However I ended up with my brain, the punchline is that it’s the only one where I’ve got full insider access. I know its informational and creative limits, and I’ve got a rough idea of what I can do before it just shuts down. Here is the neat thing about that: knowing your limits means that you know where you can stretch. Even so, all that stretching can get tiring, and with me being new to firsthand entrepreneuring, my recent mental calisthenics could have worn me out except for one skill. I learned to pick a brain.

This exercise of picking from other people’s brains recently helped on a project from Rich and Ron. They wanted me to write content for a website about cats. Now, I love cats—my ex-girlfriend had several and I never sneezed around them—but deep in my heart, I’ve always been a dog person. That said, it is about seventy-three goldfish, five rabbits, and my ex-girlfriend’s three cats later that I am still dogless. That, and my only firsthand experience with pets was with those to whom the word “personality” applied about as well as Scotch tape applies to wax. (Fish and rabbits are as personable as carpet.)

I worked on the project a while under mere creative willpower. Cats, after all, are just cats—right? That question and others (“Do all kittens sleep all day? Are hairballs indicative or personality or just hygiene? Are black cats naturally more sinister or is that just Hollywood?”) eventually prompted me to do some brain picking. Picking a cat brain might have been pretty effective, but with the inherent communication issues, I settled for a couple of cat lovers.

First up was my lifelong friend Cameron. (We grew up in the same neighborhood.) While I had done some cat sitting for them, his family’s cat experience was even more extensive than mine with goldfish. To me, it seemed like the cats acted differently each time I saw them. Maybe they just knew that I was a dog person. Armed with my concerns, I went to Cameron, making assumptions, hazarding guesses, and drawing conclusions. He agreed with some and discarded others, but what I took in as unformed creative sludge came out with purpose and direction. This taught me two things about brain picking, and the first was the importance of that initial creative willpower. The second realization was simply this: no matter the subject, you probably know someone who can give you a lead.

The experience with Cameron so emboldened me that I went to my ex-girlfriend for her insights. Her responses lined up with Cameron’s. Not only was the cat site approaching authenticity, but I had mastered my brain-picking abilities. I discovered that people will talk if they have a passion for your subject. Their ideas will feed the process you’ve begun and you can keep checking sources until it all falls into place. I started with my idea and got everyone I could to talk to me. Cameron and my ex didn’t grant me full insider access, but that’s okay. I had that in my own brain; their advice just greased my mental gears. It doesn’t really matter, then, that my brain’s the only one I’ve got. There are others out there to be picked.

This past year I have taken a bit of a sabbatical from my entrepreneurial efforts in order to join with my friend and colleague, Ron Porter, and write a book. We have changed the name of the book multiple times. It started as The Entrepreneur Recipe Cookbook , then Bootstrap Business and now we have narrowed down to the name of The $5,000 Millionaire. Although the name of the book has changed several times, the primary purpose of the book has remained the same. This book is about:

1) How to take $5,000 and turn it into a multi million dollar business.
2) How to balance your business and personal interests. We call this “human business”.
3) It focuses on actionable, proven steps and not just theory.

The book is a compilation of personal stories and examples. In fact we have gone so far as to test the principles of this book by starting a new company with just $5,000. We are now 7 months into the new company and have already grown it to have a $140,000 of revenue per month. The principles in this book work!

This project has turned out to be one of the most challenging projects of my life. I am pleased to announce that we have now completed the entire first draft of The $5,000 Millionaire. We are now in the process of finding an agent and a publisher. Our team has shifted into a new phase. Up to this point, we have remained very quiet and have not actively promoted the book. As of the weekend, we are beginning to actively and aggressively highlight and promote both the book and the web site.

One of the fun things that we have on the web is an Entrepreneurial Appetite Test (EAT). This is a 39 question test that gives you direct feedback on your strengths and weaknesses in relation to becoming an entrepreneur. It then points you to the chapters in the book that focus on the attributes or challenges you may have in becoming an entrepreneur. It is a powerful tool that can help you overcome your weakness and steer clear of painful obstacles as well as reinforce your strengths.

So far, Erin and Shanna have done a great job of offering some tidbits of things that they have learned while working on the book. However, starting this week we are going to change our blogging format. Each week we will send out a powerful blog that gives practical tips and correlates with the principles of the book. These blogs will rotate between myself, Ron, Erin and Shanna. .

There are several authors and books that I have found invaluable to the way in which I have done business. The following books have had significant impact on me:

Seth Godin’s thoughts on permission Marketing
Victor Frankle’s Mans Search for Meaning
Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
Jim Collins Good To Great
Robert Kawasaki’s Rich Dad Poor Dad

The $5,000 Millionaire will be released this coming year. Just as I have found the above books valuable in starting and sustaining my businesses, I am confident that readers will find The $5,000 Millionaire to be an equally valuable resource in your business endeavors.

