Author: Andy (Page 17 of 26)

Dispatch from Gothenburg

January 2, 2014 / Andy

I had the chance to do a little work and visit Sweden towards the end of December. I had every intention of writing and publishing a ton of material. I did accomplish the writing part – volumes and volumes of content. But not all of it is ready to be published. So instead of waiting around and trying to get it all together, here’s a short recap that’s a little dated now, but talks about my first week or so.

——

Ok, its Sunday afternoon here in Sweden, so factoring in the 15 hour trip, 9 hour time difference, and the fact that it gets dark at 3:30pm, I think I’ve been here somewhere between 3 and 12 days. Hard to know exactly.

Coming at you now from Gothenburg, a short 40 minute train from my home base in Vargarda. Calling Vargarda a town is kind of like calling the New Mexico Bowl a Bowl Game. There are literally 6 restaurants, one cafe and one bakery. I’ve walked by the restaurants at 12:30 pm, 3:30 pm, 7:00pm and 11:00pm and haven’t seem anyone in any of them, so I’m not sure how they exist. Could be supported by the government. Or a front for Al Qaeda. Who knows. You might think, “Well at least you’ll get to try some Swedish food.” Well interestingly enough, when Swedes go “out” for dinner instead of cooking at home, the last thing they want is Swedish food. So the restaurants are 3 pizzerias, a Chinese joint, what appears to be Thai, and something else. Maybe that’s the Swedish one. Anyway, instead, I went to the grocery store and stocked up on meats and cheeses I can’t pronounce. And caviar in a tube. Which is as good as it sounds.

The only place in the town where I have internet access is the library, which is actually remarkably nice. So I have access to the outside world M-F from 10-7 which is about all I can say about the town otherwise.

The house that is my home base is more cabin than house. Radiators keep it comfortably above freezing but below warm. No internet, No TV, no washer/dryer…. but there’s electricity and a table so theoretically I should be able to get all my work done.

That being said, it didn’t take me very long on Friday morning to walk over the train tracks to the library, gaze west and ponder, “Hmm… Gothenburg….” And a few hours later I was checked into a hotel for Friday and Saturday nights.

So I had a good 3 days and 2 nights of wandering, exploring and adventuring. Gothenburg has an amazing tram system. They have 17 tram lines, so at first you’re like, “Shit, I’ll never figure this thing out.” Then you realize that all the trams go through one center near the middle of town. So if you see any tram heading inbound, you know where it will end up, as well as one of the 5 or 6 mini-hubs that circle that main hub. Once you figure out that, life is a breeze. No matter how lost you get, you just jump inbound and you get back to someplace you recognize.

You might think, “At $3 a ride, that sounds expensive.” Well that would be the case, but it appears paying for the tram is more of a suggestion than a mandate. I bought a 24 hour pass for day one, then watched gamely as about 1 of every 5 Swedes who got on the tram ever checked in. So since then I”ve just waved my hand at the sensor and gone on with my day. Ah, the joys of socialism.

So like I said, it’s Sunday evening and the last two trains leave at 8:55 and 10:55 – and when I figured THAT out, my mood changed considerably. My math isn’t great, but 1:00pm Eastern plus 6 hours = 7:00pm Sweden, which gives me a half or even a whole NFL game if I want it. I mean for Christ’s sake, they put a sports bar in the train station. What do they expect me to do?

Speaking of sports, I got to my Swedish Hockey League (SHL) game Saturday afternoon in Gothenburg. The game here was a special SHL Christmas event – JULMATCHEN – so they played it outside in the soccer stadium. As far as I can tell, JULMATCHEN roughly translates to, “Game played outside in cold rainstorm” so we had a 45 minute rain delay while 6 poor arena employees spent a good 90 minutes sweeping the rain off the ice – and it continued to come down pretty well just above freezing temperatures at 35 degrees. The rain finally stopped, and we had a hockey match. We lost. I stood in the supporters section wearing my Sounders jacket and talked to a few drunk fans who kept wanting to know my thoughts on all the Swedes playing in the NHL. Apparently, if you live in the US, it’s your God given responsibility to follow hockey even if you don’t have a team in your city. Especially in an Olympic year, when they want to ask about how the US team looks. My chance to make friends in Gothenburg was blown because I can’t talk about freaking NHL hockey.

