• Problem-solving skills are for life

• Oftentimes startups get started because they have a hunch

• Entrepreneurship is a different kind of discovery

In 1980, Miami was basically an ungovernable failed state filled with violence, corruption, and chaos. It earned the title, “murder capital of the world”. What forces led to the cocaine tragedy of the city? How did the The Mutiny Hotel become the center of this crazy time? How did the Miami of today come about? On this episode, author of the epic book, Hotel Scarface: Where Cocaine Cowboys Partied and Plotted to Control Miami, Roben Farzad talks about the very real world of Miami that inspired Scarface, the players there, and the factors that made it happen.

3 Things We Learned

The connection between Miami and Cuba

In 1980, the city of Miami took in hundreds of thousands of Cuban immigrants in a matter of months. Castro had made sure that the people leaving also included criminals who flooded Miami and worked during the cocaine explosion.

Many different cross currents had to happen for the cocaine tragedy to take place

Part of the reason Miami became a cocaine capital was the fact that the authorities looked the other way. It was a running joke in the 1980s that a cocaine smuggler who was caught could easily say they were working for the CIA selling cocaine for tactical reasons.

Podcasting can allow us to tell really great stories

Podcasting can be leveraged as a powerful free-range medium that can help us tell the greatest stories without the constraints of time or formats like movies. This means that anyone with a voice and a story has the opportunity to connect with an audience.

Scarface is one of the most iconic films of all time, but the happenings of 1980s Miami are far from fictional. The Mutiny Hotel was the epicenter of an era of drugs, insane wealth and violence, and a lot of it was caused by political and international forces that threw the city into a tailspin. It was so bad that people used to say Miami was a great place to visit because it was just next to America. The story of Roben’s book paints a powerful picture, and it’s an epic must-read that cannot be missed.

Guest Bio

Roben Farzad is the author of Hotel Scarface: Where Cocaine Cowboys Partied and Plotted to Control Miami. His family immigrated to the United States from Iran after he was born, and he grew up in Miami during those dark years. Go to hotelscarface.com to find out more.

Life itself is a daunting journey but how does someone power-walk through it all without losing the core of one’s identity? How does someone rise from the rubble that a deeply-set sense of inadequacy brings? In today’s episode, Rock Thomas walks us through the trail of self-discovery and the race that he chose to quit in order to become not just another pebble by the road.

“Do we need to achieve to be happy or can we happily achieve?” - Rock Thomas

Three Things We Learned

• Changing your self-perception is key to personal growth

Humans are no enlightened buddhas who have gone past comparing themselves with everyone around them. In fact, humans are conditioned to look good, or at the very least, to not look bad. But developing a better relationship with oneself, practicing internal conversations that speak of appreciation for what we have, and not fixating on what makes us less stellar in the eyes of others who seek the same validation, will keep us going for the long haul.

• A proper filing system breeds action

People need to have two filing cabinets to keep record of where they’re good at and where they fail. But ninety percent of the time, humans file what they do as pain, and this results in fear that leads to inaction. People must learn how to reward themselves for trying and to tally failures as learning experiences that will help them see their life options.

• To happily achieve is always the better goal

People often make the mistake of thinking that achieving will make them happy. This is often not the case to achieve true personal and professional growth. Gratitude for the moment and the journey, even when the finish line is a distant and uncertain prospect, is something we can all take as the right way to happily achieve whatever success is bound our way.

We make what we become of ourselves. Other people will always have something to say and life is a mystery that we will spend every day solving. But following the trail with your self-made identity can never go wrong, and at the end of the day how you see yourself is what matters.

BIO

From humble beginnings that started on a farm just off the Island of Montréal, Rock Thomas rose to the top to become a self-made millionaire. He then quickly realized that financial success is just a part of something bigger. Thus, he embarked on a quest for knowledge, from the best teachers on Earth. For years, Rock traveled the world to study with Deepak Chopra, Anthony Robbins, Jack Canfield, Robert Kyiosaki and more.

