Danny Boice .:. Entrepreneur and Software Expert

Entrepreneur of the Year Award

I recently had the priviledge of being selected as a finalist by the Greater Washington Board of Trade for their Entrepreneue of the Year Award.

There is a luncheon at the infamous Mayflower Hotel :) on Thursday in which the winner will be announced.

Here are details (click on image for full-sized view):

You can go here to register for the luncheon:

http://www.bot.org/news/events/event.asp?id=862

A Black President

On the eve of watching history made I can't help but feel a sense of overwhelming joy watching our nation come together on a positive note for once.

Scenes of black, white, and every color in between, celebrating on the streets in unity for the first time in my lifetime flashing across the TV screen gives instant evidence of America's correct decision.

One scene strikes me more than the others - U Street last night after the election was called.

U Street in DC is an area historically dominated by highs and lows. It is only fitting that one of the highest points in our nation's history is epitomized there. U Street was decimated by the riots following Martin Luther King's assassination only to be rebuilt and decimated all over again in the early 90's by a combination of condo development and gentrification. It's quite serendipitous that on this great day scenes of all people, of all colors, embracing and celebrating - together - in the streets dominate the local morning news. U Street can epitomize the hope and positive change that the next 4 years COULD bring to America. Let's hope it bears fruit.

In watching these joyous scenes and great celebrations I cannot help find the irony surrounding the chain of events which led to America electing its first Black President. You see, the very man who is responsible for the War in Iraq, the Global Recession, the Housing Crisis and several other catastrophic failures, may be the very man who inadvertently created the perfect storm which setup America to elect Obama. That man is George W Bush.

This is a bum who all but stumbled from rehab into the White House and may very well be remembered as the evilest American president since Nixon. If it weren't for his utter ineptness, America would not have been so desperately hungry for change. It is weren't for his utter incompetence, the Republican party may not be crumbling. Once again, Bush has accidentally stumbled into history. Again.

Luckily for us, this time, it is someone else's history. And this history will have the potential for great things and positive change.

With a seemingly Democratic Senate and Congress the stage should be set for Obama to effect structural change across America. I hope he capitalizes on this responsibility.

Effort vs Achievement

From 1993 to 1997 I played Varsity Baseball at DeMatha Catholic High School which was ranked #2 by Sports Illustrated as one of the Top High School Athletic Programs. We travelled up and down the East Coast playing some of the best teams in the US - heck, in the world! We won the Conference Championship every single year that I played baseball at DeMatha without fail.

Every day I made the 40 mile commute from Centreville, VA to Hyattsville, MD which involved waking up before 5 AM to fight Beltway rush hour. Before I could drive I took the Train from Manassas to Union Station and then the Metro from Union Station to PG Plaza and then walked the mile or so from there to school. My class schedule was customized so that I could finish by 2PM each day and be the first one at the baseball field to do some tee work or take some extra grounders at 3rd base.

My sophomore year I not only made the Varsity team but broke into the starting lineup partially through the season.

By the time I was a Senior I figured I was a shoe-in to start at 3rd, bat cleanup and go to whatever D-1 college I chose.

Boy was I wrong.

It must have been late Winter or early Spring of 2007 when Ol' Charlie Sullivan, by then a coaching legend in the DC area - probably the US, called me over and told me that not only was I not guaranteed a starting position but he couldn't even guarantee playing time!

I didn't get it! I had done everything right! I was in the best shape of my life - I lifted weights every single day. I worked harder than anyone on the team - I was the first one on the field and the last off. And I commuted the farthest just to attend DeMatha!

I had made a fatal mistake.

I confused effort with achievement.

You see, it didn't matter that I worked the hardest and longest of anyone on the team. There were guys that were just better than me and thus got better results on the field. That is all that matters.

I learned a very tough lesson that year that absolutely devastated me. Hard work doesn't mean dick. Results are all that matter.

Whenever one of my employees complain to me about working hard or staying late at the office I always tell that story. You see - nobody cares who the hardest working guy in the office is. Heck, most people will never even notice. All that people will notice is the guy who gets the results. Life is not fair and hard work, without actual achievement, is simply not enough.

Being an Entrepreneur

I have officially isolated the single trait which seperates an Entrepreneur from the rest of the world.

It is the willingness to fall flat on your face.

There are two types of people in this world - those who play it safe, and those who roll the dice and risk looking like idiots, no matter what the consequences.

You see, being an Entrepreneur is all about the willingness to walk the tight rope which hovers above the unforgiving landscape of failure while providing the sole bridge connecting ideas to freedom.

One false step will surely lead to unimaginable pain, while completion of the walk will lead to unimaginable reward.

It is the ultimate Dichotomy. A division among humanity which determines allegiance and objective intrinsically.

Who will play the game and who will own the teams saturating the field?

He who is willing to fall down, pick himself up, dust himself off and take off running is an Entrepreneur. The rest are simply going through the motions of lift waiting for the Entrepreneurs to give them a shot.

Watch out Donald Trump here I come!

Real Estate investing is always something I have been very interested in. To that point, we currently own a few condo's and townhouses that we bought and rented out with little to no work needed to make them "renter" ready.

In the spirit of jumping in feet first, we recently bought a house in Arlington that was a new construction project gone awry. The seller had torn down the original home, starting building a custom home and ran out of money (probably due to the sub-prime mortgage crisis). We were able to get a great deal on the house, bought it last Thursday and started construction by Sunday.

I will be sure to take picture periodically to document our progress but here are pictures of the house the day we started construction to finish it! Click here to view them.

2007 Inaugural Ugliest Christmas Sweater Content Winner!

I am proud to announce that Yours Truly was the lucky winner of the first ever "Ugliest Christmas Sweater" contest hosted by Laura and Jason Hatala.

I would like to thank my wife, my son and the Women's Big and Tall section of Wal-Mart where the winning sweater was procured.

Here is a picture of the lucky winner with the Grand Prize - a "Nuns Having Fun" 2008 Calendar:

Click here to see all of the pictures from the festivities

Viva Las Vegas!

10 years ago a very close friend of mine, Brian Kenney, had one of the first heart transplant operations in the world. The doctors were not sure he would make it more than a couple of years so we all vowed that when he made it 10 we would take him to Vegas to celebrate. Well, he more than just made it, he is going stronger than ever so here we are!

I have pictures to upload in a bit so I'll add the link in my next post.

We have had an absolute blast and although I miss Joanne and Nolan (my baby boy) it was a one of the best vegas trips I have ever had.

Speaking of Joanne, this is a testament to my luck in having the coolest wife in the world - when this trip was first being organized, we knew that Nolan was going be born a month or two prior so I told everyone that I didn't feel right going away so close to our baby being born. Joanne got wind of this and replied to all my friends telling that there is no way in hell I was going to miss this and no matter what I said I was going. How many people would have done that? She realized how important my friends are to me and I am the luckiest man in the world to have her.

Say hello to Nolan Boice!

On October 5th, 2007 at 2:14 AM Joanne gave birth via c-section to our 8lb 4oz baby boy! Both mom and baby are happy and healthy.

You can see all of the pictures here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/danny.boice/NolanBoice

Musings of a (soon to be) first-time parent

Comprised of a strange blend of a nonchalant “just wing it” attitude while being an anal retentive task master, I find myself pondering the future parenting decisions and approach that I will take with my soon-to-be-born son. As I write this my wife is having contractions.

As of late, the impact and effect that the aforementioned decisions have started to set in. As a parent, you hold the strange responsibility and power to direct the view, thoughts and future actions of another human being over years of nurturing and education on life.

What approach do you take with your child throughout their life? Do you instill the “you can’t win every time” attitude with the hope of raising a happy child at the risk of producing a lackadaisical human being? Conversely, do you take the tougher stance of “You either win or you lose, there is no in-between” with the hope of raising a successful child at the risk of creating a sociopath?

This brings me to a much broader question – what does “successful” even mean (in parenting, or in life)? Is it how much money you make in your life? Is it how much money you give away in your lift? Does money even enter the equation? Is it how happy you are throughout your life (whatever that means)? How do we define a successful life?

