@ryandawidjan

• 2013-02-09

  Courage in an Entrepreneur

  by Ben Horowitz via Tyler Rooney. 

  Aristotle said that courage is the first virtue. And the reason he said that, and it’s really important in leadership, is that people can have virtues in certain situations. But that’s not the question, the question is: if it’s going to cost you your company, do you have your integrity? If it’s going to cost you your job, are you honest? If it’s going to completely embarrass you in front of everybody, do you have it then?

  And the only way you have it then is if you have courage. Courage ends up being the foundation of what you need as an entrepreneur.

  I always say you need two things as an entrepreneur: great intelligence and great courage. And I always found as an entrepreneur that my courage was tested far more than my intelligence.

• →

  One of the Seven Deadly Sins

  via Bryan Goldberg’s The seven deadly sins 2.0

  7. Being comfortable

  Here is my general opinion on “being comfortable” in life.

  The moment you feel that your life is very comfortable, you should figure out a way to make it lesscomfortable.

  Our ancestors warned against sloth in a world where skipping harvest days could lead to Winter starvation. Thankfully, that is not the world we live in today. And it’s precisely because we live in a world of opportunity and aspiration that simply subsisting is not nearly enough. Or shouldn’t be enough for us.

  But how many people do you know who have been doing the same job for eight or nine years, with small changes in scope and responsibility, only to begin viewing the world through the lens of “the Accenture way”?

  They love making their gainful living with a 3-4 percent raise each year, and earning praise from somebody a rung or two up the ladder is enough to make their day. They actually take pride in those cheesy loyalty awards with the corporate logos on them.

  Most of our ancestors survived some form of peasantry or servitude, made it through wars and depressions, and were forced into cross-ocean boats at the end of a whip or in the face of starvation. Sure, they would have loved to live in a comfortable middle-class suburban home with plenty to eat…

  …but they also had 10 times the guts and strength that we do in the modern day. The least we can do is honor their memory by channeling one fraction of their fortitude.

  Comfort is dangerous. Don’t give into it. Life lasts a long time, and it’s never too late to take risk. If you have spent the last 10 years as a consultant, IT manager, or accountant, then you know exactly which industry is in need of disruption. Now kiss your spouse, and prepare them for the adventure that awaits. It’s time to get your hands dirty. You can always go back if you fail.

• 2013-01-12

  Thoughts on Time

  I think of this realization in my own life as The Moment of Panic. Wherein I suddenly realized time was passing. I don’t think you can see that, until you test your abilities, and see your own potential. Maybe that’s why it took me thirty years to get there. - HN
  
  It strikes me that this may be one of the differences between youth and age: when we are young, we invent different futures for ourselves; when we are old, we invent different pasts for others. - The Sense of an Ending
  
  I have thought about time a lot lately. It’s come about through a combination of recent readings as well as an almost everyday internal reflection.
  
  I feel a constant pressure to do great things and you can take “great things” to mean a lot. This “pressure” is largely self imposed. How could I not take up the opportunities that I’ve been so fortunate to receive or come across? Having grown up in a lower middle class New England home with good health, a supportive (yet fragmented) family and access to great education, I’ve for some reason been given an extremely strong foundation in which to set out and do the things I envision. It would be almost immoral of me to squander it or at least not be appreciative of it. With this foundation, I want to become be a modern day gentlemen, an awesome dad/husband and uber successful entrepreneur.
  
  External pressure comes directly and often unconsciously from teens in the press working on something great, studying the paths of various people who have “made it”, and hearing from folks with regrets. More to elaborate with another post though.
  
  This pressure has largely been with me since I can remember. Only recently though, has it been fueled with the understanding that time is really passing. Sounds incredibly simple or cliche, but read it again aloud. Time is passing. And you can’t change it. It’s both simultaneously scary and liberating. Scary knowing you don’t have any understanding or control of the speed and duration. Liberating knowing that you largely have a choice on your attitude and daily actions.
  
