mikevu.com » entrepreneurship

Video: Entrepreneurs can change the world

themvu — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 09:20:08 +0000

Spread the movement.

Startup Junkies Episode 1

themvu — Tue, 27 May 2008 06:32:50 +0000

Ari Balogh (Yahoo’s CTO) Keynote Speech @ Web 2.0

themvu — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 06:20:54 +0000

How to lose a customer fast.

themvu — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 11:23:22 +0000

I came across a recent TechCrunch post about MyProgress.com, a web application focused on life management and metrics.

MyProgress allows users to track their personal finances, skills, “knowledges”, wealth and health dynamics.

It sounded like my cup of tea so I even posted a comment in defense of its concept:

I think people are undervaluing metrics. Extraordinary efforts call for extraordinary measuresments. Although it’s not completely polished, you can’t help but applaud the concept. Simplicity is going to be the life and death of such an application…

So I went to the the site to sign up. I quickly filled out the form and clicked on submit. An error occurred, reading:

Last name must be more than 2 characters

Wow. What a bummer. They had me, and now they lost me.

Bill Gates @ Harvard 2007

themvu — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 08:12:52 +0000

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Now blogging at Facereviews.com. =)

themvu — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 07:24:38 +0000

As of today, I am now officially part of the Facereviews.com team. This is an exciting opportunity to express my passion for the web, technology, social networks, and of course Facebook.

Check out my first post here.

No Plan, No Capital, No Model..No Problem.

themvu — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 22:10:06 +0000

Great video from the Churchill Club featuring stories of successful entrepreneurs, such as Guy Kawasaki, James Hong (Hotornot.com), and a few others:

“Creativity is when you take a zero off the budget.” – James Hong

Inspiring quotes

Michael Vu — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 00:16:12 +0000

"Someone once asked me "why do you always insist on taking the hard road?" and I replied "why do you assume I see two roads"?” – Anonymous (I wish I said this)

"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Many of life’s failures are men who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” – Thomas Edison

…the power of writing, soooooooooooooo undervalued in today’s world.

Top lessons learned

themvu — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 09:11:26 +0000

I’d like to share some of the more important lessons that I’ve learned through my experiences as an entrepreneur.

1. The optimal amount of people for starting a business is 3.
2. It’s never as easy as you would like to think.
3. Some friends, even really good ones, will not be as supportive and motivating as you would like to think.
4. Some acquaintances, even really distant ones, will be more supportive and motivating than you would think.
5. Family, no matter how close, will always be supportive and motivating.
6. Quantification is everything.
7. Books teach you more if you own them.
8. Performance is a by product of your system.
9. Creativity is not hard hitting and immediate, but subtle and gradual.
10. The mobile office is the best office.
11. Do not share anything with people who can’t appreciate it.
12. Those who will understand are few and far in between.
13. Don’t talk too much.
14. Success is nothing but the meeeting point between opportunity and proper preparation.
15. Passion drives everything.
16. Learn from only those who really know.
17. Seek out the people who have discovered their passions.
18. Breathe.
19. Processes, systems, and cycles are the three things business has in common with life.
20. Never give up.

Passion and Small Business

themvu — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 10:06:54 +0000

Some people ask me why I didn’t opt for getting a real job coming out of college. Looking back now, it was probably a combination of exactly 10 things. A glum economy was one, a bad back was two, a great and supportive sister was three, and a deep burning passion was/is four to ten. I wanted to start a business because the single biggest lesson I learned from college is that passion drives happiness. I asked myself, if I wanted to be fully happy, shouldn’t I do be doing things that I really enjoy and am passionate about? It was pretty obvious at that point, that joining the corporate world would have definitely not allowed me to do so. I’ve heard too many people complaining about work and how it’s so unstable, tiring, boring, and how they wished that they tried to start a business BEFORE they started to settle down. I’ve also learned from my father that sometimes, even if you work hard for 20+ years straight for the same company, you can still be left with nothing, not even a compensation package.

On a random day of discouragement from the ups and downs of entrepreneurship, I had a resonating conversation with one of my best friends regarding my ventures. As I struggled to find the right words to express what I’ve felt for the past few years, he told me:

…you want to do things how YOU see it, not how everyone else does it.

It lingers in my head everyday, because I realized that the disgusting feeling of bottled up frustration deep in my chest was just that, immense dissatisfaction. At that moment, I also realized that it was normal. I was only frustrated and unhappy because starting and growing a small business is a very intimate thing. Once you put your whole heart into it and if it’s not how you want it, you’re going to be downright miserable until it is. In a recent blog post at 37signals, they highlight the connection between small business and passion, and the boom of small businesses worldwide:

…But people press on because it’s their passion. Small businesses are about passion and that’s why they’re so important. Passion and curiosity drive great things.

On that note, I encourage all of you, especially those of you who are young, to start deciphering exactly what it is that you are truly passionate about. As hard as starting a business is, it’s harder to fully discover your true passions in life. Some are lucky to find it early and most aren’t able to find it until later in life. You better start thinking about it now.