Lesson #1: Cultivate Habits, Build Routines

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“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” - Aristotle


“Your net worth to the world is usually determined by what remains after your bad habits are subtracted from your good ones.” – Benjamin Franklin


“People do not decide their futures, they decide their habits and their habits decide their futures.”
– F.M. Alexander

This post is part of a series about 7 lessons I’ve learned about starting a business without going crazy. You can see the introductory blog post here. In each of these posts, I’m going to write about (1) my experience, (2) the importance of the lesson, (3) how I apply the lesson, and (4) the tools, teachers, and resources that have been most helpful to me.

My Experience


Habits are easy. We don’t even have to think about them. Every morning, I wake up, stumble to the bathroom on auto-pilot, and brush my teeth. Non-habits, on the other hand, are hard. On the first of each month, for instance, I try to say “rabbit, rabbit” right when I wake up, but I always forget. With habits, we complete tasks automatically without much energy so we get more done. Without habits, everything takes more work and self-discipline, and we’re less productive.


“Normal” jobs force us into routines that breed productive habits. You go to work at the same time and place every day, so you wake up at the same time, get ready the same way, travel to work by the same route, maybe even buy coffee from the same person every morning. After a couple months on the job, you do these things without thinking; you don’t need (much) self-discipline to leave the house by 8am, you do it because you’ll get fired (or at least nagged) if you’re late. When I left Goldman Sachs, this structured routine went away. Initially I continued many habits without thinking. For example, I still woke up around 8am every morning. Then I started occasionally staying up late and sleeping in. Soon my bed time became negotiable and suddenly it was a lot harder to get up in the mornings. Without the structure imposed by my job at Goldman, things that used to be automatic gradually became more difficult – and I barely noticed it happening.

How to Change Habits


So to recap, habits are important for everyone and super-important when you’re starting a business. Now the fun part: how to form awesome habits. My habit-change bible is a blog called ZenHabits, written by Leo Babauta (more about Leo & ZenHabits below). Leo’s basic process is simple:


1. Choose a habit: Pick just one measurable habit you’d like to adopt — running, for instance. The idea is to focus all your energy on repeating one behavior until it becomes a habit.

2. Set an easy goal: If you think you can run 30 minutes each day, make your goal 10 minutes. This makes it easier to succeed and harder to fail, and helps you build momentum as you go.

3. Write a plan: State your specific goal, when you’ll do it, potential obstacles and strategies for success. In addition to the plan’s contents, there’s value in the act of writing your goal down.

4. Do it every day for a month: Do your desired behavior for 30 days in a row with no exceptions. This is about how long it takes our brains to start adopting repeated tasks as automatic habits.

Failure-Proof Your Plan


The process outlined above is the foundation for habit change, but it’s more of a framework than a strategy. Thankfully, there are several awesome tricks and tools we can use. The basic process will always look the same, but you can mix and match these strategies to suit your personality or a specific habit. Here are a few of my favorites (for more check out this list of the top 20 motivation hacks):


• Make it public: Announce your new habit to friends & family and on twitter, facebook, or other public forums. Report on your progress regularly. This will keep you accountable, apply positive social pressure, and help you recover from any setbacks.
• Use your surroundings: Structure your life to make success easy and failure hard. Place reminders of your goal and pieces of positive feedback in places you see regularly (bathroom mirror, computer monitor, day planner). Identify potential stumbling blocks and erect barriers between you and the temptations.
• Record your progress daily: It’s easier to stay motivated when you see the results of your hard work. Each step forward pushes you on to the next: you’re driven to outdo yourself and you’re less likely to sacrifice the work you’ve put in.
• Visualize your goal: Picture your goal for at least 5-10 minutes every day. Think about what successful will feel like and visualize your goal in vivid detail.
• Choose a trigger: A trigger is an event that immediately precedes a habit. For instance, every morning I brush my teeth (trigger) and immediately get in the shower (habit). Choose an event that’s already part of your routine and use it as a catalyst for your new habit.
• Get competitive: Make it fun by challenging a friend or a group to a competition. Agree on an award for the winner and publish the standings regularly.