Also last night I got to Liseberg – a wonderful sugar covered Christmas Wonderland with powdered candy cane joy sprinkled on top. Liseberg deserves it’s own post. It’s just to Noel-ly-ful to describe in a paragraph. And it should get its own photo album.

Anyway, back to Vargarda tonight, hope to lay low and get my work done this week, keep walking 5 miles a day and then either see a friend from Manchester in Stockholm next weekend or something else fun like that. Or, with train tickets about $30 round trip, I may be commuting into Gothenburg all week. Who can tell…

Some photos: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjPZL7VZ

My Favorite Quotes

December 30, 2013 / Andy

No these aren’t from 2013, but I think they reflect my mindset as I head out of the year and into a new one. It’s a good time to reflect on them.

“When a person really desires something, all the universe conspires to help that person to realize his dream.” – Paulo Coelho
“Everything good I have came from honesty, good intentions, and low expectations.” – Frank Chimero
“Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark. Professionals built the Titanic.”
“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.” – Ben Franklin
“If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevancy even less.” – General Eric Shinseki
“Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn’t.” – Mark Twain
“Age ain’t nuthin’ but mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it don’t matter.” – Satchel Paige
“The world is made for people who aren’t cursed with self awareness.” – Annie Savoy
“All you need is ignorance and confidence and the success is sure.”
“I’ve been asked this question a lot, How do you want to be remembered…to be remembered at all is pretty special.” – Cal Ripken Jr
“It’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.” – Steve Jobs

Why Life is Like Football

December 2, 2013 / Andy

I was talking to one of my young entrepreneurial friends today. It had been a while since we caught up so the conversation predictably started around, “How’s everything going?”

The funny thing about entrepreneurs is that nothing is ever going poorly. Setbacks are learning experiences. Unexpected hurdles are blockers for future competition. Lack of clarity in a mission is pause for contemplation.

People with jobs have a bad day. Entrepreneurs have a new challenge.

We ruminated on this awhile and came up with the analogy that entrepreneurship is like football. You build the best team you can, develop a system you think will work, scout out the competition, and take your game to the field. During the game you run your plays, knowing 11 people are trying to stop you. When you get the ball, you run into the defense, driving as hard and as long as you can go on each play.

Eventually you have to make strategic decisions. When you see something working, you ride it as long as you can. If the situation is hopeless, you punt and regroup. Somedays you have a great game plan and the right team. Somedays you have a great team and the wrong plan. And somedays, you just get blown out of the water by people more talented than you.

Anyway, I thought it was a fun conversation. Keep those legs driving forward….

A Cynical Realization About How I Read News

November 21, 2013 / Andy

It’s coffee break time. So I head over to Deadspin.com to do a quick scroll to see if there’s anything im-sport-ant for me to follow up on. (Yes I created that term to describe important sports news, and I will allow you to use it…)

The latest story on the A-Rod mess attracts my attention. I read the story. I see both sides to the issue. I want more info.

So here’s the main plot point in my story here – I am looking for objective, fair and unbiased facts that I can read through. I want to get news, not filtered bullet points provided by either side’s PR teams. I unconsciously scroll through my mental list of places to type in my browser next. Here’s how that thought process went:

MLB.com – No, that’s a marketing site, not a sports news site.
Espn.com – No, they will basically have someone from MLB.com writing the story, with the CFO and head of the MLB / ESPN relationship approving it. It will be completely one-sided.
FoxSports.com – No, they aren’t going to bite the hand that feeds them either.
SeattleTimes.com – No, the baseball beat writers are probably on furlough until February.
SportsPressNW.com – Yes, I’ll check them out, but will expect the article later in the week since it’s not pressing news right now.
710Sports.com – No, the home of the Mariners is not going to write anything negative about MLB.
Any of the news sites – No, they are probably just going to have 3-4 paragraphs pulled from MLB.com.
USSMariner.com – YES. they may not have the story, but I bet the KNOW where a good article is.

And I was rewarded. A USSMariner.com article had a link to this awesome piece by Wendy Thurn at F angraphs.com.

