To help with that, I’ve assembled some inspirational stories of hard-working entrepreneurs with some non-business folks mixed in for good measure. Two caveats. First, hard work is completely irrelevant is you’re not working smart and being productive. Second, hard work is also counter-productive if you’re sacrificing your health to an extreme degree and if the increase in quantity of hours worked is leading to a decrease in your creativity (often the case!). With that being said, here’s some stories of people who’ve worked about as hard as a human being can.

Jeff Immelt – A few years back I read a story about Jeff entitled The Bionic Manager which reset my thinking about what hard work is. Here are a couple of passages from it:

Immelt, 49, says he’s been working 100 hours a week for 24 years. That does not take him back to his 1978 graduation from Dartmouth, where he was football team captain (as offensive tackle) and a fraternity president who liked to party….Most hard-charging types have put in a 100-hour week or two. But month after month, year after year—is that even possible? Let’s do the math. If you worked from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. seven days a week, you’d still be two hours short of 100 hours. If Immelt has been working that hard for 24 years, then he has already done 60 years’ worth of 40-hour weeks.

Here he is on a recent swing through San Francisco: The first meeting is with institutional investors at 7 a.m. Then he addresses some 200 retail investors at 8:30, standing comfortably for 25 minutes with his left hand in his pocket and his right hand holding his PowerPoint remote; after his talk, he answers questions for an hour. Then it’s more institutional investors, followed by GE salespeople in Burlingame, a presentation to customers, and finally a big reception for customers and top salespeople. He seems as energetic at the end of the day as at the beginning. He had run virtually the same routine in Los Angeles the day before.

Mark Cuban – Cuban has written some posts on his most excellent blog on the subject of hard work and loving what you do. Here is one of my favorite excerpts:

The edge is getting so jazzed about what you do, you just spent 24 hours straight working on a project and you thought it was a couple hours. The edge is knowing that you have to be the smartest guy in the room when you have your meeting and you are going to put in the effort to learn whatever you need to learn to get there. The edge is knowing is knowing that when the 4 girlfriends you have had in the last couple years asked you which was more important, them or your business, you gave the right answer…The edge is knowing how to blow off steam a couple times a week, just so you can refocus on business…The edge is recognizing when you are wrong, and working harder to make sure it doesn’t happen again. (from The Sport of Business)

Steve Pavlina and Seth Godin – These guys have written millions of words in their relatively young careers, authored books, spoken at conferences and started companies largely as one-man shows. They do more in a year than most people do in a lifetime and are well worth learning from!

Steve sums up his philosophy towards hard work pretty well in the aptly titled post “Hard Work“:

Hard work pays off. When someone tells you otherwise, beware the sales pitch for something “fast and easy” that’s about to come next. The greater your capacity for hard work, the more rewards fall within your grasp. The deeper you can dig, the more treasure you can potentially find…Your life will reach a whole new level when you stop avoiding and fearing hard work and simply surrender to it. Make it your ally instead of your enemy. It’s a potent tool to have on your side.

Seth has a similar post entitled “Labor Day“:

Your great-grandfather knew what it meant to work hard. He hauled hay all day long, making sure that the cows got fed. In Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser writes about a worker who ruptured his vertebrae, wrecked his hands, burned his lungs, and was eventually hit by a train as part of his 15-year career at a slaughterhouse. Now that’s hard work…Hard work is about risk. It begins when you deal with the things that you’d rather not deal with: fear of failure, fear of standing out, fear of rejection. Hard work is about training yourself to leap over this barrier, tunnel under that barrier, drive through the other barrier. And, after you’ve done that, to do it again the next day.

