The Glamorous Life of an Entrepreneur part 6 – On to the challenges

Continuing my saga, which I last described in part 5:

I recently read a book called Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions, by Dan Ariely, and he was talking about how difficult it is to change behavioral patterns. One interesting example he mentions is about bloggers that tackles issues through blogging about them to the world, and creating a support self-motivating community this way. The common objectives are to stop smoking, save more money, repay credit card debt, etc. I figured that perhaps I could follow the same pattern in order to keep motivating myself about the business (as some of you may know, motivation is one the most critical ingredients of start-up road which is full of potholes and curves).

Having said that, I thought I would share the progress I had had this week:

1. Spoke to an advertising professional and a retail professional to get some new contacts at fashion brands
2. Had dinner with a local entrepreneur veteran who said she will introduce me to her contact at FIRJAN – an industry association, which apparently among rest is investing in promoting Rio as a fashion capital.
3. Started preparing materials in Portuguese for a digital marketing agency targeting high-end retailers
4. Helped a friend to make a valuation model for his start-up business. Thinking I should invest in it based on the numbers I got..
5. Met an entrepreneur who is working on software tool to recruit IT professionals for projects and discussed potential collaboration options. Offered my help in getting investors.
6. Started collecting a group of people to invest in setting up a hostel in Rio (got 4 people excited, now only need to find a property).
7. Talked to a designer in Russia to help me create a logo for the website.
8. Decided I need to find an intern (no luck yet but asking everyone)
9. Went to visit some fashion stores and got business cards of the management office
10. Carpet bombed some retail professionals on LinkedIn to see if they would want to talk to me
11. Started a social movement to empower women to take leadership roles in business. The facebook page is up so obviously the sky is the limit! I realized lately that it’s a cause I care a lot about and have a chance of making some difference in. So hope everyone joins and shares inspiring stories of women leaders.

You can read about what happened with it in part 7.

12. Made a presentation to a group of USA MBAs visiting Brazil. They seemed to enjoy it. I hope I inspired at least some of them to try something else aside from consulting or banking in NYC or SF.

I suppose I also got some sleep, did all the other stuff that I normally do: went to work, gym, met with friends, went to a house party, read my book, watched Mad Men. I guess time really stretches when one multi-tasks.

Looking forward to the next one..