1- How did you get to know so many people?

One by one, over the course of many years.

When I first spent time in Silicon Valley, in 2000, I knew very few people. I asked the few people I knew who they recommended I talk with. I asked for introductions and met with those people, one by one, over coffee or lunch or drinks, and somewhere in the conversation I asked who *they* recommended I talk with. In those days I had a lot of time and didn’t know a lot of people, so I followed up with everyone who was recommended to me.

Nowadays, I don’t have much time, but I still like to meet new people. So lately I meet people by being introduced to them by someone else I know. LinkedIn is very helpful for meeting new people through someone I know.

2- What is the secret to building good relationships with people?

Focus, listen, share, maintain.

Focus on things in common with them that you’re interested in, too, both professionally and personally. Listen to what they say about those things, and also listen to what they don’t say. Share information and connections. Maintain a balance between doing favors for them, and asking them to do favors for you.

3- How is your company,Renkoo going to succeed?

We want to succeed by designing an application that is useful, beautiful, and fun.

We get a lot of feedback about our product, and we have lots of ideas of our own, so we need to strike a balance between listening to our users and following our own instincts. Our development process has changed recently to accommodate a lot of small releases of new features and designs rather than a few big releases. We’re eager to roll out Renkoo’s new code base, and then continually improve our offerings with a lot of small releases.

1- How did you become interested in trends?

I think it is from my parents open upbringing and the consistency to do it. I think that anybody can start a blog about cool t-shirts. The question is can someone do it 5 times a day every week.

2- What trends are you personally interested in?

Right now we are focused on integrating companies into the digital landscape. We build them into myspace.com/secondlife/im bots/podcasts/etc. Integrating them into what’s available but not through advertising or marketing. This new model is more as a resource for our clients.

3- How did you create a business out of it?

This was a total accident. The site was just a place for me to share cool things that I saw: music, travel, culture and design for family and friends. When tons of people started showing up (60,000 a month), it turned into a business. Over time more and more more people started to come and share the site with friends. Request for interviews came with time including the Denver Post. In a short period of 6 months it became a business. Audi was the first client and we’ve been fortunate to work with Nike & BMW.

This is a hard one as parents rarely give sufficient credit to their children (and this doesn’t just apply to entrepreneurship). I would suggest focusing on the fact that a lot can be learned in the startup process (regardless of whether one succeeds or fails). Also, mention that it is important to take risk and that doing so while one is young is usually easier before other responsibilities in life start coming in to the picture. Finally, I think it might help to demonstrate that you have a passion for actually creating something great (and this is not just a passing fancy).

2- Why should anyone listen or read you?

Tough question. There are many, many bloggers that are much more successful, much more articulate and have much better ideas than I do. Part of the value that I bring is that unlike the “a-listers�, I can serve as a more modest benchmark of how a programmer can start young, work hard, and still succeed. Though examples like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs are great inspiration, I find them to be a little too “remote�. I don’t look at folks like that and think “Hey, I can do that!�. I much prefer more down-to-earth examples that may not have succeeded as much, but that I think I resemble much more. My hope is that by making my writings informal and down-to-earth, I’ll have some appeal to a pool of potential entrepreneurs that will look at me and think: “Hey, if Dharmesh can do it, I can too. He’s nothing that special.� J

3- What is hubspot in lament terms and how is it going to succeed?

HubSpot is my most current startup. It is a software company building a web-hosted set of applications that help small businesses increase their revenues by integrating the sales and marketing function. Too many small businesses are still trying to sell “the old way� and have not yet accepted that their clients are now using the Internet more and more. If you are a small business today, you need to get smart about how your potential clients will find you, select you, and engage you.

This goes beyond just creating a website and licensing some CRM tool. We’ve created an “end to end� product that does both the sales and marketing piece. I am hopeful that we’ll be successful as we are actually the first CRM company that is actually addressing the transformation that is occurred in the way sales now occur. Companies like salesforce.com have basically taken a product idea from 10+ years ago and just put it on the web. It’s nothing but a web version of Siebel (simpler and lower risk, but the same product). We are doing something very different. We are betting on the trend that smart small businesses recognize the opportunity to grow their business by using the Internet, and we want to offer them a simple, integrated solution that meets their needs.