Eminem and Kanye West – These guys have legendary work ethics. Witness:

It is a little-known fact that the only book Eminem read as a child was the dictionary. He pored over it, searching for words that rhymed with each other that could later be pulled out of the bag during the freestyle rap “battles” that provided his education in hip-hop. The years spent studying the English language lie at the core of his technical brilliance. They turned him into the greatest rapper of his time. But they did so at a personal cost: for Eminem could be uncharitably described as an anorak. His life starts and ends with music. He writes constantly, scrawling lines on sheets of notepaper in a crabby handwriting. When he’s not composing new verse, or messing around in a studio, he’ll be listening to hip-hop. “The guy’s a studio rat,” says producer Terry Simaan, the owner of Oh Trey 9, one of the Detroit’s most influential hip-hop labels. “If he feels like it, he’ll spend 12, 15 hours a day in a studio.” (From Eminem: The fall and rise of a superstar)

But West initially had trouble convincing Roc-A-Fella execs to let him make his own album as a rapper. He was able to change their minds only after the accident that inspired his breakthrough single, Through the Wire. Exhausted from working around the clock, West fell asleep behind the wheel of his Lexus and got into a crash that nearly killed him. He was back in the studio three weeks later, recording that hit song with his broken jaw wired shut. (From Genius Is As Genius Does)

(Note to self…take a cab or have someone else drive you if you’re working your tail off!!)

Kobe Bryant and Tiger Woods – While these guys haven’t exactly been choir boys the last few years they’ve definitely worked their tail off to get to where they are. Here are some of my favorite articles about them:

Commuting to Staples Center with Kobe Bryant

Kobe’s well-honed killer instinct

It’s 1995, and Bryant is the senior leader of the Lower Merion team, obsessed with winning a state championship. He comes to the gym at 5 a.m. to work out before school, stays until 7 p.m. afterward. It’s all part of the plan. When the Aces lost in the playoffs the previous spring, Bryant stood in the locker room, interrupting the seniors as they hugged each other, and all but guaranteed a title, adding, “The work starts now.”

(Don’t miss Spike Lee’s documentary about Kobe either!)

Tiger vs Phil Part Two: Work ethic.

I refuse to let anyone outwork me. That’s the reason I log so much time on the practice range. Besides, hard work is the only way to maintain a competitive edge, and I enjoy the process. The key, though, is to practice with a purpose.

Tiger’s Daily Routine and Workout Regimen

The Beatles – Gladwell made their Hamburg-era work ethic famous in Outliers. Here’s the passage in case you missed it:

“All told, they performed for 270 nights in just over a year and a half. By the time they had their first burst of success in 1964, in fact, they had performed live an estimated twelve hundred times. … Most bands today don’t perform twelve hundred times in their entire careers. The Hamburg crucible is one of the things that set the Beatles apart.” (From this blog post about the band)

Yolanda and Rogelio Garcia Sr. – You’ve never heard of these two and I hadn’t either until I stumbled across this article talking about how they put their kids through college:

For 21 years, the Garcias have supported their family by picking through garbage, often cutting their fingers on broken glass while searching for cans and bottles. Late at night they make their living on the darkened streets and back alleys of Los Angeles, recycling other people’s trash for cash. They’ve collected more than 8 million cans and bottles to help put two children through college. Their youngest is still hitting the books, so Yolanda and Rogelio still hit the streets every night.

OK, perhaps this doesn’t fit the definition of working as smart as possible but nevertheless, reading stories like this reminds us that our “hard work” probably isn’t as hard as we think.

Who’d I miss? Let me know in the comments!

Plus a whole lot of other interesting articles and documents in our eduFire Content section. Check it out!

And then there’s the other type of quit.

The quit where a huge part of you wants to give up. The quit you make when you the world is against you, when you’re sick to your stomach half the time and when all those who told you it was a dumb idea to begin with are now reminding you that they told you that it was a dumb idea to begin with. The quit that just feels easier.

So what do you do when feel that kind of quit coming on? Simple. Never give up. But just because it’s simple doesn’t mean it’s easy. So here’s what you’re going to do when you feel that kind of quit coming on (and I’m going to say “you” but it’s really “we” because these are the things I’m going to do as well when I feel this kind of quit coming on!).

