THE DREAM IN ACTION

The first version of this post was a bit more detailed but I lost it because of wordpress sucking…here’s the second version.

Brad Feld wrote a post encouraging people not to post “2009 Predictions” or “2008 Year in Review” posts…I agree with him. I commented…

Brad- On the whole I completely agree, however, I will say that looking back on the year past is a good exercise if you do it with the attitude of, “what can we learn from 2008″. I always think its a good idea to look backward for lessons and forward for opportunities.

So, here are 3 lessons I learned. Please share your lessons from 2008 in the comments, I’d love to benefit from your experiences.

Lessons

1) Find out what is important and keep it close. I got engaged on Dec 26th and with the wide spread pessimism in the economy and around the world, I couldn’t feel any more optimistic about my future with the future Mrs. Graves.

2) If something motivates you, do it. One of the hardest things to find is passion and motivation in your professional life. If you stumble across something you enjoy that is motivating, then chase after it fervently. This world would be a lot better off if people did more things they enjoy and the likelihood of success is much higher if you enjoy your work.

3) Make the social web real. I’ve spent the last 6 months making a concerted effort to meet people in real life or over the phone from Twitter. There are more and more amazingly talented people joining the social web everyday making it more and more powerful. To fully take advantage of that power you’ve got to make web connections become real relationships.

Loic Lemeur wrote a great post on his blog about authority being = or not =, to your number of followers. I agree with him that it’s not a matter of who’s more important but it’s definitely a matter of who has a larger, faster, stronger affect with their followers.

He used an example of complaining about Sprint Blackberry Bold global service and how when he complained on Twitter Sprint offered him special VIP service contract so he could get what he wanted…that makes having a large ‘following’ very powerful.

I wanted to find out what experiences you all have a had with company interaction and getting customer service because of Twitter… Was your following a factor? Do companies listen to the millions of people on Twitter with small follower amounts or only the people with large influences or followers?
Please use comments and I’ll include your contributions in a longer more thought out blog post. Thanks.

Loic Lemeur wrote a great post on his blog about authority being = or not =, to your number of followers. I agree with him that it’s not a matter of who’s more important but it’s definitely a matter of who has a larger, faster, stronger affect with their followers.

He used an example of complaining about Sprint Blackberry Bold global service and how when he complained on Twitter Sprint offered him special VIP service contract so he could get what he wanted…that makes having a large ‘following’ very powerful.

I wanted to find out what experiences you all have a had with company interaction and getting customer service because of Twitter… Was your following a factor? Do companies listen to the millions of people on Twitter with small follower amounts or only the people with large influences or followers?
Please use comments and I’ll include your contributions in a longer more thought out blog post. Thanks.

In the crazy case that you don’t know this yet…

Molly and I got engaged last night. Here are some action shots, celebration shots, and lots of smiles.

Thanks to everyone for supporting us as individuals through the years and thanks for your continued support as we take on this thing called life…together.

Love you all.

Just hangin out at home with my sisters…standard.

Hope everyone is having a great holiday season!

This post is an enhanced version of a previous post.

Recently, on the Harvard Business Publishing site there was an article called, “What Surfing Can Teach Us About Managing the Unexpected”, it was all about responding to such tough economic times. The point was made, very well, that it’s not so important how we react to economic changes but more about how we prepare and position ourselves in a timely manor to take advantage of such turbulence. This point really hit home for me as a surfer…first I’ll share an excerpt from the article…

Instead of paddling around in circles as though we were in some calm lake, we need to learn to act like surfers — to place ourselves in the rising and falling swells, paddling forward while glancing occasionally backwards, so that we will be ready when the big wave comes. If we do that, we will stand up at the right moment, establish our balance, take a deep breath, and ride the exhilarating force of history all the way to shore.

Growing up surfing this analogy seems very appropriate and there are a few obvious lessons for entrepreneurs that I draw from this analogy.

The first lesson I’ll share that surfing can provide entrepreneurs is the lesson of preparation. Along with with catching waves, another extremely difficult task when learning to surf is just paddling into the line-up, past where the waves are breaking. This paddling session, can be tedious depending on the size of the waves, and is very similar to the preparation required for a successful start or change in business. Without putting in the preparation and training necessary you don’t have a chance at success.

I used to give surf lessons back home in San Diego and when teaching surfing I’d always tell people that “riding waves is actually pretty easy, however catching them is almost impossible”. This makes so much sense from a business standpoint because a great business idea could be ridden out by many people…these people are called employees…sure it still takes work, but not nearly as difficult. What is “practically” impossible is catching waves or starting and executing on the right business, in the right market, with the right product, and the right people. Timing and positioning.

I’m encouraged that as an entrepreneur I believe that my startup is actual timed well and positioned accordingly. On ReadWriteWeb.com, a top web technology blog, there was a post about how tech firms are hiring Developers and Community Managers. This is a strong affirmation that our target market of community developers is an important and emerging market, with a need. If we can develop software that meets the needs and solves the problems that community managers are having we will be successful. But, we must also build the right team and focus on the right targets.