Thanks for your time Dharmesh!

Where did you go to school?
undergrad nyu majoring in psychology and philosophy
grad penn: phd psychology : interestes in skinnearian & animal learning.

How did you choose NYU for undergrad?
nyu offered me an incredible scholarship. i wanted to go to columbia. i was irrational as possible in making that decision. was editor of highschool newspaper. i had a meeting at columbia and was blown away. that is why i went

How do you think most kids pick which colleges to go to?
most college choices are irrational. irrational reasons are not a bad thing. people want to have the perfect place. that is impossible. it matters a lot less where you go to school then people realize. roommate, teacher, things you can’t know in advance really impact your future.

Why did you end up teaching at Swarthmore?
it was all luck that i ended up there. my wife was a grad student. it was convenient to get that job. ideal place. small. liberal arts college. the only job ever had and applied for.

How do you like Swarthmore?
I appreciate it more and more over the years. This is the best job for me. They really accept me here. I realized you can really influence how much you enjoy your job.

How did you meet your wife?
We have known each other since the 8th grade.

Any advice on finding the right job?
If you think that what you have can always be improved, then it will be hard to be satisfied with any job. this is not a recipe for being successful or satisfied. the message now a days is only the best will do. we all need to settle for good enough.

How can my readers figure out what jobs to take?
For young professionals they need to pay the rent. ideally people need to think about when they get up in the morning are they looking forward to going to work. meaning and engagement is the most important thing in life. not everyone is fortunate enough to do that. you may have to settle for the first decent job. find a way to make that job meaningful. most people in America can’t stand it. barring financial necessity, taking jobs based on money is a mistake. least important aspect, everything else is more important.

How do you just settle?
There is a will on the part of people to resist the life. You get a lot of information about seeing what others are doing and you have to resist becoming a slave to always wanting more. That attitude will always bring misery and dis-satisfaction.

Don’t you think people will have regret about settling?
I think regret is a good thing. when you regret when you do things, chances are you won’t do it again. when regret seems to pervade your life. a way to minimize that is to spend time focusing on whats good about your decisions. everything is good and bad. we focus on the bad things. with practice we can flip that. practice gratitude!

How can you practice gratitude?
write down a few things you are grateful for. realize the small/big things in life. we all have 2 or 3 things that we have a reason to be grateful for. appreciate the small things and what you got out of it. you will pay attention to what was good and not less.

What things are you interested in recently?
Lately I have been interested in what makes sombebody a maximizer, satisfier or perfectionist.

Also, I have been interested in how kids make choices. They receive so much pressure from parents and do what there parents tell them to do. Parents can have high standards without insisting for the best. This is not a recipe for technological process but to make decisions that create a satisfactory life.

How did you get interested in decision making and choices?
This is just not my research this is the way I live my life. I practice what I preach. My wife is the first girl I dated starting in 8th grade and we are still married. I am always satisfied with good enough. My job is the first I applied for and am still working at. I go to the same restaurants and I order the same thing. I do occassionally try new things (he said in a loud voice). I just try to avoid spending so much time trying to figure out what to eat or try new things.

Noah’s Note: Some of the cool stuff from his book is about picking and choosing which things you really want to spend time on. It is not a bad thing to spend a lot of time deciding thing or that more choices are bad. Barry just thinks life is more enjoyable when you don’t spend all your time trying to make chocies. Having rules helps think less about choices and makes life easier. Also, habits make life easier. Such as brushing your teeth, showering daily, etc…

What do you think is a good way to help kids grow up making good choices?
I think sheltering is a good thing. A neglected question is how do children make choices. little kids have a hard time doing it. sherlting them is a disaster. with some attention, teach them how to make decisions for themselves. keep the possibilities limited. make the set bigger. practice at decision making. in a protected environment.