#1 – You’re going to read Evan Williams’ story in Founders At Work. When Evan was at Pyra Labs they ran out of money. He laid off the team (actually just stopped paying them). Everybody hated him. He worked alone for a year in what I can imagine were far from optimal conditions. And what happened next? He sold his product (a little thing called Blogger) to a hot start-up (a little company called Google). The rest is history. And I’m pretty confident there would be no Twitter today if Evan hadn’t persevered back in the day.

#2 – You’re going to read Paul Graham’s essay The Anatomy of Determination.

We learned quickly that the most important predictor of success is determination.

Got that? Not talent. Not intelligence. Determination. Thank your lucky stars you’re facing adversity. How the hell would you be able to show that you have what it takes to succeed if you weren’t?

#3 – You’re going to listen to Joe Liemandt’s story of the starting of Trilogy. Trilogy was dead. Dead as in $500,000 worth of credit card debt dead. But this story is a prime example of entrepreneurial will (even if it will likely make every financial advisor cringe). Joe and his team didn’t give up. They believed in what they were building and they had a vision for the future that they clung to even in the darkest of days.

#4 – You’re going to read the story of Steve Genter in Friday Night Lights. Genter was supposed to competed in the Munich Olympics in 1972. One small problem. His lung collapsed before the Olympics. He swam anyway. Without painkillers. You gotta read the whole story but if this doesn’t make you re-think quitting I’m not sure what will.

#5 – You’re going to watch Jimmy Valvano’s (the former basketball coach at NC State) speech at the 1993 ESPYs. At the time Jimmy was only 8 weeks away from dying of cancer. This speech is intense. Some of his closing words? “Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up.” (8:30 in)

#6 – You’re going to read the Three Feet from Gold story in Think and Grow Rich. Often when you’re faced with the prospect of giving up you’re simply three feet from gold. The world is full of people who were building what could have been the next Facebook or the next YouTube but stopped just a bit short. Don’t be one of those guys at the bar telling you the story of how he almost succeeded. Be the guy who gives it everything he has and has no regrets. Indeed, in your bleakest hour you’re usually three feet from gold.

#7 – You’re going to read this insanely cool collection of stories of people who simply did not give up. Reading through these almost makes you wonder if there has been anyone who has achieved something of lasting value who didn’t suffer rejection and defeat. My guess is that the number is pretty close to zero. Peoples’ failures often don’t get publicized but rest assured, pretty much anyone who’s ever risen to great heights has experienced more than a few Dark Nights of the Soul.

#8 – Finally, you’re going to realize watch the video below and realize that the greatest joys in life come precisely because you’ve been willing to go through the lowest of lows to get there. That’s exactly what makes them so sweet. One of my favorite professional athletes in Kevin Garnett (we had season tickets to Timberwolves games as kids). Kevin went through just about every form of hardship you can imagine. The Wolves sucked for years. Malik Sealy, one of his best friends on the team, was killed by a drunk driver (I was on the same road that same night so that one hit close to home).

All sorts of bad things happened. But he persevered. And last year he won his first NBA championship. Watch the pure joy:

That’s what you’re going to feel when you don’t give up. When you pull through and grow your company and get that big fat acquisition offer. When you ring the bell one day on the New York Stock Exchange. You’re going to remember those days when you wanted to give up and quit.

How sweet it’s going be.

When you get a little down on your luck (and we’re all there at some point in time), here’s a good little reading list (along with some comments) and a few videos for you. I tried to filter out the fluff on the subject (and there’s a lot of fluff on this subject!) and narrow it down to some articles with really quality advice. I think you’ll dig it.

Harnessing Entrepreneurial Manic-Depression: Making the Rollercoaster Work for You – Classic Tim Ferriss article. The part about timing your actions around when you’re feeling incredibly confident or less than confident is sage advice.

