Blind Entrepreneurship With Johnathan Grzybowski

There are unfortunately not enough characters to explain how brilliant this man is. Do yourself a favor and listen to this entire interview. Then after you listen, read my interpretation of the interview on TheBlindEntrepreneur.com #Timestamps 00:30: Introduction 05:50- Lightbulb Moment When He Knew Banking Wasn’t His Future 11:10- That Transition From Banking To Startup 18:30- How David Received Feedback From Customers 20:00- Have a Question That You Want To Ask, Use a Landing Page To Find Out! 23:25- David’s Biggest Failure As a Leader 29:00- How David Stays Mentally Fit (BTW The Answer Will Surprise You) 34:35- How David Became Curious 38:50- Chipotle and Everything on It David Chen Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haishachen Website: https://www.strikingly.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/Strikingly Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/strikingly Personal Twitter: https://twitter.com/HaishaChen Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strikingly

Make an Important People List When Greg first moved to Delaware to do this full time. He created a list of important people in Delaware. People who were on that list were key individuals in the business community, individuals from non profits, schools, and more…He then took that list and connected with them on Linkedin. Out of those 25 people, 3 of them answered and that’s what it took to get the business rolling. From there, there was a cycle of positivity. Where one introduction led to another introduction, that led to a sale, that led to more positive outcomes. Greg states: “If I were just starting out, I’d introduce myself to people more successful and take the roll of mentorship. Say something like “I admire you from what you did and how you did it, can I learn from you?” From Greg’s experiences, most people are kind and gracious to teach you. Develop a Plan Greg Says” If you’re going to give yourself a chance to succeed. Develop a plan. Whether its saving money for 3-4 months or working a job that you d

You Have To Have a Core Network James has a family that is supportive of his ideas. If he didn’t have that, none of this would be impossible. "Whether its family or friends, you need to have that support network. Having someone push you to do better is always good..." Plan Properly "Plans never go exactly how you expect. If you don’t have a baseline plan to start with, success is much harder. You need a plan to communicate and say: Here is what I’m doing and how I’m doing it. Get used to writing it down and your plan not just being in your own head. Be Stubborn "Throughout this process you have so many people giving you ideas of what they think you should be doing. People throw out their ideas, some are good and some are bad, but knowing what you want to do and knowing your vision is important. Be stubborn enough to stick to the plan. Have that ability to know this is your baby and you’re the one driving it. Stick to the path. #Timestamps 00:30: Introduction 01:45: How Did James Start Coop

Shut Up and Do It "It's important to have a persons opinion about your ideas, concepts, business model, but people get caught up and end up not creating something because they are looking for perfection... Just make something! If its digital make a wireframe and get it up, if its a product, talk to a manufacture and make a prototype!" By the time you're in your senior year of college don't say, "crap its too late." Harness the Resources That Are Around You "We live in a very fortunate time. We have technology and instant access but we don’t harness it. Look around you and try to understand how to work with the people around you and make the most of it!" Don’t Be Afraid to Share Your Ideas "People are afraid that someone will take it, but they won’t be able to do it as well as you! Some people will steal your ideas, but that means something..." So make it better. #Timestamps 00:40: Introduction 03:50: The 11 Year Old Entrepreneur 07:15: Early Struggles in GlassU 11:20: H

Be Thankful In the very beginning of 2016 Steve found himself in a hospital bed. He had no idea if the cause was stress related or not, but he realized that from that moment on, balance is important. "How your mental state is is so important....Although you're making your business grow and helping other people with their business, you need to make a contribution outside of work. When Steve was in the US, he was working for businesses barely getting paid. During this moment of his journey, he still found time to give back. Steve's solution is setting up a detailed schedule. Tuesday and Thursdays are gym days, Wednesdays are piano lessons, and Sundays are tennis lessons. "You have to make sacrifices if you're running a business, if there is an event or meeting, you push your schedule around, but by providing that contribution to society its' critical to being successful. #Timestamps 00:40: Introduction 02:45: Passion 06:25: Struggles in career 09:45: Biggest Failure 13:10: Moment Floship was created 1