But now think about this. I have been trained that whenever there is an “insportant” story, I can’t go to any major media outlet to get fair coverage. The news, sports and entertainment divisions of companies are so intertwined, my unconscious reaction is to ignore anyone who has any official relationship with Major League Baseball. Not to read the story with a grain of salt on my tongue. Not to read the story and then look for countering arguments. But to sidestep all broadcasters associated with MLB all together.

Am I too cyncial? Maybe. Or maybe I’ve just been conditioned to know what to expect from them.

Opposing the Arena Cost Richard Conlin His Job

November 19, 2013 / Andy

This is pretty much purely my speculation…

Fact: Out of 16 people on the Seattle City and King County Councils, Richard Conlin was one of 2 people to oppose the proposed arena. From Wikipedia:

On October 15, 2012, both the King County Council and Seattle City Council approved a financing plan for a $490 million sports arena in the Seattle’s Sodo neighborhood, backed by venture capitalist Chris Hansen. The King County Council vote was 9-0, while the City Council vote was 7-2, with Conlin and Nick Licata as the only opposition.^[16] The new arena was intended to host the NBA Seattle SuperSonics professional basketball team as well as a potential NHL ice hockey team.

Opinion: I voted against Conlin solely because of this. Didn’t even look to see who the opposition was. (Of course, the joke’s on me – the opposition is a Socialist and I’m stuck with THAT for 4 years, but anyway.)

Conlin’s only colleague in his failed anti-arena effort was Nick Licata, who keeps getting elected under the same Seattle-specific psuedo-common sense that says people should wear socks with birkenstocks, refuse to use umbrellas in the rain and improve traffic by getting rid of car lanes for bike lanes. It appears Licata was at least lucky enough to be able to wait for the election to be over before having to launch his failed initiative to derail $151,000 from funding a more formalized Seattle Startup Initiative. I breathe a little thanks that Licata has lost enough pull that he can’t completely derail common sense in the Council anymore. Still, I can’t help think that as a city, we get what we deserve as long as we continue to elect that crackpot. But it’s worth noting that he waited until his paycheck for the next 4 years was secure before trying his latest effort to hold Seattle back.

But back to the point of the story. Richard Conlin is forced out of his job of guiding a city, and headed back to a job of writing policy for non-profits, thanks in part to his refusing to help bring a privately-funded arena to life. He could have used common sense and kept his job. But he didn’t. And by refusing, he forced voters to go against common sense and elect a Socialist. All in all a wash for the voters, and a loss for him.

Bridging the Social Media Ocean

November 6, 2013 / Andy

When I chose to go back to Grad School at the UW in 2004, I made a conscious decision that after I graduated, I would say “Yes” to every opportunity to learn more that would ever be thrown at me.

In the first few years, saying “Yes” meant speaking at the Undergraduate Marketing Club or Young Entrepreneurs Club, or meeting with VCIC students. That evolved into judging the UW Business Plan Competition, taking on interns for projects and guest lecturing from time to time. Before I knew it, I was teaching real classes, trying to implement the parts of business school I benefited from the most as a student, while shedding the parts that I saw no value in.

And so here we are today. I just finished up the first part of the two days I have the privilege to spend working with MBA students visiting the UW from Lucerne University in Switzerland. I wish someone would have asked 4 years ago if I ever thought I’d be teaching students who live 8,000 miles away. I wonder what m response would have been.

My discussions with them today reminded me about something I think proud Seattleites often forget. Namely, there are way more people in the world that don’t share the every aspect of the Northwest’s rain driven, liberal thinking, social media embracing, technology-centric, environmentally-maniacal, privacy shunning state of mind.

For example, other countries haven’t necessarily adopted the idea that every ham sandwich we eat should get its own Instagram photo, or why we would want our boss to know what articles we are reading. The idea of building personal blogs to gratify our egos and promote our social importance isn’t necessarily a worldwide phenomenon yet.

But what is important is that globally, smart people want to learn more. Whether we are American, Swiss, German, Japanese, Korean, etc… there are people who want to understand how others think. They may not understand why, and they may not want to emulate it, but they want to understand the “how.” And the more people we have around the world who want to learn about how other cultures act, work, play and live, the better chance we have at finding a common ground.

Moral of the story: Always say yes to anything you can learn from. You’ll never regret it.