The Pmarca Guide to Startups, part 1: Why not to do a startup – This is the article that the Andreessen quote from the Ferriss article was from. It’s not necessarily going to make you feel anymore confident but rather will remind you that we all go through what you’re going through as entrepreneurs.

Some days things will go really well and some things will go really poorly. And the level of stress that you’re under generally will magnify those transient data points into incredible highs and unbelievable lows at whiplash speed and huge magnitude.

No truer words have ever been spoken.

The 21 Day Challenge Everyone Should Take – I liked this whole article but the “Realize you are going to die” part struck me particularly hard and reminded me of the Steve Jobs Commencement Address (embed at end of the post).

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

(full text here)

Ten Unusual Ways to Improve Your Appearance of Confidence That Really Work – A few of these were a little less than the best but I liked #1, #2 (who does that?!), #5 and #6. As with so much of this advice, it’s about trying stuff and seeing what works for you. But most definitely things like posture and exercise can do wonders for improving your mental state and your confidence.

How to Build Confidence and Destroy Fear – So much good stuff in this post. This quote alone was worth reading the article:

Remember that those times when you feel that your ideas aren’t good enough, or people are putting down on your ideas, or you’re getting fired — that these are the same ideas that you’re going to be celebrated for 30 years later. You almost have to have courage. — Francis Ford Coppola

Command a Room Like a Man – Apologies in advance to any women reading this blog (this is after all a post from a blog entitled “The Art of Manliness” ) but there are some good tips contained in here. The story about Teddy Roosevelt at 23 is classic as is the tip about taking control of your surroundings.

Al Pacino’s Inspirational Speech

Tony Robbins tells Rocky story

Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford Commencement Address

Anything is possible. Go out and kick some entrepreneurial ass.

#1 – Sam Altman pitches Loopt at the WWDC 2008. Epic pitch.

#2 – Omar Hamoui pitches AdMob. $0 to $750 million in three years. Not bad…

#3 – Evan Williams talks about Twitter at TED. Great story about the power of taking on side projects and following hunches.

#4 – Yext presenting at this year’s TechCrunch50. A slightly crazy presentation but the proof’s in the pudding. They’re doing $20 million in annual revenue and just raised $25 from IVP.

#5 – Cafe Press’s “Lesson Learned” pitch. No video here (unfortunately), just slides. But powerful slides. Like “8-digit term sheet” kinda powerful slides.

“Lessons Learned” – A New Type of Venture Capital Pitch

#6 – Drew Houston launches Dropbox at TechCrunch50 (2008). A year later Dropbox has 2 million accounts. For a 25 year old Drew’s one hell of a presenter.

#7 – Hey, just because it’s not a business doesn’t mean it’s not a start-up! Us businessfolks can learn a ton from how politicians sell themselves and get people to buy into their vision. Here’s a great example (Obama’s speech after the New Hampshire primary):

And another (Reagan’s “Tear Down This Wall” speech). Gotta balance the left and the right…

#8 – Aaron Patzer launches Mint at TechCrunch40 (they won top prize). Notice how he immediately gets you hooked by talking about something that’s important to everyone (money).

#9 – Kevin Rose demos Digg…in 2004.

#10 – OK, so these aren’t all startup pitches. But this is Steve Freaking Jobs we’re talking about. “Every once in a while a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything.” How can I not include him in this list?

Bonus awesome Steve Jobs videos here and here (jump to 4:50). And if you love learning about how Steve Jobs pitches a startup most definitely check out this awesome Venture Hacks post.

#11- David Sacks launches Yammer at TechCrunch50 2008 (they won top prize).

#12 – Michael Pritchard demoing Lifesaver. Make no mistake. A killer start-up pitch can save lives.

BONUS #1 – OK, a couple of funny ones too. The Tonchidot presentation from TechCrunch 2008 is straight hilarious:

As is Ali G pitching the “Ice Cream Glove”:

BONUS #2 – The best article I’ve read on pitching to investors. And a great video from Dave McClure on the same topic. And one more thrown in for good measure (”How To Demo Your Startup”).

