True Stories

Stage Fright Can Be Good For Your Career

June 8, 2011

I’ve noticed a pattern with myself, public speaking, and fear of speaking. I wonder if this holds true with others. I think it was good for me that my job required a lot of speaking even when I was still pretty young. Before I was 25 I’d done radio and standup television for UPI out [...]

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Why Did I Start A Business? Not Why You Think

June 6, 2011

I was talking to a group of students recently and I was asked to comment on what makes an entrepreneur. The student who asked the question wrapped it in the mythology of the entrepreneur driven by the idea, stubbornly, tirelessly proving its value to the world. She wanted me to tell about me wanting to [...]

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Memorial Day, Draft Lottery, Reality TV, Flags

May 30, 2011

(This was first posted here three years ago.) I woke up yesterday in Portland (OR), in a condo near the top of W. Burnside. The area has a series of cemeteries, dark green rolling hills, breaking up the otherwise thickly forested landscape. It had rained all night, so there was a thick mist cushioning the [...]

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True Story: Not My Problem

May 19, 2011

This is a true story that might apply to your business. You decide. We landed in a hot and smoggy Rome airport after three flights that took all night. We were packed to the gills for a three-week trip including sightseeing, cruise, beach, and a family wedding, for not just us but our daughter and [...]

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True Story: Why I Lied to You When You Called

April 7, 2011

I’m a bit embarrassed about this story. It’s about lying. You’ll see if you read on that it wasn’t bad lying, not tricking anybody for any bad reason. But it’s a true story, so I’m posting it here because 1.) it might be useful to somebody; and 2.) I’m curious about how often it happens. [...]

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True Story of Business Disaster With a Compensation Plan Lesson

February 11, 2011

This is a true story. Names aren’t included for obvious reasons. Don’t ask. Once upon a time a product-obsessed software entrepreneur who didn’t like sales hired a sales-oriented entrepreneur who liked selling software. It seemed like a match made in heaven, as they say. Both of them could focus on what they liked doing. The [...]

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Case Study: Vizme, Adaptation, and Living with Facebook

February 10, 2011

I’ve been watching vizme.com since I first saw the demo about a year ago. It struck me as immediate coolness. Imagine being able to mix up a combination of online video and pictures that play when clicked, representing a topic, theme, idea, or brand; and putting that onto your blog or Facebook page as something [...]

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Looking For the Rest of this Patent Story

January 6, 2011

What a shame. Although we all like neatly packaged stories — heroes and villains, good vs. evil, David vs. Goliath — it’s rarely that simple. For example, late last year there was what seemed to be a great David vs. Goliath story about this inventor guy who teaches at Yale getting $625 million from Apple [...]

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Entrepreneurs: You do Know You're Unemployable, Right?

December 16, 2010

Are you an entrepreneur, starting a business? Or a  single-shingle intellectual gunslinger-type expert working as business consultant, planner, coach, or something similar? Are you making it on your own? If so, you do know you’re unemployable now, right? I don’t want to be the bearer of bad news, but I think you should know. I’m [...]

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True Story: Dollars vs. Eyeballs in Business Valuation

December 13, 2010

It was a warm late-spring day in 1999. I sat in my office with a venture capitalist, my lawyer, and my son. The sun beamed in the patio outside my office. We talked about Palo Alto Software and its web subsidiary bplans.com. At one point the VC said: You wouldn’t be an attractive investment for [...]

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