Just like business, surfing is all about the risk versus reward payoff. As the waves get bigger, the consequences become more severe, but the rush of surviving a 10-foot barrel is indescribably addictive.

Starting and growing a business is just as wild a ride, with huge potential rewards, such as changing the world and acquiring fortune and fame. But the risks – failure, bankruptcy and even jail – are high, too. Everyday we’re putting it all on the line, and that rush you feel when you hit the level of success you’ve been striving for is what has us all hooked. I’ll be the first to say it out loud: "My name is Jon, and I’m an entrepreneur-aholic."

Like most entrepreneurs, I started my current business – it’s my third one; I also suffer from entrepreneurial ADD – because I found a problem that I just had to solve. I was frustrated by an experience I had with the Yellow Pages when I used them to find a moving company. There was no way of knowing which mover was the best, so I took the "Yellow Pages Gamble" and lost. The company I selected gave horrible service and charged me triple the quote; they even held my TV hostage until I paid the inflated price. I decided then and there that we need a website on which everyone could voice their opinions and rate businesses so that we can all benefit from knowing who’s the best and who to avoid. First I just needed to figure out how to build it and how to make money from it.

I like mixing business with pleasure; it gives me a creative edge and helps me stay balanced. So it was on a surfing trip to Indonesia when I completed the business plan for my new idea, MojoPages.com. Accompanied by my long-time friend and now MojoPages’ Chief Revenue Officer, we rode epic waves in the Mentawai Islands while drawing preliminary sketches of the website, finalizing our sales and marketing strategy, and connecting with investors, advisors and team members via fax and satellite phone.

While enjoying my two favorite passions, I realized how similar the addictive characteristics of each are. So it’s no surprise that surfing has taught me helpful and insightful lessons that I’ve learned to apply toward business:

• Surfing has an honesty and purity that has helped it thrive and spread. People surf for the right reasons. At MojoPages, we’ve embraced this "for the right reasons" philosophy, creating our 3H mantra: "Always embrace humor, humility and honesty when showcasing the company and conducting business."
• Surfing has a risk of death. Fortunately, I learned early on that a good surfboard is critical when riding a life-threatening wave. In business, your employees are your surfboard, and motivation and morale is critical to keeping your business alive, especially during the wild ride of a startup.
• Like the counter culture that erupted from surfing, traditional corporate culture – the 9 to 5 suit and ties – are being taken over by a new type of business culture. To beat the big boys, most startups require significantly superior creativity, adaptability and speed. Doing away with traditional corporate behavior and adopting a more comfortable, open-minded environment that cultivates new ways of thinking has worked well for MojoPages.

I’m sure a new problem will come along someday that I’ll need to solve and turn into a new business, but in the meantime, I’m enjoying this current wave of entrepreneurial endorphins.