Lately I’ve been spending more time helping other entrepreneurs and thinking about the traits that successful entrepreneurs tend to have. I don’t have a complete list yet, but here’s one that stands out: willingness to take action.

Taking action—doing things!—is what separates entrepreneurs from other people. Ideas aren’t in short supply, but concrete steps to turn ideas into a business are. The first step is usually the hardest and many never take it.

Now—full transparency here—there’s a downside to taking action. But it’s a necessary part of the process. Entrepreneurs seem to be all over the place, especially when their ventures are young. I’ll speak from my own experience. In CCAW’s early days, I had no idea what I was doing, but I never would have admitted it. For all the stuff I didn’t know, one thing was crystal clear: if I didn’t do anything, I was sure to fail.

So, I tried a bunch of things simultaneously. I was throwing spaghetti at the wall to see if it would stick. I was learning on the fly. Not glamorous or strategic, but hey . . . it’s the truth. To outsiders, I looked like I was scattered—and that was true! I was spreading myself thin as I tried to keep everything I was juggling in the air. I was basically running a bunch of mini experiments. I expended just enough energy on them to find out whether the results were good or bad. Nothing got my full attention in that phase.

But once I realized what worked, I zeroed in and never looked back. I went from being scattered and unsure to being confident and laser focused. This, combined with the observable traction that CCAW was gaining, changed other people’s perceptions of me and how I viewed myself.

There are lots of other traits that make entrepreneurs successful, but willingness to take action is a big one. Looking back, I often had a good idea of where I wanted to end up, but the path was murky. I learned to start walking anyway because the path became clearer with each step.    

Are you willing to take action to turn your ideas into reality?

On January 27, I had lunch with a friend and fellow entrepreneur. We met in 2011 as members of EO Accelerator and have kept in touch since then. On this particular day, our goal was simply to catch up, since we hadn’t seen each other in over a year. We talked about what was going on in our lives and about our plans. I reflected on my journey and what I learned while building CCAW over more than a decade.

My friend listened and encouraged me to share that story with more people. I was pretty resistant to that suggestion because I’m very private, and I brushed it off until he said this: “It may seem normal to you, but not many people have founded and built a company to over $10 million in revenue. Let alone accomplish this in their thirties. Sharing your story could encourage others.” He was right.

According to Verne Harnish, only 4% of companies make it to $1 million in revenue. I grew CCAW to many times that. He was right, I’ve achieved something unusual.

My friend told me his story and how he’s sharing it with the world. I discovered that even after all these years, I wasn’t aware of many things that shaped him.

After hearing him out, I decided to share more. The truth is, I’d always known that I wanted to share what I’ve learned, but I’d never got around to it. To give me the kick I needed, my friend proposed a 60-day accountability challenge: we would both commit to sharing more of our story and what we’ve learned along the way and to holding each other accountable. I loved the idea. Here are the rules we set for ourselves:

• Duration – 60 days (March 9 to May 8).
• Post type – Video or written.
• Accountability – By 11:59 p.m. EDT every business day (weekends optional), we will text each other links to our posts.
• Content – New, thoughtful, and meaningful. Posted publicly, attached to our name and face, and permanent (Facebook and Instagram stories don’t count).
• Fine – Missing a day will obligate us to send $50 by Venmo or Cash App to the other person. On May 12, the total amount collected will be donated to a charitable cause.‍
• Recap and reflection
• By May 13, each of us will send the other a text summarizing the lessons we’ve learned, what we now do differently, and our three biggest takeaways.
• Sometime the week of May 11, we’ll have lunch together to celebrate.

This past Friday (May 8) marked the end of our challenge, and I’m happy to report that I’ve posted every single day (even weekends) for 60-plus days. Thank you, Ethan, for sharing your story, suggesting this idea, and holding me accountable for following through!

And thank you to everyone who provided feedback and support. I received lots of encouraging words from people who found my posts helpful, which motivated me when I had writer’s block. I’d love lots more feedback, good or bad, about my posts in the last 60 days.

