Lessons Learned From Starting a Business

It’s been about 2 months now since my friend Brad and I launched our business, yclean, and somehow, even though we haven’t really started advertising yet, things are starting to really pick up. In the process of starting this business, I find I’ve been learning a lot.

There’s a million reasons why any business shouldn’t work – but that doesn’t mean it won’t. We’ve heard so many objections as we’ve been starting this business – students are to poor to pay for cleaning, apartment complexes won’t want strangers to come in, people won’t hire someone they don’t know, cleaning will take too long to be profitable. All of these have turned out surprisingly false. We’ve found our niche of students, complexes have so far been extremely receptive minus on-campus housing (but even they said we could come and clean – we just can’t advertise there), random people we don’t know have hired us, cleaning is taking half the time people warned us about (that’s the learning curve for you) etc, etc.

Lost

I’m not a TV watcher. It’s not that I’m morally against it or anything, it’s just that there are so many things I’d rather be doing. However, based on a recommendation from one of my companions, when I got home from my mission, I decided to give Lost a try. This week, six years after it started, the series finally came to an end.  I don’t really know what I want to say in this post, other than that the writers did an phenomenal job with this story.

Somehow the writers managed to wrap up six seasons of trying to get off an island, then trying to get back on the island, then trying to blow up the island, and even trying to get off again, with a beautiful conclusion all about redemption and learning to let go of our past and really cherishing the relationships in our life.  A dud episode here and there aside, overall I think Lost was one of the best pieces of storytelling I have ever seen.

At roughly 90 hours in length, and with every episode being essential to understanding the overall story, it’s a bit of a commitment to watch.  But, maybe the next time you’re sitting down to watch the latest American Idol episode or to catch some SNL skits, you can change the channel and give Lost a try.

Summer Travel Series, Part 1

Since next summer will be my internship summer and the one after that I will have graduated, I figure this will be my last carefree summer, and I want to make the most of it. Travel time!

A couple weeks ago I started with a road trip to San Francisco with my roommate. Neither of us had been to California, so we just drove on over, found a cheap hotel downtown, and then spent two days exploring the city and the surrounding areas. It was incredibly fun – the Bay area is awesome. I love photography, but I always feel like taking pictures gets in the way of just enjoying the experience, so I don’t have too many photos to share. Here’s a few snapshots though:

Elderly Asian People Meditating in the Park

The Sea Lions of Pier 39

One Man Band Performing at Fisherman's Wharf

View of Downtown From the Coit Tower

Going Down Lombard

Alamo Square

Pacifica Beach

The one picture I didn’t get was the Golden Gate Bridge.  We wanted to enter San Francisco over the Golden Gate, and if you’ve ever driven in from that side, you know that it kind of sneaks up on you. We were so stunned by how absolutely large and beautiful it was that we didn’t want to spoil the experience with picture taking. Here’s someone else’s though that about captures the moment:

Approaching the Golden Gate Bridge

All in all, it was an amazing trip and a great way to start the summer. I’m also planning two other trips to round out my summer travel series:

Mexico
Mid-July I’m going to Mexico with a couple of friends from work. We’re going to spend a week exploring the Yucatan peninsula – everything from the best beaches to exotic Mayan ruins, to quaint Mexican towns. I’ve been teaching myself Spanish for a year now, and even though I’m by no means fluent yet (barely conversational actually), this is my way of rewarding myself. I really want to immerse myself in the culture and understand it better. Needless to say, I’m incredibly excited.

New York
Assuming I can afford it (aka I get my Pell grant), I also want to make a quick trip to New York City at the end of the summer. I’ve never been there before (minus getting stranded overnight there on the way home from my mission, but that’s a story for another day), and I’d really like to see the sites. Plus, I think I need to get a feel for how much big city life I can stand in case I have job opportunities there later.

I’ll just end this post with some song lyrics that really sum up life for me at the moment.

