VITAband was created by David Waxman and Jason Brown in 2007 and was launched in September 2009. The idea was conceived from a medical ID bracelet, but the designers had targeted athletes. So, they set out to design a medical ID bracelet that was comfortable to wear while running, cycling, hiking, along with being versatile enough to use during exercise.
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Resource Mentioned:
- Your Big Idea: Successful Entrepreneurs have One Big Idea. Follow JLD’s FREE training & you’ll discover Your Big Idea in less than an hour!
Success Quote
- “You can’t sprint a marathon.” – Unknown
Business Failure
- Breaking into huge corporations like banks and credit card companies is no small feat for two guys. Find out how persistance paid off in the face of repeated failure.
Entrepreneurial AHA Moment
- What do you get when you stack a bunch of little AHA moments on top of each other? Listen close!
Current Business
- David and Jason are in a HUGE market, and they have a GREAT product. Exciting things to come!
Lightning Round
- Two guys, 1 lightning round? Watch out!
Best Business Book
- The Power of the Dog by Don Winslow
- The Long Tail by Chris Anderson
- The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy
Interview Links
- VITAband (Sorry! This link was active when this episode was first published in 2012. This resource is no longer available.)
Killer Resources!
1) The Common Path to Uncommon Success: JLD’s 1st traditionally published book! Over 3000 interviews with the world’s most successful Entrepreneurs compiled into a 17-step roadmap to financial freedom and fulfillment!
2) Free Podcast Course: Learn from JLD how to create and launch your podcast!
3) Podcasters’ Paradise: The #1 podcasting community in the world!
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Full Transcript
John Dumas: Hire Fire Nation and thank you for joining me for another episode of EntrepreneurOnFire.com, your daily dose of inspiration. If you enjoy this free podcast, please show your support by leaving a rating and review here at iTunes. I will make sure to give you a shout out on an upcoming showing to thank you!
John Lee Dumas: Okay. Let’s get started. Fire Nation, we have something different lined up for you today. For the first time ever, I have two guests on the line. So we’re at a three-way conference call. I’m really excited. We have Jason Brown and David Waxman. Jason, David, are you prepared to ignite?
David Waxman: Yes, we are.
John Lee Dumas: Let’s do it!
John Lee Dumas: Alright! Awesome, guys. I’m glad to hear it. VITAband was created by David Waxman and Jason Brown back in 2007 and was launched in September of 2009. The idea was conceived from medical ID bracelets, but the designers had targeted athletes. So they set out to design a medical ID bracelet that was comfortable to wear while running, cycling, hiking, along with being versatile enough to use during any exercise.
Hey guys, I’ve given Fire Nation a little overview, but why don’t you take it from here and tell us exactly who you are and what you do?
David Waxman: Sure. I’m David Waxman. I’m one of the cofounders of VITA along with Jason Brown. You did a great job of summing up what our business is. Let me also say thank you for having us on today. Your show is fantastic and I definitely enjoy listening to it.
Really what VITA is, is it started off as a one-off product to provide athletes with an easier and safer way to go out and run, bike, jog, etcetera. It’s morphed from that into really a platform of health records that can integrate into any wearable product as well as a payment device that can integrate into any wearable product, and we can sort of talk about that later on of how we made this pivot and transitioned into that business of going from a one-off product to a platform.
John Lee Dumas: I really look forward to delving into that process and really getting behind what you guys’ thought process was in creating exactly what you have right now, but before we launch into that, let’s go to our first topic, which is our success quote because EntrepreneurOnFire, it’s all about getting the motivational ball rolling. I know that you guys have a great success quote for us. I’m not sure who’s going to deliver it, but go for it.
Jason Brown: Dave, go ahead.
David Waxman: Sure. I think “you can’t sprint a marathon for us.” That’s really been our mantra of just staying in the course, pivoting when needed, but just showing up every day to come and play and ensure that we’re going to achieve success.
