He began “Dear Citizen Brian” and went on to explain that yes, he was in fact a real life super hero who dressed in costume and patrolled various areas of Australia, intimidating the criminal element.  He also wanted help spreading his message and building his blog.

I wasn’t quite sure what to make of this email, so I clicked through to his website and instantly fell in love.  There it was, a person who had a crazy idea of what he wanted to do and JUST WENT FOR IT, not giving a damn what anyone else thought.

He wanted to prevent crime, and had literally adopted a secret identity as a super hero.  Let me say it again: yes, he is actually serious.

I quickly added a new item to my list of things I MUST do before I die: interview this man and find out more about him.

Why? Because he is an example of someone who has truly broken free and pursued his passion.  If he can become a real life super hero, when what excuse do you and I have for not accomplishing our goals?

If you want some background first, you can check out his awesome FAQs, including more info on his armoury (which includes mace and an iPhone) and super powers (such as photographic memory).

Without further ado, here is my interview with the real life super hero, Captain Australia. (He took the liberty of recording some video responses as well.)  Enjoy!

1. Please introduce yourself to my readers and tell us a bit about your mission

I am Captain Australia, and I am on a Quest to make the world a better place.  My mission in a nutshell: To fight evil.

What is evil ? It’s everywhere .. evil has been with us of old. My job is to fight it – the big evil: criminality, paedophilia, rape of the environment, and the little evil – apathy, selfishness, greed. Basically my mission is as much about being an example and inspiration as it is about actively fighting crime.

So, to articulate my goals in a simple list, with simple examples:

1. Patrol, and directly intimidate the criminal element (eg, drug dealers and prostitutes move out of neighbourhoods I patrol)
2. Directly intervene if I see a crime, and solve crimes I become aware of (eg, if I see someone being robbed or assaulted, I must stop it)
3. Help others. (that simple, I want to find ways to help people, Nelson Hendersen said “The true meaning of life is to plant trees under whose shade you do not expect to sit”)
4. Inspire people. (eg, by putting other people ahead of my own personal safety, by taking a stand against evil, I hope to inspire others to stand up and make the world better, Martin Luther King Jr said “…I just want .. love and .. justice and .. truth and .. commitment to others, so that we can make of this old world a new world”)

2. What’s the most common reaction you get from people at first? How do you convince them you’re serious?

Most people are amused. They want photographs, as if I’m some kind of celebrity. I don’t mind, so much – if I can’t inspire people the first time I meet them, I can at least reach out to them, and I can settle for amusing them. If they then see me, witness my mission, and come to understand what I do, then it is my hope that it will influence them.

So far, people tend to fall into a few different categories (I personally like #4 the most, it makes me smile):

1. Avoidance or Apathy: some people seem shocked or scared, and simply look away, they simply lower their gaze and shuffle past as fast as they can. (These are the sleep-walkers that I hope to wake up)
2. Curious: some people are engaged and interested (maybe amused), and ask me questions about what I’m doing & why. I see these people as genuine potential evangelists, people who can see value in what I’m doing and maybe allow it to influence the way they live their lives somehow.
3. Photo Op: some people simply see me as a novelty and want a photo with me. Where I can, I try to explain my mission, and turn them into a #2
4. genuinely puzzled: some people simply openly stare at me, jaw dropping, every manner of their posture screaming out to me “WTF?!”, sometimes the reaction is so strong, it’s almost as if a spaceship landed in front of them, Ronald McDonald sprang out from the cockpit & started singing “Happy Birthday to You”

With respect to the second half of your question – how do I convince them I’m serious – well, that’s complicated. At first I was more interested in seeking out crime – people’s reactions didnt really matter to me. Now I realise that connecting with people, helping & inspiring people is a critical part of my mission. So when I meet someone who is Curious, I explain to them what I’m doing and why. I give them a calling card, and let them know that if they need my help, they should contact me.

Only short-fall – I have one cellphone – and giving it out to Citizens will compromise my secret identity. I’m just going to have to absorb the operating cost and get a second phone so that people can ring Captain Australia when they need his help or advice .. so far the calling cards just have Email, Twitter & Web contacts, which seems slow if they want to talk to me while I’m out on patrol.

