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Long live startups

Business is a definite roller coaster, especially when you do business with your family. Business has grown over the years and we have expanded. This expansion has created a sense of safety that what we have will never go away. This safety is a detriment to our future. We will never innovate or take chances when we are safe.

Om Malik has a great little newsletter called Om Says (BTW you should subscribe if you don’t already). In today’s installment he talks about when a company is dead. He waxes that companies are dead when they can’t stop the talent from leaking and taking all of the intellectual steam with them. This is very true.

Wired magazine has a feature this month regarding Larry Page taking the helm of Google as CEO. In the article Wired talks about the innovation and speed at which Page likes to move. This is interesting since Page is assuming the reigns of one the world’s largest companies. What comes with size is bureaucracy.

What I am getting at here is that the startup mentality is back. The aggressive and risk averse environment that is the early stages of successful companies is coming back en vogue. Big bureaucratic behemoths are beginning to adopt this nimble style. While the startup mentality never left the Silicon Valley, it did leave Main Street America.

It is kind of like when the hot girl from high school shows up to the reunion fat. She didn’t lose her hotness, she just got fat. She can work out and reclaim that fire that she used to wield, but she has to shed the weight that is keeping her from achieving just that. At least she knows what it tastes like. She just tasted it too much.

I am excited that my organization is making us do more with less. The collective will now be forced to be productive or become extinct. No longer will mediocrity be accepted. Our backs are up against the wall and I love the feeling. I feel like I am looking down the barrel of a loaded gun from the business reaper and giving a cynical grin.

Long live the startup.

Milestones

Filter Fairy has been a stupid project of mine for a while now. I keep overselling to people that I know and always underperform. So I decided that I will bootstrap and stop trying to woo investors. They would probably fuck it up anyway. What I am going to do is create a little milestone list and slowly build this service. I have stopped caring about the ultimate goal of a Super Bowl commercial and am just trying to get the service off the ground and some users. Below are a list of milestones that I hope to attain by 2011’s end.

1. Get the site functioning with all of the different plug ins. (Facebook, Twitter, Email)
2. Get a user other than a friend or family
3. Save the world

How does you respond to advertising?

#gmfgr The Slater Incident

There is a new wrinkle to this #gmfgr movement, the video. We have chosen to sum up our thoughts into a one minute maximum length video. Please enjoy the Slater Incident

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This culture of quitting is perplexing. Please don’t misunderstand my sentiment. I want to stick it to the man just as much as the next guy or gal. Slater’s beer soaked ride off into the sunset resonated with much of America’s frustration with their situations. The way that we have accepted Slater as hero of the common man is proof that our social consciousness has devolved into a reality TV syndrome. While the tirade of Slater should be the brain child of the writers at SNL, these shenanigans are played out in real life for the army of talking heads to tell us that this is acceptable. What happened to respect of self? Where did the notion of lacing up your boots and giving an honest days work go? Since when do we expect that each and every aspect of our lives should be pleasant and pleasing to us? You see our misguided egos have inflated to the point that we have lost community. The status update culture is rearing its ugly head.

1. Two wrongs don’t make a right

By creating a right out of two wrongs, you have in fact created a genetically mutated version of what society says is ethically is accepted. The passenger that instigated the “take two beers and jump” moment, along with Slater are not the problem itself, but a symptom of an entitled culture.

2. Everybody is bearing a cross

Whether your problems revolve around money, or the emotional strife that Dad won’t accept your decision to pursue hand modeling, we all have issues that we deal with. In the rule book of life I have yet to find the section that provides the basis to be rude or inconsiderate to another individual based on the demons that I struggle with.

3. If Slater is a hero, then we are in big trouble

To call someone who was no better than the slimy passenger that ignited the “take two beers and jump” moment a hero, sets the bar pretty low for what we aspire to be. It saddens me that legions of weaklings that are emboldened by a petty outburst, yet we turn a blind eye and find bad things to say about moguls that gave up business in pursuit of purpose.

4. Integrity is lost in translation

A striking workforce is a group that has made a collective decision to band together and respectfully decline to work. A rogue employee that has bottled up anger and frustration and allows his wrath be unleashed upon the unsuspecting public is not respectful but quite the opposite.

5. Quitting is never good

If George Washington and his men would have listened to their inner Slater during the winter of 1776 while crossing the Delaware to show the Hessians what a good old fashioned American ass kicking feels like, who is to say that we wouldn’t be watching Soccer and driving on the wrong side of the road? Slater’s beer soaked slide off into the sunset is a polarization of the core issue behind our great and storied nation’s plunge on the social barometer, absence of hustle.

Take the Stairs

I get a shifty look from all of the people congregating at the elevators as I pass by on my way to the stairs. I make my way past the crowd in pursuit of sparsely used door leading to the stairs. I hold no grudges or pass any judgment on the group that has chosen to take the assisted route.

I turn the handle and enter the cold and quiet hallway that houses the multistory building’s stairs. The passage up to the zenith of the building houses a road less travelled. Aligning this ascending route with a transcendental metaphor brings about a notion that can be applied to any discipline.

A long time ago my grandmother gave a short piece of advice that while simple in nature holds vast universal knowledge.

“Take the stairs.”

On the surface taking the stairs represents a little more work involved to attain a common goal. The elevator will most likely take you to the same location that the stairs will, with much less effort. So why then choose the latter?

While taking the stairs you expose your body to an elevated heart rate and test the limits of your cardiovascular system. Such is the case in embarking upon any endeavor in which we apply this theory. There is always a path of least resistance when faced with a decision. Upon which will result in a favorable outcome. But at what point is the outcome so trivialized that the means is not revered?

The means in which an end is satisfied has descended to that of a menial task. What used to be the litmus test of greatness now is a nuisance. The stairs offer a slower and less glamorous road in which to analyze the end. The end has become the focus of energy. Means in which are implemented to realize an end are irrelevant. What this does is compromise the integrity of the end.

Opportunities frequently arise, promising accelerated arrival to the desired destination, whatever the destination is. These opportunities strip the reliability of the end. The end’s importance has stolen our sense of presence. The sense of presence is the hallmark of a craftsman. If the desire for an effective end is valued, the means upon which the end is realized are paramount.

This neglect of the means in which we employ to reach ends is apparent in all aspects of life. From personal development all the way down to government, our processes have been trivialized. Change should be slow. Any change that is taken in an accelerated manner exponentially increases the margin of error. Even though error is essential, it is not beneficial to base means to an end on error.

Speaking metaphorically, taking the stairs is akin to employing a more traditional and proven method. Wisdom is gained through comprehension of the process. Shortcuts rarely offer the value of experience. Shortcuts will give an end that is not fully understood. The fruits of life are realized in the details. If those details are trivialized, what is the point?

Delving deeper into the metaphor of the stairs versus the elevator, control is relinquished upon the entrance of the elevator. Once you have committed to allow the elevator to carry you to the destination, you outsource the experience of the journey. If control is no longer managed the end is in jeopardy.

The next time you encounter an elevator, make an effort to find the stairs. You too will notice the herd’s confused look as they anticipate the elevator to deliver them to their destination. Who knows, we just might cross paths in echo filled stairwells of life.