My introduction to climbing came from my brother-in-law who lives in Colorado.  For the last couple years he has always reminded me of an “open invitation” to fly out and go climbing with him in the Rockies.  I always loved traveling to Colorado and while the thought excited me, I never really found the time to make it happen.  I had no clue what I was missing out on.

Since summer is quickly coming to a close and the weather is still warm out West, my wife and I decided that now is probably the best time to take a trip out there.

I flew out on Thursday morning and we geared up that afternoon to prepare for a Friday morning climb.  I was excited to try something new and had no idea what to expect from the climb.  I told my brother-in-law that I wanted to try something challenging, so he suggested a 13er (13,000Ft = 13er) named Mt. Solitude.  We picked up the Pitkin Trail near Vail village and hiked up Pitkin Creek drainage to the base of Mt. Solitude.

I would say that for the most part the climb up to the base was relatively easy.  All we had to do was stay on the trail and react accordingly.  There were some moderate sections, but overall it was pretty enjoyable.  We dropped our 50 Lb packs and started bushwhacking through the brush as we made our way up the base of the mountain.  At this point I would say that we were at around 10,000 Ft.  For anyone who has not experienced high altitude, it becomes very hard to breathe the higher you climb.

Here’s where the part about entrepreneurship comes in…

By 12,000 Ft I was completely exhausted.  Not only could I barely breathe, I was also experiencing what felt like massive blood clots in both of my thighs.  I would climb 10 or 15 feet and have to stop because I was so tired.  Every bone in my body was telling me to quit.  I can say without hesitation that it was the most physically demanding task I have ever undertaken.

With about a quarter of the mountain still left to climb, I started to realize that the majority of what I was doing was not physical but mental.  Although my body did not want to keep climbing, my mind did.  Quitting was not an option, I had already traveled too far.  The climb continued slowly until I finally reached the summit about 30 minutes later.  What an awesome sense of accomplishment when the goal was achieved.

I think that there are so many parallels between climbing and being an entrepreneur.  Starting a company is just as much mental as it is physical.  It can be so easy to just give up and quit when times get tough for your company.  If you really want your business to succeed, you need to prepare mentally to drive forward no matter what the circumstances are around you.

Dreams are only limited by your mind.  If you want something bad enough, the only person that is going to hold you back from accomplishing that dream is you.

As long as everything goes as planned, we should be able to start shipping during the last week of June.

Here’s a recap of the things that I need to accomplish in only a couple short weeks:

1. Finalize and publish website design.
   • Preliminary home page design is complete.  I’m sure it will change at least 10 times before it is published.  My biggest problem is coming up with a scheme that makes our logo “pop” on the page.  It looks so flat and subdued right now.  Hopefully I can come up with something good soon.
2. Lock in shipping scheme.
   • Using eco-friendly corn starch packing peanuts from  Green Packaging Inc. for all shipments to buyers.
   • Sample shipping mailers coming in tomorrow (Friday). We’re considering using white boxes with a logo/information label affixed to the top cover.
3. Complete sell sheets for individual products
   • I would like to use 8 x 10 books from Blurb with all of the necessary information and some big colorful pictures of kids eating our product.  I think that it will leave a lasting first impression for our buyers.
4. Change 800 number information with Grasshopper
   • This is a pretty easy change.  I basically need to write a new script for our 800 number and replace the voice recording that we already have for The Monadnock Review.

One day soon I’ll be able to look back on this post and smile knowing that everything is done.

The pre-production/vendor sample packages for Little Duck Organics arrived today from our packaging supplier.  Although everyone who has seen them up until this point has said that they look great, I’d be lying if I said that I was 100% happy with the quality.  As a designer, I know what the raw design files looked like before they were sent to the manufacturer.  When I compare the files to the actual packages, I immediately pick out the inconsistencies.

For example:

• The Blueberry bar is purple instead of blue. (CMYK issue)
• The white backdrop on many of the dark green letters is off-centered (printer calibration)
• The light yellow outline of the little duck is not visible on all packages (printer calibration)

While these issues may seem like they are not a big deal to some, they are to me!

The honest truth is that these “minor” issues are not a show stopper for the product.  These are only sample bags and we will be able to make changes before we go into production.