I learned a ton about myself, but more importantly I hope I helped others. I truly enjoyed this process and I plan to continue posting daily!

For years, I’ve struggled with managing certain relationships. I do fine with family and close friends—I’m in touch with them regularly. (Mom may beg to differ sometimes.) It’s people outside this inner circle that I have trouble keeping up with. They get my attention at random times. Someone will pop into my mind and I’ll reach out to them when I get home (if I don’t forget).

After acknowledging my weakness, I decided to do something about it. I did some research and spoke with people about what I was trying to do. A close friend recommended the Fabriq app. It’s new and still evolving, but I decided to give it a try. I’m using it for my personal contacts. (I take a different approach to nurturing professional relationships.)

Here are some of my takeaways:

• Circles – The app triggered me to think about the type of relationship I have with each person and what circle they’re in (inner, middle, outer, etc.). This exercise took a bit of time, but it was very helpful.
• Schedule – You set the touch point frequency for each contact, and the app nudges you when it’s time to reach out. This has been useful—it’s helping me work toward establishing a habit.
• Reminders – Custom reminders can be set for important dates, follow-up activities, and anything else you like.  
• Notes – Information can be added for each contact. After a call I sometimes create a note about something important that I just heard but that I’m not likely to remember. I look over my notes about a person before calling them next time.
• Initiate contact – Texts and calls can be initiated from within the app. There are templates for conversation starters too.

Overall I’m pleased with the app. It’s not perfect, but it has improved how I manage relationships. I like how proactive Fabriq’s team is. They’re constantly improving the app, so I predict that it will get better over time. That said, it’s not a silver bullet. I still have to make the effort to use the app consistently.

What’s your strategy for managing personal relationships?

Today marked the end of my eighth week of working exclusively from home. Here are my takeaways from week eight:

• Virtual learning – I took advantage of a few virtual learning opportunities, which I enjoyed. I’ll be doing this again.
• Change of scene? – Eight weeks of the same environment is getting a bit old. I miss the variety that coming and going entails. I’ve been debating whether to go somewhere else for the next month or so, and I’ll get some feedback and continue to mull this over.
• Relationships – Maintaining professional relationships may be harder in the medium term, so I started using a new tool that should help. I’m excited to play with my new toy and see how it helps my relationships.
• No meetings – For the first time in a long time, I had two days without meetings. With no interruption looming, I was focused and productive. However, I did miss the professional interaction.

Week eight was a good one. I was productive and in a good rhythm. No epiphanies this week—just an awareness that it’s been two months.

I’ll continue to learn from this unique situation, adjust as necessary, and share my experience.

Today I caught up with an entrepreneur friend. At the end of the call, I asked if there was anything that I could help him with. He asked if I could help get a college student an internship in AI, machine learning, programming, or a related field. The pandemic, he explained, has made it very difficult for students to obtain internships.

In college, I participated in INROADS. This organization prepared students for and connected them with internships at great companies. My older brother interned every summer because of his participation in INROADS. Naturally, I followed in big bro’s footsteps. That decision was pivotal. Not only was I introduced to other highly motivated students across the country, I also learned how to operate in a fortune 500 company and got a front row seat to national politics. My internship was year-round with one of the top lobbying organizations in Louisiana. My bosses were highly connected in politics and state government. That experience led to interning with a US senator in Washington, D.C., after my sophomore year. My final summer was spent as an IBM intern traveling around the country.

Those three internships had a huge impact on me. The work experience and the relationships that I developed helped prepare me for not just corporate America but also entrepreneurship.

The pandemic has changed things for most businesses. If you can, though, please consider giving a student an opportunity to gain experience this summer, even if it’s only part-time and unpaid. It could be the catalyst for great things in the student’s life.

How did an internship help your journey?

