Dream chaser who once lost his dreamer within…
PUSHING THE LIMITS
The year 2011 comes to an end and so do my strengths…
It’s been another very intense year, paced with discoveries, new contacts, supportive people, talented professionals who have turned into trustworthy partners, but also paced with its fair amount of slaps in the face - some I even gave to myself - deceptions, and mistakes.
In an entrepreneur’s world, there is no such thing as a goal out of reach, limits, impossibles, as long as you are willing to make the effort, give all what you’ve got, go all in. With this fact in mind, we embrace the positive and stand in front of the negative, sometimes to a point where we push our limits, ignoring the physical warning signs…
In a way, the success of our startup becomes our dream - quite naturally, it’s our baby - and as the ultimate goal of ours, we strive to achieve that dream.
Sure we expect bumps along the way but as long as we can learn from them, keep the chin up and a positive attitude, then we are still winning.
Lately though, it’s been tougher than usual. Quite unexpectedly since the future of GoodPeopleRun has never been so bright - more on this later.
Less and less running to keep my life balanced. More and more work that I wasn’t familiar with, thus time consuming with a constant feeling of not getting much done. Quite frankly a lack of social interactions also directly affected negatively my already declining mood.
But as I feel I have everything to be the happiest guy in the world, why was my mood declining in the first place?
LOOSING TRACK
Last night was the worst and I couldn’t take it anymore.
Runners are not quitters - except extreme cases - but when it comes to life, certainly not.
So just like when you’re bonking during a running race, you have to step back, evaluate the situation to find what’s wrong, fix it and go again. I did. Realized. Understood.
I was chasing the wrong dream.
You see, as satisfying and thrilling driving your own project is, see it rise and grow successfully, calling it a dream would be a misuse of language. A working position will never be a dream - as least in my perception of things.
I am not saying that I do not work with passion, that I don’t throw my heart into GoodPeopleRun, simply I have realized that getting closer to this goal wasn’t enough to make me happy.
INTROSPECTION
A dream, is by definition something you would like to have, a place you would like to visit, an experience you’d like to live, a goal you’d like to achieve… But as happy this something makes you, amazed this place you visited leaves you, contented that experience makes you, or fulfilling to achieve that goal it is, once you had it, it’s not a dream anymore.
It becomes reality.
Much harder to get excited about chasing reality, right?
What I am trying to tell you all, is that throwing our emotions and heart into work to a certain extend is good, it’s almost mandatory. However, there is a fine line not to cross. A point where we let ourselves down, sit on our self esteem, leave our own dreams behind, to put it all into our company so it can benefit of all those positive attitudes, you’ll end up loosing yourself. I had lost myself.
SEEING THE LIGHT
The outcome of all this, is that I miss that funny self confident mofo who’d say yes to anything and would bring everyone onboard regardless of the journey. This young man - or old kid - who used to be mentioned as being “the heart and soul of an event” or “the one who people notice as he walks into a room” - and not only the times he’s running in his boxers with a tie around his forehead!
So enough of that. I have been christened The Goat for a reason and time has come for me to be The Goat again, and bring back my A game!!
From now on I’ll be chasing my personal dreams and be myself simply because it will bring back the best out of me to carry on the battle to make GoodPeopleRun successful.
So to all of you entrepreneurs out there - or even all people with a personal project - do not give up, keep up the efforts and your passion for what you do, and most importantly keep chasing your dreams… as long as they are yours.
All smiles
Martin
La Silicon Valley, ou le Rêve Américain 2.0
Je reviens de 3 mois en Silicon Valley. Le but premier de ce trip était de comprendre et m’imprégner de cet éco-système où les limites de l’entrepeneuriat n’existent pas, vraiment pas.
Au gré de mes rencontres j’ai pu échanger avec des personnes brillantes et terriblement travailleuses. Tom, 19 ans, venait de lever 3 millions de dollars pour financer sa 9ème société. Les premières n’ont pas marché mais preuve que la persévérence paye, cette fois c’était la bonne. Situation aux allures de compte de fée pour un entrepreneur français comme moi, et pourtant loin d’être un cas isolé dans la Valley.
Alors pourquoi ce déphasage avec la France?
La triste réalité la voilà. Les mentalités en France sont frileuses et pointent du doigts l’échec d’un jour, que vous trainerez comme une étape négative de votre carrière.
La France abordera un entrepreneur avec la question “Es-tu certain que tu ne va pas te planter?’ là où la Silicon Valley l’abordera avec un “show me what you’ve got and let’s give it a try”. (montre moi ce sur quoi tu as travaillé et tentons le coup!)
Pour répondre à la France, si nous étions certain que cela marcherait, nous ne serions pas entrepreneurs… Ne nous voilons pas la face, il y a et il y aura toujours du risque lorsque l’on se lance dans quelque chose de nouveau. Mais le risque calculé est également ce qui génère l’activité économique et les emplois de demain.