Forming New Habits is Harder Than Keeping Old Ones


If you’re going to quit your job and launch your dream business, make sure you decide which habits you’d like to keep and make a special effort not to mess with them. If you’ve been productive waking up at 8am, eating lunch at 1pm, and going to the gym at 6pm then keep doing it! Especially while you’re transitioning to your new lifestyle, there will be plenty of temptations to abandon old habits. There’s nothing wrong with changing your habits, but you need to be mindful of how these behaviors tie in to the rest of your life and, especially in the transition period, you should limit the number of habit changes to as few as possible. Follow Robert Frost’s advice: “Don’t ever take down a fence until you know why it was put up.”


So what awesome new habits are you going to start? Do you have any sweet tips for changing habits? Share your thoughts in the comments section!

Tools & Resources


• Stickk uses “Commitment Contracts” to help you achieve your goals. You set a goal, pick a referee, add stakes (optional), and invite supporters to see your results and cheer you on.


• HabitForge sends you daily habit-change reminders for three weeks.


• ZenHabits is an incredible source of practical advice and inspiration about forming habits, achieving goals, and living a simple life. It’s written by Leo Babauta, who has also authored some awesome books.

- Starting Habit-Change With ZenHabits
- Top 20 Motivation Hacks
- 16 Ways to Get Motivated When You’re in a Slump
- 52 Tips for Happiness & Productivity
- Books: The Power of Less and Zen to Done


• Another big proponent of habit-change as the key to productivity is Tim Ferris. His latest book, 4 Hour Body, is definitely worth checking out. Also, he did this great interview with Leo Babauta.

 
Posted on July 25, 2011 by 4sight
Posted in Starting a Business, Summer 2011
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7 Rules for Starting A Business Without Going (Completely) Crazy

Orange Rules

It’s 4am and I’m awake. I’d like to say I’m up late because I’m working hard. After all, I am writing this blog post – that’s productive, right? But the truth is that I’m working because I’m awake, not the other way around.

Entrepreneurship is sexy. It embodies so many of our cultural values: individualism, hard work, and so on. Most of us dream about quitting our jobs and pursuing brilliant business ideas. So it’s no surprise that there are hundreds of blogs, TV shows, and books with how-to advice, “overnight success” stories, and guidance from famous innovators. These stories are great, but there’s another side to entrepreneurship that isn’t talked about: the psychological.

In 2009, I quit my job at Goldman Sachs. The next day, I woke up, brushed my teeth, showered, sat down at my kitchen table, and then… [insert long pause here]. I had dreamt about that moment but when it arrived I didn’t know what to do. So I got busy: I wrote a few emails, read some blogs, joined a gym, and then it was dark outside. My first day as a budding entrepreneur was in the books, and I had accomplished exactly nothing. This was my first lesson in starting a business: It’s easy to be busy. It’s hard to be productive.

Eleanor Roosevelt said “With freedom comes responsibility,” but when it comes to work we don’t get very much freedom. From the time we enter pre-school until we retire, it’s someone else’s responsibility to tell us what we need to do. We’re given projects and assignments, we perform them, and we’re judged based on agreed-upon criteria. But when you take that leap and decide to start your first business, suddenly you’re on your own. It’s like walking into a college class only to find there’s no professor, no syllabus, and no assignments.

This was a reality check for me. My weaknesses were exposed: I struggled with attention-to-detail and frequently failed to follow-up. My strengths atrophied: my knack for big-picture thinking and strategy were clouded by the multitude of tasks I now had to juggle. Soon I was having a hard time sleeping (hence the 4am blog post). I stopped working out, rarely left the house, and barely saw my friends. I had tunnel vision. All I could think about was work. Whenever I wasn’t working, I felt guilty. The result: I was working more and accomplishing less. I knew that I needed to make changes for the sake my health and happiness, and for my work itself. When you work all the time, it’s easy to lose perspective and hard to come up with innovative ideas – especially when you’re not sleeping.

