His speech titled “Just Do It” is a concept and philosphy I think most if not everyone should live by day in and day out. This speech was given at the National Religious Broadcasters convention in 1987.

I think this is probably one of the most memorable if not one of the top speeches ever given. In better words, you can make money or make excuses, but not both. Just do it. Enjoy the video.

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A favorite quote of mine sums up what I’m trying to get across in a simple yet powerful statement:

“Many a false step was made by standing still” – Pattie Labelle

What does this mean? Potential. Everyone has the potential to change anything in their life, it’s a matter of taking the first step or taking action. As Nike would say “Just do it”.

I will have to make a bold statement, and say that everyone’s greater plan in life is to fulfill your true life purpose whatever it may be, and to make other people happy while enriching the lives of the people around you. Everyone has a beginning and end, and as a living individual it is inevitable that one day our time will come to an end as well. As Jake Sully put it in the movie Avatar:

“All energy is only borrowed, and one day you have to give it back”

Do you want to be remembered or forgotten? Do you want to be remembered as the guy with a lot of money or the guy who enriched other peoples lives and paid it forward to those who were deserving after you die. That is up to you. I know when I die, I don’t want one person at my funeral. I want to leave a legacy and be remembered as the guy who changed other people’s lives.

To be able to see the opportunity around you, you must change your way of thinking. It’s a way to break past all the limits people put on themselves, and start living life the way it should be lived. You can do anything you want in life, and move past all the rules people have implemented, which are only “fake” rules hindering people from moving on. You can achieve anything you want. That is a fact. No one is holding you back saying “You have to do this”. There are two choices to every decision. And ultimately that decision is yours to make.

People say there are multiple “realities”, or in simpler terms other possible life paths – multiple worlds with different outcomes and events based from the decisions you made in life. But the one world you’re in is where your conscious is in this exact present moment – the now. Don’t ponder or regret choices you’ve made in the past, it will only put a bigger burden on your life. Concentrate on moving forward in the present and making the right choices so your future can be enjoyable.

Now what if you had the chance to go back to other life state or “world” to take back a choice or capitalize on something you wish you could have (i.e., invest in Microsoft or Google), to become rich. Would you take that initial step and take the risk? Who knows, everyone is afraid of failure. And failure is the one thing which limits most people from taking that initial first step. Don’t be afraid of failure, take it as a learning opportunity to improve upon.

The only thing school teaches you is how to work and survive. I don’t want to be working the rest of my life just to survive. I want to work on something I love and live a life of freedom.

To do this, one of the main things I will emphasis on is get outside of your comfort zone. Every single day you should do or try to do this, because there is nothing great you’ll ever achieve while inside your comfort zone. Think of all the great things you’ve accomplished or achieved. It was because you were outside of your comfort zone. And guess what? When you accomplished these goals of yours it was probably a feeling 1000 times better than what you thought it would be.

In parting words, here is a quote from Oscar Wilde:

“Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination”

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Sports is just like anything else in life. If you want to succeed you’re going to have to go above and beyond everyone else. It can’t be ignored that superstars are all over the media for using sports enhancing drugs. Well think of life as being on steroids. If you get into the mind of a superstar such as Alex Rodriguez, Miriam Jones, Barry Bonds, or Mark McGuire you’ll realize that they were the best at what they did. But, their competitive attitude and desire to become THE best overcame their ethics of playing on an even playing field. That is, one without using any enhancing stimulant to boost their performance. All these athletes were considered exceptionally good at what they do if not the best, and no doubt Hall of Fame material.

These people worked harder than anyone day in and day out (this is not a question at issue). I was watching the golf channel with my roommate Russ the other quarter, and it was a show trying to turn Charles Berkeley into a golf player. The trainer that took on this task had set up a work program that would test his patience and dedication. In the end, the trainer said he had never seen anyone work that hard except Tiger Woods. Life is like a game, and if you don’t work hard at it, you’re not going to come out on top.

