The Erik Hanberg Experience

I think having Erik Hanberg as a guest lecturer was great. He was a really awesome guy and truthfully, I was worried that our guest lecturers were going to be the CEOs we hear horror stories about. You know, the cliché horror story of the evil Scrooge-like guy who cares more about the bottom line than he does the health and safety of other human beings. I wouldn't be horribly surprised if we had one of those people as a guest lecturer since by sheer odds alone we are more than likely to come across someone not so friendly.

As for what he went over, I especially thought his two graphs were really interesting. In the back of my mind I guess most of it made sense but I never really thought about it. As a hired programmer you will only make so much money before somebody won’t want to pay you any more. Also, I've heard the phrase “the higher the risk, the higher the reward” several times in my life but for some reason his explanation of those graphs really spoke to me. Also on the topic of the graphs, up until this point I assumed that being an entrepreneur meant you either lose everything you have and have your kids’ kids paying off your debt, you barely pulled enough money in to keep the doors open, or you were one of very, very few to actually do well. I didn't know that a good amount of the exponential graph would leave you in “beer and date money”. This comforted me enough to make the little leap to fully commit to starting the company with my brother.  In case he ever reads this, thank you Erik. You have helped me realize that there are good people everywhere and just because something is scary, doesn't mean I should be too lazy to go after it.

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