With over 34 business streams of revenue Rock’s mission is to teach others how to become financially free and live an epic life on their terms.

From humble beginnings that started on a farm just off the Island of Montréal, Rock Thomas rose to the top to become a self-made millionaire. He then quickly realized that financial success is just a part of something bigger. Thus, he embarked on a quest for knowledge, from the best teachers on Earth. For years, Rock traveled the world to study with Deepak Chopra, Anthony Robbins, Jack Canfield, Robert Kyiosaki and more.

With over 34 business streams of revenue Rock’s mission is to teach others how to become financially free and live an epic life on their terms.

Rock Thomas

How do you do business right enough times to be dubbed as a successful serial entrepreneur? How do you turn from entrepreneur to venture capitalist? Today we learn from Duncan Davidson the many prolific ways of becoming the multibillion-dollar rockstar that can turn around even the most reluctant in technological ventures by going a little off the tracks and riding against the current.

“All these things have to have a boom and they have to overcome people’s normal skepticism and resistance.” - Duncan Davidson

Three Things We Learned

• All great technologies commit in a bubble

Throughout history, technologies trundled in as bubbles that overcame the normal resistance that most new ventures hit and have to climb over in order to gain traction. Change can often chase away people as they are loath to come out of their comfort zones. An effort to entice them into taking a shot at new technologies should have a force overwhelming enough to burst through the many qualms people tend to have upon the introduction of a concept that is alien and therefore seemingly unappealing, a first step towards hitting that initial adoption mark.

• Humans are pack animals

Humans tend to stick to groups and adopt the thinking shared by the group. As the great philosopher Aristotle once said, humans are social animals. By capitalizing on this knack of people to seek ways in order to belong to a circle and grow that circle, technological ventures can create that necessary boom that will not only truck along innovations but also take them off the ground.

• Contrarium done right snatches the coveted category crown

Being right in what you invest in is part of the process. But going against the herd of humans is one proven way to create a stir in your technological endeavors. This contrarium, when done right, will produce ripples that can gain you the attention needed to become the next category king.

Technology is the future, and the business of it can be trifling because of the fast turnover of new ideas and concepts that may put off consumers. Causing enough stir to make the cut will entail not only your success but also a future that is awesome and definitely bright for the people. In order to get started, however, one must understand and commit to the many dynamic forces that drive the technological bubble, including going against the herd.

BIO

Duncan Davidson is a serial entrepreneur, founder of Covad Communications, and co-founder of SkyPilot Networks and Bullpen Capital. He was very involved in two bubble-era IPOs and spent a few years as manager at VantagePoint Capital Partners. Duncan is now focused on investment in SaaS, blockchain, and internet of things (IOT).

He has an undergraduate degree in physics and math from Brown University and is a magna cum laude in JD from Michigan Law School. His life has taken him from incredible entrepreneur to incredible venture capitalist.

Connect with Duncan on LinkedIn

Who are impact venture capitalists and how does this create a new category in the venture capital industry? In this episode, Nancy Pfund, in the parlance of our times, is a legit pioneer of this new category of venture capitalist in Silicon Valley and beyond.

“We invest to drive social, economic and environmental progress in the regions and sectors in which we invest” – Nancy Pfund

3 Things We Learned

1. Elon Musk a superhero? 
   He is a very hardworking super intelligent, idealistic in his own way
   he is the kind person that can inspire people to drop what they're doing and help save the world.

Nancy E. Pfund is Founder and Man­ag­ing Part­ner of DBL Part­ners, a ven­ture cap­i­tal firm whose goal is to com­bine top-​​tier finan­cial returns with mean­ing­ful social, envi­ron­men­tal and eco­nomic returns in the regions and sec­tors in which it invests. Nancy is also the Founder of DBL Investors. As a lead­ing player in the grow­ing field of impact invest­ing, DBLhas helped to reveal the power of ven­ture cap­i­tal to pro­mote social change and envi­ron­men­tal improve­ment, and Ms. Pfund writes and speaks fre­quently of impact investing.

