I recommend you read Nat Eliason‘s piece No More Struggle Porn. He’s attacking one of the more pervasive startup myths around, the idea that the struggle itself, the overwhelming and overpowering struggle that pushes everything else out of your life, is a good thing. He defines struggle porn as: I call this “struggle porn”: a … Continue reading You Have to Know When to Quit
Does this seem familiar to you: I had sensed a personal crash coming. For a decade and a half, I’d been a web obsessive, publishing blog posts multiple times a day, seven days a week, and ultimately corralling a team that curated the web every 20 minutes during peak hours. Andrew Sullivan That’s from Andrew Sullivan: … Continue reading Do You Suffer from Distraction Sickness
This should be so horribly obvious: Your business exists to make your life better. Not vice-versa. Don’t live to make your business better. Obvious? Sure. But people forget. Do you use what you “have to do” for your business as the constant recurring excuse for missing things that matter to people you love – soccer games, … Continue reading Startups and Business Owners: The ‘Have to Do’ Factor is Infinite
(Note: I’m posting here my latest column for the Eugene Register Guard Blue Chip monthly magazine. These are not new themes for this blog, but I like what I say here. This is reposted here with permission.) Let’s put startups, entrepreneurship and life in proportion. A webinar participant asked me last week about what I … Continue reading Biggest Mistake? Mistaking Business for Life
This is just five minutes. Just click and listen. There’s nothing I could add to it. http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf Or just click here to view the original, on TED.com
My five kids are all grown up now, doing well thanks, and as I look back on things related to parenting I think I’ve discovered something worth sharing. It’s about dad time with young kids. Our oldest was born in 1972 and our youngest in 1987, and in our case, during those 15 years a … Continue reading Heartfelt Advice for Young Fathers
Here’s a thought: a healthy relationship makes both of the people better for it. Both people win, or neither one wins. Are you better, and better off, because of your spouse? Is your spouse better, or better off, because of you? And then there’s business, life, and relationships. Is your relationship better off for your … Continue reading It’s Easier to Build a Business Than Find a New Spouse.
What do you think of this (emphasis is mine)? Flextime, dress-down Fridays and paternity leave mask the core issue: certain job and career choices are fundamentally incompatible with being meaningfully engaged, on a day-to-day basis, with a young family. Reality is people working long hard hours at jobs they hate to buy things they don’t … Continue reading What Does a Life Well Lived Look Like to You?
Evidence gathers. I posted research agrees: time is the scarcest resource more than a year ago. Then this week I found Research Finds Time As A Means to Happiness in a Stanford business school publication. This one is about a new study with similar findings, plus a summary of several others. New research takes a … Continue reading Time, Not Money, is the Key To Happiness
I was sorely disappointed to miss Pamela Slim’s keynote speech for the Willamette Angel Conference 10 days ago. I’m a member, but I had to be away, and had to miss it. I hear she was great. Eugene and Corvallis startups are still talking about it. She called her talk 10 Keys to Maintain Your … Continue reading Pam Slim’s 10 Keys to Startup Sanity
