I recently had the opportunity to attend the 4th annual Big Omaha conference in Omaha, NE, produced by the awesome folks at Silicon Prairie News. If you’re not familiar with Big Omaha, you can read why I love this entrepreneurship conference so much here and here (this was my third time attending).

One of the speakers at this year’s conference was Jim McKelvey, who is the co-founder of Square.  Let me start by saying Jim is an amazing speaker.  He’s a down to earth guy (hails from St. Louis) who has started half a dozen companies and used to be glass-blower.  He’s also a pilot (and flew his own plane to Big Omaha!).

There were 3 main ideas that really stuck with me from Jim’s presentation, and that’s probably because I completely agree with each of them myself.

1. Permission is unnecessary.

What’s stopping you from doing what you would like to do?  I’m not talking about quitting your job and pursuing your dreams 100%.  That’s realistic for some people and not for others.

I’m talking about the simple things.  Do you want to learn how to play guitar?  Do you want to learn how to program in Ruby on Rails?  Do you want to sell your homemade scarfs to people?

You no longer need to ask anybody permission to do any of that.  The tools that exist today thanks to the Internet allow you to get started by yourself and to learn as you go along, at your own pace.  You don’t need to ask before doing.

2. If you focus on a problem, you can solve it.  And if you can solve it for one, you can solve it for millions.

I love Jim’s thinking here.  It’s simple, it’s cliche, but it’s really, really true.  Jim did this with Square.

Jim talked about how he noticed a very talented artist who was living in his beat up car and wondered why.  He was a talented artist who could be getting paid well for his work.  Why wasn’t he?  Jim realized the artist had no access to the systems that paid him.

As he built Square, Jim always kept this one artist in mind and thought about how he was solving this one artist’s problem.

3. Try building something

I’m a huge proponent of just do it.  It’s how I’ve learned most of my technology skills.  Jim suggests that getting out there and trying to build is one of the best ways to get started.

You don’t have to quit your job.  See if your employer has time set aside for personal learning.  Join a hackathon and start tinkering.

Just try building something.

You can watch Jim’s full Big Omaha 2012 presentation here.

Get to Know Others

“I networked like crazy, went to events constantly, and got my name out there. As a result, in a few years, people started saying, “You know everyone!” I always connected interesting people together too. So whenever I’ve needed an important contact, I’ve always had people bend over backwards to help me out! To this day, I’m still blown away by the people I meet and things I get to do.”
- Jennifer Kushell | Founder & President, Young & Successful Media

Always Get Back to People

“Always get back to someone, whether it was through the phone or email. When I first started out, I always told myself that I would answer every email and phone call, even if it was just a quick reply back. If someone took the time to contact you, the least you can do is acknowledge them. If you don’t, you may just miss out on some golden opportunities and networking contacts.”
- Ashley Bodi | co-founder, Business Beware

Promote Others

“The best career move I’ve made is to focus the attention and promote other people, instead of just myself. By supporting other people, they are more inclined to help you. Too many people are selfish with networking, yet if you give, you end up getting a lot in return.”
- Dan Schawbel | Founder, Millennial Branding

Help a Promising Startup for Free

“When you are first starting out as an entrepreneur, one of your first challenges is to separate yourself from the pack and legitimize yourself. One great way to do so (that not many think of) is to offer your skills to an up-and-coming startup for free! Through this approach, you will learn from established entrepreneurs while attaching your name to a startup with promise.”
- Brenton Gieser | Co-Founder , JoynIn

Pick Up a Few New Skills

“Photoshop, iMovie, and basic HTML, oh my! A little knowledge goes a long way. I picked up the basics on all three of these using Lynda.com and just playing around with the applications. Knowing just a little bit of all three has saved me in thousands of dollars upon startup.”
- Benjamin Leis | Founder, Sweat EquiTees

Build Credentials Early

“From the beginning of my career, I have seized every opportunity to build impressive credentials. I’ve done speaking events for free, nominated myself for awards, submitted my work to the press, and earned professional certificates. Pursue every opportunity at your disposal to build your resume. Ten years from now, you’ll be glad you did!”
- Robert Sofia | Co-Founder & COO, Platinum Advisor Marketing Strategies, LLC

Learn From Your Mistakes and Failures

“Failure has helped me become the business man I am today. In the restaurant industry, there’s so many more downs than ups, due to small and big failures in my systems and industry. But the lessons learned from these failures has given me the thick skin and the knowledge I needed to become successful.”
- Michael Sinensky | Owner, Village Pourhouse

Take a Job in Phone Sales!