How do we position ourselves? Well, there are two schools of thought. One, choose a competitor. Having competition can help a company define itself. The other school of thought is that you should differentiate yourself. By differentiating yourself you can separate yourself from “the norm” and give people something that was previously unavailable. Either way, paying attention to your positioning is critical to business growth. In the line-up as a surfer it’s all about the competition. Playing off the competitions mistakes and anticipating their moves can be very advantageous. I recommend this strategy in business as well.

As a life time surfer (excluding my stint in the mid-west) the lessons I learned were first, those of preparation. Once prepared, positioning and timing were next. I learned to paddle, position myself versus my competition, and then time the waves correctly for a successful ride. Now, as an entrepreneur, I’m utilizing those lessons every day. As we work to grow our businesses it is critical to keep these surfing lessons in mind.

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There’s a little thing going around the blogosphere that is similar to that bad email your mom forwards you. You receive it, read it, know that you’re “supposed” to pass it on but you hesitate to do so, then finally you hit FWD. Well last week I was called out to write the ‘7 things you don’t know about me’ post by my sister. She was pegged before that, (3 weeks into her blogging she has over 100 readers, wtf), and now it’s my turn… I apologize in advance to those who don’t like when blogs get personal. So, without further adieu…

7. My favorite movie is ‘Good Will Hunting’. Besides how many times Matt Damon says ‘F%ck’ I think he’s the most bad ass movie character. He’s not only off the charts intelligent, he can seriously kick some ass.

6. I was on the surf team in high school. Many of you played football or maybe chess club, I don’t know. But I was on the surf team. We had bi-monthly competition on Sat/Sun and I was the youngest on the team starting in 7th grade. I was sponsored by a board company and got boards for $100 or less. No I live in Milwaukee, womp womp.

5. I’ve been to Africa. In 2002 I worked at a refugee camp called Kakuma outside of Nairobi, Kenya. Then traveled north to Egypt to see the pyramids and King Tuts Tomb. We also did a safari of the Masai Mara desert and saw all of t big 5.

4. I love shopping at thrift stores. It’s probably one of my favorite past times to shop for clothes at a thrift store and find the deals. I’m not broke, I’m just cheap…get over it.

3. I didn’t get in to USC. I’ve been a Trojan fan since I was probably 9 or 10. I would always go to the USC vs. Notre Dame games with my Dad and his buddies, they would all root for ND and I would always root for SC. Then when I applied to college they were on the top of my list…I wasn’t on the top of there’s. Thus, I ended up at Miami University in OH (I studied Economics) and in hind site, I would do the same thing all over again.

2. I’m a lot Irish. My mother’s maiden name is O’Leary and my father has a significant amount of Irish in his family as well. All I have to say is, yes I can hold my own at the pub and “kiss my blarney stones”.

1. I’m taken. I’ve been dating @mollstar for over 3 years and I’ve never been happier in my life. Our relationship gets more fun and fresher everyday. We refer to ourselves as a team and it couldn’t be more true. I always told myself I would wait for the perfect combo of beauty, intelligence, and class…found it.

Now, I’m supposed to call out 7 other bloggers to do the same type of post. Here goes:

1. Blake Samic – blakesamic.com

2.Sam Huleatt – leveragingideas.com

3. Andrew Wise – wisestartupblog.com

4. Nate Ritter – blog.perfectspace.com

5. Steffan Antonas – blog.steffanantonas.com

6. Ross Kimbarovsky – blog.crowdspring.com

7. Sukjit – sukhjit.me

Do you really want to be an entrepreneur? Do you have the right attitude?
To be honest with you, I can’t yet answer those questions with 100% confidence. I’ve not been to “the bottom”. I plan on having getting to experience that in my career though. From my limited experience, the thrills of business are difficult to enjoy unless you have ownership, responsibility (maybe those are one in the same), and exposure to the upside. Then you can lose it all or make it all…poker anyone?

This talk below is from LeWeb 08 by Morten Lund. He is so honest it kills me and his positive attitude towards the downturn and his recent failure should be humbling and motivating for anyone!

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The next few months are going to be crazy. I just moved out of my apartment, then I’m heading to San Diego for Christmas on Wednesday morning. I’ll be out in SD until January 6th spending time w/ family, meeting my San Diego based Twitter “friends” and hopefully getting some sweet stuff for Christmas. Then in January I’ll be living with some family friends in the Milwaukee burbs so I can avoid paying rent for the month I’ll be in China; I’m headed to Shanghai in February. After I get back from China I’ll be back here in downtown Milwaukee.

