If you're looking for me, I'm on PandaWhale.

I'm stashing many things there.

And reflecting.

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Peter: "There seems to be an absence of an ornothological piece... A headline regarding mass awareness of a certain avian variety..."

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I've been thinking a lot about Posterous.

Especially now that Twitter owns Posterous.

I hope that Twitter keeps Posterous up and running, because I love writing and reading on Posterous, as do many others.

Furthermore, keeping Posterous running will help Twitter to increase their understanding of the Interest Graph.

Some interests run longer than 140 characters, and Posterous is the perfect service for longer tweets. The Interest Graph is so money.

And, keeping Posterous running will give Twitter a great service it can learn from as it iterates through the Creative Process to continually improve. 

A post-Twitter Posterous could be wonderful.

Twitter, PLEASE keep Posterous running.

And don't leave it up to a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock.

Go out of your comfort zone.

Let Posterous live where the magic happens.

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1. THE GREAT LAW

• As you sow, so shall you reap.

• This is also known as the Law of Cause and Effect.

• Whatever we put out in the Universe, is what comes back to us.

• If what we want is Happiness, Peace, Friendship, Love…

• Then we should BE Happy, Peaceful, Friendly, Loving.

2. THE LAW OF CREATION

• Life doesn’t just HAPPEN. It requires our participation.

• We are one with the Universe, both inside and out.

• Whatever surrounds us gives us clues to our inner state.

• BE yourself and DO yourself… what you want to have in your Life.

3. THE LAW OF HUMILITY

• What you refuse to accept, will continue for you.

• If what we see is an enemy, or someone with a character trait that we find to be negative...

• Then we ourselves are not focused on a Higher Level of Existence.

4. THE LAW OF GROWTH

• Wherever you go, there you are.

• For us to GROW in Spirit it is we who must change and not the people, places, or things around us.

• The only given in our lives is OURSELVES, and that is the only factor we have control over.

• When we change who and what we are within our heart, our life changes too.

5. THE LAW OF RESPONSIBILITY

• Whenever there is something wrong, there is something wrong in me.

• We mirror what surrounds us, and what surrounds us mirrors us.

• We must take responsibility for what is in our life.

6. THE LAW OF CONNECTION

• Even if something we do seems inconsequential, it is very important that it gets done,

• As Everything in the Universe is Connected.

• Each step leads to the next step and so forth and so on.

• Someone must do the initial work to get a job done.

• Neither the first step nor the last are of greater significance.

• They were both needed to accomplish the task.

• Past, Present, Future: They are all connected…

7. THE LAW OF FOCUS

• You can’t think of two things at the same time.

• When our focus is on Spiritual Values it is impossible for us to have lower thoughts such as greed or anger.

8. THE LAW OF GIVING AND HOSPITALITY

• If you believe something to be true, then sometime in your life you will be called upon to demonstrate that truth.

• Here is where we put what we SAY that we have learned into PRACTICE.

9. THE LAW OF HERE AND NOW

• Looking back to examine what was, prevents us from being totally in the HERE AND NOW.

• Old thoughts, old patterns of behavior, old dreams… Prevent us from having new ones.

10. THE LAW OF CHANGE

• History repeats itself until we learn the lessons that we need to change our path.

11. THE LAW OF PATIENCE AND REWARD

• All Rewards require initial toil.

• Rewards of lasting value require patient and persistent toil.

• True Joy follows doing what we’re supposed to be doing and waiting for the Reward to come in its own time.

12. THE LAW OF SIGNIFICANCE AND INSPIRATION

• You get back from something whatever you’ve put into it.

• The Value of something is a direct result of the energy and intent that is put into it.

• Every personal contribution is also a contribution to the Whole.

• Lackluster Contributions have no impact on the Whole, or work to diminish it.

• Loving Contributions Lift Up and Inspire the Whole.

Sources: 

• PandaWhale - The 12 Laws of Karma
• PandaWhale - Playing with the Moon
• Waking Times - The 12 Laws of Karma (video)

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Robert X. Cringely's first tip for would-be entrepreneurs is: 

 "Avoid stupid and unlucky people."

I'm taking his advice because starting a company is hard.

I want to be lucky, like the kitten that adopted me last week.

For decades my father has told me that

"It's better to be lucky than to be good."

I don't just want to be good; I want to be excellent.

My dad says that to be excellent I should surround myself with people who have good luck. He tells me that people with good luck are contagious -- as are people with bad luck!

My dad regularly affirms:

"Avoid the unlucky, the unethical, and the unhappy."

To find people who are ethical, I have a strategy. My startup co-founder has a sixth sense when it comes to sniffing out ethics; Detective Troutgirl is always on the case.

