Got it. What's Next?

Category: Personal (Page 10 of 48)

My Favorite Quotes

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

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….

Opposing the Arena Cost Richard Conlin His Job

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 NBASeattle 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.

The Best Pumpkin Seed Recipe

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:

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

After 24 hours:

  1. Melt a few tablespoons of butter in a bowl.
  2. Mix in salt (just a little to start).
  3. Mix in cayenne pepper (about the same amount as salt).
  4. Mix in white pepper (little less than the cayenne).
  5. Mix in black pepper (little less than the white pepper).
  6. Mix in brown sugar (your choice).
  7. 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.
  8. Reseason to taste. More sugar and heat.
  9. Stick in the pre-heated oven at 300 degrees for 30 minutes.
  10. Take out the seeds and shake them around to wake them up.
  11. Put them back in for another 15 minutes.
  12. 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.

On the Road

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.

If the Mariners Had Kept Everyone They Drafted…

Hat tip to the Snohomish bureau of AndyBoyer.com for digging up this little article from Dominic Lanza at http://itsaboutthemoney.net. The premise  is simple, even though the work was grueling and tedious. Lanza answers the question, “What would every MLB team look like if it was only made up of players it drafted?”

Of course, what you hope is that the team you have today is better than the team on this list. That would indicate you were able to sell the talent you had in your system for more than it was worth, and buy bargains along the way.  Unfortunately, in the Mariners case it looks like we are pretty good at drafting talent, and then selling it at bargain prices.

I added a (*) next to everyone no longer on the roster, meaning they were let go and contributing for someone else now.

Seattle Mariners

Starting Pitchers
• Doug Fister (*)
• Felix Hernandez
• Hisashi Iwakuma
• Brandon Morrow (*)
• Chris Tillman (*)

Bullpen
• Carter Capps
• Shawn Kelley (*)
• Yoervis Medina
• Eric O’Flaherty (*)
• J.J. Putz (*)
• Rafael Soriano (*)
• Matt Thornton (*)

Catchers
• Rene Rivera (*)
• Mike Zunino

Infielders
• Dustin Ackley
• Willie Bloomquist (*)
• Asdrubal Cabrera (*)
• Nick Franklin
• Brad Miller
• Kyle Seager

Outfielders
• Shin-Soo Choo (*)
• Raul Ibanez
• Adam Jones (*)
• Ichiro Suzuki (*)

Designated Hitter
• David Ortiz (*) (though this barely counts.)

More analysis on this report is here on Deadspin.

 

The Joy of Trophies

I think kids today get robbed. By getting a trophy for just competing, they lose the chance to enjoy the novelty of WINNING a trophy. And don’t we all love winning?

Maybe winning is just a 1980’s concept that should be put to bed. But doesn’t it just FEEL good to win? Do you care about the actual trophy? No. But you care about how it FEELS to win that trophy.

Nowadays we cater to the kids and make sure we don’t let anyone feel bad for not getting a trophy. We tell the winners that it’s not that important to win, what’s more important is that no one actually lost. No matter what the score was, everyone gets a trophy just for trying.

But a trophy for trying doesn’t make you FEEL great. It doesn’t make you celebrate. Winning is a form of accomplishment, and when you accomplish something with a group, you develop a bond, a shared story, a memory that will last longer than the trophy itself. The trophy is simply a representation of what you earned, and what you felt when you achieved your shared goal.

When professionals win, reporters ask what it feels like. Winning doesn’t feel like anything else. It feels like winning. We all wish we had more moments in our life that felt like winning, not vice versa.

Winning is an emotion we have to earn. Every time we are deprived of a trophy that we see someone else get we say, “I can’t get that trophy unless I win, so I will try harder to win.” Consider that vs “I get a trophy no matter what, so who cares if I win.”

When the joy of having something is deprived from us, we try harder, we want it more, we feel more strongly about it.

Sure, losing stings. Losing hurts. Losing makes you mad and when you lose you think perhaps a trophy for participating would make that loss feel better. But all the hurt from losing is magnified 10 fold when you win.

And you will win. You will persevere and gut it out and battle until you get that win.

And that feeling is worth it.

Let’s not rob our kids of the joy of winning to spare them the pain of losing. The winning is worth it. No matter how young or old you are.

Trophy 13

Trophy 10

A Simple Writing Dream

I had a ridiculous thought this morning that I’ll share for no particular reason.

We have thousands of Irish bands here in the U.S. I wonder if any of the ones like the ones I follow (Dropkick Murphy’s, Flogging Molly, the Blaggars, the Real McKenzies, etc…) ever actually make a tour of Ireland. And I wonder how well received they are when playing real Irish towns like Galway, Shannon, Rosscommon, etc…

I bet it would be a fun trip to journal and chronicle. What Irish Music fan wouldn’t want to read (and watch) the story of a U.S. based Irish band visiting the homeland for 7 days?

