I love hearing the origin stories of successful founders. Most people think they’re usually overnight success stories. The truth is that people hear about those founders after journeys that are commonly at least ten years long.

Today I began reading about the background of a founder who reportedly personally realized over $1 billion from his start-up. As I would have expected, he formed his start-up over a decade ago. And it wasn’t his first start-up.

This founder watched all his friends and siblings begin to have professional success while he struggled to find his footing. He felt like he was being left behind. To keep up, he decided to start a company in a space he knew nothing about. He thought it would be cool if a certain product existed. He did no customer discovery before he created the product, nor did he really understand the problem. As one would expect, the product was a disaster and never got off the ground.

He still wanted to keep up with his friends and family, so he started another company—again in a space he knew nothing about. This company had some success and got to seven figures in revenue, but it ultimately folded.

He was making a common early-founder mistake: instead of trying to solve a problem, he was creating a solution and forcing it on customers. He wasn’t passionate about what he was doing; he was trying to keep up with those in his social circle. In other words, he was forcing entrepreneurship and pursuing it for the wrong reasons. That was why his first two endeavors didn’t scale.

He learned from those experiences and changed his approach. He found a problem he wanted to solve, spent time understanding his customers, and started a decade-plus journey to solve the problem. The result was outsize success.

I applaud anyone who wants to pursue entrepreneurship and be a founder. It can be a life-changing experience. Before you go on the journey, consider asking yourself: Am I focused on being a founder or on solving a problem?

I watched a fireside chat by a successful founder yesterday. He shared his thoughts on the importance of one’s network and the impact his has had on his career. Advice he got from mentors twenty years ago continues to be the foundation for his growing enterprise. He believes strongly that you’re an average of the five people you surround yourself with. He also believes your net worth is a result of your network.

The people in your network can have a big impact on your trajectory, for better or worse. I was a nontechnical founder who knew zero about software. Being friends with other founders who were building software was the impetus for me to pursue building software for my start-up. The software was the backbone of our ability to scale the company to over $10 million in annual revenue. And I could give you countless other examples of how my network led to big wins throughout my journey.

Founders should be mindful of the outsize impact their network can have. A strong network can’t replace execution. You still must do the work. But a network of credible people can be a great complement that accelerates your success.

Today marks the end of my one-hundred-sixth week of working from home (mostly). Here are my takeaways from week one hundred six:

• Serendipitous interactions – I was introduced to some great people, unexpectedly, in the last few weeks. Just because I was in the right place at the right time. Serendipity is a powerful force that’s often underestimated.
• Vacation – Next week I have some downtime planned. Looking forward to resting and recharging.
• Atlanta – I’ve been spending time helping people close to me transition to Atlanta. Excited to see others excited about moving to the city I hold near and dear! Atlanta is a great place, and people are noticing that.

Week one hundred six was a fluid one. Looking forward to relaxing during my vacation

A few months back, I shared my thoughts on knowledge and how it’s like compound interest. This quote from Warren Buffett stuck with me:

Read 500 pages every day. That’s how knowledge works. It builds up, like compound interest. All of you can do it, but I guarantee not many of you will do it.

I don’t read 500 pages every day, but I’ve developed a way to build up knowledge. Here are a few things I do:

• YouTube – I’m a fan of the platform and pay for the premium membership (I hate ads). I subscribe to a handful of channels across a variety of my interests and check them a few times a week for new, interesting videos. If I’m trying to get up to speed on a new topic, I usually search for someone credible to learn from.
• Twitter – For many years, I underestimated the educational power of Twitter. It takes time to get your feed tuned to show things you care about. Once you have, it’s a great source of knowledge because many subject matter experts openly share their thinking and resources. (Lots of noise, too, but worth it.) A few times a week I check my feed and check the tweets of a handful of people I follow. This often leads to great articles, videos, or other sources of knowledge.
• Blogs – I send all blog subscriptions to a specific email inbox that I browse periodically. I read posts that catch my eye because I enjoy reading the thoughts of other people on things I’m interested in.
• Articles – A few times a week, I browse news sources, such as Bloomberg or The Information. I look for topics I’m interested in. This is probably my least favorite method, but it’s still helpful.
• Books – I keep a stack of books that I want to read. The topics vary—they’re not all about business. This is my favorite way to learn. Holidays, vacations, and other off times are when I’m able to read most.
• Podcasts – I subscribe to a few podcasts, mostly focused on business.