You Don’t Have To Have The Best Hardware There are tons of people that believe they need the best gaming headphones and the best system in order to be successful in gaming or streaming. That's just not true. Joe worked on a crappy laptop in the beginning of his streaming days, but he found a way that worked for him. Eventually when he became more popular and got the funds to develop his dream scenario, he did just that. But PuzzleBoss stressed that over time "you will get better." PuzzleBoss has a very unique style of introducing himself, when people ask Joe for advice, he never tells people his entire process. PuzzleBoss believes that if he told people, they would do the exact same thing and copy his style. So instead, Joe gives suggestions on ways that helped him and how he learned everything that he did. Video gaming is a very relationship oriented and when you find ways that resonates with your fans you do just that. The Future of Gaming PuzzleBoss believes that gaming will become more mainstrea

Believe In The Mission In What You’re Doing "That is so important, the startup market is very saturated. There is a new app or little tech gadgets, and they can be cool, but if it doesn’t grind your gears you may not be passionate about it to persevere. If you have a core belief, you will attach yourself from what the customers are saying and what you're hearing. You will take the positive/negative feedback and learn from it. By believe in the mission, it will help you get through your ups and downs in business." Be Persistent "Know what you’re doing and believe in what you’re doing! Keep working through things, but still be strong in your own mentality. Three pieces of advice out of the 100 you hear, may be valid, but be strong and confident. Lastly, be wiling to listen." Be a Team Player "You have your palm, but attached to your palm, you have your fingers. Each individual finger adds power. You’re the ceo, you’re the glue, you need experts in marketing, development, HR, PR, and onc

You Must Believe in Yourself, Persevering, and Never Give Up “Believe in the power of what you can do and what you can bring. Persevere! The world is going to come down on you and you gotta fight through it. The hardship will will pass but you can’t let it affect you. Server crashes, websites fail…there are a lot of mental fights in entrepreneurship.” Understand the Culture “If you want to be in the startup environment you have to understand the culture. How it works, etc… A lot of young startups that are trying to take off, don’t know the ins and outs. They may not know that they are going to wear twenty hats at a given time. You have to know how to convince people, you need to know marketing, law, accounting, and etc… It’s not essential to know everything, but you need to at least know a little bit about everything. Having that knowledge first hand is going to give you a lot of power to grow a bigger and better company faster.” #Timestamp 00:30: Introduction 01:45: Passion 03:00: Struggles in Business 05:45

Be Ready To Do It “If you’re going to do it, go all out. If you’re passionate about it, now is the time to act (when you’re young in age). Every day that you delay is a day that you’re delaying that future success.” Network and Ask For Help “If you don’t know how to do it, ask someone! If you have a question for Garrett, email him. Kel answer it and it might save them a ton of money in the process. Have a Product That Makes Sense, Keep it Simple “Some of the best products and services are things that are extremely simple. You don’t have to educate the customer and you reduce overhead by not having to teach!” Notable Quotes: “if you understand how digital advertising works and know how it works. you know the basics.” “No entrepreneur knows what they are doing!" #Timestamp 00:30: Introduction 01:45 - passion 03:10 How important are partners 07:45 Biggest Failure 10:40 How to Train employees 12:05 Resources 12:30 Life as an entrepreneur 17:00 Be Ready To Do It, Network and Ask For Help, Have a Product That

Don’t be Scared and Just Get Started “Failure cant be an option in your mind, failure will happen, but you cant think twice about the opportunity. if you think so much about that one idea, then there’s a chance that your fear could be worth it…” Google The Hell Out of Your Life “Philadelphia is never recognized as an entrepreneurial city, but it’s growing. Use your resources, follow the basic steps, and connect with people that can give you advice. Chambers of commerce, networking groups, and events are great places to start. Don’t forget, It’s ok to ask for help. Even if it’s a dumb question, don’t be afraid to just ask. Google will help you with all of the questions you may have in life…” Invest Your Time Wisely in Your Startup “There will be a lot of things you’re gonna do that may not be necessary, even when you think its necessary. That’s why having mentors are important. A lot of people think you need a website, before they have a product…” One of David’s failures was that he has a website but never had

