Chris Yoko – Founder and CEO of Yoko Co: Chris focuses on helping people, and the organizations they belong to, pave the road to a more Utopian world. He empowers heroic organizations to build and champion themselves using their most powerful asset, their web presence. Chris is an expert in web design and accessibility, digital marketing, company culture, and social responsibility. His goal for himself and those he aids is to be driven by a purpose beyond profit.
Entrepreneurial Role Models:
- Chris’s Grandfather
Also mentioned:
- Stephan Little CEO & Managing Partner at Zero Limits Ventures
When business started difficulties overcame:
“lack of knowledge was probably a big one. Whenever I got started, I was 24. I think there is a Mark Twain saying confidence and ignorance are a powerful combination… I am glad I did what a did when I did because I probably wouldn’t have if I had calculated the risk over again and just looked at how much I didn’t know. But being able to lean into it and being really, really comfortable with ‘failing ’ or just making mistakes and making up for it and learning from those experiences ultimately make you better at anything especially what you do”…[Listen for More]
Favourite Books:
- Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not! Book By Robert T. Kiyosaki
- Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t Book by Simon Sinek
- Firms of Endearment: How World-Class Companies Profit from Passion and Purpose Book by Rajendra Sisodia and David Wolfe and Jagdish N. Sheth
Favourite Quote:
- “The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself.” Carl Sagan
Also mentioned:
- “All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure” Mark Twain
- “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent; it is the one most adaptable to change” Charles Darwin, British naturalist
Recommended Online Resources:
- Hacker News is a social news website focusing on computer science and entrepreneurship. It is run by Paul Graham’s investment fund and start-up incubator, Y Combinator. In general, content that can be submitted is defined as “anything that gratifies one’s intellectual curiosity”
- SSRN – Social Science Research Network is devoted to the rapid worldwide dissemination of research and is composed of a number of specialized research networks.
Best Advice to Other Entrepreneurs:
“don’t shy away from hard work… It’s not about glory and social media and all of the things that you can get around it. And none of those things are going to fill the hole you have in yourself anyway. I know a lot of people who have got to the point where they have a lot of those things and then begin to wonder okay well why do I still feel the same way I did when I started on this journey. Do the work for the works sake and find a mission that feels fulfilling to you and lean into it. Don’t shy away from it”…[Listen for More]
More About Chris Yoko:
Neil’s Quote at the Beginning:
“Success breeds complacency. Complacency breeds failure. Only the paranoid survive.” Andy Grove
Other Quotes From the Chat with Chris Yoko:
- “everyone has an exit at some point. You get hit by a bus, you retire, you sell it, somebody buys you out. People don’t live for ever and until they do every business has to have an exit plan in mind”
- “if you build with the end in mind you will understand what you are building towards and it will be a lot easier for you to say no to things that don’t align with that direction and say yes to the things that do”
- “look is a huge one and to a certain extent you make your own luck. But I know a lot of people who have worked very, very hard and didn’t get the lucky break and it didn’t work out for them. And I’ve known some people who have maybe not put in a whole lot of effort and managed to be in the right place at the right time and it’s worked out very well for them. But at the end of the day, you make your own luck and you can make that look by putting in the hard work. And it might not be the right time but if you can hang around the right place and so if you are working and you are there a longer amount of time you increase your chances that you are at the right place and eventually it will be the right time. So ultimately just been able to lean in and not shy away from hard work and to not expect that it is going to happen overnight…”
- “If you want to really maximise the amount of power in your punch you have to punch through your target. Most people punch at their target but if you are punching through it you are going to have more power behind that. So, a lot of people just focus on profit and that’s where they land. Those organisations that focus a little bit behind profit to impact tend to hit harder”
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