This is the root question which must be answered in determining the goal in which you parent towards. What determines a “successful” human being?

Once you answer this question, your job as a parent is really to try and raise a “successful” person. It’s that simple.

Or is it?

Determining what a “successful” life is may be the hardest decision I have ever had to make in my life. That is the process we must go through a first-time parents.

Do I share with him my views on religion, which is that organized religion is not necessary or accurate and is for the most part corrupt? Do I keep quiet and let him make his own decision and only give my opinion when asked? Or do I introduce him to one of the major religions as a turnkey way to instill some moral compass early on in life? Is there a perfect combination of all 3 paths?

What about school and grades? Do I set goals for grade point average and reward/punish based on how his report cards size up? Do I wait for his first “real” report card, maybe in middle school, and use that as a baseline and reward him whenever he surpasses his potential or chastise when he fails to reach it? How do you push without creating “learned helplessness” or pushback to the point of hatred?

What about sports? How do I establish and maintain an interest in sports without becoming one of those monsters that you see stalking the sidelines of any youth football or baseball game and without making my son hate sports by the time he is 15 and rebel?

What about college? I don’t think it is necessary unless you want to enter the work force as an employee rather than own the workforce as an entrepreneur. Do I share that controversial opinion with my son? When?

These core decisions force an introspective approach to really determine what your outlook and beliefs are. These core beliefs are what you will pass on to your child. One way or another, they will have an effect on his or her life forever. This is the most responsibility you have ever had. This is the biggest challenge you have ever accepted. Are you up for it? I am.

My two cents for first time entrepreneurs

Recently, a friend of mine who is starting his first company asked me for advice. As I was writing my (long) reply to him via email, it occurred to me that my response would make a great blog post and some parts of it would be very helpful to ANY first time entreprenuer, so here it is:

1. Become an accountant (not literally) – I know, you hate bookkeeping and accounting sucks. You’re an entrepreneur not a bean counter, right? However, this is intrinsically the heart of your business and unless you know, on a daily basis, what your YTD/MTD EBITDA and Profit Margin is as well as what you tracking to hit by month’s end from an EBITDA and Profit Margin perspective you WILL fail. If you want to outsource to a bookkeeper that is fine, but I strongly recommend you first learn how to do it yourself. Also, make sure your bookkeeper is keeping your books up to date on a regular basis. If you have relatively fixed expenses each month he/she can do it less frequently as long as you know what your revenue is track as. If your expenses change frequently your books needs to be done daily. The #1 mistake I have made and that I continue to see other entrepreneurs make is not staying on top of their financials. Data should drive all decisions and what more data is more important and core to a business than financial data?

2. Capitalization - The administrative side of fundraising is easier than people think and you do not need anything beyond a law firm to do it. For CommuniClique we raised $1mm using nothing more than a good lawyer. Our counsel form a Delaware C-Corp for us, got approval for us to issue as much as 10mm shares (we ended up only doing 3.5), wrote the subscription agreement that all investors sign when they cut us a check, and handled issuing stock certs. You do not need VC. You do not need any of those wacky 3rd party companies that claim they can handle the private placement for you (they usually screw you royally and show no results). All you need is a good lawyer that knows how to handle a small private placement, and you need to hustle your ass off to close $10k a pop (which adds up fast) and take advantage of the $100k to $200k folks when you come across them. I can tell you a good place to find investors and how we found ours if you'd like. I can also refer you to my legal counsel who specialized in private placement/vc deals. they have free resources on staff that will help you find capital too.

3. Development - I know you will have a limited budget, but it is key that you have a quality app dev vendor if you are a web/software company. You need someone who will understand your business, not just be an order taker and expect you to know exactly what you want and how it is to be implemented. Jaxara was unique in that, we were the aforementioned app dev vendor, but CommuniClique is apples to apples with your idea. CommuniClique is a web-based business. When I started CommuniClique I immediately engaged Pantheon to develop the app.

4. Marketing - Online marketing is key for you and it goes beyond SEO. You want an actual Online Marketing Firm, not an SEO. an Online Marketing Firm will understand your business as well as you do and will "own" their online campaigns. They will be held accountable for actual ROI, not just where you show up on google search results. Online Marketing Firms will do SEO as part of the campaign but they will also do online media buys, SEM (Paid Search Engine results like Google AdWords), Link Exchange partnerships w/ sites that already get a ton of hits and will therefore improve your google ranking, blog/forum seeding (they have employees who will nonchalantly post blogs, comments to blogs and forum postings on 1,000's of related websites talking about your site and its benefits). We use Market Maker Interactive (MMi) for CommuniClique. They are top notch. Build in about 30 days of lead time to get someone like that ramped up.

5. Business Plan - business plans mean dick so don't spend a ton of time on this and do not let this delay you doing anything, even raising money. It is one of those things that you should have as some people will ask for it, but it is not nearly as important as people will make you think. Here is a good article on writing a nice, short, succinct plan by Guy Kawasaki (a guru in analyzing companies for investment) - http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/01/the ... _busi.html

6. Choose your partners wisely! I cannot preface this enough. Assume that there is going to be a problem as some point down the road and plan for how it will be handled. A business partner is arguably going to have a larger impact on your life than a wife or husband (i.e. life partner). More times than not there will be an issue either with a partner not pulling his/her weight, losing interest, not being effective, simply personality clashes or worse - fraud/embezzlement or something else illegal. You need to plan now for the possibility of a falling-out. Make an out clause in your partnership/operating agreements and clearly set expectations based on measurable results. If you do not do this you WILL get stuck with someone who owns a significant portion of your business that may or may not be dead weight providing absolutely no results.

7. Stock for Services from Vendors does not work - pay your vendors, do not trade them stock for services. I do not care what they say, they will not work hard for you in exchange for stock. they do not equate stock to real value the way you do. If you have to, give some stock in exchange for discounted pricing. but always make sure you are paying them something. if you do give some stock in exchange for discounted pricing then make the stock vests over a set period and tie it to actual results.

Anyway, that's it for now, I am sure there will be more to come..

YouTube Questions on Democratic Debate Last Night

Call it "Web 2.0". Call it "Wikinomics". Call it "User Generated Content. Whatever buzz word you want to use, we have to admit that a corner has been turned when YouTube users were able to submit their questions (via YouTube) directly to the Democratic Presidential Candidates and actually have them answered on live TV during last night's debate!

Watching a cancer patient ask the candidates about their stance on health care, a veteran ask about the plan for Iraq, and so on was a huge step in technology and the way politics operate.

This was huge!

I applaud YouTube for the idea and I applaud all of the candidates for agreeing to participate.

If you think about it, what really occurred was a virtual town meeting with nobody but the candidates actually having to travel or even leave their homes.

Amazing!

To see some of the YouTube questions click here

For news/info on the debate click here

Tehrani.com Blog Lists CommuniClique's Go Green Announcement as Big News

Click here when you get a chance.

This is Rich Tehrani's blog. He lists CommuniClique's recent Go Green campaign as one of the top 10 VoIP related announcements of the week.

To reach Rich's bio, please click here.

More CommuniClique Go Green Press!

CommuniClique(tm) Announces Its "Go Green" Campaign
Business Wire (press release) - San Francisco,CA,USA
CommuniClique announced today that it will be giving away a Hybrid Saturn Aura-Green in late September to its 3000th customer in order to ...

CommuniClique: Blogs, Photos, Videos and more on Technorati
Technocrati - San Francisco,CA,USA
Everything in the known universe about CommuniClique ... CommuniClique Giving Away Saturn Hybrid,... No one has claimed this blog ...

CommuniClique Go Green Campaign and Hybrid Car Giveaway!

We put out a press release this week formally announcing our Go Green! campaign and Hybrid Car Giveaway.

The news has already been picked up by some key publications with many more to come!

