I highly recommend watching this video of a conversation between John Doerr (Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers) and John Heilemann (New York Magazine), at the Web 2.0 summit last week

John Doerr is a smart person who's been leading Kleiner Perkins — which leads the venture capital world — for a long time. I was a vice president at Creative Strategies in 1983, and at that time he was already a leading VC.

The interview starts with some second-hand questions from president-elect Barack Obama, and stays interesting throughout.

I can't summarize this 32-minute video. Watch it. The challenge of this generation, the reference in my title, is about energy. Towards the middle, he lists 11 points for high-end startups during a period of three to four years of hard times. Things like securing cash, communicating, selling …

"While you're cutting things, above all, do not cut hope."