I wish I could say I just had an epiphany one day and fixed everything, but the truth is that it’s an ongoing process. There have been plenty of false starts and dead-ends, but gradually I’ve made progress. I’m no productivity expert or motivational guru, so you might find that some of the lessons I’ve learned don’t apply to your situation or maybe they’re just totally lame. That said, here are the 7 most important lessons I’ve learned about starting a business without losing your mind:

1. Cultivate Habits, Build Routines
2. Set Goals, Measure Performance, Do What Works
3. Your Attention is a Finite Currency – Treat it Accordingly
4. Schedule Important Tasks, Quarantine Sticky Ones
5. Collect, Process, Review
6. Start With Verbs
7. Throw Your Backpack Over the Wall

I thought about explaining each of these lessons here, but that would make this post way too long. So I’m going to break them up into a series of shorter posts, which I’ll publish over the next couple weeks. That way maybe someone besides my mom might actually read them (hi mom!) and hopefully I’ll be able to do justice to each idea and the people/books that taught them to me.

So wake up, brush your teeth, read my blog posts, and bada-boom: gazillionaire. Simple.

Posted on July 18, 2011 by 4sight
Posted in Starting a Business, Summer 2011
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5 Thoughts About TOMS & Gay Marriage

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It’s difficult for companies to take a stand on important issues. This is even truer when the company is a big, consumer brand like TOMS Shoes and the issue is gay rights. Granted, TOMS’ Founder Blake Mycoskie didn’t mean to take a stand for TOMS when he spoke at a June 30 event held by Focus on the Family (FOTF), an anti-gay rights evangelical organization. The internet, however, isn’t going to let Blake off the hook that easily. Just check out some of these articles from around the web:

Ms. Magazine: TOMS Joins Forces with Anti-Gay, Anti-Choice Group

The Village Voice: Blake Mycoskie, TOMS Shoes Founder, Working With Christian, Anti-Gay Focus on the Family

Gothamist: Toms Shoes Founder Might Not Be Psyched About Gay Marriage

As the controversy gathered steam, Blake issued “A Sincere Apology” on his blog (it’s never a good sign when you have to call your own apology sincere). He claimed he was unaware of FOTF’s position and said he supports “equal human and civil rights.”

So that’s more or less what happened. Here’s what I think about it:

1. Focus on the Family sucks

Their founder, James Dobson, is well-known for saying things such as (in the wake of 9/11) “we need to accept the truth that this nation will suffer in many ways for departing from the principles of righteousness. The wages of sin is death.”

2. Blake’s apology was BS

Didn’t know about their position? Come on. Blake claims that TOMS carefully vets the organizations it gets involved with. A monkey with a lap top could’ve done a better job on this one. Seriously, a Google search takes 0.23 seconds. And what does it mean that he supports “equal human and civil rights?” Who wouldn’t support those things? That’s like saying you support breathing or believe in gravity. If it was really a mistake, he would’ve at least come out and said “I support gay rights.” Which brings me to my next point…

3. Blake probably isn’t psyched about gay marriage

He’s a Christian dude. According to the pastor, he attends Mosaic Church in Los Angeles, is close friends with well-known Christian leaders, and is a regular fixture at numerous Christian events every year. There’s nothing wrong with being a Christian, but many religious people do consider homosexuality to be a sin. And Blake’s apology conspicuously stops short of condemning FOTF’s agenda or supporting gay rights. Explicitly coming out in support of gay marriage would’ve gone a long way towards resolving this controversy. The only reason not to: he probably isn’t psyched about gay marriage.

4. Blake is allowed to believe whatever he wants…

Lots of people are against gay marriage. I don’t hate them for it. I don’t refuse to speak to them. I don’t ask the guy behind the deli counter about his opinion before I buy a bagel from him. Blake is allowed to be against gay marriage.

5. … but, you’re allowed to care what he believes

You’re allowed to care what Blake thinks about gay marriage. I understand the argument that Blake has done so much good for people in need and for the socially-conscious business model that it shouldn’t matter what he thinks about gay marriage. But I also understand why some people might see things differently. Imagine a gay couple waiting to be married. Who am I to tell them that shoes are more important than gay rights?