3. How often do you go out on patrol in full costume? How do you choose locations?

If I were untethered by any other consideration than Captain Australia, I’d actually choose hotspots around the world (based on crime, poverty, apathy – basically profile possible areas to base out of). I’d patrol daily, doing whatever I can to demonstrate my commitment to changing lives in that area. Every few months, I’d move on to another area. As it stands, I operate out of Brisbane Australia, and when my employer requires me to travel, I also tear open my corporate shirt & tie revealing the bold @ underneath – so sometimes I get the opportunity to patrol in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth or New Zealand (and hopefully at some stage Singapore, where I know that organised crime and prostitution has a real underbelly).

For now, I simply base my choice on known areas of crime in Brisbane, or areas known for homelessness (to help where I can), finally, I might just patrol a public area to achieve a level of visibility – as a deterrent and to spread the inspirational message. With my work obligations, I can only really patrol once per week. And the last few weeks Ive been on hiatus while I get my health right (I actually injured my foot with Version1 boots while Parkour Street Running, and the nail of my big toe came off .. so while I’m waiting on Boots Version2 – being ordered from the USA – I havent been patrolling weekly, but I’ll resume that as soon as the boots arrive).

4. Why do you feel it is important to protect your identity?

My family. I don’t wear a mask out of shame, I wear it purely to protect my family (and make a statement).I know that I may not achieve a notable impact against crime, that is largely about luck & circumstance. But I do know that its possible that my interference could offend drug dealers, pimps, gangs, thugs – my own safety is secondary, but I simply cannot face putting my family at risk. Also, it’s loosely possible that I might attract crazies – some loony out there might consider me to be their ‘nemesis’ and decide that they need to track me down and teach me about suffering. Again, I can handle myself, but God help the person who tries to reach past me to harm my family.

I won’t compromise my secret identity by giving any significant detail on this point.

5. Many of our readers are interested in “breaking free” – meaning doing what they are passionate about in life, as you obviously have – but money often holds people back. Do you have a “real job” during the day (Clark Kent worked at the Daily Planet, Bruce Wayne had Wayne Enterprises) or how do you fund Captain Australia’s endeavors?

Short answer: Yes. Although I’ve hardly broken free from it – in fact, being Captain Australia isn’t cheap – I would absolutely love to fund some higher tech equipment and a costume that really affords me some protection against weaponry – but as it is, I have to fund what I’m doing. I have a reasonably lucrative career. I won’t give too much detail, again to protect my secret identity, but it’s basically a middle->high level management position in corporate australia. Its more than adequate to support my personal life and my expenses so far as Captain Australia.

6. Clearly making money is not the primary goal with a project like this, but do you view the blog as potentially a means of financial support (Captain Australia t-shirts, ad-support, donations from concerned citizens, etc) or solely as a means to spread the word?

I have thought about that. I would love to find a way to fund this full-time (and ideally unlock travel to some of the bleaker places of the world – places of socio-economic depression where I can rally people). Ultimately it is secondary though, I’ve thought about the possibility of maybe getting some T-shirts done up, or maybe a graphic novel – I don’t really know – honestly though, it does open up the dream of committing myself full-time to my mission, which I find immensely appealing. I dont like the idea of donations at all (unless maybe Bill Gates flicked 2M my way – I think 2M is all I would need to invest to permanently fund my efforts as Captain Australia – just use it to generate income from the interest). Maybe advertising or some kind of merchandise – but it’s really not what I’m about – it’s just a daydream to be able to do this full time.

7. I like your choice of “weapons” – spray can of mace, camera, pen and paper, etc and you strike me as someone who uses violence as a last resort. Although I have a concealed handgun license, I personally believe these non-lethal methods of self-defense can be more effective. Please tell our readers about your philosophy in the best way to prevent crimes, what level of violence is appropriate/necessary in what situation, and how our readers can best protect themselves.

