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Dan the Laptop Man is a Jedi Master!

As part of the Junto 2008 program we were asked to select an inspirational and local Entrepreneur to interview, while this task seems pretty basic, it is at its core quite a task. Knowing how much time an Entrepreneur really has available is quite slim, and for Dan he had to stop playing video game to talk to me, so it was quite a task. Having lived in Utah for quite a while you would have to have been living under a rock not to know who Dan is, his commercial have made us laugh with the sometimes absurdity and frequently laugh out loud attitude. So having seen his commercials and the multiple stores pop up, and the fact that 2 months ago I had my hard drive on my Sony Vaio basically die and having PC Laptops fix it for me, I had to try and interview him.

I contacted him through , and was doubtful he would respond, but within a few days I received a message to send him my phone number and he would call me when he was tired of playing video games. I waited with a kind of angst, as I tried to read all the questions that the Junto program had prepared and then last night at 11:20 PM Dan Calls, It was lucky as I had just finished working, so I was still in the office and had a pen and paper ready.

A Way Out!

Just as I started in with the questions, as Dan was making jokes and having a great time, we spoke about the beginning of his entrepreneurial career, selling t-shirts on Venice beach as he was too cool to sell stuff at the swap-meet, and the benefits was great money and hey “chicks” at the beach, what a cool business. He was making good money and was driving a BMW M3 and loving life, he then became involved in a gang and the “party life” and he openly expressed his experiences and the learn for them, he received a way out as he expressed it to move to Utah and live with his sister.

Using the Force

Dan was working for a computer company Silo and the business went under and he saw the opportunity and asked for the company database and his request was granted, he then contacted the customers and let them know he would be honoring their warranty and they would only have to pay for parts, the first year was difficult and lost about $20,000 but the subsequent year the business became more profitable and he changed the name to PC Laptops in 1994.

Jedi Wisdom

Dan openly is thankful to his mentors and shared some outrageous stories about the methodology behind their teachings. But by simply hearing a few of them I learned a lot. Dan believes in Karma, and wants to freely “give” of himself and of his resources, as one experience he shared is the feeling of letting his friends drive his Ferrari F430 Spyder, just to see the look on their faces! Dan truly has mastered the art of living for the right reason, he expressed the happiness he has simply by giving everything he does everything he has. Dan gave me some great advise and spent almost 2 full hours on the phone with me, I am truly grateful for his candor and his openness about some sensitive subjects and his willingness to help others.

Dan I want to become your Padawan, as you are truly a Jedi Master!

Junto 2008 Session #1

The Entrepreneurial Mind

Where to start, First off there was about 60 people from the general public that came, so it was a full house. The Salt Lake City Library was really nice, i have never been inside and it reminded me of Paris, or Europe, with the street being a type of coblestone. We met on the fourth floor, the room over looked the City building and through the other window looked up at the University of Utah. It was a great setting.

Joe Grover spoke to us first and presented to us how the program was to run and some basic kinetics of the program. Then Greg Warnock showed up, I can only say Wow, Greg was awesome, he got right into it with having us perform a coloring task, to color/draw a picture that shows our vision of what entrepreneurship is to us, here is my picture.

MY explanation was “Entrepreneurship always starts with an Idea, then grows and grows and the grows, and before you know it the original idea is gone, so you have to revisit it and make sure the new focus is inline with the original idea and then to progress forward at an increasing rate.” After I had shown my picture, Greg asked that we frame it, I plan on doing that for him.

The night took off like a wild fire, Greg had a unique way of controlling the feedback from the 20 canidates, by having them each choose from four colors of Starbursts, this way he rotated who was responding to the questions and gave each group a chance to speak. I liked it, but the color i chose, Sour Blue Raspberry, wasn’t the best tasting.

We talked about who we considered an Entrepreneurial Hero, Mine, is Richard Branson, as he is a true “serial” Entrepreneur, he has become the Virgin brand, and continues to push the conventional business boundaries with his new ideas. Richard was taught at an early age to “Never look back in regret, but to just move on to the Next thing”. Richard is an Adrenaline Junky/Risk Taker and loves every min of it. He knows that by being an Entrepreneur, is just that, being comfortable with risk.

entrepreneurial Characteristics I admire about Richard Branson:

1. No Regrets
2. Adrenaline Junky/Risk Taker
3. Branding
4. Philanthropist

Greg move into Why we were there I’m a 9 out of 10 for being in the right place at the right time.

Junto as explained by Greg, “You Get out of IT, what YOU put into IT”.

Only 5% - 10% of the businesses success is the idea.

Frankly there is a ton of information that was shared, but i’m not sure how much is to be repeated, as we signed a non-compete and disclosure agreement.

I’ll leave it at that and tell you all that this was an awesome opportunity and i am thankful to be participating! GO JUNTO 2008!

As most of you know I am an Entrepreneur at heart, now while most of my businesses have failed and have caused much strife in the life of my family and those around me, I have some great news!

I have been selected as a 2008 Junto Partner Participant. While there were many who applied to participate in this once in a life time opportunity, I was one of 20 individuals selected to “compete” for an opportunity to become a Junto Partner! While the statement alone might not give credence to greatness, those who have participated does!

The Junto Partners was founded my Greg Warnock, and Alan Hall, two serial Entrepreneurs. Greg is a venture capitalist and master entrepreneur, Alan Hall is CEO of MarketStar, both are actively trying to develop Utah’s entrepreneurs. Here is where Junto, pronounced (who-n-toe) yeah i said june-toe till Brock Blake, friend, CEO of FundingUniverse and former Junto Partner corrected me. The program this year is open to the public and held at the Salt Lake City Library.

During the 7 week program the 20 selected will be put through a serise of learning experiences and classes designed by Greg to help mitigate the failures most entrepreneurs come incontact with. As most of you know this is a dream come true, wheter or not i’m selected as a Junto Partner the opportunity is the best one i’ve had since finding Mandi. Wish me luck!