What You Need to Know Today: August 6

Your Early to Rise daily briefing. Today, how to make your first sale, why Netflix’s ‘unlimited leave’ is a scam, Tim Ferriss in a Toga and more.

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TECH

2 fundamental skills you need to start a successful business.  “You don’t need to know how to create products or motivate people or manage anything to successfully start a business. What you need are two fundamental skills: 1) You have to know how to make a sale. 2) You have to be able to put that sales process into action.” – Mark Ford, founder of Early to Rise.

I challenge you to sell one thing today. Here’s how you’re going to do it (without creating a product): Step 1) Think of a specific problem, a specific solution, and identify a specific market that needs your solution. Step 2) Fill out this form using the product title and description to sell your specific solution. Click the create button. Step 3) Copy and paste your new checkout page url into Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, e-mail… anywhere your specific market hangs out. Now, sell it. Tell them why they need what you’re selling. If someone buys, send them an email back saying you’re currently out of stock, and either refund their money or tell them you’ll process the order once you get more stock. Boom! You’ve officially made your first sale.

+ What changes in an entrepreneur’s psyche when the first sale finally happens?

This is not another do-it-yourself website builder… Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology is all the hype these days. Here’s an application of AI technology you’ve probably never seen before.

CAREER

How to get more customers. In Mark Ford’s quote at the top I left out the second half, “Once your business is making sales and you have achieved a minimum critical mass of customers, your problems, challenges, and opportunities change.” One of these challenges is attracting more customers. Here’s 3 ways to get more customers, subscribers, and clients.

“Shock, horror, Uber makes a loss. This is hardly news, and old news at that. It’s a case of business 101: you raise money, you invest money, you grow (hopefully), you make a profit and that generates a return for investors,” says Fairfax Media. Gawker contributor Sam Biddle released one of Uber’s financial documents via Twitter and the media is going nuts. The truth is there’s a lot these documents don’t tell us. More importantly, investing money to see a return later is essential for a business to grow. If your business isn’t Uber (you don’t have bills to throw), consider learning how to make self-liquidating offers.

Get a world class degree for less than the cost of a bus pass. 4 years and $30,000 in debt later, you’ve mastered how to make perfect latte art. At least that’s what some 43% of graduates who don’t even need a degree (but have one) for the jobs they have. “if you feel like you absolutely HAVE to have a degree,” says Sovereign Man Academy co-founder, Simon Black, “at least do it smartly.” 3 schools overseas you didn’t know about.

LIFESTYLE

Why Netflix’s ‘unlimited parental leave’ is a scam. Unlimited anything for that matter carries hidden costs. The biggest being guilt. Vox explains why unlimited leave and unlimited vacation actually make you work more.

+ Related: What Tim Ferriss would look like in a Toga.

APOLOGIZE, v. To lay the foundation for a future offence. Ambrose Bierce would have owned Twitter if he were alive today. Bierce was a famed journalist in the 19th century, his legacy was The Devil’s Dictionary: a satirical lexicon published in 1906. Bierce’s collection of comic definitions has since been updated by The Verge to reflect the times we live in today. For example, angel (n.): (1) A winged paragon of supernatural power. (2) A mortal who writes large checks to children wearing flip-flops. Read The New Devil’s Dictionary.

Jon Stewart’s last show. Jon Stewart has been on air for 9 years now. Tonight is Stewart’s last show. To celebrate the NYT has given us a look behind-the-scenes at 9 essential moments from The Daily Show in the past 9 years.

#NOWYOUKNOW

5 Things You Didn’t Know About Jon Stewart

He’s a romantic.

Stewart proposed to his wife Tracey in a pretty unique way: through a personalized crossword puzzle put together with the help of New York Times crossword editor Will Shortz. We know everybody wants to come up with their own interesting marriage proposal, but Stewart definitely pulled it off. He’s now been married for 15 years, with two kids. Obviously, he’s the cool dad.

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