Author, Investor, Speaker, Mentor
I was talking history with my old friend Alvin Fu when we both realized that there seemed to be a consistent pattern with some important implications for the startup world Our conversation began with a discussion of Ulysses S. Grant, the great Civil War General and two-term President: http://bit.ly/14mIVQx When the Civil War began, Grant … Continue reading The Crucible of Reality
I spend a lot of time thinking about the future–both mine, and that of the world as a whole–and one of the things that has been on my mind is the need for us to do things differently. A recent longform piece in New York focused on the theory that the seeming inexorable economic progress … Continue reading “The Blip”, False Patterns, And How Startups Are The Future of Work
Let me emphasize that I am neither an economist or politician. Yet when I read articles like this recent New Yorker piece on the minimum wage, I feel compelled to share my take. In his piece, James Surowiecki does a good job of teasing out some of the main issues around low-wage work these days. … Continue reading Why The Minimum Wage Doesn’t Help The Poor
A friend of mine pointed me to the sad story of Reggie Brown, who was frozen out of SnapChat by his co-founders and fraternity brothers: http://bit.ly/15JoeB7 Or, was Brown a hard-partying bro who didn’t add much value, in comparison to his co-founders (a hacker and designer)? http://tcrn.ch/13IWOIk It’s a tough call, given that various witnesses … Continue reading SnapChat and the disappearing founder OR Get it in writing, dumbass!
Vera John-Steiner interviewed 70 living geniuses and studied the notebooks of 50 dead ones. What she found was that all of these geniuses built their great ideas over time using sketches and notebooks: http://bit.ly/14mD24G “The one characteristic that all of these creatives shared— whether they were painters, actors, or scientists— was how often they put … Continue reading Every Entrepreneur Should Have a Holding Tank for Ideas
We believe that life experience confers wisdom. Several of the most successful sales executives I know have told me that the most important thing they look for when interviewing job candidates is someone who has experienced a devastating blow…and recovered from it. What’s less clear is why this experience confers wisdom. Is it the result … Continue reading Learning Wisdom At The School of Hard Knocks
Here’s another fascinating article from Bakadesuyo: http://bit.ly/19pAZ7P If you’re about to tackle an important challenge or task, there’s a simple 3-step process you can follow that, in just 30 minutes, can boost your performance 60%: “A recent study by Duckworth, Heidi Grant Halvorson, Benjamin Loew, Oettingen, and Gollwitzer asked a group of high school students … Continue reading The 3-Step Secret To Boosting Your Performance 60%
I am a naturally friendly person. As I’ve written before, I have a friendly face. For example, older ladies love me (I assume I remind them of their grandkids). But when I was younger, I worried that this warmth might work against me. As it turns out, I was both wrong and right about this. … Continue reading Caring and Credible Leadership
A classic piece of startup advice is to focus on solving an important problem. Here’s the principle behind that advice, as stated in Dan Pink’s “To Sell Is Human,” by way of Bakadesuyo: http://bit.ly/14WkrlY “The quality of the problem that is found is a forerunner of the quality of the solution that is attained…” Getzels … Continue reading Why It’s Hard To Find A Good Problem
Here in Silicon Valley, we love “visionaries.” We admire people who “think different” and “invent the future.” It’s a tough act to follow. And it’s not even true. Everything I know, I learned from someone else. Maybe I read about it on a blog, or in a book. Maybe I learned it by working with … Continue reading Everything I know, I learned from someone else