Ms. Pfund is the author, along with Ben­jamin Healey of the widely cited report on the his­tory of U.S. energy sub­si­dies enti­tled, “What Would Jef­fer­son Do? The His­tor­i­cal Role of Fed­eral Sub­si­dies in Shap­ing America’s Energy Future”, co-​​authored with Michael Lazar, “Red, White & Green: The True Col­ors of America’s Clean Tech Jobs”, co-​​authored with Noah Walker, “Ask Saint Onofrio: Find­ing What Has Been Lost in A Tale of Two Energy Sources”, co-​​authored with Anand Chhabra, “Renew­ables Are Dri­ving Up Elec­tric­ity Prices: Wait, What?”, and co-​​authored with Kristofer Holz, “The 2017 Inau­gu­ra­tion: Empow­er­ing a Clean Energy Nation”.

Ms. Pfund received her BA and MA in anthro­pol­ogy from Stan­ford Uni­ver­sity, and her MBAfrom the Yale School of Management.

Fol­low Nancy on Twit­ter @NancyPfundDBL.

• Worldliness must be sought in order to grow

• Gratitude must be maintained regardless of our level of success

• Overcoming the challenge of practicing what you preach is a given

A lot of people use the word brand incorrectly without really thinking about what it means. What is strategic identity and how does it allow us to ask the right questions about brands? How do you define a problem and go about solving it? How do we embrace the chaos in our lives? On this episode, the grand dame of design thinking, branding and naming, Karin Hibma talks about creativity, career, and innovation.

I want deep relationships and transformative things that are going to change the world. - Karin Hibma

3 Things We Learned

- There’s a difference between strategic identity and branding

The word “brand” is a label that gets attached to many things, even when it hasn’t been thought out. Too many people invest in brand energy without really knowing who they are and who they want to be.

- Uncertainty breeds creativity

A time of uncertainty is a creative time. If you can accept it and embrace it rather than fight it, so much more value of fruitfulness and happiness will come out of that. If you are able to embrace chaos in that uncertainty there will be more opportunities than when you resist it.

- We’re in a very special time in innovation and design thinking

We are at a nexus point of a lot of technology and innovation like AI and VR. This means when we look back to the era we’re in right now, this age is going to be unrecognizable. We’re not even close to using all the innovation capacity that’s out there. Exciting times are ahead.

For individuals and companies, a lot of the greatest opportunities, moments, innovations and creations come out of the greatest times of uncertainty. Sometimes we make the mistake of trying to ignore and fight through the unknown by looking for a quick solution. If you are able to embrace chaos and be comfortable in that uncertainty, the universe will give you surprising answers.  

Guest Bio

Featured in the Harvard Business Review and honored with Fast Company's “100 Most Creative People in Business” award, Karin Hibma is a design, naming and identity legend. She works to see the world through the eyes of customers, using cognitive identity insights and design thinking to find the strategic “big idea” inherent in every project. An early entrepreneur, Hibma founded creative research company Design Resource. She founded Cronan Artefact – their award-winning Walking Man apparel line was sold in one of the earliest online catalogues. Co-founder and principal of : : CRONAN : :, a strategic identity design consultancy working with change-makers looking for innovative answers, from startups to Amazon Kindle, Apple, Estée Lauder / Origins, Levi Strauss & Co., SFMOMA, TiVo and the White House.

How to design your life around your passion? Dave Frey is among the luckiest men alive. He took his love for music to greater heights from playing in bands to promoting shows to managing the punk rock category king and now to being the CoOwner of the Lockn' Festival.

