Fear and Entrepreneurship: Overcoming our Evolution | Sam Tarantino | TEDxBlairAcademy
## Speaker Context
- Speaker identity: Sam Tarantino, founder of Grooveshark, who was a musician and business person.
- Framing established: The talk is about "fear."
- Framing established: Fear is an "evolutionary vestige" that can be "useless" and "inflamed and hurt us."
## People
- Sam Tarantino + founder of Grooveshark + central figure of the talk.
- Josh Greenberg + eventual co-founder of Grooveshark + technology guy.
- Orville + Wright brother + crashed the Wright Flyer.
- Wilbur Wright + inventor of the airplane + cited historical example.
- Tom Brady + athlete + mentioned in comparison to Super Bowl loss.
## Organizations
- Grooveshark + one of the first music streaming services + founded by Sam Tarantino.
- Spotify + music streaming service + mentioned as a competitor/contextual point.
- Pandora + music streaming service + mentioned as a competitor/contextual point.
- Amazon Web Services or Google cloud + cloud provider + used for server deployment.
- Intel + company + made a call to Tarantino.
- Forbes 30 under 30 + ranking + mentioned Tarantino was listed on three years in a row.
## Places
- Montana + region + where Grizzlies are still attacking people.
- UF (University of Florida) + college attended by Tarantino + where he was involved with music.
- Gainesville + location of UF + where the funeral was held.
- Colorado + place Tarantino moved to + where he started Chromatic.
## Tools, Tech & Products
- Grooveshark + music streaming service + first version was described as "terrible," second version was described as "terrible."
- iPod + device + required loading songs from iTunes.
- iTunes + software + used for loading songs onto an iPod.
- CRT monitor + device + purchased for the early Grooveshark office.
- iPhone + device + released in 2007; allowed playing a song directly to hand in a couple of clicks.
- Amazon Web Services or Google cloud + cloud service + used for easy server creation.
- Wright Flyer + device + first aircraft to take off.
## Concepts & Definitions
- Fear + what the speaker talks about + the subject of the entire talk.
- Entrepreneurship + concept + something that "was this thing that really wasn't defined yet."
- Evolutionary vestige + concept + what fear is described as.
- Non attachment to the outcomes + concept + one of the hardest things to do but crucial for creation.
- Mirage + concept + something that "looks as real as water right? but if you get closer to it it goes away."
## Numbers & Data
- 2005 and 6 + years + when Grooveshark was among the first to stream music.
- 120 + number of employees + Grooveshark grew to.
- 35 million + number of users + Grooveshark reached at its peak.
- 50 million + number of dollars + annual revenue for Grooveshark.
- 17 billion + dollar amount + lawsuit amount Grooveshark was sued for.
- 28 + years old + age of Tarantino's partner who passed away.
- 12 + years old + age Tarantino started playing piano.
- 2006 + year + when Tarantino and Josh got their first office.
- 2007 + year + when the iPhone was released.
- Six steps + process count + to get songs on the go using iTunes/iPod.
- 200,000 + number of users + Grooveshark started growing by per month.
- 2/3 ham nights + duration + time spent to install servers at the data center.
- 15 + seconds + time to create a server using modern cloud services.
- A couple hundred thousand + dollar amount + the first series A investment round.
- 10 + years + time span of doing Grooveshark.
- Four + number of record labels + needed to become viable.
- One week + duration + time away from the lawsuit before deciding to shut down.
- Half a billion + dollar amount + amount Spotify had raised when Grooveshark shut down.
- 700 + number of people + who attended Josh's funeral.
- Sophomore year + time in college + when Tarantino dropped out because of Intel's investors.
- 31 + number + at which Tarantino started Grooveshark.
## Claims & Theses
- Fear was a natural mechanism that kept us alive.
- Fear is an important basis for its evolution.
- Fear is in appendix.
- Fear is a useless vestige of something that used to be part of our larger test and then no longer Nellie does it no longer serve us.
- In for the most part, fear is kind of an irrelevant for us.
- The entire ride [of Grooveshark] was a major part of it [fear].
- I need to actually build a business.
- People want to actually just perform an action.
- Josh was very analytical.
- I knew how to do the entire business side because I was an economics major.
- Our partnership was really strong.
- People actually use on a daily basis and affected all these lives was just mind-blowing to this day.
- I was on the Forbes 30 under 30 three years in a row.
- I could tell you breakeven is the greatest day of your life.
- You need money to get to sign the labels you need the labels doesn't get money and there's a lot of political...
- Fear as it relevant as fear has become and is unreal as it is the way to get through it is actually have courage.
- Courage I believe is a set of choices.
- The world doesn't really care.
- History is littered with examples like this people that thought there's no way that's gonna happen.
- The hard part is to have those curves that have the courage to go through those and say I'm gonna ignore this fear and I'm gonna go right towards it.
- Action is an incredible thing because it's it's the only thing you have control over.
- Experience yields ease right turns out is exactly the opposite.
- I found is something that's really really important you got to stay present and and in the current moment because everything changes so fast these days.
- The hardest thing to do that I found is to have non attachment to the outcomes of things but still work 110 percent knowing that it may not work out the way you want it to that's hard but that's what creates anything right.
- The entire consistency of the whole process was what I thought became reality.
