This is an unusual blog post, because I rarely get this personal. Today, however, I want to share some secrets with you. This will likely no t be the most well-edited post on this blog, but bear with me if you would like to hear me speak my mind.

It has been sixteen months since I made the leap to start two businesses. It was not a sudden decision, but something I had in mind for a much longer time. Sixteen months ago I finally had all the right pieces for the puzzle.

This story is about having the right reason, passion, focus, timing, business partners, and a little bit of luck.

Reason

I believe that the key to success is neither a desire for wealth, nor wanting to get away from an annoying boss. Wealth is sometimes a result, but if it’s your goal then the road there will be much more boring, and you’ll focus on the horizon rather than the speed bumps straight ahead of you. Heck, you might crash.

If you just don’t want a boss, forget about it. You always have a boss. Be it your customer, or be it your shareholders. There’s always a boss, trust me.

If you just want to be rich you’ll be focused on solving your own “problem” (not having enough money) rather than the problems of others, and it’s solving real world problems that leads to success and wealth.

I decided to start a company (actually, two companies) because I wanted to be part of something new, something that will solve problems. I also wanted to leverage the experience I had gained in life, and build a company the way I believe it should be built.

I believed (and still do) that it should be possible to combine profitability, a fun and healthy work environment, good employee benefits, charitable work, and a business culture that rewards reaching common goals. Never forget that most companies are what the employees bring to the table. No people, no business. That’s true even for product companies. Less so, yes, but still true.

To sustain in the long term, you have to stay focused. If you don’t feel strongly about what you do, chances are you’ll get distracted and change focus along the way.

Passion

I don’t think you’ll be set up to succeed unless you focus on a line of business that truly interests you. It’s a plus if you’d work with it for free if nobody would pay you. Why? Because when you start something new you have to be prepared to work for nothing, or little, in the beginning. At a minimum it means getting less money. Financially, I still would have been better off being employed. It would have been a lot more comfortable too.

Think about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Do you need the icing on the cake, or is the cake enough to fill you up? Maybe you can sacrifice the icing to get to do what you really would like to do? If you’re a die-hard entrepreneur you’ll sacrifice the entire cake, but often sacrificing just the icing is enough.

I have made sacrifices to get to live the dream of being part of something new, and I have no regrets. I get to work with something I believe in, and something that qualifies as a hobby of mine. It’s worth it. Maybe it’s worth it to own less stuff if you get to do what you love? Think about it.

Cooperation

It’s not only important that you do things for the right reasons, it’s also important that you work with the right people. You shouldn’t always work with whoever is tossing the most money your way, because it may be better to opt for the better match with less money.

After all, you’ll likely have to live with your decision for a long time. A business partner/co-owner who understands you, gets along with you, and shares your goals will make your life a lot easier. It’ll also be more likely that you’ll succeed.

I didn’t want a business partner with a lot of cash but no passion. I advice you to look at the big picture. Maybe someone’s experience, knowledge, and skills are worth more than capital.

I discussed with several parties before settling on whom to found the companies with. You need to engage both brain and heart in your decision.

Lesson

What’s the best business school around? Life. It really is, and I’ll tell you why.

My parents have told me that I never nagged to get anything as a child. It’s true, I rarely even politely asked for anything. Instead I decided whether getting something was important, and if so how to get it. Don’t get me wrong, I got stuff. But that was my parents’ call, not mine.

Speaking of parents, the most intense, and soul-searching, experience I’ve had came from spending time with my father as his life was coming to an end due to cancer. I learned more about life, myself, and prioritization during a couple of weeks than I ever had before. I learned how to step up, how to let go, and what willpower can do.

My Dad lasted more than half a year despite doctors believing he had only a couple of weeks left. He fought. We all have our battles to fight in life. I learned so much during that time that I could write several chapters, if not an entire book, just on that topic.

Illnesses are not necessarily all bad. Yes, we all want to avoid them, and I’m no different. However, my Dad’s illness made me a stronger and wiser person, and my own struggles with health from time to time have made me a better leader. In fact, my businesses were largely born during a troubling hospital visit. You have to look ahead, and you have to take something bad and make it good. After all, what’s the alternative?

Age and education are not necessarily things that make you a better business leader. However, I have tried to work on most of the sides of business. I’ve worked for sales, marketing, customer service, and in other departments. I’ve worked as an employee. I’ve been a buyer, and I have been a seller. I have worked as a consultant. I can tell you one thing, if you have not worked, at some point, in the role of your potential clients, the risk is that you won’t fully understand their needs and behavior.

I have, like Steve Jobs, and many others, dropped out of university. I’m not proud of it, but I’m not ashamed of it either. I do not like leaving things unfinished, but things happen for a reason. My reason for dropping out was love. In Canada. Due to travels, and distance, I lost the momentum in my studies. Now, these days it may be easier to study from a distance than it was back then.

When I dropped out, I got a job to pay for my bills. I only planned to stay for six months at that job, and had formally just taken a break from my studies. That plan backfired when some people at the company apparently saw potential in me and gave me a new role. Then a new role after some time. Then yet another role. I ended up working in many different positions before leaving the company.

Remember how I told you I didn’t ask for stuff as a kid? Well, I didn’t ask for those jobs either, but it so turned out that those jobs became sort of a paid business education. It all works out somehow. That’s what my Dad told me when he was sick. I guess he’s right.

In closing I have to say that there is an element of chance in life too. Chance can give you opportunities, difficulties, and illness. It’ll likely give you all of them at some point. It’s how you deal with them that can make a difference.

I’m not finished yet. I can, and will, still get better at what I do.

I will still make mistakes, and I will still learn.