"If you learn from losing, then you can win." - Dave Frey

3 Things We Learned:

Music hits are typically born during the first three to five records
Songwriters improve when they don't know what they are doing. Their innocence express pure and genuine emotions and/or ideas. On the other hand, familiarity with the trade allows for lackluster pieces.

People can start in the music industry at such a young age and achieve unparalleled success.

A lot of musicians start early in life. Passion and perseverance empower them to accomplish more than the others. Joey Ramone, for example, became an active performer during his teenage years.

Creativity is possible despite the insane dysfunction
One thing peculiar about The Ramones is they communicate through third parties. They never spoke with one another. Nevertheless, it did not prevent them from being creative, from amassing a solid fanbase, and from giving life to the punk rock category.

Frey has an insatiable passion for music. Since childhood, he wanted to perform in a band. He'd practice many hours with his guitar and worked hard on the promotions.

True enough, he landed a career with promising musicians and individuals in the industry. He believes that people have a lot to prove for themselves. Mediocrity has no room in the field of passion.

Bio

Dave Frey started off small, promoting his first show out of sheer necessity after his band's equipment was stolen. “So this club owner did a benefit for us, and I went to the local radio station, gave away tickets and got the guy at the paper to write it up,” he says. “The show did really well, and the guy who booked the club decided to quit. So the owner said, ‘Hey, you did a good job. Can you book the club for a couple weeks until I find a new guy?’”

By 1985, Frey had relocated from his native Chicago to the Big Apple, where he took a job as a booking agent, working alongside two of the city’s leading promoters, Ron Delsener, who the New York Times once referred to as “Rock's Mr. In Between.”

In 1992, Frey founded Silent Partner Management, a company that’s represented acts like the Ramones, a leather-clad quartet from Queens heralded as one of the pioneers of punk rock, Cheap Trick, and Blues Traveler. He teamed up with Blues Traveler for the H.O.R.D.E. (Horizons of Rock Developing Everywhere) Festival.

It became a kind of rival to the more alternative swing of Lollapalooza, enjoying a seven-year run while attracting an eclectic array of performers ranging from Beck to Neil Young.

Then, in 2008, Frey migrated to Charlottesville, where he and partner Peter Shapiro would soon begin planning what’s likely become the largest musical gathering to hit Central Virginia, Lockn'.

http://www.locknfestival.com/

• Be prepared to deal with your make or break moments

• Market leaders usually don't look behind themselves too much

• Practice is never enough; exposure to reality is also necessary

Human beings struggle to gain insight and push through pain because we don’t give ourselves time to quiet our minds. Why is mental training and conditioning so integral to the success and resilience of athletes? How do you incorporate tools or practices to help people strengthen their minds? On this episode, Mark Allen talks about what it took to become a globally-respected, legendary athlete.

You can be conservative and not fall apart, but that’s not racing. -Mark Allen

3 Things We Learned

Athletes want to be peaceful, but powerful

“Peaceful but powerful” is the goal for an athlete. It’s all about finding a place where you’re completely at peace but can access your strength and steadiness.  

Sometimes you have to be completely different

So many times in our lives we accept the rules in a way that isn’t “frontal lobe”, and we don’t question them. However, sometimes when your competition is going in one direction, you may want to go another.

Give yourself time for a quiet mind

When you're fully engaged in something and your mind is quiet, answers can come that you would have never been able to think of on your own. When you’re daydreaming, the creative problem-solving part of your brain is at its peak. It’s important that we give our minds this opportunity to be open to recovery and new insight.

Peak performance is the same across all disciplines. It’s all about being able to sharpen the mind so you can deal with fear and doubt, and how you’ll react when things seem impossible. It takes a willingness to give everything, despite the risk of failure. Connect to a place of potential and possibility, instead of helplessness and impossibility. You have to condition your mind to a point where-- no matter what-- you’re going to take that next step. It doesn’t have to be perfect to keep going. If you can bring your mind to a place of peaceful power, all the fear and doubt with be shut out and your brain can drive you forward with full force.