We were lucky to catch up with Kolin Jones recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Kolin, appreciate you sitting with us today. Maybe we can start with a topic that we care deeply about because it’s something we’ve found really sets folks apart and can make all the difference in whether someone reaches their goals. Self discipline seems to have an outsized impact on how someone’s life plays out and so we’d love to hear about how you developed yours?
Everyone’s self disciple in my opinion comes from a different instance in their life when they were forced to be by themselves and hold themselves accountable. For some people it was a direct need to be discipline in their finances, themselves, or they were responsible for others.
When I first started Amalfi Jets with my business partner, Calvin, frankly it was just the two of us. We didn’t have any employees, no one was relying on us, except ourselves. So when we would work it would usually be whenever we wanted to. Our office hours ranged on our mood that day. As our company started to grow and we hired our first employee, everything changed. As a CEO, your role is provide vision, guidance, and leadership for the company but for each and every employee. That was a big turning point for me. Once we hired our first employee, people now relied upon me to work and for the company to grow. This one employee turned into 5 and then at our current state, now 22 employees.
Having 22 people rely on you for their livelihood, frankly drives my internal self-discipline. That sense of responsibility forces you to work, because as I slack off, I am always brought back to the people that rely on you.
Separate from this, self discipline has to come from within you and your own drive to succeed. I personally build this around a very disciplined routine. Every day for me is the same. Wake up at 5:30 AM, get to the gym by 6:15 AM. Leave the gym at 7:30 AM, be in the office by 7:45 AM, have my morning connect with my assistant Lauryn, and get ready to start the day at 8 AM sharp.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
My name is Kolin Jones, I’m a 22 year old serial entrepreneur, problem solver, and pilot. I’ve always been interested in business, starting my first eBay business at 13 years old. Throughout high school, I got involved with drop shipping, online e-commerce stores, and Amazon FBA businesses. I got my pilot’s license when I was 18 years old and attended Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, FL. During the pandemic, I founded Amalfi Jets with an old high school friend of mine, Calvin Yoon. Amalfi Jets started 3 years ago and we’ve grown 90% YoY and launched our 501(c)(3) non-profit foundation, The Amalfi Foundation, in 2022 as a way to give back to underserved communities local here in Southern California and on a global scale through our Amalfi Primary School Initiative in Arusha, Tanzania.
Our for-profit, Amalfi Jets, is focused on creating the most unparalleled flying private experience. In Q1 of 2024, we’re excited to launch the Amalfi Jets iOS and Android app to allow members to book private jets from their phone, utilize our concierge team, and connect seamlessly with other members.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
The 3 more important things I’ve learned starting a business are:
1. To be comfortable being uncomfortable
Frankly, I find this to be the most important. When you start to grow and scale a company, there’s a lot of firsts and a lot of risk taking moves that can be really uncomfortable. (Taking out loans, hiring employees, spending a lot of money on growth, etc.) but being able to power through feeling uncomfortable and out of your comfort zone allows you to succeed.
2. To have a rigid daily routine that you stick to.
Having a routine is very important as it allows you to “time-block” the time that you should be working. It forces you have this set schedule and plan your day to make it the most effective.
3. To surround yourself with positive people
You’re the average of the 3-5 people you spend the most time with. If you surround yourself with people that are not entrepreneurs or are not growing in a positive way, it’s very hard to relate to them and understand their problems with yours. By being around positive people that are doing better than you, it keeps you moving forward and can motivate you to work harder.
What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Any advice or strategies?
Being overwhelmed is a standard part of building any company. Stress will always build up as your company and team scale with the growth. Two things that I’ve found to work really well when feeling overwhelmed is to first, prioritize your off-time. You must work relentlessly hard during the office hours, but prioritizing time when you don’t work and do things that allow you to relieve stress (go to the gym, watch tv, etc.) is vital.
Secondly, I call it “stress boxing” but literally when you feel stress, try to compartmentalize each and every thing that is stressing you out and work through it. So if I’m stressed about our app launch and my sales team’s productivity, first I’d think about the app and go “well our team is actually solving that problem so I don’t have to be stressed about that anymore.” Then for our sales team performance, I would think “I’ll schedule a meeting on Monday to meet with them 1:1 and then go through each of our problems.”
Throughout that process, I’ve gone through and literally solved each of the things stressing me out which should allow you to relax and not have to think about the stressors.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.amalfijets.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/amalfijets
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kolinj/
