{"id":"5fa5033c6cee070006bad84a","slug":"hopping-over-the-rabbit-hole-en","title":"Hopping over the Rabbit Hole","audio_url":"https://hls.blinkist.io/bibs/5fa5033c6cee070006bad84a/5fa5033c6cee070006bad84c-T1604650070.m4a?Expires=1652689245&Signature=RtFUEXMBeV~B-wC8p8e47TRZuPQyp0UImu-qCnUKET21WojVC-CzbfREAOhHKGIcOzKtWUlfDwwfzyunCnUXCHbz4NW5hJKWOX8Hogqgl1fJ-U2rF2r3~yKwS48hTBpuvPspRzW2HypRJGhRkaVH9SNBPcDnFvXCFwlwHDaAWuAPk9VyeJjM9ZE000pRwKcGJVPDmd~kJii8HPWqe8uyc7jl2MXNNymShi263Y0~Aihr2Kkc0m4JfDgmJZuQ93zg9lzkt9SzFACHPUniQpLoFJOdPeffxDzJTLgBIBBrGF~OK03dXe5NycoltwaqzvF7tnmqWueeg9sOAPBpsfwA8Q__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJXJM6BB7FFZXUB4A","chapters":[{"id":"5fa5033c6cee070006bad84c","title":"Bold moves can pay big dividends.","text":"

The date was March 2009. The US economy was in shambles. Financiers on Wall Street were panicking, the S&P 500 had hit rock-bottom, and financial institutions were canceling important conferences left and right.

All of this chaos was terrifying for the author. He worried that the downturn would sink his company, SkyBridge Capital. But one day, his business partner, Victor Oviedo, proposed an idea: What if SkyBridge threw a hedge fund conference in Vegas?

At first, the author thought Oviedo was joking. “Come on, Vic,” he said. But he quickly began to warm to the idea. After all, what better way to prove that you and your business were creative, adaptable, and entrepreneurial than pulling off an event like this, at a time when other businesses wouldn’t dare to do the same?

The key message here is: Bold moves can pay big dividends.

The author and his partner named their conference the SkyBridge Alternatives Conference, or SALT, and set a date for May. Two months before the conference, the author presented the idea to his other five business partners. They were not exactly thrilled. But being SkyBridge’s founder, the author had the final say. They were going through with it.

Remarkably, he and his team pulled off the planning and production of the event in less than two months. They managed to attract prominent guest speakers and fill the seats with investors, asset managers, academics, nonprofit leaders, and media personalities.

By all accounts, the SALT Conference was a major success. During a deep economic recession, SkyBridge had put together an educational conference that gave attendees hope for the future. It also proved to the world that SkyBridge wasn’t going out of business.

But it went even farther than that. The conference brought SkyBridge mainstream attention that resulted in the author appearing in the Oliver Stone film, Wall Street 2. That led Stone to agree to read the manuscript of the author’s first book – and to write the foreword, too.

This shows that dire circumstances can be overcome. They just require bold and unprecedented moves. In just a year, SkyBridge had gone from near-bankruptcy to hosting a successful conference and appearing on top news networks. They could have easily fallen down the rabbit hole of recession and gone under. But instead, they rescued themselves by making the most of a bad situation.

"},{"id":"5fa5033c6cee070006bad84d","title":"When you face failure, you must adapt.","text":"

After the success of the early SALT Conferences, it only made sense for SkyBridge to start thinking about taking the conference overseas.

On a trip to Asia, the author and his partner Oviedo found what seemed like the perfect location: Singapore. The small Southeast Asian country had a thriving entrepreneurial spirit and a booming private banking industry. Plus, Singapore’s government was willing not only to endorse SALT, but also to assist SkyBridge throughout the planning process.

SkyBridge held SALT Asia Conferences in Singapore in both 2012 and 2013. They were hugely successful, and everything seemed set to go just as well at the 2014 conference, too. But not long before the event, SkyBridge realized they’d made a big mistake.

This is the key message: When you face failure, you must adapt.

Preparations for the 2014 SALT Asia Conference came crashing down when Oviedo received a call from the Singaporean government. They were asking if SkyBridge would be willing to postpone. The reason? Deepavali. The Southeast Asian holiday was taking place on October 22 that year – smack-dab in the middle of the conference. SkyBridge had failed to take the holiday into consideration when making their initial plans.

The author knew that he and his team couldn’t risk offending Singaporeans or the Singaporean government by going through with the event. So they immediately set about canceling everything. And then they pivoted. They started planning an alternative event: the SkyBridge Global Symposium.

