Last spring, I was reading the annual WorldBlu list of the most democratically run organizations in the world. One of the companies that caught my eye was one whose democratic organizational practices included eliminating a formal vacation day policy. I remember making a mental note of the idea, because I liked it and wanted to [ Read More ]
A ‘No Vacation Policy’ Policy
Posted on Mar - 18 - 2010Not Being Penny Wise and Pound Foolish
Posted on Feb - 24 - 2010I 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 ]
Through the Entrepreneurial Looking Glass
Posted on Feb - 17 - 2010In a recent blog post, author Scott Ginsberg recently asked Have You Executed These Ten Essentials of Entrepreneurial Excellence? He then listed off the ten things he highlights as essential for entrepreneurs to be truly successful: Prestige requires pandemonium Confidence requires congruency Fame requires flexibility Success requires surrender. Creativity requires curiosity Originality requires murder Serendipity [ Read More ]
Grumble, Bumble, Facebook Trouble
Posted on Dec - 14 - 2009I was reading an article this weekend, on Entrepreneur.com, and it actually made me a little snarky. In Health Insurance, a 401(k) and…Facebook?, author Justin Petruccelli discusses a new Junior Achievement/Deloitte Teen Ethics Survey in which 58% of teenage respondents stated that the ability to use social networks would be a factor in their decision-making [ Read More ]
A Left Turn in the Gen X Timeline
Posted on Jun - 25 - 2009Sort of figures: tonight was the first time in weeks I’ve been able to set aside some time to do some catch-up blogging. I have a list of things I’ve been meaning to write about — I was just trying to work the opportunity into my schedule. And now that tonight is finally here, I [ Read More ]
Interactive Austin Keynote Videos
Posted on Apr - 30 - 2009The second annual Interactive Austin Conference has wrapped up, and in true social media fashion, there is no shortage of online accounts of the day’s activities (with more to be coming over the next few days, no doubt). Online already are keynote coverage posts by Ricci Neer, for each Dion Hinchcliffe, Sam Lawrence and whurley. [ Read More ]
20/20 Hindsight – Transitioning a Services Company to a Product Company
Posted on Apr - 27 - 2009This is something I’ve been thinking about more and more recently. The fact that we started off as a services company is what allowed us to get started and to avoid having to rely on outside funding. But it was transitioning to a product company that allowed us to grow and scale, and to ultimately [ Read More ]
20/20 Hindsight – How Early Career Choices Can Set the Stage
Posted on Apr - 22 - 2009I had a couple of discussions this week that got me thinking back to the early days of my career. Aside from leaving me feeling older than I care to think about, it did spark a pleasant memory or two that I’ve been mulling over since. Specifically, I’ve been thinking about how early career choices [ Read More ]
Why Agile Isn't Just for Development
Posted on Apr - 21 - 2009It’s been years since the evangelism for Agile development started truly gaining momentum. Super sexy buzzphrases phrases like “reduce time to market,” “improved ROI,” and “lower development costs” have all been invoked to support the case for adopting an Agile methodology over the old-school Waterfall approach. The fact is, most experienced professionals have lived through [ Read More ]
Qualities of a Great Speaker – Connecting with the Audience
Posted on Apr - 18 - 2009The last speaking quality I want to cover in my series on what makes a quality public speaker is the ability of a speaker to connect with their audience. There are thousands of ways to do this, and how a speaker goes about it will often be dictated by a combination of their content (as [ Read More ]
Qualities of a Great Speaker – Educational Value of Content
Posted on Apr - 15 - 2009As noted in my previous blog post on this topic, the first quality I believe is necessary in a great speaker is for them to be educational in some way. In my recent bout of conferences, I have seen speakers who fall all over the quality spectrum, but the ones that were truly good ensured [ Read More ]