It is our intent within the next year to turn this website into an online entrepreneur community where networking can take place and ideas can be generated. We hope that you will take advantage of this opportunity and become a part of our community.

I invite and welcome any comments and feedback from you. Please bookmark, share and promote the key information from this website and book. Our goal is the help as many up and coming entrepreneurs as we can.

The holiday season is upon us!  I know that there can be a lot of grumbling about hearing Christmas jingles in stores before we even carve our Thanksgiving turkeys, but I absolutely love it.  This season is the perfect excuse to re-evaluate our selfish factor and see where we can contribute more, whether it be in our business environment, our communities, or the world.

Holiday season was kicked off with scheduling the office Christmas Party- a time for our team and significant others and friends to get together and celebrate the season.  On the agenda for our get together is dinner out at a local restaurant, a white-elephant gift exchange, and a community oriented charity drive of some sort.  We’re still figuring that one out.  I hear whispers about Rich and Ron each planning some sort of game or activity to contribute as well- so I’m excited to go and spent some time together as an office.

As the wreaths and the red and green lights go up around the office, I am reminded of a section of the book entitled,  A Higher Power Purpose.  Niether Rich nor Ron wanted to include a long lecture on the joys of giving, but powerful personal experiences led to a section detailing their feelings about the connection between entreprenurialism and generosity.  It’s just a few hundred words, encouraging entrepreneurs to have a higher purpose for success.  Yes, money and freedom are key aspects of building your own business, and, in many ways, measures of success.  But what about the freedom to use some of your resources for projects and causes that matter to you?  Rich is passionate about the Himalayas, and has found a lot of joy in finding ways to help children in Nepal receive educational materials.  Among the rewards that Rich and Ron have listed for themselves down the road is opening a formal philanthropic company designed to heighten their efforts in Nepal.  Entrepreneurship can be hard work.  If your only end goal is to further yourself and your bank account, it’s easier to say, “I think I’ll let this one go,” or, “I think it’s time for bed.  I’ll try and hit this goal tomorrow.”  Find a cause that inspires you, that will motivate you to work towards that next level of success- and then be true to your intentions.  This principle is not limited to Christmastime, but wouldn’t it be a great time to start?

One of the most aggravating aspects of any job is lack of flexibility. People who love what they do say they want two things from a job: the chance to use their talents to make a meaninful contribution and the opportunity to expand their skill-set. Of course, salary and bonuses also come into play. In all actuality, (and many of us have experienced this) lack of flexibility can cause you to hate your job, and your life. The Entrepreneurial Mother caught my eye today with her discussion of flexibility. There seems to be quite a lot of chatter about the worker shortage lately. How would that be affected if there were more positions available for mothers and fathers who want to keep a school schedule, students who need to be able to work between classes and from home occasionally, and people who simply like to keep busy doing a variety of different things? There are an incredible amount of talented people who simply don’t fit into “the schedule.” With a small business, the freedom exists to create whatever kind of schedule works for both you and your employee. Does he need to take time during the summer to take camping trips with his sons? Does she need every other Friday afternoon off to take her daughter to the orthodontist? Or maybe your employee simply needs the flexibility to compete assignments between classes or on the weekends. The beauty of entrepreneurship is that you don’t have to lose talented people over scheduling issues: it simply takes a little collaboration.

The last job I had was incredibly, outrageously inflexible. There were certain needs that I had, and as much as my supervising manager (said she) wanted to work with me, the company would not allow her to. Although there were aspects of the job I enjoyed, and I was content sticking with it for awhile, I had to quit. I simply couldn’t fit my life into the job. I thought I should be the other way around. Guy Kawasaki had an interview with Penelope Trunk who says that it’s not all about just “working hard.” Putting in the most hours doesn’t always mean that you’re the best employee. What are you producing? What are you innovating? What are you contributing? And how much life can you enjoy while you’re getting it done?

Is Mitt Romney an entrepreneurial candidate for the presidency? When looking for people to hire, I’ve heard Rich and Ron say they look for someone who has big expectations for the project as well as his or her ability to contribute. It doesn’t necessarily matter how much experience the person has. If they can prove that they can do the job, their relative inexperience could work in their favor. Inexperienced, passionate people often accomplish quite a bit as a result of their naivete. They don’t believe the naysayers. In Romney’s case, he claims to have big plans and big passion. There are quite a few naysayers- but as this video has been going around the office, I’ll put it out there. I wonder if his experience in business and his can-do attitude would allow him the success he claims to be able to have if he gets into office. As someone coming from Massachusetts, I haven’t decided what I think yet. And if you were wondering, yes, Mitt does have an account on MySpace.