Confidence is your best weapon. Most criminals are cowards. I know that sounds like a naive cliche, but I promise you, it’s true. They generally won’t act unless the odds are in their favour. That’s what makes me powerful. I will move forward -despite- the odds. I will put my personal safety to one side and challenge anybody that I feel is evil. I will never stand idly by and watch someone who is innocent be victimised. Is violence an effective tool ? Yes, it can be. But you have to use it fearlessly. You have to act quickly and deliberately. Personally, except for totally random incidents, I think that your best tool is actually politics – using negotiation skills to defuse hostile situations, using respect to get potentially violent people to calm down and articulate their views without hostility.

Since putting on Captain Australia’s mask, I havent had to be violent. I’ll address my martial arts training in one of the questions to follow – but I do sincerely think violence is a last resort. As far as serious advice goes – unless the odds are clearly in your favour, if someone threatens you: talk calmly to them while you conduct a risk assessment. Look them over and the environment, and make a determination as to whether you should fight or run. If they have already threatened you and are just toying with you or trying to intimidate you, use the element of surprise before you act. Do 1 of 2 things: attack fast & hard, or attack suddenly and then immediately run. (If you slap someone in the face, or kick their knee or in-step, the surprise will often give you a few valuable seconds. Don’t scream or yell when you run, put all your wind into sprinting).

Weapons arent the way forward. The human tendency to reach for a weapon is driven out of cowardice and a craving for power. It’s putting down our weapons that takes true courage.

8. What are your views on firearms and do you believe an armed population prevents crime or creates more of it? There have been several high profile cases (at least in the U.S.) of citizens killing criminals (see Joe Horn and Bernhard Goetz). They’ve subsequently been called everything from heroes to criminals themselves. What are your views?

Fundamentally, I believe in complying with Rule of Law, it’s basically the collectively agreed set of rules that we all have to live by: and people who knowingly take a gun and shoot someone else are committing an unlawful act. They have no jurisdictional right to execute anybody. I think its quite clear that they are criminals.It’s my sincere belief that taking another human life for anything other than a grim and high duty is morally wrong. I’d have to pose – do these guys who pump bullets into criminals get a rush when they do it ? Do you think sometimes at night they think about it as they go to sleep, and smile ? I think that you can work within the confines of the law and still have perfectly reasonable methods to interfere with criminals.

If someone breaks into your home in the still of night, I think its completely acceptable to use deadly force to protect your family. But personally, I condemn someone who will strap on a gun and go out looking for people to kill. I understand that the US legal system (and Australian) could be described as unreliable, but that doesnt mean that I personally am any better.

If you see someone being attacked, you jump in and incapacitate the assailant. You dont need a chainsaw, bazooka, machete, or a .357 magnum to do that.

I’d prefer to lay down my own life than risk killing an innocent person. Again, I think putting down a weapon takes a whole lot more courage than picking one up.

9. You appear to be a martial arts expert. Which style of martial arts should people learn if they are primarily concerned with self defense?

I’ve been learning since child-hood. I’m expert in Judo, Ju-jitsu, Karate, Wing Chun & Ton Long Kung fu. I also have some experience with boxing (which is actually quite handy – I think it helps you to learn how to take a punch and not fear it, the other martial arts styles try to avoid being hit).If I had to recommend a fighting style for self defense, I think Ju-jitsu is extremely practical. It teaches grapples and strikes – ways to move your hands and body to lock up your attacker and minimise their ability to hurt you. Someone who has really trained in ju-jitsu can easily hold one assailant by the wrist, using pain to steer him around using him as a shield against a second combatant while he kicks the third in the instep and incapacitates him. Its a very practical fighting form.

But if you’re only interested in self protection, you can avoid the training and get various non-lethal sprays and personal alarms.

10. What would be an ideal contact for you to make (TV interview, speaking to a class of children, profile on major website, etc) to further your mission? Perhaps one of our readers can make the introduction.

I dont know. I’m currently arranging to spend some time with sick kids in critical care, to cheer them up and amuse them – basically I’m struggling to find the correct path for me to be walking. If I thought about it purely in terms of exposure, I guess getting into the mainstream media would be useful, but what I really want, more so than fame, is the individual engagement – helping people and spreading my message that we must all take a personal stand to brighten the world. (Which can start with a single candle).

