First Class, or With Kids

There are only two types of travel,

First class or With Kids. One is much more enjoyable than the other. Another way to avoid the toddler situation is to travel when it’s night, and parents are too tired to deal with a screaming kid, so they tend to avoid that time. Mid week is also easier to avoid the weekend family packs.

Next time, I’ll plan better.

Good value

Went to visit Temecula in Southern California.

Wonderful wine, great scenery and a fantastic time.

Besides, when you go out and visit, don't do the same things you can do at home, try something else, something local, and fun.

Explore and try something new, it'll get you somewhere you haven't been before.

Cross Country flights

I should know better. When traveling across country, don't accept the lay-over in Chicago. Nothing good can come of this.

2 hour delay on the tarmac.

Instead of landing in Orange County, I end up in LA.

All the bars end up being closed by the time I get there.

But, the weather's wonderful, the people are pretty, and this is a wonderful place.

Now, if only they would do something about the taxes, it could be perfect. Either that or I have to find a way to make enough money that the taxes don't matter.

Playoffs - No Tomorrow

Complete sacrifice of all your resources.

This is why we enjoy the playoffs. Everyone knows, it's "Win or go home." No need to marshal your resources later. If you don't use your resources to win today, why play?

It works in games, and sports. Competitions, yes.

Not in life.

There are some resources that shouldn't be put on the line. These are the important aspects of life. First and foremost, living.

Use all the resources you have, as you have to, in order to survive and succeed. But don’t start sacrificing your people, your world outside the chosen profession. Ironically, the people who best succeed at blending the two together are those who know how to distinctly separate their private life from their professional one.

A bad day at the board room, should not end up being a bad day at the dining room.

There’s always going to be a tomorrow. This is much bigger than just one shot, one game, one season.

The right to exist

Jack Roseman, a professor of mine at GSIA (now Tepper), told me... "As a human being, you have the right to exist. You have the right to food in your belly, a roof over your head, and clothes on your back. I'll pay taxes to guarantee these rights. But as a company, you have no such rights. As a company, you have to fight for the right to exist EVERY DAY. And the only guys who can give you that right, are your customers. They'll give you that right with their wallets, nothing else."

I'm still trying to figure that one out.

Entire Universe

Someone once asked me what made a 'great entrepreneur'.

Anyone can be an entrepreneur, just start a business. If you fail to go out of business, congratulations!

But good entrepreneurs know their business. They know the competition and they know their people.

Very good entrepreneurs are good entrepreneurs, but they also know their customers, and their suppliers, what makes each side tick. How their suppliers make money, and what the supplier's concerns are. Why the Customer buys from them and not someone else, and what the customer really wants, needs, gets.

But the best entrepreneurs, and these are few and rare. They understand the universe of their business. They not only know the people who touch and affect their business. But they undestand the elements that are coming over the horizon. They maneuver themselves so that when the lob comes from beyond view, they're not caught by it. It takes time, dedication, and effort to become one of these people. But they always command the respect and attention of everyone in the industry.

Quicker Faster Stronger Smarter Better

Olympic motto is: Swifter, Higher, Stronger.

I came up with my own motto(5 words) as a result of my competative spirit, and recognizing that there is always someone out there, now, or in the past, or in the future who will be equal to me in 4 aspects, and slightly better than me in the 5th. This is a variation of 'be paranoid' that drives some companies.

In verbose explaination:
Quicker: Someone will notice the opportunity before you do
Faster: Someone will GET to the opportunity before you do
Stronger: Someone can break through some barriers before you will.
Smarter: Someone will go AROUND the barriers no one can break through, while you're still trying to work your why through them.
Better: Sometimes he'll just achieve the goal before you. Wasn't because he saw it first, or could get there first, or went through an obstacle, or around a barrier. Sometimes you just lose.

If you can explain why no one else is Quicker/Faster/Stronger/Smarter/Better than you NOW, then you'll probably win.

Remember, time is a factor, someone could be quicker than you, but his race is already run. Someone could be better than you, but he's not yet learning to walk. These are not current competitors, and they're not in the race, yet.

Blood suckers can give blood

Having been called a blood sucking vampire by some close friends, I should show that I can experience the same thing.

Giving blood is a simple task, takes about 1 hour of your life, and has great benefits. Until one of the synthetic blood companies I see really takes off, this is the primary way we have of maintaining the blood supply.

As with most things I do, there is an ulterior motive. I also give blood for my own benefit. Males, and post-menopausal women do not have a biological method for removing toxins found in the bloodstream. Kidneys and Urea have only so much they can eliminate. By donating blood, and forcing the marrow cells to produce new blood, you are cleaning up what's in your body.

So, the secret's out. Even when I'm being generous, there's always something in it for me.

Dewey wins?

Was the Indian election results another instance of mis-focused polls?

Everyone who responded to a phone poll said Dewey would win. This conveniently ignored that most people who voted back then didn't have a phone.

With Gandhi winning the Indian election, was this another instance of near-sightedness? Most of the voters didn't have email, so what's the significance of sending out 1.8 million e-mails? Most people don't have phones, most voters didn't share in the "India Shining" future.

The hard part is, people will lie, willingly or unwillingly. Until inside the voting booth.

We see democracy in motion, true democracy where people will go out and vote. The poor use their voice in India, unlike some other countries.

Now it's up to us to figure out if/how this changes things.

Not Dead Yet

People have paraphrased Darwin as "Only the Strong survive." Which is an aggressive, and incorrect interpretation of "Survival of the fittest."

However, my favorite interpretation of is runs along the lines of. "What exists today, only exists because everyone else died off first." More of the survivor bias, instead of any intrinsic superiority in what we have now.

I'm finding a lot of this in the existing policies, companies and organizations today. Paperwork that at one point "seemed like a good idea" now is redundant or unnecessary. But just because it's a hassle, does not mean it will be eliminated. Not until the costs of revamping the system, are outweighed by the benefits of revamping.

Companies that are still hanging around, like the last vestiges of an old industry, remain until they either decompose or are eliminated with extreme prejudice.

In trying to make any culture change, bringing in a new process/method, even if it's better, remember to see what hasn't died off yet. After a while you'll be amazed at what remains, for no other reason than it's still around.

New Title for this blog

The webpage already says "No Customers = No Company".

So this Blog is now an open admission that I make mistakes.
Lots of them.
Over and over again.

Plus now I don't have to worry about being 'right' all the time.

I know there are errors in this text, finding them and correcting them will be left as an exercise to the reader.

Eventually, I'll fail to fail, and claim that as a success.

It seemed like a good idea at the time

This thought "It seemed like a good idea at the time." Probably accounts for 90% of all decisions made by anyone.

But it also has the sub-text of "I couldn't come up with anything else"

Now, lots of bad results can arise from this, but at the time it seemed like a good idea.

The point of this post? don't always believe that there's malice in your misfortune. Ignorance, and best intentions tend to be the main reason why things are done/not done. Not outright malice against you.

Then again, you're just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you.

First Blog

Finally here. Blogging online on my site.
Thank Owen for this, he can take the credit for being the final straw.

More random thoughts to come.