Yesterday I got an unexpected call. It was a group FaceTime from a few old friends. They were celebrating Cinco de Mayo, quarantine-style of course, and wanted me to join them. There were five of us. We live in four different states in three different time zones. We seldom see each other face to face: we’re all in the same place once every couple of years, if we’re lucky, because of the planning and travel required.

Today I reflected on the call. We have a regular group text, so we’re connected. We call each other for one-to-one conversations too. Even with all this, FaceTime enhanced our communication. Why?

Here’s my theory. Throughout history, most of us have communicated using our

• voice,
• hearing, and
• eyesight.

Text messages engage only our eyesight, and only in a limited way—we can look only at words, not faces. Tone, humor, and other subtleties are difficult to convey, though emoji help.

Phone calls let us use our hearing and voice. Humor, tone, and mood are more easily understood. But calls don’t require sight and, like texts, don’t allow us to communicate through body language (for example, facial expressions).

FaceTime and other video platforms allow us to communicate verbally and nonverbally. Tone, humor, mood, and body language all have a good chance of being understood.

I think video is powerful because it engages our voice, hearing, and eyesight. It’s the next best thing to communicating in person. Using all three just feels more natural.

Video isn’t new. FaceTime, Zoom, WebEx, Houseparty, and others have been around for years. But use of these tools is now soaring. People of all ages who once relied on traditional phone calls and in-person communication are now embracing video.

We’ve seen rapid-fire mass adoption because the pandemic is keeping people apart. Restrictions on in-person communication have created a void, and video-based tools are filling it. They allow us to communicate in the way that feels most natural—using our voice, hearing, and eyesight.

Face-to-face communication is irreplaceable, but video will play a much larger role in people’s lives from now on because we’ve been compelled to get used to it. I predict that entrepreneurs with experience in video or ideas about how to enhance video communication will be highly sought-after by investors and venture capitalists.

How do you see communication evolving?

I spoke with a buddy today whose mother tried Instacart because of the pandemic. She’s an amazing Southern cook who took pride in handpicking the best ingredients. According to my buddy, she’ll probably never go to the grocery store again. Not regularly anyway. Yes, she enjoyed the Instacart experience that much. I walked away thinking that e-commerce has hit a critical inflection point. A significant segment of consumers of all ages are comfortable purchasing most items online.

When I started CCAW in 2007, e-commerce was available and thriving, but it hadn’t fully penetrated everyday life. The idea of buying groceries online wasn’t new, but to the masses it was farfetched. I’ve been reflecting on how today (or rather 2019) compares to 2007. I looked at e‑commerce juggernaut Amazon.com to compare the two time periods. Here’s what I found:

2007 Annual Figures

• Revenue (sales) – $14.8B
• Net income (profit) dollars – $476M
• Net Income (profit) as a percentage – 3%

2019 Annual Figures

• Revenue (sales) – $280.5B
• Net income (profit) dollars – $11.5B
• Net income (profit) as a percentage – 4%

Of course, Amazon does a lot more now than in 2007. It owns Whole Foods Market, sells computing services through its AWS unit, and is involved in a host of other things. However, all these other business lines seem to complement its core e-commerce business. To keep things simple, I used its high-level figures and didn’t strip business units out.

Here are my takeaways:

• Amazon’s sales increased 19x from $14.8B to $280.5B in twelve years. Impressive, especially when you consider the law of large numbers.
• Walmart is probably the largest retailer in the world. It reported over $520B in sales during a similar period (Walmart’s fiscal year ended January 31, 2020, while Amazon’s ended December 31, 2019). Amazon has a long way to go, but it’s conceivable that its sales could surpass Walmart’s in the next decade.
• Net profit as a percentage is small at around 4% of 2019 revenue. Price competition is serious when many retailers offer the same products. Amazon keeps only 4 cents for every $1 in sales. That’s about right. Walmart keeps about 3.8 cents.
• Net profit dollars increased 24x from $476M to $11.5B in twelve years. Net profit dollars grew faster than sales despite the heavy investment required to support rapid growth. I know for a fact that Amazon’s other business units (mainly AWS) contributed significantly to increasing profitability.

