Tell me more about you.

 

I’m originally from Memphis TN.  I went to college at a school in Birmingham Alabama.  Then I spent a few years puttering around.  I became a freelance interpreter.  I taught English in Brazil.  I moved back to Memphis and worked for a digital marketing agency for a year.  Then I worked for an ecommerce company for a few years.  I started doing consulting for different ecommerce companies helping them with marketing, systems, and processes.

 

At that time, I had my own blog which I was working on as a side project.  I would process whatever I learned in a week and I kept a record of that on my blog every Saturday morning.

 

Then I decided to write a book based on those experiences.  I didn’t know what the implications of online business were at that point in time. 

 

My book, The End of Jobs, is a way of articulating the online entrepreneur’s “script” or trajectory. 

 

 

Tell me about mental models.

 

You would have looked at the world through a kaleidoscope, right?  And the way that you twist that kaleidoscope makes the perspective change.

 

In life, everyone sees the world differently.  So, you can shake up your “lens” and see the world in a different way.

 

Entrepreneurs look at the same reality that everyone else sees but they realize the opportunity differently.  We have the ability to rewire our brains and do this.

 

In the book The End of Jobs, in the first section we talk about globalization and the rise of machines.  From the year 2000 to 2010 there were more college graduates than at any other time in history.  Now, educated people are very easy to access.  Now, people are competing globally, not just locally.  You can see this as a threat or as an opportunity. 

 

As an entrepreneur, today you can find the very best talent in the world, hire them, and work with them from anywhere in the world if you have a reliable internet connection.

 

 

You say that entrepreneurship won’t be around forever.  What do you mean by that?

 

Western history falls into four eras

• Agricultural
• Industrial
• Knowledge
• Entrepreneurial

 

When Rockefeller started his factory, that was the right time to start a factory.

When Bill Gates started Microsoft or when Thomas Watson started IBM, that was the right time to start a knowledge company.  The people were the real asset during this time.

Now we are seeing a shift from what we consider knowledge work to entrepreneurial work.

There is a commoditization of traditional knowledge work.  There is a supply and demand curve happening.  There are lots of lawyers but the demand isn’t increasing very fast. 

The ability to look at the reality and see something differently as an entrepreneur does, that is still a scarce resource. 

 

Consider startup costs today also.  If you wanted to start a software company 15 years ago, you needed a lot of capital because of the cost of server space.  The costs have come down so fast that you can now start easier.

 

 

Would you recommend to graduates that they should go after starting their own business?

 

That’s the general idea.

 

A lot of people who end up lawyers don’t do it because they have a deep abiding love of the law.  But they’re doing it to make a good income. 

 

I ask people, how can you start to add an entrepreneurial component to what you are already doing?

 

You can take an entrepreneurial view of legal practices for example and be very successful at that.  You can be a very entrepreneurial accountant if you develop a new way of looking at budgeting and forecasting for ecommerce companies, as an example.

 

 

What if I feel overwhelmed with responsibilities.  How do I move forward with my idea when I feel stuck?

 

When I talk to people who feel stuck it’s not necessarily that there’s a logistical problem.  Usually it’s an issue with emotional work. 

 

There’s a book called The War of Art by Steven Pressfield.  He calls this idea “The Resistance.”  It’s the difference between a role where you are ticking all the boxes and one where you have to go out and make something.  Most people won’t like your idea at first. 

 

I have a friend who was more terrified of pressing publish on a blog post than patrolling Iraq during the war.  We are hardwired to not upset the status quo and it can be scary to do so.  But like Elon Musk from our example earlier, he upset the status quo and it paid off well.

 

The second component is the logistical angle.  If you are younger and have less responsibilities it’s obviously easier to become an entrepreneur. 

 

One of my mentors said to me that it takes 1000 days of working on whatever your idea is to get it to a point where it can replace your full-time job.  That means 1000 days of no weddings, no barbecues.  That’s the tradeoff.  A lot of people don’t want to make that tradeoff.

 

 

There are a lot of people who went for an MBA but now they are stuck doing something completely unrelated to business.  Why do you think MBA students get stuck when it comes to entrepreneurship?  They have degrees in business, right?

 

I think MBAs prepare you very well to succeed at mid and upper level management of large corporations.  My understanding from people I talk to is that MBAs are quite good at that.  What MBAs are not, “How to start a small business.”

 

 

You reference this idea called “the return of apprenticeships.”  What is this idea?  How do you see it unfolding?

 

The first school was to take kids and teach them to be normal so they could be put into factories so they could do this consistent repetitive work.  Schools even look industrial.  And that’s how most schools still work.  To train you to work in businesses. 

 

In an apprenticeship, you would learn a trade from a master.  A blacksmith knows how to make swords and his apprentice would learn how to do that as well.  People who decide to learn in an environment that mimics apprenticeship will have a much better chance at being a successful entrepreneur than going to a school which trains them to be a desk clerk.

 

Now what we are seeing is that people are deciding to take a “low-paying entry level job” at a startup to learn everything they can in a few years instead of going to a university for the same amount of time.

 

 

How can people leverage the internet to start a side hustle or something new?

 

If you have a job right now then you have some skillset that someone is willing to pay you for.  Can you leverage that into something more entrepreneurial?

 

The other thing is side projects.  Can you take your existing skillset now and spin it up into some sort of entrepreneurial side project?  So many of these online businesses are extremely easy to start right now.  Something like selling digital products online is very feasible. 

 

What’s a problem you have in your own life?  What are you spending money on?  What sectors do you understand?  Can you launch something in that space in less than 7 days?

 

Is there something you can get off the ground quickly for a first project just to get your feet wet?  Something where you are scratching your own itch?

 

 

You mentioned selling digital products online.  I came across your book online and I came to realize that you are using SendOwl to sell copies from your website.  So, you have managed to execute this concept in your own business.  How did you come up with the idea to write a book and publish it from your own site?

 

I sell my book on a lot of different platforms.  The founders of the ecommerce company that I used to work for have an annual conference.  I was at that conference sitting around the breakfast buffet with a bunch of guys in their late 20s and 30s.  We were all talking about how hard it is to go back and explain to your friends exactly what it is you do. 

 

The idea from the book was born out of the conversation, “how can I explain what I do to my mom?”

 

 

Who should read your book?

 

The book is aimed at people who are either thinking about starting an online business, or they’ve started it and they are trying to find a way to rationalize the decision.  A lot of people need the book to help explain to their spouse why they are starting their own thing.  It helps people who are making the leap or they’ve made it and they’re trying to wrap their heads around it.

 

 

If listeners want to learn more where can they go?

 

TaylorPearson.me

 

If you are interested in apprenticeship positions you can find more at my other website getapprenticeship.com 

 

Additional Resources

 

Digital sellers have made over $1/4 billion through SendOwl

 

How to choose a digital download service