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.

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."

One way to avoid working a job you hate is to create your own job. Entrepreneurship can be exciting, rewarding and especially, difficult. Alex Lindahl at College Mogul has a great roundup from a recent entrepreneurship event that features some very useful advice from some successful entrepreneurs and Venture Capitalists. I found this piece of advice particularly interesting:

"Start with a need in the marketplace opposed to finding a technology and then finding a need later." They took this approach with one of their recent portfolio companies, AltaRock. While doing research, the GPV team discovered that drilling oil holes is very expensive. Each one costs about $10 million and takes 4 months to drill. "There's gotta be a better way to do that." Explained, Ben. They discovered a solveable problem first and then went to universities and researchers to see if anyone was working on a new technology that could be applied to reduce costs.

Part of any successful business, in any industry, is recognizing a need that you intend to fill. It's no different when starting your own. Start with the conflict or the problem that needs to be solved, and then develop the solution.

I guess another very big problem with starting your own company is money. Well, Careers That Don't Suck points us to this $100,000 Grant contest for aspiring Entrepreneurs. The competition will be stiff, I'm sure, and involves writing an essay detailing your plans. The deadline is August 14, so be sure to check out this link for the details.

Journalism students go to Iraq, old people steal your jobs and cell phone etiquette, today, in The Links ...

The Chronicle of Higher Ed Notes That U of Alaska J-students Will Be Heading To Iraq: Talk about on-the-job training. "Three undergraduate students and a professor leave this week for Diyala Province in Iraq, where they will spend nearly a month embedded with U.S. troops. They plan to eat, sleep, and travel alongside members of an Alaska-based Army Stryker Brigade Combat Team, while filing daily articles for news organizations and for their student newspaper, The Sun Star."(via Romenesko)

Ere.net Reports That Old People Are Stealing Your Jobs: The gist: Older workers (54+) are getting laid off and having difficulty finding comparable jobs. Their solution: take entry level jobs. Since they have more experience and are willing to work on the cheap, many companies have been hiring them, leaving entry level recent grads in the dust. There are a lot of implications for this, and the Ere.net article is a good source to find out how and why they tukk yer jobs.

Christine Hassler Discusses Cell Phone Etiquette: "This morning I walked into a public bathroom in an airport lounge and as I sat down on the porcelain throne, the woman next to me started speaking. At first I assumed she was asking for a friendly "help a sister out under the stall toilet paper pass" but I quickly realized she was not talking to me at all - she was on her cell phone." The same thing happened to me last week. I freaked out! Anyway, cell phone etiquette is useful for the office, in class and in job interviews, too. Learn it.

"Money, Money, Money" courtesy borman818 via Flickr Creative Commons