Here is what I have seen so far:

CommuniClique Launches Green Campaign
Environmental Leader - Fort Collins,CO,USA
CommuniClique, which provides a web-based collaboration tool, will give away a Hybrid Saturn Aura-Green in late September to its 3000th customer in order to ...
See all stories on this topic

VoIP Conferencing Solutions Provider CommuniClique Giving Away ...
ReignMaker.biz
July 16, 2007 VoIP Conferencing Solutions Provider CommuniClique Giving Away Saturn Hybrid, Launches 'Go Green' Campaign CommuniClique, a provider of on-demand collaboration services using VoIP and other ... Original post by TMCnet.
VoIP News and Developments - http://www.reignmaker.biz

VoIP Conferencing Solutions Provider CommuniClique Giving Away ...
TMCNet
As such, CommuniClique is giving away a Hybrid Saturn Aura-Green in late September to its 3000th customer. The company is doing this in the hopes that it ...

CommuniClique(TM) Announces Its ''Go Green'' Campaign: Financial ...
Yahoo! Business
CommuniClique(TM) Announces Its ''Go Green'' Campaign. - ARLINGTON, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--CommuniClique announced today that it will be giving away a Hybrid ...

CommuniClique(TM) Announces Its ''Go Green'' Campaign - Topix
Topix.net
CommuniClique announced today that it will be giving away a Hybrid Saturn Aura-Green in late September to its 3000th customer in order to encourage ...

"Sicko", Healthcare, and the Inefficiencies of Government

Let me start by saying that I am actually a big fan of Michael Moore. I think that over the past decade or so he has been the much needed ying to the conservative right-wing yang in America. His book "Stupid White Men" was right on and his films "Roger and Me", "Bowling for Columbine" and "Fahrenheit 911" were inspiring.

Having said that, I have to say that I disagree with the overall message and underlying theme of his latest file "Sicko".

I agree that the Healthcare system in America needs work. However, I disagree that having the US Government take over and provide Healthcare to all Americans is the answer.

It is a well-known fact that government services are usually twice as expensive and half as efficient as private services - not to mention the corruption that can be hidden in layers of inefficient bureaucracies.

In his film, Moore travels to Canada, England and France and is "overwhelmed" by how much better everything is over there. His European travels culminate in a dinner with American expatriates in Paris, during which he gets an earful not only about the wonders of nationalized health care, but also about the French 35-hour work week, their 5-week vacation schedule, and unlimited sick time.

Moore fails to mention France's last elections, in which the socialist candidate was trounced by a conservative, who wants to reduce if not eliminate many of the "free lunches." One is left to wonder why the French would vote overwhelmingly to change what Moore describes as the perfect system?

Again, I agree that America's Healthcare system needs A LOT of work. My point is that making it a government service is NOT the answer. I think an answer is out there and needs to be explored.

In writing this, I can't help but be troubled by a more high level problem in Government - the fact that government services are so incredibly inefficient. To me this supersedes Healthcare or any specific, granular concern but is a much larger problem.

Why is government so inefficient? How can we solve this problem?

It saddens me that we all simply shrug our shoulders and accept as fact that Government is an inefficient bureaucracy that cannot be fixed.

Every problem has a solution and I am not willing to accept as fact that government cannot be made efficient. It won't be easy and it probably won't happen quickly, but it can be done.

To me, this should be a major topic in the upcoming elections. I would not mind seeing an efficiency expert of someone like Bloomberg who has experience in effectively running a large, private company (private as in not government, not related to stock exchange) have a go at it and focus on running the government in a more "business-like" fashion in which every single person is held accountable for results and every sector/department is held fiscally responsible. Quantitative Analysis should be utilized within the Government just like it is starting to become widespread in business to measure expectations and ensure efficiency.

Efficient Results, like profits in business, should become the ultimate driver in Government and I am not sure a presidential candidate without significant business leadership experience can effect this change.

Digital Media for the Environment?

I was thinking about the direction that digital media is heading, whether it be the ability to download television shows on demand via iTV, or the ability to download music, movies, tv shows vis applications like iTunes and synchronize them to your iPod or other devices and it seems obvious to me that the demise of physical CD's and DVD's is on the horizon.

What impact will this demise have?

The benefits of this demise are no secret but the benefit to consumers has always been touted as convenience - you don't have to leave your home or office to download a song, tv show or movie that you just have to hear or watch RIGHT NOW - Or Financial - you can preview each song from that new album from your favorite artist and just purchase and download the songs you like rather than having to skip through half the CD to bypass the "filler" music the record label threw in to get to 11 tracks or 62.5 minutes.

Noone, to my knowledge, has acknowledged the obvious environmental benefits to a world where all media is digital!

Imagine the waste and environmental damage that can be avoided if CD's and DVD's go the way of the Dodo. Every CD or DVD consists of an annoying (and impossible to open) clear plastic wrapper, a security device of some sort (some larger than others), a hard plastic or paper case, a plastic bag that the retailer puts your purchase in and finally the paper receipt/s you recieve upon purchase. Not to mention the disks themselves which eventually end up in the trash sooner rather than later.

In additional to the waste that comes with your physical purchase there is also the adverse effects of the transportation it takes to facilitate your purchase. That ozone-destroying, oil-based fuel burnng car/truck/suv that you drive to and from the brick and mortar retailer in order to make your purchase in the first place has effects on the environment that have been discussed ad nauseum.

I would love to see metrics regarding the effect the average trip to Best Buy in the most commonly driven vehicle to make an average cd/dvd purchase has on the environment.

Downloading digital media avoids all of this waste.

With the advent and maturity of devices like iTV, the way we watch television will not only be changed in that rather than waiting for a specific date and time to watch our favorite show we simply download it when we want to watch if from an iTunes like service, but waste will be minimized.

These little changes will not only make our lives easier and more efficient but can become one more little thing each of us change in our lives to help save the environment and in some respect reduce America's relience on foriegn oil.

MPV: A Novel by James Boice

My brother's book is officially out and in stores.

It is an extremely well-written novel. If you are looking for a good book to read, I highly recommend you check it out.

It is available at any Barnes and Noble, Borders, etc.

The Official Website for The Book (developed by yours truly)
Buy it from Simon & Schuster
Buy it on Amazon.com

CommuniClique Summer Internship Program

CommuniClique is looking for fun, creative, extroverts for their summer internship program!

CommuniClique is a Funded Software Startup headquartered in Arlington, VA that is looking for Marketing/Communications Interns to help execute "feet on the street" marketing campaigns, blog campaigns, and other creative marketing campaigns that will help drive visitors to CommuniClique.com and ideally convince them to sign up online for a free trial of our product.

Flexible work schedule with potential for travel. Work days will be Monday through Thursday. Will need to spend mornings and early afternoon out and about with the rest of the day spent working at your own leisure from home or our office - your choice. Intern programs starts ASAP and runs throughout the summer.

Top performing intern/s receive a very generous bonus/reward!!!

For more information please Email Me

iKY Clothing - MTV/VH1 Rock Gear Award

My friend Jeff King is co-founder of iKY Clothing. iKY has been nominated by MTV and VH1 as one of the Top Rock Gear Sites.

Please show your support and click here to vote.

You can vote once per day so keep going back daily to vote!

You can check out iKY Clothing on their website - www.ikyclothing.com

Baseline Magazine Article on CommuniClique

This month�s edition of Baseline Magazine (Ziff Davis) contains an article titled "Blended Computing: A Different Mix" written by Michael Vizard who is a Senior VP and Editorial Director at Ziff Davis.

Andy Powers (CEO) and Myself took a trip to NYC last week to do some interviews with various reporters and were especially impressed by our visit to Ziff Davis and Mike Vizard.

Mike definitely "gets it" and understands the changing environment of Desktop vs. SaaS applications and why "blended computing" is where things are headed.

Here is a great exerpt from the article:

"Everywhere you go these days, everybody in I.T. is talking about the need to provide better collaboration tools to their end users as part of a general drive to increase the productivity of employees. But when you start to examine the options available to boost collaboration among users, you quickly discover that you�re about to take a trip down a very expensive rabbit hole.

