Matt poured himself a cup of morning coffee wondering, thanks to Yisel, where the grounds were made, what flavors he might detect, and whether the store-bought coffee he had sitting around was any good at all. Likely not, he mused to himself, and made a mental note to go and buy some of Yisel's that week.
The phone rang – an unknown number – but given the local area code and the fact that it was Sunday at 7:30 a.m. he figured it must be a relevant phone call and picked it up.
“Matt, it's Renault. How are you?” Renault said, calling from what sounded like his car.
“Renault – I'm doing great, thanks.” Matt answered, no longer surprised by these unexpected intrusions by the Third Shift Entrepreneurs. “Thanks for the call. How are you?”
“I'm fine,” Renault said.
Matt listened into the silence, waiting for Renault to explain the reason for his call.
“Well?” Renault asked, as if the reason was self-explanatory. “How was the week? What's happening? What have you learned? How's the homework going?”
Matt began to recount his last several days, finding himself talking faster as he reflected each surprising turn. Renault listened quietly for a few minutes while Matt ran through the unfolding events. “And you'll never believe – it was the most incredible and random thing – as Cory and I got to talking – he's the CFO I mentioned – he shared that he's exploring his next steps professionally and would love to start his own business but doesn't know how or where to get started. For now, we are partnered on building this networking group and I feel like that's a start to begin to see what could be possible; just getting people in the room who are finance professionals who have some interest in climbing.” Matt paused, recognizing he had been talking at Renault for several minutes.
“I'm happy for you,” Renault offered. “It sounds like a great week, and I agree with everything you said except one thing.”
“What's that?” Matt asked.
“That I'd ‘never believe.’ I totally believe, and I'm actually not surprised one bit. You see, when you've been doing this a while, you come to appreciate that there is a method to this madness of starting things. You're using the strategies of the Third Shift Entrepreneurs, and they work. Breaking patterns, reaching out to people, adding value to their lives, overcoming your fear to initiate something and just trying. Some people talk about ROI as return on investment, I talk about it as return on initiative. By starting – conversations, thoughts, businesses, relationships, new habits – you create an incredible set of opportunities for yourself. And, of course, you don't know where it will end up, but by sharing it with the world, you allow other people to co-author the outcome. Like the way you invited this guy from last night into the journey.”
Matt took a sip of his coffee and let Renault's words sink in. Renault knew all along that this week would yield something extraordinary, even if he didn't know exactly how this would play out. Man, Matt thought to himself, this guy is good. I mean really, really good.
“Thanks, Renault. Yeah, I guess none of this is surprising to you, but let me tell you, it all feels new and exciting to me. I'm a believer!”
“Good. And not good for me. You can take or leave my advice. I have no ego in this. I mean good for you that you are learning what allows you to make progress in your life and applying it. That gives me joy.”
Sabina wandered into the kitchen confused about why Matt was on the phone, to which he whispered “Renault.” Nothing at this point in the week seemed to surprise Sabina much, who just proceeded to pour herself a cup of coffee.
“I have homework for you,” Renault continued, “Are you ready?”
Matt grabbed his notebook, “Ready.”
“Okay, here is the Third Shift Entrepreneur strategy: put it on paper. It sounds like you had a great conversation last night with your new colleague. That's wonderful. But the question now becomes ‘So, now what?’ And the way you answer that is by putting whatever you think you plan to do next on paper. You have to define what ‘it’ is – give it a name, give it a price, give it a scope, describe it, attach pictures to it. Do it in a Word document or a PowerPoint or in an Excel file. I don't really care. But do something to add detail and make it real. The ability to put it in writing or not is the difference between being someone who thinks he is brilliant at the bar, sharing his good ideas, and the person who actually does something about it. I can't tell you how many times people say things like ‘I was actually going to do that’ when the reality is that they were going to talk about doing it. Don't end up as what I like to call the ‘good idea fairy’ who gets excited about conversations and then loses steam to do the work. Go, now, and do the work.”
Matt hadn't thought about putting anything on paper yet, not that he was opposed to doing that or didn't expect that he would do that at some point. “But I'm meeting with Cory again this week. Shouldn't I wait for that?”
“Ah-ah,” cautioned Renault, “Remember the rules. Do it now. That's a rule. Writing it down is a forcing mechanism to make you define ‘what’ it is that you are doing, who it benefits, how it works, and what it costs. Give it a name. You can, and will, change all of this in time but you have to begin to make this real, whatever this is. Having something on paper allows other people to react to it and either disagree, agree, or ask questions or make suggestions – all of which are productive outcomes. And you need to practice talking about it. You need the 10-second story, the 30-second story, the 2-minute, and the 10-minute. Your job is to perfect each version of the pitch – how you talk about it based on the audience and the amount of time they are willing to give you.”
“Okay. Got it. I'll put it on paper. And then I'll bring it to the meeting or send it in advance for Cory to react to,” Matt said.
“Good,” Renault was ready to end the call just as abruptly as he had started it. “Well, I'm off for a bike ride. Beautiful day out. I'll see you Tuesday morning with the group, yes?”
“Yes, I'll see you there.” Matt went to end the call but felt compelled to add, “Oh, and Renault? I just can't thank you enough. I mean, I don't know how I even ended up meeting you, and the group, and all the…”
“Ah, Matt it's nothing.” Renault cut him off. “You'll return the favor soon. Have a wonderful day.” And with that Renault hung up.
Sabina looked at Matt quizzically as he finished writing a few notes and broke out his laptop. “Sending an email?”
“Nope,” he said, “writing the business plan.”
“For what?”
“I'll find it out as I go, apparently!” Matt laughed, without taking his eyes off the computer screen.