The Symposium, which took place in Japan, was a more intimate event for prospective investors to meet prominent hedge fund managers and thought leaders. Over a hundred institutional investors were in attendance. They had the opportunity to talk with some of the folks who had been scheduled to speak at the original conference, like former Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke.

Ultimately, SkyBridge was able to salvage both their relationship with Singapore and some of the costs they’d sunk into the original event. By admitting that they’d made a mistake, the author and his partner showed honest leadership. Then they set to work remedying their error by coming up with a new, strategic action plan.

Throughout your career, it’s inevitable that you’ll experience failure and make mistakes. Don’t try to ignore them or cover them up. Instead, acknowledge your errors – and then own your response, turning failure into success.

"},{"id":"5fa5033c6cee070006bad84e","title":"As an entrepreneur, you must ensure that you’re always focused on the right things.","text":"

Lots of prospective entrepreneurs have an overly glamorous idea of what it means to start a business or become an investor. They dream of being able to afford top-of-the-line sports cars, lavish mansions, or private jets.

The author fell into this trap, too, when he was young. In 1986 he was in his senior year at university, and was dreaming of a three-week trip to Italy. To finance it, he planned to make use of Hood Ice Cream, a company that allows individuals to rent ice cream trucks and buy inventory to sell to customers.

His goal was to make a huge profit by selling ice cream during the Boston Marathon that year. In the days before the marathon, he had a healthy number of sales – and was already picturing Italian sands. But things didn’t go quite as planned.

Here’s the key message: As an entrepreneur, you must ensure that you’re always focused on the right things.

On the day of the Boston Marathon, the temperature was an unusually brisk 38 degrees Fahrenheit. To make matters even peachier, it was raining. The author had no chance of selling ice cream in that weather. At the end of the day, he went home with $1000 less in his pocket than when he’d started.

He’d made a common rookie mistake. He was focused on the outcome – getting to go to Italy – rather than the process of selling the ice cream. As a result, he stopped paying attention to the details and failed to make a backup plan in case things went wrong – which, of course, they did.

Years later, the author met another business owner who was overly fixated on entirely the wrong things. The man’s office was decked out in imported Italian marble, fine art, and intricate oak carvings. But the author correctly predicted that this person would soon be out of business. Why? Because he’d overspent on making his office look incredible while letting the substance of his business fall by the wayside.

Clearly, spending tons of money on luxury goods is a bad idea. So what should you spend money on? What investment has the greatest chance of guaranteeing you success? In a word, people. Without the right team, there’s very little chance that your business will grow.

Let’s find out what that team should look like.

"},{"id":"5fa5033c6cee070006bad84f","title":"Put your team to best use by delegating, empowering, and creating accountability.","text":"

When it comes to team-building, you might be tempted to seek out a bunch of geniuses. But this is a mistake. Those geniuses often want to pull in different directions, which ends up wasting valuable time and creating conflict.

It can actually be much more effective to build a team of modestly intelligent people who are great at working as a team. Choose employees who possess a collective spirit and don’t care who gets the credit for a big success. And once you’ve found them, make sure you give them everything they need to flourish.

The key message here is: Put your team to best use by delegating, empowering, and creating accountability.

The author is a big fan of having his team members work in close proximity. Actually, they work so closely that he hands out free soap and deodorant to everyone. This is the swamp tank model of open communication in close quarters, and it helps to foster collaboration.

On top of the swamp tank, the author makes use of the DEA management style. DEA stands for Delegation, Empowerment, and Accountability. Let’s dive into what that means.

Delegation means accepting that you can’t own every decision in your company. If you want to scale your business, you have no choice but to delegate responsibility – even for the most critical initiatives and projects.

After accepting the need to delegate, the next step is empowering your partners and employees. Give them the resources and the autonomy they need to be successful. Ensure that everyone feels supported and comfortable offering critiques. That way, they’ll know you care about them, and they’ll be much more willing to put in good work.

Along with empowerment comes accountability. Since you’re giving your partners and employees the leeway to make their own decisions, you’ll also need to hold them accountable. As a leader, though, you should be willing to accept the blame for major company missteps. As long as your team has put in an honest effort, this is much better than finger-pointing.

Successfully implementing the DEA management style means developing a culture of morality at your business. Wall Street has a reputation of being an unethical, cutthroat place. But you don’t have to fit that stereotypical mold. Always act with honesty and integrity, and your employees will follow.