Commerce has changed a lot in the last twelve years, and the pandemic has accelerated this change. Amazon was well positioned to capitalize on it and has made the most of it. I see a wave of new companies like Instacart contributing to the refashioning of commerce by fulfilling consumers’ needs in innovative ways via the internet.

What do you see commerce looking like in the next ten years?

Today I had a great conversation with a friend who’s an entrepreneur. We talked about many things, but one of his comments especially stuck with me: “We’re in one of those grow-or-die periods.” I’ve written a post about how certain businesses must grow or die, but he meant something different. We were talking about personal growth and adaptability at the time. He believes we’re currently going through a period of pain that’s required for growth and evolution. It’s inevitable because pain is the precursor to growth, or so he believes.

I digested his comments, reflecting on my experiences with CCAW. There were more than a few painful times. My own decisions (founding the business alone, for one) caused some of them; outside forces (such as the Great Recession) caused others. During most of the tough times, something had changed and I didn’t realize it or acknowledge it quickly. This led to pain, and eventually the magnitude of that pain forced me to reflect on its origin. I was able to connect it to the change that had occurred, accept the change (sometimes begrudgingly), and adapt to my new reality. Usually, I formulated a plan and moved forward. The entire process was always one of learning and growth.

I don’t necessarily agree with my friend’s phrasing or all the nuances of his argument, but I think he’s basically right. If I hadn’t grown and adapted as an entrepreneur—and for that matter as a person—CCAW would never have reached eight figures in revenue. The truth is that the world I was operating in was changing and I had to grow (that is, adapt) to survive.

How has painful growth positioned you for success?

Yesterday I watched the 2020 Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholders meeting. It was held virtually and streamed live on Yahoo! Finance. I’ve never attended one of Berkshire’s annual meetings, so I figured this would be a great learning opportunity. Warren Buffett is a famous investor whose opinions about financial markets have a big impact on many people.

Here are a few of my takeaways:

• History – Buffett spent quite a bit of time giving a history lesson on the markets since his birth (which was during the Great Depression). He was extremely knowledgeable about market history, specific actions on specific dates, and key figures involved in those decisions. I’d imagine his knowledge of history has been a key factor in his success.
• America – He was bullish on America and warned his listeners many times that no one should ever bet against America.
• Airlines – Until recently, Berkshire owned roughly 10% of the four largest US airlines, which Buffett said all have excellent management teams. He thinks air travel has been fundamentally changed by the pandemic and sold Berkshire’s airline positions in March for $6 billion.
• Patiently waiting – Berkshire has over $137 billion in cash and cash equivalents, but it didn’t buy much of anything in March or April. Buffett said he hadn’t seen “anything that attractive.”

The meeting was packed with great information. I was impressed with Buffett’s mental and physical stamina. He talked nonstop for almost five hours about complicated topics and answered audience questions. I’m going to watch it again! I picked up a ton of great nuggets, but I’m sure I missed another ton of equally great ones. If this sounds interesting to you, consider watching the replay here.

This week I had the pleasure of attending Techstars Demo Days “in” Boston and Boulder. These events are held in cities all over the world and historically they’re hosted by each city’s local Techstars Accelerator. Accelerators are three-month programs in which entrepreneurs receive “funding, mentorship and access to the Techstars network for life.” Because of the pandemic, all spring 2020 demo days are virtual (I’m not sure if virtual attendance used to be an option). I jumped at the chance to learn about new companies and ideas in various places.

Techstars accelerators give entrepreneurs access to a lot of really smart people—including past and present entrepreneurs in the Techstars network—who can help them fast-track their progress and otherwise support them. Demo days are a great way for entrepreneurs to get introduced to customers and potential investors.

Techstars has seven additional demo days scheduled in May and June. You can register for upcoming events and review past ones (including viewing pitches) here. If you’re interested in hearing about new problems and solutions, consider taking a look.