Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Freedom to fail

In his blog "How to save the world" Dave points out 10 reasons why young people are afraid to start their own business. If you have any inclination to be your own boss, it is inspiring.

I was most impressed by reason 6: Couldn't Handle the Failure
Quoting his entry: "If I tried and failed as an entrepreneur, I think I'd be crushed. I'd feel like a failure in life, it would probably affect my marriage and my friendships and my reputation, and if I came to hate my day job I wouldn't even be able to daydream about running my own business, because I'd have already tried that and failed." A survey a few years ago by Inc. Magazine found that only one factor correlated strongly with entrepreneurial success: A previous entrepreneurial failure. This is how you learn. If you avoid over-committing and learn how to "fail fast and early", you can have the resilience to be a 'serial entrepreneur', and be comfortable with the fact that no entrepreneur succeeds in every undertaking.

Don't take yourself too seriously.
Edison Failed to invent the light bulb many thousands of times. That fact kept me optomistic through the hundreds of projects I worked on. Most of them didn't work out as I hoped. Every one was a learning experience. We went broke several times, but the sum total of the whole entrepreneur thing worked out very well.

Sunday, February 26, 2006

Just for fun

The human brain and nervous system is an amazing thing. The olympics pointed that out. With enough practice, a gifted person can do totally amazing things.

If you have a few minutes, you should watch this juggler. He is juggling just three simple balls, but the way he times it to the music is amazing.

Friday, February 24, 2006

You are the author of your life.

In my wildest fantasies, I pretend that I am in a situation in which I have no control. I cannot be blamed for the situation and thus I can enjoy a forbidden behaviour.

It has been slowly dawning on me for the last few decades that it is dishonest to blame anyone else for situations in which I find myself. At some level I helped set it up.

That slowly dawning sun continues to rise.
I was reading about manifesting and this line stood out to me...
If you find yourself defending, attacking, blaming or justifying, you have not found the wisdom of your own authority.

Sunday, February 19, 2006

Make your own kind of music

Make your own kind of music
Sing your own special song
Make your own kind of music
even if nobody else sings along...

These lyrics have been repeating themselves in my head for 2 weeks now. Every time something sticks to me like that, I eventually start to wonder if I should pay attention to what the words mean.

Thursday, February 16, 2006

Vacation is tough on the schedule.

It is almost like when I had a real job. Like many Americans, I learned to avoid vacations because they were too stressful before and after.
Before the vacation, you had to try to arrange all the appointments and get things ready so the whole department wouldn't fall apart while you were gone.
After the vacation, the work is piled up to the ceiling and things are crazy busy for a week or two.

This week was a little too much like that. I figured that in our situation, February would be an ideal time for taking off. It is the quietest time of the year.
Not this year. I'm only beginning to catch up even now.

Everything we are doing is really all good stuff, so I don't know if I'm bragging or complaining. I'll let you know when I catch up.

Saturday, February 04, 2006

In San Diego

This week Lynn and I are goofing off. As I write, I am in a hotel just North of san diego. This could mean that great thoughts will have time to well up in a relaxed mind, or that I will be way too busy. We will be playing that by ear.

Thursday, February 02, 2006

Knowledge is really predictive power.

Mathematics, history, gossip, no matter what the field, knowledge helps us control and navigate our lives as we journey into the future.

The only reason we want to “know” something is if it helps guide us in the future. It is therefore only reasonable that a being that stands outside of time as we know it and can “see” all time at once would be considered by us to be all knowledge.

Our silly, serial, three dimensional selves stand in awe of such a concept.
Our integrated selves ARE such a concept.