John Lee Dumas: I can’t honestly say that I’ve ever run a marathon. I have run a half-marathon. My first time actually was this summer. I’ll tell you, you definitely can’t even sprint a half-marathon. So that quote rings true with me and it rings true with every entrepreneur that I’ve spoken to. It’s really about being able to be there, persistent, diligent, and just work hard. So can you guys give Fire Nation an example of how you’ve actually applied this quote to your mentality, to your business?
Jason Brown: Yes. This is Jason. Let me just jump in here. I mean, again, as you said, and I think the marathon and half-marathon are very similar, but pacing is everything. I think when David and I started this business, we really thought that it would be something that we could do really quickly and jump into it and get a product marketed, and what we found was that it wasn’t as simple as that. The essential components of our business – the payments and the identification side of our business – were both complex pieces and it took a lot of time and it took a lot of energy and a lot of effort to both create them, to find a way for them to integrate and work synergistically. So it was one of those things where it wasn’t a day, it wasn’t a week, it wasn’t a month. It was having that vision and the commitment to sort of keep going every day to deal with the minor setbacks and the minor successes, and bring a product that didn’t exist prior to our creating it to market.
John Lee Dumas: Absolutely. Just like a 100 yard sprint, it can be about the finish line. That’s all that these Olympic athletes seem to focus on, and that’s very understandable, but when it comes to a marathon, it is about the journey because if you just have the destination in mind, you’re never going to get there because that destination is so far, and when it really comes down to it, is it really worth it if you’re just focused on the destination? Because this is life and this is about enjoying what we’re doing day-to-day. You really, at that moment, need to just sit back and appreciate the journey and the accomplishments that you’re making on a day-to-day basis.
Guys, let’s use that to transition now to our next topic, which is failure. At EntrepreneurOnFire, we really talk about your journey as entrepreneurs. We spotlight you two today and we talk about your story, and every entrepreneur’s story has failure. It has challenges or obstacles that you need to overcome. David or Jason, can one of you guys go back to some point in your journey when you really came across an extremely difficult challenge that you either had to pivot or just take head on and overcome?
David Waxman: Sure. This is David. I think one of the – to sort of take a step back here – I mean I think everyone who’s an entrepreneur has certainly faced failure at some point in their careers. I can speak for myself certainly. I’ve had had my share. I think one of the things or obstacles or challenges for me personally as the cofounder and CEO of this company is really being more present, slowing down, appreciating the journey, as you spoke about in the previous question. It’s something that’s a work in progress, but it’s something that as I really look at that, at how I approach this, it’s sort of the one recurring theme that you can’t multitask. It’s kind of a myth. You really have to do one thing at a time and do it really well. So I think instead of speaking about a specific business failure, I see more of just sort of this challenge or obstacle that I face being with this desire to be more present with the pool of trying to multitask and do 10 things at once.
John Lee Dumas: I love that. That’s such a great abstract failure or challenge that entrepreneurs do face on a day-to-day basis. Let’s take it down to the ground level though. This is about your journey. Let’s go into your journeys as entrepreneurs. David and Jason, what was a major challenge that you guys faced at some point?
David Waxman: Sure. I think for us, one of the real challenges to getting this product to market frankly was operating in what is probably the most highly regulated business anywhere, and that is the payments-based. You have a bank partner as well as a network, be it Visa, Mastercard, etcetera, and we were proposing a product that didn’t exist. It was not a traditional magstripe credit card. It was a wearable payment product that despite the fact that the CEOs of the networks always talk about this blue sky vision of wearable payment products, the soldiers who were to implement it didn’t get it.
So we’re at a place where we’ve made contractual obligations to bring a product to market to partners, and you have the payment networks not getting it and not giving us the green light to go ahead. We spoke internally and we talked to one of our board members who said, “Go read these operating regulations, the entire document, and see if anywhere it says you can’t do what you want to do.” So Jason and I sat down and read thousands of pages and found not only that could we do what we wanted to do, there was language that said we could.
We presented it to the folks, the powers that be, and lo and behold, pretty quickly thereafter, we got our green light. So it was a moment of utter fear, followed by being extraordinarily excited that we found a solution and basically used their own document against them in a good way.