As for happiness, lessons are repeated until they are learned. There is no way to happiness because happiness is the way; consequently, people reveal true colors in conversation. But what about luck?

I want to find people who are as attracted to luck as cats are attracted to heat.

To create luck, I conjure up some scientistic sleuthing.

If 80% of success is showing up, then

80-90% of luck is an excellent attitude.

Those numbers are corroborated scientistically by business shark Daymond John and psychologist Richard Wiseman:

Daymond John boldly declared on Shark Tank, 

"Life is like business. It's 20% what happens to you, and 80% how you respond."

Richard Wiseman concurs,

"Only about 10% of life is purely random.
The remaining 90% is defined by the way we think.
Our attitudes produce our luck."

I read those sentiments over and over, and think to myself: Still, there's that remaining 10-20% that is pure luck, and that's the part we need EVEN if we work hard and make wise choices and are as patient as a crouching kitten.

So... How can we MAKE more luck?

In 2010 I chuckled that with a luck factory, I'd make a fortune.

Since then, I've become aware that there are traits that we can practice to increase our ability to make our own luck.

On 106miles.net I summarized Bakadesuyo's article How can you become more lucky? by noting that lucky people practice four traits: openness, intuition, optimism, and resilience.

Practice every day, as much as possible:

1. Openness to new experiences. Network. Meet new people. Re-engage with people you know.

2. Intuition. Listen to yourself. Meditate to clear your mind regularly.

3. Optimism. The mind is a feedback loop that creates self-fulfilling prophecies, so be positive.

4. Resilience. "Success is moving from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm." (Winston Churchill)

To that I add, don't try to avoid pain:

Truth is, everybody is going to hurt you. You just gotta find the ones worth suffering for.

(mis-attributed to Bob Marley; actual author unknown)

Be open. Be intuitive. Be optimistic. Be resilient. Good luck!

In the meantime, I'm looking forward to Get Lucky: The Book.

I'm going to make it a habit to spend time with people who are lucky, and we'll see what happens when I practice lucky traits.

I will stay interconnected and get enough sleep.

Yes, sleep...

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Refer to me as @ifindkarma and I'll be happy. You can also find this work as a chapter in Eric Ries's and Hunter Walk's wonderful Uncensored book for the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Photo credits: All four pictures in this post were taken by me using Instagram on iPhone 4s, and are hosted on Flickr. These pictures feature the cats I humbly serve: Beavis, the 18-year-old silver Tabby; Coco, the 18-month-old Tuxedo kitty; and (unnamed), the 9-month-old lucky black cat who adopted me last week at the Humane Society of Silicon Valley. Not pictured is Lola, the 9-year-old Oklahoma runaway feline who is camera-shy.

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2012 is Year of the Dragon. The Water Dragon.

George F. Will: All right, hands on buzzers. [ he hits several buttons on the machine, which spits out a quiz card that George reads ] "The precarious balance between infield and outfield suggests a perfect symmetry. For $50, identify the effect of that symmetry."

[ the contestants stare cluelessly, as the buzzer sounds ]

George F. Will: Sorry. The answer is: "The exhilarating tension between being and becoming." Being and becoming. Next question...

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In the spirit of Thirty and Thirty-Five comes the following awesome, beautiful, and creative web of thoughts that occupy my brain.

No matter.

I'm not patient enough to write poetry or prose, so I'll just count down after Futurama.

Don't you worry about life, the universe, and everything; let me worry about blank...

42. We believe in the interconnectedness of all things.

41. Everything is about inclusion.

40. Everything is everythang.

39. Truth is, everybody is going to hurt you; you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for.

38. As human beings, our greatest glory consists not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.

37. Let it go. This too shall pass.

36. SIMPLIFY.

35. Lessons are repeated until they are learned.

34. The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.

33. Reflect on happiness.

32. People are very bad at predicting what will make us happy.

31. There are shortcuts to happiness, and dancing is one of them.

30. We are feedback loops. We are the stories we tell ourselves.

29. Love is when you open your heart to pain.

28. To get over grief, be there for someone else's grief.

27. Kittie heaven is mousie hell.

26. Bird is the word!

25. The ride does not require an explanation. Just occupants.

24. It's not going to stop till you wise up.

23. Character is destiny.

22. Reflection creates identity.

21. You can do anything.

20. We can change the world with a pen and paper. We keep waiting, waiting.

19. Starting is hard.

18. We'll see.

17. Life is... delicious ambiguity.

16. Beware drift. Do what you love!

15. True happiness comes from within.

14. Get yourself a giant panda! (Super kawaii!)

13. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.

12. That it will never come again is what makes life so sweet.

11. It goes to 11. (Be sure to read through to Andy Weir's story, "The Egg"!)

10. Life is like business. It's 20 percent what happens to you, and 80 percent how you respond.

9. 80 percent of success is showing up.

