Life in School and Startup

This week has been life changing for so many reasons.

First, I love my new job at Transloc. The CEO is one of those guys that just “has it”, the subtle swagger that you couldn’t reproduce if you tried. I hope to have that one day. We were out to lunch and he was talking to me about the concept of a triple bottom line when it comes to your business’s worth and productivity. Pretty awesome stuff, but damn near impossible to find ideas that fit into all 3 categories. The concepts made me think a lot about my graduation speech (read below) theme and how I can adjust my approach to business opportunities for the future.

Second, some company just launched a product with the name “Mobile Stage”. This pisses me off on many levels, but there’s not much we can do about it except get a new name. We’ll keep all of this Mobile Stage stuff up for a while – at least until we settle on something else. If you have any ideas please feel free to share.

Third, I graduated college on Saturday. The ceremony was awesome, got to hang out with a bunch of my friends, and the day after graduation really wooped some reality into my otherwise scattered brain. Sunday was the first legitimate day of paying for 100% of my bills, and having literally nothing but my startup to work on. Productivity was decent – it must improve.

Fourth, I was the student speaker at my graduation. This turned out to be a pretty badass experience for me – writing a speech is not easy, and rewriting it from front to back 2 days before you’re delivering it isn’t necessarily the best idea. Public speaking is fun, I really enjoyed myself up there (500-600 people in attendance), and would do it again in a heartbeat. Video is embedded below.

Have a happy holidays, everyone. Take some time off to spend with the famset, and to relax and read a book.

Megatrends have come and gone since consumer society has been around.  All of the sheeple walking here and there, to and fro, to stay up with the latest fashion trends, social networks, employment booms and busts, etc.  Though “active” participation in society does not require one to stay up with the bleeding edge fashion or social networks, there exist other megatrends that eventually weave themselves into the fabric of our daily lives – ones that society will deem required for “normal” participation.  After much deliberation and study, I’ve decided to refer to these phenomena as “lifestyle revolutions” due to their revolutionary change on the lifestyle habits of people  Just as the advent of the Model T, large-scale farming, Jesus, and the internet forever changed the way we conduct our day-to-day lives, so will the current rise of talk and data via mobile phones.

As if everyone in society isn’t completely “last minute” yet, we sure as hell are all going to be flying by the seat of our pants by the time my kids are having kids.  Everyone and every”thing” is now at the fingertips of consumers able to place a phone call and view internet data whenever and wherever they do so choose.  Yellowpages and libraries are much less popular, payphones are disappearing at an alarming rate, and mobile accessories are on the rise due to the increasing amount of lifestyle reliance on our mobile phone.  I would hate to be in Rand McNally’s shoes right now.  Why, though, is the mobile phone revolution going to persist longer than other fads such as Friendster and the Pet Rock – persist much like Microsoft Windows and the Petroleum industry has?

The answer is not that one person’s daily life relies on a mobile phone for communication and internet.  The answer is that the vast majority of society will soon rely on the abilities of mobile devices.  When adults tell me they don’t have a mode of transportation, a mobile phone, the internet, etc, I begin to wonder why.  It’s not necessarily that each person needs these items for his or her own personal use, but rather to effectively participate in American society.

I can see in 30 years everyone having a mobile phone with internet access.  People will consider it a lifestyle necessity, and will be severely impacted should damage or loss occur.  In the meantime, let’s just sit back and ride the wave of an enormous industry growing to support this mobile revolution.

As I sit in Dunkin Donuts reading CEO blogs and “the long tail theory” I’m trying to figure out how I can refocus my time thinking about a startup venture.  Until now, It’s been nothing but going through raw options of “what service can I offer” – this has not been fruitful for the past four weeks.  I’m starting to believe that this path may not lead me to the pot of gold, and that a major shift in thought process may be necessary to bring this “think tank time” to fruition.  To illustrate where I feel I need to be heading, let me tell of a story that offers great analogy to life and learning.

One day, while rock climbing, the person in charge of making sure I didn’t splat against the ground was talking me through a particularly tough face of the wall.  He had been up it many times and was overall a more experienced climber than myself.  I was new and was particularly stuck at a certain junction – trying incessantly to make the “jump” and grab a prayer of a ledge to keep up the wall.  Just in passing, he mentioned to me the following – “hey dude, head sideways, can’t always think about heading straight up the whole time”.  I followed suit, and completed the climb relatively easy after a tiny sideways scoot.

All poetic sap aside, the concept of positioning frequently comes up in my infant entrepreneurial efforts, and it seems that repositioning my thought process is going to be necessary to ideate in the proper direction.  Time to start thinking sideways.  Better yet, time to figure out how to think sideways in the first place.  I’m taking anyone’s two cents for thoughts in this area, and your whole bank account is certainly welcome.