John Lee Dumas: I love it. I’m a little surprised that I’m hearing you talk about your story that you even had as much pushback as you guys did, only because I just know that I read so much about finance and I used to be in finance in a prior career as well. So I’m really attuned with all of these. It’s just the psychology of, for instance, having a credit card and using that credit card in lieu of cash. That was a big step for consumers because all of a sudden, you were kind of taking away that thing of you actually handing over hard-earned green dollar bills for an object. You were just kind of giving somebody a piece of plastic, and then they were giving it back to you. So psychologically, it was almost like you weren’t paying for anything, and it seems like VITA is even taking that to the next level, which I feel like would be very exciting for companies like a Visa or a Mastercard. Did they give you any feedback along those lines?
David Waxman: I think that the challenge again with these big companies is they’re so massive and that people’s roles are so specific, that a lot of the people except at the very, very high levels are scared to kind of go out on the ledge and do something that may be different. While there is excitement and people like the product, I think there is also trepidation in the fact that this was a big C change from even just paying with your debit card, which obviously in recent years has become the trend. I mean cash is definitely going away. But I think we were still being seen as trailblazers and doing something that they just couldn’t quite get their heads around.
Jason Brown: Conversely though, I would say that – and I wholeheartedly agree with Dave as we lived through that experience – but we also saw and found some people that were real visionaries in the payments space and partnered with individuals at major banking institutions that were incredibly supportive and saw the same vision that we saw and were able to help us to really create a case study that proved that this could work and that people could use this payment mechanism and device in a way that would simplify their lives, which is basically what we started out to do. So we found people at U.S. Bank that really saw this as a great opportunity and helped us to really bring this thing to market.
John Lee Dumas: I’m really glad to hear that because that’s one of the major reasons why I love talking to people like yourself. You guys are true visionaries. You’re tackling fear head on. You’re going out there. You’re making the world a better place by creating these amazing products and services, and I just commend you for that and I love it. Having been in Corporate America myself, I can hear you so clearly when you’re speaking to people having such rigid roles. I think you just phrased it so perfectly when you said they were scared to kind of go out on a ledge and take a risk because there’s really no benefit for them to take a risk because they weren’t going to see any profit or promotion because of it. There were only negatives for them because that’s how the corporations are often set up.
It just takes me back to when I’m reading all these biographies of different founders and stuff and they talk about how when you walk into Google, everything is just open and there’s whiteboards everywhere. It’s an open planet. Everybody gets 20% they have to dedicate to something of their own passions. Then you walk into Microsoft and everything is a dark cubicle and everybody is by themselves, just coding all day. You see the results of the two companies and what they create, and it’s just really exciting to see those two sides and to see kind of where we’re going as entrepreneurs today. So I commend you guys for that. Thank you for sharing that insight. What would you say a major lesson that you pulled out of that challenge was?
David Waxman: I think Jason hit the nail when he spoke of U.S. Bank. We had the opportunity to meet an extraordinarily senior person at U.S. Bank at a conference after one of our advisors. Basically, after a five minute conversation with us, she said, “This is fantastic. I want to do something with you guys. Email me when I’m back in the office two days later,” which we did, and she got right back to us literally in a minute and we started working together on a project. So I think the takeaway was going to the top and get buy in from someone who’s going to be your shepherd who’s going to fight for you and who’s going to push for it to happen. I think that just proved positive that that’s the way to go.
John Lee Dumas: It’s a great takeaway, and it just goes back to persistence. You just can’t take the first no or the first answer. You really got to keep pushing. You’re going to find that person, that compatriot that’s going to take up arms with you, and go forward into battle. That’s just a little military analogy.
David Waxman: Yes [Laughs].
John Lee Dumas: I was an officer back in the day, so every now and then I slip back there. So I apologize.
David Waxman: No, please. We like those.