8. Our attitudes produce our luck.

7. Love more, fear less.

6. Be grateful for every breath.

5. Be who you are, as hard as you can.

4. Be here now.

3. Be excellent.

2. There is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way.

1. Only kindness matters in the end.

********* ...enlightenment... *********

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Once upon a time, in a temple nestled in the misty end of south hill, lived a pair of monks. One old and one young.

‘What are the differences between Heaven and Hell?’ the young monk asked the learned master one day.

‘There are no material differences,’ replied the old monk peacefully.

‘None at all?’ asked the confused young monk.

‘Yes. Both Heaven and Hell look the same. They all have a dining hall with a big hot pot in the center in which some delicious noodles are boiled, giving off an appetizing scent,’ said our old priest. ‘The size of the pan and the number of people sitting around the pot are the same in these two places.’

‘But oddly, each diner is given a pair of meter-long chopsticks and must use them to eat the noodles. And to eat the noodles, one must hold the chopsticks properly at their ends, no cheating is allowed,’ the zen master went on to describe to our young monk.

‘In the case of Hell, people are always starved because no matter how hard they try, they fail to get the noodles into their mouths,’ said the old priest.

‘But isn’t it the same happens to the people in Heaven?’ the junior questioned.

‘No. They can eat because they each feed the person sitting opposite them at the table. You see, that is the difference between Heaven and Hell,’ explained the old monk.

The moral of this story is simple: A turn in mind is all the difference between Heaven and Hell lies (一念天堂，一念地獄). 

Be kind to people and people will be kind to you. 

The choice is yours, don't be late.

 

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The Internets say that Bob Marley said that everyone's gonna hurt you but some people are worth it anyway.

No matter how much I search, I cannot find the context under which he said it or even if he said it...

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If I could tell the world just one thing, it would be:

Love more. Fear less.

Obvious to me. Amazing to others.

"There is no future. There is no past. Do you see? Time is simultaneous, an intricately structured jewel that humans insist on viewing one edge at a time, when the whole design is visible in every facet."

~ Watchmen

"I will do today what you won't, so tomorrow I can do what you can't."

~ Anonymous

"I do not much care for that man... I must get to know him better."

~ Abraham Lincoln

"If there is no enemy on the inside, the enemy on the outside can do us no harm."

~ African Proverb

"Our greatest problems often yield our greatest breakthroughs... fierce frustration is a precondition for a tremendous triumph."

~ @CoryBooker

Recently I added favorites among Convos containing quotes...

Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion. ~ Muhammed Ali

If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea. ~ Antoine de Saint Exupéry

Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want. ~ Randy Pausch

There are no shortcuts. NONE. ~ Mark Cuban

Do something so hard you become great in the process. ~ xkcd

Any fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction. ~ Albert Einstein

If everything seems under control, you're just not going fast enough. ~ Mario Andretti

As a cure for worrying, work is better than whiskey. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

One's destination is never a place, but rather a new way of looking at things. ~ Henry Miller

Creativity is just connecting things. ~ Steve Jobs

During my 18 years I came to bat almost 10,000 times. I struck out about 1700 times and walked maybe 1800 times. You figure a ballplayer will average about 500 at bats a season. That means I played seven years without ever hitting the ball. ~ Mickey Mantle

I've failed over and over and over again in my life, and that's why I succeed. ~ Michael Jordan

I've seen each of these quotes many times in my life, but I keep coming back to them.

Sometimes it takes me a while to visualize what I'm seeing.

‎Risk more than others think is safe. 

Care more than others think is wise. 

Dream more than others think is practical. 

Expect more than others think is possible. 

~ Claude Bissell via Lili Balfour via John Hagel

Teach compassion..."If you see someone who is struggling to make friends or being bullied because they don't have friends or because they are shy or not as good looking or not dressed in the best clothes PLEASE step up. Say hi or at least smile at them in the hallway. You never know what that person might be facing outside of school. Your kindness might just make a BIG difference in someone's life! Pass this on and share with your kids!"

~ @LiliBalfour via Laura Kent

"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."

~ Gandhi

Love is where compassion prevails and kindness rules.

"What is hard is being good every day."

 ~ Willie Mays 

Beware rogue pandas on rampage.

Sing with Brian Wilson!!!

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On 11/11/11, it goes to 11.

It is ON !!! Time to celebrate !!! 

11/11/11 = NERD NEW YEAR

Nerd New Year is a Redwood City event for charity!

Where? On Broadway. 2600 Broadway in Redwood City, CA, to be precise.

We closed down the streets and lit our countdown clock...

The panda is the best of friends. Not just to me, but to all who need him. Here's details:

Drinks, food, fun, awesome prizes!