The Best Pumpkin Seed Recipe

October 30, 2013 / Andy

Relax… this isn’t going to become a food blog. But ’tis the season for candy and jack-o-lanterns. And I took the guts and remains of my small little pumpkin the other day and turned them into something worth sharing.

So here’s the recipe for the best pumpkin seeds you’ll ever eat. They are so good that people who don’t like pumpkin seeds will like them.

Prep:

Wash pumpkin seeds
Lay seeds on a slightly tilted cookie sheet to drain and dry them overnight for 24 hours.
When you get grief from impatient people about the 24 hour drying process, ignore the impatient people and go to sleep.

After 24 hours:

Melt a few tablespoons of butter in a bowl.
Mix in salt (just a little to start).
Mix in cayenne pepper (about the same amount as salt).
Mix in white pepper (little less than the cayenne).
Mix in black pepper (little less than the white pepper).
Mix in brown sugar (your choice).
Stir the seeds around the melted butter and spices, and give the mixture a taste. It should be sweet, then bring a little kick about 3-5 seconds later.
Reseason to taste. More sugar and heat.
Stick in the pre-heated oven at 300 degrees for 30 minutes.
Take out the seeds and shake them around to wake them up.
Put them back in for another 15 minutes.
Take them out and put them in a bowl.

Trust me. These are the best seeds you’ll eat. And the best part is that you are able to take the healthiest part of this candy-gasmic holiday and turn it into a sugary butter bomb.

Happy Halloween.

Talking Startups at Entrepreneur University

October 20, 2013 / Andy

Between teaching Entrepreneurial Marketing at UW, and being on the Board of the Northwest Entrepreneur Network, I get a number of amazing opportunities to sit down and talk with people who are making things happen. Not just coming up with ideas, but actually executing on those dreams.

Last Friday at NWEN’s ntrepreneur University, I had the opportunity to moderate a panel with three of my favorites; Mariah Gentry of JoeyBra, Andrew Dumont of Moz and StrideApp and Kelly Smith of Curious Office. We talked about when is the right time for someone to jump into the entrepreneurial waters.

If you haven’t met Mariah before, if you run into her at an event I encourage you to grab as much of her time as you can. She is easily one of the most impressive people under 30 that I’ve ever come across. And she’s only something like 22 or 23. She started her first business at 14, owned at house by 20, and launched JoeyBra as a junior at the UW. When you talk to her, you just get a sense that she can distill any complex problem to its core, and come up with an obvious solution.

I met Andrew a few years ago when some people at my company told me they had a friend we should hire. In a ironic twist, our Office Manager at the time wouldn’t forward his resume because he didn’t have a college degree (he later went back and got it). I met with him anyway and realized we would never be able to hire him because he was way too impressive to take what we would be able to offer him. He now works from 7:00 – 5:00 at Moz, then runs his side business StrideApp.com, which he disclosed has paying customers numbering in the hundreds. But on top of that, he also spent a weekend building a Udemy course, which now has close to 500 paying customers at $100 a shot. That’s pretty impressive. The secret behind of Andrew’s success is pretty clear – a tireless work ethic and a commitment, almost obsession, to building stuff.

And then of course there was Kelly. Investor, founder, idea guy, executor, he does a little bit of it all. I loved his advice on harnessing the power of entrepreneurship. He said the key is, “Question everything. Whenever something sucks, figure out if there’s a better way to build it. Just solve the problem and figure out how many people have the same problem.”

There’s a difference between ideas and ideas with execution. People like this are inspiring because they don’t let any excuse get in their way. They see a project they want to attack, and then relentlessly pursue it. There’s no wishing on a star or dreamland scenarios with these guys, they are all about dedication and execution. It’s great that we have people like this in the city, people who can remind us that the hardest part of entrepreneurship is the commitment to doing the work.

Soccer Supporters Groups Could Affect The 2022 World Cup – If They Cared Enough

October 5, 2013 / Andy

Sports fans across the globe generally share a single problem – they really can’t affect any change in the leagues or even their teams. Seattle Mariners fans may universally despise management for 10 straight years without making the playoffs, but they don’t have a way to remove the CEO. Some people may hate the way Roger Goodell runs his football mafia, but there’s not another league of gridiron superstars to support. As a fan, you take what you are given or find a new hobby.

