Big Red Car here.  It’s Friday and we need to explore some more Big Red Rules.

Go look at Big Red Rules here.  Here are some more Big Red Rules for you.

Dance

Damn it, go learn to dance.  Learn to dance so you are not the dummy sitting at the table at a wedding who does not know how to dance.  Go take some dance lessons.  Promise it will change your life.

 Dancing is vertical foreplay.  Foreplay is good.

Success

Success is just as fleeting as failure.  Drink it in but don’t get drunk on it.  Leverage it as the foundation for greater success.

About 80% of success is being the first one to work in the morning and the resolute determination to never, ever, ever, ever quit.

Success is an impostor.  Failure is an impostor.  Hard work is the real thing.

Don’t believe your own press clippings.

Celebrate success but do it humbly and quietly.  Share it with those who were there when you needed them.

Personal finance

Pay yourself first — savings, IRA, Roth IRA, 401K — you are your own most important investment.

Diversify your assets from your startup.  Don’t buy more stock in your own company unless it is throw away money.

Never, ever commingle your own personal finances and that of your company.

Put your assets, to the extent you can, beyond the reach of your personal and business creditors.  Get good advice.

Equity

You will dine out on your compensation but you will buy a lakehouse on your equity.  Get as much equity as possible.  Don’t be a “nice guy” — you are working for guys who will sell your bedsheets if you fail.  Get yours and keep it.  Be a gentleman but be a tough son of a bitch.

Always know who owns your company and never mislead yourself that they are not your bosses.  You work for them and never forget that.  Not something to lose sleep over but not something to confuse either.

Some people do not want equity.  They want a steady job working for a good company and good leaders.  Don’t talk a person who does not want equity into taking equity.

Finance

It only takes one YES to banish all the NOs.  You will remember the YES and you will forget the NOs.

Don’t start whining until you have been told NO in at least five foreign languages.  “Das ist aber schade.”

Always get more than you think you will reasonably need.  You can give it back.

Never get mad at the money, it will change its mind and shape.

Financiers, bankers, VCs inventory money.  If they don’t spread it around they will get fired.  Your taking their money is just a secret jobs program.

Read the damn documents.

Balance

It is easy to counsel balance but it is not always available.  When building a company in the early years forget about balance.

Learn to do interesting stuff to fill your time with, well…………………………….. interesting stuff.  Learn to fly fish, ski, golf, fly an airplane, surf, body surf, get a tan (trick), cook, make pizza from scratch, make beer, make wine, dance, hunt, paint, use a nail gun, sand and refinish floors.  Plant a tree and let it grow and enjoy its beauty.

Technology

We are in the age of the greatest advances in technology, get in the game.  Don’t allow technology to overwhelm.  You knew MySpace was a head fake all along.

Groupon — I don’t really need a Brazilian bikini wax at any price.  Sorry.

That Geek in high school who you used to make fun of, Football Team Captain, just sold his company for $300,000,000 and is taking your old girlfriend to the Turks & Caicos for the next two weeks.  She says she has a few things to teach him and apparently he’s a fast learner.  They said “hi”.

Football

The University of Alabama whipped Notre Dame like a rented mule and then spent the night with their girlfriends — even their imaginary girlfriends.

Alabama plays in the Southeast Conference, Notre Dame does not.  Alabama won the National Championship in a cakewalk.

But, hey, what the Hell do I know, really?  I’m just a Big Red Car.

Be good to yourselves.  I’ve been watching and you deserve it.  I would not bullshit you about something that important.