LIVE SHARK till 5pm, LIVE KITTENS till 6pm,robots, 22 FOOT INFLATABLE SLIDE!

106 Miles drinkup indoors at UnderGround (2650 Broadway), 6-9pm.

LIVE MUSIC, fire dancers, veterans, stilt walkers, 13 FOOT CLOCK COUNTING DOWN TO 11:11!

As seen on: 

• San Jose Mercury News
• Redwood City Patch
• NerdNewYear.com
• LA Times
• Mashable
• Yahoo!
• Xconomy 
• AllTop
• MSNBC 
• Chicago Tribune
• OMG Facts 
• USA Today 
• San Francisco CBS
• KTVU
• Photos - Robot Hackathon 
• Photos - 11/11/11 Event

Totals:

• Facebook LIKES: 927 (plus 127)
• Twitter TWEETS: at least 3879
• Groupons sent to: 1.2 million people (110 + 96 = 306 bought)
• #nerdnewyear trended on Twitter 11/11/11
• Estimated Redwood City attendance: 1500
• We're still figuring out how much we made for charity...

Redwood City represent. I feel the love. +1. +1. OMG.

Every day I'm shuffling...

Everybody just have a good time! And smile, for cameras are everywhere...

The journey of 106 Miles starts with a single step.

We're on a mission from God... Hit it!

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Once upon a time, I said, Be here now.

And then I rested, interconnected.

And I said, Be excellent.

WHAT?!

And then I read,

You is kind, you is smart, you is important.

Somewhere in there, rakeshlobster tweeted...

Great career advice from @sv_troutgirl to @joshelman:

Be who you are, as hard as you can.

I believe "Be who you are, as hard as you can" originated from @naval.

That was the most meaningful advice I've had in a long time.

"Be who you are, as hard as you can" is so easy to say and so hard to do. It takes courage.

Easiest when you are cast out and have no choice.

He also said to listen to people whose opinion you value.

The key word in everything I've said till now: COURAGE.

It takes courage to grow up 
and become who you really are.

      ~ e.e. cummings

See, there's always a tension between being and becoming.

We're wetware on all fours, searching profoundly for four11's.

To be who you are, you gotta get yourself some rituals:

Once you are who you are, as hard as you can, you can focus on learning more and continually improve yourself.

How can you continually improve yourself?

Bakadesuyo highlights his most interesting research:

• 10 things you need to know to be happier
• 10 things you need to know about sex
• 10 things you need to know about persuasion
• 10 things you need to know about relationships 
• 10 proven ways to be more creative 
• 10 ways to be more intelligent
• 10 things you need to know about productivity

Be here now. Be excellent. Be happy. Repeat.

Breathe. Be silent. Walk on the ocean...

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Somewhere, something incredible 
is waiting to be known.

      ~ Carl Sagan

Carve out one minute of your day for mindfulness.

Turn off the Internet and turn on the Innernet.

Every night as you fall asleep, plant a seed in your mind.

Every morning when you wake, take a minute to meditate.

It makes a world of difference.

     ~ Lili Balfour

Today I saw that a friend lost a baby unicorn.

And I realized, everybody hurts and everybody struggles sometimes.

We've been struggling at 106 Miles to create a charity event for the Nerd New Year (11/11/11) as we moved the event from Fox Theatre in Redwood City to the Redwood City Courthouse Square, and now (hopefully) to Broadway in Redwood City between the Caltrain and El Camino Real for a street party. See: NerdNewYear.com

Sometimes I ask myself, why even try do it?

Not because of synchronicity. That seems too far out to me.

Not because I believe in the interconnectedness of all things.

And not just because it goes to 11, though that does help.

 

I've been excited about 11/11/11 ever since January 11.

Truth is, everywhere I go this year, I see elevens.

11s have no meaning except as a personal wake up call.

A wake up call to do something meaningful.

I hope on 11/11/11 to raise awareness for 11 causes.

In their honor, here's a list of my favorite eleven lists.

11. Eleven New Year Resolutions for 2011

10. Eleven Reasons Why Starting a Company is Hard

9. PandaWhale FAQ -- 11 Frequently Asked Questions

8. Eleven Facts About Pandas (and then some!)

7. 11 Winning Strategies for Rock Paper Scissors

6. Eleven Inspirational Quotes (my favorite is the one from Albert Einstein, "I once thought that if I could ask God one question, I would ask how the universe began, because once I knew that, all the rest is simply equations. But as I got older I became less concerned with how the universe began. Rather, I would want to know why He started the universe. For once I knew that answer, then I would know the purpose of my own life.")