“If you can learn to sell someone on the phone from a cold call you are on the right path to success in business. In everything we do, it involves some form of a sale. Learning the skills to create a relationship out of thin air and get someone to trust you and spend their money was an amazing. Sales always came natural to me, however, it is asking for the sale that is the hardest part. Now I can!”
- David Schnurman | CEO, Lawline

Get Comfortable Presenting

“When I was in college, a buddy and I taught a ten-week course on presentation skills in a business environment. It taught me early on to be comfortable speaking in front of crowds, large and small. It’s a powerful skill that still benefits me today.”
- Andy Drish | Founder, Referral Squirrel

Become Self-Taught

“I’m a huge advocate of voracious reading, and taking massive action to learn new things. For me, that meant teaching myself all things web-related (in my early teens) and then continuing to learn as new technologies, marketing strategies, and concepts came out.”
- Nathalie Lussier | Founder, CEO, Nathalie Lussier Media

Travel, Travel, Travel

“It’s cliche but true: travel opens your eyes to the world around you. I left on my trip with little more than wanderlust, but returned with a greater understanding of humanity, personal connection, storytelling and more. The experiences I’ve had in foreign countries both inspires and informs all of the work I do.”
- Alex Budak | Co-Founder, StartSomeGood

Set Goals and Hustle

“Early in my career, I would make time to set goals on my own. I found that gave me shorter term hurdles to strive towards. Overall, there is nothing that can match hustle. Work hard, learn a lot and you’ll be set up for success.”
- Anderson Schoenrock | CEO, ScanDigital

Work Remotely

“If I hadn’t decided early on that my company did not need a physical office space, we would probably still be working toward profitability. You’d be surprised how much capital you save every month getting rid of the expenses that are absolutely unnecessary. Besides, I’d confidently argue that working remotely often makes a team more productive.”
- Logan Lenz | Founder / President, Endagon

Secure a Proven Mentor

“There is no better advice I can give you (regardless of your niche) than to seek out and lock down a proven mentor. This will accelerate your path to success. It will save you years, tears and dollar bills.”
- Josh Shipp | TV Host & Bestselling Author, JoshShipp.com

Figured Out “Why” First

“Figure out “why” you’re doing something, rather than just how and what to do. When you have intrinsic motivators pushing you forward, the how and what become more defined and an integral part of the way you run your business. When you know the why — why you are solving this problem, why you started this business etc. — it becomes clearer where you want want your business/venture to go.”
- Aj Thomas | Founder & Executive Director, Infuse Entrepreneurship Foundation

I Decided to Rebel

“My first entrepreneurial thought was that I knew a better way to do things, and I should act on that. This thought isn’t always true, of course, but I took enough risks and made enough decisions based not going with the flow and trusting myself over someone else’s opinion that I was able to establish myself quickly in several congested fields.”
- Colin Wright | CEO, Exile Lifestyle

Confirm That Your Client Exists

“I was working full-time in book publishing, but knew I wanted to start my own business providing editorial services to various clients. But was the need there? I secured several regular clients before making the leap. Having them let me know that I was on the right track, and also got me through the slow startup at the beginning.”
- Steph Auteri | career coach, writer, and editor, Word Nerd Pro

Formed Strategic Alliances

“The best thing I did at the beginning of my career was to form strategic alliances with people who had been in the business world longer then I had. These relationships are invaluable to me. As a solopreneur, you often find yourself learning everything on the spot. Having these relationships has helped me to foster mentorship relationships with these partners, which always helps me learn.”
- Kris Ruby | President, Ruby Media Group

Investing in SEO Upfront

“One of the biggest investments we made in the beginning with our business and our own personal profiles has been investing heavily in SEO so we get ranked within the top ten results for highly targeted keywords. I never thought I could do it, but if you search the fairly generic terms, “Blank Label” or “Danny Wong,” we’re right up there!”
- Danny Wong | Co-Founder, Blank Label Group, Inc.

