Interview with Neville Medhora from NevBlog.com
Before we get started I’d just like to thank Neville Medhora, owner of www.NevBlog.com (The First Result when searching “Finance Blog” in Google) and www.HouseofRave.com along with many other successful businesses, for taking the time to do an interview with UsetheDollar. Neville is 26 years old, lives in Austin, Texas and is a successful entreprenuer, web designer and much, much more.
Ladies and Gentlemen: Welcome Neville Medhora-
Tell us a little about yourself and what it is that you do.
Currently I own and manage the largest online rave company. I started HouseOfRave.com in high school, have always done it part time and have just recently gone full time with it.
What is it about money that most intrigues you?
I find it fascinating that money is completely fake. It’s not real. Every major currency is a fiat currency which means it’s essential fake. Until I fully understood that I never made much of it.
There is a simple test you can apply to anyone to see how much money they have:
What is their contribution to their fellow man? How much value have they provided?
Some easy examples of this:
-Guy flipping hamburgers at restaurant provides only a marginally useful service that anyone can do.
-Steve Jobs is a one in a billion guy who took his formerly failing company and turned it into one of the greatest success stories in just a few short years. He revolutionized personal computers and now the phone. He enriched and made millions of lives easier.
Guess which one of those provides the most value, and therefore has the biggest wallet?
What would you say the number one cause of your success is?
‘Success’ is kind of ambiguous, but without further complicating the question I’d say that focusing my efforts on ONE THING really helped. Back in college I was doing 5-10 businesses at once. Nothing ever took off until I took the plunge into just ONE.
What’s the best part about being self employed?
Being able to do my work at noon or save it till 4am. I also absolutely detest rush hour traffic and would rue the day I have to drive in it. I love my work, but I don’t always want to work from 9 to 5. Maybe I want to work a few hours now, go run errands, then work 10 straight hours way into the night. That freedom is what I like best. But with freedom comes having to discipline yourself…that took me a long time.
What are your best methods for finding/attracting clients?
Have something that significantly enriches their life or business in some way.
Name your 5 favorite websites:
www.NevBlog.com – It’s fun to look back at where I was each year. I can’t write about most of the cool stuff on the blog, but it gives me a general snapshot of what I was doing at this time several years ago.
www.ted.com – Single best source of fascinating videos online. I usually watch a ted video when I eat lunch.
www.Luxist.com – I like the luxury real estate section.
www.digg.com – Digg is pretty fun.
www.stumbleupon.com – Maybe once a week I’ll sit and use StumbleUpon for several hours into the wee hours of the morning. I can’t tell you how many fascinating things I’ve stumbled upon and good ideas I’ve got from using this seemingly time-wasting website.
How did you get your start? Did you study something in particular or were you self taught?
I was completely self taught. My immediate family doesn’t have any business experience, so I had to branch out on my own to gain that experience and motivation.
I used to be a big computer nerd back in middle school and high school, and would learn all sorts of different computer programs, how to make webpages etc. Eventually I got interested in seeing if I could make money doing those things.
I also started asking family friends who owned businesses, “Ummm…sir….what do you do?” They were glad to invite me out to their companies and show me around. I was hooked.
Here’s a little elaboration on how I started.
What are the tools that you couldn’t live without?
Photoshop, my tablet PC, fast internet access and books. Especially books.
What do you feel are the most important skills to have in order to manage money?
Common sense. Spend less than you earn. During the good times, make sure you save for the bad times. It’s seriously that simple. People who say otherwise are undisciplined and/or lazy.
How are you coping and dealing with the current downturn in the economy?
I’m trying to boost HouseOfRave.com sales to a $1,000,000/year, and a downturn doesn’t exactly help. I feel I’ll have to work twice as hard to just maintain the level I’m at….and get 10 times as creative to hit my goal. Using more creativity I believe is the way to prosper during bad times.
Wherever there is a big problem, there is an even bigger opportunity.
Which one person would you say has had the biggest influence on you?
Earl Nightingale.
What is your number one tip for a college student freshly started in money management?
Start saving. Be cheap (or frugal, whatever you want to call it). Bargain for everything. Every penny counts. If you don’t graduate with at least 6 months of living expenses saved and ready to use, you’re at a significant disadvantage.
I wrote about this Here.
Is there anything else that you would like to share with the readers at UseTheDollar.com?
Yes. There’s this thing called the library where they have vast collections of the life works of thousands of fascinating, successful and brilliant people. They keep all these secrets in one place, and let anyone use them for absolutely free.
They’re called books, and they often answer every question you could ever have, and impart on you vast amounts of knowledge 99% of the population will never bother to attain. Reading one (non-fiction) book every two weeks can put you so unbelievably far ahead of the curve it blows my mind that more people don’t do it.