5. 11 Firsts in Internet History (and Google 2001 finds)

4. 11 Videos in The Interconnectedness of All Things

3. Eleven Tips When You're Feeling Nervous or Anxious

2. Eleven Essential Reflections on Happiness

1. Eleven Great Lines About Being Excellent

Enlightenment! 

All of those elevens really do wake me up.

We don't know what will make us happy, but we think we do.

That it will never come again is what makes life so sweet.

Life ebbs and flows. Physically, mentally, emotionally.

Lessons are repeated until they are learned.

Life has many chapters, if you allow them to open.

Meaning is not something you stumble across. You have to build meaning into your life... And you build meaning into your life by the commitments that you make.

Commitments beyond yourself.

When we're young, we search for identity: "Who am I?"

Your identity, actually, is what you've committed yourself to:

We close with a short story passed to me by Shuqiao, whose song is the Dalai Lama's "My religion is very simple; my religion is kindness" as she shares "The Egg" by Andy Weir...

You were on your way home when you died.

It was a car accident. Nothing particularly remarkable, but fatal nonetheless. You left behind a wife and two children. It was a painless death. The EMTs tried their best to save you, but to no avail. Your body was so utterly shattered, you were better off, trust me.

And that's when you met me.

"What... what happened?" You asked. "Where am I?"

"You died," I said, matter-of-factly. No point mincing words.

"There was a... A truck and it was skidding..."

"Yup," I said.

"I... I died?"

"Yup. But don't feel bad about it. Everyone dies," I said.

You looked around. There was nothingness. Just you and me. "What is this place?" You asked. "Is this the afterlife?"

"More or less," I said.

"Are you God?" You asked.

"Yup," I replied. "I'm God."

"My kids... my wife," you said.

"What about them?"

"Will they be all right?"

"That's what I like to see," I said. "You just died, and your main concern is for your family. That's good stuff right there."

You looked at me with fascination. To you, I didn't look like God. I just looked like some man. Some vague authority figure. More of a grammar school teacher than the Almighty.

"Don't worry," I said. "They'll be fine. Your kids will remember you as perfect in every way. They didn't have time to grow contempt for you. Your wife will cry on the outside, but will be secretly reliveved. To be fair, your marriage was falling apart. If it's any consolation, she'll feel very guilty for feeling relieved."

"Oh," you said. "So what happens now? Do I go to heaven or hell or something?"

"Neither," I said. "You'll be reincarnated."

"Ah," you said. "So the Hindus were right."

"All the religions are right in their own way," I said. "Walk with me."

You followed along as we strolled in the void. "Where are we going?"

"Nowhere in particular," I said. "It's just nice to walk while we talk."

"So what's the point, then?" You asked. "When I get reborn, I'll just be a blank slate, right? A baby. So all my experiences and everything I did in this life won't matter."

"Not so!" I said. "You have within you all the knowledge and experiences of all your past lives. You just dont remember them right now."

I stopped walking and took you by the shoulders. "Your soul is more magnificent, beautiful, and gigantic then you can possible imagine."

A human mind can only contain a tiny fraction of what you are. It's like sticking your finger in a glass of water to see if it's hot or cold.

You put a tiny part or yourself into the vessel, and when u bring it back out, you've gained all the experiences it had.

"You've been a human for the last 34 years, so you haven't stretched out yet and felt the rest of your immense consciousness. If we hung out here for longer, you'd start remembering everything. But there's no point doing that between each life."

"How many times have I been reincarnated, then?"

"Oh lots. Lots and lots. And into lots of different lives," I said. "This time around you'll be a Chinese peasant girl in 540 A.D."

"Wait, what?" You stammered. "You're sending me back in time?"

"Well, I guess technically. Time, as you know it, only exists in your universe. Things are different where I come from."

"Where you come from?" You pondered.

"Oh sure!" I explained. "I come from somewhere. Somewhere else. And there's others like me. I know you'll want to know what its like there but you honestly wont understand."

"Oh." you said, a little let down. "But wait. If I get reincarnated to other places in time, could I have interacted with myself at some point?"

"Sure. Happens all the time. and with both lives only aware of their own timespan you dont even know its happening."

"So what's the point of it all?"

"Seriously?" I asked. "Seriously? Your asking me for the meaning of life? Isn't that a little stereotypical?"

"Well its a reasonable question," you persisted.

I looked in your eye. "The meaning of life, the reason I made this whole universe, is for you to mature."

"You mean mankind? You want us to mature?"

"No. just you. I made this whole universe for you. With each new life you grow and mature, and become a larger and greater intellect."

"Just me? What about everyone else?"

"There is no one else," I said. "In this universe, there's just you, and me."

You stared blankly at me. "But all the people on earth..."

"All you. Different incarnations of you."

"Wait. I'm everyone!?"

"Now you're getting it," I said, with a congratulatory slap on the back.

