2020 Thanksgiving Thankful For Edition 1. Optimists. Cycles happen and that's when the tough get going. It's also when the paralyzed, the pessimists and the naysayers get loud. I'm thankful for those who don't accept what's "supposed to be." I've learned they will lift your career to the highest highs. There aren't many of them as it's always easier to be a pessimist. Pessimism isn't fun, even when you win. 2. The resilient. We work in live events. And here we are, still standing on Thanksgiving. I'm thankful for our team and investors. When we went through our hiring and capital raise processes, we had mentors who demanded discipline which seemed overdone- even moving us away from some flashy VCs and hires. Character matters and is too often overlooked for price 3. Patience. Cycles, in the moment, feel like forever. In the grand scheme of things, they're not. Ten months without pay in 2004 felt like a lifetime. 14 months in 2008/09 broke me. I shouldn't have let it. This is a long cycle, but in the course of a 45 year career, it's a blip. I learned to play the long game years ago. I hope you do too. Ignore all those out there looking for a quick Covid buck. Play the long game.

Three random things I learned/heard this week in saas, sports, tech, and live events: 1) "Don't hire other company's bad habits." Erika Nardini of Barstool caused a stir when putting an SDR on blast for a poorly written solicitation email*. Where you learn your craft matters. It is not the SDR's fault her company is teaching crappy habits. But it is hurting her development and stalling her ability to grow her career. Worse, the experience SDRs gain is what they 'sell' to their next employer. Make it worthwhile 

2) In 2001, I got my first job in July. 9/11 hit sixty days in. In 2004, My pay got cut 75% for ten months due to the hockey lockout. In 2008, we were only one year into our new co. when it all fell down and our investor jumped ship. We didn't make any money personally for 14 months. In 2020, well we all know that story. And our generation has had it easiest of all. Find the resilient - especially now 

3) "Hearts and minds. You can buy a person's hands. You can buy a person's back. But hearts and minds are only given voluntarily." With all the layoffs, furloughs and pay cuts, this saying has never been more important. The live events industry is gonna see who was buying culture awards and who was actually winning em when the lights come back on.

Three Random Things I Learned In SaaS, Sports, Tech & Live Events for the week of October 15th, 2020. The three things is a collection of weekly ideas, notes and experiences we have while building businesses in enterprise software as a service, the sports industry, technology, and live events. Real advice from real entrepreneurs we hope can help others along the way. 

1. SPACs and sports 

2. The Spin Zone 

3. Authenticity, Hypocrisy and Culture

1. Time is all that matters to great salespeople. They don't "have to make 500 calls," they know they only "have" ~500 calls before time expires. They don't even look at activity stats. Once they see the world through the time lense, they prioritize what closes deals. They don't waste time on people who can't say yes. They get to No quickly. They ruthlessly eliminate busywork. Like Bill Walsh says - "The score will take care of itself" 

2. Why use destruction when distraction works better. "If I were Satan, I wouldn't destroy the church with big bombs. I would distract them with the two to three things they disagree on so they didn't pay attention to the hundreds they do agree on. Little bombs over and over. Then, they'll destroy themselves." Yikes. We've seen dynasty's crumble over the little bombs. Teams, countries and businesses. Covid is hurting us all so badly but we have to keep our attention on the little bombs. 

3. Find someone close to you who cares about you enough to tell you No. We're so blessed as entrepreneurs to have done this for so long. As such, we get contacted about ideas- many of which won't work. It's so hard to say no for two reasons: 1) it hurts feelings and 2) even if you're right, many will dislike you for it.