The point is this…

In B2B sales, buyers notice the details.  Attention to detail is arguably one of the most important parts of selling a product or service.  Ultimately, it can be the determining factor in if you make a repeat sale.  Businesses will remember if you put in the effort to make a purchase worth their money.  Spend the extra time to ensure that the products you sell are BUILT TO SPEC!

Ok, I’m done…

My true passion is minimalist design.  Specifically, I enjoy simple web interfaces and clean product packaging.  I am a big believer in stripping down a product or interface to only its essential parts and showcasing those parts to sell the product.  Minimalism is not only confined to web and product design.  You can apply the principles of minimalism to all aspects of life.  Modern architects have used minimalist design to create buildings that push the limits of conventional architecture.  Artists use simple shapes and patterns to create amazing minimalist art.  Homes and work spaces can be stripped free from unnecessary clutter and arranged in a way to actually increase productivity for the user.  It is true that sometimes more is not better.  Many times less is actually more.

I am a big believer in clean web interfaces and website design that challenges the status quo. Good website design should not be cluttered with useless information.  I believe that the future of website design will be clean and free from bright banner ads and distracting animations.  Websites should focus on their core product or service and find ways to integrate their revenue stream, through advertising or a subscription based model, into that content.  I truly believe that this is what users want.  Over the years, many websites have become so polluted with useless information that they have actually pushed away potential customers.  It does not matter if the content that a site was producing was amazing.  The problem was that the users had way too much stuff to sort through to get to that content.  If you look at some of the most successful websites on the internet, you will see that almost all of them were designed to be as simple as possible for the user.  Google’s home page features only a logo and a search bar, Craigslist features only text on its homepage, and Wikipedia makes it easy for users to immediately find the information they are looking for.  These are all excellent examples of minimalist design in use.  While Google, Craigslist, and Wikipedia all will not likely be winning any design contests anytime soon, there are hundreds of websites out there that feature a clean, simple use of colors, graphics and text.  This is how I feel the web should be viewed.  It creates a much better user experience and allows visitors to quickly find the things that they are looking for.

Branding and packaging design is such an important part of selling a product.  When consumers decide to make a purchase or use a product, there are so many things that go into that decision.  I believe that if a product is branded properly, its chances for success are greatly increased.  Good packaging design should be consistent with the brand image of the product.  It should be simple but stylish and well thought out.  Unnecessary branding and markings should be removed from packaging to create a focus on the the product and draw consumers attention to its features and and functionality.  When businesses take the time to come up with unique packaging, I think that customers take notice.  One of the reasons that Glacéau’s vitaminwater was such a smashing success in its early days was the fact that it was branded differently than most of the energy drinks that were available at the time.  Consumers were used to only seeing Gatorade and carbonated drinks on the shelves of grocery and convenience stores.  When vitaminwater launched, they challenged the status quo with their packaging design.  Their labels were minimal but conveyed a hip, trendy feel to the product.  Consumers noticed that vitaminwater was not the same as the other products that were on the market.  They quickly gained a strong following and created their own niche in one of the most competitive segments of the food industry.  Minimalist packaging, like that on Glacéau’s products, make a product stand out.

Users take notice when they see something different.  I think that minimalist design principles create excellent products and services for consumers.  They provide a better user experience, and focus on the core content of a product.  I have always tried to implement minimalist design principles into my projects and will do my best to stay consistent to those principles for future projects.

The application for the Founder Institute consists of several essay’s and a short video to introduce yourself and your idea.  I decided to post each of my essay’s along with the video in three separate posts on this blog.  The first question they ask each of the applicants is why they want to become entrepreneurs.  Give it a read and let me know what you think.

Long before I knew about entrepreneurs, I was sharing business ideas I created with my family and friends.  At the time, it was just fun write down ideas for new products in a notebook.  I had no idea that those ideas would one day shape my career and become a pivotal part of my life.  My ideas ranged from theme restaurants to websites and electronic gadgets.  The response I recieved was almost always the same, “That’s a great idea Zak. You should do it.”  Until about 5 years ago, I never spent much time thinking about what it would actually take to “do it”.  In 2005, I created my first business plan.  It was for a college textbook rental website called Tingabyte.  I remember working on it thinking to myself, “It would be so cool if I could create businesses as my real job.”  Tingabyte did not end up working out, but the project’s failure has only deepened my desire to successfully build a business.