I feel for Blake. I think he was doing what he thought was the right thing and found himself suddenly in a very tricky situation. Much of the response to this controversy has been hateful and reactionary, and he certainly doesn’t deserve that. At the same time, I can’t just forget about it. People have a right to care. There are millions of gay men and women around the country and the world struggling to achieve equality under the law. 4sight and I, as the founder, support the fight for gay rights, including the right to marry.
Posted on July 14, 2011 by 4sight
Posted in Summer 2011, Thoughts About Stuff
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Complicated vs. Difficult

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Sometimes when things are difficult, we make them more complicated than they need to be. One example many people are familiar with is dieting. There are hundreds of complicated fad diets that promise you fast weight loss if you’ll just eat grapefruit rinds and maple syrup while tap-dancing three times a day. Judging just from these intricate diets, you’d think losing weight was a hopelessly complicated ordeal. But if you eat fruit, veggies and some lean protein, you’ll lose weight. It’s not complicated; it’s just difficult. (Check out this list for some of the worst diets ever)

Economists Saving The World - GetMilked

The same is true of many problems, including many of the major issues facing the future of mankind. Millions of kids die each year from smoke inhalation caused by indoor cooking. Clean-burning fuel and ventilation would keep those kids alive. Millions more die from malnutrition, malaria, and water-born diseases, all of which could be avoided with simple (albeit incredibly difficult) solutions.

Making things more complicated than they need to be can have big negative consequences. Complication is a cause for despair and an excuse for inaction. It makes difficult problems even more difficult.

1.3 billion people can’t see clearly because they need eye-care. That’s a big problem, but it’s not complicated. People need glasses. Getting eye-care to all who need it will require a huge amount of work, resources and dedication. It will be hard enough without unneeded complications. Let’s focus on the solution and make it happen.

Here’s another blog post I found about the difference between complicated and difficult.

Header image from Gaping Void
Posted on June 24, 2011 by 4sight
Posted in Summer 2011, Thoughts About Stuff
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Loving My Enemy

toms graphic

On Tuesday morning, TOMS Shoes launched their own line of one-for-one sunglasses. TOMS is a fantastic company and an inspiration to me, but I couldn’t help but feel a little bummed. I had dreamt that 4sight could become THE one-for-one sunglasses brand. In hindsight, that probably was never going to happen. It’s not that 4sight was doomed to failure. In fact, it’s the opposite. The mission-driven, one-for-one business model has been so successful and has attracted so many new organizations that it’s not going to possible for any company to be THE one-for-one sunglasses brand. Instead, there will be several brands, each striving to offer the best product at the best price with the most compelling social benefit. And that is a wonderful thing.

This competition has one especially interesting wrinkle: I want TOMS to succeed. The more sunglasses they sell, the more people receive the eye-care they desperately need. Blake Mycoskie, the founder and “chief shoe-giver” of TOMS Shoes, echoed this sentiment in a very gracious email he sent me, saying how glad he was “to be a part of the brethren who are working daily to save and restore sight to those in need.” I won’t take anything away from TOMS now or in the future. Instead, I will continue working to offer unique value and to differentiate 4sight from TOMS and other competitors.

We can’t match TOMS’ brand recognition, scale, or marketing budget, but 4sight offers better value in many of the most important areas:


• Lower Prices: $89 (TOMS – $135-145)
• High Quality: Handmade in Italy
• Free Shipping & Returns (TOMS charges for both)

As I’ve read many of the blog posts and articles about TOMS new eyewear line, I’ve been incredibly moved to see how many comments people have written about 4sight Sunglasses. With the support of people like you, 4sight can’t fail.

Let’s continue improving 4sight. What can I do to help 4sight stand apart from its competitors? Share your ideas and questions in the comments!
Posted on June 13, 2011 by 4sight
Posted in Spring 2011
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1 > 1,000,000

A small girl, 10 or 11 years old, was walking down a beautiful beach one sunny morning. The night before, a storm had washed hundreds of starfish onto shore and now they lay all along the coastline as far as the eye could see. If they were left in the sun for long, the girl knew, the starfish would dry out and die. So she began picking them up one-by-one and throwing them into the ocean.


After some time, an old man on his morning walk saw the girl tossing the small creatures into the surf. Curious, he approached her. ”Good morning,” he said. “What are you doing?”


This seemed like an odd question to the girl, who replied “I’m throwing these starfish back into the ocean so they don’t dry out and die.”