Took My Time

“Most people start out with a goal thinking that it would be nice if they could reach it. They think that it might happen, or it could happen. These are more often, the people that fail. The people that succeed, however, know that it will happen. To them, it’s just a matter of time. They don’t need resources, they’re resourceful. They create their own luck. Remember that from the beginning.”
- Jonathan Mead | Chief Troublemaker, Illuminated Mind

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only nonprofit organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. The YEC recently published #FixYoungAmerica: How to Rebuild Our Economy and Put Young Americans Back to Work (for Good), a book of 30+ proven solutions to help end youth unemployment.

In the back, there is a transparent room where the actual business happens: customers sign up for accounts. See, the “baristas” double as bankers, and try to sell you on ING savings and checking accounts while you order your latte. It’s all very laid back and cool. ING has 75 locations of this cafe concept across the US, and the primary purpose is brand building.

The obvious question here is ROI. Does this concept convert?

Nestled next to a college, I can say I’ve seen students convert with the promise of $100 for coffee. I’ve also seen almost every person ahead of me in line nod politely and decline while hearing the baristas try sell accounts. As one data point, I can say that exposure to this brand and the cool coffeeshop converted me: I caved and got a savings account about one year after becoming a regular customer at the cafe.

The concept of thinking about spaces to build brands is building steam: companies see the success Apple has experienced branding their stores as places to come hang out, play with their products, and have free internet. Attention to design and user experience in these stores is paramount, as is the consistent emphasis of having friendly customer service folks on hand to shoot the shit…or talk about products.

Recently, State Farm ventured in community brand building by opening a coffeeshop/hang out/event space  called Next Door on Clark and Diversey. State Farm’s logo is seen almost everywhere, but it’s definitely not egregious, and the spot has grown in popularity as being a neighborhood staple since its opening. State Farm is clearly trying to label itself as the “cool” brand for the younger generation with efforts such as this (and sponsoring OK Go videos) in addition to their regular advertising aimed at an older demographic.

So back to ROI. Here are three ways this concept (cool, community focused) is boosting ROI for brands better known for stodgier folk (insurance? banks? come on.):

1) Mere exposure effect- 

The mere-exposure effect is a psychological phenomenon by which people tend to develop a preference for things merely because they are familiar with them.

In essence, we may pick State Farm insurance not because they are the best insurance agency for our needs, but because we have coffee and inadvertently stare at their logo twice a week. I fell prey to this phenomenon when it was time to choose a savings account: ING, in addition to having the best rate, was also the first bank I thought of because I hang out at their cafe a great deal.

2) Social Benefits- As branding themselves as welcome and helpful to the communities they serve, these brands are establishing a foothold as companies who care. Though others may have outreach programs, these do no get the visibility that a popular, physical location has. Not only is State Farm using the outlet to build its brand, but it’s positioned as a community space first and foremost therefore giving State Farm a sense of moral hierarchy over other brands.

3) Targeting a hard to reach audience- It’s getting harder and harder to mass advertise. Fewer and fewer people watch television, and social media ads tend to foster opting in (for example, “liking” a bran on Facebook or “following” them on Twitter). This means that you choose to be exposed to the brand’s messaging instead of being blasted unwillingly. How do more “boring” products like insurance compete in an opt-in platform? This is where positioning its brand as a cool community resource comes in. State Farm can get all of the people to opt into community messaging, while forwarding their agenda along the way.

And yes, in case you’re wondering, I am sitting at ING Direct writing this right now.

For example, there is a great TED talk on why some videos go viral (and why most don’t), done by the trend master at YouTube. One of the key factors in most viral videos is “unexpectedness.” Why do we love to see kittens and puppies so much? Most of the time they do things that are completely out of the blue…like acting human, crashing, or cuddling with other animals. Take almost any viral video on YouTube and apply the framework of something unexpected happening, and you’ll be surprised how often this concept applies.

The same can be said for successful companies. Everyone’s favorite example if Zappos for customer service. However, they were merely creating unexpected joy for their customers. Free overnight shipping if you ask for it? Unexpected. Asking their customer service reps to order you a pizza? Definitely unexpected.

How about more modern concepts like Square or TaskRabbit. Square creates joy by making something crazy complicated a joy to use with its hyper focus on user experience. TaskRabbit makes it easier for everyone to streamline errands affordably, creating joy by saving time and money. Subscription box type businesses (like BirchBox, BabbaCo, and GoodKarma) thrive on this idea by having people pay money ahead of time for things they don’t even choose to purchase! The whole novelty is having a delightful surprise at your door every month, be it makeup, kids activities, or baby clothes.

