Lessons from Two Years as an Entrepreneur

Agricultural Food Systems, a company three friends and I started after graduating from John Brown University, celebrated its two year anniversary of incorporation yesterday!

Last year, I shared three lessons I learned during my first year as an entrepreneur. Since last May, AFS participated in the first cohort of the ARK Challenge, began testing of the TenderID in conjunction with the USDA, and was featured in Bloomberg Businessweek and Arkansas Business (article 1 || article 2).

As I’ve continued on my entrepreneurial journey, one of my personal mantras has been “never stop learning.” If for some reason AFS doesn’t work out (which hopefully won’t happen) and I learn nothing in the process, then the whole experience has been wasted. However, if it fails and I have some valuable takeaways, then it was a worthwhile (though costly) endeavor. As Winston Churchill said, “I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught.”

That being said, here are three lessons I’ve learned in the past year:

Maximizing Your “Return on Time”

Time is the most precious resource available. It is not renewable, transferable, or savable.  The time you spend reading this blog post isn’t refundable. Following the basic economic principles of supply and demand, since time is such a limited resource, it is extremely valuable.

Just like an investor examines the return on investment for different financial options (stocks, bonds, real estate, startup companies), you and I must evaluate the “return on time” for the activities in our lives. However, there is one big difference between money and time. As one person put it, “Money, I can only gain or lose. But time I can only lose. So, I must spend it carefully.” If we are a good steward of our time, then we will invest it in the activities that we deem to have the highest potential return on time.  That’s where priorities come in. 

Social Media and the News

A New Era in Journalism

A wave has been building in the ocean of journalism over the past few years and last week it crashed upon the shores of the American media in full force. This wave has altered the way that news is broken, covered, reported, and consumed by the general public. It has also given ordinary citizens the ability to report stories as they unfold and beat the mainstream media to the punch.

This wave is social media and it has gradually been changing the field of journalism. While it has been looked to for breaking news in the past few years, the events at the Boston Marathon and especially the Watertown manhunt brought social media to the forefront. In this new era of news reporting Twitter and YouTube have become the instant news service, Reddit has become the new investigative service, and anyone with a smartphone can be a reporter.

Disciplined Disciples, Part 2

This blog post was adapted from a sermon that I gave at the Harvard Avenue Student Ministry youth group on Wednesday, January 9, 2013, as well as two talks Donald Whitney gave on Spiritual Disciplines at First Baptist Church in Fort Smith on February 8, 2013. 

Key Text: 1 Timothy 4:6-16

In Disciplined Disciples, Part 1, I made the case that all Christians have been called by Jesus to be and make disciples. If any person chooses to follow Christ, they must be ready to seek him through spiritual disciplines. In fact, we have redeemed so that we can pursue holiness. Using a story of my brother and I, I showed how holiness gives direction to our daily practice of spiritual disciplines.

What are spiritual disciplines? Spiritual disciplines are those personal and corporate activities that promote spiritual growth. In other words, spiritual disciplines are like spiritual exercises. They are ways we can place ourselves in the path of God’s grace so that, over time, He can transform us “from one degree of glory to another” (2 Corinthians 3:18). While not every spiritual discipline is practiced on a daily basis, there are two that should be done every day: Bible intake and prayer. 

Give Your Marketing Wings: Lessons in Marketing from Red Bull

Building a brand is a tough job. It requires hours of careful thought in order to consistently execute products, services, advertisements, etc that are “on brand.” Some companies go their whole lives without getting it right, others are “one hit wonders,” and a select few make it look easy.

Red Bull is one of the select companies to consistently make branding look easy. During the past few years, they have had campaigns featuring wingsuits, Rube Goldberg machines, and space jumps. In addition, the company sponsors many athletes and teams participating in both traditional and extreme sports (full list of sponsorships) as well as events such as the Red Bull Air Race and the Red Bull Flugtag. They even have their own record label. 

Disciplined Disciples

This blog post was adapted from a sermon that I gave at the Harvard Avenue Student Ministry youth group on Wednesday, January 9, 2013. It was also recently featured on The Millstone Blog.

Key Text: 1 Timothy 4:6-16

Chris and I at the 2012 Passion Conference

A Tale of Two Brothers

When I was a freshman or sophomore in high school, I decided that I wanted to learn how to play electric guitar. Being the good big brother I am, I also persuaded my little brother that he should learn to play bass so that we could start a band at some point in the future. He wasn’t terribly excited about the idea at first, but we both ended up asking Santa for our respective instruments that Christmas. 

The Entrepreneurial Race Part 2: Picking a Pit Crew

This is the second post in the “Entrepreneurial Race” series. Click here to read Part 1: Getting to the Track.

Every entrepreneur or aspiring entrepreneur should watch the movie Cars. Not only is it a fun film, it also has a lot of great lessons for founders. In the last post, I discussed different ways to fund a startup and get it from the garage to the race track (several of which Lightning McQueen tried during his trip to the Piston Cup tie-breaker race). This post will focus on another essential part of any business: the mentors, advisors, and directors. These individuals serve as the pit crew for the race car that is your business.