I read an interesting article about hard work vs talent by Ed Latimore.

For those of you (like me) who never heard of Ed Latimore, he is a boxer (12-0 w/7 KOs), who also writes books and is a motivational speaker.

Take a minute to read the whole thing, but here is the most important take-away.

If you have nothing particularly special about your mind or body, you always have hard work. The ability to work your ass off is underrated as a talent because we consider talent something special, unique, and largely unteachable. (…) working your ass off is a talent you can learn.

Along with hard work, you need to develop your initiative.

Initiative is a muscle and you have dozens of opportunities to exercise it every day.

It’s simple.

Anything you notice, large or small, that needs to be done, do it.

That’s all.

Do it and initiative becomes a habit, just like hard work.

And I can pretty much guarantee that those two habits will take you almost anywhere you want to go.

Image credit: Ralf Peter Reimann

Cross Pacific Mobile Internet Conference, or Connect 2016, was a one day event January 14 in San Francisco.

It was co-hosted by Coinvent, Cheetah Mobile, and Silicon Valley Tech Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum.

Connect featured a host of speakers that included executives from Yahoo, Skype, Google, Yandex, Twitter, Carnegie Mellon University Innovation Institute, Oxford Internet Institute and Al Gore.

The theme of the conference addressed how cultures connect from a technology innovation standpoint — a noble task.

There was a broad range of agenda topics, including:

• The impact of big data across international borders
• Tech society, and our future
• Future of big data (not the band, actual big data)
• What’s the big deal about big data
• How not to confuse big data with big papi or David Ortiz who incidentally, will have his last season of pro ball in 2016. (not actually a discussion on the agenda)   
• End of Ad harassment
• Future of mobile search
• Vision for mobile presence
• Differences between Asian and United States in mobile internet era development
• Mobile Investment Outlook – Hottest Start-ups all VC’s chasing after
• Start-up Scale Up – Comparisons between US & Asia
• Crossing the Pacific to build new start-ups
• Investment and technology flows between China and the U.S.

If any of the above sounds of interest, make an effort to add future Connect events to your calendar.

Taken as a whole, the discussion topics are certainly relevant enough, but the format of the conference didn’t seem to include adequate networking time to connect thought leaders and those interested in further development into the respective spaces.

Not to mention, they ran out of goodie bags of conference centric accoutrements.

However, one thing swirling through the tsunami of information was clear.

The effect of the enormous amount of data readily available in the IoT (Internet of Things) is unfolding in a sprawling fashion, with and over an ocean of opportunity for the intrepid across the globe, who cast out into the deep.  

The end of the year is always a time for reflection. I can only hope that you take all these words and concepts to heart.

You will be a better person and have a better 2016 if you do.

From Jessica Herrin, founder/CEO of Stella & Dot

Making decisions: What/which has the greater upside? What’s the downside, and is it worth the risk?”

Learning: I had that typical early-entrepreneur hero complex, where it was about how well I did versus how well I helped other people do the work. Then a mentor told me that if I ever want to run a large company, I should go work at one. So I got a job as a middle manager at Dell, and I had to develop skills as a leader. I also got pregnant with my first child, and I was always sick and tired, so I had to become far more focused in how I was spending my time. I learned to focus on what really matters.

Stella & Dot: Our revenue is around $300 million, and we have over 400 people in the home office and about 50,000 independent business owners in six countries.

Culture: I wanted to hire missionaries, not mercenaries. The challenge, especially when you’re growing fast, is to be incredibly fierce about your hiring filters. You have to commit to caring for the culture more than the quarter.

From Jon Olinto, co-founder of b. good restaurants

Goal: to build a community around the idea of “real fast food”—made by people, not factories—and the team felt like one big family, all working toward that goal.

Sustainability: You just have to look for and seize every opportunity to make your people feel valued and purposeful in their work.

Engagement: we incorporated features to reflect our family culture [on new mobile app], the app has also boosted staff engagement in a way we never even expected.

Finally, life advice from teen Jake Baily.

Jake Bailey found out he had Burkitt Lymphoma just one week before he was due to speak at a prize giving ceremony at his school. As senior monitor, it was his duty to represent the class. In the midst of intensive chemotherapy, Jake was permitted to leave the hospital for a brief period to deliver his speech. 

Do you find today’s world a bit strange?

I do. Not because of the technology or breakthroughs, but because so many people are trying so hard to live someone else’s life or spending incredible amounts of energy trying to force others to live their way.

I’m not saying they shouldn’t; it’s their choice and doesn’t require my approval or opinion — unless they are trying to cram something down my throat that chokes me.

