What I learned from Big Omaha: Change Yourself, and Change the World

Just Get Going

When I sat down to write my takeaways from the Big Omaha conference I attended this week, I struggled with finding a focus. And then I realized that the two key things that I learned from the speakers and from my fellow attendees made it easy. First – as Shervin Pishevar put it in his inspiring talk, always ask for what you want, because you can “go from 100% no to the potential of 100% yes.” And second, just get going – because as many of the talks showed, you don’t have to know everything you’re going to know until you do it. (And even then, you don’t have to figure it all out.)

Always Ask

So, my ask for you is that if you want to know more about my thoughts for any of these talks, go ahead and ask me on Twitter or in email – I’d love to share more than what I can write here in a few words. And second, here goes 😉 The speakers were amazing and I’d like to point out a few that were particularly inspiring to me.

Ben Huh presented a rousing beginning to the conference by reminding all of us how absurd it seems to ask a VC (or anyone): “I would like to start a media company by buying a cat picture web site.” Ben – the CEO of Cheezburger Networks – shared a vision for entrepreneurship based on a simple, but audacious goal: ask people to be happier for 5 minutes a day. The fact that it might happen due to silly pictures of cats is beside the point. There are academics and writers who have written a lot about this idea as it relates to GDP and improvement of economies on a large scale by measuring happiness, and I’m glad Ben is doing his part.

Shervin Pishevar was another standout speaker for me. His message to surround yourself with value creators and that “life should be about the collection of experiences, not materials” might seem out of line with the goals of a successful businessperson and venture capitalist. But if you view the role of entrepreneurs to innovate and fundamentally change society, then money and success are the means to a larger end: giving value and giving back. Shervin’s new project, “One Percent of Nothing,” is a drive to encourage people starting businesses to contribute one percent of their earnings to charity while those businesses are nascent, which can build tremendous wealth for charity and society as those businesses grow. (And made me think I’d love to participate for my next business.)

Finally, Bo Fishback‘s story of how Zaarly came to be was the most raw and the most promising and scary at the same time. Bo’s nine weeks into founding a company for which he and his co-founders left their jobs on the expectation that they might be participating in one of the greatest flops or the greatest success stories of all entrepreneurial time – and they don’t know yet. Bo was candid about all of the careful rules he’s learned while at the Kaufman Foundation and how in his new business, they’re currently ignoring them – because it’s all moving just too fast. This doesn’t mean his past experience went to waste – it means he’s learning in real time how to make the best decisions he can with the best information he has at the time.

Change Yourself, then Change the World

If you ever want to take two ideas away from Big Omaha about being an enterpreneur – and really, being an innovative person – you should first change yourself, then change the world.

Here are six ways you can change yourself:

• Start Something. It doesn’t matter whether it’s big or small
• Lose Fear or Just Fight It. None of the successful people I met have forgotten how to fear – they just got comfortable with having it around all of the time.
• Fail Fast. Once you start something, it’s a lot easier to find out whether or not it’s going to catch on.
• Get UP. When you fail (because you will sometimes), measure yourself by how you get up.
• Give Back. There are many ways to give back to your friends, your family, and your community. Pick one and do it.
• Be Generous. Whether it seems like nothing or something to you, it means something to someone else. Connect and give.

And here are three big ways you can change the world:

1. Find Inefficiencies and Natural Monopolies. They are out there, and many times no one has suggested something better.
2. Disrupt inefficiency with simplicity and service. Simpler (to the user) is better.
3. Know your data. Measure based on fulfilling needs, then wants.

And if you want someone to know about what you’re doing, start (a little) controversy – thanks @Pud, and by the way – it’s not easy. So make sure you have fun. (And p.s. thank you Shane Mac for demanding that I attend, and to Jeff Slobotski, Dusty Davidson, and the rest of the Silicon Prairie News crew for putting on a fantastic conference.)