The core problem, of course, stems from the very nature of the applications we use today; they were designed as personal productivity tools, not as components of a meaningful collaboration infrastructure. To get around that issue, most companies have been using shared drives to store documents that are then typically shipped around the organization sequentially. This approach creates management headaches because more often than not, there are multiple versions of the same file floating around the enterprise, which in turn leads to version-control problems and increased storage expense.

To try to solve this problem, many organizations have turned to offerings such as Microsoft�s SharePoint Services, Lotus Notes and EMC�s Documentum because they all offer some sort of document management capability. However, setting up these solutions takes a fair amount of time, energy and cost when most users simply want a relatively easy way to collaborate. And even when you do set up these programs successfully, they still have shortcomings such as a lack of offline client support; in this regard, SharePoint needs to be augmented by a third-party product such as Colligo Networks� Reader or Contributor tools.

Because of these issues, you are also starting to see a growing interest in a number of software-as-a-service offerings such as Google Docs and CommuniClique. The difference in these services boils down to an offering from Google that by its very Web nature is a collaborative application versus CommuniClique, a program that makes it easier to track and share existing Microsoft Office documents. The CommuniClique service is similar in concept to Microsoft�s Office Live offering, which is simply a Web-based implementation of SharePoint. But unlike Office Live, CommuniClique provides a higher level of fidelity between documents that exist on your systems and the documents stored in the service, which is something that Microsoft can only promise to deliver with a future iteration of SharePoint."

Click here to read the entire article

Social Entrepreneurism

On my recent trip to Dhaka, Bangladesh I had the opportunity to meet and hold some long conversations with Kazi Islam the CEO of Grameen Software. The Chairman of Grameen Software (who Kazi reports directly to) is Professor Yunus, recent winner of the the Nobel Peace Price for creating the now famous Micro Loan program (through Grameen Bank).

In my many stimulating conversations we inevitably honed in on the topic of the Bangladeshi people and how to help them participate further in the Global Economy.

This topic is one example of what has been coined "Social Entrepreneurism" and is a large part of Professor Yunus' mission these days.

As a 3rd world, yet emerging, economy Bangladesh is blessed with an overabundance of one of the world's most valuable natural resources - people.

Although its adult literacy rate is quite low, the country is making great strides and most of its youth population are enrolled in primary education and currently learning the basics like reading, writing and arithmetic.

So I ask - as an entrepreneur myself as well as a technologist - don't I have a responsibility to help this country?

I started my first development center in 2002. It's location was Dhaka, Bangladesh.

I feel a strong calling and urgency to leave the state of the Bangladeshi people better than when I began. This goes beyond the cop-out most business leaders by saying "I created jobs so I have already done a great service to this country". "Bullshit" I say. That is not enough. Still others feel that simply donating money without waiting around long enough to ensure its proper utilization, effectiveness or impact and even further holding the folks they gave the money to accountable for how it is actually used.

As the volume of global outsourcing continues to grow there should be an inherint obligation of the entrepreneurs to expend their two most value assets to the very people who have helped ensure the entrepreneurs success - time and innovative ideas.

With a self-imposed obligation of entrepreneurs world wide to help create knowlege workers, innovators, entrepreneurs in the developing nations whose people they use to create their own wealth - call it social entrepreneurism or compassionate capitalism or paying it forward - the entrepeneur accomplishes something that can never be rivaled by an IPO or any other exit event. They help make the world a better place for the very people who helped them succeed.

My Father (Professor Lawrence Boice) On ABC News

About 2 weeks ago I was working at home and looked up to see my dad on ABC News!

My father is a Retired Army Veteran who now teaches Veterans wounded in Iraq. ABC ran a special on two soldiers wounded in Iraq who now take college classes in the DC area. My father teaches one of them.

You can see the clip on YouTube by clicking here

I`m HUGE in Brazil!!!!

hahahah

I went up to NYC not too long ago to visit my friend John-Paul Lee's Tea Bar, Tavalon, in Union Square.

There happened to be a crew there filming a special for Brazilian TV and Joanne and I made it on the clip.

Click here to see the clip

I just may be the Tech version of David Hasselhoff :)

Book - The Enlightened Bracketologist: The Final Four of Everything - James Boice

A book called "The Enlightened Bracketologist: The Final Four of Everything" has just come out that is a collection of contributions from multiple authors. My brother, James Boice, is one of the contributors.

Click here to read the Amazon.com description of the book

The authors who organized the book were on the Today Show this morning to talk about it.

My brother's contribution is "Innovations in Sports".

It's a very interesting concept for a book. Here is one description of the book found online:

Book Description

"Introducing the ingenious, addictive tool for judging everything under the sun: ENLIGHTENED BRACKETOLOGY, the new science that makes opinion a sport.

Political battles are won and lost by popular vote. Great movies are nominated and chosen by committee. The rest of the world is more or less up for grabs. As a cure for the resulting confusion, Mark Reiter and Richard Sandomir have organized the world's most haunting and maddeningly subjective questions into a scheme of binary pairings that finally reveal what is truly the best in its class: What's the greatest

American beer? The best Elmore Leonard novel? The most reliable economic indicator? In each bracket five Darwinian rounds of binary matchups leave a lone survivor; textual notes explain the details.

Experts and subjects include: Ken Jennings on Game Show Catchphrases; Roz Chast on Animation Characters; Mo Rocca on Political Hot-Button Issues; Stefan Fatsis on Scrabble Words; Kurt Andersen on Conspiracy Theories; Jeff MacGregor on NASCAR Phrases; Will Blythe on Sports Rivalries; Henry Beard on Latin grammar; the editors of The Bark on Dogs for the Ages; Jesse Sheidlower on Punctuation; Rick Meyerowitz on Dodosaurs; and many more - 101 in all.

Go forth and adjudicate!"

Sports Illustrated recently carried an article on the book which can be found online here.

Teddy Roosevelt Quote

I got a great Theodore Roosevelt quote from Tom Ponton at DeMatha today:

"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat."
- Theodore Roosevelt

There are so many things in life that this quote can be applied to. Since I am an entrepreneur first, I can clearly see its application to starting a new venture.

Most notably in the early stages of starting a business where cash is alwyas going to be tight no matter how many times you have done it and when you are likely pre-revenue not to even mention break even or profitable. At these points it is of the utmost importance to remember that most people remain in the "gray twilight" of life rather than "dare mightly things" in an attempt to "win glorious triumphs" at the risk of ending up "checkered by failure".

I will roll the proverbial dice any day of the week and lose rather than stand by and watch. For that I am proud.

Cal Ripken Jr. Speaking Event at DeMatha

The other night I had the pleasure of seeing Cal Ripken, Jr. give a talk at DeMatha which was hosted by James Brown (Fox Sports, CBS, HBO) and had NBA Hall of Fame Coach Morgan Wooten, NFL Hall of Fame Player JB Brown, Future NFL Hall of Famer and Philadelphia Eagles' running back Brian Westbrook in attendance among many more DeMatha alumni.

Cal's speech was quite impressive (and not just because he used Power Point!) but because he did a great job of applying the traits that it took for him to successfully break Lou Gehrig's record of consecutive games played to traits that it takes to be successful in business.

I thought this was an extremely effective and applicable presentation by Cal and made a lot of sense.

He started off by talking about a particular incident where a reporter asked Cal what traits a current player would have to possess in order to break the record he set for consecutive games played. At the time Cal gave a pretty standard answer, but later on, after retirement he really thought about it and made a list which he shared with us the other night.

Coincidentally, Cal had been making the transition from Playing Professional Baseball to Business at the time of writing this list and the fact that many of these traits he listed had real-world, business application was not missed.

I am going to try and get a hold of a copy of the power point presentation he used but in a nutshell these traits include tenacity, resilience, will to win/competitiveness, sacrifice, focus, preparation (both physical and mental) and so on.

