In this series called Member Showcase, we publish interviews with members of The Oracles. This interview has been Rob Kosberg, CEO and founder of Best Seller Publishing, a company that helps experts position themselves within their marketplace with a bestselling book. It had been conducted and condensed by The Oracles.

1. Who was simply your biggest influence growing up?

My first mentor was my father. He was a business owner with his own property company and taught me the worthiness of effort. At 18, I started selling property and didn’t know any thing. Dad took me aside and said, “To reach your goals, arrive at any office at 7 a.m. each morning, print out the expired listings, get the newspaper (remember, this is pre-internet) and can get on the telephone by 8 a.m.”

Last March, I acquired the chance to speak to Robert Herjavec about his involvement as a mentor with the first Frito-Lay Dreamvention competition and the advice he has for inspiring young entrepreneurs. Since that time, thousands of kids beneath the age of 15 submitted ideas they wished to see become more active. From the masses, five finalists were selected and so are competing head-to-head for chance to win $250,000. Herjavec has continued his involvement with the project.

Then, the other day, I got to speak to Herjavec again to share with you his experiences with the youngsters, the Dreamvention competition and his advice for all entrepreneurs in terms of bringing an idea alive. His joy for dealing with the youngsters and his excitement in relaying the experiences of seeing each child’s idea manifest right into a physical prototype were palpable.

Although you may think you understand everything, you don’t.

Image credit: via Computer Mag

Microsoft’s Home windows OS isn’t one thing. It comes from a patchwork of finely tuned features. Every individual feature is, subsequently, the consequence of a staff of committed engineers who create the very best (often personalizable) encounter possible. Thus, with such a intricate, nuanced and vast software application, it makes sense there are little techniques and UI flourishes that a lot of people don’t even understand about.

The main decision Robert Herjavec available wasn’t ditching the 9-to-5 and entering business for himself. It wasn’t adapting to a complete new language and life-style after moving to Canada from communist Yugoslavia. And it wasn’t selling his first company to AT&T for millions in cash.

It had been rejecting the “virus” he calls mediocrity, refusing to be average in its many easy-to-fall-into forms.

“The world doesn’t reward mediocrity,” Herjavec recently told Entrepreneur from the Culver City, Calif., group of Shark Tank. “You’ve surely got to be great at something. There is nothing ever ‘good enough.’ It’s either excellent or inferior.”

With films like El Mariachi, Desperado, Spy Kids and LAS VEGAS, Austin-based filmmaker Robert Rodriguez has carved out a career on Hollywood’s fringe. He’s a key person in the digital filmmaking revolution and the initial indie film bootstrapper, having funded his debut movie with cash he earned from being truly a medical test dummy. Now, he’s turning his focus on the world of television along with his own network, El Rey, bringing his tastes to a mass audience and completing a few gaps for the Hispanic population along the way.