workflow

okay, so basketball can wait. ever wonder how ordinary people accomplish extraordinary things? check out how some of these movers and shakers get their stuff done.

energy vs. time management

so Chez and I were chatting about a recent podcast we listened to about managing energy vs. managing time (from these guys). he asked a million times that i blog it. i'm off to basketball so i have no time to wrap the principle in a nice presentation so i'll just throw a snippet of the conversation here.

...
HSN - the energy principle
Chez - i was like wtf
Chez - i jst drink red bull
Chez - energy in a can
Chez - when it goes down
Chez - drink another can
Chez - wtf
Chez - then on days like today jst drink some water
HSN - the biggest lesson for me was, you can spend 6 hours working on something that can take you an hour to do with hte right energy level
Chez - yeah i hear you big time dude
HSN - so if you don't feel you have the energy to sort out your bills, do something you feel like doing, with all the energy necessary, rather than waste the whole day having accomplished NOTHING
...

huh?

wouldn't you like to work here for a day?

mistakes revisited

brad has an interesting post about failure

"I’ve noticed a pattern in many of the VC and entrepreneur blogs I read – very few people ever talk about failure.

Failure is a key part of entrepreneurship. As an entrepreneur, angel investor, and venture investor, I’ve had lots of success, but I’ve also had lots of failures. So has everyone that I know that has accomplished much of anything..."

as i mentioned in my earlier post mistakes are a function of the complexity of what you're trying to do. no surprise then, that entrepreneurs are riddled with mistakes (starting a company is in my opinion one of the most complex (ad)ventures).

i agree with brad and would like to see more people talk about failure. the current influx of success stories can't possibly be a reflection of reality. (of course there's 'the bubble' but that , on the other extreme, was not a reflection of normalcy/reality either)

another week in paradise...

i should pop open a can of sprite today and celebrate. a full week of rather active blogging, i'm quite impressed with myself. what i'm not impressed with is how the blog has organically become a blog about work. the tagline says "work, tech, friends". it seems i gravitate more to rambling about work than tech and much less friends.

so i was a little disturbed about that, because i'm quite sensitive about the work / life balance thing. i think the reason i'm not too happy writing about technnology issues is because so many people do a much better job of it than i do - so i have a bit of a complex where that one is concerned. and friends, well, i'm not too sure what to write about my friends yet. i hold their identities and privacy with the atmost respect, so that narrows down what i can write.

we'll give the blog another week and see where it goes...

thanks coach...

so Shaq gets another championship ring on his finger. happy days.

what stops us from putting on performances like the pro athletes of the NBA (or any other professional sport for that matter). one reason is we don't have coaches. lets face it, how many of you reading this right now have gotten the level of teaching, training and constant feedback that a professional athlete gets? from someone who's "been there, done that". i for one think i could elevate my professional game if i had my own Phil Jackson to show me the ropes. talking me through that next critical meeting or presentation. helping me navigate out of a sticky client situation.

yes there are the mentorship programs, the career counselors etc. however these are no substitute for someone closely monitoring your performance in your most critical of tasks. to use the basketball analogy, i feel me and my friends are playing pick-up / street ball in a professional league. the results are potentially disastrous.

see you later boys and girls, i'm off to find myself a management coach.

death of the mix tape?

whatever happened to the mix tape? well, it was replaced by pandora. think about it, rather than deal with burning a cd with music that's borderline legal, just email your friend a pandora station and have them (legally) discover the music for themselves. how novel.

pictures and other content

...it was picture day today! i managed to get some good ones in before it started pouring. the weather has been very erratic recently, not sure how i feel about it.

so, a common thread i can draw from a bunch of my reading and conversations lately is that we build relationships based on what we bring to them. stephen covey speaks of an emotional bank account - not sure i remember the concept accurately, but basically in each relationship we have there's a bank account. the good things we say/do for someone add to the account and the bad things constitute a withdrawal. relationship management from this perspective consists of keeping track of the emotional account balance.

keith ferrazzi talks about the 'currency' we bring to a relationship. i agree with this view. after all the excitement of introducing yourself to someone (or your company to a potential client), there has to be something one can offer the other - currency. it can be anything that fills the other party's immediate need, humor, currency (the literal kind), knowledge, etc. keith also referrs to this as 'content'. i like this term better. how many people have you met that are all glossy magazine but the more pages you turn, there's no real content, or to put it less harshly, little content you can really use (or share with someone else)? and on the flip-side how many people have you met that are like an academic journal - lots of information you need or know your friends need?

mistakes

have you ever thought this analytically about your mistakes?

some great thoughts about how screwing up doesn't mean you're a screw up. ideally, making mistakes reflects the complexity of what you're trying to do - and are part of the learning process. i like that...

the come back...

...in the spirit of the Heat comeback into the finals series (go Shaq!) - i've decided to launch my own comeback - to making entries on this thing.

some things i've been thinking about:

- home computing - i'm still trying to figure out what to set up at home. with so many apps now available over the internet, i'm wondering how much computing to bring into my house. and if i do, i have to worry about how to access it when i'm on the road. i definately need a place to store my (legal) digital music collection. i've been thinking about photos, but i really can't justify not using flickr. i've been thinking about home theatre, but can't foresee a time i'll be watching movies at home. sadly, youtube is keeping me adequately entertained.

- happiness - with all the TSRS comings and goings, i'm intrigued as people are gravitating to what they feel will bring them more happiness. at least i'm thinking that's the reason anyone makes a move. and the automatic reaction is to look inward and ask myself what's keeping me satiated and what the future holds (or should hold). i decided long ago it wasn't money (it's what money can buy... just kidding). read an interesting post about money and happiness (interesting because it's a 'money doesn't make you happy' article written by bankers). after going full circle i stick to my initial theory that happiness for me is doing what I like while helping people I love in the process (and hopefully whatever it is involves some cool technologies). what's keeping you happy?