship that set the successful apart from the failures - specifically preparation and risk-aversion.

The economist Scott Shane, in his book "The Illusions of Entrepreneurship," makes a similar argument. Yes, he says many entrepreneurs take plenty of risks - but those are generally the failed entrepreneurs, not the success stories. The failures violate all kinds of established principles of new-business formation. New-business success is clearly correlated with the size of initial capitalization. But failed entrepreneurs tend to be wildly undercapitalized. The data show that organizing as a corporation is best. But failed entrepreneurs tend to organize as sole proprietorships. Writing a business plan is a must; failed entrepreneurs rarely take that step. Taking over an existing business is always the best bet; failed entrepreneurs prefer to start from scratch. Ninety per cent of the fastest-growing companies in the country sell to other businesses; failed entrepreneurs usually try selling to consumers, and, rather than serving customers that other businesses have missed, they chase the same people as their competitors do. The list goes on; they underemphasize marketing; they don't understand the importance of financial controls; they try to compete on price. Shane concedes that some of these risks are unavoidable: would-be entrepreneurs take them because they have no choice. But a good many of these risks reflect a lack of preparation or foresight.

So, before you embark on your own career, investments and life of entrepreneurship, keep these characteristics in mind. And, if you're looking for a good entrepreneurship program, ReadWriteWeb has a list of the top 6 colleges for entrepreneurship.

I'm currently taking a grad-course on social and digital media and have just finished reading Wired editor Chris Anderson's book The Long Tail. The book is essentially about the new economy created by the proliferation of new technologies. That aspect of the book, while very interesting, is not what I want to talk about in relation to ThinkTalk and careers, however. (But if you would like to know more about the book you can check out my personal blog which I use for class assignments and thoughts.)

In the book, Anderson briefly uses a colleague's band, Birdmonster, to illustrate a point about the reduction in barriers to entry encouraged by new technology. Birdmonster was able to build an audience using MySpace, blog attention and select music-focused websites and as a result, had mild success. Anderson writes:

Labels were calling with deals, but Birdmonster turned the offers down. As [lead singer Peter] Arcuni put it, “We’re not anti-label in principle, but the numbers (risk vs. reward) didn’t add up.”

A music label exists primarily to fulfill four functions: 1) talent scouting; 2) financing (the advances bands get to pay for their studio time is like seed capital invested by a venture capitalist); 3) distribution; 4) marketing.

From Birdmonster’s perspective, they didn’t need that. A growing local fan base, amplified online, had already spotted their talent. Improving digital recording technology had made studio time cheaper than ever—they could record the tracks in a few days in the studio and then mix and overdub them at home using personal computers. The cost to record the entire album was less than $15,000, which they covered with credit cards and savings. CD Baby and a similar company called Cinderblock provided the distribution, which gave them a reach as broad as iTunes, Rhapsody and the other top services. And MP3 blogs and MySpace were free marketing.

Why sign their life away now to a label, they reasoned, when they can record and distribute their music themselves and keep their creative independence? If the first self-released album does well, they’ll be in a much stronger negotiating position with the label for re-releasing the first album in stores, or for the second album.

This approach is called DIY or "Do It Yourself," and is largely a punk rock ethos dating back to the late 70s and early 80s. The DIY movement offers a note of encouragement to any aspiring entrepreneur or careerist who is simply looking to find success through alternative means to the mainstream. As for ThinkTalk, DIY was best summed up in our interview with American Hardcore director Paul Rachman and writer Steven Blush. The two give excellent insight into how to build a stable and successful career with a bit of entrepreneurial spirit, hard work, grit and a DIY attitude. For more info on how you can utilize the DIY ethic successfully, check out our interview below:

Silicon Valley blog TechCruch digs up an excellent speech by Aaron Patzer CEO and founder of Mint, a personal finance site that just sold for $170 million. First of all if you are a student or recent grad, you should certainly consider using Mint. The site is an excellent resource for keeping your finances in order, and will help prevent you from leaving school with the $6,000 average credit card debt that plagues most students.

But more importantly (for career purposes) the interview is a great "how to" for entrepreneurs out there.