How do you want to be remembered?
I dont really think about it. i guess as someone who’s work was helpful about the way people think about how they should live their lives. I want my kids and grandkids to be happy. this is the most important thing ever to me. i have 2 daughters. 1 is a social worker who works with hiv pregnant women. focused on producing healthy babies. ucsf medical school.

Do you write or read blogs?
I don’t read blogs but I think a fair amount of people are talking about my book. I don’t have time to read blogs and I tend to prefer magazines. I have some real concerns about quality control and dont have time to be an editor of the ideas people write about. Often and worthwhile material will ping up to him in mainstream. I am working on my next project and don’t have time to write. I do respond to every email that is sent to me.

Any recommended reads?
1 – happiness hypothesis – jon hidt
2 – stumbling on happiness – dan gilbert

If you want to hear more from Barry check out his video at Google.

Job: creator of IWillTeachYouToBeRich.com and Co-founder & VP Marketing for PBwiki.

Favorite Book: Doctors by Erich Segal

I’m not really sure if I’m the best person to write this, but if Noah asks, how can I say no?

Lots of people ask me, “How many hours do you spend working/day?� I never really know how to respond because my work isn’t really like that. It’s not based on number of hours, or lines of code, or whatever. It’s based on finishing projects, coming up with ideas, meeting the right people, and writing. And while I’m doing work, I’m also browsing blogs and answering emails. So is that work or not? It’s impossible to separate them.

On a typical day, I wake up around 6:30 or 7am (I’m weird like that), check email, and read blogs/Reddit for about an hour. I work from home so there’s no commute. I’ll usually try to finish the IWillTeachYouToBeRich article I started the night before and post it sometime in the morning.

During the day, I’ll work on marketing and improving the usability of PBwiki. Here are the most common things I do:

• Sketch out how new features should look and feel
• Coordinate with engineering (“Is this possible?â€?)
• Coordinate with our designer (“Make it look prettyâ€?)
• Work on outbound marketing (identify who we want to use PBwiki and how we want to spread the word, and then do it)
• Monitor support emails
• Misc stuff like hiring and setting up meetings

During the day, I also take lots of breaks to visit friends for lunch, meet with other entrepreneurs, watch a show on TV, take a nap, go for a run, etc. It helps me to focus when I need to, plus it keeps me from going crazy when working from my house. In terms of just raw logistics, I spend a ton of time on my email and calendar every day (my goal is to get back to everyone within 48 hours max). In the evening, I might meet up with someone, then come back and try to get some writing in. The weekends are pretty low-key work-wise, but I spend some time on a recruiting book I’m writing with two friends and some other pet projects. Most nights, I usually get to sleep by 11:30pm or midnight. So while there’s literally no division between work and personal life, I guess that’s exactly how I like it.

Links:

http://www.ramitsethi.com – my web site

http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com – my personal-finance blog

http://www.pbwiki.com – our wiki company

http://www.bittershirts.com/thingsihate — my comedy blog

I think this WDYDAD needs a little bit of an introduction just because nobody knows what I do when I tell them I’m an auditor (not even Noah whose known me for a while now :). So, what do I do? I audit financial statements. Why? Because there’s a statistic that says that 8 out of 10 spreadsheets created have errors…that’s a lot of errors, and I don’t know what the statistics are on people incorrectly interpreting accounting rules or intentionally managing their funds but I’m sure they are pretty high. I think most people recognize auditors when I mention Arthur Andersen and Enron…so, what I do is equivalent to what Andersen was doing for Enron…except without all the fraud, etc.

I didn’t grow up wanting to be an auditor, I don’t think many auditors do, and it’s not one of those professions that people line up to learn about at career fairs either, but since I started (6 months ago), it’s been a definite learning experience. Every day I’m working on something different, every month I’m working with a different team and about every two months I’m working with a different client. So, I tried to make this WDYDAD pretty general so that I can call it a typical day. Anyhow, Enjoy!

