Archive for November, 2007

con·fec·tion·al [kuhn-fek-shuh-nl]
noun

1. An isolated place set aside for work, which drives specific urges for constant munching, often followed by bloated vocal remorse. [See cubicle or home office]
2. A cathartic apology, often to a loved one, that is driven by the guilt of having ignored them while gorging on the sweet fruits of one’s labor [See workaholic]
3. A place where creative inspiration, which drives the process of compounding, preparing, or making something delectable, begin with a burst of honest revelation.

Use:

“18,000 lines of code and 3 quarts of Hagendaaz littered the floor of Peter’s confectional.”

“While working from his confectional, Shane realized that if his client was going to make him eat all those business cards for the second time, maybe they should have been made out of chocolate.“

We had one of those epiphanys on Sunday while walking down the street to surf Sharks (inspiring name huh). Peter & I were discussing the value of attending TED in 2008 and whether it is worth the $12,000 it costs if we manage to get tickets. For a 12k entry cost, he wanted to make sure that beyond learning, we drove some business from that investment. As we walked along, Peter wondered out loud how we could find an opening to give our elevator speech when we met people. After all, it isn’t your standard technical business conference but more of an orgy of learning.

I thought about it and bit and realized, we don’t. We go there to make friends. We meet cool people who are as passionate about learning, people and technology as we are. People who can afford a $6,000 ticket and a week in Monterey, Ca. If you made a good enough connection, you follow up later. That is when you talk business.

The epiphany: All sales is nothing more than making friends. Giving your elevator speech, using the word which, all that crap, does you no good if you didn’t make a friend. As my wife told me not too long ago, stop thinking so much about your business and just try to have fun for goodness sakes.
Continue Reading »

Don’t wait to deliver bad news hoping that you might fix everything with a mad sprint to the finish. All-nighters suck. And if you lead a team, overtime is a myth.

There are times when optimism has gotten us in trouble. I’ve noticed this in a lot of freelancers. After all, we can do it all! We think, “gosh this deadline is looking tight, looks like I get to do another few all-nighters. No worries, I can pull this off.” We have all done our fair share. Some times we even glorify it like it is a badge of honor. Peter has done six all-nighters this year and not a single one of them turned out to be necessary.

I have been thinking a lot about the myth of overtime. Every time we have had our team push really hard doing “overtime”, we always have an accompanying undertime following it. I think most people only have a certain number of viable work hours in them in an given period. I find I am happier and more productive, as is our whole crew, when we are not being rushed and have time to explore ideas, make mistakes and enjoy our life. A periodic push is rewarding, but is it as necessary as modern thinking makes it out to be?
Continue Reading »

This is a guest post from our friend, Jarkko Laine. Jarkko is Insanely Interested In Everything, and single-handedly starting an entrepreneurial revolution.

When I think of a billionaire the first image that comes to mind is that of Scrooge McDuck. An image of someone who has earned a big fortune through hard work, but lost the most important treasures along the way: his friends, family, and good will.

Continue Reading »

We just finished our business retreat and I am pontificating our one year goals. Last year was a huge year for us as we transitioned from two professional technicians to budding entrepreneurs. A little time in the woods, some long walks on the coast and we come out of seclusion with a strong vision and some big goals. All right, let’s do this:

In 2008, we are going to gross a million dollars and still have a life.

Now, if I laid that statement at the feet of most contractors, some might say “that’s cool” and offer a generic smile while others would certainly laugh at me. After all, we are a pretty long (long, long) way from making a million this year.

I can hear the voice now. I knew that guy in high school. There is nooo waaaaay he can make a million dollars. And the voice is right. There is no way that we could pull that off. But what they don’t know, and maybe you don’t know, is that we are not afraid to change. We will change and grow and become the leaders and team it takes to achieve the goals we are setting.
Continue Reading »

Yesterday, my iPhone became the latest victim of a wave of buggy units. About 3 months after unboxing the phone I lost the entire bottom strip of touch sensitivity. For those of you who don’t have an iPhone, that means no call button, no email, no Safari, and no iPod. Add that to a number of other functions that are tied to being able to touch the bottom of the screen and you begin to see the picture: no bottom strip = gimped iPhone.

Continue Reading »

I’m going to start off by actively apologizing to Eric. I was a doubting mustafa and I was wrong.

In my 10 steps to generating new business, I stated the number one key to success was to get out of your house. What ensued was a calm debate between Eric and I on whether or not you can network and build a viable client base without leaving your house through the medium of communities on the web.

My (old) stance: All REAL project deals happen offline.

Eric’s stance: Online networks are a viable source of projects.

Continue Reading »

tech·neu·ro·tic [tek-no-raw-tik]
adjective

1. A blogging disorder in which feelings of ranking anxiety, obsessive “do they like me?” thoughts, compulsive stats checking and even physical complaints in various degrees and patterns dominate the personality.
2. Compulsive gadget buying behavior fueled by the impossible ideal that you can own a piece of technology that is not already obsolete.
3. An obsessive character trait that drives most avant guard technological inventions such as the robot roach and the Moller Sky car

Use: “A rash of techneurotic behavior assaulted the blog community during the Great Subscriber Crash of 07”

The blogosphere is attracting some great people. In September, I shared the entrepreneur blogs I read. The stuff put together by teams, with editors and money (with a few exceptions). I love those blogs because they represent a phenomenal resource for all of us who are learning how to run a business.

I have a second stash, my little private stash. The people out there writing about life, work, and business, who I personally like. Those sole individual bloggers, just telling us what they think, whether or not we care. Here’s a shout out to all of you who write because it stokes you out.
Continue Reading »

If you don’t keep score, how do you know when you are winning? Now there is your list of dreams, an indispensables road map to happiness. Some of us though, happen to like big neat targets we can obsess over. Like ONE MILLION DOLLARS.

Peter: Ahem…well, don’t you think we should maybe ask for *more* than a million dollars? I mean, a million dollars isn’t exactly a lot of money these days. Virtucon alone makes over nine billion dollars a year!

Shane: Really?

Peter: Mm-hmm.

Shane: That’s a number. Okay then. We hold the world ransom for…..One hundred..BILLION DOLLARS!!

I was reading the web when I saw a post by Cristian Dorobantescu from energybyte.com which asked these questions:
Continue Reading »