It’s been a Reasonable Doubt day on my headphones. Say what you want about Jay-Z, but this album has some great lines, some of which are applicable to building your startup.

Some of you don’t believe me, but Jay is an entrepreneur through and through, and, like any good entrepreneur, he shares his hard won lessons with a younger generation of up-and-comers.

To celebrate the end of another great week at Involver, I give you…

Eight startup tips from Hova:

1. “For the dough I raise, gotta get s**t appraised, no disrespect to you, make sure your word is true.” (Politics as Usual)

Ronald Regan said it best: “Trust, but verify.”  Your word should be your bond, but it may not be the other guys, do your due diligence.

2. “If every homie in you clique is rich; yo’ clique is rugged. Nobody will fall, cuz everyone will be each others crutches.” (Feelin’ It)

Surrounding yourself with people who can pick up the slack when you miss is important. You need to surround yourself with the best people and work to make sure they succeed as well.

3. “Even if ain’t sunny, hey, i ain’t complaining, I’m in the rain doing a buck 40 hyrdroplaning.” (Feelin’ It)

Sometimes you gotta play a bad hand, find a way to make the best of the situation. When life hands you lemons, make lemonade.

4. “Nothing to gain, and a whole lot to loose, you still singing? Fool.” (Feelin’ It)

Know when to walk away, not every game is winnable, or even worth playing.

5. “What, you’re broke, what the f**k you gon tell me? (22 Twos)

Consider the source of advice, choose carefully who you listen too.

6. “We offer our lives, what do you bring to the table?” (Can I Live)

Every entrepreneur should remember this when raising money or working with large partners.  You are making the ultimate commitment, don’t let other stakeholders devalue you’re stake because they have the dollars.

7. “I see his hunger pains, I know his blood boils. He wanna, run wit me, I know this kid’ll be loyal.”  (Coming of Age)

Find hungry proteges and teach them.

8. “The percentage who don’t understand is higher than the percentage who do” (Can I Live 2)

No explanation needed.

My Birthday Party is this Saturday (the 18th of October) at MR and is in celebration of Barack Obama.

Come listen to music (Dave Lowensohn of Speechwriters LLC is playing live and we’ll be closing the evening with a listen to DJ Z-Trip’s pro-Obama mixtape) and party down.

The party will go from 7pm-11pm and Dave will play around 8. MR is at 650 Sacramento St. The event is free, but please donate to Barack!

Email tyler@tylerwillis.net with an questions.

Disclaimer: I’m writing this on my cell phone because the fabulous folks of www.baracknroll.com agreed to plug the event for me. I will add event and donation links as soon as I get back to a computer!

Update: The event is on Facebook, and here’s a link to donate!

For those of you that know me well enough, you are well aware that I’m living in the wrong decade. If it weren’t for the technology being what it is today, I’d be quite contempt to travel back in time – living through the 60s and 70s. I’ve said numerous times that I’d give anything to be able to go back and see Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Janis Joplin, The Dead, Bob Dylan, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, or many others including my newest love The Everpresent Fullness (re-release).

For those of you that harbor the same lust for a peak into this scene, I have recently found a wonderful treasure chest of music. Wolfgang’s Vault (Hat tip to my wonderful mother) has tons of recorded shows in a section called the concert vault. This is amazing, it’s got all sorts of legendary performances that you can listen to for free.

The site itself is a great example of bringing the right information together to inspire a community (they are still working on the community aspect but it grew organically out of users desire to spend more time there). According to one of thier information pages, downloads are on the way!!! Oh this is just so freaking cool!

A friend recently turned me onto a remix of Jay-Z’s Black Album and The Beatles White Album (Thanks Justin). I’ve heard a lot about this album, I think I remember Lawrence Lessig using it as an example in his IT conversation about Remix, which is very good.
The Grey Album was surprising. I really wanted more of a beatles influence, but I will say the fact that he did it is amazing. The album is an interesting listen. I think it’s a bit musically lackluster but awesome in how much it will influence music to come. As someone who has some musical ideas and a wish to create an art that evolves whats out there into something new it’s a great influence. and the more I hear it, the more I like it.

Worth the 45 minutes if you like music at all or if you’ve heard the white album and want to hear a masterful remix of it. I’m currently reading Vonnegut’s Monkey House and the grey album reminds me of a part of his short story “New Dictionary” when he says “As Scholes said later, Yates is the sort of man lexicographers read in order to discover what pretty new things the language is up to.”

“The Grey Album is the sound a music aficionado studies to see what pretty new things the music is up to.”

Go on iTunes, buy it, sit still for 45 minutes, listen.

I recently saw the new trailer for The Shield, which is a TV show on FX that I really enjoy. It includes a bunch of clips set to Johnny Cash’s version of hurt. This song is amazing anyway you see it, but seeing this powerful visual medium use the song reminded me of a SPIN article I read recently.“It’s about the difference between a man at the beginning of his life and at the end of his life. In the video, that mortality is so visible, and the layers of regret are exponential. Johnny regretted the drugs and alcohol, that his life was shortened because of them. During filming, I said to him, ‘John, this is the last take in the dining room, so if you want to sweep the dishes off the table onto the floor or something, you can.’ So he poured out a glass of wine. When his family saw the video, they wept.” – Mark Romanek (Director)

The statement Cash is making there is incredibly powerful. I remember being blown away when I first read that. So as I listened to hurt I decided to find a link to the video and share this with all of you.

Johnny Cash was an amazing man, and while not a lot of people would guess I listen to his music, I find a lot of great material in what he has put out. If you haven’t heard his music, give it a listen, I almost guarantee you can find something you like in it.