So this morning I met with a buddy of mine named Sergio. We met this last Tuesday at a Minnesota Chatbot Meet-Up where the group debated the current and future prospects of bots, IoT, and automation. Sergio and I ended up exchanging contact info the good ol' fashion way, and we made tentative plans to meet at a coffee shop or tea bar that coming Friday at 8:00 AM to network further.

Fast forward to Friday (2 hours ago as of this writing), with his steaming Sencha Tea in hand, Sergio started off the conversation with, "So I've done a ton of research on you and your company this last week so I knew what questions to ask you and what I could learn from you." Good start!

As Sergio recapped everything he learned about me and Online Growth Systems, I sipped my honey infused black tea. He then proceeded with asking his first question: "why?"

Wow. Heavy hitter!

Not an easy question to answer (sorry Simon Sinek).  As the discussion progressed we dove deeper and deeper into rabbit holes and diverged further and further into tangents. My personal favorite kind of conversations- ones that can't stay on the same subject for long... a rather good indication of a fun dialog! :)

What is your definition of success?

I think that everyone's definition is different. It's customized to their goals, their viewpoints, and their perspective. This isn't, or shouldn't be, a dictionary defined term. It's like trying to categorize things that fit the word "cool." Isn't that your personal opinion?

Sergio's definition: Doing what makes you happy.

Passion.

My Definition: How many people's lives have you made a difference in? How deep?

Impact.

Neither is right or wrong, its just how we prioritize what makes us feel successful. I hope that your's is different too.

How do you measure success?

If everyone's definition for success is different, that means everyone's metric for measuring that success is different too. If you're running a marathon, you measure distance. If you're in a hot dog eating contest, you measure # of hotdogs eaten.

Sergio's measurement: How happy do you feel?

Passion.

Emotionally driven.

Dick's Measurement: How many lives have you impacted?

Impact.

Numbers driven.

Then comes the debate. Doesn't being successful by your own terms mean you'll be happy? Maybe. I don't know. We dove a lot into psychology, philosophy, and even ethics. It depends what your definition of success is.

For Sergio, he wants to do what he feels most passionate about. That is what derives him happiness, and that is what makes him feel successful.

For myself, I want to impact people. It's a numbers game for me. Yes, my definition also corresponds with my happiness gauge, but that's irrelevant.

It's worth mentioning that I think the most successful Mother in the world might impact only her two children in a positive massive way, compared to a mother who impacts 7 children in an average way. Another example might be a meme. Let's say it impacts 1,000,000+ people if it goes viral on Instagram. Compared to an inspirational video of a military vet coming home to see his kids for the first time in over a year, it reaches 50,000 people. Which is more successful? I think it depends on what you're definition is. If your goal was to get views, the meme is more successful. If your goal was to make people support military vets, the meme impact is worthless and veteran video is more successful.

How do you measure success?

Sergio and I used a mutual hero of our's, Albert Einstein to compare what we deemed as successful. Einstein was the famous mathematician and physicist who came up with the e=mc2 equation and the father of nuclear energy.

Einstein is also know as drafting a letter to President FDR which prompted the development of the world's first atomic bomb. He is also know for his love of the pastry bagels. The comparison is almost humorous! :)  I wanted to use the atomic bomb for an example of measuring his success. (THESE NUMBERS ARE FOR DEBATE PURPOSE ONLY, NOT HISTORIC ACCURACY. ETHICS ARE ALSO NOT PART OF THIS DEBATE, JUST MATH.)

Let's say that when the USA used the nuclear bomb, it killed one million people. Bad impact, right? But let's say your definition of success was lives saved. A number. I want to think that Einstein's biggest success was the number of lives he saved and impacted. Let's say that if Einstein didn't prompt the development of the atomic bomb and it wasn't used to end WW2, another three million lives would have been lost throughout the remainder of the war. Let's do some math...

Einstein wrote letter to build bomb: 1 million lives lost
Einstein didn't write letter to build bomb: 3 million lives lost.
= Einstein saved 2 million lives by writing the letter to build the first atomic bomb.
AGAIN, we are just using this for math purposes, not ethical or historic purposes.