Photographer: Edward Potskowski (DeMatha)

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Click here to see all photos (courtesy of Edward Potskowski)

My Collection of Quotes

Over the years I have made it a habit to save interesting, profound and/or insirational quotes that I have come across.

Here's the list - Enjoy!

Quotes:

"I hate to lose more than I like to win"
- Jimmy Connors

"pressure is something you only feel only when you don't know what you are doing"
- Chuck Noll

"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go."
- T.S. Eliot

"Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal."
- Henry Ford

"Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn�t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle. When the sun comes up, you better start running."
- African Proverb

"Difficult takes a day, impossible takes a week"
- Jay-Z

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit."
- Aristotle

"Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot; but make it hot by striking."
- William B. Sprague

"It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed."
- Theodore Roosevelt

"Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome."
- Samuel Johnson

"Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall."
- Confucius

"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds."
- Albert Einstein

"Fortune favors the brave."
- Publius Terence

"He who hesitates is lost."
- Proverb

"Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Constant dripping hollows out a stone."
- Lucretius

"The future depends on what we do in the present."
- Mahatma Gandhi

"In order to succeed, at times you have to make something from nothing."
- Ruth Mickleby-Land

"Every artist was first an amateur."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Winning isn't everything, but wanting to win is."
- Vince Lombardi

"Every ceiling, when reached, becomes a floor, upon which one walks as a matter of course and prescriptive right."
- Aldous Huxley

"There is no happiness except in the realization that we have accomplished something."
- Henry Ford

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"When I want to read a novel, I write one."
- Benjamin Disraeli

"Leadership: The art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it."
- Dwight D. Eisenhower

"There go the people. I must follow them for I am their leader."
- Alexandre Ledru-Rollin

"He who has never learned to obey cannot be a good commander."
- Aristotle

"Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm."
- Publilius Syrus

"Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity."
- George Patton

"Leadership does not always wear the harness of compromise."
- Woodrow Wilson

"What you cannot enforce / Do not command."
- Sophocles

"To do great things is difficult; but to command great things is more difficult."
- Friedrich Nietzsche

"The art of choosing men is not nearly so difficult as the art of enabling those one has chosen to attain their full worth."
- Napoleon Bonaparte

"The quality of a man's life is in direct proportion to his commitment to excellence, regardless of his chosen field of endeavor."
- Vince Lombardi

"Wherever we look upon this earth, the opportunities take shape within the problems."
- Nelson A. Rockefeller

"Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and then we shall find the way. "
- Abraham Lincoln

"Never give an order that can't be obeyed."
- General Douglas MacAuthur

"An army of lions commanded by a deer will never be an army of lions."
- Napoleon Bonaparte

"The measure of a man is what he does with power."
- Greek Proverb

"Vivacity, leadership, must be had, and we are not allowed to be nice in choosing. We must fetch the pump with dirty water, if clean cannot be had."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Play for more than you can afford to lose and you wil learn the game."
- Winston Churchill

"That which does not kill you makes you stronger."
- Neitzsche

"It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness."
- Chinese Proverb

"When one door closes another opens. But often we look so long so regretfully upon the closed door that we fail to see the one that has opened for us."
- Alexander Graham Bell

"There is time for everything."
- Thomas A. Edison

"Imagination is more important than knowledge."
- Albert Einstein

"To win without risk is to triumph without glory."
- Corneille

"You are never a loser until you quit trying."
- Mike Ditka

"Those that make the best use of their time have none to spare."
- Thomas Fuller

"Most people are too busy earning a living to make any money."
- Unknown

"If your enemy is secure at all points, be prepared for him. If he is in superior strength, evade him. If your opponent is temperamental, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant. If he is taking his ease, give him no rest. If his forces are united, separate them. If sovereign and subject are in accord, put division between them. Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected."
- Sun Tzu, the Art of War

"The art of using troops is this:
......When ten to the enemy's one, surround him;
......When five times his strength, attack him;
......If double his strength, divide him;
......If equally matched you may engage him;
......If weaker numerically, be capable of withdrawing;
......And if in all respects unequal, be capable of eluding him,
..........for a small force is but booty for one more powerful."
- Sun Tzu, the Art Of War

"Regard your soldiers as your children, and they will follow you into the deepest valleys.
Look on them as your own beloved sons, and they will stand by you even unto death!"
- Sun Tzu, the Art of War

"It is only one who is thoroughly acquainted with the evils of war that can thoroughly understand the profitable way of carrying it on."
- Sun Tzu, the Art of War

"In the practical art of war, the best thing of all is to take the enemy's country whole and intact; to shatter and destroy it is not so good. So, too, it is better to recapture an army entire than to destroy it."
- Sun Tzu, the Art of War

"To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting."
- Sun Tzu, the Art of War

"There are three ways in which a ruler can bring misfortune upon his army: By commanding the army to advance or to retreat, being ignorant of the fact that it cannot obey; This is called hobbling the army. By attempting to govern an army in the same way as he administers a kingdom, being ignorant of the conditions which obtain in an army; This causes restlessness in the soldier's minds. By employing the officers of his army without discrimination, through ignorance of the military principle of adaptation to circumstances. This shakes the confidence of the soldiers."
- Sun Tzu, the Art of War

"If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle."
- Sun Tzu

"Making no mistakes is what establishes the certainty of victory, for it means conquering an enemy that is already defeated."
- Sun Tzu

"The victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won, whereas he who is destined to defeat first fights and afterwards looks for victory."
- Sun Tzu

"In all fighting, the direct method may be used for joining battle, but indirect methods will be needed in order to secure victory. In battle, there are not more than two methods of attack - the direct and the indirect; yet these two in combination give rise to an endless series of maneuvers. The direct and the indirect lead on to each other in turn. It is like moving in a circle - you never come to an end. Who can exhaust the possibilities of their combination?"
- Sun Tzu

"Whoever is first in the field and awaits the coming of the enemy, will be fresh for the fight; whoever is second in the field and has to hasten to battle will arrive exhausted."
- Sun Tzu

"If we wish to fight, the enemy can be forced to an engagement even though he be sheltered behind a high rampart and a deep ditch. All we need do is attack some other place that he will be obliged to relieve. If we do not wish to fight, we can prevent the enemy from engaging us even though the lines of our encampment be merely traced out on the ground. All we need do is to throw something odd and unaccountable in his way."
- Sun Tzu

"Military tactics are like unto water; for water in its natural course runs away from high places and hastens downwards... Water shapes its course according to the nature of the ground over which it flows; the soldier works out his victory in relation to the foe whom he is facing. Therefore, just as water retains no constant shape, so in warfare there are no constant conditions. He who can modify his tactics in relation to his opponent and thereby succeed in winning, may be called a heaven-born captain."
- Sun Tzu

"So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong and to strike at what is weak."
- Sun Tzu

"The art of war teaches us to rely not on the likelihood of the enemy's not coming, but on our own readiness to receive him; not on the chance of his not attacking, but rather on the fact that we have made our position unassailable."
- Sun Tzu

"When the common soldiers are too strong and their officers too weak, the result is INSUBORDINATION. When the officers are too strong and the common soldiers too weak, the result is COLLAPSE. When the higher officers are angry and insubordinate, and on meeting the enemy give battle on their own account from a feeling of resentment, before the commander-in-chief can tell whether or no he is in a position to fight, the result is RUIN."
- Sun Tzu

"Unhappy is the fate of one who tries to win his battles and succeed in his attacks without cultivating the spirit of enterprise; for the result is waste of time and general stagnation. Hence the saying: The enlightened ruler lays his plans well ahead; the good general cultivates his resources."
- Sun Tzu

Who the hell is Noah Glass?

I just read this great story on OkDork.com about Noah Glass and his company GoMobo. This is a great Entrepreneur story and a real "feet on the street" success story! This is what it's all about:

Noah Glass and GoMobo�s PR Snowball

With an innovative service, a scrappy team, and a miniscule marketing budget, we launched our first four New York City restaurants in Madison Square Park on May 2, 2006. I remember throwing together a press kit on the night of April 29 (Saturday), sure beyond all doubt that my phone would be ringing off the hook the next day with scores of incredulous news desks and reporters calling to get the scoop. I told my tennis partner that I couldn�t make our Sunday game. Instead I sat at home, waiting for the avalanche of calls. But none came.