Patzer takes the audience (and now you) from the beginning of Mint, and gives some incredibly useful [advice]. He talks about the early days of Mint, where he lived on $30,000/yr and hired engineers at just a little more salary by offering them significant equity. He also says that, as a rule of thumb, every engineer in a pre-revenue startup adds $500,000 in valuation. Every business guy lowers the valuation by $250,000, he half jokingly quipped. In its earliest days, Mint was burning $150,000/year, he says, for 2 founders and 1 engineer/contractor.

The video, embedded below, definitely has some great advice for aspiring entrepreneurs. But, before you run out of school and dive into your own business, consider reading a piece in yesterday' Wall Street Journal. Author Alexandra Levit advises that young entrepreneurs gain some real world experience before starting their own companies. Alexandra urges new grads to take a look at 3-6 month rotational leadership programs that many companies offer.

In June 2008, Alison Disbrow, 23 years old, of Bethlehem, Pa., joined the Olympus Fellows Program, a rotational leadership program for new college graduates at the camera and medical-device company. Most graduates with her type of engineering degree pursue jobs in construction management, but Ms. Disbrow had a passion for health care.

"I knew the ideal opportunity would expose me to a variety of ways to combine my training and interests," she says. "At the time, I didn't know whether I wanted to work with health-care technology from an engineering perspective, be out in the field consulting with doctors or have ownership of a product line."

Any 22-year-old who can tell you exactly what she wants to be doing 15 years from now is kidding herself -- and that's the beauty of these programs. About to enter a rotation in public relations, Ms. Disbrow already has completed stints in medical product management and marketing.

I think a program like Rational Leadership is an excellent way to get hands on experience with multiple facets that go in to running your own company. If you have a frame of reference for the type of work that you need your employees to do, it makes for much more effective leadership. Of course, as TechCrunch points out, not all entrepreneurs wait until they have a full education to get started. Maybe you're like TechCrunch's ten teens to watch, and already ahead of the curve. Either way, I suggest this speech by Patzer as a good starting point for the complexity and battle that starting your own company entails.

"First Entrepreneurial Five Dollars" courtesy of theritters via Flickr Creative Commons

If there is a theme that is common among ThinkTalk guests it is attitude and mindset. To be a successful individual you have to have a certain frame of mind; to overcome challenges; to make yourself standout in a competitive industry; to create and innovate.

Monica O'Brien of Twenty Set captures this entrepreneurial mindset in a recent post. To succeed as an entrepreneur and start your own company, you need to posses certain qualities.

Overcoming adversity, handling risk, and in general being a grown up and making your dreams come true (even when everyone thinks your dreams are crap and you should just get a “real” job). It doesn’t matter if you are in the idea stage, the execution stage, or the growth stage. If you are working on entrepreneurship goals, you can be an entrepreneur. You are an entrepreneur. You don’t have to make it before you start. You don’t have to run the marathon before you’ve run a mile.

Speaking of the idea stage of entrepreneurship, Ryan Healy at Employee Evolution thinks that it isn't about one big idea, you need to have a lot of little ideas to succeed. Ryan uses a number of real world examples, Facebook, Twitter, YCombinator and his own startup, Brazen Careerist.

Over the past two years since starting Brazen Careerist I’ve realized this first hand. When Penelope and I first discussed starting a company, we had no idea what we were going to do. We knew the market we wanted go into, and we knew that we wanted to help people with their careers, but that’s about it. No crazy ideas to change the world. Just a desire to do something great

Since then, we’ve all had a lot of good ideas and a lot of bad ideas, and the whole team has worked their tails off to make this whole thing come to life. And finally after a couple of years, we have a pretty good idea of what our business is. All it took was not being able to pay rent occasionally, showering and living at the office some days, working when we were supposed to be sleeping, and cheering our one-man development team as he coded until 6 am.

There is a common theme in both of these posts. Entrepreneurship is about long term thinking. You may have an initial great idea. Well that's a great start. But it's not the end of the line. A successful entrepreneur will keep thinking, keep developing ideas and be prepared to adapt and change.

On to the Links ...

Keppie Careers Discusses Interview Answer Length: Well, usually the problem is rambling on and on. But too short can be a problem, too. But here's a good tip: "Have you ever listened to a professional storyteller? Usually, the story itself will be longer than the typical “listening span” we naturally have. However, the forward motion of the story, the storyteller’s investment in the tale and the intriguing details all combine to propel listeners forward. They stay with the story for a pretty simple reason – they want to KNOW WHAT HAPPENS!"

