aldamiz

A friend of mine told me about his high school friend.

He met him by chance several years after high school and asked what was he up to. “I have a company, freecondoms.com“, he said. Freecondoms, wtf, what a looser, my friend thought (my friend was an executive at one of America’s largest corporations, probably high paycheck, 9 to 5, good reputation, health insurance, big car).

My friend met his high school friend a couple of years later and asked what was he up to. “I have a company, freeipods.com“, he said. Freeipods, wtf, this is getting better, my friend thought (my friend was still an executive at one of America’s oldest corporations, same high paycheck as two years earlier, 9 to 5, good reputation, health insurance, big car, house in the suburbs).

My friend met his high school friend a couple of years later and asked what was he up to. “I have a company, xxx, a team of 50 persons, annual revenue of xxx”, he said (sorry I don’t remember the name of the company and details, but it was a “perfectly fine” company). Wtf, I wish I could work for him. I’ve just been fired, don’t even have health insurance for my family and what’s worse I don’t know what to do now, my friend thought.

This story is almost totally real (my friend is a great guy and it’s amazingly intelligent and entrepreneur, he has not been fired, doesn’t work anymore for Corporate America, and I don’t know if he has a house in the suburbs and I don’t care, so if my friend reads this, don’t get mad at me, you’ve just been used and prototyped to make a point).  Anyway, I heard the story and a week later I read this quote:

The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something. It’s as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer.

• Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari and Chuck E. Cheese’s.

Europe is educating youth to be my friend not the friend of my friend.

Acabo de ver una película en Hulu, el canal por internet de NBC & News Corp, y la verdad es que no solo la calidad es perfecta, sino que el nivel de control deja a la televisión tradicional totalmente obsoleta.

Hace unos días Om Malik anunciaba la creación de su nuevo canal de TV, una selección de vídeos de internet, un esfuerzo editorial por clasificar “lo mejor” de la red.

Ahora que estamos de Eurocopa, me veo siguiendo los goles de la selección a través de YouTube. Buscas “España Suecia”, vídeos subidos “hoy”, y automáticamente te salen al menos un par de opciones.

Se que es obvio, pero sin duda, internet es la nueva televisión. Cada vez paso más tiempo en YouTube, Hulu, y otras de iniciativas que ponen vídeo donde antes no lo había. Y lo que queda por venir, desde proyectos de lifestreaming como Kyte TV (lifestreaming desde el móvil), hasta proyectos como Agora News del periodista español Jaime Estévez (que crea contenido vídeo para el media digital), veremos mucha innovación en este área.

Espera a que el iPhone salga con cámara de vídeo y haga una de sus integraciones perfectas con YouTube… grabas, clickeas un botón, y ya está disponible para todo el mundo, en tiempo real.

Lo dicho, que internet es la nueva tele .

…las células en los cuerpos vivos pueden desarrollar dos estados. Uno de reproducción. Otro de defensa. En los cuerpos jóvenes las células están en constante reproducción. En los viejos, las células trabajan para defenderse de los ataques externos. Los seres jóvenes crecen, se inquietan y crean, se reproducen…Los seres viejos se asientan, se conservan y observan. Cuando haces negocios puedes adoptar cualquiera de las dos posiciones. Las empresas y los empresarios que fracasan (más temprano que tarde) son las que se defienden cuando lo que toca es atacar…

via JJ Amorín

El inversor que ha sido capaz de representar de esta manera la evolución de un sueño se llama Yossi Vardi (wikipedia), y es uno de los inversores en start-ups más queridos y con más experiencia. Ha invertido en unos 60 proyectos y varios han hecho la IPO, otros han sido comprados por los grandes.

Yossi ha hablado con Arrington sobre su filosofía de inversión: invierte en emprendedores jóvenes, generalmente no mira business plans sino que invierte en la persona, valora fracasos previos (hace que se quiera ganar aún con más fuerza) y compra common stock. Esta cita recoge su opinión sobre el emprendedor:

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

¿Qué más se puede pedir? El valor del que valora al hombre en la arena.

Siempre me ha gustado practicar el “únete a una empresa para hacerla triunfar, no porque haya triunfado”.

Rogelio Bernal en Consumer.

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1870s USA: pioneers heading West

Leyendo hace un tiempo Mobhappy, tropecé con esta magnífica historia escondida en un post de Russell Buckley.

Russell está hablando sobre ejemplos de location based services que simplemente no funcionan. Y continúa…

This all reminds me of a friend of mine, who I shall call Nick, because that’s his name. When he gets very drunk and happens to be in a restaurant, he calls the waiter over and asks for 15 eggs and 15 wine glasses. The bemused waiter normally brings them and Nick spends about 20 minutes building a complicated pyramid of eggs and glasses. By this time, most of the restaurant are watching in suspense.

Nick then announces that he’s going to pull the table cloth out and all the eggs will break and fall neatly into their corresponding glasses. The suspense is palpable as it would be truly amazing if he managed to pull this trick off. With much theatre, Nicks grasps the table cloth, (even the kitchen staff are watching now) and with a flourish, he yanks it hard.

Glasses and egg fly everywhere, coating the immediate vicinity in broken glass and yolk. It’s also noticeable that not one egg has broken cleanly into one glass. The restaurant is hushed in shock and Nick stares at the wreckage. He then shakes his head and says, after a 4 second pause:

“It never works….”

Another 4 second delay happens and then the diners burst into laughter and applause.

Si Russell tuviese 20 años todo este texto sería un video de YouTube. ————————————————————————————————–

Dinner Party by Devorah Vallance