Author, Investor, Speaker, Mentor
For our final day in Washington DC, we took things easy. Thanks to the good folks at the Holiday Inn Capitol, we had a late checkout time of 2 PM, which let us enjoy the morning before heading off to the airport. After a big travel-day breakfast, we took a leisurely stroll to the United … Continue reading The Yeh Family in Washington DC, Day 4
I try to give entrepreneurs a realistic view of their chances of startup success. Yet I’ve always relied on anecdote and example, rather than hard numbers. Now I don’t have to. Here is a set of definitive numbers from across the entire industry:http://nyti.ms/156D8RL “According to the data provided by Sand Hill, since 2003 only 6 … Continue reading The Real Odds of VC-backed Success
Harry Potter author JK Rowling provided an excellent illustration of why you always need luck with her most recent book, “The Cuckoo’s Calling.” Here’s a succinct Bloomberg article by Duncan Watts that explains the tale:http://bloom.bg/15XEAab After finishing with the Potterverse, Rowling turned to adult fiction with her first non-Potter book, “The Casual Vacancy,” which met … Continue reading You Always Need Luck (the lesson of JK Rowling & Robert Galbraith)
Here’s another great insight I took away from James Altucher’s book, “Choose Yourself”http://amzn.to/1b59su7 James points out that humans evolved the fight-or-flight reflex for a reason. Stress helped our ancestors survive. When stress hit, cortisol surges through our systems, increasing heart rate and blood pressure, making us ready to either strike out or run away. When … Continue reading 3 steps to make your fight-or-flight reflex work for you, not against you
I was fascinated by a recent PBS video that covered research being done at UC Berkeley on wealth, privilege, and human behavior. The upshot is that in controlled experiments, wealthy people tend to behave more selfishly and dishonestly than the poor:http://bit.ly/1azIjMa Of course, people might think, that’s how they got to be wealthy! But if … Continue reading Wealth and dishonesty are correlated, but the arrow of causality isn’t what you think
I’m reading the great James Altucher’s book, “Choose Yourself.” It’s a fun and inspiring read, full of James’ trademark brutally honest yet whimsical writing style:http://amzn.to/1b59su7 You really ought to buy the book, since James will actually reimburse you what you’ve paid (or donate the equivalent to charity) if you email him, so there’s really no … Continue reading The Right Way To Handle Rejection
While we were on vacation in Washington DC, we spent a fair amount of time in art museums. We visited the National Portrait Gallery and the National Museum of American Art twice, as well as the Sackler Gallery, which is part of the Smithsonian Castle complex. One thing that struck me over and over was … Continue reading The Curse of Originality
On Friday, we set aside our last full day in Washington DC for “the big one”: The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (NMNH). While I’ve always been a bigger fan of technology than nature, the rest of the family is clearly much more on the nature side of the pendulum. When we’re at the … Continue reading The Yeh Family in Washington DC, Day 3
We began the day at the Smithsonian’s most popular museum, the National Air and Space Museum. Airplanes and rockets–what more could someone want? (Sadly, they still haven’t found a way to justify an exhibit on giant fighting robots) The Air and Space Museum is always inspiring; as you walk through the museum, you go from … Continue reading The Yeh Family in Washington DC, Day 2
Greetings from our nation’s capitol! This year, the Yeh family is continuing its tradition of exploring the USA by paying a visit to Washington, D.C. While the food and natural wonders can’t compare to our last summer vacation (Puerto Rico), we’re certainly getting an incredible dose of history. The day began at our hotel, the … Continue reading The Yeh Family in Washington DC, Day 1