When I look back now, I can remember one of the first business ideas I worked on.  I was in the 7th grade, and did not have a clue about what I wanted to do with my life.  My teacher tasked each of the students in the class to create a new product.  The only limit was our imagination.  At the end of the class we were required to present the idea with a preliminary (non-working) prototype and a basic marketing plan.  I decided to design a 3D video game system called XLO 3D.  At the time, there were no video game systems that offered a true 3D experience.  I felt that my idea was unique and knew that there was potential for it to be huge.  The process of creating the system was by far the most fun I have had in school.  I loved the freedom to create and shape the product as I wished.  I loved sketching out a logo and designing the packaging.  I feel like that small project changed my life in more ways than I will know.  It allowed me to be creative and showed me the potential I had to create something big.  To this day, my desire to create things is just as great.  There is nothing I enjoy more than developing a new business idea.  I would love to be able to wake up every morning and be able to focus my time and energy on my own projects.

It is for this reason that I want to be an entrepreneur.  I desire more than anything to be able to create a product or application from scratch and bring it to the mass market.  I want to know that I am responsible for the paycheck that I am earning.  I want to have control over the business decisions that are made day-to-day.  I want to work with a team of people who are passionate about creating new things.

I know that it is not easy to do this.  It is going to take a lot of time and there will be sacrifices that I am going to need to make.  I am willing to do whatever it takes. I want to earn the right to be able to call myself an Entrepreneur.

The moral of the story is this: Life is as much about the moments you would rather forget as it is the moments you will always remember.

Our time here on this earth is short.  Life can pass us by in the blink of an eye.  Always make the most of every situation and value the moments you know are worth holding on to.

The last couple of months have been so busy.  We have created packaging, designed logos, sourced our product, and arranged for a vendor to package the product. We are so close to launching the brand, but there is still a lot that needs to be done.

We will be receiving the order of our our first product “Tiny Fruits” in just a few short weeks.  In the meantime, we still need to:

• Design the website
• Order printed materials
• Prepare shipping containers for buyers

We’re so excited for the big launch this summer and cant wait to share all the details with our friends and family.

Check back soon for more details.

Most people have come up with great ideas but very few have the determination and stamina to execute.

Most people are happy with the products and services that are out there.  They are happy with the programs that they use on their computer, the  TV shows they watch, and the restaurants that they visit on a regular basis.  They have no desire for change.

Most people let the market determine what is cool.  They don’t start trends, they follow them.

We are not most people.

Although it rained on Friday & Saturday, we still had an amazing time.  Sunday was in the high 50’s with not a cloud in the sky and a nice breeze.  We went down to the beach and the girls got to play in the sand.  It was one of those trips that I know we will all remember for a long time.  It was one of those trips that you wish didn’t have to end.

If you have been to Newport, you know that it is home to some amazing houses.  Actually “houses” may be a little bit of an understatement.  The correct word would probably be mansions…or castles.  Whatever the case, I have never seen such a large concentration of massive homes in my life.  When the owners of these residences decided to build in Newport, they spared no expense.  The amazing part about these homes is that they are not only are they enormous, they are also located right on the water!

While I was there, I spent a lot of time thinking about what the owners of these homes did to achieve such a great deal of wealth.  Unless there is a list out there that details their careers and accomplishments, I may never know.  One thing is for sure, I’m positive that a good percentage of them did not get to that point by merely drifting through life without any goals or purpose.

Which brings me to the point of this post…

DREAM BIG! If you want to have a home on the water, put it on paper and write up a plan to make it happen.  Don’t fool yourself and make a goal to own a condo when you know that what you really want is to have your own farm.  Don’t settle for a nice Honda if your goal is to be driving a Mercedes.  Don’t sell yourself short!

Everyone is capable of achieving their biggest dreams, they just need to have focus and come up with a plan to make it happen.

So what is my goal?

To live on the ocean where my girls can have the beach as their playground and I can use the ocean as design inspiration.