jonathan eppers

2011 was a year about people and relationships

2011 was a roller coast of a year for me with a lot of highs and a lot of lows. I guess that’s pretty typical though for a young entrepreneur who is learning on the fly. I had one of the biggest growth years of my life and in the process, as I look back, there are a few things I’ve learned that I’m going to take with me in to this year.

I’ll hit a pretty big personal milestone this year, turning 30 and with the realization that I’ll no longer be able to say “my twenties” I can say that I’ve accomplished a number of personal victories have prepared me for what’s ahead.

I’m really excited and even more optimistic than I’ve ever been (being optimistic is extremely important to being happy and successful) and I’m going to be much more aware and honest with myself about a few things I’ve come to realize this year; some more personally focused and some more to do with what I’ve learned starting a business.

For me, 2011 was a year about people and relationships.

I started a business.

This has been the most rewarding and exciting personal endeavor I’ve ever started but it has also single handedly been the most challenging experience of my life. They say that starting a business is like doing drugs, with extremely high highs and extremely low lows. This has definitely been the case for me. You feel like you conquered Mt. Everest one day, while the next feel like you’re a complete failure (a good therapist is a healthy way to stay on track).

To compensate for this roller coaster of a ride, I’ve worked hard to surround myself with the right people. It hasn’t been easy. It’s the toughest thing about starting a business: choosing who you want to work with. You’d be surprised at the number of people who come out of the woodwork and want to be part of what looks like an opportunity to get rich. I mean aren’t all Internet companies selling for hundreds of millions? Not quite.

Lesson: Hire fast. Fire even faster.

I’ve worked with so many people this year and most of them didn’t work out. Most of them we’re not in it for the right reasons and to be honest, most of them were losers. Harsh I know but it’s a reality of the culture we live in. There are a lot of average people out there who do just enough to do enough.

I’ve gotten much better at choosing the right people to work with and spend my personal time with. I look for people who aren’t motivated by money, who choose themselves to work on things that don’t feel like work, and most importantly who are smarter than me.

Most importantly, and this is the most important lesson I’ve learned, you have to let people go quickly who bring you down - and that’s much harder to do than it sounds.

Losers, like a cancer, can inflict a lot of damage to a company and a friendship. They drain energy, extract the fun and diminish creativity: three things that need to run rampant in the DNA of a company and in friendships.

Celebrate the little wins.

It’s really easy to celebrate and get excited when you do big things, but it’s even more important to enjoy the ride along the way. I’ve found this true both in starting a business AND in my personal life.

Looking back at 2011, the memories and moments that bring a smile to my face today are those that didn’t necessarily result in anything exceptionally outstanding. Most of which were human interactions between my peers and myself. It’s the little things in life.

Never settle. Go with your gut.

As is anything in life, settling leaves you complacent and complacency leads to a lack of passion. I wake up almost every day because I’m passionate about what I’m doing.

My brain never shuts off and it’s constancy firing new ideas, new thoughts and new realizations about life.

The times that I’ve allowed others to steer me in a direction that goes against my gut (and those times happened a lot in 2011) always led me down the wrong path. It’s much harder to get back on the right path when you’ve allowed yourself to get off it.

Simplify.

I don’t do well when I don’t understand something. Complexity adds a layer of confusion and creates a cloud that makes it tough to make effective decisions.

I’ve tried harder to simplify my life this year and I’m doing a much better job at it. This is true in both my profession and my personal life. Less really is more!

Some of the most beautiful things in life are those, which are the most simplified and understated. My outlook on the world has become an oversimplification of how I believe I should live and contribute back.

Believe in something and stand for it.

We live in a world that says if something’s not cool or well received, just change your mind or do something different. While it’s important to push yourself to be more open, understanding and humble, it’s also important to stand for something.

I want people to like me and I’ve spent a number of years trying to make sure people do like me. However, this year that changed because I became much more confidant in who I am and what I stand for. I’ve had to walk away from opportunities, including taking a job with Google, because they weren’t right for me at that moment in my life.

2012.

This year is going to be another pivotal year and I know that when I turn 30 in August and reach the end of 2012, I’ll look back and say, “2012 was the biggest year of my life.”

Thanks for giving me all you got 2011. You’ve made the outlook on 2012 that much better.

#1

Ohhh and maybe I’ll find someone to fill a larger role in my personal life. I think I’m ready for it.

my 48-hour adventure to nicaragua

I just got back from a quick 48-hour weekend trip to Managua, Nicaragua, which is about a 6-hour flight from Los Angeles. So why Nicaragua? Why not!

I’ve become addicted to seeing the world. I love flying. I love traveling. I love going somewhere I’ve never been to and feeling how it influences me (because seeing what’s on this planet will do that to you).