Thank you Captain Australia for making time for this interview!

If you haven’t already, make sure to subscribe to his website and show your support for Captain Australia.

I would not be surprised if Captain Australia becomes an internet sensation and you’re not going to want to miss his rise to fame- I think this could be big.

Finally Captain Australia has asked for your support in the following ways:

• Please send him suggestions and tips on how he can better accomplish his mission
• Please ask for his help if you need support or wish to report a crime/disturbance in your neighborhood (especially if you live in Australia)

Captain Australia, we salute you!  Until next time, keep breaking free,
Brian Armstrong

Neil Patel, put up an interesting post on his blog today about his mentor. He also generously offered to give his own time in case anyone had questions.

As you may know, I’m very big on finding good mentors (especially people who are successful and have already done what I’m trying to accomplish).

Well, Neil fits the bill. At the ripe old age of 23 he is a very successful entrepreneur and a millionaire from several web businesses he’s started (I’m assuming this based on his very interesting life story where he talks about losing a million dollars on a single investment). He started Crazy Egg and several other web companies you may be familiar with.

Anyway after reading his blog post on mentors I decided to give Neil a call and get his feedback on my current project: www.UniversityTutor.com.

Surprisingly, I got right through to him. His first reaction about my business? Get involved in online tutoring and change the business model to take a cut of each hour instead of a monthly fee. I’m still trying to work out exactly how this might work and I’ve been researching online tutoring today, but what do you think? If you have any experience with online tutoring and best practices please leave a comment below.

Moral of the story: the key to finding good mentors is simple but no one does it – just ask! You’d be surprised how accessible some people are and in my experience successful people are usually happy to help.

Second lesson: try to give back in any way you can. How will I do that? By asking you to do yourself a favor and go subscribe to Neil’s blog. It’s quite good.

Until next time, keep breaking free!
Brian Armstrong

You can click play below and listen to it in your browser if you’d like. However, it’s about 45 minutes long so if it’s more convenient, feel to right click the “download” link below and download it to your hard drive. That way you can put it on your mp3 player or listen to it in your car while you’re driving.

The talk was interesting because I did a few things differently. For one thing I did not rehearse at all, and spoke for 45 minutes with no notes or slides whatsoever. I decided to do this after reading this post on the 37Signals blog last week, and I think it worked out well. Some people may prefer the organized structure of slides, but I felt this talk was more personal and had more emotion in it since I was just telling stories and speaking from the heart.

I remember reading one time that Rudy Giuliani learned to be a good public speaker this way. When he stopped memorizing notes and just went in and told stories from the heart, he was able to relax and connect with audiences. Donald Trump does this also. Even though his speaking fee is a quarter million, he will just jott down a few bullets on the car ride over and say what comes to him.

Come to think of it, when I saw David Brooks, the 1990 world champion of public speaking, all he did was tell stories too. I’m sure he rehearsed but story telling is certainly powerful. He had the audience roaring with laughter one moment, and sobbing the next…just from telling stories.

I’ll have to practice doing more of it at my next talk. Hope you enjoy it!

Oh yeah, and feel free to give the MP3 away or send it to anyone who you think might enjoy it.

Here are some of my favorite parts (paraphrased)…

If you had to pick one person who you’d get 10% of their income for the rest of their life, who would you pick? You wouldn’t pick the person with the highest IQ, you wouldn’t pick the person who got the best grades in business school. You’d pick the person who had the qualities you like. The person you trust, who showed up on time, the person who gave credit instead of trying to take it. None of those qualities are difficult to have, you can just decide to be that kind of person.

Peter Lynch has always said, buy a business that’s so good that any idiot can run it, because sooner or later one will.

A kid from Harvard asked who he should go work for. I told him he should go work for whomever he admired the most. A couple of weeks later I got a call from the Dean, he said “what’d you tell these kids? They’re all becoming self-employed.”

Leave your children enough money so that they can do anything, but not so much that they can do nothing.

If you don’t see the video above, click here to watch it.