Don’t Look at Competition Too Much "There is always going to be competition, there are always people doing than you, and its also easy to be jealous. Competition isn’t a bad thing. Just because your buddy is making millions, and you’re making only $30k, is ok. Trust your path." If Everyone is Doing the Same Thing, Do Something Different Tyson used to worked at a car dealership and it was custom to shake a customers hand and greet them at the door. So every sales person would constantly stay in the same spot, expecting the people to walk in. It would be at that point that they would hope to get the sale. Well, if the best sales person is doing that exact same thing, try and find a different strategy that they aren't doing. So stand in a different spot, maybe go to the back and work your way to the front. “Rookie” entrepreneurs look at the same industry and try to replicate it, Tyson realized that everyone was educating people about sports. So Tyson decided to go a different route. Have a Good Team Ar

Know What You Want "One thing that is very common, it’s not that people start a business and fail, but when that person becomes successful, the success may not be what they wanted. For example: Do you like to travel? Do you want a large office? Do you want a lot of money?..." Figure out what you want in business and go from there. You Have To Move All In "Everyone has that cross road, should I finish University or go all in on the business?" Ken decided to go all in on the business and hasn't looked back. "There are very few times in life where you have the opportunity to take a big risk and pull it off. The younger you are, the better. The older you are, the more bills and other stuff you'll have the responsibility to pay. When you’re young, you can make mistakes...." So go all in when and if you can! #Timestamp 00:30: Introduction 02:00: Passion 02:45: Struggles in Business 06:30: Failure 07:45: Habits 11:00: Resources 13:00: Life of an Entrepreneur 14:40: What does your proces

Everybody Has An Idea "It's great that you have an idea, go out and do something with it. Don't waste time in contemplating if t's worthy of building a company out of. Just go out and do it! Also, don't be afraid of sharing it. Most people aren't as malicious as you may think. Tell people about your idea, they care more about their own ideas, than yours?..." People Are Your Biggest Resource "It could be the person to your left or right, your classmate, your professor, the rich or even the poorest in the room, respect relationships and have these people hear out your ideas. Whether it's good or bad, ask for feedback. The decision at the end of the day is your own, but use your resources to help build your ideas to create something big!..." Be Self Critical, But Do Not Be Overly Self Critical "This is another trap for people, they are overly critical of their own decisions and own products, but people (entrepreneurs) don't realize they are losing all of this time. Entrepreneurs are look

Reach Out To Mentors and Take Advantage of Opportunities David was a senior in high school and just wanted to play basketball! He wasn't involved or even cared about the tech scene, nor did he care about startups. After finding a love for writing, he used his story to get in front of some of the biggest and best entrepreneurs in the world! From David's experiences, he now has a column for Huffington Post and also Forbes Magazine. Don't Be Afraid To Try "Some of the hardest things to do is getting over the initial part of your business, you're struggling and you don't know what you're doing. So, just do it!" Says David Ongchoco #Timestamp 00:30- Introduction 04:30- Struggles in Creating YouthHack 09:45- Failure 13:00- Habits During David's Entrepreneurial Career 15:35- Tech Needs/Resources 21:00- Formula to Success? 24:30- Reach Out to Mentors and Take Advantage of Opportunities, Focus, and Don't Be Afraid To Try 27:00- RAMEN! David Ongchoco Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidongchoco Twitter

You Don't Know Anything "Everything you think you know, you don't. Go out and solicit advice. If you don't understand an industry or if you question what you're doing or something within your company happens and you are unsure of. Go out and find people that can answer the question." Said Zubin Teherani. Sell It Before You Build It "Sometimes you think it's (your business) a great idea, and you want to pursue it, but the only real validation are your customers. With Leagueside before we started, we sold something we didn't have. We sold it and then our customers totally saw the value in what we were bringing to the table and then finally we realized we were onto something." Said Zubin Teherani. Never Stop Learning "Surround yourself with brilliant people. Read or listen to everything you can. Constantly have that want to get better and if you're passionate, things will fall into place." Said Zubin Teherani Zubin wants to also discuss how important Venture for America meant to him

