Yark..doing a show on Friday, April 30th... ;-)

Ok...it's only been about 20 years or so since I've been on stage, that is as a straight performer.  My degree is actually in theater (went in as a Physics major, came out with theater...much to my father's dismay.) I've been on stage a ton since then, but mostly as company boy, or geek to English teacher. (For a while I held the record as doing the most talks at a single MacWorld, including a regular talk I used to give trying to explain databases to people in a way that didn't make their eyes cross.  Actually did that one for an audience that was in the 5k range.)

But I haven't done a pure performance piece in a while, and I sure as hell haven't sung in front of people in a long time.  And here I am, doing a piece that I'm lovingly calling a brutally honest look into while the hell someone would subject themselves to the hell of being an entrepreneur willingly, and even with some perverted relish.

I'm struggling mighty with how to put this together, but I think I've finally got and approach that will be interesting. 

I'm going to run through a bit of it here with the image of you guys sitting in front of me (sorry...the singing won't make it through the keyboard...to see that, you need to be there in person.)

 The show is Friday the 30th at 8.  Tix are here..

Hello: My name is Ben Calica and I'm a Start-up guy.  (Notice I didn't say entrepreneur.  Actually saying it breaks the 3-C rule [Carefully Constructed Casualness] that entrepreneur's need to obey.  Since the right to not have to get dressed up comes from enough sucess that you really don't give a $#^@ what anyone else thinks, that becomes the ideal that we try and project.  Think about it.  If you go into a business meeting and 20 people are dressed formally, and one is in jeans and a Hawaiian shirt, likely he's the most successful guy int he room.  That or he's an engineer who doesn't give a crap.  In either case, likely someone you want on your side.)

I say I'm a start-up guy with equal measures of pride and dismay.  After taking a very long and hard look at it, I can honestly say that it is a matter of who you are, not who you choose to be.  Believe me, the ups and downs that I put myself and my family through are neither fun nor kind.  So what makes someone do this?  What is it about our upbringing or DNA that prevents us from leaving well enough alone.  That keeps us from trusting that there most be some good reason why something is being done in a lame-ass way. And that forces us to grab the reins and do our damnedest to find a way to make things better, even if it ends up stepping on someone else's toes in the process?

What are the characteristics of an entrepreneur?

1. Too smart for his/her own good (never saw a problem or unsolved market need that they didn't have to try and figure out)
2. Golden tongue and the passion to match:  Can talk the feathers off a peacock (or checks out of angels or VCs)
3. Risk-Blind: Ok not risk blind, but willing to take big leaps without the safety net of someone having done it before or some set of BS market data that they can point to later to blame if it fails.
4. Reality-Proof Ego:  Able to keep going through a storm of "That will never work." or "Actually, what you really need to do is...".  Able to take a hundred rejections to get to the one or two folks who get it.
5. +10 Force of will:  Able to take something from the wisp of an idea and make it to come into reality through that sheer force of their determination.
6. Weeble: "Weeble's wobble but they don't fall down."  Semi-sane ability to keep getting knocked down, thrown off course, and some how keep getting back up again...

 

More later...The show will include a few deep and dark stories from the industry past including my one really great argument with Steve Jobs. (A big deal in my life, I'm sure not even a speed bump in his.)