Is your startup creating joy? Even at Entrepreneurs Unpluggd, our events do this by being completely informal and friendly…usually people expect speaking events to be stuffy and corporate, but ours are held at intimate theaters with a casual air in order to accomplish that unexpected joy.

Think about ways you can incorporate this concept into your startup, whether it’s through marketing, customer service, or product design. If you are not creating unexpected joy, chances are your competition is.

Last week, I had the opportunity to attend the 4th annual Big Omaha conference in Omaha, NE, organized by the awesome folks at Silicon Prairie News. If you’re not familiar with Big Omaha, you can read why I love this entrepreneurship conference so much here and here (this was my third time attending).

In addition to an amazing group of entrepreneurs attending the conference, this year’s festivities included a fantastic group of speakers. Below are the 7 big lessons I took away from this year’s Big Omaha conference.

1. Determine your why.

from Sahil Lavingia (founder of Gumroad)
Sahil spoke a lot in his presentation about determining why you do what you do.  Ask yourself, why am I doing this?  Sahil determined he was trying to scale himself, to try to increase the amount of impact he had on the world.

2. Permission is unnecessary.

from Jim Mckelvey (co-founder of Square)

Jim spoke about how today, permission to create is unnecessary.  He’s made a great living off glassblowing and talked about how glassblowers used to have to use giant furnaces that took a large amount of time and effort to work with.  That is, until the Toledo furnace came around and enabled glassblowers to work at home, without needing the giant furnaces.

3. Start playing.

from Brian Wong (founder of Kiip)
Brian talked about not being afraid to just create, and stop worrying about getting it done perfectly the first time around.  You’ll improve over time, but the first step towards doing anything worthwhile is to simply start doing it.

4. Push intelligence and decision making out to your community.

from Charles Best (founder of DonorsChoose.org)
When the devastating tornado hit Joplin, MO in May, 2011, a woman flew down to Joplin and went door to door to spread the word about DonorsChoose.org.  She asked teachers to post projects for supplies they needed to rebuild Joplin’s schools and she asked people to donate money to fund those projects.

This woman was a teacher on DonorsChoose.org, a website that lets teachers post projects for their classes and need, and lets anybody in the world donate money to help fund those projects.  Charles didn’t ask her to fly down to Joplin – she did it on her own.  Charles explained this was because he tried to push the intelligence of his creation and the decision making power out to his community.

5. Fall in love with the problem, not the solution.

from Sarah Prevette (founder of Sprouter)
When Sarah Prevette first founded Sprouter, it was a mobile app that tried to be Twitter but only for entrepreneurs.  She thought the solution was amazing, but it didn’t work out.  She pivoted to a Q+A site for entrepreneurs and was on the verge of shutting down the company before it was saved and sold.

Sarah talked about the importance of falling in love with the problem and truly understanding that problem, rather than focusing on the solution.

6. Fix your personal problems in tandem with your company – not after your company.

from Mena Grabowski Trott (co-founder of Six Apart)
Mena’s presentation was a bit heart-breaking.  She separated from her husband (and Six Apart co-founder) about 6 months ago, and officially divorced about a week before the Big Omaha 2012 conference.

A big lesson I took away from her fantastic presentation was that your personal problems need to be addressed in tandem with your company.  Don’t think it’s ok to wait until after your company is sold or done before finally addressing any problems in your personal life.

We’re excited to announce that early bird tickets are now on sale for our June Chicago event entitled “Make Your Passion Your Next Startup“.  Join us the evening of June 19 at the Chopin Theatre in Chicago to hear 3 amazing entrepreneurs share stories about how they turned their passions into real businesses.

Click here to buy your early bird tickets now and save 33% off the door price!

Join us for an intimate evening of networking, quality Q+A, and real stories from real experiences.  You’ll learn actionable lessons and get great advice from:

• Jake Nickell - Co-Founder of Threadless
• Desiree Vargas Wrigley - Co-Founder of GiveForward
• Joshua Hernandez - Founder of Tap.me!

Click here to buy your early bird tickets now and save 33% off the door price!

This is a guest post from Abbie Steinbacher, who is CEO and founder of the kids wellness company, My First Yoga. My First Yoga provides kids yoga outreach to schools and has a growing line of kids yoga products. Abbie and MyFirstYoga have been recognized in outlets such as The New York Times, BusinessWeek, Parenting Magazine, Parents Magazine, Yoga Journal and The Boston Globe. Abbie has a degree in Psychology from Harvard, and is a certified adult and children’s yoga instructor.