J’aime mon pays plus que tout et j’en suis fier, mais cette entrevue des possibles dans un environnement effectivement favorable à le création de valeur me fait réaliser qu’on est vraiment en retard. Je le vois comme une opportunité, tout reste à faire.
Si vous êtes un entrepreneur français qui souhaitez aller en Silicon Valley, n’hésitez pas à me contacter et je serais heureux de vous donner des contacts et les quelques adresses incontournables.
— Martin
Aujourd’hui c’est le 14 juillet. Date qui en 1789, marqua un tournant dans l’histoire de France. Et si aujourd’hui nous marquions un tournant dans l’histoire de l’entrepreneuriat français ?
“La Révolution des Entrepreneurs est la période de l’histoire de France comprise entre la crise de 2009 et le coup d’état du 25 Juillet 2011. Il s’agit d’un moment crucial de l’histoire de l’entrepreneuriat Français, puisqu’il marque le début de la valorisation de la prise de risque et le passage d’une vision négative de l’échec entrepreneurial à celle d’un gage d’expérience professionnelle.
Elle a mis fin à la difficulté des entrepreneurs Français à trouver support humain, financier et légal. Elle nous a légué la Constitution des Droits de l’Entrepreneur, qui proclame l’égalité des entrepreneurs avec les salariés, les libertés fondamentales d’entreprendre pour tout individu souhaitant changer le monde ou simplement réaliser son rêve.”
— Martin (qui n’a pas peur de la guillotine!)
After the last post about an article on GoodPeopleRun published in France, disclosing some of the closest partners we are working together with, the word is out. So we figured we better off say it out loud, because that’s exciting news!
French entrepreneur Carlos DIAZ, pioneer within the Web industries of the late 90’s with blueKiwi Software is now officially part of our board of advisors.
Beside his established experience in web social applications, Carlos will assist us in both with the go to market strategy and the fundraising part.
His past experiences in those fields, as well as the professional and personal network he has developed here in the Valley over the past year and a half are as many assets that will add value and credibility to GoodPeopleRun.
Carlos, welcome. We’re psyched to have you on board and hope you’ll enjoy the ride, well… the run!
— The Entreprunners
Martin, Jean and Ed
GoodPeopleRun a besoin de VOUS !
Amis coureurs,
Alors que la date d’ouverture de la beta à une audience plus large approche, nous nous investissons de plus en plus au sein de la communauté des entrepreneurs et startup web. Après tout, comment pourrions-nous vous proposer les meilleures applications si on ne les soumet pas à d’autres porteurs de projets avisés ?!
L’une des actions récentes que nous avons entreprise dans cet optique est la participation au concours MassChallenge, basé à Boston et ouvert aux startup du monde entier.
Pour la faire simple, 10% de la note pour passer le premier tour est basé sur les votes du public, et c’est là que nous avons besoin de VOUS !
Alors si vous avez 5 minutes (5 minutes, pas plus) voilà la marche à suivre:
ETAPE N°1
Rendez vous sur cette page
Entrez: Username / Email address / Password (Pseudo/adresse Email / mot de passe)
Sélectionnez “supporter” pour votre profile et indiquez le en tant que “private”.
ETAPE N°2
Une fois enregistré, rendez-vous sur ce lien
ETAPE N°3
L’étape la plus importante, VOTEZ ! Et oui c’est bien de 5 étoiles qu’il s’agit pour nous permettre de passer le premier tour des sélections.
D’avance merci pour lire ce post et avoir pris le temps de nous soutenir, et finalement si ça passe, c’est finalement vous qui en profiterez !
Bon run à tous
— The EntrepRUNNERs
GoodPeopleRun needs YOU !
Dear Good People,
As we are approaching the date of the launch of the beta version to a broader audience, we are taking measures to further blend with the entrepreneur and web startups communities. How else could we come up with the best application for you, right ?
We have recently entered a startup contest based out of Boston called MassChallenge.
Long story short, 10% of the rating to go through the first selection relies on public votes. This is where we need you !!
So please if you have 5 minutes (not more, period) here is how you can proceed:
STEP 1
Get to this site
Entrer: Username / Email address / Password
Select “supporter” for your profile and check “private”.
STEP 2
Once registered, go to this link
STEP 3
Last but not least, vote for us !! Yes this is indeed a 5 stars vote that will get us through the next stage.
Thank you tons to all of you that will read this post and take the 5 minutes to give us this additional kick, it means the world to us.
Happy running
— The EntrepRUNNERs
Good guys do NOT finish last
As an individual, a runner or an entrepreneur, choosing the easy yet borderline path to faster reach your objectives is an option that will be available to you more than once. And it is a tempting one, trust me.
But think about it. Each industry is small enough for the word to be passed along. It will take years for the industry to speak good things about your company, it will take seconds for bad reputation to spread. Period.
So do you really want to risk seeing the reputation of your beloved business trashed because of one wrong move ? Because don’t fool yourself, it can happen and at that point, there is no second chance.
