Now What?!

Alright, so I figured out what I want to do every day for the rest of my life! Gold star for this guy! Time to cue the inspiring, upbeat music as I walk off into the sunset and live happily ever after, right?! Hell no! It was time to start!

Here was the problem…I didn’t know jack-shit about being an entrepreneur, starting a business, or content distribution. Again, I turned to Gary Vaynerchuk in order to determine where I should begin. I watched an episode of Larry King Now in which Gary Vaynerchuk was the special guest. In the interview, Gary spoke of his beginnings, issues in education, the platform shift of society (i.e., “the phone becoming the television and the television becoming the radio”), social media marketing, and self-awareness. The most intriguing and valuable content in the interview came when Larry asked Gary V., “What are the three most important things to keep in mind when starting up?” At this point, I was thinking, “Cha-Ching! Jackpot! Now we are talking! Okay, Gary, drop some knowledge on me!” Gary Vaynerchuk’s most important start-up tips were as follows:

1. Cash is oxygen

2. Identify your strengths and surrounds yourself with the other three or four pillars that are the foundation of a successful business

3. Look for the white space (i.e., the space where people are not marketing and story telling)

Damn good advice is you ask me, realistic, logical, and practical! Before I could take this advice and attempt to launch something, it was imperative that I established my core values (i.e., construct a foundation to build upon) and created a manifesto. As it says in Matthew 7:26–27, “only a foolish person builds their house on the sand. The storms of life will beat against the house and it will collapse with a mighty crash” (a little biblical reference for my fellow Christians out there). Once those things were set in place, I could answer the important questions: What am I going to talk about? What do I want to be known for? How am I going to communicate? Where is the market?