Because of this, I’ve spent the last 3 days moving out of my apartment. I’ve been largely offline with minimum interneting (as my gf would say) and it’s been kind of nice. Pretty much all of my work involves being online and starring at a screen and I think sometimes its good to close the laptop and get out and work…you know manual labor. I’ve spend much of my time last few days out working in the snow and something about working in the cold really makes me feel like a man. Can anyone relate?

So this idea started out with a guy named Matt traveling around the world and dancing with people in different countries. The video is “Where the Hell is Matt??” When I first saw it many months back it put a huge smile on my face. How can dancing not make you super happy?

Then yesterday First Round Capital a VC firm in Philly released this video of all their portfolio companies dancing as a holiday greeting video. Again, I couldn’t stop smiling and can’t help but to watch the entire video every time I start it. I love it.

So what am I going to do? I recruited my whole family and we are going to create a similar video over the holiday season. We’re going to dance around at 20+ different San Diego locations and just have fun together. The economy is shit, we get it, but I want this video of my family to be a reminder than no matter how bad things get, if you’re with your family and people you love, you can always find an inexpensive way to have fun, enjoy company, and grow closer. I really believe that the strengthening of family time and family values can have a huge positive affect towards an  increased quality of life…far great than good economic conditions.

Enjoy this vid and look for my families to come sometime near the new year!

Seesmic is trying out a new look and feel. This version is sans flash and with a white background. You can now watch video directly from the timeline which is front and center to reduce clicks. Personally, I like the improvements mostly for how quickly the new site loads.

Seesmic, for those of you who don’t know, is like a video Twitter. Short asynchronous video conversations…if you have a web cam…get after it! Seesmic.com

Here is my updated video profile:

Please reply to the video with your thoughts or comments!

And here is a screen shot of the new layout.

Seesmic is trying out a new look and feel. This version is sans flash and with a white background. You can now watch video directly from the timeline which is front and center to reduce clicks. Personally, I like the improvements mostly for how quickly the new site loads.

Seesmic, for those of you who don’t know, is like a video Twitter. Short asynchronous video conversations…if you have a web cam…get after it! Seesmic.com

Here is my updated video profile:

Please reply to the video with your thoughts or comments!

And here is a screen shot of the new layout.

During a SOHObiztube board meeting today the discussion got me thinking about the idea of a ‘beta’ release. Then I started thinking about Gmail’s perpetual beta phase and why they might keep Gmail in beta for 4+ years but want to get Chrome out of beta after only a few months. Without sharing to many details of the SOHObiztube board meeting I wanted to share some thoughts & experiences with beta testing.

First, if a product is going to be sold, it will be tough to sell in beta. So, startups should not always take the lead from Google and keep products in beta. It will affect your sales. People understand especially when buying software as a service products that it is an iterative process and the product will (and should) continue to improve even after the initial purchase.

Second, if a product will not be sold, people’s expectation of performance is significantly lower. If Tweetdeck fails me for a night or even for good, what can I do? Nothing. I’ve paid $0 for Tweetdeck and should expect exactly that in return. However, if Basecamp goes down for longer than a few hours it could affect my project timelines (this could be serious) and I have a right to be upset. The difference… I pay for Basecamp, I don’t pay for Tweetdeck.

Third, Gmail is free and needs to stay in beta because people probably count on their Gmail served email just as much as they may rely on almost any other product. I received the above error message this evening and that is exactly why Gmail is still in beta. Without Google charging us for our email, keeping the product in beta is an insurance policy for them.

No $$$, no guarantees.

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Tonight I was reading the Harvard Business Publishing site and there was an article that caught my eye. It was called, What Surfing Can Teach Us About Managing the Unexpected, and was all about responding to such tough economic times. The point was made, very well, that it’s not so important how we react to economic changes but more about how we prepare and position ourselves in a timely manor to take advantage of such turbulence. This point is hitting me strong as I think about timing and positioning, first I’ll share an excerpt from the article…

Instead of paddling around in circles as though we were in some calm lake, we need to learn to act like surfers — to place ourselves in the rising and falling swells, paddling forward while glancing occasionally backwards, so that we will be ready when the big wave comes. If we do that, we will stand up at the right moment, establish our balance, take a deep breath, and ride the exhilarating force of history all the way to shore.

Growing up surfing this analogy really make sense to me. When teaching surfing (I used to give lessons) I’ve always told people that “riding waves is pretty easy, but catching them is almost impossible”. This makes so much sense from a business standpoint too because the right business idea could be ridden out by many folks…these are called employees…sure it still takes work, but not nearly as difficult. What is practically impossible is catching that wave, starting and executing on the right business in the right market, with the right product, and the right people. Timing and positioning.

I’m encouraged that SocialDreamium is actual timed well and positioned accordingly. On Read Write Web today there was a post about how Tech firms are hiring Developers and Community Managers. This is a strong affirmation that the market SocialDreamium is going after is an important, emerging market with a need. If we can develop software that meets the needs and solves the problems that community managers are having we will be successful. But, we must also build the right team and focus on the right targets.

So far, so good.

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