My goal is to learn for an hour each weekday. (On weekends my goal is similar, but I give myself more leeway.) How I do it varies from day to do. I’ve learned that the habit of learning consistently is what’s important; a rigid schedule isn’t necessary.

A few months ago, I shared my thoughts on rethinking recruiting given the labor shortage. How companies attract talent doesn’t appear to be aligned with today’s labor market. What matters to the talent pool has radically shifted, and some companies haven’t adapted. Today I read an article about rethinking job credentials given the shortage of workers. It touches on some of the things I’ve been thinking about. I don’t agree with everything, but it’s an interesting read.

Some of the smartest and most successful people I know have the fewest credentials. Some barely made it out of college (or didn’t graduate at all). They may not have been top of their class, but they’re action-oriented people who’ve made things happen. They’re constantly evaluating the world and adjusting their decisions and actions so they can achieve their goals. It’s anecdotal evidence, but it’s shaped how I think about this topic.

I don’t believe credentials predict one’s abilities. In some fields they’re vital (e.g., medicine). But lots of other fields and jobs don’t involve life and death or other high stakes. If someone has the personality type for a role (e.g., being outgoing if it’s a sales role), want to learn, and are given proper training, I believe they can excel even without credentials. I know many start-up founders (including myself) who gave uncredentialed people opportunities and found that those folks exceeded their expectations. If people are given an opportunity and set up to succeed, they can.

I’m excited to see how companies adjust their recruiting strategies. I like the idea of giving more people opportunities by removing hurdles AND training them properly.

A fellow investor told me about one of his better-performing portfolio companies. It’s executing well, hiring amazing people, and seeing a path for scaling if things go well. One area of uncertainty right now is the customer relationship. The company generates revenue by performing work on behalf of other companies. Translation: it doesn’t know or own the customer. The other company has a direct relationship with the customer. This investor believes that to unlock exponential growth, this portfolio company must develop a strategy to own the customer relationship.

Acquiring a direct customer can be hard and expensive for start-ups in some industries. Partnering with a larger company that has an established customer base and can funnel those customers to you is attractive in the early stages of going from zero to one. The cost to acquire them is usually low (if not zero), and the customers can be plentiful if you solve a pain point.

However, this usually isn’t a reliable long-term strategy. It can have lots of downsides. A major one is lack of feedback. You need feedback to make your product better, which you must do to achieve product–market fit—but it’s difficult to get feedback from customers you don’t know. Most companies don’t provide you with their customer contact information (email address or phone number), so it’s hard to reach out after the transaction is completed. You never really know what the customer loves or hates about your solution.

Another downside is concentration. You’re at the mercy of someone else to acquire customers, and they can make a change that severely and negatively affects your business without warning. You could see your business evaporate overnight and not be able to do anything about it. Conversely, if you’re ready to scale, the bigger company can limit your growth if it chooses to not play nice.

Customer relationships are key, and there should be a plan to have direct relationships. It’s OK to have partnerships and other go-to-market strategies, but the core strategy should be a direct relationship.

Today I chatted with an early founder. His business creates video content for automotive enthusiasts. He’s been at it for a few years and has built an audience of over 2 million followers on a single social media platform. With this following, he’s been able to develop several revenue streams. He’s a solopreneur who’s looking to expand his business and team.