## Mechanisms & Processes
- Survival mechanism: Fear was a natural mechanism that kept us alive.
- Growth of Grooveshark: Tarantino (business side/economics) + Greenberg (technology/product development) = complementary partnership.
- Early music streaming process: Loading songs onto an iPod from iTunes using a six-step process.
- Present-day cloud hosting: Hitting a button on AWS or Google cloud creates a server in about 15 seconds.
- Shakespearean analogy for recovery: To get through bad things, one needs courage through choices like trusting and having faith, believing in balance (every action has an equal and opposite reaction).
- Mountaineering/Outdoors survival: Preparation is a key part of survival.
- Business recovery (Grooveshark): Faced a lawsuit/crisis $\rightarrow$ Waived the white flag $\rightarrow$ Took a summer off $\rightarrow$ Found a time for "half time."
## Timeline & Events
- Period: Since Tarantino was 12 years old + started playing piano.
- Period: Early college years + became involved with music.
- Timeframe: 10 years + of doing Grooveshark.
- Year: 2006 + first office was set up.
- Year: 2007 + iPhone was released.
- Period: Leading up to and during the build-up of Grooveshark + constant growth/milestones.
- Period: The 2008 crash + time when funding was hard to raise but competitors were coming to them.
- Period: After Josh died + period of processing loss.
- Year: Today + Tarantino speaks about the current state.
- Timeframe: Year and a half ago + Tarantino moved to Colorado.
## Examples & Cases
- Spiders and snakes + examples of obvious fears mentioned at the start.
- Heights + example of a big fear.
- Failure and being alone + examples of less palpable fears.
- Saber-toothed tiger + example of a past survival threat.
- The struggle to get songs on the go: Required burning and ripping CDs when in high school.
- iPhone release: Example of technology disrupting the status quo by allowing direct song play.
- Myspace: Example of an early social platform doing a little bit of streaming music.
- Grooveshark's peak growth: Growing by about 200,000 users a month.
- Grooveshark's growth peak: Reaching 35 million users.
- The lawsuit: Suing for $17 billion due to two record labels not cooperating.
- The Wright Flyer: History's most famous photograph, but preceding it were two crashes and the killing of a buyer by Orville Wright.
- Joseph Campbell: Suggested quote advising to "follow your bliss and universe will open where there were only walls."
- Wilbur Wright: Inventor of the airplane, cited as an example of historical breakthrough.
- Founding Fathers: Example of people who knew they might be hanged during the American Revolution.
## Trade-offs & Alternatives
- Path taken vs. alternatives: Tarantino wanted to be a musician, but parents made him consider economics/business ("let's see how you handle your bank account being turned off").
- Grooveshark's choice: Shutting down temporarily during the lawsuit battle, rather than spending all money in a lose-lose trial situation.
- Courage choices: Options include trusting, having faith (religious or in the universe), and believing in balance.
- Behavioral alternatives: Comparing the trap of the victim mentality (asking "why did this happen to me?") vs. saying "I'm not a victim, I'm gonna get through this."
- Professional mindset: Comparison between the belief that experience yields ease vs. the reality that it's the opposite.
## Counterarguments & Caveats
- The speaker concedes that fear is useful for survival but irrelevant now.
- The speaker notes that the initial versions of Grooveshark were terrible.
- The speaker cautions that the illusion of safety can cause us to underestimate the impact of fear.
- The speaker notes that the ability to build services today is much easier than before, contrasting with the old server setup.
- The speaker hedges that his insights on recovery "I never do believe this stuff happens to all of us."
## Methodology
- Anecdotal evidence: Drawing conclusions from personal professional and personal experiences (Grooveshark, Josh's passing).
- Historical precedent: Referencing the Wright brothers and the Founding Fathers.
- Pattern recognition: Identifying recurring themes in fear, failure, and resilience.
## References Cited
- Joseph Campbell: Author of the quote "follow your bliss and universe will open where there were only walls."
- Wilbur Wright: Inventor of the airplane, cited as a historical example.
## Conclusions & Recommendations
- Action is the only thing you have control over.
- Ignore this fear and I'm gonna go right towards it. (Stated as the necessary action).
- Have courage.
- Go out there conquer those fears.
- Push yourself to have courage.
## Implications & Consequences
- Failure to act results in stagnation or being trapped by fear.
- Courage leads to overcoming fears and achieving greatness.
- Understanding this process shows how powerful one is in the process of creating anything and getting through anything.
- History is eagerly awaiting you.
## Open Questions
- Where does this [the increase of fear] come from?
## Verbatim Moments
- "fear is in appendix... it's a useless vestige of something that used to be part of our larger test and then no longer Nellie does it no longer serve us"
- "I've seen the rise and the fall and all the stories that go along with that and I can tell you that fear the entire ride was a major part of it"
- "I need to actually build a business."
- "what people don't see are these photos two crashes"
- "I never do believe this stuff happens to all of us bad things will happen at some point in our lives and the question is how do we deal with them"
- "I'm going to ignore this fear and I'm gonna go right towards it"
- "Action is an incredible thing because it's it's the only thing you have control over"
- "I do not think I'm especially especially fitted for success in any commercial pursuit even if I had the proper personal and business influences to assist me I might make a living but I doubt I would do ever more than this"