Be Excellent to Each Other

Yes. I’ve figured it out. The two most important lessons you need to know about starting a business can be summed up by a classic late 80’s movie. Yes, you guessed it. Wanna learn what you need to do to start a business? Watch Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure.

Odds are you know what the movie is about. Wiki describes the movie as “a 1989 American science fiction–comedy buddy film in which two metalhead slackers travel through time in order to assemble a menagerie of historical figures for their high school history presentation.” OK that’s accurate for the most part. I guess “90 minutes of awesomeness” didn’t work well for the editor.

What does that description have to do with starting a business? Nothing. BUT…check this out.

Getting a business going is no easy feat, but you know what? I recommend it to everyone. Try it. Have an idea…put a plan together and just do it (Nike pun intended). 141 is off to a great start, and we know that we will only get bigger…we will give thousands of glasses away, and turn 141 into a profitable business. Granted, I’m no expert on the subject…I’m probably the equivalent of pre-historical trip Bill/Ted, but here are a few things I have learned and would like to share with you about starting a business.

“BE EXCELLENT TO EACH OTHER”. It’s arguably the main theme of the movie, right? Rufus (the futuristic dude) says this to Bill and Ted all throughout the film. “Be Excellent to Each Other”. Abe Lincoln even says it. And you know what, they’re right. So if you are going to start a business, start a business with meaning. How can your idea help others? How can it make an impact on what’s going on in the world that you would like to change? Soon you will discover that being excellent to each other is good for business.

“…YOU KNOW NOTHING.”

Bill: [reading Socrates from their history textbook] “The only true wisdom consists in knowing that you know nothing.”
Ted: [gasps] That’s us, dude!
Bill: Yeah!

I love that. But it’s true. When starting a business, there are a TON of folks out there who know what you don’t know…so ask them. Ask your friends, family, colleagues, former professors. If you know a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy who does what you want to do…then ask the guy you know to ask the guy he knows to ask the guy he knows to ask the guy he knows to set something up (that was exhausting). But, seriously, find those connections. It may take a while to set up, but ask as many questions as possible to everyone you can. Personally one of my favorite things about starting a business is that you are on one of the steepest learning curves you will ever experience. And, yes, I at least know the difference between Socrates and So-Crates.

Anyways, there’s obviously a lot more that goes into getting a business started. These are just a couple of my favorite lessons from one of my favorite movies. If you’d like to continue the discussion, please feel free to leave us a comment or shoot us an email. We’ve obviously had a lot of fun getting 141 going and would love to share what we have learned along the way.

And…

PARTY ON DUDES!

Stay Glassy,
Kyle
kyle@141eyewear.com

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