5:30-6:30 am: Roll out of bed, go to the shower without tripping on something or other, shower, brush teeth, try to find semi-decent business casual clothes in my closet that match, put clothes on, grab a glass of orange juice, run out the door

6:30-7:30 am: Drive to work while listening to the following radio stations: 94.9 (you’ve gotta love Strawberry in the Morning and the morning mix!), 101.3, 97.3, 105.3, 89.3 (woohoo, Ohlone College Channel!)

7:30-8:00 am: Check work and personal email, clean out mailbox, read bloglines, check newspaper headlines off nytimes.com, check my blog stats, read okdork.com

8:00-9:00 am: Finish the work that I took home to work on the night before but never really worked on, figure out what tasks to give the interns, review the interns’ workpapers quickly before giving them to the seniors

9:00-9:05 am: Say hi to everyone on the team, make some jokes, go to the kitchen and make myself a cup of coffee (yummy hazelnut coffee)

9:05-11 am: Finish walkthrough documentation and help interns with their work (this is about one question from an intern every 30 minutes that takes about 10-15 minutes to figure out and answer, so not much of my own work actually done), discuss work with seniors, clear comments

11 am- Noon: Chitchat with the client while trying to ask for additional supporting documentation and answers to a sheet of questions

Noon-1:00 pm: Pick up lunch with team, eat lunch while reading gossip websites (msn.com gossip, gofugyourself.com, thesuperficial.com), reply emails, make another cup of coffee because I get REALLY sleepy after lunch

1:00-2:00pm: Repeat of 9:05-Noon

2:00-3:00pm: Walkthrough or interview with client

3:00-4:00pm: Meeting with the team to discuss recent client issues, usually because some problem arose regarding the client’s calculations of a number, their documentation, their supporting documents, or their rationale

4:00-5:00pm: Repeat of 9:05-Noon

5:00-7:30pm: Actually complete work that is assigned to me, write a list of items that I need from the client and email the list to the client, figure out what needs to be done the next day and for the rest of the week

7:30-8:30pm: Drive home

8:30-9:30 pm: Dinner (usually Kashmiri food made by my mom and grandpa…mmm, yummy), chat with family

9:30-Midnight: Make phone calls, check/reply emails, work on blog, study for CPA exam, work on entrepreneur27, HFG, and other side projects, and finish any work from the office that needs to be done

If you’ve actually sat through and read this entire article, and you’re still interested in the life of an auditor, check out my blog at shivani.wordpress.com, or email me at sopory@gmail.com.

I live in Los Angeles where I am gainfully employed as a grade school teacher by day and a cocktail waitress by night. In regards to educational background: I studied music at UH Manoa and am presently about halfway through a Master’s in Education from National University with an intention of teaching high school English. In regards to nightlife: I’ve been cocktailing for about 5 years (serving not drinking) and currently work a popular sushi joint on Sunset Boulevard.

The following is an average Friday.

7:00 am – alarm goes off. Snooze until about 7:50 at which point I realized I have to shower then jump out of bed in a panic and do so. Make a myself as much of a lunch as is possible in the five minutes I have left before needing to leave the apartment: pb sandwich, cookies, goldfish and water bottle.

8:15 - leave the apartment. halfway to my car realize I left my lunch in the kitchen and turn around.

8:20 – leave the apartment.

8:50 – stop for a grande chai latte. get to school at exactly 9 and power walk to the classroom where the kids are finishing “morning business.” greet the teacher and sit down near Isaac*, my special needs student. Throughout the day work with Isaac individually and assist him in the classroom/playground.

11:15 – I go to the teacher’s lounge for my lunch and sign in. opt against the pb sandwich in favor of brownies put out in the lounge, finishing two and the goldfish i brought. nap in my car for 15 minutes to recharge.

3:00 - school ends, after walking the students out and chatting with a few parents i jump in my car and try to beat traffic for the 13 mile trip back home (405′s a bitch on fridays)

3:30 – get home and fut around for an hour before getting ready for work again.

5:00 – leave for work. curse crappy weekend traffic.

