Miah's Journey

Peter Theil Thinking

In a recent Business Week article about Peter Thiel called Free Radical there are some good insights and things to think about.

• Peter works every day to reshape the world and focus on solutions to problems other people overlook.  Do you?
• The future is not an abstraction.  It's something we are all participants in, helping to create and forge and shape.  Are you participating in it?
• When he started Paypal the business side of the company was secondary to the vision.  When you look opportunities are you trying to solve a big problem or looking to make money?
• In reference to education - People can't do anything entrepreneurial or innovative or even non-profit - anything that's not safe and well-paying - because they have this mountain of debt.  And so education is something that has become a retardant to technological innovation and progress, even though the common perception is the exact opposite.  Do you fall into this category?
• Peter states: "Only 35 out of 535 members of congress have any background in science or technology.  That's why I believe the government thing is hard to fix - the people there don't actually believe these are important problems.  Maybe the answer would be to change the other 500 people and replace them with engineers.  But then you're not really talking about a practical option."  How do we get more science and technology people into congress?

Some good things to think about and questions to try and answer...

 

 

Are you Present in the things you do?

Fred has a great post about being present. 

My favorite lines: 

Being present in a relationship, whether it is with your kids, your spouse, or anyone important in your life is hard work, particularly for overstimulated type A personalities like me and many of the people who read this blog. 

Around that time, I attended an offsite of a larger private equity firm and there was a organizational psychologist who gave a talk on work life balance. He said something I'll never forget. He said that you have about ten to twelve years to connect with your kids and then they turn into teenagers, tune you out, then turn into adults and build their own lives. I thought about my kids who were five, three, and a baby and realized that time was short and I needed to be present in their lives in every way that I could.

A Family or a Calling, Failure, Success, or Neither

From Ben's recent blog.  Below is a short paragraph from it.

First, let's review Michael Lewis's distinction between a "career" and a "calling":

A job will never satisfy you all by itself, but it will afford you security and the chance to pursue an exciting and fulfilling life outside of your work. A calling is an activity you find so compelling that you wind up organizing your entire self around it -- often to the detriment of your life outside of it.

I want both!  I believe that you can create and obtain the things that you want.

Failure, Success, or Neither - Seth Godin

Productivity

I am trying to be more productive and proactive with my time and the activities that I undertake. 

To do that there are a lot of tools out there to try and help you.  I just read a post about a couple tools and things that you can do.  I am signing up for Google Voice now.  I will see what it does. 

You can request an invite here.

I am also reading the new addition of the 4 Hour Work Week.  The first addition had some great tips that I unfortunately have not tried or incorporated into my life.  I am going to try and incorporate some new ideas and see if they work. 

Go Make Something Happen

One of my favorite Blogs is Seth Godin's.  Whether you are a marketer or not it has some great insights into life and business. 

He did an informal MBA program with some students this spring.  They just finished and one of the big lessons that they learned was to go make something happen!!!

What I have learned is that whether you have an MBA, an under graduate degree, or no formal training at all if you GO MAKE SOMETHING HAPPEN you will learn a lot, most likely be doing something you like to do, and will be passionate about what you are doing.

Do you want a Job or a Career or a Calling

Do you have a Job? A Career? or a Calling / Passion?

A Job - a place where you work and collect a paycheck but do not love it

A Career - a professional in a field that you really like and are considered an expert in

A Calling / Passion - Something that you love to do, Would do for free even if you did not get paid.  If you can have your career be your calling / passion you will be successful.  Your probability of success in life goes up if you can combine these two because you are doing something that you love and are doing it for the right reasons.

Hat Tip to Ben

Great Advice

I was reading an op-ed piece by Warren Buffet in the NY Times today.  It has some great lines regarding fear and what is going on in the market:

• Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful.
• Wayne Gretzky's advice: "I skate to where the puck is going to be, not to where it has been."

BACK

It has been awhile since I have posted.  Things have been busy.  I have switched day jobs and continuing to work nights and weekends on other opportunities that I am very excited about including Solar Liberty which was recently named to the Inc. 500 list. 

• How to succeed in business in four easy steps
• Advice for young entrepreneurs from Marshall Goldsmith
  • We are all entrepreneurs
  • Young people need to learn the meaning of one word that all successful entrepreneurs know well: compete
  • Unless you are rich, don't buy the flat-screen TV
  • Invest your time and money in your future

Catching Up

• Tom Peters videos on business and life 
• • On Passion - The numbers are the soft stuff.  The Truly hard stuff is passion, energy, values, character, and enthusiasm.
  • On Leadership - The director allows an actor to become more than they've ever dreamed of being - Robert Altman
  • On Leadership - Leaders are dealers in Hope, Example - FDR - 1933, Churchill - 1940
• Norm Brodsky - When pitching a potential client don't use the recession word, but say "Look, I'm sure you're busy examining every part of your business for ways to save money or streamline operations.  We can help you dot hat.  We don't have very much overhead, so we can pass along the extra savings to you."
• Go ahead and take it free stuff for the office

The Vision Quest

In Pat Croce's lead or get off the pot he talks about the The Vision Quest.

When you start out on a new endeavor, set out on a Vision Quest by asking yourself some questions about the state of things, such as:

• What am I passionate about?
• Does this idea fuel my passion?
• What would I do if I knew I couldn't fail?
• What opportunity is staring me in the face?
• Is there a need unfulfilled?
• How wold I fill that need differently?
• Why is it done this way?
• Is there a better way>
• How will my involvement make an impact?
• What if?

The Vision Keeper - Paint the vision in vivid colors.

Write down your all your ideas

The vision breakdown:

• With your Vision in front of you, work backward and break it down into a series of time sensitive goals. 
  
  • Goals are more defined than a vision
• Take those goals and break each one down even further into a series of necessary tasks. 
  
  • Tasks are the major to do aspects of your game plan; they are clearly defined projects of limited duration.
• Then take the tasks and break them down even further into finite action steps.  Action steps are the nuts and bolts items that fill your daily to do lists.  These lists should be prioritized to enhance progress
  • Prioritizing your action steps: 3D
    • Do it now
    • Delegate it
    • Defer it
• Get off the pot and take action!!!!!

This is similar to the information that is presented in Richard Machowicz book.

• 3 dynamic elements of a combat plan
  • Targets dictate weapons
  • Weapons dictate Movement
  • You need to set your target, choose your strategy and take action
• 3 core questions of a good plan
  • How do I get there?
  • What do I do when I get there?
  • How do I get out of there?

Great information from these two great authors.