Interesting guy, and that BW article is an okay read but doesn't do that great of a job telling his story.<p>But then I looked him up and came across this HuffPo article on him and absolutely loved reading it, it's a must-read for founders: <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/02/ryan-blair-visalus-my-first-million_n_1383430.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/02/ryan-blair-visalus-...</a><p>I love collecting stories like this. They're real-world case studies of PG's "Anatomy of Determination" - <a href="http://paulgraham.com/determination.html" rel="nofollow">http://paulgraham.com/determination.html</a>
A cool two-paragraph back story, but otherwise generally worthless. Also, it appears the protagonist of this story is the founder of a successful MLM company - good for him but he'll never knowingly get a dime from me.
Not related to the article, but if people are interested in the "economics" and "sociological" aspect of gangs and other illegal activites, the book "Gang Leader for a day" is a very compelling read. Check your library. (EDIT: I ended up liking it enough to buy a copy.)<p><a href="http://www.sudhirvenkatesh.org/books/gang-leader-for-a-day" rel="nofollow">http://www.sudhirvenkatesh.org/books/gang-leader-for-a-day</a>
"Get My Name Right"<p>This is so important. If you just stop and focus on 1) pronouncing a person's name correctly and 2) remembering it, people are going to give you a much easier time.