Short video of a pheasant hunt from 2012, shot with a GoPro and a Sanyo Xacti HD1010. Put together with some sloppy editing on an iPad.
Entrepreneurs love cause and effect. We love being the cause. We love poking life, seeing what comes out. We love change and movement.
But we hate, I hate, I can’t stand that moment when every action has been taken toward the goal, that goal you are committed to, but now you have to wait because everything has been done for now.
No news from sales, no feedback from customers, no final decisions Read more…
Photo by NASA on The Commons
I grew up in a tight knit family. But when we talk or I visit home, I can feel like a martian. Like one of those satellites that launch and just keep going. I go out, see and learn new things. But I never get closer to home, always inching farther away.
Now and then we visit and I share my latest experiences and what’s up in my life. But my report gets more foreign to my audience. Sometimes we misinterpret each other. Our list of shared experiences shortens.
But then one day comfort comes from an unexpected place. I read a book and find more in common with the person writing than anyone I know. Their words fit feelings I’ve had but could not describe. And maybe its not the author but the person he or she is describing.
If you took Don Draper’s marketing, added Theodore Roosevelt’s appetite for reading history, and mixed in some greek stoic, you’d get something close to online marketing guru Ryan Holiday.
Ryan dropped out college at 19. Since then he’s went on to work with best selling authors including Robert Greene and Tucker Max and currently heads up the marketing department at one of the most controversial and successful clothing brands of the last 20 years (American Apparel). And he’s 24. He has a book coming out this summer. And there’s been a lot of talk on the publishing industry blogs about the details of the book deal here, here, and here.
Ryan has lived in New Orleans for the past year and I recently caught up with him for the interview below. It covers everything from breaking all the rules in marketing to Read more…
I really enjoyed this Kevin Rose interview with Jack Dorsey, the inventor of Twitter and Square.
The part where Jack describes how it is fine to have a great idea and then put it on the shelf stuck with me the most. Since college I frequently viewed any idea I didn’t work on as a failure or a missed opportunity at best. The video reinforces a larger lesson I’ve been learning since college, that seldom are markets, or existing products, or supply chains, or customers ready for any innovation including that idea you had last year, etc. Markets and innovations take some serious dancing before they’re ready for a successful match.
So it is perfectly alright to set ideas on the shelf. The guy that invented Twitter even says so. If anything, get out and meet those people you would need to make your idea into a reality. Also get to know people in the markets and verticals it would affect. The world may be far more primed for the idea in the future than at the original moment you had it.
Photo by krystian_o
Back in September there was a lot of news covering the 9/11 anniversary. One lady described how different colleagues happened to change flights that Tuesday and the things that did or didn’t happen to each person. And then she paused and she said, “I guess life is often ordinary….and then all at once mysterious.”
In business I spend a lot of time trying to be rational, digging for the logic in new situations, trying to make money or at least not lose it. But this phrase comes to mind a lot and reminds me life is very different from the tools we force on it. It’s not all black and white.
Most Apple fans remember the famous Steve Jobs quote to then Pepsi CEO John Sculley, when he asked him whether he wanted to sell sugar water for the rest of his life or change the world. Among other ideas since his death recently, it occurred to me while running today, what the hell did Steve tell the talent he hired from 1997 to whenever the company started to look up?
Steve Jobs 1997 - Photo: Reuters
Given that Jobs himself felt he and Apple had lost the PC war, having an amazing start but allowing the PC revolution to take place under the wrong kind of leadership, sitting there with Microsoft dominating the market, what did he tell the company the second time around? How did he pitch big hires? “Hey man, join us, we won’t choke this time.” I’ve often wondered what went on during those years between 97 and the iDevice era it built toward.
Drop the Chalk is a New Orleans based software startup that helps great teachers get even better. Their technology is transforming the way K-12 students learn by providing teachers and administrators with innovative tools for the 21st century. They recently won the Domain Company Prize at the 2011 Tulane Business Plan Competition. Josh Raley caught up with Jennifer Schnidman Medbery, the founder and CEO.
Jennifer Medbery and Eric Gallagher Presenting at Tulane During the Event
Josh:
So in 10 words or less how would you describe Drop the Chalk as a product?
Jennifer:
Better tools for teachers to track their students’ progress.
And when did you first have the idea for Drop the Chalk? Read more…
This post is about taking risks.
Photo by conorwithonen
During the holidays I was driving home to see my family when it crossed my mind how often new risks are a good thing. When I say ‘risk’ I mean any choice where the chances of success or failure are unknown. Some new thing comes along, and we try it. It could be a new work project, a new product idea, a Caribbean history class not in my major, or a new group of friends. And often these new risks lead to great experiences. And I wondered why I didn’t take more risks along the way. And even why I avoided risk altogether during certain stretches of time. Then again some gambles turn out badly. Read more…
