David Wogahn began his entrepreneurial journey raising chickens to sell eggs to his neighbors. Bored with corporate life at the LA Times years later, David co-founded a college sports Internet start-up in 1995 that outlasted the dotcom bubble. Today he helps authors form their own publishing imprint, and publishes their books.
Entrepreneurial Role Models:
- Jeff Bezos founder of Amazon
- Dick Beedon
When business started difficulties overcame:
“Defining a product, something somebody wanted, you think they want something, but until you can prototype it and get it out there and this was before a lot of the discussion of rapid prototyping and some of those other more modern ways. I’d say for us starting up it was a challenge to, we were ahead of the market a lot of the time, we had a business that was doing CD ROMS and there weren’t that many CD ROMS installed in computers and later the internet, and not many people had the internet the way it is today”…[Listen for More]
Favourite Books:
The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Book by Peter DruckerFavourite Quote:
“Always procrastinate, things may turn out in your favour” Howard Hughes
Recommended Online Resources:
Copy Blogger – Build your authority with powerfully effective content marketing
Best Advice to Other Entrepreneurs:
“You have to run towards that wall as if it’s not going to be there and I have a little sign above my office door and it has 0.01 and the 0.01 that’s 100th of a second, Michael Phelps won the gold medal in China in one of his swimming races and I always think that just the slightest little push with his fingers got him to that wall in a 100th of a second over his competitor and you can’t forget that every single little detail matters like that and that extra effort really does make a difference”…[Listen for More]
More About David Wogahn:
Neil’s Quote at the Beginning:
“Always question the why; don’t be satisfied with only knowing the how.” Catherine Pulsifer
Other Quotes From the Chat with David Wogahn:
- “I find that, especially nowadays, you get the ding on the email and you feel you have to respond very quickly, or the text message or whatever it might be, and taking that time in order to sit back and wait and procrastinate for something. You don’t want to do things that will be damaging to other people. I’ve had this happen to me recently where it’s been more of a strategic procrastination and it works out, and it could be as simple as don’t open your mouth just wait and listen and perhaps that person you’re speaking to will have something else that could be helpful or might actually result in a better deal if you’re negotiating”
- “It’s the little details that are vital, little things make big things happen”
- “You have to keep learning”
- “There’s just no guarantees out there”
- “If you don’t like change, if you don’t like reinventing, if that makes you uncomfortable then being an entrepreneur is never going to work”
David Wogahn
Thanks again, Neil, I enjoyed our visit.
Neil Ball
You are welcome David! I enjoyed out chat and having you as a guest on the show.