I spent the next four months running from restaurant to restaurant, dropping off promotional flyers and talking to customers waiting in line. I recruited a small street marketing team to help spread the word. We spent every morning from 7am to 9am out on the streets of New York City. We wore sandwich boards with bunches of green balloons tied on. We shoved flyers into the hands of bustling commuters. We yelled �Stop waiting. Skip the line. GoMobo!� with such volume and such frequency that we all lost our voices.

It�s a subject of much debate, who handed that fateful flyer to Sarmad Ali, a technology writer at the Wall Street Journal, but I like to think it was me. He was calling me from �The Journal.� He�d received a flyer and had �never heard of something like this.� He couldn�t promise that it would get in to the paper, because he had to �sell it� to his editors.

We spent no less than three full hours over the course of the next two weeks going through the ins and outs of the service. Each night I checked WSJ Online to see if anything had hit. At 12:01am on September 20, I saw a story called �Text Messaging Speeds Up Fast-Food Orders� by Sarmad Ali.

I woke up the next morning with giddy excitement and rushed through my morning routine to get to the newsstand. There we were on the front page of the Gadgets section of the WSJ print edition! I got on the subway to Wall St. and stood on the most crowded corner yelling �Stop waiting. Skip the line. GoMobo! Read about us in today�s Wall Street Journal!!� Those last three words made the same impatient financiers who blew past me just one day earlier snap their heads in my direction and rush over to take a flyer. When one came to take a flyer, all the others would crowd around to see what all the fuss was about. ��Wall Street Journal!!� Every time: a feeding frenzy.

That afternoon, I got two calls. One was from Dow Jones radio. The other was from ABCNews.com. A correspondent from ABC had seen the piece that morning and wanted to know if there was anything that Sarmad Ali had missed. I mentioned that he hadn�t really talked about who was using GoMobo. That I�d been surprised because it hadn�t just been young techies using it. There were a lot of �soccer moms� using the service, too. In fact, �seven of our top ten users� were in �the soccer mom demographic.�

The ABC correspondent explained that she had to call me back. I thought I�d blown it. She called back five minutes later to explain that they weren�t going to use the story in the same way they thought they would. I was sure I�d blown it. Five minutes later, I got a call from David Muir, a reporter who was calling on behalf of Good Morning America. He�d heard that �seven of your top ten users� were in �the soccer mom demographic.� He wanted to know if I could meet him and the camera crew at Rockefeller Center that afternoon. �Um�yeah. That�d work. I need to get my haircut first,� was all I could get out. �I�m sure it�s fine,� he said. �We�ll see you at 50th and 6th at 4pm.

I went to my local breakfast spot at 7am the next morning to watch GMA. The cashier was nice enough to switch stations for me. Here�s what I saw: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDv-LDyBbk0. The piece was the lead-in piece and was viewed by 6M Americans that morning and 6M more when it was picked up that evening by 24 ABC affiliate stations. The next day, the piece showed in Canada and a very similar interview was shot by GMTV for a UK audience that afternoon.

Since then (in the past three months), GoMobo has appeared in BusinessWeek three times, was featured on Today in New York, received the Audience and Judges� Choice Awards for Mobile Transactions at Under the Radar, and appeared in Metro, amNY, NY Daily News, �Third Screen� (a Business 2.0 blog), New York Magazine, Gawker.com, and Entrepreneur magazine. A piece in Fortune Small Business is pending and today we shot an interview for ABC World News Tonight.

The startling thing is that GoMobo is no more compelling today than it was three months ago. Before the WSJ piece, all we heard from the press was that it wasn�t a story until we had �at least a thousand� restaurants in our network. Then, after launching restaurant number 25 in our pilot program in late September, GoMobo became a hot story.

What�s the lesson from all of this?

Hit the street.
Yell until you have no more voice.
Hope that someone who writes for the nation�s leading business journal is around to hear you.
Once one person writes about you, you�re �newsworthy.� After that, just keep your phone lines open and your snowball rolling.

Iraq - New Insurgent Tactics (SCARY)

This is extremely scary stuff right here. I just read a recent article detailing a new insurgent tactic of dressing up in actual US Army fatigues, carrying US weapons, driving in envoys of Black US GMC Suburbans; essentially mimicking a US Envoy to a "T".

Of course there is a very specific reason these insurgents are going around pretending to be a US Envoy - they are driving into US Camps in Iraq, kidnapping US Soldiers and killing them.

To me, this is scarier than hiding IED's in what appears to be a car crash w/ bodies and the other shady methods they use.

This is a whole new level of sophistication and craftiness and scares the crap out of me.

Here is the story:

Baghdad, Iraq - In perhaps the boldest and most sophisticated attack in four years of warfare, gunmen speaking English, wearing U.S. military uniforms and carrying American weapons abducted four U.S. soldiers last week at the provincial headquarters in the Shiite holy city of Karbala and then shot them to death.

The U.S. military confirmed Friday that three of the soldiers were dead and each had a gunshot to the head when they were found in a neighboring province, about 25 miles from the compound where they were captured. A fifth soldier was killed in the initial attack on the compound.

The new account contradicted a military statement Jan. 20, the day of the raid on an Iraqi governor's office, that five soldiers died while "repelling" the attack.

In a statement late Friday, the military said two of the soldiers were handcuffed together in the back seat of an SUV near the southern town of Mahawil. A third dead soldier was on the ground nearby. The fourth died on the way to the hospital.

The assault, 50 miles south of Baghdad, was conducted by nine to 12 gunmen posing as an American security team, the military confirmed.

The attackers traveled in black

GMC Suburban vehicles - the type used by U.S. government convoys - and wore new U.S. military combat fatigues, according to two senior U.S. military officials as well as Iraqi officials, all speaking on condition of anonymity.

"The precision of the attack, the equipment used and the possible use of explosives to destroy the military vehicles in the compound suggests that the attack was well-rehearsed prior to execution," said Lt. Col. Scott Bleichwehl, spokesman for Multi-National Division-Baghdad.

"The attackers went straight to where Americans were located in the provincial government facility, bypassing the Iraqi police in the compound," he said.

Here is the link to the article

OQO Model 02 - Smallest Vista Capable PC

I just came across the OQO Model 02 PC.

It is a fully functional PC that weighs about 1 lb and is about 5" diagonally across. The 5" screen slides up to expose a keyboard and it comes with a 1.5GHz processor and 1GB of RAM.

This things is really cool!

It also have built in WiFi, Bluetooth and EV-DO WWAN and offers a Tablet PC Edition.

You can see all the specs here

Here's a picture

Bhagavad Gita

There is an ancient Hindu Text that I have stumbled across in my pursuit of crossing off my life goal to "Become better educated in the world's religions" that I find fascinating!

Here is a snippet from Wikipedia.com:

"The discourse on the Bhagavad Gita begins before the start of the climactic battle at Kurukshetra. It begins with the Pandava prince Arjuna, as he becomes filled with doubt on the battlefield. Realising that his enemies are his own relatives, beloved friends, and revered teachers, he turns to his charioteer and guide, Krishna (Bhagavan, or the Lord), for advice.

In summary the main philosophical subject matter of the Bhagavad-gita is the explanation of five basic concepts or truths:

Ishvara (The Supreme Controller)
Jiva (The Soul)
Prakrti (Matter)
Karma (Activity)
Kala (Time)

Krishna counsels Arjuna on the greater idea of dharma, or universal harmony and duty. He begins with the tenet that the soul is eternal and immortal. Any 'death' on the battlefield would involve only the shedding of the body, but the soul is permanent. Arjuna's hesitation stems from a lack of right understanding of the 'nature of things,' the privileging of the unreal over the real. His fear and reticence become impediments to the proper balancing of the universal dharmic order. Essentially, Arjuna wishes to abandon the battle, to abstain from action; Krishna warns, however, that without action, the cosmos would fall out of order and truth would be obscured.