3X5 by John Mayer

I’m writing you to
catch you up on places I’ve been
And you have this letter
you probably got excited, but there’s nothing else inside it
didn’t have a camera by my side this time
hoping I would see the world through both my eyes
maybe I will tell you all about it when I’m
in the mood to lose my way with words

TODAY skies are painted colors of a cowboy cliche’
And its strange how clouds that look like mountains in the sky
are next to mountains anyway
Didn’t have a camera by my side this time
Hoping I would see the world through both my eyes
Maybe I will tell you all about it when I’m
in the mood to lose my way
but let me say

You should have seen that sunrise with your own eyes
it brought me back to life
You’ll be with me next time I go outside
NO more 3×5′s 
I Guess you had to be there
I Guess you had to be with me 

Today I finally overcame
tryin’ to fit the world inside a picture frame
Maybe I will tell you all about it when I’m in the mood to
lose my way but let me say
You should have seen that sunrise with your own eyes
it brought me back to life
You’ll be with me next time I go outside
no more 3×5′s
just no more 3×5′s 

Listen to the song here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GP5gWbyuXrs

What’s New

Wow, it’s been a while. This semester has been going well. Because I am taking 18 credits and working 18 hours a week, I had decided to drop most of my extra-curricular activities this semester. Now, though, I find my classes to be surprisingly easy, and I sometimes wish I were a little more involved again. At least this has given me a some free time. Speaking of that, I have official news (no, I’m not engaged) – I am for sure going to add economics as a second major. I’m doing this for a couple of reasons. First, I have been wanting coursework that is a little more rigorous and analytical; Second, I wanted to delay my graduation a semester so I can have another summer for internships, and third, I really like the subject.

This summer I am going to celebrate my tax return and put my Spanish practice to good use by making a trip to Mexico. I am really excited for the trip, although the details aren’t ironed out yet. Actually, I am hoping for this trip to not cost me even a dollar so that I can afford to do California and New York road trips as well. An activity we did in marketing class gave me a great idea on how to fundraise for the trip – by playing the classic game, Bigger and Better. You can follow my progress at the project’s blog – http://grandemejorymexico.wordpress.com/

Have an awesome day!

Students for Social Entrepreneurship

For the past couple months I have been involved in the Students for Social Entrepreneurship club creating their website.  After many hours of work, it is finally finished (except a few pages of content).  I think it’s the best campus club website around, although I’m sure I’m a little biased.  You can check it out at http://studentsforsocent.org/.  Be sure to look out for the post I wrote on “What is Social Entrepreneurship”.

Decisions

Decisions – I think that would be the theme of my life lately.  What should I do this coming summer?  Should I double major?  What classes do I need to be taking?  I am amazed how many decisions are suddenly being heaped upon me.  I guess all of it stems around the question of what exactly do I want to do when I graduate, and what do I need to do now to get there?  Perhaps this is one of the reasons I am seriously considering a second major in economics – it would buy me some time to figure all of this out, to build my network, and to bolster my resume a little more before entering the work force.

Bienvenidos Amigos!

Welcome to my new blog!  Well, the same blog, but on wordpress now.  I find wordpress to be much more professional and robust than blogspot, plus I am using it for the BYU Social Entrepreneurship Club’s website, so I figure I should get comfortable with it.

I got an internship!  It is on campus working with a large family trust fund that is looking at moving into the field of social investing.  What is social investing?   It is a new form of investing (literally just a few years old) centered around the idea that philanthropic projects don’t have to be money holes, but that you can actually earn a profit while meeting social needs.  This could become a very important paradigm shift in investing, because if these social projects that benefit the world’s poor can be run with profitable business models, funding will pour in.

Information on the field can be found at websites such as http://ashoka.org/, http://www.echoinggreen.org/, and http://www.skollfoundation.org/.

I have always had a thing against campus clubs.  I hear time and time again that they are great for networking and leadership experience, but  I didn’t believe it until this week, when I started attending events for the Social Entrepreneurship and the Management Consulting clubs.  Imagine taking the top 20 or so most driven and brilliant students in the Marriott School and sticking them together in one room – this is how these clubs feel.  Just associating with them I think makes me a better person.  Plus, because of the reputation these groups carry, many of the top recruiters go straight through them rather than posting jobs and internships publicly.  So, I think I’ve had a slight paradigm shift in how to maximize my college experience.  I’m excited for what’s ahead.

Have a great week!