6:00 - park and run to the restaurant. arrive at work slightly sweaty but clock in only 2 minutes late. check shift notes and have my uniform approved by manager on duty. spend the next hour standing around because there are no patrons.

9:00 – get slammed. at about 10 o’clock sneak a shot with another waitress which makes the last two hours go more smoothly.

midnight - listen to the other servers bitch and brag about their night and tell my own stories. recap any b-list celebrities that were in that night and then have another shot. clean up the restaurant and wait for the last straggling diners to stop making out and leave the floor.

1:30 – head for home after a few more drinks/shittalking. call my roommate on the way who is also getting off work and pick up happy meals for the both of us. eat, gossip, shower.

3:30 – fall asleep.

and that’s a basic friday.

* yeah right, like I’m telling you his real name.

Person: Me
Job: Over-Employed

9am: Wake up to the Von Bondies and mom yelling at me to get a real job.
9:05-10am: Eat Special-K with strawberries (only 2 weeks 2 a smaller waist) while checking emails, yahoo finance and bloglines.
10am-10:10am: Brush my teeth, put on deodorant and grab whatever clothing I find in my closet.
10am-12pm: Research for my new business endeavours, write up some ideas & post a new entry.
12-1pm: Go for a lunch meeting with a friend/vc/start-up/business person/etc…
1-1:06pm: Get nervous about what’s happening the rest of the week, if my ideas/projects are going to work & whether my gf is happy.
1:07-1:10pm: Drink a delicious Chai Tea Latte from Starbucks. Seriously, go try one and let me know what you think.
1:10-1:30pm: Plan out the latest entrepreneur27 events.
1:30-2pm: Chat with companies regarding consulting, jobs and product strategy.
2-4pm: More responding to emails, reading bloglines, planning and executing projects, checking out girls who walk by Starbucks and then looking at pictures of my gf out of guilt:)
4-5pm: Phone call with random person for business stuff.
5-6pm: Planning out ideas, writing, research. Damn it doesn’t seem this boring when I am really in the day.
6-8pm: Play a game of tennis or bike riding around town.
8-8:30pm: Make a bowl of Wolfgang Puck’s delicious tomato soup and a turkey sandwich. Try not to get crumbs on the counter or finger-prints on the microwave.
8:30-10pm: Work on my projects, make phone calls to people and clean my room again before I get yelled at.
10pm+: Go drinking, bowling, movies, relaxing, television or reading.

This was kind of uninteresting to write. Was it interesting to read? Wdydad? Put your answer on your site or in the comments.

Tomorow you are getting the story of a teacher by day and bar tender by night…

1- Yaro from Better Edit wrote about the Pareto Rule.
2- FMF wrote some tips for agreat 401K.
3- Debt Hater wrote how to climb out of your Grandaddy’s debt.
4- Madame X from My Open Wallet wrote a piece asking What makes you feel poor?
5- Nina from Sitting Pretty wrote a great piece on being a Late Adopter.
6- Jim from Bargaineering wrote an intersting piece how Student Loan Debt is An Investment.
7- Penny from Money and Values wrote a piece of about retiring early and financial independence.
8- Mike from SaveOnRefinance wrote a nice piece about Mortgage Refinancing.

Other: Do your Taxes in 7 days, How would $3 gas change what you do?, The Relative Costs of Self-Care, Tax tips for unmarried families, Moving Sale Results, The Week Ahead, Investing in Collectables, Microsoft Money 2006 Tax Estimator, Two Months Salary?, What do you want to give your children?, What Options do you have with your money?, Retirement savings by age, IRAs and HSAs, Friday’s Fabulous Financial, Trust me, we are not poor, Poor No More, Tips for paying taxes with an irs loan, DIY = N/G, Loan Rate Sheets Example, Stop complaining about your finance, Share buyback and dividends, Gold, Ask Uncle Bill, Note to Self about Fluctuations, Stop Selling your Name, Spend more with.., Articles that don’t help, Bad Decisions.., The Art of War Newsletter, Boomers Failing…, Control your spending.