I have a confession to make: by the time we moved out of New York in 2008, I was burnt out on the Big Apple. I was so excited to get away, that I couldn’t run fast enough for the George Washington Bridge. In fact, I was so burnt out on NYC, that I was [ Read More ]
After 130 years, Ursuline High School in Santa Rosa, my alma matter, is closing. Given my loathing of high school, my general predisposition against sentimentality and my staunch atheism, I am quite shocked to discover that I am tremendously saddened by this news.
My entrepreneurial journey has come to an end, and though I felt some guilt about it at first, the truth is, I’m relieved.
We are now almost officially at our two year anniversary in Austin. I can say, without a doubt, that it’s been an amazing rollercoaster — not one that I ever would have knowingly signed up for, but one for which I am immensely grateful, in spite of its rockiest moments. In the past two years, [ Read More ]
Like many of my peers in Generation X, my parents and my grandparents have never really understood what I do for a living. My parents use the web, so it’s not entirely outside their comprehension, but when it comes to my grandparents: I may as well be communicating with aliens via mental telepathy. Being an [ Read More ]
As a career management advocate turned Entrepreneur Evangelist, I recently had an epiphany that clarified some of the change I’ve experienced over the past two years, as I’ve moved from my old life to my new one. I’ve been lacking an effective metaphor to describe both the process and my present (and potentially future) state. [ Read More ]
As my year-end consumption of ‘top ten lists‘ continues, I came across one on Chicago Now called “The Top 10 Small Business Trends of the Decade” by Barry Moltz. In the list he mentions several things that have all dovetailed together to define the changing nature of work — most centered around the pros and [ Read More ]
I love startups. I love the chaos. I love the insane hours. I love the energy. I love the types of people who are attracted to work on high-risk ideas with long odds. I love the culture that evolves around them. I love it all. I have spent my career hopping from one startup to [ Read More ]
Many people don’t think about it specifically, but know it intuitively: if you want good customer service, skip the big guys and go to a small company. In Small Business’ Competitive Advantage, I discuss that Customer Service is the magical pixie dust for small business. Think about your normal daily experience: if you need to [ Read More ]
I’ve been feeling nostalgic this week. After so many years in ecommerce, supporting catalogers and retailers whose year entirely revolved around the Christmas season, I am almost at a loss for what to do if I’m not running around putting out fires from Thanksgiving weekend up until the week before Christmas. Strange as it seems [ Read More ]
In Deck the Halls with Pink Slips I discuss the November round of layoffs at several big companies. Of course, part of what brought these to my attention is that a dear friend of mine got caught in the pre-holidays cut-backs at Adobe. Even worse, however, was the fact that my friend loved working at [ Read More ]
Some questions are just a trick. The interview process is full of these: there really is no right or wrong answer. The point is just to read something into which option you pick. My favorite of these is the famous one: “Which is more important to you: being liked or being respected?” As a boss, [ Read More ]