• Marcus Kazmierczak, VP of Engineering, MayasMom.com
• Marcus Frind, Founder, PlentyofFish.com
• James Hong, Co-Founder, HotorNot.com
• Dave Lu, CEO, Fanpop.com
• Karen Northup, CEO and Founder, CoreFino

Check out a hilarious story around the 18:57 mark from James Hong about how he bootstrapped HotOrNot.com for literally zero dollars. By the way, if he were to do it today it would have been even easier by simply throwing some Google Adsense on the page.

I have always had a certain respect for people who understand the idea that starting a business today doesn’t require much money. You’ll notice that Marcus Kazmierczak in the next breath after James’ story talks about how MayasMom was funded with $100,000 and they just took on a $100 million round of financing.

I have to wonder what in the world they were thinking.

Correction: Marcus wrote in to say it was $1 million, not $100 million. Sorry for the error!

As we’ve seen before, taking on investors is almost always a bad idea. Why would they give away a huge percentage of their company and take on all that debt? If it is a good enough site, it should be bringing in income from almost day one, and there is absolutely nothing on that site which required $100k much less $100M.

It made sense later when I did some research on the site. Basically Marcus Kazmierczak had no business being on the panel. First of all he is an employee, not really a founder. Secondly, the other websites shown on the panel are true blue internet success stories, all among the top 5,000 most popular websites on the internet. MayasMom.com barely breaks into the top 100,000.

If you don’t see the video below you can click here.

By the way, here is Marcus Frind’s check from Google for $900,000 that he talks about in the video. It is from just two months of Adsense earnings.

To learn more about how to start your own business for little or no money, grab a copy of Breaking Free. Thanks to all who have enjoyed it and written in.

I’ll have some more guest posts coming out this week. Stay tuned!
Brian Armstrong

First, of all you can check out this interview he did with Alborz Fallah.

Alborz started a blog about cars that is targetted to the Australian market. It now makes over a half million per year in revenue and is valued at $5 Million. And he started the blog while working at his full time job!

He also put up two more videos that show exactly how he (Yaro) makes money on his blog. There is a breakdown from a whole bunch of different sources, many of which I use on this blog as well.

He also includes a behind the scenes look at his tracking software where you can see the proof (checks, orders coming in, etc) or how he actually makes over $10k per month on his blog.

This is great educational material, and very inspiring. Thanks Yaro.

Brian Armstrong

Some of my favorite parts (paraphrased):

Stop trying to reinvent the wheel. Go out and find some one who is already getting the results you want, and model it.

On finding a mentor:

When looking for a mentor you have to ask yourself some tough questions about that person. Do they have what I want out of life? (Wealth, time with family, etc). Many people are unqualified to be your mentor, yet they give us advice.

On retiring broke:

9 out of 10 people in the United States from 1970 through 2000 retired at or below the poverty level. You have to ask yourself why the vast majority of the nation would follow a path of building wealth that we know is ineffective.

Who we should take advice from:

Guess what the people who taught us how to build wealth (friends, family, professors) have never done? Built wealth. Do not talk to anyone about how to build wealth who hasn’t built their own wealth.

Employee mindset vs. millionaire mindset:

70% of millionaires in the United States are self-employed. Most of the remaining 30% are unemployed and less than 1% of all millionaires are actors, musicians, athletes, or entertainment business related.

You’ll never get rich helping just a few people each day:

Ok I buy your concept that you have to help other people to make money. But I’m already helping other people in my job. Why am I not wealthy? If you want to make a lot of money you have to help a lot of people. To do that you must be leveraged with other people’s time, knowledge, and money.

On beliefs:

Does a belief have to be true to be debilitating? No.

Who gave us our beliefs about money:

I would have to admit that in college I had a professor come to class, complain about his car note, house note, and financial condition, and then go on to teach 150 students college prep economics. I became painfully aware that all of the people who’d given me my beliefs about money were unqualified to give them.

Click play below to listen to the interview

My guest is Howard Rambin, who is the CEO and co-founder of the
largest commercial real estate firm in Houston, TX, Moody Rambin
Interests.

Howard has literally bought and sold hundred of properties worth
many millions of dollars, and he has some great advice for people
just getting started in their own business.