BONUS #3 – Not sick of pitches yet? Check out the links below. Some are good, some are bad and some are downright ugly. You’ve been warned!

Richard Branson’s PitchTV
Shark Tank
TechCrunch50
TechCrunch Elevator Pitches

Babak Nivi (Venture Hacks)

Pitching (Excellent outline with a bunch of must-reads. Other favs below…)
Create a market for your shares
Potpourri: Introductions, Auctions, Tranches, and Co-Investors
Tips from a ex-VC who helps entrepreneurs raise money
Should I shop around?
What should I send investors? Part 2: Deck
What should I send investors? Part 3: Business Plans, NDAs, and Traction
How should I format my deck?
Is it safe to send my deck to investors?

Marc Andreessen (blog)

The Pmarca Guide to Startups, part 2: When the VCs say “no”
The Pmarca Guide to Startups, part 4: The only thing that matters

Mark Suster (Both Sides of the Table)

Pitching a VC (Awesome outline! Some of my favorites are also listed below.)
The First VC Meeting (Post 1 of Many)
The First VC Meeting (Post 2 of Many)
The First VC Meeting (Post 3 of Many)
The First VC Meeting (Post 4 of Many)
A Tale of Two Pitches
Do You Really Even Need VC?
VC Funding Season Ends Next Week
WTF is Traction? A 6-Step Relationship Guide to VC

Paul Graham (blog)

What Startups Are Really Like
How to Fund a Startup
The 18 Mistakes That Kill Startups

Chris Dixon (blog)

The most important question to ask before taking seed money
Don’t shop your term sheet

Guy Kawasaki (blog)

The 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint
The Art of Raising Venture Capital
The Top Ten Lies of Venture Capitalists
The Top Ten Lies of Entrepreneurs

Some other miscellaneous links:

Startups 101: The Complete Mint Presentation
Writing a Business Plan
Writing a Compelling Executive Summary
Top 5 things missing from most entrepreneur pitches
David S. Rose on pitching to VCs
Fail: 12 Ways To Blow Your Investor Pitch
4 Things to Do After You Get Your First Term Sheet
Combined VC Pitch Deck with Examples and Discussion
How To NOT Write A Business Plan
How I started Seesmic and raised $6 million
Startup Viagra: How to Pitch a VC
Tips for the first VC Meeting
How Not To Make A Fool Of Yourself When You Pitch VCs Like Me
My Startup Experience: VC, Entrepreneurship, Self-Analysis & The Road Ahead
Mint CEO Aaron Patzer on Startups
Disturbing Similarities Between Dating & Raising Capital
Pitch Perfect
4 ways to get automatically rejected by an angel investor
Raising Money Using Customer Development
Due Diligence Checklist
Term Sheet Archives (from Brad Feld)

Bonus: Some good pitch videos

Yext (from TechCrunch 50)
Loopt (Sam Altman)
Yammer (Winner of TechCrunch50 2008)
Mint (Winner of TechCrunch40 2007)

UPDATE (11/08/09 @ 2:40 PM PST): Added four links.
UPDATE (11/09/09 @11 AM PST): Added five links.

Came across this article today about California (via Mark Suster and Michael Schneider) and the lousy state (no pun intended) that we’re in: Will California become America’s first failed state? The article talks about people facing real problems. Stuff like high unemployment, spending cuts in health care and education and people losing their homes. You know…real problems.

And then I flip over to TechCrunch and started reading a few of the articles about the start-ups that are being covered and to be honest, I got a little nauseous. Before I say why I will say this. Mike Arrington and the TC crew have done more to support entrepreneurs than anyone else on the planet. And, as anyone who knows me will attest, I bleed entrepreneurship. I’ll do almost anything to help an entrepreneur in need. It’s not easy to be out there pursuing your dream and I get that. But here were the last few articles that were posted about start-up companies on quite likely the world’s most influential start-up blog.