The opposing forces of the economy tanking and technological advances soaring have created a prime environment for first-time entrepreneurs. That said, “entrepreneur” has become a buzz word associated with the few startup founders we’ve watched become millionaires, and even billionaires, overnight. As the media catapults these successful entrepreneurs to celebrity status, the separation between “us” aspiring entrepreneurs and “them” — the Mark Zuckerbergs of the world — grows. This growing separation can cloud your entrepreneurial pathway with unnecessary mystery.

From my experience as founder of the kids’ yoga company, My First Yoga, I have found that as different as each startup may be, the path to success always involves making smart decisions. For those of you toying with the idea of becoming an entrepreneur, here are three common mistakes to avoid:

1. Hiring too many, too soon.

For most startups, hiring employees before there is an absolute need can lead to disaster. Yes, delegation is an important part of being a leader, but before jumping into delegating, I encourage you to allow time for the startup dust to settle. Running lean early on requires you, as a founder, to wear many hats.

While this may seem overwhelming, look at it this way: in addition to saving funds, you are spending valuable time becoming intimately familiar with the ins and outs of your business. Wait to hire until there is an absolute need; this will give you the hands-on experience necessary to build true domain expertise and therefore, the know-how to make important, informed decisions down the line.

2. Starting with an unidentified target market.

While we would all like to build a product that suits everybody’s needs, doing so is next to impossible. It is crucial to identify your startup’s target market early on in the planning stages. Who will your customers be? If you put off determining your target market until after your launch, you risk being pulled in opposing directions by a wide range consumers groups who only like your product a little bit.

To avoid this, spend time thinking about specifically who your product is built for — remembering to think beyond your own demographic. What gender? Age group? Profession? This thought process will help to focus your launch more narrowly on a group of consumers who you believe will be most enthusiastic about your product, and hopefully be willing to give you constructive feedback. Your true target market can only be dialed in overtime, but it helps to start somewhere.

3. People-pleasing.

It is also important to have a firm understanding of your overall vision for your startup. You will receive invaluable feedback from consumers about what they like, what they dislike, and even suggestions for ways you can change and grow. Making changes to meet customer’s needs are crucial, but it is important to set a precedent for evaluating each change against your long-term vision.

Will this change bring you closer to your end goal? Or will it drive temporary sales and lead you in the wrong direction? It can be tempting to make changes to ring in immediate sales, especially when budgets are tight, but I encourage you to evaluate the long-term impact.

Abbie is a member of The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), which is an invite-only nonprofit organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. The YEC recently published #FixYoungAmerica: How to Rebuild Our Economy and Put Young Americans Back to Work (for Good), a book of 30+ proven solutions to help end youth unemployment.

A few weeks ago, I watched a TED talk that won’t escape my mind. It was about embracing vulnerability, something seemingly simple, but actually extraordinarily difficult. See people have a hard time dealing with emotion and expectations. They are much more likely to put something they can’t deal with in an emotional jar rather than confronting it. For example, people thrive on connection. Yet they are afraid to make connections (like go out and join a club) because they are afraid of rejection. If they can overcome the fear of rejection, they can embrace opportunities to meet new people and have new experiences (also known as factors of happiness).

This is supposed to be about Code Academy. Why am I writing about vulnerability?

The thing is, most people are afraid of failure…that’s what keeps them back from doing great things. Learning Ruby on Rails is a great example. It’s an emotional roller coaster…one minute I feel like I can do anything, the next minute I fee like an utter failure. Many people intimate that they’d love to do something like what I’m doing. When I ask them why they don’t do it, they usually give me a shrug and some half ass excuse about not having time.

I know what is really going on. They, like me initially, are afraid of failing. They haven’t embraced their vulnerability and accepted that failure (although unlikely) is an OK outcome. What’s more important however, is the journey and learning process.

As soon as you can recognize those aspects in your life or business that are holding you back, you can learn to become ok with the associated outcomes. You see this kind of thing very often in entrepreneurial success stories. Take Sara Blakely, founder of SPANX.  It was only until she was beat down in sales that she learned that rejection is not that bad. That allowed her to have the chutzpah to cold call the biggest potential customers for her product: department stores, knowing she only had a slight chance of getting in.