Before I tell you more about this trip, let me preface it by saying that when I travel, I do it on the cheap. Nicaragua cost me $160 for round trip tickets and hotel was $80 for three nights at the Hilton. It cost me roughly $350 for the entire trip.

I almost always take these trips with a close friend, Andrew because of his ability to find amazing travel deals. Andrew and I travel well together, which makes the adventure even more fun. We’re both priority flyers (which means we get upgraded a lot) and we’ve learned how to maximize the hell out of these trips.

Side note: I’m working on making these trip deals available to anyone who, like me, wants to see the world on the cheap. More on that opportunity very soon.

Let’s go to Managua!

The trip to Managua took us through Houston; where we ended up volunteering off the oversold flight from Houston to Managua for $400 in travel money from Continental. SCORE!

Continental gave Andrew and I our own separate hotel rooms. It actually worked out well because it gave us a night to check out Houston, another city I’ve never been to and always wanted to check out. Houston is cool. I like Texas. Really, really nice people.

Andrew picked out this nice ‘Bug’ for us to stroll around in for the night (our cost: $8 for one day! Thanks Priceline!!)

We took a 9am flight out of Houston destined to Managua. Andrew got first class while I chilled back in economy.

From the sky, Managua was quite beautiful.

Landing brought us down to reality because neither Andrew nor I did much research before we got to Nicaragua. I kind of like it this way and sometimes, like in this case, I think it’s ok to just arrive and have to figure it out.

We did prebook a car rental (which is imperative if you’re visiting Nicaragua) because public transportation is really bad.

Speaking of which, the Nicaraguan culture is quite different than here in America. For whatever reason, a Nicaraguan’s like to hang out next to the road. Maybe it’s a social thing? For one it made driving a little more cautious because they literally stand next to the road. And regardless of whether we were in the city or the countryside, people were standing on the streets.

Nicaragua is quite poor.

I’m a pretty sensitive guy and it’s hard for me to see people living in squalor and filth, but as Andrew pointed out to me, most of these people grew up in these conditions so it’s all they know.

What we did

At least in Managua, there is almost nothing to do. Most of the westerners we met told us to leave the city and check out other parts of the country. Which is what we did!

We ventured to 1 of 14 volcano’s in Nicaragua. It was one of the only active volcano’s in the country and we learned that it last erupted in 2008. They expect it to erupt again very soon (YIKES)!

We also hiked 160 meters in to a cave that was carved from an eruption thousands of years ago. I finally got to see real bats!

The next morning Andrew and I got up, ate breakfast at the hotel and took a road trip to Granada; where we met a monkey and got to experience zip lining through the Nicaraguan jungle. (NOTE: I expected to see a lot more monkeys but was more than disappointed to see only one)

Zip lining is amazing! I’m afraid of heights and the scariest part for me was the moment just before you’d leave the tree platform and zip out. But once you’re out there floating over the jungle, the feeling is exhilarating!

For $25 dollars, we had three guides take us on a 8 line course that lasted about an hour. No waivers. Just pay and go!

The way I looked at it is that if I was going to fall I’d have a good story to tell (or in the worst case, Andrew would tell it for me).

After zip lining, Andrew and I were both energized and excited for the next adventure so we drove just over an hour to San Juan del Sur, which is a coastal town in South Nicaragua (close to Costa Rica) on the Pacific ocean.

San Juan del Sur is beautiful and the locals were really nice. I ate a local seafood shrimp dish and Andrew had beef. We both really liked it.

Our last night

After spending our entire day driving around Nicaragua, we left San Juan and headed back to our hotel in Managua for a final dinner before we said goodbye and headed home.

However, as we had heard before we arrived in Nicaragua, some of the police are corrupt and we experienced this first hand. Less than a block from our hotel, the police stopped us.

It’s a trick the Nicaraguan police employ. They look for westerners, pull them over and extort them for money. Luckily we only ended up having to pay them what’s equivalent to about $23 dollars. Although I was definitely upset because I do not like to be taken advantage of, we really had no choice but to pay them or face whatever came next (which we didn’t want to stick around and find out).

Finally

I’m glad I had the opportunity to visit Nicaragua. While it’s not a country that I would ever need to visit again, I feel privileged to experience a culture that is foreign to mine.

I wish more people had the opportunity to see the world. We live in a diverse planet packed with opposing ideals, beliefs and lifestyles but at the end of the day, I’ve come to realize that we’re a lot more connected than we are a part.

I always remember this quote by Mark Twain, “Nothing so liberalizes a man and expands the kindly instincts that nature put in him as travel and contact with many kinds of people.”