It's also worth mentioning that after Einstein learned the Germans wouldn't have developed an atom bomb to use on the Allied Forces (the reason he wrote the letter was to warm the President), he regretted ever writing the letter in the first place. In an interview with Newsweek magazine, he said that "had I known that the Germans would not succeed in developing an atomic bomb, I would have done nothing."  Since this didn't provide Einstein happiness, by Sergio's definition, this made Einstein unsuccessful. Sergio argued that he would have been more successful being a professional bagel critic, assuming that would have provided Einstein the most happiness out of any other career path.

Entrepreneurs sometimes live in a strange way, and Ray Kroc is one of those people. His revolution in franchising the food automation service and advertising have earned him a place in entrepreneur’s world. He founded McDonald's and opened his franchise when he was 52.
​
In this Amazing Book, there is the story of this business legend in his own words. You will go through irrepressible enthusiasm in here. This perceptive people-watcher and born storyteller will fascinate and inspire you in this book. This book will make you never forget Ray Kroc for his successful journey of McDonald's.​

​It is without doubt that the internet has advanced in recent years, and with it new online systems such as social media have been developed. This has enabled individuals to easily interact, share and access information. Social media has grown to become a key factor in marketing, and firms are using it to enhance their brand popularity, increase sales, enhance communication, share business information and for social support to consumers. In addition, social media interactions by individuals is thought to have a positive impact on trust. This has developed a great interest by researchers to study consumer behaviors and see how it affects customer's intent to buy goods and services online.

✎ In this video, we will discuss how to get started with a video production company starring Jeff Johnson. If you are a creative story-teller, filmmaker or even just starting a video production company- you can learn how to be successful and make money in the video production industry. 

​Social media has become a necessity for every business looking to grow faster and build trust with customers and fans. Through social media you can create awareness and grow your business faster than ever before.

According to a twitter study, 75% of fans following a small business and reads its tweets, reported to feel better about the company. This shows that social media wins you trust and loyalty from customers. It shows you are a serious business, and that you exist. The more you engage with them the more the trust and likelihood of doing business or buying services or goods from you.

​Using social media doesn’t necessarily mean you create a profile on all platforms, but just select a few platforms that suits your business. The main ones are Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Google+, and Pinterest. For example, if your business sells a physical product like food or clothing using Instagram and Pinterest in addition to Twitter and Facebook will be a great fit for your needs. LinkedIn fits professional businesses that offer consulting services. Hiring a social media manager or a marketing agency to post and engage with your customers can help if you are not sure how to do it or are busy on other things. In addition you can use social media to market your products or services. It is significantly cheaper compared to other traditional advertising methods.

What does it mean to be an entrepreneur?

Some people joke that it means you live with your mom and don’t have a job. Some people imagine two sisters running a lemonade stand on their street corner. Or maybe you imagine Steve Jobs, who dropped out of college to build what is close to becoming the world’s first trillion-dollar company.

No matter what comes to your mind when you think about entrepreneurs, one thing is certain: they are different.

​They see the world as it could be, not as it is.
​
I personally think that the very definition of the word can mean different things, because of the nature of the people it applies to.

For example, when I was 14 years old I worked for my dad’s insurance agency. People called me an entrepreneur. Why? “Look at you! Working away answering the phone so professionally! You are such an entrepreneur!” Does answering the phone make me an entrepreneur? For a 14-year-old? Maybe.

When I was 17 I purchased the business of one of my competitors, and people called me an entrepreneur. They reasoned that anyone who has the business sense to be able to buy-out a competing business must be an entrepreneur.

Finally, when I dropped out of college people called me an entrepreneur. They said, “oh! You’ll be just like Bill Gates! Conquering the world without your degree!”

If you noticed, these examples are very different from each other. Not every 14-year-old kid answering phones grows up to change the world, and not every business owner who has purchased another business had become Henry Ford.

I prefer to think of an analogy that I heard a few years ago. My dad and I took a trip up to the cities from Sauk Centre, MN to interview an old college roommate of his. I was interviewing as many successful people as possible (I still do) to cultivate my mind and ambitions for my future success.
​
His name was John, and he worked for a large firm that was growing like wildfire. I don’t recall what position he held exactly, but it was C-level and in the accounting department. I started the conversation asking him about entrepreneurship, how his company had grown so much, and how I could be where he was someday, and he gave me an answer that surprised me.