I am becoming more of a documentary fan. Recently, I watched Seth Gordon’s King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. It is about people that try to set records of old style video games that I grew up on. Once upon a time, these games only appeared in bars, restaurants and arcades as stand alone machines. This 80 minute film focuses on the record set by Billy Mitchell for the highest score in Donkey Kong that has stood for over 20 years. The challenger, Bill Wiebe, who sees himself as a loser, sets out to set a new record, first on his machine in his garage and then later at public tournament. What is most interesting about the film

1. It shows that people will compete to be the best at anything. We will do almost anything to get fame and how important fame is in our culture. We can get our respect and self esteem by being successful at anything. It can give us that bounce! that can carry us to success in other things or enable us to let go of our failures.

2. Most competitive processes there is politics and room for corruption. Billy, the current champion is the favorite of the ruling body who judges these things. In fact, one of the original taglines to the movie was to be: ” The highest form of corruption at the lowest levels.”

3. Some people like Steve see themselves as losers when they come in second place. Don’t get me wrong, I think we should try to win and that we usually don’t remember who came in second…but being second, does not mean we are branded a loser.

Watch the movie. You will enjoy it!

I met Jim when my first book, You Need To Be A Little Crazy came out in 2003. He is a huge supporter of small businesses. Here, Jim talks about the new book, Bounce! during today’s interview. He is most interested in the link between the cycle of success and failure. Give it a listen.

I watched a wonderful documentary last night recommended by Susan Landa in Portland, OR who I met at a Capital One event. The Real Dirt on Farmer John is about John Peterson’s rollercoaster ride trying to work and hold on to the land that has been in his family for generations. I admire him because through all of his failures and successes, he was constantly pulled back to the farm where he grew up and the connection to the land. After decades of “Bouncing”, he was finally able to make it work with a cooperative organic farm. Turns out, my wife also went to school with the director, Taggart Siegel and remembers “the farm” with her days at Beloit College in Wisconsin.

Scott Allen interviewd me over IM a few days ago about the new book, Bounce! It was my first time I had done this type of interactive interview which was not by phone. I enjoyed it because while it gave me more time to think, but it still was very spontaneous. Read it here!

Scott asks some interesting questions:

• What’s the “867-5309” of the entrepreneurial world?
• But you also say in the book that you only need one great success to be remembered — that they remember you for your success, not your failures.
• You say a few things in the book that flaunt conventional wisdom, for example, “Having too much will make you stupid.”
• The book is an obvious must-read for someone who’s recently experienced a business failure. Why should someone riding the wave of success read it?

A clip from how I changed one business person’s life. Okay, so its Bill Levy, my brother-in-law and but its a start!

I was disturbed by a recent Chicago Tribune article stating that most people think sales people are a ‘necessary evil’. The survey sited that:

“41 percent of consumers rate the quality of the sales profession below mediocre, describing salespeople as “leeches” and “rashes…46 percent also said they would be ashamed to call themselves a salesperson.”

While a few pushy sales people may give the profession a bad rap, being a good salesperson to me is what of the greatest professions in the world. While some people tell my children that they should become doctors, I tell them they should become a salesperson. If you can sell, you will never go hungry. If you can sell, you will always be wanted by any company and always have a job. You will always be able to support yourself and your family. You will be well respected for your talents during all types of economic times.

Besides, the salesperson is one of the top reasons people buy. As most things become widely available through the internet these days, people buy because of the person involved in the transaction.

What do you think?

There is alot of hype around entrepreneurship. I don’t buy into the rags to riches stories since in between, there is always alot of hard work, heart ache and some luck.

Scott Jordan is a true American entrepreneur. I had the good fortune of working with Scott many years ago in Chicago when he first got started. He was a lawyer that was frustrated with trying to carry all of his gadgets, so he decided to do something about it. Investing his own money in an industry he did not know alot about, Scott created the first Scottevest  jacket was born where you could carry all of your devices concealed and comfortably. He was at first concerned that he could not get any of the major retailers to carry the product. This did not hold Scott back- he went directly to the public garnering unprecedent media with his product in every major online and offline publication. Fast forward to today, where Scott now has an entire patented line and his products are available at major catalog companies. There aren’t better clothes to live and travel in!

Scott is featured in the new Bounce! book and I am now honored to join is board of advisors which includes Steve Wozniak, founder of Apple and Kenneth Klopp, founder of North Face.
 

I pondered this question in my upcoming book, Bounce!. There are alot of famous success college drop outs like Bill Gates, Michael Dell, Richard Branson and Steve Jobs. Lesser known ones I learned about at a site called, College-Startup.com (I love their tag line- Get Rich in Your Dorm Room). Interesting and suprising to me were Simon Cowell, Barry Diller, Walt Disney, Rachel Ray, Ty Warner and Frank Lloyd Wright. Any surprises for you?

I went to college because my parents told me that if “I wanted to get a good job, I should get a good education“…guess they were right, but no one said anything about skipping college and becoming an entrepreneur. In the late 70’s, starting your own thing was certainly frowned upon.

But going to college, does have its benefits. You can learn social skills (or is that partying skills?), working in a team, and how to prioritize tasks.

What did you learn at college that helped you in business?