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
The craptastic 80s movie “The Last Starfighter” featured one of the most brilliant plot hooks of all time: An alien armada threatens the galaxy, and to recruit pilots to meet the threat, aliens plant a “Starfighter” video game in Earthly arcades to identify the best flyboys. Seriously, how can a movie that combines videogames AND … Continue reading Be All That You Can Be…Pick Up An Xbox
Bob Herbert’s latest Op-Ed in the New York Times tells the story of two friends, Josh and Luis. After graduating from high school, Luis went into the army (both their dads were career soldiers). A few years later, Josh was diagnosed with testicular cancer, and Luis was constantly on the phone, encouraging him through the … Continue reading The Bond of Brothers
The U.S. Navy has always been at the forefront of marketing. It’s innovative use of Hollywood as a recruiting tool (Top Gun, The Hunt For Red October, Pearl Harbor) far exceeds what the other branches of the service have accomplished. And now, the Navy has taken another pioneering step, by allow documentary filmmakers to produce … Continue reading The Persuasiveness of Imperfection: What You Can Learn from the U.S. Navy
Entrepreneurial success is less about picking your battles than it is about picking your battlefields. Amateurs focus on tactics–working around the clock, hard-selling, flooding the world with business cards. The truth is that most battles are won or lost before the opposing forces take the field. During the Second Punic War, Hannibal beat the Roman … Continue reading Pick Your Battle(field)s