I neither need nor want the safe, curated world described yesterday.

I’ve screwed up many times in the course of my life; three had disastrous, long-range consequences, yet without them I wouldn’t be me — and I like me.

I realize that there are probably many versions of me that I would like; each a result of choosing a different fork in my path.

What I wouldn’t like would be to live with the desire to be someone else.

We look at public personas with no knowledge or understanding of what went into creating each one or even if they are real.

The dichotomy between the inauthenticity of craving or controlling someone else’s life and the talk of living an authentic life is often hard to swallow.

Geno Auriemma, Coach of the Connecticut Women’s Basketball Team summed it up very well in an interview.

“I’ve always been fascinated by people who care so much about what other people are and what they do in their personal lives,” he told a news conference. “Like, how small-minded do you have to be to care that much about what other people are doing? Life is hard enough as it is, trying to live your own life.”

No matter how wealthy there is someone with more money; no matter how beautiful or handsome there is someone who is better looking; no matter how brilliant there is someone who is smarter or just better uses what they have.

So, whether at work or personally, be proud to be you. No matter who you are or what you do you have a spark that no one else has.

Image credit: Frank Vassen

“It’s not about the dollars you invest. It’s about the people you invest in.”

I don’t remember where I read that, but it’s certainly true.

Some bosses invest in their companies—they buy new hardware, upgrade development software, customer service and other IT systems, improve the physical environment, etc., etc.

They spend to improve their company’s bottom line.

They don’t spend much on training.

They believe the money spent building and growing people provides marginal return, while increasing turnover.

Great bosses invest in their people—they encourage learning new skills, cross-train, provide access to educational opportunities, etc., etc.

In return they have a highly creative, fully engaged, hyper-productive workforce.

They know people may leave if there are no internal growth opportunities, but great bosses cheer them on.

They know that people leave for many reasons, but when the reason is positive then the buzz is positive.

And positive buzz enhances both the boss’ and the company’s street rep.

Flickr image credit: opensource.com

Do you really need to hire stars?

Can a manager build a winning team with other teams’ castoffs?

Before you say no take a look at the Phoenix Suns.

“By making feature artists out of other teams’ backups, Ryan McDonough, the Suns’ first-year general manager, has created a group that performs in perfect harmony.”

He also avoids all the ego and drama that comes with hiring so-called stars.

McDonough understands that before anyone can perform they need the opportunity to do so.

“Just because somebody hasn’t done something doesn’t mean they can’t do it. It might just mean they need an opportunity.”

If you listen to the media and a plethora of managers you will hear abut a talent shortage.

They will moan that amidst the enormous number of job-seekers there is not one shred of the talent that they need.

Managers forget that that “proven talent” happened under a specific set of circumstances in a specific culture and with a specific management style—change one or more of those and there is no guarantee of the same performance.

They also forget building a winning team is a key ingredient of the job for which they were hired and are paid the big bucks.

They also will never have the pleasure and personal ego trip of hearing a team member say something like this.

“I kind of always knew I had this in me,” Miles Plumlee said, “but I never guessed I’d be where I’m at already.”

Flickr image credit: Arya Ziai

If you listen to the content industries, they are being killed by disruptive technologies, but is that true?

Not according to Matt Stone and Trey Parker, who have built an empire on content, with no consideration for the so-called disruptive platforms that have shown up over the last two decades. Originally created as shorts that went viral on the Internet, South Park became a series in 1997 making its creators multimillionaires and Comedy Central a force to be reckoned with.

“Disruption is overrated,” Stone said. “If you tell good stories, the platforms are sort of beside the point. We made the most analog thing you can think of, a play at the Eugene O’Neill Theater, and it worked out as well as anything we have ever done.”

He went on to suggest that each time new a distribution avenue opens, it has become a window of opportunity for their content.

Stone and Parker’s success was built on prescience, they negotiated a 50-50 split on all digital revenue before digital revenue meant anything, and patience, they keep control by investing their own money so they can take their time with new projects.

“Owning your own stuff means that you control not only the content, but the life you are living while you are producing it.”

There are worse things than being frugal and growing organically.

Like being forced into an early exit or excessive growth to give your investors their return.

Join me tomorrow for a look at the lengths one company went to in order to put the brakes on its explosive growth.

Flickr image credit: Pop Culture Geek

We’re fast coming up on a new year.

New ways of thinking can open up new opportunities.

So try this new way of thinking, rather than a bunch of New Year’s resolutions that may not last out the month.

Everybody has a box.

