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Perhaps the most snow you will ever see in San Diego. I was greeted by this in the morning as I was about to jump in my car and head out to work. (That’s my car’s sun roof)

Speaking of which .. I’m going to Mammoth Mountain, CA this weekend for a taste of some real snow. Woo hoo!! (Let’s see if I come back with no broken bones)

Anyone who fights for their dream, suffers far more when it doesn’t work out, because they cannot fall back on the old excuse: “Oh, well, I didn’t really want it anyway.” They do want it and know that they have staked everything on it and that the path of the Personal Legend is no easier than any other path, except that their whole heart is in this journey. Then, the warrior of light must be prepared to have patience in difficult times and to know that the Universe is conspiring in his favour, even though he may not understand how.
– Paolo Coelho

It’s just after noon on Sunday. I woke up early today (I’ve began for the past few weeks now to not sleep in on weekends) because I have a lot of things to do. Some of the things I have to do, I don’t feel like doing, but I know I have to do. However, I catch myself slacking of a bit, not fully focusing on the task that requires my to concentrate deeply (like writing this blog now!) Gahh!!! And I know this is a self-defeating behavior. Which is why I am putting this up here.

This is my blog, and when I first began writing, I wrote that among other things, I wanted this to be a place for me to collect my thoughts and help me think. Sometimes something as simple writing things down help me focus and collect my thoughts, viewing things from a different perspective better.

Writing forces me to concentrate on what I am thinking about, in one consecutive single-user thought process (no round-robin time quantas need to be assigned). The positive byproduct of this is that I focus more on the topic I am thinking about, and during the writing process, I may discover something flawed about what I had originally intended to write and correct my course before proceeding. Likewise, I may also discover something that I did not originally think about (perhaps an important subtopic to expand upon).

I’ve spent all morning, and haven’t been as productive as I have wanted to. I’m moving, but I’m just not moving frickin fast enough. I realize that distraction, my self-induced ADD, my inability to focus, my tendency for procrastination (because I don’t want to do this!), is a major impediment to my success in everything I do, and will be in anything I do, if I don’t manage this. I am battling this vice of mine, and I know I will win.

I am reminded of what Dave Lorenzo, a business coach, wrote:

We have all heard the expression, “It don’t come easy” in reference to success. This is the truth. Although success may appear to happen in an effortless fashion, someone somewhere worked very diligently behind the scenes to ensure optimal results. You must prepare your mind for the difficult tasks that lay ahead of you as you drive your way toward success. Just as a world-class athlete spends years training his body to take the punishment of intense competition, you must train your mind for the battles you will face on the road to making your goals a reality. Your mental training regime involves challenging yourself with completing increasingly difficult tasks that require you to be alone.

Read more

No, I’m not referring to some zen-ish meditation. Check this out.

This is why I love technology. If I recall correctly, humans are the only living things that know how to augment our own capability with tools. And we’ve just taken it to a whole new level by separating our body from our conscious mind. Look at how fast the robot can quickly scan the left corridor and then the right corridor at the T-junction. It’s almost as if the operator is there in person, quickly turning his head from left to right (which he is, just remotely!)

Note to self: perfect cubicle toy for corporate drones.

My favourite Silicon Valley tech reporter has been taking jabs at techies and VC’s alike about lofty valuations or anything that even remotely spells b-u-b-b-l-e — which although it may seem like she is constantly crying wolf, I think she serves as a good check in place to remind us of why the tech bubble happened, lest we get all sugar high and repeat our mistakes again.

Needless to say, I was grinned when I read this on VentureWire this morning.

Valuations of start-up companies in 2007 dipped for the first time in several years, suggesting that a correction may be in the works amid an economic slowdown.The median pre-money valuation for start-ups across all sectors was $16 million, down from $18 million in 2006, according to data released today from Dow Jones VentureSource.

The sagging numbers weren’t pinned to one industry, as valuations fell across the board. Information technology start-ups saw pre-money valuations fall to $15 million from $18.8 million. Health-care valuations dropped slightly to $19 million from $20 million, while the retail and consumer group showed the biggest decline, with valuations ringing in at $10.5 million versus $15 million in 2006.

