Chris Behnke – Founder of Project Hindsight

“I found myself wishing I could go back and tell the (3 years ago) version of myself a few key things that would have made all the difference.”

Meet Christopher Behnke

As an experienced executive, entrepreneur, and expert in digital education, media, and technology, Chris emits a contagiously powerful energy and enthusiasm that is evident as soon as you meet him in person. He has over 20 years of entrepreneurial and executive management experience with public, private, and non-profit companies.

Email:?chris@freedom.ventures
Web:?http://hindsight.city
Facebook:?https://www.facebook.com/pilotbehnke
Twitter: https://twitter.com/chris_behnke
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisbehnke
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chrisbehnke/

How long have you been an Entrepreneur?

25 years! I’ve been doing one thing or another since I was 14. It’s in my blood, love it.

Did you leave a job to become an Entrepreneur?

Yes I have, I also have run businesses “while” being full time employed as well, having a “job” is not a good excuse for doing your passion, or starting a business, it’s just not.

What is the name of your current project / company?

Hindsight Project

Please describe for us in 1 sentence your current project.

A place for entrepreneurs to share the stories of lessons learned in business and life.

Where did the idea of your current project come from?

I’m an entrepreneur. I have been starting and running businesses since I was 14. It’s just who I am. I’m on lucky number 16 right now. 😉

Through the years, I have had some pretty cool success stories, and some pretty epic failures. One thing remains constant through it all. I’m always learning.

Over the past few years I have had the great opportunity to go through another one of those cycles, I’ll be blunt, it sucked, but yet again I learned a ton! I found myself wishing I could go back and tell the (3 years ago) version of myself a few key things that would have made all the difference. The things that would have “changed everything“.

It’s the same thing all entrepreneurs face. As you go through life and look back, hindsight is always 20/20. Meaning, after you experience something, you learn what you should have seen going in, but can only clearly see later looking back.

http://hindsight.city was created out of that realization.

It’s not just me, there are thousands of others out there, others with amazing life and business experiences that have something to share. I hope HINDSIGHT will be a vibrant community with powerful lessons and wisdom shared by an incredibly diverse group of very cool people.

Why do you do what you do?

I love giving back, I love the idea of taking the blood, sweat, and tears of building businesses, and distilling them down to valuable information to share. Wisdom to pass on to others that maybe haven’t yet made the mistakes I have.

I know there are others like me, others that also have amazing, sometimes awesome, sometimes horrible stories to share.

This drives me, this passion has created a desire for me to share, and help others share as well.

What’s the one thing you wish you could go back and tell your younger self?

There is so much! I would have to say for this last big venture, which I’m currently in the process of shutting down, there are two key things.

I would have to say for this last big venture, which I’m currently in the process of shutting down, there are two key things.

First, never trust anyone, not even your business partner. I’m not saying you shouldn’t have a business partner, I have had many, some suck, some are amazing. What I’m saying is that you can’t trust anyone, you just can’t. Life gets hard, darn hard, and people get weird when it gets hard.

Second, trust your gut. If you “know” that something should be a certain way, trust yourself, and don’t give in. Even if advisors, business partners, employees, friends, and family are telling you that your “gut” is wrong, trust you gut. This does NOT mean that you should not head the advice of wise counsel and the people around you, you should, it’s just at the end of the day, when it all goes to hell, YOU will be the one left standing there to clean up the mess. Make sure you aren’t standing there with tremendous regret for not trusting yourself when it counted, for not pushing back when you knew you should have, for continuing down a path of destruction just because everyone said “it couldn’t fail”.

Trust yourself, test your plan, but also don’t be afraid to admit when your wrong and pivot.

What’s the most important piece of advice would you give to someone just starting?

Don’t wait to start.

Sketch out your plan, and start. Test what you are working often. Figure out what’s working and not working as fast as you can, and don’t worry about everything being perfect before moving forward.

What is the hardest thing you have had to do regarding your business?

With the Hindsight Project it’s been amazing. We are just launching. I have enough experience to know that there will be a lot of hard things we will have to deal with.

Marketing, finding amazing authors, helping people understand why we do what we do. These are all things that will be difficult.

What does your typical day look like?

Up at 5:00.
60 min of prayer, meditation, study, and planning.
60 min of work before everyone else is up, this is some of the most productive time of the day, DO NOT MISS THIS OPPORTUNITY.
Then 90 min working with my wife and kids on all of our businesses, this time is so valuable to me, not only is my family super helpful, but I love the opportunity to share with them core business principles.
75 min of physical exercise, don’t miss this, you don’t have to go to a gym either, you can just take a brisk walk, but no matter what GET IT DONE.
From their stuff is different every day. Sometimes I’m a video shoot, sometimes I’m digging and doing some serious writing. The flexibility of being a successful entrepreneur is one of the greatest benefits of owning your own businesses.

If you were to start again, and could change one thing, what would it be?

For Hindsight, nothing, it’s going freaking amazing! For other businesses that haven’t gone so well, I would say, trust my gut more, and people less.

Not that you shouldn’t trust people, you should, it’s important, but you need to be darn careful when loosing control, or sharing control.

Be clear, over communicate, and make sure “stuff” is written down.

What is the most important thing in life?

The order goes like this: God >> Wife >> Family >> Business.

Business is last, but that doesn’t mean that it gets neglected. It doesn’t.

I’m crazy passionate about business, taking ideas and making them into something amazing, it’s like oxygen to me.

What is one problem you encountered as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?

Time.

There is never enough time.

So, because of that, I have spent the last 10 years learning, studying, and developing approaches to time management.

I feel this is one of the most important, if not THE most important differentiator. We all have the same amount of time, and how we use it will make the difference. I often hear people tell me they don’t have enough “time”. My response is always the same, “How much time did you spend last week watching TV, youtube, and surfing facebook, we all have the same amount of time as everyone else.”

So why do some people accomplish seemingly impossible amounts, while others can barely take care of themselves. It comes down to 2 things, how much time are they wasting on stuff that doesn’t matter, and how effective are they at managing the time they are spending on the right things.

Tell us something unique about yourself.

I always were crazy socks, and sometimes they don’t even match!