"},{"id":"5fa5033c6cee070006bad850","title":"Don’t go through life with a chip on your shoulder.","text":"

When the author’s career first began, he had a huge chip on his shoulder. He was a middle-class Italian kid from Long Island, and he didn’t enter the business world with a ton of connections or skills. So when he was fired from his first job at Goldman Sachs, he was convinced it was because he was different. But in reality, he just wasn’t the right fit for the job and lacked the necessary technical skills.

It hurt for the author to reckon with his own shortcomings. But he had mountains of school debt to pay off, and he simply didn’t have time to victimize and pity himself. So he took personal responsibility for his circumstances, and decided to live in the present rather than the past. You should do the same.

This is the key message: Don’t go through life with a chip on your shoulder.

Self-pity, victimhood, and self-loathing can all be paralyzing. They can prevent you from taking the initiative to improve yourself. They can also inspire you to seek revenge for real or imagined slights. And that could lead to you tarnishing your reputation or your connections with potential business partners. Just take it from the author, who had a bit of a strained relationship with his direct manager at Lehman Brothers.

When he resigned from his position at the firm, the author decided to play a little practical joke. He rang up his former manager on the phone and told him he was working on something exciting and could use his manager’s help. His former manager took the bait, asking how he could help. The author informed him he was setting up a sumo mud wrestling ring on the sixth floor so he and his boss could duke it out. They could even split the proceeds, he said.

Unsurprisingly, the author’s former boss didn’t find this too funny. The author had let his emotional insecurities get the best of him and could have jeopardized a business relationship. Fortunately, the two were able to smooth things out years later, when this former boss made a surprise appearance at a SALT Conference. Still, the author could have avoided a lot of embarrassment if he hadn’t let his emotions get the better of him in the first place.

"},{"id":"5fa5033d6cee070006bad851","title":"Use media exposure to your advantage.","text":"

Do you have a thick skin when it comes to taking criticism? You might think you’re immune to negative feedback. But the truth is we all care what other people think – at least to some extent. And that’s actually okay! But when it comes to your business, letting people’s opinions influence you can quickly become detrimental.

The world’s greatest entrepreneurs, like Arianna Huffington, Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos, all get healthy doses of criticism and negative media coverage. But their entrepreneurial visions have made them willing to challenge public opinion and push on with their dreams – even when many people have been critical.

So, if your dream is to start your own business, be warned: you’re going to face lots of public scrutiny. But if you’re prepared, you can actually use it to your advantage.

The key message here is: Use media exposure to your advantage.

Bad press can be a huge distraction. But you can train yourself to ignore it. Start by just brushing off one personal attack or piece of criticism each day. When you learn how to cope with criticism, it becomes much less effective, and the media will be discouraged from attacking you.

That doesn’t mean you should completely ignore the image you project. Slip-ups like drinking too much at the company holiday party and making inappropriate comments can be disastrous. That’s especially true in a day and age where anything could potentially be recorded on a smartphone and posted online.

That’s how you immunize yourself against bad press on a personal level. But what about changing the way the media treats your company as a whole? For this, you’ll need a good PR strategy.

PR strategies come in two parts: a controlled part and an uncontrolled part. The controlled one comes from advertisements. Advertisements are how you make consumers feel a certain way about your company or product.

Then there’s the uncontrolled part of your PR strategy. This is how the media chooses to portray your business. In order to improve this aspect, you and your company need to develop a relationship with the press. If you engage in open dialogue with journalists, they’re much more likely to be sympathetic to you and hear out your side of the story.

To assist in this process, have people on your team who are good at getting out in public and telling your company’s story in the right way. And funnel resources into improving your customer service and customer relations strategy. The media are sure to take notice.

"},{"id":"5fa5033d6cee070006bad852","title":"Being a good salesperson requires relationship-building skills.","text":"

Whether or not you’re in sales, you’ll almost inevitably have to sell something during your career. It could be a new business venture, a fund, or a more traditional product like dishwashing liquid. So you probably can’t avoid sales forever. But you can change the way you approach it.

Many people think of selling as a kind of tug-of-war. As if you, the salesperson, are trying to drag unwilling people away from their money. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Instead, you can sell honestly and ethically. All you have to do is build relationships.

Here’s the key message: Being a good salesperson requires relationship-building skills.

In order to be a great salesperson, you really need to get to know your clients. If you do, you’ll be able to suggest products that actually meet their needs and objectives, rather than simply make a profit off of them. If a person isn’t a good fit for your products or services, don’t be pushy. That’s a great way to get people to dislike you.