"I'm every human who ever lived?"

"Or who will ever live, yes."

"I'm Abraham Lincoln?"

"And you're John wilkes Booth, too," I added.

"I'm Hitler?" you said, appalled.

"And you're the millions he killed."

"I'm Jesus?"

"And you're everyone who followed him."

You fell silent.

"Every time you victimized someone," I said, "You were victimizing yourself. Every act of kindness you've done, you've done to yourself. Every happy and sad moment ever experienced by any human was, or will be, experienced by you."

"Why?" You asked me. "why do all this?"

"Because someday, you will become like me. Because that's what you are. You're one of my kind. You're my child."

"Whoa." you said, incredulous. "You mean I'm a god?"

"No. Not yet. You're a fetus. You're still growing. Once you've lived every human life throughout all time, you will have grown enough to be born."

"So the whole universe," you said. "Its just..."

"An egg of sorts." I answered. "Now its time for you to move on to your next life."

And I sent you on your way...

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He who wonders discovers that this in itself is wonder.

       ~ M.C. Escher

 

We are feedback loops. We are the stories we tell ourselves...

     ~ Doc Jensen on LOST

 

I want to learn to be an excellent storyteller.

So I searched like a panda, and here's what I found.

Seth Godin's best storytelling rules:

• Be consistent and authentic.
• Promise fun, safety, or a shortcut.
• Emphasize the worldview of the audience.

Suite 101's best storytelling rules:

• Start with a catchy beginning.
• Keep it short.
• Use silence.
• Satisfy the audience.

Then I saw this tweet from @Shervin quoting @Jack:

“I’ve often spoken to the editorial nature of what I think my job is, I think I’m just an editor, and I think every CEO is an editor. I think every leader in any company is an editor. Taking all of these ideas and editing them down to one cohesive story, and in my case my job is to edit the team, so we have a great team that can produce the great work and that means bringing people on and in some cases having to let people go. That means editing the support for the company, which means having money in the bank, or making money, and that means editing what the vision and the communication of the company is, so that’s internal and external, what we’re saying internally and what we’re saying to the world – that’s my job. And that’s what every person in this company is also doing. We have all these inputs, we have all these places that we could go – all these things that we could do – but we need to present one cohesive story to the world.”

@Jack's words are in @Shervin's yfrog:

And actually these words come from 100 days ago when @Jack gave his Golden Gate Bridge speech.

Telling a great story requires patience and research.

A great story is not just marketing or celebrity.

A great story needs conflict (against others, nature, and/or self).

A great story needs plot (voyage and return, quest, comedy, rebirth, tragedy, overcoming the monster, or rags to riches).

A great story needs themes (love and death being the most powerful).

A great story needs perspective.

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I'm giving a pariSoma talk to the Hackers and Founders Co-op Startup Class of 2011 tonight. And like Paul Graham, I found it helpful to write down what I'm going to say.

Like Evan Williams' startup advice, I want to say something positive and useful.

My main message is that it's important to have a network, because you can trade notes with other people who are doing similar things. This is why we started 106 Miles -- so that any founder, engineer, or friend who joins us at our meetups will have a network to exchange knowledge and connections, and listen and learn.

That said, if I could tell entrepreneurs one more thing, I would say:

Being a first-time entrepreneur is hard.

Come to think of it, actually...

It's hard starting a company even if you've done it before.

I've done it three times, and it's still hard.

Off the top of my head here are 11 reasons why.

1. Having a great idea at the right time is hard. Big ideas are hard, and timing of ideas is hard. Being excellent is really hard but truly important, since nobody can steal an idea.

2. Designing an excellent and simple product is hard. User experience is hard to make excellent, and user interfaces are hard to make simple. Product-market fit is extremely hard.

3. Developing something people want is hard. Prototyping is hard, and iterating is hard. Minimum viable product definition is hard, and figuring out what people want is hard.

4. Getting traction is hard. Users are hard to satisfy. Attracting and retaining great users is hard, and attracting great content and quelling bad content is hard. Network effects are hard.

5. Keeping the damn thing up and running is hard. Technical operations are hard. "The Cloud" means some computer somewhere out there that you don't control is going to go down at the worst possible moment.

6. Implementing a scalable business model is hard. Revenues are hard. Not all advice comes in three words. Although there is a lot of three-word startup advice, that matters not. Revenues require continual improvement of sales knowledge and the market, and that takes time, patience, and unbelievable tenaciousness.

7. Building a great team is hard. Finding a great co-founder is hard, and hiring is hard. Even if you read a lot about hiring, it's hard. And sweet sassy molassy, managing people is hard. And being tough is very hard.

8. Raising seed money is hard. Angels are hard to understand. And finding a great fit between investor and entrepreneur is hard, very hard.

