Alan VanToai, Author at ZenHustle

Event Recap: Exploring the Path of Mindful Entrepreneurship (w/ Walter Roth)

February 11, 2017 By Alan VanToai Leave a Comment

ZenHustle Mindful Founders Meetup

Last Tuesday, February 7, I had the pleasure of hosting my friend Walter Roth (Founder & CEO of Inward, Inc.) for a discussion on mindfulness, meditation, and entrepreneurship.

We were joined by a diverse group of curious minds: entrepreneurs, students, teachers, businessmen and women, expats, locals.

Of the group, a few people had dabbled with meditation before, and a handful maintained regular practice.

The overwhelming majority, though, had never tried meditation before, which was great to see.

Experience regardless, everyone participated, sharing their questions, thoughts, and experiences as we walked through an introduction of meditation, discussed it’s practical benefits in business and life, and practiced a few brief guided meditations together.

Here’s a complete audio recording of the event (mp3 download):

If you’re interested in getting started with your own meditation practice, I distilled the main points from the talk, including the recordings of the 3 guided meditations Walter and I lead, into The No-Nonsense Guide to Meditation for Entrepreneurs.

Check it out at http://zenhustle.com/meditate

Hosting the event was incredibly fun, and deeply rewarding. I can’t wait for the next. Stay tuned.

– Alan

There is no destination. You’ve arrived.

January 18, 2017 By Alan VanToai Leave a Comment

As an ambitious person, it’s easy to get fixated on the future:

Money/Traction/Growth. We’re not quite there yet. $2,000 monthly revenue. $5,000 monthly revenue. $100k annual. $1 Million annual. $10 Million valuation. $50 Million valuation. $100 Million. $500 Milllion. $1 Billion. IPO. Just a little more. Then we’ll be there.

Features. There’s so much left to do. The platform needs a few more things. It needs smarter groups. It needs SMS (with Twilio it’ll be easy…). New-user onboarding needs to get smoother. The right FB Chatbot could really set this whole thing off (plus it’s early so we could benefit from the PR boost…). Why aren’t we moving faster? We need more devs.

Bugs. Ugh, not another. Why are we still dealing with these? What the fuck is wrong with our software? Is {{developer-name}} even trying?? This customer’s going to churn, I can tell. Everyone’s going to churn…

It’s our biological programming – nature’s cruelest trick. We’re programmed, by default, to strive for more, and to never be satisfied with what we’ve got.

More customers. More revenue. A higher valuation.

More robust features. A smoother user experience. Faster execution.

Less fuckin’ bugs.

It’s easy to look at the challenges and goals ahead, and look forward to the day when you’ve conquered it all.

You’ve hit the number. The software is complete. You’ve solved all the bugs.

You’ve arrived.

The thing about it is – there will always be more.

No matter how grand your ambitions, no matter how big your goals, one thing is certain: when you achieve them, you will always be looking for what’s next.

So recognize that, and embrace it. There is no “more”.

This is it. This is what life is. This is as good as it gets.

There is no milestone, no achievement, no threshold to pass. No finish line. No pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Only a lifetime of challenges, work, and problems.

The best you can hope for are good problems and interesting challenges: Room for growth. Room for improvement. Bug reports. That’s the business, so embrace them. That’s life.

Realize, then, that while growth is important, you must not defer your tranquility, happiness, and gratitude for that future – no matter how promising, no matter how bright, no matter how important it is.

Instead – practice mindfulness and gratitude in the present.

Reflect on what you’re grateful for today.

Grateful for every customer you do have. Grateful for every dollar you are earning. Grateful for the bugs even, because, hell… at least people are using the damn thing!

If you spend your life pursuing a future that doesn’t exist, you’ll miss the slice you’re experiencing right now.

Annual Planning

December 29, 2016 By Alan VanToai Leave a Comment

Earlier this week, I sat down and did some personal annual reflection/planning. It’s a routine I’ve maintained since 2012, so this was my 5th year doing it.

I follow a really simple outline – just writing a bunch of bullets for each of these points:

Overview:
* What did I do in 2016?

2016 Highlights:
* Health
* Wealth & Business
* Relationships
* Learning/Reading

Strengths & Weaknesses
* What did I do well in 2016?
* What could I have done better in 2016?

Goals & Priorities
* What are my goals and priorities for 2017?

Habits & Routines
* What bad habits do I want to eliminate?
* What good habits do I want to continue?
* What new habits do I want to start?

I find that it really helps put time into perspective – reflecting on the year, and then looking back on the past reflections and plans from previous years.

In our business, we just started doing something similar – as recommended by Gino Wickman his book Traction, where he outlines a business management framework he calls the EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System).

In EOS, you start by drawing your big-picture stuff – your reasons for being in business, your values, your long-term vision (10-year, 3-year) – and then you work backwards from there to draw 1-year plans every year, quarterly priorities every 90-days, and weekly meetings to check-in with progress, in order to take you in the direction of that larger, long-term vision.

It’s a super logical framework to apply to business, and though I haven’t implemented anything quite as thorough in my personal life, I’ve sort of stumbled into a vaguely similar process… starting with long-term “where do I want to be/who do I want to be” (I did this as a senior in college back in 2010 after reading 4HWW), and then doing annual check-ins every new year.

This year, inspired a friend of mine here in Saigon, I’m thinking about doing a weekly check-in or something. Most of my personal goal/priorities for the year center around regular habits I want to implement – things I want to do on a regular daily/weekly basis. Having weekly check-ins on, say, Monday mornings might help keep me honest.

Not sure I’m ready to get that crazy yet, hah. We’ll see.

Here’s to a big 2017.

Scarcity vs Abundance Mentality

May 5, 2016 By Alan VanToai Leave a Comment

I saved this blog post from First Round Capital to my phone a few months ago, and only just got around to reading it on a flight earlier this week.

It ended up being one of the more insightful blog posts I’ve read in a while. Really uplifting and positive: The Remarkable Advantage of Abundant Thinking (First Round Capital)

Early in her work with a client, Verresen will give them a scarcity vs. abundant thinking diagnostic. The goal is to separate out and identify the physiology, feelings and thoughts they experience when they’re in a scarcity-driven mindset vs. what they experience when they’re thinking abundantly. This helps them truly feel the distinction and notice the tipping point between these two modes in their everyday lives. That way, they can proactively choose a more constructive attitude.

Life as a balancing act.

February 21, 2016 By Alan VanToai Leave a Comment

From “Suzanne’s Diary for Nicholas” by James Patterson:

Imagine life is a game in which you are juggling five balls. The balls are called work, family, health, friends, and integrity. And you’re keeping all of them in the air.

But one day, you finally come to understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back.

The other four balls – family, health, friends, integrity – are made of glass. If you drop one of these, it will be irrevocably scuffed, nicked, perhaps even shattered.