On today’s episode of Trend Following Radio Michael Covel interviews Rob Walling. Rob may not be a trader, but he is a serial entrepreneur. And trading at its heart, after all, is an entrepreneurial activity. Rob started early. When he was eight his parents purchased an Apple computer and he learned to code to create video games, and when he got into college he realized coding could be profitable. He asked himself, “What can I do that I can leverage?” In the late 90’s he got his first paid job writing code for a consulting firm and around 2007/2008 he transitioned full time into creating and producing his own products.Rob talks about learning from every job and every encounter. He speaks to real life experience and how it is paramount to success. Rob was passionate from the start about coding. He did it long before he thought it could be a paying gig. Michael and Rob also give examples of why you need to start at the beginning and figure out how to build your audience. If you are in your 20’s you especially need to realize that you don’t know everything. You are missing something. No matter how smart and motivated you are, you need that real life experience.When trying to start your business Rob gives examples such as: pick a few people that resonate with you and focus in on them, only take the information you need at that point in time, and above all, stop shooting for the Zuckerberg “dream”. He sees so many businesses trying to be a “one hit wonder”. They aren’t thinking about building a business that is going to last. Rob has a straight forward approach to bootstrapping called the stair-step approach that he outlines on the podcast (as well as on his website).In this episode of Trend Following Radio:

Rob Walling’s “Stair-Step Approach”
Growth hackers
The act of creating
Focusing on the “Unicorn” rather than reality
Filtering your information
Skin deep information