Archive for 2014

Opening qualified leads is far more valuable and difficult than closing an unwanted sale. Closing the sale is considered better (even if it isn’t a fit) because there is a dollar amount attached. Sorry to say it, but not all sales (or money) are created equal.

A friend observed that my fiercely independent outlook on life has unintentionally trained people to not offer me help. And here I was thinking I was just surrounded by lazy fucks.

In your organization the people that work hard pay for the people that don’t.

There is an easy path to glorious riches for any start-up. Here’s what you do: Build some technology that does a defined set of things that customers would be willing to pay for. Right, off you go. And don’t forget it was me that gave you the idea for free when you are wealthy.

I have yet to meet anyone that wants to be CEO to my idea. But I meet an awful lot of people who want me to be the CTO to their idea.

The major cultural difference that I notice between Venice Beach and San Francisco is in the panhandling. On Venice Beach they extend their hand and expect loose change. In S.F. they extend a hand and expect you to fund their Series C. You can never be sure if the homeless guy with no shoes and…

Some days it is easier to do the work you know how to do, rather than the work that you need to do.

You get the best press when you yourself are a journalist.

I am still amazed, after such a long career that people still confuse the word “hire” and the phrase “work for free.”

My in-laws are visiting from out of town. I find them to be a lot more personable when I am drunk.

I have developed a browser app so buggy you could stick a tail on it and claim it was made by Mozilla.

I have found that mid-afternoon meetings of any length are categorically useless. They bisect the day so perfectly that it destroys any semblance of productivity you may have convinced yourself you had for at least six hours.

British sardonic wit and American sarcasm are very much like British cheese and American cheese. They appear very similar to each other, to the untrained eye, until you try putting them in your mouth.

The amount of real world success in a person’s life is inversely proportional to the amount of inspirational life advice images with words or inspiring picture quotes that the person posts.

When you want a busy person to help you, make your request easy to follow-up on, and it most likely will be.

If you could put duct tape across the mouth of one person in your office so that it would improve your project, who would it be?

Does this meet my needs or just create new desires?

It is better to market yourself badly but consistently than you market yourself perfectly only once.

Bringing your religion to a business forum or professional networking place is the reason you were fed to the lions in the first place.

When I first moved to the USA I used to think Fry’s Electronics owned my soul. Then I discovered Williams Sonoma, Penskey Spices, Weird Stuff, Sur La Table, and the Rockler Woodworking store in Pasadena. Now they each have an equity share in my immortal being.