That’s right and no matter how hard you try you’ll never really think outside it.

Heresy? No.

The idea that boxes are bad is a function of how you interpret them.

It’s not the box that matters, but its size and how you address that.

Steve Jobs’ and Steven Spielberg’s boxes are immense, far larger than most, yet they both continue to enlarge them.

And therein lays one of the secrets of creativity, whether in an individual or organization.

It’s not about “thinking outside the box,” it’s about understanding your box and how to enlarge it.

Because that’s how it works.

As soon as you get outside your own box, a new one forms.

Once you totally use up its content and find its sides you go outside that box; a new one forms and the process begins again.

If you work at it, this process continues throughout your life—although some never start and some get comfortable in a certain box and retain it.

But the most wonderful thing about boxes is that it’s always your choice—within your control to make it happen.

There will always be a box, but with effort you can enlarge it enough to encompass galaxies—and even entire universes.

It’s all yours for the choosing.

Have you hugged (and enlarged) your box lately?

Flickr image credit: NASA

I no longer live in the Bay Area, but as a center of entrepreneurship I am still very connected. Big data presents enormous opportunities for entrepreneurs, so I asked Walter Paliska, a senior marketing manager at EMANIO, Inc., to share intel what is means to the enterprise startup community.

By Walter Paliska:

Between November 13th and 14th I had the opportunity to attend the Big Data Business Forum in San Francisco, CA.  Over the course of two days several companies, both large and small, were able to display their wares and discuss how “big data” is impacting us.  Some of the key takeaways from the conference, especially for CEOs and executives in start up organizations, are directly related to how big data is driving innovation and on the opportunities available for startups.  The rapid growth of data is driving a core set of new problems that businesses are trying to both understand and cope with:

1. The technology part is growing, but the business value is not keeping up.  One of the interesting takeaways from conversations with a number of attendants was this: while the IT side of the house understands the problem that the rising amount of data is causing, the business side is having a hard time grasping the value that analyzing all this data will provide.  Some small software startups are beginning to try and address this challenge by deploying tools that are easier to use and that bring data analysis “closer” to the business user – but clearly there is still a large gap between IT and the business side.
2. Big data is hard – very hard – and expensive.  Once again a key takeaway from the conference was that solving big data problems is both technically and fiscally challenging.  While Fortune 500 companies are clearly looking for ways to exploit their copious amounts of data, actually doing so still requires an exceedingly high level of expertise and tools that are still costly and difficult to use.
3. The “platform wars” make things harder.  Should a business standardize on Hadoop? HPCC? SAP Hana?  How do available solutions work with any of these platforms?  What are the differences and business implications of each?  Depending on how one answers these questions and on the selections one makes, the available software tools and solutions vary.  The world of big data is not nearly as clearly defined and understood as server operating systems, enterprise ERP systems etc., and that means opportunity for new solutions that help bridge the gaps.

These are just some of the challenges that businesses have today with big data.  The implication for startups is clear, helping business users understand the value of their data and providing tools that make the process of using and benefiting from big data easier, less expensive and more uniform – regardless of platform – can begin to bridge the chasm between IT and the business side to finally realize the benefit of “big data” for everyone.

Enterprise startups are hot and ideas relating to big data will fuel many of them.

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Flickr image credit: Kevin Krejci

While looking for something in my old posts I came across this one and decided it was a good time to post it again.

Choose the Freedom to Change

“The past is the present, isn’t it? It’s the future, too.”
–Long Day’s Journey Into Night, Eugene O’Neill

I recently ran across this quote; it’s been years since I read the play, but that poignant line, with its message that what has been is and irrevocably will be has always left me feeling depressed and angry.

Depressed because it revokes hope.

Angry because it’s the antithesis of everything I believe.

It proclaims that we, whether individuals, organizations or countries, can’t change; that we are locked on our trajectory with no rudder and an endless supply of fuel.

That thought represents a type of MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy™) I’ve constantly rejected, while embracing the belief that anyone can change if they choose to make the effort.

Not that it’s simple or that it’s easy, but that it can be done.

I’ve done it and am in the process of doing it again.

You’ve done it and can choose to do it again.

Whether you choose an opportunity or pass it by, each one changes the present and alters the future, because your MAP changes with each decision.

Not necessarily large changes, but changes none the less and those changes will impact your next decision and so on throughout life.

You can avoid changes by embracing a rigid ideology that eliminates decisions by turning a blind eye of all divergent opportunities or by allowing someone else to decide for you in the name of followership.

What will you choose to do?

Flickr image credit: David Reece