Dropico Lets You Drag And Drop Pictures Across Social Networks

Birddi Is A Spanish Twitter Clone

Design Community Decorati Will Be Your Personal Interior Decorator

Sidebar Will Deliver Personalized Mobile Apps And Content To Your Phone

No disrespect at all to any of those start-ups but I do think it’s really, really important for all of us entrepreneurs to take a big step back and ask whether what we’re pouring our time and energy into is really solving the important problems. I’m certainly not the first person to write this. Tim O’Reilly has implored upon us to “work on stuff that matters.” And Umair Haque has been talking for years about the need to create thick value. And in fairness to TechCrunch even their own Sarah Lacy recently wrote her own “memo” to start-ups about changing the world (btw, definitely read this response to her memo).

But I think that’s kind of the problem here. We are way too focused on the incremental stuff, the stuff that will make our Facebook experience or Twitter experience marginally better. The next social game that can eek out a few more dollars in revenue or the next ad network that delivers a 2% better ECPM. None of those things are bad. It’s just that the opportunity cost of those things is very high. It means you’re not working on something that just might solve a really big problem. A real problem.

I’d love to see more entrepreneurs doing that and I’d love to see more people shining spotlights on the entrepreneurs who are. Where attention goes energy will flow. Just think of all the people who do whatever they can do to get on the latest crappy reality TV show. We need to give start-ups that are changing the world a bigger stage on which to share their ideas and products.

I’m an advisor for a tiny start-up called SocialEarth.org. They probably get a tenth of a percent of the traffic that TechCrunch does (if that). But what I love (love!) is that their articles are focusing on the right stuff. Whether they will succeed or not almost isn’t even the point. Whether eduFire helps change education for the better or not isn’t the point. The point is that trying to solve the world’s biggest problems or helping to empower the people who are (through writing about them, investing in them, etc.) is hands down the most important work on the planet. And we absolutely need more people, especially the world’s brightest and most energetic people, to take up the cause.

So we’ve spent a lot of time thinking how we could contribute to what I truly feel is a renaissance period for entrepreneurs. It’s with great pride that I’m excited to announce today the launch of the eduFire Business Channel. We are really fired up about the possibility of bringing world-class entrepreneurs and investors to anyone who is interested in learning from them. We’re launching today with 20+ fantastic people who have graciously agreed to share from their experiences building companies as both operators and investors. And we plan to add many more very soon.

Here’s a sampling of some of the rock stars who will be teaching classes on eduFire in the coming weeks. I can’t wait for their classes.

Sean Ellis – Sean’s track record is growing start-ups in unparalleled. He’s been involved with helping to grow companies like LogMeIn, Eventbrite, Dropbox and Xobni. We’ve been working with Sean since May and I can tell you that he brings a very unique perspective to the startup world.

 
 

Neil Patel – I’d call Neil one of young up-and-comers but I think that would be doing a disservice to him. This guy has already arrived. He’s the co-founder of two kick-ass companies (CrazyEgg and KISSMetrics) and one of the smartest guys I know. His SEO knowledge is incredibly valuable and I’ve personally benefited a ton from my interactions with him.

 
 
Avinash Kaushik – I first learned about Avinash when I read his book Web Analytics: An Hour a Day. He knows his stuff and as a long-time reader of his blog I wonder if there’s anyone out there who actually knows more about web analytics than Avinash. Given how critical web analytics is to almost every business these days this session is one that I think everyone will benefit from (I will be taking copious notes!!).

 
 
Mark Dowds – Mark is the consummate entrepreneur. He’s been a part of helping to start numerous companies and I’m very fired up about what his current company (Brainpark, Inc.) is doing. Mark is also an extremely funny guy so if you like to laugh while you learn you’d be hard-pressed to find someone better for that than Mark. His class promises to be both engaging and enlightening.

 
This is just a start. We have more classes currently posted to the Business Channel now and more to come soon. And if you’re interested, we’d love to have you teach a class too. My dream would be to have thousands of entrepreneurs from all around the world teaching and inspiring millions of people to start a company or make their company even more ass-kicking.