In this interview, Howard shares some priceless information,
including:

* How his net worth went from $27 million to zero in one year,
how he built it all back and more, and what he learned from the
experience.

* The “Mother Metaphor”, a simple philosophy his company uses to
build better relationships with their customers.

* How to use leverage to build wealth, whether it’s in real
estate or not.

* How he analyzes every deal that comes across his desk and
decides what to invest in.

* Why mentors are the most important tools to learning, and how
he personally found successful people to help him throughout his
career. (He also shares his personal email and phone number for
anyone who’d like to ask his advice at the end.)

* Why diversification is the key to protecting your financial
fortress, and some upcoming trends you should watch for
investment opportunities.

CLICK PLAY BELOW (the good stuff really starts toward the 2nd half!)

Or you can download the mp3 here.

Kevin Morgan is the CEO of Eskimo Hut, a chain of convenience stores. He started with just one store in Amarillo, TX and now owns 17 of them across the south western U.S. Oh yeah, and he is just 31 years old.

Nick is President and CEO of Love Systems Corporation and is the author of Magic Bullets, the “bible” of dating science and social dynamics. He loves adventure and a challenge. After college, he traveled the world for several years, managing international businesses in Europe, the Middle East, and South Africa. He started by gambling at backgammon for food and travel money across Turkey and finished by helping raise financing in Slovakia for Europe’s most promising low-cost airline http://www.skyeurope.com/. He has an MBA from Wharton and an Honors Degree in History from McGill University in Montreal. He has also consulted to several Fortune 500 companies around the world on business strategy.

1. Did you always know that you wanted to start companies and work for yourself, or was there a specific moment that made you realize it? How did you get started?

I was always attracted to the idea of being an entrepreneur, but always had a good excuse not to take the plunge. Usually this was because of other great job opportunities. I had a taste of the entrepreneurial bug running a clothing franchise when I was doing my MBA, and then did a stint with an entrepreneurial company in Europe (a new low-cost airline), and that whetted my appetite. About a year or so out of business school, I realized that I was in the wrong job, and in the midst of looking for something new, the little voice in my head told me that it was time to take the plunge. Ironically, this came right as I’d finally landed my “dream job” with a company I’d been dying to work with for years. But I figured that the company wasn’t going to disappear in a year and everyone would still remember me, so I gave myself a 12-month horizon to test my entrepreneurial dreams and see what happened.

2. What was the most important thing you learned in your time abroad?

There are so many different ways I could answer that question, but most of them would seem like platitudes or self-indulgence when reduced to a paragraph of text. In terms of “news I can use”, probably the most important business learning I’ve benefited from is the concept of business timing. In the U.S. business culture, things work according to deadlines, agendas, and project plans. If you need someone to sign off on a project by Thursday, you damn well better meet with them before then and you’d better get them to sign off. In some other cultures, especially the Middle East where I worked for a while, people are much more sensitive to the emotional temperature of a room before pushing their agenda. If you sense that the person you need something from is stressed, or for whatever reason not in the mood to engage your issue, you put it off. It can be frustrating in that culture because it appears that some things take forever to get done and it’s not always obvious to an outsider why this is; however, coming to the United States I also get surprised when someone is trying to get me to do something when it’s obvious that I’m not predisposed at that moment to engage their issue. To generalize, US business culture is based on time, whereas Arab business culture is based on timing. The ability to combine both approaches is important.

3. Did you have any mentors or role models that pushed you to see self-employment as a good option? Bad option? How can aspiring entrepreneurs meet good mentors?

For sure. When I was at SkyEurope, a startup airline in Central Europe, I learned a lot from the energy and excitement and spirit of the two co-founders there. They couldn’t understand why someone of my age, skills, and background WOULDN’T be an entrepreneur. It’s easy to talk yourself out of taking risks, but it’s a lot harder to explain this to someone else. You sometimes realize how silly your arguments are when you have to verbalize and justify them.

