I always seek to bring great people on board. The more minds, the better when it comes to mission-driven projects.
Where did the idea for NeWAY Capital come from?
I spent my childhood in Venezuela, where in the same neighborhood, extreme poverty was right up against lots of wealth and affluence. The two things are so juxtaposed and it lead me to wonder: How could they become more equalized to maximize everyone’s wellbeing?
What does your typical day look like and how do you make it productive?
I usually make it a point to outline between one and three major tasks to accomplish. Those are my biggest objectives for the day. I also spend a good amount of my day conferring with senior members of my team, responding to questions they ask, fulfilling needs they have, or providing guidance for the work they have to do.
How do you bring ideas to life?
It’s all about involving others into the ideas being worthwhile. Collaborating to execute on the creation. I can’t do it alone — you need other people to buy into your ideas. That’s the real magic. Refining ideas and getting buy in. You need people to not only agree that your idea is a good one, but to be inspired to take up the mantle themselves and contribute their talents to their maximum potential.
What’s one trend that really excites you?
People of all backgrounds are increasingly demonstrating that they have substantial, perhaps even limitless potential. Refugees, for example, want to work. They could barely survive in their native countries, yet when they can pursue their dreams more freely, their income rises substantially. Take Honduran migrants as an example: the average yearly income of a Honduran in their home country is around $2100, yet the yearly income of Honduran migrants tothe United States in nearly $20,000. That’s almost a 10x increase.This shows that Latin American migrants, given better conditions, have substantial untapped potential.
What is one habit of yours that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?
I regularly make a habit of pausing to reflect on my work to ensure that it all aligns with the overall mission and forwards the goal. I also constantly challenge and rechallenge my ideas so that I can be as certain as possible that I’m doing the right things for the right reasons.
What advice would you give your younger self?
I would tell myself to be purposeful about the habits that you form early on when it’s easy. That way, as you get older, they’re already there and you’re good to go. Correcting bad habits as an adult is really quite difficult.
Tell us something that’s true that almost nobody agrees with you on.
Answered this at a conference. The future of humankind depends heavily on our ability to innovate our forms of government and ability to deliver governance. I discussed this in more detail at a Mercatus Center speaker series at George Mason University.
As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?
I spend a lot of time refining of the vision of the company. As an entrepreneur and a leader, it’s ingrained in the job description itself to continue to revisit
What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business?
I always seek to bring great people on board. The more minds, the better when it comes to mission-driven projects.
What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?
My achilles heel as an entrepreneur is over-hiring — that is, bringing great people on board before I have a defined role or project for them to do. I love having good people around me and I think that the more great minds the better, but I wind up putting a lot of extra pressure on myself to come up with projects to justify having them.
What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?
I think that there should be hair cutting robots all throughout the mall just like those massage chairs that are in the hallways, and these robots would be able to cut hair the same way every single time. I have so many problems with how different barbers cut my hair different every time, not to mention how much time it sucks away from more productive things. A robot that could solve these problems by quickly cutting and styling my hair the same way every single time would be great.
What is the best $100 you recently spent? What and why?
Flowers for my wife! I bought her some tulip bulbs, and they came already planted, so she gets to plant them outside when the weather warms up. They made my wife really happy, and these flowers will continue to live on. Multiple smiles for the price of just a few bulbs.
What is one piece of software or a web service that helps you be productive? How do you use it?
Audible, the app for audiobooks. Since I commute to work every day, it makes my commute productive and lets me use the time in the car to learn new things.
What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?
Art of the Start 2.0. It’s about the process of creating companies from scratch and startup efforts generally. It’s a good overview of the trials and tribulations of starting something along with helpful advice on how to deal with them. Great advice for how to prioritize things.
What is your favorite quote?
“It always seems impossible until it’s done.” Nelson Mandela
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Carlyn runs the day-to-day publishing operation here at ideamensch and interacts with our awesome customers and entrepreneurs. She is likely editing this with a cat on her lap.