  Expanding on this theme brings a few concrete thoughts for me. It means I have one life and one opportunity to do the things I want or need to do. Just one. It means realizing the fact that I don’t want to invest that time and energy with sucky people or on an uninteresting career. I don’t want my life to be a mediocre one. This entails a responsibility of everyday self improvement and mindfulness of my needs, wants and dreams.
  
  At this moment, I firmly believe my biggest life regret would be looking back at an old age and being discouraged by two things; the level of effort and level of thoughtfulness I put into making the life I wanted. Both are variables I control now at age 20 and for as long as I wake up every morning.
  
  Life isn’t perfect nor is it easy. At times it’s a messy and winding road that you feel like you’re paving and other times you feel like a back seat passenger on a bus with a pre-determined destination.
  
  I acknowledge a significant part of life isn’t controllable. There will be mistakes, failures and unfortunate unforeseen developments on the road. I just believe walking down this road without thinking about how it’s the only one you have is a terrible mistake.
  
  You can compel yourself to appreciate time and it’s my belief that you should. Fortunately for me, this growing realization of passing time wasn’t accelerated by a near death experience or recent tragic event. It helps to hear it from older wise people and read personal blog posts about life. That’s the easy part, even if you are really listening. It will only truly stick though if you can consistently ask questions of yourself. It’s a shrug your shoulders kind of simple to agree with the fact that we have one life and that time is passing. It’s much more challenging to take that high level thought and have it be broken down into real, actionable questions.
  
  “As I routinely get up at the crack of dawn to head to the office, do I truly love the day to day or am I doing it for other less fulfilling reasons?”
  “How aware am I that 50-75% of my waking hours revolve around work?”
  “How much am I really trying to find my passion and drive or am I relying on serendipity?”
  “Am I doubling down on those people and activities that give me the most meaning?”
  “What portion of my life is being lived out by default?”
  “Am I seeking out to surround myself with the smartest, most driven people on a daily basis?”
  “Do I realize that the uninspired and routinized week is a small slice of life but in aggregate accounts for valuable months and years?”
  
  As I tend keep my goals and resolutions private, I won’t explain them here but instead will share that they all revolve in one or another this newfound appreciation of time and our one shot. 2013 is about pressing on the gas and pushing the limit of what can be done. Start making the future happen.

• 2013-01-01

  Surely, if life means anything at all, it means that each of us is entrusted with a certain irreplaceable fund of hours and weeks and years. To let anybody and everybody fritter that fund away is as if the trustee of an estate were to deposit the estate’s funds in a bank and issue check books to whoever applied.

  — 1922: Why I Quit Being So Accommodating

• →

  Don’t underestimate the power of over delivering when people don’t expect you to deliver in the first place.” - December 22nd, twitter.

  — 

  [Little did I know drafting this at midnight on the 28th, would Adam post his own blog the very next morning regarding the nature of VC’s in the tech world.]

  Recently I was talking with a friend in Boston (Adam, @Besvinick) at a regular brunch among friends and the notion of being “an MBA” in the tech world came up. MBAs in general get a lot of crap but this is amplified in the tech startup world where folks are quick to judge (sometimes rightfully so) a young man or women coming fresh out of HBS into a small startup or even mid sized company. Hunter Walk has a great post here about what it means to “get” an MBA rather than “being” an MBA. 

  On the surface, the cards are stacked against Adam. He’s got a non-technical background, did finance for a few years, is in an MBA program and to top it off he’s enrolled at thee program, Harvard Business School. I realized after a few minutes thinking about it that this turns out to be in fact, GREAT NEWS. This continually provides an opportunity for him to over deliver and exceed the expectations of hiring VCs, tech leaders and potential co-founders. 

  Very few folks are expecting him (or any other freshly minted HBS student) to be a down to earth, entrenched and smart value-add individual for a company or tech ecosystem. Yet, Adam non traditionally hustled his way into a top VC firm, is by far one of the most engaged early adopters in the space and continues to build a strong network of players in the community. He’s meaningfully differentiated himself from his classmates along the way and started to prove he can bring the business fundamentals when it comes to distribution, a smart network and understanding of the respective industry landscape.