Pointing down the beach, the man said “But don’t you see? There are thousands of starfish, as far as the eye can see! You’ll never make a difference.”


Smiling, the little girl picked up another starfish, tossed it into the water, and replied: “I made a difference to that one.”

Right now, 1.3 billion people can’t see clearly because they need glasses. Statistics like this one are intimidating and create the impression that the world’s problems are insurmountable. After all, you’re just one person; how can you make a difference?

Unfortunately, you can’t save the world. But you might be shocked at how easily you can change one person’s life. You can’t give an education to all the children of the world, but with a week’s paycheck you could send a small boy to primary school. That’s a wonderful accomplishment and a worthy goal. Yet when we hear numbers like 1.3 billion, we’re discouraged. Why? Because you’ll never help all those people? Well, duh. Why should that stop you? Remember:

“Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” – Coach John Wooden

You can’t save the world, but you can change one person’s life forever. And luckily, there are millions of people on your team. When we all focus on what we can do, instead of what we can’t, numbers like 1.3 billion won’t be so intimidating anymore.

Forget about the billion people you can’t help and focus on the one person you can.

 
Posted on May 19, 2011 by 4sight
Posted in Spring 2011
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Be An Optimist!

Right now is the best time ever to be alive, and things are going to get even better.
This may be hard for you to believe. With all the problems facing mankind – global warming, terrorism, financial crises, poverty, hunger, just to name a few – it’s difficult to be hopeful about the future. To some, my optimism may seem like naivety, idealism or just plain wishful thinking. But consider this:

• The proportion of the world’s population living on less than $1 a day fell from roughly half in 1990 to 28% in 2007

• The proportion of the world’s population considered “undernourished” fell from 34% in 1970 to 17% in 2008

• Average life expectancy worldwide is increasing at a rate of 5 hours per day

• “Since 1800, the population of the world has multiplied six times, yet average life expectancy has more than doubled and real income has risen more than nine times.”

• Compared to 1955, the average person in 2005 “earned nearly three times as much money (corrected for inflation), ate one-third more calories of food, buried one-third as many of her children and could expect to live one-third longer.”

• The UN estimates that poverty was reduced more in the last fifty years than in the previous 500

World GDP per Capita

Without a doubt, there remains an enormous amount of work to be done. The world is still filled with terrible suffering, and these statistics do little to ease the anguish of the impoverished and hungry. Then why am I trying to convince you that this is mankind’s finest hour? Because it is vital that we recognize progress.
Pessimism is self-fulfilling. Cynics see a dark world with a bleak future and figure “why bother?” Likewise, optimism breeds motivation. As Kevin Kelly writes in a recent blog post:

“We behave better when we are optimistic. Progress depends on innovation, and innovation needs optimism;
where optimism is most present, so is innovation… What we believe about our trajectory matters.”

Recent history shows us that dramatic improvement in the lot of mankind is possible. If we are to continue striving for and advancing towards a better future, we must know that this effort is not in vain. Maybe Henry Ford put it best: “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t–you’re right.” We really can change the world and we’re better off for believing it. Mankind faces very real challenges, but we can and will overcome them. Despair about the future is tempting, but giving in to this temptation and assuming the worst won’t improve our fate; optimism about human progress might.
Be an optimist. You can change the world. It’s not just possible; it’s probable.
This post was largely inspired by Matt Ridley’s book The Rational Optimist (HarperCollins, 2010). Many of the facts in this post were taken from Ridley’s book and the other sources listed below.
For more information, check out:
Matt Ridley, Rational Optimist, 2010 (amazon)
Matt Ridley’s blog post, “Sunny Side”
Kevin Kelly’s blog post “Radical Optimism”
Charles Kenny in Foreign Policy (Sep/Oct 2010), “Best. Decade. Ever”
Charles Kenny, Getting Better, 2011 (amazon)
Gapminder, Life Expectancy & GDP Per Capita 1800-2000
Angus Maddison’s “World Population, GDP and Per Capita GDP, 1-2008 AD” (excel) 
What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments!
Posted on February 2, 2011 by 4sight
Posted in Spring 2011
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