I’m not perfect, nobody is. But I’m working at getting better. It’s called continuous improvement.

Now it’s time for you go look for strength, inspiration, and knowledge in the places you least expect to find it.

I wish you a wonderful journey!

One of my favourite authors and marketers, Bryan Eisenberg, is coming to Stockholm to speak at Internet Marketing Conference in September, so I decided to ask him a few questions.

Bryan, you’re the author of Always Be Testing, Call to Action: Secret Formulas to Improve Online Results, Persuasive Online Copywriting: How to Take Your Words to the Bank and Waiting for Your Cat to Bark?: Persuading Customers When They Ignore Marketing. Are you currently writing on any book, or are you focusing on spreading knowledge through presenting all over the world?

We are working on numerous ways to share our knowledge across the globe including speaking, mentoring, teaching through MarketMotive and yes, we are working on a revised version of Always Be Testing that will spend more time looking at the organizational issues holding companies back from successfully having a data-driven optimization culture.

What can we expect from your keynote at IMC Stockholm in September?

I always believe every presentation must inform and entertain. So expect something that gives you insight into how customer behavior is changing and what, as organizations, we can do to be prepared to keep up with them.

It was fun to help out with IMC New York, and co-locating it with your Future Now courses, back in 2008. What do you expect from IMC in 2011, and how (if in any regard) do you think Stockholm will differ from other locations where you have spoken?

It was fun working together to bring our content together to attendees back in my home town of NYC. This time I look forward to exploring a city I just got to know a little bit after my first visit last year. I found the people quite knowledgeable and open to learning about advanced optimization topics, and I look forward to sharing this new presentation there.

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Tip from Lars! If you’re planning on attending IMC Stockholm, why not buy a combo ticket for IMC and eMetrics? If you buy it through the eMetrics website and use the code INUSEINSIGHTS011 you get a 15% discount. Speakers at eMetrics Stockholm include Stéphane Hamel, Jim Sterne, Brian Clifton, and Steve Jackson.

If you want to hear more from Bryan Eisenberg, listen to the podcast I made with him (and a few others) about testing.

I decided to catch up with one of my favourite entrepreneurs, Dennis Mortensen. Dennis is an author on the subject of web analytics, an associate instructor at the University of British Columbia, a board member of Web Analytics Association, former COO of IndexTools, and Director of Data Insights at Yahoo! He has made a couple of exits, and is now founder and CEO of Visual Revenue, Inc.

Dennis is the guy in the white shirt, Don Draper style.

In 2007, you were one of the key people interviewed about web analytics in Europe for a long podcast, and in 2010 you were asked some follow-up questions. How does 2011 compare to 2007 and 2010 so far?

In retrospect, I believe it would be fair to say that the technological focus back in 2007 was on custom reporting and segmentation on large volumes of data, and the organizational insights that could be derived from it.

By 2010 it became clear that insights without action was of little meaning and focus shifted slightly towards the hiring of Analysts and forcing action any way possible. However, I think it would be fair to say that most organizations are moving towards this goal, but some are yet to execute in full on this promise.

In 2011 the current buzzword in analytics seems to be real time. I certainly agree that data needs to be current and as up to the minute as the organization need it, but I am not sure this is truly the next step in analytics. If you ask me, I would suggest that we are moving in the directions of proper decision support systems that provide truly actionable recommendations on what to do right now—accompanied by the future value of such actions.

You were the head of IndexTools in 2007, and later a Director at Yahoo!, who acquired IndexTools and renamed in Yahoo! Web Analytics. This year, however, you are doing something new. Please tell us more about your new venture, and why it seemed like a logical step for you to take.

Given my attitude from above about the future value of data being in actionable recommendations towards the point of automation, it seemed very natural for me to seek out the media industry with an offering of proper decision support systems.
The team spent the last good year on our data modeling efforts and our predictive analytics systems and launched our initial product, Front Page Content Recommendation Platform, early 2011.

We created a model where we can predict the future performance of any given piece of content on the front page, and taking advantage of that information, we provide direct recommendations on what content to push on the front page, exactly where it is supposed to be, and for how long it is expected to stay put.

This is a decision process already in place and editors are taking hundreds, if not thousands, of front page content placement decisions everyday already—we simply want them to be empowered. Think about it, how do you actually decide if the “News of the World” story goes into the hero position? And if not in the hero position, where? And finally, for how long does it stay there?

What we provide is by any definition a revolutionary decision support system for editors. It is unmatched by any solution in the market.

You’ve worked for organizations of various sizes, and you’ve done more than one exit. What’s the most exciting aspect about business for you? Do you prefer coming “out of nowhere”, being bootstrapped and having to prove something, over working for a large organization that has much stronger financial muscles?

Personally, I love the pure joy of our team having produced a product that our customers want and actively use every day, and potentially a product they truly cannot live without! There is certainly “entrepreneurial bliss” in seeing a company being created from nothing but an idea enabled by science and raw engineering.

We are well capitalized this time around from both our previous successes, but also from our recent financial backers. Pairing that with our historical data and analytics credentials, I think we have all the muscles we need!

When you left Yahoo! I couldn’t help but think about the moment when the leaders in hit TV series Mad Men left to start Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. It felt refreshing when they left the big, fancy, office and started working out of a small hotel room. How did you feel when you got the first office, and your first core team, for Visual Revenue?

I like that picture Lars. Thanks! I truly admire anybody who is willing to leave the safety of a corporate job and become part of a founding team. In the case of Visual Revenue it was not an office out of a hotel room, but out of a shared room in my Manhattan apartment building. That first period is romantic, and a difficult emotion to capture in any other way than describing it as jumping into the deep end of the pool!

Visual Revenue’s current view is not too shabby.