Take Risks Ian's risk was his decision to drop out. That decision weighed a lot on him and it took time for him to make sure it was the right thing to do. Ian thinks that if you want to be successful and to move the needle, you need to take risks to separate yourself from the pack. Make Sacrifices There are so many things you want out of life, but you have to be able to prioritize them in order of importance. In order to make things happen, you need to make sacrifices on the things that don't matter at that exact moment. By doing this, it will lead to the things that are in order of importance to happen first. If you want to be successful, you’re not going to get the nice house, or the nice car, right away, but you will if you work at it. Shut Up For A Year Entrepreneurship is the buzz word right now. A year ago, Ian was using the word entrepreneurship quite often. Ian suggests to go into hiding and work on your business, for a year or so. Go to work, get stuff done, and when you believe you're ready or at le

Rafael grew up in Brooklyn, but went to school at Drexel University. During his time in college, he lived with a roommate. Him and his roommate were sick and tired of Grubhub, it wasn't on demand. Their final frustration came from ordering from one of Philadelphia's favorite cookie joints called Insomnia Cookies. They order cookies from the popular cookie chain, and received their order two hours later. They looked at themselves thinking, "It has to be an easier solution than this." Six months later, they had a business, an app, and over one hundred items in a warehouse. GoPuff is currently in five cities, they are currently expanding their business into Denver, Colorado and are hopeful to expand to a a new city every two months! Fully Commit to What You're Doing "There is no doing it part time! If you truly believe in something, just quit." Hire People Who Are Smarter Than You "You don't know everything. If you hire someone and they are doing the job right, get out of their way!"

Share Your Idea With Everyone A lot of entrepreneurs think that people are going to steal it. Yeah people can steal your idea, but no one will have as much passion or desire to move things forward. Lead By Example You being the CEO/Co-Founder, your attitude consistently reflects back onto your team. Being the leader you have to be the first one in the office and the least to leave. You also have to be eager to learn more be optimistic. Showing emotion may make people nervous that the business isn't doing as well as they think it's doing, or it may make them uncomfortable with the direction that you're trying to take the business. Don't Quit (Taken from Minute 15) Andrew suggests to just dive right into your business. When Habitat started, they knew nothing about tech. They barely used apps, but every day they worked on their business, the vision became more clear. When creating your business, you should be paranoid as hell, that someone is catching up or working on beating you out! This amount of pressure has

There is a growing trend of freelancers throughout the world. Although her beginning is very similar to hear, her path has many interesting twist and turns. Melissa started her entrepreneur career during her studies of marketing at Temple University. After college, she worked at a few ad agencies before she went completely on her own as a freelancer. She felt comfortable with her decision to become a freelancer because she likes traveling, she likes the ability to make her own schedule, being own boss, and of course all of the additional life style perks of a talented individual who freelances. During her time helping some of the best marketing companies throughout the world, Melissa started her own online magazine called Femme and Fortune. Femme and Fortune currently has over 90 contributors discussing things like dating, culture, lifestyle, tech, travel, and so much more. All for the millennial female! Melissa's next business is a co-working space, all for women. "Creating the Hive Philly has been a li

At the young age of 16, where most kids are out playing video games or trying to attend their friends sweet 16 parties, Zach Medina created Shockwave Entertainment. Which was a party planning and entertainment company that helped teenagers and their families with their parties. At the early of his career, Zach didn't know he was an entrepreneur. As a kid, Zach was always looking for ways to make money, even before his first official business he decided to become a caddy. In which as a kid 7th grader, he carried golf bags that gave him $50 a day! He thought "shoot, I can do something here!" Next, eBay came out and like any hustler/young entrepreneur would do, he started selling stuff on the platform. He would buy broken iPods, fix them, and then later resell them for profit. Not once during this time, Zach thought he was an entrepreneur. It didn't dawn on him until people started calling him one. During his time at high school he ran track. There he met one of his first DJ's that helped him start his