We discussed his business high-level. He faces two challenges. The first is seasonality. His revenue streams are good but variable based on the time of year. The second is bandwidth. He has ideas that will provide more consistent cash flow, but he doesn’t always have the time to execute consistently on them. He works on them during slow periods, which prolongs getting those initiatives off the ground.

I get it. It’s the all-too-familiar story of the bootstrapping entrepreneur. I’d imagine he isn’t the only small creator experiencing these challenges—but he’s different because he’s proven he knows how to build a large audience and create content they enjoy. He just needs capital (and mentoring) to scale his business and make it a big one. I’m not familiar with the content-creation world, but I imagine that providing growth capital to proven early founders with aspirations of creating large content businesses is a good opportunity.

I’m a big fan of YouTube. It’s an amazing educational tool for users and a powerful distribution method for smaller content creators.

I watched an episode of The Pivot where a professional athlete announced his retirement from the NFL. It was evident that he isn’t planning on slowing down anytime soon. He’s in his early thirties and has been building a variety of businesses in anticipation of his retirement. He’s planning now to build these businesses at full throttle and also spend more time with his family. He’s not thinking about winding down. The participants pointed this out and agreed that retirement isn’t the right word for his announcement. They decided to describe his announcement as a “career change” instead. This really stuck with me.

I have a few entrepreneurial friends who’ve been blessed to achieve financial freedom. They can do what they want, when they want. They joke that they’re retired, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. They’ve all started putting their time and energy into their next thing, whatever it is. They’re all doing something. None of them are idle.

Most entrepreneurs have a fire that burns inside them that can’t be extinguished. They focus that fire on what matters, and it’s often building companies. They aren’t the kind to retire and do nothing. Instead, they refocus their fire and change careers.

Over the last eighteen months, Atlanta has seen an influx of new residents. I was able to chat with a local commercial real estate expert recently. He’s lived in other major metropolitan cities out west and has a unique perspective. I was curious to hear his thoughts on Atlanta as a city and from a commercial real estate perspective.

He’s bullish on Atlanta and believes the city has the ingredients for sustained growth. Here are a few takeaways:

• Expandable – The city has undeveloped and underdeveloped areas to support its growth. Other major cities, such as San Francisco and New York, have a limited ability to expand to support residential and commercial real estate growth. We specifically discussed the west side of Atlanta; for instance, West Midtown.
• Tech hub – Several large companies are establishing tech offices in Atlanta. Some of them have had small offices or small teams based in the city in the past. This time is different. Some are constructing entire buildings and hiring thousands of employees. See here, here, here, and here. These employers are bringing high-paying jobs that many believe are less susceptible to economic downturns. And all those employees are looking for housing and can afford more (especially if they’re coming from more expensive markets).
• Insufficient housing supply – Single-family homes are likely to be in short supply for the foreseeable future because of the city’s popularity as a place to live and other factors. Builders are playing catch-up, but it’s going to take a while.‍
• Warehouse demand – Warehousing space is in high demand like never before. Properties that were vacant for many years are being snapped up or leased at a record pace. Some industrial areas with lots of warehouses are experiencing a renaissance and being turned into trendy mixed-use space.

I found these insights interesting, especially since they’re from a seasoned real estate expert. All signs point to Atlanta growing for the foreseeable future. It’s a great city, and I can’t wait to see what the future holds!

Today marks the end of my one-hundred-fifth week of working from home (mostly). Here are my takeaways from week one hundred five:

• Insular communities – I thought about this and had some good conversations about it this week. My thoughts are still evolving on this topic, and it’s something I want to figure out how to solve for.
• Quarter end – The first quarter went by quickly. Lots of good things happened last quarter, and I have more great things planned for the second quarter. This should be a good year.
• Positive momentum – Had a great chat with a buddy about responding to positive momentum. Some people pull back, but those who do great things build on positive momentum, and it has a compounding effect over time. The chat was a good reminder to not let up—to push, even when things are already going your way.

Week one hundred five was a week of catch-up. I’m all caught up now and looking forward to a busy April.