Author, Investor, Speaker, Mentor
Plumbers and garbagemen make a good living despite their lack of PHP coding skills. That’s because they’re willing to do the necessary but unpleasant. Basic economics teaches us that prices are determined by supply and demand. Scarce skills like being able to throw a baseball 100 miles an hour are highly compensated. But talent isn’t … Continue reading To Make Money, Be A Garbageman
Competence isn’t a bad thing, but it’s no longer enough. Maybe there was a time when you could build a successful life based on “pretty good.” But those days are gone, along with three martini lunches and wearing hats all the time. Pretty good works in a stable environment because of the principle of leverage. … Continue reading Competence Kills
It’s all a question of influence intensity. Of course Ashton Kutcher can influence more people than I can–he has about 2,500 times as many Twitter followers. But I have more influence over my average follower than he has over his. The average Ashton Kutcher tweet generates 12,500 clicks on Bit.ly–that’s quite a bit of influence. … Continue reading Why I’m 10X As Influential As Ashton Kutcher On Twitter*
People ask me about why I write. I guess they figure that I have some kind of well-reasoned master plan. They’re usually surprised when I tell them I write because I enjoy it. It may be that not everyone enjoys writing as much as I do. I hear all the time about writer’s block, or … Continue reading Creator’s High
This is a golden age for entrepreneurs–if you build a sustainable business. The costs of starting a business are lower than ever before. Social media makes it easier than ever to spread word about great products and services (note that I said easier, not easy!). There’s more transparency in the startup ecosystem (AngelList, VentureHacks, HackerNews) … Continue reading Why This Is A Golden Age For Entrepreneurs Who Follow This Approach
Every day, the Internet brings me an endless stream of news about good things happening to other entrepreneurs and investors–product launches, VC financings, acquisitions. I’m faced with a choice in how to react to this news. A) “Dammit, I’m falling further behind!” B) “It’s wonderful how progress keeps opening up new possibilities!” A lot of … Continue reading Support, Don’t Envy Your Fellow Entrepreneurs
One of the things we’re taught in Silicon Valley is how difficult it is to change user behavior. We go out of our way to avoid requiring behavior change (though some of our biggest success stories depend on it–witness Facebook and Twitter). But there’s another implication that most people miss–if changing behavior is hard, you … Continue reading The Power of Behavior Change
There’s a revolution brewing because of mobile computing, but it might never get off the ground. Thanks to Steve Jobs, we’re now making computers so small and portable that they can be used anywhere–like right now, as I stand in line at Nordstrom Rack (Editor’s note: This blog post was written on 12/23/2010). All of … Continue reading Mobile Computing: A Wasted Opportunity
I’m finally getting around to reading Daniel Pink’s “Drive.” I had held off for a long time, figuring that I didn’t need to read someone else’s rehashing of Deci, since I’d already read the source material. I was wrong. Pink does a great job of synthesizing a number of different strands, including behavioral economics, Deci’s … Continue reading Rewards and the Motivation Paradox
Here’s my recipe for a happy life: 1) Do the things you want to do 2) Accept that you’ll never have the time to do *all* the things you want to do Once you follow those two principles, the rest is simply time allocation!