But this isn’t necessarily the case in soccer. While it would take organization of historic proportions to get hardcore Mariners fans to build any kind of impactful protest, this organization already exists in soccer, in the form of Supporter Groups.

Supporter Groups, such as the Emerald City Supporters, can mobilize hundreds or even thousands of people. They often have a hierarchy and organizational structure that rivals a successful non-profit. They communicate among each other, have dialogue with team management, share best practices with each other and have followers who will act as directed.

No one was happy when Qatar was awarded the 2022 World Cup. It was an obvious result of international bribery, blackmail, payoffs and back room deals, executed with a level of precision that NBA COMMISSIONER David Stern WOULD ADMIRE. And throughout the predictable controversy that inevitably became reality (wait, playing soccer in 130 degree heat is a bad idea?), there wasn’t anything that was worth an international boycott.

And then we found out that 4,000 people will die in the next 8 years building the stadiums. We also learned that the “lucky” ones who survive are basically being enslaved in stifling, inhumane conditions.

The world soccer community (DID ALL THINK THAT?) went from thinking, “This Qatar World Cup is a bad idea that I have to live with,” to “Damn, I’ll be sitting in a seat someone died to build, so some rich guy could get paid.”

If the global soccer community cared enough, it *could* do something about this. It’s the one sport that could organize a global protest. Here’s what it would take.

1) Supporters Groups of local teams in national leagues such as MLS, Premier League, La Liga, etc… individually would have to agree to support the idea that killing and enslaving people is bad. It’s key that the protests come from the Club Supporters groups, not the national groups (like Sam’s Army) at first, because national teams would fear retribution from FIFA if their supporters organized anything. Plus, you don’t want it IT CAN’T look like the U.S. Supporters Groups are organizing a political protest against the Middle East. It has to be country-agnostic. But keep in mind, members of Club Supporters groups often also support their national teams.

2) Then, the supporters groups in each league could galvanize together with one representative force from each league. Arsenal and Tottenham fans hate each other so much when it comes to soccer, that is pretty powerful when they agree on anything.

3) If globally, members of Club Supporters groups agree to protest something like a FIFA World Cup Qualifying match, a week of friendlies or some other set of matches, it would make world news, and FIFA would have to take this seriously. Even FIFA didn’t want to take it seriously, brands that advertise with FIFA – McDonalds, Coca-Cola, Heineken, etc.. would have to take it seriously. Multinational companies do not want to be on the wrong end of a global protest. So even if the groups didn’t want to boycott the matches, just threatening to boycott the advertisers en masse would create a massive headache that would have to be dealt with.

We’re talking about people protesting the killing of others to build stadiums, not whether there should be instant replay or a ban on if we need to limit flopping. It would be kind of hard for FIFA to turn a blind eye and ear to a global protest on mass murder.

This is something that could happen. Three to four 3-4 years of protesting, led by the Supporters Groups, could cause change. There are plenty of countries with the infrastructure to prepare for a 2022 World Cup with 4-5 years of notice. The question is whether the Supporters Groups care enough to do it.

On the Road

September 23, 2013 / Andy

Happy Fall 2013. This summer sure got busy, as you may have figured out from my lack of writing. And things look to only get busier as we head into the autumn season. So, here are a few things and events I’ll be participating in.

October 1 – Dec 3: Teaching Marketing 555 (Entrepreneurial Marketing) in the UW MBA Program. If you have a start-up and would like to get some in class recognition, feel free to drop me a note. I’m always on the look-out for people and business to put in front of the class.

October 18: NWEN Entrepreneur University – I’ll be moderating a panel entitled, “From student to serial entrepreneur: The lifecycle of startups.” My experts will include Andre Dumont, Director of Business Development at Moz, Mariah Gentry, CEO at Joey Bra and Kelly Smith, CEO at Curious Office. Should be a great panel.

November 6 and 7: I’m really looking forward to teaching a short section on Social Media Strategies to a group of MBA students from Lucerne University in Switzerland. They’ll be at the UW for a week or so, soaking up knowledge on a number of topics that thrive here int he Northwest.

November 20: It’s been a while since I have been back at the Seattle School of Visual Concepts, but right around Thanksgiving I’ll be leading a workshop on Content Marketing Strategies. Feel free to come check it out.

I think that’s it for now.