John Lee Dumas: Let’s go to the other topic. It’s the other end of the spectrum now. This is the aha moment, you guys. I mean, you guys are such innovators that I know you have these moments every single day on small levels that just propel you to the next level and improve your businesses in many different ways and on many different platforms, but can you take us back to some point in your journey when you actually had that big aha moment when you’re like, “Wow! This is what we want to create.” Can you actually take us down to the ground level? We want to be there with you at that moment.
Jason Brown: Every entrepreneur has a different experience to how their businesses evolve and the path that they take through the evolution. Speaking for myself, I’m not so sure that there’s ever so much of just like a big bang theory where it’s like aha just happens, but I will say that what I have found is you have sort of these pieces of ideas or concepts that sort of sit independent of themselves, compartmentalized. When you can find a way to connect them, that’s when it sort of goes off and it happens. It’s not this huge explosion, as much as it’s like, “Okay. This makes a lot of sense and let’s go forward.”
Speaking specifically with VITA, the idea was basically I went out for a run one morning and was nearly hit by a car and jogged home thinking, nobody knew where I was. I hadn’t left word what I was doing. I jogged home thinking, man, this is pretty scary. I better look for a solution for this. I got back to my place. I searched around. I didn’t really see a great solution, and called up my friend, Dave, who I had been working on another project with, and said, “Hey, I think I have an idea here.” Independent of what I was thinking, Dave had always had an interest in the banking and payments space and was kind of looking for something there. When we started to look at this thing, we said, “Okay. Well, there are solutions there for identification and there are obviously solutions for payments, but independent of them, they’re not that great. Put the two together, and you have something really special.”
I think that’s what it was. It was the two of us kind of having our own independent ideas and saying, “Oh. Well, wait a minute, maybe this makes sense to connect together in some way. How can we do this?” Once we started the ball rolling with that, it was just like, “Okay, this makes a lot of sense. There’s nothing else that exists like this. This is something special. Let’s keep rolling.”
John Lee Dumas: I love that. I always get different answers from every entrepreneur on that question. For some, it is truly a light bolt that comes and just hits them. The clouds part, the sun is shining, and this light bulb goes on and there’s this huge aha moment, and then they take strong action after it. For other people, it’s just a bunch of small things that just kind of propel them forward. A lot of small aha moments that kind of add up to the one big creation that you now have. Would you put yourself in that latter category?
Jason Brown: Absolutely.
John Lee Dumas: So have you had an I’ve made it moment yet?
Jason Brown: [Laughs] Dave, go ahead.
David Waxman: I’ll start with this one. I think tying back to what I said earlier about being present, for me specifically, and I think for Jason as well. I can speak for him. We’re very competitive guys. We’re always looking to the next thing, and I think it’s very challenging for us to savor a win of any sort because we’re always looking to do more and bigger in the next thing. It’s definitely a challenge, it’s definitely an obstacle. It’s something that we both need to sort of be appreciative of putting points on the board. So I think if you ask the question flat out, have we had an I’ve made it moment? Both of us would probably say no because we have pretty grand visions for what we want to do here.
John Lee Dumas: I love that analogy. I’ve actually never heard of it, but I was also a basketball player back in the day. So putting points on the scoreboard, I’m going to keep that one, write it down and refer back to it because it just makes so much sense. You’re right. You need some kind of tracking system that you’re really looking and appreciating the achievements that you have made so far because you guys have come so far, and I know you have so much further to go. But it is about the journey, and you guys have a great journey behind you, you have a great journey ahead of you, and this is your life. I mean, this is about enjoying the journey. So I’m really glad that you guys do do that. You take note of the points that you scored, but then you’re also continuously having these high goals and standards that drive you forward.
So let’s move forward now into your current business. We’ve brushed over pretty briefly exactly what it is that you have created. It’s not a complex product, but I would like to just really explain it to Fire Nation so they can really wrap their heads around exactly what you guys have created here. So why don’t you just take it from here and just give us exactly your elevator pitch about VITA?
