+1 415 842 4822 [email protected]

What can entrepreneurs learn from “A million miles away” – The Daily PPILL #377

Making a movie recommendation on a Monday is almost like talking about cocktails at 10 AM, but here I am, doing what I am not supposed to.

If you haven't seen "A million miles away" on Amazon Prime Video, it is a deeply inspirational movie, with a story of struggle and persistence. The movie is an adaptation of José Hernandez' book, "Reaching for the Stars", where he tells the story of how he went from being the son of migrant workers from Michoacán,, to be the first Hispanic to get in orbit

The story brought some memories to me when it gets to Livermore, CA; where the late Bill Soto -probably the best sales person I have ever met- and I worked together at the headquarters of Intellicom, Inc. The story is divided in sections, in what I think is the basic entrepreneurial and strategic process, it goes more or less like this:

  • Know where you are going
  • Find where you are in the process
  • Figure out how far are you from your goal
  • If you don't know how to get there, learn
  • Work hard towards your goal
  • Once you think you arrived, you will probably have to work some more

Fairly simple. With all the credit that it deserves, Hernandez' journey, is one of being selected. Without spoiling anything about the movie, he has to apply many times before he is accepted in NASA's space program. And the thing with this type of process, is that they tell you when you failed, but the also tell you when you succeeded, and once you did, you still have to work hard, but there is someone there to guide you. This is the one difference with the entrepreneurial process. You will know for sure every time you'll fail, but success doesn't come in one big moment. Many times, it comes in drips, and you'll have to recognize it. Small successes that build upon each other, and most of the time, there is still no one there to guide you.

Enjoy the movie!

As originally published at The ChannelMeister

on September 25, 2023. Please consider sharing and subscribing HERE.
The Daily PPILL is my personal daily blog project. PPILL stands for Purpose, Process, Innovation, Leverage, and Leadership; the themes that I write about, and in my view, indispensable ingredients of any great initiative.

Huba Rostonics is a GTM and Business Strategy expert, offering services to Mid-Market, Enterprise, and Start-Ups. To learn more please schedule an exploratory call

Moving next door – The Daily PPILL #395

I think I know a thing or two about moving after we have done it six times in the last ten years. Moving can be really stressful and disrupting. But there are positive things about it as well. It can be cleansing. As we pack and we revisit all the things we posses, we ask ourselves whether if we need them or not. We can get rid of a bunch of...

Habits (Repost) – The Daily PPILL #394

There is an awesome quote by no one else but Mahatma Gandhi:  “Your beliefs become your thoughts, your thoughts become your words, your words become your actions, your actions become your habits, your habits become your values, your values become your destiny.” (BTW, I feel like only Gandhi can pull off such a run-off sentence without half the...

Decision making (Repost)- The Daily PPILL #393

Making the right decision is always desirable, but it is even more important to make a decision at all. Any decision. Decision-making is the most important aspect of the CEO's job and one of my favorite sayings goes "as long as you are making decisions, you are moving forward". Making decisions can be hard. There is even a term coined for the...

Celebrating letdown – The Daily PPILL #392

Responsibly, I would say. Nothing crazy. I poured myself a Negroni and slowly sipped on it. (If you like an Old Fashioned, or a Manhattan, and don't know what a Negroni is, you have to remedy that. Sweet, bitter, opens your appetite and gets to your head quickly. Anthony Bourdain recommended it: "Have a Negroni. Have two Negronis.") I walked away...

When the wheel hits a rock (REPOST) – The Daily PPILL #391

I lost count on how many times did I trip over on the skateboard when I was young. When your wheel hits a big enough rock, it will stop. You could apply more power to the axle or pull on the cart with increased force, but there are times when just giving it a slight lift can be much more effective.  Rocks are frequent, but not everywhere,...

Who do we follow? – The Daily PPILL #390

We may want to think that we follow those who align with the way we think, but the opposite may also be true. Who we follow, defines us. Either for someone observing us looking from the outside, or by slowly changing the way we think. Who we select as our leaders, says something about us. If we don't align with their vision. If we would not like...

The four biggest mistakes in Channel Strategy – The Daily PPILL #389

Should you partner? Go direct? This is an article that I wrote many years ago, and a lot of things changed since then. These hold true however. 1.- Failing to choose the right model from the start It seems simple, but it can really make a difference. The right decision will depend enormously on the client base you are trying to reach and second,...

The three people living in your head – The Daily PPILL #388

From time to time I revisit some seminal business books. This is the case of the E-Myth, which every small business owner and entrepreneur should at least know what is about. Through a number of anecdotes, the author makes his case for building businesses with a system in-place from the very beginning. In one of the chapters, the concepts of the...

The ____ fish eats the ____ fish – The Daily PPILL #387

Here is a thought: In every pond today, it is no longer the big fish that eats the small fish. Size doesn't matter that much anymore, the field has shifted. In fact, it is more likely that the fast fish will eat the slow one, regardless of size. Does that make sense? If it does, What are you doing about it? "We'll wait and see" won't work...

Hypecycle of Everything – The Daily PPILL #387

If you are involved with the Tech industry in any way, you are probably familiar with the "Technology Hypecycle". It's first cousin is the "adoption curve", and it looks somewhat like this, with its very creative phase names: SOURCE: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hype-Cycle-General.png The hypecycle attempts to explain some of the...


Warning: require_once(css-utilities.php): Failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/channelmeister/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wp-fastest-cache/inc/cache.php on line 901

Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Failed opening required 'css-utilities.php' (include_path='.:/opt/alt/php84/usr/share/pear:/opt/alt/php84/usr/share/php:/usr/share/pear:/usr/share/php') in /home/channelmeister/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wp-fastest-cache/inc/cache.php:901 Stack trace: #0 [internal function]: WpFastestCacheCreateCache->callback('<!DOCTYPE html>...', 9) #1 /home/channelmeister/public_html/wp-includes/functions.php(5581): ob_end_flush() #2 /home/channelmeister/public_html/wp-includes/class-wp-hook.php(353): wp_ob_end_flush_all('') #3 /home/channelmeister/public_html/wp-includes/class-wp-hook.php(377): WP_Hook->apply_filters('', Array) #4 /home/channelmeister/public_html/wp-includes/plugin.php(523): WP_Hook->do_action(Array) #5 /home/channelmeister/public_html/wp-includes/load.php(1308): do_action('shutdown') #6 [internal function]: shutdown_action_hook() #7 {main} thrown in /home/channelmeister/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wp-fastest-cache/inc/cache.php on line 901