Welcome to Smuggle Me

Time is running out and I’ve been polishing up my application for YouBeTheVC. I’m really nervous, because I really want to win this competition and I know there have been a lot of entrants. I guess in 4 days I’ll leave it in God’s hands that everything will work out for the best. I certainly will know I have done my part. Either way, it’s a very exciting time in my life. I just wish that I would have been able to put together a stronger team. I’m still working on it and I have a couple of possibilities, but it doesn’t look like they’ll work out before the submissions our due. We’ll see what they think.

I must admit that lately I’ve been without too much to say. I think it might be because I’ve been focused on starting my own business. I’ve been evaluating a ton of potential options and it’s been quite the challenge knowing which option will be best. There are a lot of unknowns and I’ve been doing my best to find out as much information as possible. I’ve been really glad that Mark Cuban has dug into some of his best posts from the past on his blog. It really gave me a lot of food for thought when considering the idea of starting my own business.

One thing that Mark has said multiple times is that one of his greatest advantages it that he is going to work harder and be more prepared than his competition. I think that’s what I’ve been trying to do now. I’ve been reading and researching and talking to people in order to find out as much information as possible so that I can make the best decisions possible.

Finding out information isn’t as easy as it sounds. People don’t just show you their cards when you’re playing poker. You have to try and find ways to have people show you their hands. Of course, this leads to a lot of ambiguity in your decision making, because you are making decisions with limited information. However, this is what makes business so interesting to me. There are a million factors that goes into anything and you have to learn to adapt quickly or die.

I’ve often said that I’d love to be a waiter at a restaurant some time, because it’s one job where your pay is commensurate with the quality of work you perform. I think starting your own business can be the same. If you are killer at business, then you’re going to be rewarded. I definitely have confidence in my abilities and believe that I have that killer business skill. I guess time will tell.