In order to clarify his point, Krishna expounds the various Yoga processes, and understanding of the true nature of the universe. Krishna descibes the yogic paths of devotional service, action, meditation and knowledge. Fundamentally, the Bhagavad Gita proposes that true enlightenment comes from growing beyond identification with the temporal ego, the 'False Self', the ephemeral world, so that one identifies with the truth of the immortal self, (the soul or Atman). Through detachment from the material sense of ego, the Yogi, or follower of a particular path of Yoga, is able to transcend his/her illusory mortality and attachment to the material world and enter the realm of the Supreme.

It should be noted, however, that Krishna does not propose that the physical world must be forgotten or neglected. Indeed, it is quite the opposite: one's life on earth must be lived in accordance with greater laws and truths, one must embrace one's temporal duties whilst remaining mindful of a more timeless reality, acting for the sake of action without consideration for the karmaphal (karmic fruits, whether bitter or sweet). Such a life would naturally lead towards stability, happiness and, ultimately, enlightenment."

Western Historians believe this text to be written around 500 BC whereas others have dated it anywhere from 5561 BC to the 4th millennium BC!

It amazes me how the core beliefs of most of the World's organized religions are the same, yet have somehow been skewed by mankind's interference, human nature and greed. If you compare Islam, Hindi, Buddhist, Judaic and Christian core beliefs they are pretty much the same. However, somewhere along the way they all seem to have splintered off and added a whole lot of unneeded complexity to these core truths - most likely out of corruption or greed - leading to absurd rituals, requirements and at times, bloodshed.

Redskins Giants Game Last Night

My buddy Will Ossakow hooked me up with front row, end zone, seats to the Skins game last night. The skins played like crap and lost but I still had an AMAZING time. Here's a pic of me chillin with the Chief:

Pardon the pun, but ironically the Skins biggest problem (in my humble opinion) is having too many Chiefs and no Indians :)

Albert Einstein on Being and Self-Realization

I came across an amazing quote from Albert Einstein that really helped bridge part of the gap between Eastern and Western thought (in my mind at least). This is fascinating!

The quote was:

"There are moments when one feels free from one's own identification with human limitations and inadequacies. At such moments one imagines that one stands on some spot of a small planet, gazing in amazement at the cold yet profoundly moving beauty of the eternal, the unfathomable; life and death flow into one, and there is neither evolution nor destiny; only Being."

I think the "moments" he is referring to are what Yogi's or Buddhist Monks refer to as Enlightenment or what Tolle would refer to as becoming one with the "Unmanifested".

Enstein's Theory of Relativity, which shows physical laws to be the same in any vehicle moving at constant velocity as they are in a vehicle at rest. A consequence is that an observer in a non-inertial reference frame cannot determine an absolute speed or direction of their travel in space; they may only speak of their travel relative to some other object. In other words, objects only exist based on their relative comparison to other objects.

This Western theory seems to match one to one with the more Eastern concept of the unmanifested and the manifested in which the physical world in which we know as "reality" is really just a world of falsely perceived forms within the larger concept of the "unmanifested" in which all is one.

The Pursuit of Happyness

The Movie "The Pursuit of Happyness" was released nationwide today and I went to see it tonight. I absolutely loved it!

There were two main scenes/themes that particularly struck me.

The first was the scene on the basketball court between the main character, Christopher Gardner (played by Will Smith) and his son (played by Jaden Smith). Christopher Gardner says to his son:

"You got a dream, you gotta protect it. People can't do something themselves, they wanna tell you that you can't do it. You want something? Go get it. Period."

There are so many facets of this statement that I can relate to that I could write for days. Don't worry, I won't :)

There is the touchy feely concept of chasing your dreams, which is obviously important and not to be taken lightly. However, what touched me the most was the statement "People can't do something themselves, they wanna tell you that you can't do it". This is something I witness, experience, see on a daily basis. I have been told I'm crazy, laughed at, ridiculed, ignored, written off, the list goes on. Most of the time this can be attributed to something within the person putting forth the negatives - NOT YOU.

As an entrepreneur, It is important to never forget that. Before any idea you have becomes a reality you should be prepared for it to be shot down no less than 100 times. To some extent, I say, the more the merrier. The more your idea goes against the grain, the better. The best ideas will change the absolute core of the way people think about things, how they do things, how business is done. This is no easy task and people don't like change. As an entreprenuer a large part of your life may consist of selling change to people who don't think they need it. It makes selling ice to eskimos seem easy.

Then, there is the last statement of "You want something? Go get it. Period". It brings the message home perfectly and I think it needs no further explanation.

I found this scene especially touching and one of the brightest moments in an altogether refreshing film.

The second was more of a theme - The Declaration of Independence references throughout. I have to admit, I have never sat down and actually read the Declaration of Independence word for word and therefore never realized the sheer magnitude of references to happiness or the pursuit thereof within it.

This is the meat of the Declaration in which happiness is mentioned a few times:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. � That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, � That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. � Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world."

I find it interesting that Jefferson specifically references "..the pursuit of Happiness.." as an "unalienable Right" and the "...Right of the People..." to "..institute new Government..." as to "...most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness..."

Of all the things he could have mentioned as an "unalienable Right", why did he choose the phrase "the pursuit of happiness"? Did he mean that as an all encompassing term which covers any value percieved by most as a necessity to achieve happiness? Does he specifically mean the pursuit of wealth, thus implying that happiness is in some way tied to financial goals? I wonder...

You can read the document in its entirety for yourself by clicking here

CommuniClique Reaches 100 Customers in 30 Days

Here's the press release that went out today regarding CommuniClique:

VoIP Enabled Project Collaboration Company Experiences Fast Growth

ARLINGTON, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--CommuniClique, an innovative provider of on-demand collaboration utilizing voice over IP (VoIP) and other leading communication tools, today announced that it reached its 100th customer since its launch 30 days ago. The CommuniClique solution enables users to easily manage projects and teams through numerous web environments including VoIP communication.

�CommuniClique is pleased that the market is rapidly adopting our pioneering on-demand collaboration software, as we continue to help organizations and individuals in numerous sectors improve the value of their distributed teams,� stated Andy Powers, CEO of CommuniClique. �By wrapping VoIP and other communication mediums around a project centric solution, CommuniClique helps project workgroups not only solve challenges, but realize measurable business process improvements.�

CommuniClique solves the challenge of maintaining effective management and well coordinated communications with distributed teams via a robust online project management solution � while quantifying results easily and accurately. At CommuniClique�s core, a powerful, highly flexible project tracking system rolls up into management-level focused dashboards which enables fast and easy task tracking, analysis and reporting. The communications switchboard enables users to easily share documents and track project efficiency via screen sharing, text messaging, email, and VoIP communication.

About CommuniClique

CommuniClique helps teams work closely together to successfully achieve results through a dynamic collaboration on-demand environment. Harnessing IP based communications such as VoIP (Voice over IP), organizations are able to quickly assemble project teams, manage participants and measure results. Project organizers utilize iterative discussion, real-time screen-to-screen whiteboarding, desktop sharing and online reporting to increase productivity and effectively gauge overall project success. More information is available at www.communiclique.com.

Repost - Success and Motivation:Drowning in Opportunity /Winning the Battles you are in

Mark Cuban posted this on his blog recently and I thought it was brilliant:

Success and Motivation:Drowning in Opportunity /Winning the Battles you are in

There are few things more exciting than starting a business and getting things rolling. The fear, the adrenalin, the excitement, the hope that every entrepreneur feels, are all intoxicating. In fact, very often they are TOO intoxicating. Very often, along with some success comes the feeling of invincibility. I have been in situations where I have told myself that Im smart, I know what Im doing, that I will figure things out as I go, so its OK to take on this new opportunity.

Those were usually the times I made mistakes. In a lifetime of running businesses I have developed a lot of rules that have been almost infallable, here are a couple of them that I use religously to this day.