“2007 was a year of caution,” said Sandy Miller, a general partner at late-stage firm Institutional Venture Partners. “The first half of the year was bullish, but the second half was cautious. [Venture capital] may be the least impacted part of the [current downturn in] the economy, but nobody leaves unscathed.”

Several investors said that certain sectors of the VC landscape - such as Web 2.0 and clean technology - remain overheated, and the downturn in valuations is more of a natural correction than a sign of impending doom.

No tech bubble, hurray It’s ok, Kara. You can put your pitchfork down now.

Or maybe not

It’s so easy to stay comfortably stuck in the infinite loop of self-analysis, just waiting and waiting for the perfect moment when everything is right before we take that emotional risk or actually do something.

While introspection is good and necessary, it is doubtful that introspection alone will provide us with the answer of what we want to do. Getting out there, trying new things, and after possibly failing a few times, we’ll widen our experience which will help us hone in on what we want.

Sometimes I fall into the trap of planning all damn day, getting that false feeling that I am actually progressing. I guess I am prone to analysis-paralysis. While I’m not advocating against not planning a strategy, tweaking one’s strategy every 5 minutes is counter productive. Don’t forget execution.

 Self-analysis and action must go together. 

This is pretty darn cool. I never thought of immediately taking RAM out and freezing it. The fading picture of the graphic as the capacitors lose their charge is also pretty cool. You read the theory of why RAM is volatile memory but you don’t actually get to see it in action (or at least, I didn’t!)

Coverage from news.com

A BINARY STEP COUNTER?! OH MY! This is *amazing*, you have to see it. This reminds me of a rudimentary transistor, and how we keep cramming more and more of them into a piece of silicon we call a microprocessor, on top of which we have this thing called a computer, on top of which we have this thing called web two dot oh, … and ..

From TED. Watch his commercial here:

I’ve never really viewed myself as particularly talented. I’ve viewed myself as slightly above average in talent. And where I excel is ridiculous, sickening, work ethic. You know, while the other guy’s sleeping? I’m working. While the other guy’s eatin’? I’m working. While the other guy’s making love, I mean, I’m making love, too. But I’m working really hard at it.

You can look at the first six episodes of the Fresh Prince and I was so hell bent on not failing that I memorized the entire script. And you can see in certain shots they try to cut around it as much as they can, but I am mouthing the other actor’s lines.

Nuff said, this guy is my hero and role model.

More from CBS.

Summary of Wikipedia’s entry on Disruptive Technology:

• Disruptive technology/innovation is a technological innovation/product/service that uses a “disruptive” strategy, rather than a “sustaining” strategy (incremental improvement)
• Can be classified into low-end and new-market
• New-market disruption aims at non-consumption/untapped market; targets customers who have needs that were previously unserved by existing incumbents.
• Low-end disruption aims at mainstream customers with needs not met/underserved/overserved by existing solutions. Low-end disruption targets customers who do not need the full performance valued by customers at the high-end of the market
• Disruptive technology can dominate market by filling a role that older technology cannot fill or by displacing incumbents by means of successively moving up-market through performance improvements (e.g. digital photography)
• Low-end disruption occurs when the rate at which products improve exceeds the rate at which customers can adopt the new performance. Therefore, at some point the performance of the product overshoots the needs of certain customer segments. At this point, a disruptive technology may enter the market and provide a product which has lower performance than the incumbent but which exceeds the requirements of certain segments, thereby gaining a foothold in the market.

In a 26-mile marathon (or 41.8 km), at which mile do most people (statistically) quit? Probably at the mile where life is the most difficult, right? Let’s say, about the last few miles in the marathon?

Most runners don’t quit during the 26th mile because they have a vision of where they are going. They see the end in sight so they keep striving for it. Sure they are physically exhausted but their vision fuels them and tells them to keep going to reach their destination.

Most runners quit a marathon at the 20th mile because this is when they lose sight of their vision. This is when they are both physically exhausted and mentally drained. This is when runners feel they have come so far and yet still have so far to go. This is when their goal fades away and their mental power dissipates. Where there is no vision the people perish.