Cheezhead Wants To Know If You Are Being Productive: The gist: Essentially, the recession and fear of losing their jobs is making workers unproductive. There's also a rather large section about how depression decreases work productivity. I've been having a lot of convos about depression lately, so rather than expound here, jump over the Cheezhead and read on.

TechRepublic's 10 Things Has Some Great Ideas: Executive and leadership coach John McKee shares 10 great ideas from 5 bosses he has had in his 30 year career. Among them, "nuke the blackberry when at home."

CareerHub Wants To Know Why She Should Hire You: It's a competitive market. Why should someone hire you? "[A]n okay, lukewarm, mediocre response, it simply isn't helpful, valuable, and in no way, does it make you rock, shine, stand out, or memorable. If you are an Idol fan, you know that Simon doesn't hesitate to tell Idol wanna-a-be's that they are "memorable" or "forgettable." And if you're a job contestant in today's highly competitive market, employers don't have the time to figure you out, distill your assets, and / or your value on their time, their dime. You either make yourself memorable from the get-go, or you don't."

"Everything is in a state of flux, including the status quo."-- Robert Byrne

Aspiring entrepreneurs everywhere: it's time to brush up on your social media skills. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are quickly becoming the new "status quo" of communication, especially for our generation. Over at Mashable, Greg Rollett has a great article about how young entrepreneurs are using social media to break the status quo:

Of the 30 entrepreneurs profiled for the 2008 Inc Top 30 Under 30, 18 have personal or business Twitter accounts and 19 host personal or corporate blogs. One can only expect 2009’s list to increase these numbers and put a larger emphasis on social media as it starts to encompass more and more aspects of their business landscape.... Gen-Y is eager to change the way business is done and they want to do it now. Technology and new media are playing a key role in how these young organizations are not only started, but how they get funded, how they spread the word and how they pay their bills.

The post quotes a Wall Street Journal article that says that 70 percent of high schoolers plan on starting their own business, while 80 percent of universities now offer classes on entrepreneurship. There are profiles of several young entrepreneurs who used blogs, Twitter, and more to start successful online ventures. Aaron Petzer, who started Mint.com when he was only 25, came up with a unique way to help consumers track their savings and spending habits online. Much of his success, though, lies in how the company uses Twitter and social media to provide customer support.

Yesterday, we talked about how entrepreneurship is about identifying a need you can fill, and then finding a new way to meet it. Once you've created an innovative way to meet that need, social media can help you leverage your ideas. Want more? Chris Brogan lists 50 ideas for using Twitter to help your business, and the people behind Twitter bring you Twitter101, a guide to using the site to better serve your customers. BusinessWeek addresses how businesses can use Facebook to build profits, and at the Evan Carmichael blog, Guy Kawasaki gives 10 ways entrepreneurs and job seekers should use LinkedIn.

Check out The Links for more career tools:

The Simple Dollar Collects the Best Career Advice: This finance/career blogger asked his Twitter followers to give their best piece of career advice in 140 characters or less. Some of the answers are predictable, but there are a lot of good tidbits. "It’s not how many resumes you send out, it’s how many hands you shake," said @The_Weakonomist. Another idea from @MoneyMateKate is "Take an acting class, HUGE for public speaking/presentation skills."

Cube Rules Says Humor Isn't Your Interview Friend: "Humor is especially dangerous in an interview if you know the person doing the interview. You think, because you know this person, you can have an easier time with humor, but the reality is the hiring manager is under more pressure to ensure you get the work and can implement the department goals. That pressure doesn’t get them in the right position to hear humor." Even if you can gracefully work in a few grins, remember that your interviewers are looking for someone who can seriously meet their needs.

Secrets of the Job Hunt Says 5 Out of 500 Resumes On Target: Career expert Hannah Morgan sorted through a stack of 500 resumes to find that only 5 accomplished their goal of catching her attention. She notes that most of the reject resumes contained "resume killing phrases" like "team player," "strong work ethic" and "met or exceeded expectations." Check out the post for more phrases that you should cut out of your job-seeking vocabulary.

CareerAlley Asks, "Are You Smart Searching?": CareerAlley is great about pulling together collections of resources to help you fine-tune your job hunt. Today's post gives you a game plan for what they call the "intelligent job search." One important factor: know what you are actually worth in today's job market.

"50 Social Media Icons" courtesy Tech Writer Boy via Flickr Creative Commons