1. Everyone is a genius in a bullmarket
A lot people think that if they are picking stocks that keep on going up, its because they are smart. They fail to notice that EVERYONE is able to pick winning stocks when all stocks are going up. (Much like we are seeing in this fall and winters stock market). The same principle applies to business. Entrepreneurs have to be brutally honest with themselves and recognize where they have added value and where they have gone along for the ride. There is nothing wrong with going along for the ride and making money at it, but it will catch up with you if you lie to yourself and give yourself the credit for the ride.

Sports Leagues were the perfect example of an industry that thought they were responsible for growth when in reality it was a bull market for rights fees.

First the advent of cable created competition for sports rights that increased the value of sports rights. Then Satellite TV came along that created increased competition for cable and broadcast for sports rights, so sports rights values went up. Then the competition between rights holders themselves creating regional sports networks increased the value of sports rights. Today, sports are in a sweet spot because of the rise in adoption of TIVO like capabilities by TV viewers. Sports is the most TIVO resistant programming.

Smart sports rights holders, like we are trying to be with the Mavericks, recognize that it wasnt our brilliance that to this point had pushed up our TV rights revenues. It was the market. Its our challenge to recognize what we can do to push the value of our programming further. Its a bigger challenge to recognize that its possible that the bullmarket may end and we have to be sure our programming is of sufficient value to our customers and viewers to be able to maintain or continue to increase in value.

Its also our challenge to recognize whent there is opportunity.. Sports is one of the few TIVO proof programming options to advertisers. We have a unique chance to lever up our viewership to prove our value as a TIVO proof option to advertisers by integrating value for our advertisers into our games and by working to increase our viewership. Its critical not just because we want to protect and increase this revenue stream, but because across our revenue streams it has the most upside. Advertisers want a way to stay in front of the largest possible TIVO proof audiences, with the unique experience of HDTV, congregating at the same time, rather than picking them off one at a time as in an on demand universe. One gives you a number the next morning, the other takes a long time to aggregate into an audience size of value. That makes it a unique opportunity the Mavs have to work hard to leverage with our partners.

For the Mavs, its also important to realize that we cant raise ticket prices forever without pricing ourselves out of the market. In fact, we lowered the price of all tickets in our upper bowl and created a TWO DOLLAR ($2) ticket for 10 of our games. Fans can get 10 games for 20 bucks. That lowering ticket prices is the most powerful, least expensive marketing we can do. It leads to a more positive brand value and committment to the Mavs, which helps us create new products that leverage the live nature of our product.

Its not easy, but we recognize that much of our past increases in revenues were the result of industry trends as much as our efforts. We have to make sure to do whatever we can to focus on winning the battles in case the bullmarket does not continue.

Which leads to rule #2
2. Win the Battles you are in before you take on new battles
Everyone of my businesses has a make or break battle going on and so do yours. There is one battle in your business that you are not winning, or are battling to stay in front.
In our film business, its the battle to get people to theaters without spending more than we bring in box office. With the Mavs, its the battle of making our game experience in the arena and on TV so compelling that its strong enough entertainment on its own to draw an audience and make our advertisers happy. I cant control how a game on the court goes, but I can make sure that if you come to, or watch a game you have a great time doing it. On HDNet, its how to keep on raising the bar and find or create programming that our subscribers feel committed to and take ownership of. I can spend as much money on a show as a big network, but they are wrong 95pct of the time. Its not a model i want to copy. Its the ultimate challenge to find a new way to get results.

THese literally are the 3 problems that I focus on. They arent issues that just popped up. THey have been challenges in these businesses for years and present a moving target that require my ongoing and continuing focus, today and most likely for years to come. Its an intellectual challenge I really love. Its truly the sport of business. Sure, I deal with operational issues, but pretty much every other strategic element of my businesses I have learned to delegate. Thats not easy for an entrepreneur to do. In my past, I would have taken on everything and anything that I thought could add value to. I had to be in the middle of everything. No longer. Ive learned to hire people that I can build trust in and let them take the ball and run with it.

Of course not every business has bench strength. Some entrepreneurs wont hire people that have complementary skill sets. Others just are small business and cant afford it yet. For those businesses, this rule is all the more important. If you are the main engine behind your company, taking on new challenges will only dilute your ability to win the wars you are in and of course increase the risk of injuring your primary business or core competencies.

In fact, this is the biggest issue I have with the NBA and our international efforts. Its not that I think there is no opportunity internationally , there is. The problem is that the "CEO" of the NBA is in the front and middle of every effort. His efforts are diluted on both fronts and we risk losing multiple important battles. If the metrics for the lines of our business that drive 75pct or more of our business were skyrocketing, thats one thing. But we aren't winning the battles we are in. We aren't losing, we just aren't winning, we are treading water.
International isnt going anywhere. China as an example has great potential and it always will. If we were dominating in our core revenue lines, I could easily be the biggest proponent of an International NBA effort (minus contributing our players to competitive enterprises) . The NBA needs to find someone who can lead and win each of the battles. Trying to use one person as the leader for both is a huge mistake that is not worth the risk fto lack of execution it exposes us to.

I have used the same logic with HDNet. HDTV is taking hold all over the world. In many areas its booming. We sell those markets content via salespeople, but I have said no to offers to bring HDNet to the rest of the world as a linear or online network . Why ? Because dealing with the rest of the world takes a lot of time and focus. It takes going out and hiring people to run it, and training them and then being available to help support their efforts on an ongoing business. Every minute that i spend, or our top people spend dealing with the rest of the world is a minute not spent fighting the battle to make HDNet and HDNet Movies the best networks they can be here in the US. We are not a business that has maximized our growth here, we are just starting to accelerate. Taking any resources away from that battle would be a huge mistake.

Its the same with Landmark Theaters. We could go international, but winning the battles here are far more important and again, every minute our leadership spends on the rest of the world is time and focus lost on Landmark here in the US.

Its a huge lesson for entrepreneurs. Win the battles you are in first, then worry about expansion internationally or into new businesses. You do not have unlimited time and/or attention. You may work 24 hours a day, but those 24 hours spent winning your core business will pay offer far more. It might cost you some longer term upside, but it will allow you to be the best business you can be. To use a sports metaphor, get the fundamentals right and then add to your fundamental skills before you try to take on the trick shots.

Rule 3 is the natural extension of rule 2.

3. You can Drown in Opportunity
Few businesses only have one opportunity. Every entrepreneur's mind goes crazy with the new and exciting things they can do beyond the new and exciting things they are already doing. The risk is that you can drown in all these opportunities. Far too often when an entreprenuer hits a rough patch or competitive challenge, the temptation is too "turn on the thinking cap" and find something new for the company to do. Don't fall to the temptation. As an entreprenuer you have to know what the core competencies of your business are and make sure that your company focuses on being the absolutely best it can be at executing them. Bottom line is this. If you are adding new things when your core businesses are struggling rather than facing the challenge, you are either running away or giving up. Rarely is either good for a business. In fact, by chasing these opportunities, you may be assuring that you drown in them.

These rules are things I check off against before I undertake new elements of a business. Hopefully if you are an entrepreneur it will

Click here to read the full posting from Mark Cuban's blog

CommuniClique BizJournal Article Picked Up in Every Major City

Click here to see list of publications

here's the picture from the photo shoot they ended up using. That is the Iwo Jima Memorial in the background:

Cool site I came across - ZoomInfo.com

I get a Google Alert whenever a new reference to my name is found either on a web page or in the news and today's alert included a site I had never heard of called ZoomInfo that had automatically compiled a lot of information from the web and created a profile on me.

Here is the link to my profile

Some of the information was a bit outdated so I am not 100% sure what data they mine to compile their profiles, but you can verify that the profile belongs to you and update it which is pretty cool.

To search for your name go to www.zoominfo.com.

More CommuniClique Press

CommuniClique was featured in these new articles today!

3 serial entrepreneurs take shot with software
2006.12.04 Ben Hammer, The Washington Business Journal

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