David Waxman: Sure. I think at a high level, what VITA is is it’s a technology platform that can be integrated into any wearable product that would enable that product to be either a payment device, a link to an electronic health record, or a combination of both. So we look at ourselves as like an Intel Inside or Adobe Digital. We make existing consumer products better and add more functionality to them. So in the market today, we have a silicon wristband in partnership with Nathan Sports that’s payments and identification on your wrist, really going after the hardcore athlete. We have a line of watches in the market that are payment only devices with a company called RumbaTime that makes really fun, fashion-forward watches. Basically, it’s money on your wrist. What really excites us right now is the prospect of basically enabling any wearable product to be an electronic health record. We think that there’s a massive amount of opportunity in that space to be successful, to solve a consumer pain point, and to do it in a way that’s simple, elegant, and can get into market rather quickly.
John Lee Dumas: I couldn’t agree with you more. I mean, I know that I’m preaching to the choir here, but just as you’re briefly talking about these things, so many obvious things are popping in my mind like on my veteran’s health card, I have my social security number printed right on it. Now, that’s just a card in my wallet which I seem to lose at least once a year. Not great. I mean, that’s just an example of one thing that popped into my mind.
Another thing that popped into my mind, again, just having come from the military service, have you guys approached the military in any part? The reason why I asked that is because I’m picturing when I was deployed to Iraq, we had a lot of situations where we were just carrying around our identification and dog tags which are not that current. I mean people were doing the exact same things back in World War I, and even before that. Have you approached the military with this kind of idea for them?
David Waxman: We think the military market is just an unbelievable market. We know that, for instance, soldiers are writing their blood type on their boots. We know there’s a massive opportunity there. We have spoken to and are speaking to companies that sell product to the military. Obviously, it’s a longer sales cycle because of the government aspect, but we agree with you. That market is so right for a solution like this that can really frankly make soldiers safer. So that’s something that we strongly support. Then take it a step further, when they come home and need healthcare, this is another great solution to tie into the VA.
John Lee Dumas: I see amazing potential there and I definitely wish you guys the best of luck in that venture because I know that it would be an amazing benefit for myself, so it’s coming from the horse’s mouth. So good luck with that.
David Waxman: Thank you.
John Lee Dumas: Guys, you have a lot of great things going on right now. Let’s just nail down one thing right now that’s really exciting you about VITA. Just one thing. There’s so many, but just one thing.
David Waxman: Jason, feel free to chime in afterwards. I think for us, it’s going to go back again to the health records piece, and us looking at the workplace market, manual labor, and being able to turn every day gear that people wear on the construction site or in a warehouse or what have you into something that links to their health record. The very dangerous jobs and situations where you probably don’t know your coworkers are allergic to something or who their emergency contact is, is obviously a massive market, and we think that one is something that we’re quite excited about and that we’re putting a lot of focus on right now.
Jason Brown: When we started off doing this, you sort of have this like tunnel vision of the consumer that you’re trying to approach and the target that you’re trying to sell to, and just starting to see that an idea and something that you built is applicable across so many different market verticals and so many different consumers and finding ways to reach them, it’s just incredibly exciting.
John Lee Dumas: There is just a massive market out there for you guys, and that’s the exciting thing. I just watched this video. I would so recommend you guys googling this video or just going to YouTube and searching for it afterwards because it’s so funny and anybody who’s listening, no matter when you’re listening, this would still be one of the higher ranked videos in YouTube for entrepreneurs. It’s “Stuff Entrepreneurs Say.” Again, that word “stuff” is not exactly stuff, but you get my idea if you type that in. Grasshopper created it and they don’t have any advertising in it whatsoever. There’s no advertising except for the end that just says “By Grasshopper,” which is brilliant because the movie has gone viral because it’s so hysterical so it’s getting seen by millions and millions of people over the course of just every single month. It just goes through everything that entrepreneurs say and there’s just so many commonalities about what we’re talking about right now. It’s hysterical. Have either one of you guys seen that movie?
David Waxman: No. I’ve seen some of the other funny ones, the stuff people say, but not this one.
John Lee Dumas: Oh. “Stuff Entrepreneurs Say.” It’s so funny.
