Andrew ‘BalugaWhale’ Seidman is one of the best online cash game players to emerge from the scene in the past few years. I first met him at EPT Deauville a few years ago and had the privilege of watching young Internet players screaming like fans of the Beatles when they learned who is was. 
He is also an amazing coach, the author of ‘Easy Game’ (one of the best poker books on the market), and also one of the nicest people you are ever likely to meet. Here is Seidman talking about his love outside of poker: entrepreneurship. So how did you first fall in love with entrepreneurship? “I think a lot of people who get into poker do it because they are seeking a lifestyle that appeals to them. Especially in the modern era where the 9 to 5 day job is not particularly appealing to a lot of young people. A lot of people found poker as a way to work from home and travel around the world. Poker in a sense is a pretty entrepreneurial activity in itself. “Then when I started to play poker and got success I got coaching requests, then I launched a book, which in itself is an entrepreneurial center for me, and before long I became more excited about branding, and the mechanics of how a business works.” So did your entrepreneurial spirit come before or during poker? “I don’t think I have ever really wanted a real job. I always avoided every opportunity to have any real type of job. My dad is a an entrepreneur, so it’s kind of in my blood, but a lot of opportunities also opened up for me that led to this, such as poker, tutoring in college, etc.” Who are your entrepreneurial role models? “I really admire Bill Gates. There was a quote from Gates that I have always liked. He was once asked whom would he approach to solve a really difficult problem and he said he would ask a lazy person. A lazy person will find the easiest way to solve a hard problem because they don’t want to spend all day working on it. I think the classic entrepreneurs like Gates and Steve Jobs have been pretty important to me – also my Dad. “I also have an Uncle who is an entrepreneur and he once told me that the best thing you can do, if you have a good idea, is to just start doing something to make it happen. You’ll find out pretty fast if it’s a good idea, or not, and you will learn a lot about the actual process of “doing it’” Have you gotten any great advice from books or coaching courses? “I have read a ton of books about this topic but none of them have come close to the advice my uncle gave me. When I was pretty young I read the Rich Dad Poor Dad books and I had money through poker and got all excited about it. I called them to joint their entrepreneurship course, and I was telling my Dad about it when he said, ‘you know this is pretty close to a scam? If they really believed in their system they would offer you a profit share instead of paying an up front fee.’ “Of course they don’t do that. The real value comes from the entrepreneur themselves and not the coaching. It’s the same with poker coaching. I can give my students the best knowledge I can, but ultimately its up to them. I can only open the door; I can’t walk through it for them. As an entrepreneur you have to walk through the door.” What are your main challenges as an entrepreneur? “The biggest one I can think about is you don’t know what you don’t know. There are things you could never consider that will impede your process and you have to learn from these. “When I first launched Easy Game there was a variety of book threads on 2+2 so I put my own up there. I mentioned my table of contents, my Editor, and posted it. The next day I woke up and the I was banned from 2+2. It turns out the owner has a long time grudge against my editor and had taken it down and banned me. “There are a lot of things like that. You have no concept of knowing before hand, and you have to do a lot of back tracking, and fixing, to respond in the right way. “A lot of people have a lot of great ideas. The implementation of those ideas takes the work of a team. The hardest part is getting everyone on a team to feel like they are valued, their work has meaning that they are part of something big and are treated with honesty and respect. “When people work on something they have a tendency to take things personally and become defensive. When you have a me first mentality in business it’s difficult to achieve success. But if everyone is on the same page, understands his or her roles and works within a circle of trust that’s when you have a lot of success.” How are your people managing skills? “I think open communication is the key. When everyone feels like people are being honest it diffuses everything. So many issues come out of communication problems. Think about the greatest entrepreneurs in the world. Even though they were classic solo leaders they had groups of people who were on board working for them. “Steve Jobs is famous for being a huge asshole but being supportive of those that worked hard, bought in and stuck with him. You have to be honest with people, make them feel valued and are being heard.” What current projects are you working on? “I have two projects on the go right now. The first I started with two of my best friends from childhood. It’s a digital marketing agency called Digital Reach. When you advertise on Google a lot of people blow a lot of money trying to make their business successful through online advertising. We help people fix that. Small to medium size businesses that don’t have a lot of time spending their focus advertising online. We have been in business for eight months now and have 10 people on the team going up to 12 next week – so it’s growing fast. “My pet project is a way to help groups of people to buy expensive things together and share them, such as houses, boats, etc. It was inspired by poker players who would get together and rent houses in Vegas for the series. They could buy that property, but they don’t because it’s complicated so I am intending to make that less complicated for people. What were the main problems you encountered setting up Digital Reach? “Understanding roles and responsibilities was huge. If you get a lot of people in a group to solve a problem it can either turn into a giant cluster or everyone tries to formulate his or her own ideas. This causes a lot of miscommunication and inefficiencies. In the early stages of the company we had problems deciding who was supposed to be doing what. When we worked out the roles and responsibilities we were all able to work independantly of each other and accomplish a lot more.” What weaknesses do you have as an entrepreneur? “I have a tendency to want to skip over details. I tend to have my head in the clouds a little bit, and have visions of grandeur. It’s good to have a balance of people in the team: dreamers and detail-oriented people who break down the steps needed to make things possible. So for me it’s been a challenge to bear down and live in the real world.”
Life Outside of Poker: Andrew Seidman – Entrepreneur