So embrace vulnerability. Embrace shame. Embrace failure. You are not maximizing potential opportunities to grow your business (and personally) until you do.

Enerspace

I’m always on the prowl for a new spot to plug in, get my caffeine, and work. Luckily, three new Chicago spots have recently opened that offer an alternative to Starbucks.

1) Topics- Nestled on Halsted Street between name brand shops, Topics is the work of a real estate broker turned entrepreneur when he became frustrated that traditional coffeeshops lacked necessary business tools like copy machines. “I wanted to create a place that had the casual feel of a coffeeshop with the practical tools an office would have,” said Lou Vidaillet, owner of Topics. While art adorns the wall of this coffeeshop, the back is literally a back office: conference rooms, phones, a copy machine and desks are available for use. If you’re looking for an awesome spot to work in Lincoln Park, ditch the nearby Starbucks and check out this new local gem.

2) Enerspace Chicago- If you’re looking for a creative coworking space in the West Loop, check out Enerspace. It’s a beautiful loft space with modern furniture and a yoga studio right in the middle. “At Enerspace, my goal is to emphasize healthy living. Too often entrepreneurs are so busy they forget to do things like exercise,” said Jamie Russo, serial entrepreneur and owner of Enerspace. Ain’t it the truth! I was blown away by the amazing view of downtown Chicago, visible from any place in the office.  The energy is palpable and I envy the startups that call Enerspace their home.

3) Fabcakes- River North lacks local coffeeshops, so Fabcakes is a unique and delicious new find. Located on Wells right by the Chicago brown stop, it offers a European vibe and plenty of free WiFi. Syrups are made in house so treat yourself to a lavendar latte (to. die . for.) while you work away. This is my go to stop in River North although there is literally a Starbucks on every corner.

This is a guest post from Shama Kabani, the award winning CEO of The Marketing Zen Group, a full service online marketing firm in Dallas. She is also the author of the bestseller, The Zen of Social Media Marketing (2nd edition, 2012) and an international speaker.

Being an entrepreneur is similar to being a newlywed: everyone has a piece of advice to “gift” you with. Some are helpful—hire people who have a proven track record; some aren’t—don’t be an entrepreneur, you’ll never have a life! Some advice will be just plain weird—spray your business cards with perfume to make yourself more memorable (huh?). Among the mixed bag of advice you’ll hear throughout your career, here are three best pieces of advice I ever received and will always treasure.

1. It’s more important to ship passion than wait on perfection. It’s terrifying to put your ideas out into the world; you could be laughed at, ridiculed, slammed, and so much more. It’s easier to keep chipping away at a project until you are absolutely sure of its perfection than to reveal a work in progress. But, today, every piece of a work has to be a work in progress. It’s the only way to stay relevant.

Embrace the editor within which allows you to put out a beta version, and then tweak it to perfection 2.0. People will respect your passion, and if they don’t, it doesn’t matter. One of my favorite quotes is by Theodore Roosevelt: “It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”

2. Beware of the ugly baby syndrome. While getting my graduate degree from the University of Texas at Austin, I took one of the most challenging and useful classes of my educational career—one that taught how to evaluate a business idea. We went through countless case studies, trying to determine if they would succeed of fail based on the facts given.

During these discussions, our professor often referred to “the ugly baby syndrome”—similar to the tendency for every parent to think their bundle of joy is the cutest baby in the world, he said some people love their ideas so much that they refuse to see that it actually isn’t very pretty. He was trying to stress the importance of objectivity in business. Don’t love your idea because you created it. Be open to objectively analyzing, changing, and—if necessary—moving on from a bad idea.

3. Differentiate or die. I miss the early days of the Internet, where you could find yourself a “niche” and suddenly own the marketplace. Today, you should expect stiff competition in almost every industry and it is more important than ever to differentiate yourself. When I started an online marketing company almost three years ago, there were tons of agencies out there, but no one seemed to truly understand the pain of the client.

Our clients wanted us to do more than consult; they wanted a company who could customize a turn-key web marketing solution for them that would result in greater leads and visibility for their business. When we began to offer to take over web marketing for our clients, revenues skyrocketed. We found a differentiator within the industry. No matter what business you are in, find a way to stand out.

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only nonprofit organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. The YEC recently published #FixYoungAmerica: How to Rebuild Our Economy and Put Young Americans Back to Work (for Good), a book of 30+ proven solutions to help end youth unemployment.