There are so many people calling themselves “Social Media Experts” these days it is ridiculous. 99% of them are full of shit. Despite all the jargon they will spit  about  gaining twitter followers, or building your Facebook fanpage, or using Tumblr or Pinterest to drive highly converting traffic to your website, there is only ONE thing that matters for your business when it comes to social media. You no longer control the message That’s it. [...]

I originally wrote this letter to give out at a college and career fair at my old high school. Due to scheduling conflicts, I was not able to attend to hand this letter out to the seniors there. It may have been for the best as it’s probably not something the teachers would want the kids reading.   Dear __________________ You may read this letter now, but you probably won’t think much of it. It’s [...]

Not all Investment Money is created Equal There’s no two ways about it, we’re in a tech bubble. It has cooled down a little but there is still a lot of dumb money floating around just looking for somewhere to go. What is dumb money? Dumb money is money provided by people who can bring no other value to you other than money itself. Its often the easiest type of money to get in bubbles [...]

Drink More Water Optimize and Streamline Ukulele Underground Start a New SaaS Business and have at least 10 paying customers Have at least one $50k month personal gross earnings Gain 10 lbs Increase bench press to 205lb Increase deadlift to 175lb Start building my house Go on a trip with the wife Start eating healthier again 2011 New Years Goal Have at least one $50k month gross income – FAIL Have at least 10 paying [...]

Ukulele Underground was massively unprofitable for its first 3 years. The funny thing is that we never knew it, so we just kept going. It’s one of those things where I think back on now and just laugh and shake my head, but I can’t get over the fact that if we knew what we were doing, we probably would have quit a long time ago and never got to where we are today. Let [...]

If you want to call yourself an entrepreneur, show me your battle scars. Show me how lonely you’ve become. How the only people you talk to are your team and your immediate family. Less than 10 people a month maybe. Tell me about how your friends don’t even bother calling you anymore. Show me all the things that you’ve missed out on while sacrificing everything for a dream. Tell me  how bad it hurt when [...]

When people ask me what I do, I’m often guilty of not telling them the full story. I usually just say, “Oh my friends and I have a business that we do..” and hope that that answer is good enough for them. If they prod for more I’ll say we teach ukulele on the internet. Which is the what, of what we do. I guess I just don’t want to seem arrogant, or self aggrandizing [...]

I was fortunate to be flown to Oahu to last month to attend a software industry skills development panel. It was a great experience as I got to meet a lot of people who are passionate about the same things as me; entrepreneurship, tech startups, developing a software based industry to transition Hawaii away from its heavy dependence on tourism (which I personally have a long standing beef with).  It sadly was the first time [...]

Take a few seconds to think of the richest people you know. Now take a second to think of the most inspirational people you know. Now as yourself this question; Is their success the direct result of education? Our society has shown us time and time again that what we value as humans (at least in the USA) is innovation, creativity, the ability to create art or solve problems; the creation of things of value. [...]

Something strange happens as we grow older; we become deathly afraid of failure. Though brought into this world fearless, we’re conditioned over time that failure is bad, failure is something to be avoided at all cost, that failure can be avoided if you “just do your homework”. This fear often prevents us from doing the things we always wanted to do. We may get very excited about something yet after spending a little time talking [...]