  Sometimes first impressions and judgments aren’t necessarily “strong” ones, rather they serve as a future opportunity to make someone’s jaw drop by becoming an outlier. Being a founding father of a collegiate fraternity and male student athlete helps you quickly realize this. 

• 2012-12-30

  Wandering in Your Own Thoughts

  The only time I have encountered “runner’s high” was two days before I ran my first half marathon last January in Florida. I was in the San Francisco area for 3 weeks exploring all that was Silicon Valley. Two nights before I flew out to Florida to join a friend to run the Disney 13.1 miler, I decided I should “train” or at least get a sense of how well I was conditioned. [As a longtime athlete, I’ve ironically disliked running as an isolated activity.]

  That planned few mile jog turned into a nighttime nine mile run. One loop turned into two, which transitioned into back tracking and then finally ended with me trying to find additional running space through out a quiet Mountain View neighboorhood. 

   

  That was the first and last time I’ve experienced runner’s high. It was a fascinating and sudden burst of energy and concentration while being in the flow. I distinctly remember calling my mom soon after, an experienced marathoner, asking what the hell I just felt. While I haven’t been going on many runs since, I’ve come across a similar type of feeling when it comes to thinking and inducing the flow. 

  Recently, I am starting to be able to regularly enter a flow of creativity, deliberate thought and mind wandering when I prepare for it. I know, it sounds very zen like…though I just call it “wandering in my own thoughts”. It usually consists of a physical activity (walking, biking) on a slow Sunday afternoon combined with instrumental music and noise canceling headphones. I can’t hear my footsteps hitting the pavement, nor can I hear the traffic and people passing me by. In a world of constant sensory overload, it’s fascinating to walk along in “quiet”. 

  It usually begins by reflecting on a recent notable event of the past week. This could be anything from a coffee meeting to a date or company development. For me, thoughtfully reflecting on the past is a great source for happiness, appreciation and learning.

  From here on though, it’s unplanned what you may start to think about. Often, it transitions into takeaways about said event and the respective learnings or observations may turn itself into a blog post or fodder for conversation at the next brunch. It may be a time to think about an important article you read in the past week and what the personal or professional actionable next steps are. It also serves as a great time to clear your head and think about the few particular things you’d like to accomplish in the next week.

  The development of thoughts is similar to the that of finding the next long avenues to run along. A sudden rush has them twisting and turning exploring new paths that most likely never appeared during the hectic week. Don’t stop walking until the rush has taken its course, just go with it. 

  I’d highly recommend giving something similar a try and if you already do, I would love to hear about it. Below are just a few items that have helped me. 

  - Soundtrack. Tycho via Hypem. 

  - Noise canceling headphones. Shure se215.

  - iPhone on Airplane mode.

• 2012-12-16

  

  Tweetbot. On an island. #changinghabits 

• →

  Reducing Twitter Usage

  “I’ve realized—Twitter is outsourced schizophrenia. I have a couple hundred voices I have consensually agreed to allow residence inside my brain.” - Adam Brault

  “After a dose of mindfulness, the default network has greater consistent access to information about our internal states and an enhanced ability to monitor the surrounding environment.” - Maria Konnikova 

  Over the past month I’ve been employing three different “hacks” to try to gain greater clarity of mind and thoughtfulness. After time, I’ve come to see clear, focused thought as the second scarcest resource I have [and at least have some control over]. This intense thought is crucial for thinking of the Blank Label vision, strategy and execution. It is also important when you are trying to stay mindful of the things in life and gaining a larger perspective on your mental/emotional state. Being in the “weeds” 24/7 is a sure way to get lost from knowing what’s important.

  1. Move the Tweetbot app to the 4th screen of the iPhone You’d be surprised how mentally ingrained it is to open the app with a simple thumb press whenever you need a quick distraction or time sink. By moving the app around, it helps remove the habitual impulse.

  2. iPhone-less Errands Whenever I go out for a coffee, groceries or quick trip, I now leave my iPhone behind. Not only does it keep me from possibly using it while biking/driving, it makes me MUCH more mindful and approachable in public. 