One thing I have noticed is that being an entrepreneur and starting a business isn’t a task that everyone can do. There is a low percentage that many will have an idea to start a business but not take the initial steps in making it a reality. People think it’s like a sport. You can join a team and have fun, and become good. But if you want something to happen, you’re going to have to work hard and put that idea into action – no exceptions. What I realized in starting a business is that it takes the same work ethic as a superstar athlete. You have to spend the time to do the initial research, put together a business plan, and execute your plans. It involves getting your name out there, putting in the time, and essentially live and breathe what you’re doing. If you’re just “trying” it, to see if it will work (like in sports; trying it to see if it is fun), you might be good at what you do, but you won’t excel at what you’re doing. Taken for granted that a very lucky few do slip through the cracks.

If you plan on half assing anything whether it be a team sport, starting a business, doing your homework, or just stop what you’re doing. You’re just wasting your time. You may get it done, but not at the level you are capable of doing it at. I had listened to this guy Johnny Cupcakes speak at my school a few weeks ago. And his simple philosophy was that, if you’re not putting in 110% in what you’re doing, don’t bother. You can’t be concentrating on multiple things and expect to succeed in at what you’re doing. He used a real life example – his girlfriend. At the time his clothing business was expanding he realized that his girlfriend took a lot of time out of his work. That is, eating dinner, just hanging out, and cuddling. Such that he would get to her house at 5 and eat dinner, and then hang out, and then she would want him to sleep over. Calculate all that time (5-7 in the morning = 14 hours), and that is a lot of work time lost. There can’t be two loves in your life because they will just clash into each other at some point in time.

My thoughts are that in the end just concentrate on one thing and put your everything into it. Have a list of things you want to do, and do each one separately. If you start working on to many things at once, you’re going to be distracted on other things when you should be concentrating on another. What do you want? Someone who works for you that gets things done? or someone who works hard and gets things done? The latter of course.

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I thought our executive summary was good and thought it explained exactly what we wanted to do. However, during my spring break my brother and I took a trip to San Jose to speak to our Uncles boss – President and CEO, Larry Clark from a Technology Credit Corporation. We had sent our executive summary ahead of time, and Larry had read through it before we arrived. What I wish I knew now before the executive summary was due for the Venture Competition was to communicate our ‘idea’ better. Larry Clark being an angle investor transitioning into a venture capitalist, didn’t really comprehend what our idea was. Well, he knew what we wanted to do, but didn’t get the competitive advantage; or to say, what we were fixing in the market that no one else was doing. Not being selected to move on in the venture competition, I have come to a realization that is probably due to poor communication.

When speaking to Larry, I probably (not exaggerating) have learned more from that hour and half than I have from school or any mentor I have spoken to during our meetings here at UCSB. Where our failure to communicate happened, was that what we are offering is going to get rid of something which all our competitors have, that no one wants. At the time, our business model had three aspects to it, first the service we were offering and second, a private escrow system, and third the thing we were preventing. What Larry got out of the summary was that we wanted to compete against other escrow systems. This was very far from what we were trying to communicate. He thought our “competitive advantage” was creating this escrow system and began to criticize our intentions because there were already many escrow systems out there. This scared me because I knew if he was an angle investor then all venture capitalist judging our summary at UCSB would probably read it the same way as him (which is bad).

In the end I now realize I need to make sure the main point of whatever you are trying to do is the one emphasized the most so that there will be no errors in comprehending what you are trying to do. This is the one thing that hurt us the most. However My brother, Max, and I are still going to concentrate on starting this business. We are going to get together a business plan and pitch it to our Dad’s business partner to see if we can get any funding to get our feet off the ground. Even if you fail, it doesn’t mean you don’t have a good idea. It just means something went wrong whether it be miss communication or pitching to the wrong investor. What I’ve learned is that there is money (investors) out there for anyone and everyone most of the time if you have a good idea.

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