So if you have a Irish band and want to take me to Ireland with you to chronicle your tour, let me know.

Galway Music Pub
(Image Source: http://merlinandrebecca.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-galway-music-scene.html)

The Importance of Habits

I’m not breaking any new ground here, but I’m the latest convert to the importance of habits.

As I get older, I realize that my body and brain would like to spend more time on auto-pilot.  I tell them every morning what I want to do, and they respond with “Ok, sounds good” in that condescending way a teen-age responds when you ask them to run an errand. Then by the middle or end of the day, as I’m pleading with my brain and body to do the things we agreed upon, I discover they have taken the rest of the day off and I’m stuck in whatever pattern has been established for me after thousands of  hours or days of practice.

Thus, my renewed effort to create new habits. I find that the most successful people I know do things that make them better naturally – as if their body knows to do them. They don’t have to find time to get to the gym, they have to find time to meet you for a drink.  They don’t have to make a conscious decision to skip the fried chicken, they already have a turkey wrap sitting in front of them. It’s these little things that they do automatically that seem to give them the extra time and energy to do the really hard things.

So here are some habits that I’m going to spend July and August employing:

  • Meeting people who want to brainstorm for walks around Greenlake or down on the Waterfront, rather than for coffee or beers.
  • Getting to the gym every day.  Even if it’s for a 10 minute walk on a treadmill. Just getting there.
  • Picking 4 hours a day of computer time in which the email and IM is turned off.
  • Writing on the blog at least 100 words a day. Even if I only get those 100 words down, at least I’m 25% of the way to a 400 word essay.
  • Throw away 10 things per day.  I know my friend Liz Pearce does 15 per day, but I need to start somewhere.

Now there is a difference between rituals and habits.  I think a ritual is something you do at the same time every day, like getting to the gym at 6:00am.  I just want to start with habits. Maybe I’ll evolve to ritual.

So if I seem like I’m blowing you off for coffee to suggest a walk up and down 2nd Ave instead, don’t take it the wrong way. All I’m trying to do is build in some habits that make me healthier and more efficient. And that doesn’t mean I’m not going to meet you for happy hour.  It just means I’ll do so if I make it to the gym earlier.  We’ll see how it works out.

May (and Almost June) in Review

I’m getting really bad at keeping this up to date. Here’s what you missed if you haven’t been following along with the 15 second blurbs on Facebook and Twitter. And yes I’m breaking bog rules by not including links or photos.  I’m just happy to have 10 free minutes on a sunny coffee shop deck to bang this out.

  • If you didn’t catch the US Soccer game vs Panama at Century Link on June 11, you really missed out on a great experience.  At least 40,000 fans made their way into the stadium.  You really have to wonder why the Mariners and Major League Baseball didn’t try to move the Astros/Mariners game up to 12:40 for a business person special. I mean, with all those out of towners visiting Seattle for the day, some percentage would have started their festivities at the baseball field.  You certainly would have drawn more than the estimated 3,500 fans you got trying to compete with a once every 40 year occurrence. I still haven’t sorted any of the 450 pics I took, but you can see them all here.
  • Congrats to all of my former students who took home prizes in the UW Business Plan Competition in May (links to come.) ZGirls featured former MKTG 555 student Libby Ludlow, and iHome3D featured former student Nelson Huang.  Alvaro Jimenez and Dave Knight put in strong perfromance as well with Elemental Hotels and a host of the folks from the TMMBA class went on to the final 32 and 16. Big winner was Alan Luo from MKTG 555’s Team Happy Back, whose BPC team Pure Blue Technologies won the whole shibang.  Nice work guys.
  • If you haven’t made it to a Seattle Tech Meetup yet, I would mix it into your networking event rotation. It has start-up flavor, but isn’t 100% focused on start-ups.  So there’s a nice mix of people. Red and Brett do a great job mixing in networking time, short presentations, good speakers, great sponsors and free food and drink.  Check the next one out.
  • On a side note, the seat belt law is stupid.  I’ve never been in an accident, am stopped at a light, take off my seat belt to reach back to the back seat and grab something out of my bag, when all of a sudden State Patrol Officer Snoopy Brains drives by.  Forget the fact that he nearly causes his own traffic incident for parking his patrol car in the middle of the road waiting for the light to change, and forget the fact that by the time he pulls me over my seat belt is back on.  The guy still writes up a ticket.  Seriously WSP – 20 years and no accidents and like one speeding ticket 15 years ago. I have health insurance.  Is the state budget in such bad shape that you need to be searching for seat belt offenders, and not even let me explain the situation? He tried to give me a ticket for lack of insurance because I was pulling up the cards on my phone and he didn’t want to wait for me to find them.  Annoying.

More stuff is coming in the next few weeks. So come back soon.

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2025 Andy Boyer

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