Aaah, the power of mind over body.

After all, there will be days when our bodies say no and we need our mind to say yes. There will be times when it seems that everything in life conspires to sabotage our goals and dreams. And there will be weeks or even months when we feel like we are hitting the 20th mile. The answer is to maintain your vision and focus on it. Keep your vision alive and it will keep you alive. Don’t give up. Keep striving towards the vision planted in your mind and heart

“90% of the game is half mental.” -Yogi Berra

Original post.

I maintain that ice hockey is about the fastest sport known to mankind on two feet!

Maybe that’s why I love ice hockey — you don’t get speeding tickets from going too fast!

Thanks Ian.

Here is what I did for Valentine’s day at work.

Happy Valentine’s, and don’t let the Google IE toolbar 404 hijackers bite

I learned some interesting financial jargon today.

Competitive advantage, referred to in financial markets as alpha, only comes when you have information that others do not. (An earlier speaker, Eric Christiansen of Barclay Global Investors, made clear that people like him think of three types of data: data that everyone has that gives you no advantage, data that you need to know because it gives you no advantage but not knowing can really hurt you, and finally, data that only you have, and can (briefly) take advantage of.)

Interesting food for thought. I’m going to chew on this for a while, especially #2. What about me that I don’t know about, that other people can see, that can hurt me? (a.k.a. your blind spot)

A simple solution that impact the lives of others by solving a seemingly difficult problem!

From the blog of Guy Kawasaki.

Randy Komisar, when asked in an interview about how he would ever make his mark at VC firm like Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers when they have a track record of investment home runs like Google says,

It’s a high bar, there’s no question about it. But I don’t feel competitive against that. I mean I think that the goal for me is to help create great talent in great companies, and what I’m hoping that in the process, they create wealth and opportunities for others. That being said, trying to measure up against something like Google as an investment return, that would just make you anxious. I don’t feel very competitive with that. I just hope that I continue to do good work and contribute.

I think that’s great advice. It’s so easy to fall into the trap of benchmarking yourself against a rare one time astronomical success. It only makes you more anxious and cloud your judgement in decision making, spinning you into an uncontrolled perpetual fall downwards. The negative energy just feeds back into the system and snowballs.

I think I have fell into that trap of focusing on the wrong thing. I think the reason why I fell for that is because I am very competitive. It’s only natural that when I see someone doing better than me, that I only want to do even better–to win. I’m not a life-is-a-zero-sum game guy, but I am competitive.

I think the other reason is because sometimes I care too much about what other people think of me. And it is so easy for external parties to view you from the outside and say, “Why can’t he accomplish this feat? Someone else has already done it, and therefore it’s possible. If he can’t do it, then he must be a loser”. It’s easy to benchmark others against the best. Not so funny when others benchmark you the same way.

That’s exactly what happened in that interview. The interviewer asked Randy a question that same line of external judgement: “how do you think you are going to beat the record?” In my opinion, Randy’s answer was perfect, “Look, I know it’s difficult, but I don’t ask myself that every time I go to work, or in every investment decision I mae. I focus on what’s important really here: contributing, creating wealth and opportunities to the best I can” I think I would have bombed that test. I would have said something that displays my naivete like, “oh, that’s nothing–I’ll beat it.” Sounds Dilbert-ish.

Towards the end of the interview, Randy was asked what his recommendation was for people who starting out and looking for a profession. The interviewer asked if he would recommend his own career trajectory he took, for instance. Randy says,

You should question authority, question convention, question other people’s expectations. We live in a day and time when all things are possible for people who have the raw intelligence, energy, and dedication to reinvent things. And that includes reinventing themselves. The shame of it is when smart people conform to conventional expectations and miss out on the opportunities to live a creative life. Within that confine, almost anything can be a great profession and can be a good and purposeful life’s work. But first and foremost, it’s gotta be important to you.

Randy Komisar one of the mentors at the Stanford Technology Ventures Program.

There are three kinds of people. Those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who wonder what happened.
– Author unknown

Awesome actionable quote, makes you want to spring into action, does it not?