Get caught taking drugs in a race to earn few seconds and for the rest of your days, people will always assume you do and none of your future achievements will be seen as such by the community.
Take advantage of someone who’s nice to you and simply forget about that person shamelessly after you got what you wanted, you’ll regret it one day, and worst, for the wrong reasons.
And come on, even if you don’t get caught, where is the satisfaction knowing you have screwed another professional, cheated over your race competitors, or hurt someone’s feelings ?
Sure enough being good, could get screwed along the way by people / companies that will take advantage of your “goodness”, and I’m sorry to say that most likely you will - we did. Their loss.
Oh yeah, you’ll be frustrated, and feel like you shouldn’t have been that nice. Don’t. This is part of the experience and truth is, it will pay off in the long run. Focus on the positive things of your business, personal life, your race and soon you’ll move on with clear conscience.
Don’t get me wrong, business is business and you have to be tough and hold on your positions if you are convinced they are right, just acknowledge and follow the rules.
Bottom line:
Bad guys might head out first for a while, careless, but sooner or later the sword of Damocles shall be there, waiting to hit them, irreparably. Then we will feel sorry for them… wait, we won’t. While forgiveness and tolerance are virtues in the case of an honest mistake, premeditated acts of nuisance deserve nothing but shame and punition.
So perhaps good guys won’t necessarily finish first, but they are the ones who experience the amazing feeling of true accomplishment. And there’s no such thing as a well deserved personal victory.
Now time to go for a run, I’ve heard that’s what good people do !
— Martin
Chairman, CEO… and Maria.
Sure it can look good to have written Chairman or CEO (or even “I am CEO, bitch!”) on your business card but don’t be fooled, this comes with a price.
The price of constant focus on stress about all things in the company, and the closer to the launch we get, the more intense it becomes. Don’t get me wrong, this is thrilling, it really is.
Sure there will be some mistakes, we will realize too late that we forgot something, that one functionality doesn’t work quite as planned, but isn’t that also the reason why you throw yourself into building a startup ?
At less than two weeks now from opening the beta version to a wider audience, Jean and myself are exchanging a stack of Emails until 2.10 am, on a Sunday night. Whether you like it or not, if you’re fully dedicated to your project, work becomes your life. Period.
This is something dramatically important, something determinant for the success of the Startup: The other half of the CEO/Chairman’ couple.
I personally am safe on that end, and so is Jean. My reason is pretty basic, I’m single. Jean is safe because he has a supportive and considerate long time partner, and this is priceless.
To conclude on a piece of advice to young entrepreneurs, be sure about the situation before you do anything. A partner who’s not respectful and supportive of your project (no income, late hours, constant focus - even partial - on work) could wreck even the most promizing project.
And to the partners, if you love your man/woman and have faith in his/her project, do compromize on a bit of luxury now for later full on success. The juice will be worth the squeeze.
Thank you Maria, for making Goodpeoplerun possible.
— Martin
Parfois, un évènement se résume en un mot, ENFIN !
Habitant à Annecy, je n’avais encore pas eut l’opportunité d’aller traîner mes baskets du côté de L’OpenCoffee Club ou OCC pour les habitués, qui se déroule tous les jeudis de 10h à 12h chez Elgi.
Pour 3 autres entrepreneurs et moi même, la matinée a commencée un peu plus tôt, à 9h pour être exact. Nous avons été préalablement sélectionnés par l’intermédiaire d’un .ppt de 4 slides, pour effectuer une série d’interview vidéos à propos de nos projets respectifs.
Ces interviews étaient menés par Xavier VESPA qui intervenait en tant que rédacteur chez RWW France et Raphaël LABBE, en tant qu’organisateur de l’OCC.
Ensuite, nous nous sommes mêlés à une trentaine d’entrepreneurs en tous genres, venus pour l’OCCasion et qui étaient au moins 80% à monter un projet lié au web.
Parmi eux, Denis DHEKAIER fut la très bonne surprise de la matinée. Fondateur de la célèbre application Jiwok que nous suivons depuis nos débuts. Un bel exemple de réussite dans le milieu français de la course à pied, qui s’apprête à s’ouvrir à l’international. Sans rentrer dans le détail, il va eut être se passer des choses :-)
Un conseil donc si vous êtes dans les environs de Paris le jeudi matin et que vous avez deux heures de libre, that’s the place to be !
— Martin
Soirée lancement du projet “Journées de l’entrepreneur”
L’objectif de cette soirée était un rappel sur les évènements qui auront lieu pendant cette semaine de l’entrepreneuriat mais surtout pour nous présenter le projet de création d’un plateforme Sociale/wiki dédiée aux entrepreneurs.
C’est SFR Pro qui finance la création de cette plateforme, création qui sera assurée par l’agence Novedia Group.
Le tout s’est déroulé dans une ambiance chaleureuse et intimiste ( moins de 40 personnes) dans les locaux de Regus, avenue Hoche. La vue sur l’Arc de Triomphe est toujours classe !
— Martin