I’m not sure I had any great entrepreneurial mentors. I never really sought them out, and this is something I’ve been trying to fix the last few months. I’ve made a ton of mistakes, like anyone, and many of these could have been avoided with the type of experience and perspective that a mentor could provide. And I can’t even begin to estimate the value of the lost opportunities that quality mentors could have helped me see. Anyone who wants to be an entrepreneur would be well-served to connect with successful people who have come before them. And make sure to be respectful of their time and offer them value in return. I’m in the process of setting up an advisory board, and there will definitely be compensation involved (that’s not to say that compensation is the only form of value that can be returned).

4. Based on friends or clients you’ve worked with, how can being in the wrong job or being unhappy in your job affect other areas of your life?

Most people spend about half of their waking hours working, preparing for work, commuting to work, buying clothes for work, thinking about work, and so on. That’s half of your life. First of all, whatever purpose you have on this earth, don’t spend half of it doing something that makes you unhappy. Second, no matter how stoic you are, there is no way that what happens in half of your life doesn’t affect the other half. When people are unhappy at work, you can tell. They don’t have that energy and excitement that people do when they are happy. They are more irritable, more negative, they drink and eat too much, and eventually adopt a sort of fatalistic attitude. It’s sad. Timothy Ferriss did a much better analysis of this in The 4-Hour Workweek, and while I don’t agree with everything in the book, he hits the nail on the head on this (and some other) issues.

5. You’ve probably heard the old saying that “the only way to get what you want is to help others get what they want”. How important is this idea of “helping others” in the founding of Love Systems or any company?

The whole basis behind dating coaching is about helping others. We help men succeed with women. So for Love Systems we don’t succeed if our clients don’t succeed. We don’t have millions to spend on advertising and we guarantee everything we sell with a full refund if clients aren’t satisfied. If we don’t genuinely help others, we die. That might sound scary, but it’s not; it’s highly motivating. It’s really fun to be in a business where our interests are directly aligned with those of our clients. Now we’re also helping women succeed with men and it’s the same principle at play.

6. Can you tell us about a company or project you’ve started that failed, and what you learned from it? How do you deal with “failure” or risk of failure as an entrepreneur?

Test and learn isn’t just a direct marketing philosophy, it’s how we run the whole business. The important thing to keep in mind when trying something new is to set your failure conditions beforehand. If I’m going to put one month, or X dollars, or whatever resource into a project or opportunity, I want to have a sense before I get started and emotionally committed to it, what would constitute a failure. It’s like investing in a stock. If I buy at $60, I may decide to sell it if it drops to $50. It’s all too easy to hold on and hope for a rebound. After all, if it was a good investment at $60, isn’t it a better investment at $50? But you can go broke, or waste years of your life, if you let little losses pile up. Yeah, $49 isn’t that different from $50. And $48 isn’t that different from $49. But eventually the stock is trading at $10, and at some point you have to realize you got it wrong. Same thing with startups. When Love Systems Corporation was formed, I gave it a year. I knew that in a year if it didn’t work out, I’d still have my contacts and be marketable. Fortunately, it succeeded. If it hadn’t, I wouldn’t have let it drag on into year 5. There’s nothing magic about one year, of course, some businesses need a greater or lesser time horizon. But the important thing is to set your failure conditions before you start.

7. What’s the one thing you know now that you wish you knew when you were first starting your career?

Most jobs are not like school. You don’t disappear from the professor’s view, write great paper, hand it in, and have it graded objectively. In my first job, I ignored many opportunities to socialize or build relationships in my company in order to spend more “work time” producing better work. And I did produce better work, and my career went fine. But it could have gone so much better with 90% of the efficiency and more time spent managing relationships and being part of the team. Work isn’t fair. It’s not meant to be fair.

8. Do you ever see yourself going back to a “real job” working for someone else? What does the future have in store?

Some people say they couldn’t do that after being an entrepreneur. I don’t know if that holds true for me. I think as long as I was working with great people and had appropriate incentives and the autonomy and tools to achieve them, I could do just as well in the corporate world. The fun of doing what I’m doing now doesn’t come from being “the boss”. I defer to other members of the management team a lot, usually when they are closer to a specific issue or feel strongly about it. I focus on a couple areas of responsibility and have overall accountability, but in a way it would also be nice not to be the person ultimately accountable for every single issue. That being said, I love what I’m doing now and wouldn’t change it.