Today was a Good Day

Quote of the Week

"It is our responsibilities, not ourselves, that we should take seriously."
- Peter Ustinov,
British actor and writer

Books as Friends

Penguin

Quote of the Week & 100th BLOG!

"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world."
- Anne Frank, German-Dutch diarist and Holocaust victim 

Eat People - John Mauldin's Outside the Box - InvestorsInsight.com | Financial Intelligence, Advice & Research / Investment Strategies & Planning for Individual Investors.

Eat People - John Mauldin's Outside the Box - InvestorsInsight.com | Financial Intelligence, Advice & Research / Investment Strategies & Planning for Individual Investors.

Brief excerpt:

"This week’s Outside the Box is a little unusual, even for me. But it will be fun, informative, and thought-provoking. My friend Andy Kessler has written another irreverent, gonzo book called Eat People: And Other Unapologetic Rules for Game-Changing Entrepreneurs. He has graciously allowed me to copy his introduction as this week’s missive.

Andy gives us 12 Rules and a Bonus Rule that characterize game-changing companies. They are: Scale, Waste, Horizontal, Edge, Productive, Adaptive, Eat People, Markets, Exceptionalism, Market Entrepreneur, Zero Marginal Cost, Virtual Pipe, and Highest Return. Find a company that embodies these rules early, and you get in on the ground floor of the next Apple or Microsoft.

Andy has done that. He turned $100 million into a billion for his investors, then got out more or less at the top. He is the real deal and I take every moment I can get with him. Now he just looks for the Next Big Thing for himself, but in Eat People he shares the rules for finding them, or even creating your own next big thing"

...

"Create wealth and change the world. It sounds oxymoronic. Do good by doing well. It sounds like a rationalization for someone getting rich, but you’ve seen it just like I have. Ted Hoff invented the microprocessor and has changed billions of lives for the better. Lloyd Conover invented the antibiotic tetracycline and has probably saved a billion lives from early demise. Larry Page and Sergey Brin perfected search and created wealth not only for themselves but for everyone who plugs into their electronic ecosystem."

...

Be Well, Do Good.

BG

Always have a strong point of view

Via Always have a strong point of view: "

It is so important to have a strong point of view. Let me repeat: it is so important to have a strong point of view. It needn't be as extreme as the one voiced in this ad, but you've got to stand for something.

If you don't have a point of view, you won't know what you don't stand for, and so you'll be tempted to try and do everything, because "no" won't be in your vocabulary. Trying to appeal to everyone by playing in the mushy middle not only will make you less appealing over the long haul (because being boring is not attractive), it also makes it very difficult to get started (because the enormity of the task makes everything too daunting to tackle), and makes it really tough to ship (because you have to do so much in order to meet the needs of so many people).

Having a point of view is incredibly liberating. It takes more energy and more time to get to an honest understanding of what you believe in, what you need to do, and what you won't do, but it is well and truly worth it.

For more on this subject, read Principle 19: Have a point of view"

Be Well, Do Good.

BG

V-Day

Marc Johns   this isn't happiness.™

Another Song to Think About

LYRICS

Weep for yourself, my man,
You'll never be what is in your heart
Weep Little Lion Man,
You're not as brave as you were at the start
Rate yourself and rake yourself,
Take all the courage you have left
Wasted on fixing all the problems
That you made in your own head

But it was not your fault but mine
And it was your heart on the line
I really f***ed it up this time
Didn't I, my dear?
Didn't I, my...

Tremble for yourself, my man,
You know that you have seen this all before
Tremble Little Lion Man,
You'll never settle any of your scores
Your grace is wasted in your face,
Your boldness stands alone among the wreck
Now learn from your mother or else spend your days Biting your own neck

But it was not your fault but mine
And it was your heart on the line
I really f***ed it up this time
Didn't I, my dear? (x2)

Didn't I, my dear?

Ahhhhh......

But it was not your fault but mine
And it was your heart on the line
I really fucked it up this time
Didn't I, my dear? (x2)

Didn't I, my dear?

via Lyrics

Be Well. Do Good.
BG

Love my clients, Love our future

Guts

Via We Love Typography

Quote of the Week

“Learning is never over. It has no end. Indeed, each day is its beginning.”

- Unknown

Source: agenerousdesigner

Drenched

After 2 years, I finally lost that "good" umbrella (sigh). Confirms I have no real ability to keeps things of value.

Be well. Do good.

BG

Blind excerpt from an email with a pen-pal

Not the same copy. I don't own this version!

Funny thing: I was in Brooklyn visiting a friend last weekend, and I popped into a used book store.  Like I mentioned before, at different defining moments in my life I try to acquire a "new" copy of Siddhartha. When I was battling cancer a few years ago, this story struck a cord with me.  I identified with the narrative, in how life can offer more than one path.  Since then, I honor little defining moments by getting a copy for my collection.  This store had a 2nd edition in the original German for 5 dollars; it is tattered and worn.  Simply beautiful.  My second copy in German. 

The store had an even more beat up edition of the Glass Bead Game by Hesse, supposedly one of his best novels (which I previously hadn't read), so I picked it up too.  It's been nice to have another book on the subway on my commute.  Something about the yellowed pages makes me have a sense of pride in reading.  For the time being, I will absolutely not move over to one of those e-readers.

...

Be Well. Do Good.

BG

Quote of the Week

“Walk tall, kick ass… love music, and never forget you come from a long line of truth seekers, lovers, and warriors.”

- Hunter S. Thompson

1994 - What is the Internet?