A young author named Nathan

"Roadtrip Nation" is the book that inspired us to pursue the Business Puberty project. After a little over a month, we were able to get in touch with one of the authors, Nathan. On March 4th before we set up this blog, we got a chance to talk to him over a telephone conference to bombard him with some questions about publishing and his experience.

Nathan's book encourages a journey to finding a career and exploring what he calls, "the open road."

I wanted to bombard him with a billion questions, but Rayfil toned down our overwhelmingly long list to a list of 10. That was a smart move.

What wasn't smart was that I forgot to charge the cordless phone the night before the interview. In the middle of the conversation, CLICK.....then a dial tone. Nathan was great enough to call us back long distance and continue the session. Needless to say, my telephone is currently sitting on the charger.

Right when we thought publishing a book was tough....

....it got tougher.

After attending the annual Asian American Film Festival here in San Francisco this evening with Rayfil, I came home to check some email and found some disappointing news. David Chu's assistant tells us that he will not be participating in our book at this time. I spoke to his marketing manager late last year and she mentioned that they may be interested when we get some bigger players on board. And whom might these people be?

She mentioned Jerry Yang, the founder of Yahoo! We're working on that. We're also interested in talking to a couple more people:

1. Vera Wang - celebrity fashion designer who designed dresses for Jessica Simpson, Mariah Carey, Michelle Kwan, Sharon Stone and others. (have not yet contacted)

2. Noel Lee - Founder of Monster Cable! (currently scheduling an interview)

We met a pubisher at the recent SF Writer's Conference last month and spoke with someone interested in Business Puberty! She has also emailed us saying they can't find a market for our book but to let them know when we get some more endorsements.

If failure leads to success, I think we're getting closer....

Ooo, rejected....

Well, it's more like we got delayed. It turns out that David will be out of town again on a business trip tomorrow. We won't be able to have the telephone interview tomrorow. I just got off the phone with Leslie, David Chu's assistant and she was nice enough to reschedule us for next week. Hopefully things will come through and we'll have a chance to talk to the big guy when he gets back. We have been rescheduled for next Thursday. Wish us luck!

Meanwhile, Rayfil and I are still waiting to meet with the Monster Man, Noel Lee. We've been scheduling tentatively and rescheduling a visit to the Monster Cable office with a rep from his office for about 2-3 months now.

Boy these entrepreneurs are busy, but I'm so glad they're nice enough to squeeze us into their busy schedules. Their assistants have been awesome so far. I can say that's true for everyone we've approached. We got lucky I guess. Let's hope we can keep that trend going.

If you have questions you'd like us to ask either Noel Lee or David Chu, let us know. Just send an email to suggest@businesspuberty.com We'd love to hear from you.

Who's Noel Lee and David Chu?

After cold calling Noel Lee at Monster Cable, we got in touch with his assistant to schedule an interview for the book. That was 2 months ago. Noel's been in and out of town so we haven't been able to schedule anything for quite awhile. He's in Seattle this week, so hopefully we can get a chance to visit his office witin the next 2 weeks after he returns from his trip.

Remember that Nautica brand that all the high schoolers were wearing in the 90's? It was all started by a guy named David Chu. He now runs a design firm called David Chu Design International in New York. Since Rayfil and I can't quite afford to make the trip over there for an in-person interview, we've set something up over the phone next week. By the way, if there are any agents or publishers out there, "Business Puberty" can definitely use some funding. I'm sure our readers would love to see some pictures. Stay tuned for updates from the teleconference happening in mid March.

Our book, "Business Puberty" is for you. So if there are any successful Asian entrepreneurs you are interested in learning from, let us know and we'll try to seek them out. All suggestions can be emailed to us at suggestion@businesspuberty.com