Jason Brown: [Laughs]
David Waxman: Excellent.
John Lee Dumas: Okay, guys. We’ve now reached my favorite part of the show. We’re about to enter the Lightning Round. This is where I provide you with a series of questions and you come back with amazing and mind-blowing answers. Does that sound like a plan?
David Waxman: Great.
John Lee Dumas: So again, this is the first time I’ve had two guests on the show, which has honestly worked out phenomenal. So thank you guys for showing me that this is something that I can do multiple times in the future. I look forward to it. Let’s just say this question is going to go to both of you guys. We’ll have Jason answer first, and then David answer second, just to keep the flow going.
John Lee Dumas: What was the number one thing that was holding you back from becoming an entrepreneur?
Jason Brown: Well, I would actually tell you that there wasn’t anything that ever held me back. I started out with the lemonade stand. I worked my way up to the ski tuning business, and I haven’t ever really looked back since. I mean there’s always fear, but honestly, it’s always been in my blood and it’s something that I really haven’t given too much thought to. I’ve just gone out and done it. That may sound a little bit crazy, but it’s the honest truth.
David Waxman: I would say the same thing as Jason. I mean, I had a carwash business with my brother, all sorts of other businesses in college and before, and I had a corporate job for about four months out of college to just see if it was for me, and it was frankly the best job I ever had because it told me I had no interest in being in the corporate world, and from that time on, I’ve done nothing but work for myself.
John Lee Dumas: That’s great. I love that answer. What’s the best business advice you ever received?
Jason Brown: Don’t sweat the little stuff. I think so often when you are trying to take something, an idea, and turn it into something, you can get bogged down by so many little details. It’s almost like there’s this negative weight that hangs around your neck. Oh my God, I got to do this. I got to do this, I got to do this, I got to do this.” Really, I have to credit my dad with this. He was like, “Listen, just don’t sweat the little stuff. Put your head down. Just keep focused on your vision and it all sort of works out.” That, for me, it’s always worked, it’s simple, and I find it to be really invaluable.
John Lee Dumas: That’s great stuff. So what is something that’s working for you or your business right now, Jason?
Jason Brown: Well, having followed the don’t sweat the details, I think something that’s really working for me is making sure that I’m aware of all the details and really trying to get a better sense and handle on the organization of all the different pieces that you need to be on top of to make a business run properly. I think there’s some techniques that I’ve started to implement in the way that I approach my days every single day that are uniform and specific and trying to make myself more organized and more efficient that is just something that, on a personal level, has improved what I do and the confidence I feel in doing my job. These techniques are something that it’s new to me and it’s working, so I feel like it’s been really helpful.
David Waxman: For me, I’ll give you an example of both. For me personally, it somewhat dovetails with what Jason says. I’ve been working with an executive coach for a couple of years now and we’re really starting to bear the fruit of that work. Obviously, recognizing things that are obstacles, really creating a – what’s the word I’m looking for? A set regimen almost each day. I think again, it’s what Jason spoke to. It just makes me a better leader and more centered and grounded. I think if you look at our business and what’s working, I think it’s again tying back to what we’re most excited about, which is this very simple to explain, simple to implement value proposition of turning any device into an electronic health record. It solves a pain point and it’s in a market with a lot of growth, and it’s something you literally can explain to someone in 20 seconds. I think that’s pretty exciting.
John Lee Dumas: I love that answer, and it is so common to hear that these successful entrepreneurs, such as yourselves, have coaches, and it just speaks volumes to how important it is to have somebody who’s continuously monitoring, pushing and encouraging you to become better. The lesson to learn here is invest in yourself. Obviously, Fire Nation, you guys are potentially just starting out, but it’s so important to invest in yourself to get to that level that you want to be at. So start with yourself, and then move forward from there. Thank you guys for that.
What is your favorite book?