9. Raising venture capital is hard. Venture capitalists are hard to understand. Once upon a time you could raise money with just a great idea. Then you needed a great idea and a great team. Then you needed a great idea, great team, and great prototype. Then you needed all those things and great traction. Now you also need a great business model, great revenues, great press, and if it's not too much trouble, make the world a better place, too.

10. Turning away all the free advice is hard. People are unpredictable, and making decisions is hard. But it's better to make any decision than no decision. Furthermore, the right people make all the difference in the world.

11. Managing your emotions is really fucking hard...      
Ben Horowitz said it best. Also, not quitting is quite hard.

If it were easy to start a company, everyone would do it.

But it's not easy. And not everyone does it.

It's hard. Really, really hard.

There's a great analogy here: starting a company is like you're 106 miles from Chicago, you have a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and you're wearing sunglasses. Hit it!

Here are 11 things you can learn to navigate those rough waters, ripped lovingly from a long Quora answer I once wrote about mistakes entrepreneurs make. 

1. Learn the difference between important and urgent.
2. Learn the difference between working smart and working long.
3. Learn the difference between an opportunity and a problem.
4. Learn the difference between lucky and smart.
5. Learn the difference between focus and activity.
6. Learn the difference between publicity and reality.
7. Learn the difference between prepared and over-prepared.
8. Learn the difference between output and throughput.
9. Learn the difference between managing up and managing down.
10. Learn the difference between managing expectations and just riding the roller coaster unmanaged.
11. Learn the difference between knowing the path and walking the path.

Remember, you can do it. But it's hard:

Keep your eye on the ball,
Your head above the clouds,
Your ear to the ground,
Your shoulder to the wheel,
Your nose to the grindstone,
Your finger on the pulse,
Your feet on the ground, and
Your head on your shoulders.

Now... try to get something done. 

In summary: Activate your network, work smart, work hard, open yourself to opportunities, close off some opportunities, overcommunicate, underspend, hang in there, stop things that aren't working, collaborate, and listen.

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I want to be truly great.

I want to do something great.

So the question is, how do we become excellent?

You don't become great by trying to be great. You become great by wanting to do something, and then doing it so hard that you become great in the process. ~ xkcd 896

Interconnectedness takes me from that illustration, to a place that makes me want to watch a Tony Robbins video.

Tony says being great depends on tiny differences that put a person in a state of certainty, confidence, and flow.

To be excellent, we train ourselves emotionally. Get rituals.

Incantations, not affirmations, embody what we want.

Incantations help us navigate MUSTs vs SHOULDs.

As we move from within our own minds out to interactions with others, influence is essential.

Because when two people are having a conversation, the one who is more certain is going to influence the one who is less certain. Always.

This is why I've been thinking a lot about conversations lately.

And conversations are the foundation of 106 Miles.

106 Miles recently had a conversation of greatness, which inspired me to find 11 great quotes...

11) "Greatness doesn't take two months, or even a year. It takes years of focused practice to achieve even an ounce of it." ~ Trizle

10) "Only one who devotes himself to a cause with his whole strength and soul can be a true master. For this reason mastery demands all of a person." ~ Albert Einstein

9) "On the road to great achievement, the late bloomer will resemble a failure." ~ Malcolm Gladwell

8) "Success is moving from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm." ~ Winston Churchill

7) "Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit." ~ Will Durant, not Aristotle

6) "Excellence is not a skill; it is an attitude." ~ Ralph Marston

5) "You do not possess a natural gift for a certain job, because targeted natural gifts don't exist. (Sorry, Warren Buffett.) You are not a born CEO or investor or chess grandmaster. You will achieve greatness only through an enormous amount of hard work over many years. And not just any hard work, but work of a particular type that's demanding and painful." ~ Geoffrey Colvin

4) "Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

3) "Put your heart, mind, intellect and soul even to your smallest acts. This is the secret of success." ~ Swami Sivananda

2) "It's not what you take but what you leave behind that defines greatness." ~ Edward Gardner

1) "It's not where you take things from; it's where you take them to." ~ Jim Jarmusch

Now, I am incanting to take excellence to me.

I want PandaWhale to be excellent.

I want 106 Miles to be excellent.

I want my favorite pizza place to be excellent, too. (This will take time. Right now, people hate us on Yelp.)

And in my state of incantation, I include greatness.

As if I'm climbing the Ron Swanson pyramid of greatness.

Be excellent to each other, and party on, dudes.

Don't just be excellent. Be excellent to each other.

Be excellent. Go beyond a limit.

This takes my mind to an epic night. A really epic night.

After a party like that, it's difficult to focus.

I want to hear Lady Gaga's "The Edge of Glory"!!!

Sing it, Gaga!!!