The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is now.
– Author unknown

I usually keep a low profile for my birthdays, but this year I am really touched by how much I was reached out to today. The phone calls (local & international), the text messages/SMS (local & international), the emails, and the amazing flood of Facebook wall posts!

Whoa! Gee .. thanks folks, I am touched Here’s my theme song for today. Enjoy!

And oh. Happy Chinese New Year!

C.K. Prahalad writes on the powers of Dominant Logic,

All of us are prisoners of our own socialization. The lenses through which we perceive the world are colored by our own ideology, experiences, and established management practices. Each one of the groups that is focused on poverty alleviation–the World Bank, rich countries providing aid, charitable organizations, national governments, and the private sector–is conditioned by its own dominant logic.

Makes sense to me. We’ve all had different paths, and each of our paths has shaped our thinking in different ways. This reminds me of something Paul Buchheit said some time ago about the limitation of our own thinking.

In his presentation at Startup School 2007, Paul reminded us that when someone tells you, “That’s impossible” it should be translated as “According to my very limed experience and narrow understanding of reality, that’s very unlikely.” Everyone continuously builds a different set of experiences in their respective lives, and therefore everyone’s understanding of reality is fundamentally different.

I covered that here. Back to the story on why for-profits are generally viewed and treated negatively in their genuine endeavors to do good (and inhibiting them from achieving real success). Prahalad continues,

The policies of the [Indian] government for the first 45 years since independence from Great Britain in 1947 were based on a set of basic assumptions. Independent India started with a deep suspicion of the private sector. The country’s interaction with the East India Company and colonialism played a major part in creating this mindset.

The dominant logic, built over 45 years, is difficult to give up for individuals, political parties, and sections of the bureaucracy. This is the reason why politicians and bureaucrats appear to be vacillating in their positions. Most thinking people know where they have to go, but letting go of their beliefs and abandoning their “zones of comfort” and familiarity are not easy

Read more

Failure is the magic sauce in entrepreneurship, it’s the magic sauce in innovation.

In the venture business, we look at thousands of business plans every month. The majority of them will fail, the majority of them will go out of business, but its the few that succeed that really change the world.

And you have to be prepared for that, as an entrepreneur, that on average, you’re going to fail. And not to take that too deeply, to realize that that’s okay, and luckily at least in America, there’s a culture that welcomes that; that says its okay to fail, especially in an entrepreneurial endeavor.

Embracing failure and failing early enough are positive aspirational goals. As venture capitalists, we often argue that we should often fail early enough to learn about new industries and learn to do what we do.

From an interview with Steve Jurvetson

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• Change The World Or Die Trying

  Time is the essence of life. It is something we all share. Each of us has a limited amount. How we use our time is the guiding force of our lives. How we spend our time tells other people who we are. We define ourselves by our use of time. We are what we do!

• Quote Of The Moment

  Choosing one path means abandoning others - if you try to follow every possible path you will end up following none
  -- Paulo Coelho

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• Stuff I have been reading

  • Appirio
  • Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog: The cloud's not-so-silver lining
  • funny haiku
  • On-Demand Computing: A Brutal Slog
  • Why Silicon Valley Should Be Worried - GigaOM
  • Reflections of the Warrior of the Light - Something out of the ordinary at Paulo Coelho’s Blog
  • Reflections of the Warrior of the Light - Through and beyond at Paulo Coelho’s Blog
  • PC World - NASA: Robotic arm on Mars Lander shuts down to save itself
  • PC World - Notebooks/Desktops/Printers/Monitors - What does it take to get a PC with XP?
  • 3-D CAPTCHA

• Wokai: Non-profit China Microfinance

  • People Magazine, Us Weekly & Wokai Press Kits
  • The Movie Project phenomenon
  • Desperate times, desperate measures
  • WOKAI in World Journal
  • Starting a nonprofit: nature or nuture?
  • Are they right: Microfinance won't work?
  • The Web Portal - Glitz or Simplicity?
  • Who knew Tzu Chi and Wokai have something in common?
  • Hand-Out or Hand-Up
  • Does Wokai need Chapters?