Entrepreneurship is the engine that drives innovation and gives all us awesome stuff that makes our lives better like Google, Twitter, Facebook, ZipCar, Mint.com and Scribd (and thousands of other amazing companies). By helping each other out and teaching each other from our knowledge I truly feel we can change the world. If eduFire could play a small role in that I’d be incredibly happy.

P.S. I’m teaching a series of entrepreneur bootcamp classes and donating all the proceeds to Kiva. Classes will run every Thursday in October at 6 PM PST. I hope you can make it!!

Penny For Your Thoughts – Umair Haque from Sander Duivestein on Vimeo.

Umair uses the example of the food industry and I think it’s an appropriate one. The food industry (let’s say fast food for the purposes of this analogy) certainly does provide some benefits to society. Calories. Enjoyment of eating meals with friends/family. Convenience and time savings associated with not having to cook. However, the modern fast food industry also imposes a slew of costs on society. Huge environmental costs. Significant contributions to our obesity epidemic (this video will blow your mind).

But here’s the interesting part, the vast majority of those external costs are not borne out by the fast food companies making money off selling their food to consumers. McDonald’s doesn’t pick up the cost of the heart attacks its food helps to cause. Burger King doesn’t have to pay anywhere near the true costs of those flame-broiled Whoppers. So they are able to artificially create value by charging a lower price and making higher profits than they would if they had to pay the true costs that their products are imposing on society.

Fast food is hardly the only example of this. Other forms of inauthentic value creation can be seen in every nook and cranny of society. Anywhere there is an option to take true costs of a product and externalize them you get inauthentic value creation. Anytime you see government subsidies increasing a company’s profits, whether this be a corn farmer in Iowa or an investment banker in Manhattan, you get inauthentic value creation.

So lest I end this blog post on a depressing note, let me talk about an area where we are, recession and all, seeing a tremendous amount of authentic value creation: Tech entrepreneurship. Now as a tech entrepreneur I’m admittedly biased but let me offer up a few data points here:

#1 – Watched this excellent TED Talk by Juan Enriquez (embedded below) a couple of days ago and he quoted an amazing statistic:

“Venture-backed start-up companies are 0.02% of US GDP investment and are about 17% of output.”

Wow. That’s a mind-blowing statistic. We’re spending such a small amount of money on funding new technology and yet receiving enormous payback (think Google, Apple, YouTube, Amazon, eBay, etc.).

#2 – Look at the example of YCombinator, a program that I think is, on a pound-for-pound basis, the most innovative thing going on the planet. In the last few years, with a relatively small amount of money, YCombinator has produced a host of high-value services like Dropbox, Loopt, Scribd and Xobni. Check out this recent Motley Fool article “Ignore YCombinator at Your Own Risk” for some more on just how much they’ve done with so little.

#3 – The other side of the authentic value equation of course is cost and here’s where tech really shines. Unlike industries like energy (at least traditional energy), food and health care, it’s difficult to see in tech where significant costs to society get externalized. This isn’t to say it doesn’t happen but rather than the costs are so small relative to the benefits that technology is affording us that it’s hard not to argue that when costs are factored into the equation, technological innovation doesn’t represent, by far, the most significant authentic value creation on the planet.

The thing about authentic value creation is that it doesn’t get recognized immediately. Which is why YCombinator doesn’t have many multi-millionaire alumni rounding around despite the fact that Wall Street ignoramuses continue to pull down fat paychecks and bonuses. But I’m an optimist and I believe that eventually what you do catches up to you. It’s starting to happen. The playing field is starting to level and tech is playing a big role in making that happen faster than most people realize. Let’s hope it continues and intensifies as the meme of authentic value creation spreads to more people. I’ll let Umair take it from here…

Umair Haque Q & A from BRITE ‘09 conference from BRITE Conference on Vimeo.