My book was (is) trite and sophomoric. After all, what insights do most 20-somethings have worth sharing? A lack of experience — a lack of failure — makes pontification shallow. One of my younger brothers, who was trying to make a living as a painter at the time, had a great comment. He said that he felt my book, like his art, was merely trying to say too much. That it wasn’t that we didn’t have good things to say, but that there was lack of discipline in focusing and examining in greater depth a few ideas, rather than “letting it all hang out.”

I think young entrepreneurs suffer from a similar malady. But I’m going to leave it to you to ponder the connection between this and customer development and lean startups.

I actually bring this up because I recently did my first customer development presentation and I think I tried to say too much! I’m no Eric Ries, but really, I’m not a bad presenter. This was my first attempt at a new presentation and admittedly, I did not dedicate the proper time to building the deck up front.

So now the presentation has been made available on video.  I forced myself to watch it, which frankly, was rather painful. You know what I mean if you’ve ever watched yourself “perform.” FWIW, I’m going to share it with you. Maybe you’ll find something of value!

BTW, it cuts short not because I was removed with a hook, but rather due to technical glitches. (Yeah, right.)

Insights on how to improve or which parts you’d like me to concentrate on would be of great help!