  3. 8am-6pm Weekday No Twitter Program No reading tweets in the stream, no opening up the Mac or iPhone apps. This has the been the most challenging but I’ve largely held to it. The potential level of flow and focus is exponentially higher. 

  Have any distraction free hacks or thoughts on twitter usage during work or fun? 

  Ironic ongoing side project - 140reasons.com

  - Test to continually ship..140 posts. 

  - Resource I’ve always wanted to share with hesitant friends or colleagues 

• 2012-12-15

  The concentration benefits of mindfulness training aren’t just behavioral; they’re physical. In recent years, mindfulness has been shown to improve connectivity inside our brain’s attentional networks, as well as between attentional and medial frontal regions — changes that save us from distraction. Mindfulness, in other words, helps our attention networks communicate better and with fewer interruptions than they otherwise would.

  — The Power of Concentration

• →

  Roughdraft wants to invest at the earliest stage in student startups to help them in their journey from rough drafts to products in markets.

  — 

  General Catalyst Backs Roughdraft.VC To Fund Student-Run Startups And Ideas In Boston

  Honored to be involved. 

• 2012-12-08

  In all likelihood, what you’ve inherited is nowhere near what’s best for you. Chances are very slight that there isn’t a drastically better neighborhood for you out there, a more kindred circle of peers, a much better line of work, and a much more rewarding way to go about your day than the way you do. Your level of fulfillment and sense of peace with the world depend on how well-matched your values are to the life you’re actually living. There’s no reason to believe they’ll match well by accident.

  — Most lives are lived by default

• 2012-12-06

  Nobody does their best thinking sitting at their desk. Your desk is for executing; do your thinking elsewhere.

  — 

  I Quit My Desk

  Couldn’t agree more and have been experimenting over the past few weeks to try and facilitate more flow, high level thinking and reflection. Work in progress though…

• →

  Formula for Entrepreneurial Success

  “Say no to most things: Features. People. Partnerships. “Coffees.” Projects. Only a few of them really matter. (Yes, it’s hard to know which.) Don’t get distracted.”

• 2012-12-02

  Intense Focus on Results

  I still have some thoughts to distill on this topic and have been consumed by this thought for the past few months. Focusing on results and execution of ideas leads to significant changes in how you approach personal development, daily actions and behavior change.

  I firmly believe it’s more important to heavily lean towards keeping new personal habits, initiatives and projects close to your chest in the beginning. Once you’ve internalized the fact that you yourself are trying to do something new and improved in life, that is a meaningful development. Having to exclaim about it on twitter, instagram it (#filters) or check in I believe is largely a crutch. Sometimes these social actions of connecting and sharing can help us get through tough times or learning moments, but if you feel compelled to share every step along the way you’re not doing it for the right reasons.

  Being, doing, executing > branding, talking, sharing.

  ryandawidjan
  Beginning to think that until you’re fully content with it being unseen/unheard, your new habit or activity isn’t really that powerful.
  11/25/12 10:36 PM

• 2012-11-23

  Making a startup succeed is a mission that’s indefinable and, invariably, involves lots of that ambiguous thing called hustle. One day is never the same as the next.
  You win at this game by hustling. Luck helps, but hustling helps more. So that’s why we requested a hustler in our job post and that’s why, no doubt, we’ll specify this requirement again. Hustling means doing tasks that suck, over and over again. If you can’t hustle in the startup world, you can’t win.

  — 

  Biz Dev is a Clever Name for Dirty Work.

  Scott Pollack first introduced this article to me last spring when he came to speak at Babson and it really resonated with me. It really points to the grit, drive and daily work you’ve got to put into building a company and brand. 

  When you’re starting from nothing, you’ve got no momentum. There are no word of mouth conversations happening, inbound opportunities or big pr moments. Everyday through cold and warm emails, strategic networking, serendipity and resourcefulness, you’ve got to get the ball rolling. That faster that ball rolls and the longer it rolls, the more opportunities, networks and channels you’ll be able to access.

  But until then, it’s time to start doing the unscalable things.