Jason Brown: Well, I wouldn’t say it’s a favorite book, but I will say most people tend to think about what they’re reading as something that’s applicable to their business, their job. What I try and do is while I do read a lot of books about business, I try and read a lot of stuff outside of it. The book that is most moving to me right now is by an author that I had never heard of and I think is grossly underappreciated. His name is Don Winslow and the book is called “The Power of the Dog.” It is just an incredible read.
John Lee Dumas: Dave, did you have a business book for us?
David Waxman: Sure. The Long Tail. I’m obviously a huge fan of that book, as is Jason. Then Compound Effect by Darren Hardy is another really interesting book that my coach got me reading that for the most part is pretty applicable.
John Lee Dumas: Awesome! Those are three books that we have never had recommended on EntrepreneurOnFire, so I love that. So guys, this last question is my favorite, but it’s kind of a tricky one. So take your time, digest it, before you come back with an answer. If you woke up tomorrow morning and you still had all of the experience, money and knowledge that you currently have right now, but your business had completely disappeared, leaving you with a clean slate, which is essentially where most of the listeners find themselves right now, what would you do in the next seven days?
David Waxman: I’m going to take this one first. This is David. I think that would be a really compelling problem to have. I mean I think if you’re saying that you don’t need to worry about your near term needs, I’ll pull out my list of business ideas that I’ve kind of set aside and take one and start…
John Lee Dumas: What’s one of those ideas, David?
David Waxman: I don’t know if I necessarily want to share it with the general public, but it’s an app that deals with a common problem that every single person basically in the world deals with and a way to solve it in a pretty elegant way. It would actually be a really exciting proposition to be able to start new with a fresh idea.
John Lee Dumas: Does it have to do with a snooze button on an alarm clock?
David Waxman: [Laughs]
John Lee Dumas: [Laughs] Has somebody got that already? That’s just a common problem that I seem to have every morning.
John Brown: [Laughs] I’ll tell you the other side of it. I’ll do something a little bit more practical. I’d say the one thing that I’ve learned is the network is everything. Your network. Your LinkedIn base. The people that you know. I mean again, if I had nothing going on and everything was erased where I had to start all over, it’s just digging back into all these people that I’ve met, all these people that have assisted us, all these people that we come in contact with and starting to provide that resource. I mean that to me, you can be a smart guy, you can be a wealthy guy, you can have a lot of things in your favor, but without that network, you really are in trouble, and using it to the best of your abilities is something that I think is really powerful and really can give you a leg up on all the other competition that’s out there.
John Lee Dumas: I couldn’t agree with you more. Guys – Jason, David – you have given us some great actionable advice this entire interview, and we are all better for it. Give Fire Nation one parting piece of guidance, then give yourself a plug, and then we’ll say goodbye. David, why don’t you kick this one off?
David Waxman: I like to use the poker analogy a lot internally, and I think business and life is really a lot like that in just being patient, methodical, strategic, persistent, and waiting for that hand to come. When that winning hand comes, go all in and hit it hard, but be patient and know it’s going to take time to achieve that.
Jason Brown: My piece of advice will be don’t be afraid of success. I think oftentimes, people sit there and fear failure, but they also are not really prepared for success or are worried that what would happen if they get it. My big piece of advice is don’t be afraid of success.
John Lee Dumas: That is so true, and there’s a great book that hits on that – “Secrets of the Millionaire Mind” by T. Harv Eker. It really delves into the psychology of being afraid of success and afraid of financial success. It’s a very interesting read. So guys, give yourself a plug.
David Waxman: Sure. Obviously, we’re VITA products and we’re looking to make consumer products better, and we’d love to integrate into any type of wearable consumer, or not just consumer products, but products for the workplace where there would be a need for electronic health records and/or cashless payment.
Jason Brown: I couldn’t have said it better myself.
John Lee Dumas: Perfect! Hey, General Shinseki, if he’s still in office or whatever and he’s listening, why don’t you contact these guys and get it integrated into the military? This is something we need. This is coming from a soldier who’s deployed. We need this kind of technology with every soldier. This absolutely could save lives and will save lives if implemented for a number of reasons. So Jason, David, thank you on behalf of Fire Nation.
