One thing I kept coming back to: why do so many entrepreneurs gravitate towards endurance sports? (And insane endurance challenges like the India Pacific Wheel Race, or Ironman Triathalons).

While listening to Zach Lowe’s podcast last night, I noticed him make a small mistake that most questioners of all types make. Sometimes, this mistake is made intentionally for deceitful purposes (see if you can spot the use case).

When we were building our first business, Getting Things Done (“GTD”) was the guidebook for productivity in the digital age. Its concepts recognized and served the specific challenges that the internet — and specifically, email — had introduced into our lives.

I’m not sure if I realized it at the time, but I turned, during that period, to something I’ve relied on my entire career: A mastermind. A small group of people, all with similar goals. I was lucky enough to have been working with Taylor already, so he invited me.

Behind the scenes at the TMBA, we work with a handful of service providers on a weekly basis (like copywriters, tech folk, sound engineers, etc). Earlier this year, I was on the phone with one of my favorites.

Behind the scenes at the TMBA, we work with a handful of service providers on a weekly basis (like copywriters, tech folk, sound engineers, etc).

Dave, over at Grav.com, is one of the leading manufactures of glass pipes in the marijuana industry. We first met in Austin, but serendipity brought us together, for morning biscuits, in Denver the other week.

One thing that’s interesting about this space is that most of the people who are really doing well don’t want to talk about it publicly. It’s easy to forget, with all the “success” narratives thrown our way everyday, that the vast majority of business success stories aren’t shared in the press or on social media.

We also get that doing this can be a pain and fraught with pitfalls, I think that’s why so many of you have been emailing about this. Most of you are short on time. We have been working out ways to facilitate mastermind placements (as a paid service) and reduce some of the work involved.

Flattering stuff! This was, perhaps, the first episode where our new podcast production team — Ian, myself, Jane (producer) and Arison (engineer) — brought something to the feed that we wouldn’t have been able to do when it was just Ian and myself spitting gas.

I was on the phone with a friend this week who aspires to get his PhD in the next few years. They are notoriously difficult to complete — with deadlines sometimes years away and distant advisors, it’s easy to procrastinate and feel isolated in the task.

Essentially, the thought is that companies will be lowering their cost structures due to automation through software. And, where humans were once necessary, there will increasingly be software which costs less to produce and maintain.

When I was there a few weeks ago, I even met a few young people who’d skipped going to university to, instead, come to the mountainous north of Thailand, to work on projects and learn about entrepreneurship.

I’m guessing this one is on many people’s New Year’s resolutions list. Luckily for me, I usually only fluctuate a few pounds, but any more than that is just enough to make me feel unhealthy. I’m going to drop down to my fighting weight in the next 60 days and stay there for the remainder of the year.

In a busy world, I still make time to open my RSS reader every morning and read blogs. Ian and I love being a part of that. Blogging gives us space to think through ideas and connect with like-minds in a different way than simply tweeting or recording a podcast.

For most businesses, generally in the first few years, there is a period when you have to spend a significant amount of time and/or money to get it off the ground. You are trying to figure out what does – and does not – work.

About a year ago, somebody mentioned that I should install software that would tell me when people who emailed me were tracking whether or not I opened, re-opened, or clicked on their email.

A few years ago people (mostly non-entrepreneurs) started asking me the question “Where did you come up with that idea?”, in reference to my business.

A cyclist hauling around 20 pounds of excess body fat is at a huge disadvantage. For the amount of time it would take to outride that handicap with increased power, one might have to train vigilantly (6 days a week) for a year.

I grew up having to work on cars outside, in a covered car-port, no walls and no garage. In the winter it was brutal but I still loved every minute of tinkering, regardless of the temperature. When I moved to California, in 2005, my dreams were of a design job, a corner office, and a collection of cool cars.