If someone turns your pitch down, you have a couple of options. You could, of course, tuck your tail and run, and simply accept the other person’s “no.” But a much better option is to try to turn “no” into “on.” That means finding ways to make yourself a resource to the person you’re selling to. Learn what that person really wants, and help her solve problems that may not benefit you directly. You can also ask her for a referral – she might not be the right fit for your service, but she may know someone who’d be interested.

Just like people fear sales because they hate the idea of rejection, many people are afraid to negotiate because they expect it to be an unpleasant experience. They imagine negotiation as a battleground where only the most persistent can win. But if you go in with that mindset, you’ll probably end up miserable – and not necessarily better off.

Instead, you could try the Li Ka-shing approach. Li Ka-shing, with a net worth of $30 billion, is one of the richest people in Asia – and that’s no accident. As a negotiator, Li’s philosophy is always to allow his partners to benefit handsomely from every deal he makes. That way, they’ll be more than willing to come back and keep doing business with him. Always be ready to create value for the other person – and watch how your own business benefits.

"},{"id":"5fa5033d6cee070006bad853","title":"Don’t be afraid of sticking your neck out in public.","text":"

Many novice businesspeople squirm at the idea of networking or speaking in public. Even the author admits that underneath his brash public persona, he’s actually quite shy.

The prospect might be terrifying, but it’s important to use any networking opportunities that come your way. Don’t think you have to be the most fancily dressed person in the room in order to make an impression. Instead, just go for it. Remember that in any networking situation, other people are likely to be just as uncomfortable as you are. If you simply walk up and introduce yourself to people, they’ll probably be grateful that you did.

The key message is this: Don’t be afraid of sticking your neck out in public.

Networking can definitely be intimidating. But perhaps even scarier is public speaking. Here’s where we can take a lesson from the author’s daughter, Amelia.

Amelia was only twelve years old when her father got her a very special gift. It was an opportunity to sing “God Bless America” in front of 50,000 people at Shea Stadium, the former home of the New York Mets. Amelia was overjoyed when her father broke the news to her – but then she became terrified. What if she clammed up or hit a false note in front of all those people?

Despite her fears, Amelia pushed ahead. She prepared relentlessly for the event, spending countless hours practicing in front of her mirror and other people. She practiced getting used to Shea Stadium’s outdated sound system. And she repeatedly practiced her walk out to home plate.

As a result of her preparation, Amelia nailed the performance. Her father couldn’t have been prouder. In the car heading back home, he asked Amelia if she’d been nervous while she was singing. She said yes, at first. But once she was actually out there, the nerves went away. She explained it this way: “At the end of the day, Daddy, I know that I am enough.”

Amelia, of course, was talking about singing. But this advice applies to budding entrepreneurs, too. If you don’t believe you’re enough, your chances of success are zero. So you have to work hard to maintain your optimism and live with the conviction that you’ll succeed. This way, instead of falling down the rabbit holes of failure – you’ll hop over them.

"},{"id":"5fa5033d6cee070006bad854","title":"Final summary","text":"

The key message in these blinks:

As an entrepreneur, you’re far more likely to end up going out of business than you are to be a huge success. But there are plenty of things you can do to increase your chances of making a name for yourself. These include adapting to bad situations, taking personal responsibility for your actions, assembling a high-quality team, and fostering your relationship-building skills. Above all, believe fervently that you really can succeed.

Actionable advice:

Make use of unconventional marketing strategies.

Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Airlines, didn’t raise awareness of his company through banner ads or billboards. No – he flew around the world in a hot air balloon and bungee-jumped off the side of the Palms Hotel Casino. These shocking publicity stunts brought so much attention to Virgin Airlines that it eventually became one of America’s most popular airlines. So don’t be afraid to challenge the status quo. Determine the factors that set you and your business apart from your competitors, and run with them.

Got feedback?

We’d love to hear what you think about our content! Just drop an email to remember@blinkist.com with Hopping over the Rabbit Hole as the subject line and share your thoughts!

What to read next: Failing Forward, by John C. Maxwell

As these blinks have demonstrated, failure is an inevitable part of starting, owning, and operating a business. At some point, something will go very wrong – but you have the power to decide what happens next.

Perhaps you’ll be like Thomas Edison, whose failed experiments with the telegraph machine led to an early version of a recording device. Or maybe you’ll be more like Amelia Earhart, who once crashed her plane on takeoff yet went on to achieve six flight-related world records. To find out more about these stories, and to hear other inspirational tales about embracing your failures to become successful, check out our blinks to Failing Forward!

"}]}

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