I'm on the edge... of glory...
And I'm hanging on a moment of truth... 

And I'm dancing like no one's watching!!!

Did YouTube invent Lady Gaga or vice versa?

No worries. Hakuna matata!! Or is that...

Hasa diga eebowai!!

Um.

Where was I?

Oh, right, dividing my attention.

Unlike attention, happiness is something that multiplies when it is divided. (Thank you, @aaker @padmasree @paulocoehlo!)

Now, where does motivation come from again?

Tony Robbins says understanding motivation is the key to happiness.

Daniel Pink says we are happiest and most motivated in our work when we have the opportunity for mastery.

Now, I've been told it takes 10,000 hours to master something.

That said, being good at something makes us like it more.

And there is much power in perseverance aka "grit".

Thinking about all of this puts my mind into a state of flow.

Which brings us back to where we started: xkcd 896.

Repeat after me: Do something so hard that you become great in the process.

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I think of Emily Dickinson's poem as I reflect on the shockingly sudden passing of my dear friend Omar Ahmad, who left this world on May 10, 2011. 

Omar was a great optimist who made me think about possibility, and he made me want to do something great and live everything...

Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the question now. Perhaps then, some day far in the future, you will gradually without even noticing it, live your way in to the answer.
~ Rainer Maria Rilke, trans. by Stephen Mitchell (via Kristen Collins)

The past few years I've felt the pain of loss of several close friends.

It hurts. I miss Omar. A lot. Even as I watch Omar's memorial.

I remember from ten life lessons: Don't take yourself too seriously.

I do feel like I didn't spend enough time with Omar.

And neither did Rohit. Or our little friend. Though we be successful.

I loved Omar. He was truly a friend who inspired me to be kind.

I will watch Omar's TED talk again and again as a reminder to be active.

I truly miss you, Omar. I truly do. And I still feel connected to you.

Thank you, Omar. You and Steve Jobs inspire me to do something great -- to design something simple that brings great happiness to others with what is left of my life...

Almost everything -- all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure -- these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

It's worth repeating what Steve Jobs said. "There is no reason not to follow your heart."

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Apparently that line is not from Goethe.

We shipped the pre-alpha (alphalpha?) of PandaWhale on Cinco de Mayo 2011.

Our alphalpha is at 106miles.net so startup folks can have conversations.

Every week we simplify and improve PandaWhale for 106miles.net ...

For now, we need more time. And more pandas ...

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We will ship as soon as we can.

PandaWhale, fuck yeah!

We've proudly proclaimed fuck yeah from PandaWhale's start.

Naturally, we'll build this affirmation into our coat of arms.

And an awesomesauce family crest is inked in Latin...

So how does "fuck yeah" translate into Latin?

To the Qloud!

A friend asked a friend who is trained in the classics.

There's "SIC FUTUE" which translates to "THUSLY, FUCK!" as if it were a command.

Which doesn't seem quite right.

Nor does "COITUM ITA" which translates to "SEX YES" as if it were a lifestyle choice.

Not quite right, either.

Which brings us to "CONFACIMUS" which is literally, "Fuck it!" but in the first person plural, kind of like a royal "We fuck it!", or "LET US FUCK IT!!" ...

"AMERICA, CONFACIMUS!!" has a nice ring to it as it rolls off the tongue...

Let's try confacimus on for size.

PandaWhale? Confacimus!

Mike Brown tweets? Confacimus!

My friend Scott's son plays hard? Confacimus!

Fuck yeah, I could get used to confacimus in my vocabulary.

Let's try a more intermediate use of the word.

"Confacimus Navegamus" could mean "Fuck it, let's go sailing!"

But isn't "SAILING, FUCK YEAH!" significantly awesomesaucier?

Btw, I think the pronunciation is "con FACK i mus".

I've checked with a few scholars familiar with "street Latin". ;)

I do know there is a wonderful world between profound and gibberish.

So let's try an advanced employment of confacimus.

Chalant and plussed and gruntled, cogito ergo confacimus.

Come to think of it, confacimus has myriad uses...

Conversations? Confacimus!

Hot Sauce Committee Part 2? Confacimus!

Barbie Computer Engineer? Confacimus!

Kittens in bowls? Confacimus!

Dreams that go to 11? Confacimus!!!

I dream of organizing public conversations for 106 Miles.

I dream of PandaWhale.

Fuck yeah!

It's the dream that we all share. It's the hope for tomorrow...

 

Alpocalypse's "Perform This Way"? Confacimus!

The Greatest Movie Ever Sold? Confacimus!

Fear and Consumption? Confacimus!

Apple's ToS is a PoS? Confacimus!

Enlightenment? Confacimus!

Happiness? Confacimus!

Love? Confacimus!

Marvelous. ;)

 

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