Written on January 25th, 2009. Filed under
Scribtotum. Tagged with
Writing.
Seth Simmonds had a guest post all about big ideas on Chris Brogan’s blog. I confess I didn’t read it… I’ll go back and do so, I promise. I skipped directly to this:
Yeah.
This is a lesson for writers: next time you think you’ve come up with a scene, a character, a plot point that’s totally original, totally out there, absolutely unlike anything else, ask yourself:
Is it stranger than deliberately provoking a thirty pound fish to swallow your forearm?
Take your writing and shove it down a fish’s throat. See what it looks like when you pull it back out. Repeat until there’s nothing in the real world that can top it.
Written on January 23rd, 2009. Filed under
Scribtotum. Tagged with
business,
ethics,
mahalo,
Personal.
Today, the opportunity to purchase my vested stock in Mahalo.com expires. Letting that happen is a great way to stamp fini on my time with an Internet start-up. I’ve been looking forward to it for three months.
I started at the company as an on-site contractor in April of 2007, became a regular employee in June of that year and, along with about half the regular full time editorial staff, was laid off at the end of October, 2008. Not long, really. Less than two percent of what I confidently assume will be my entire life. During that time, I learned a lot from my co-workers, managers and the officers of the company.
Top Ten Lessons From My Time With a Start-Up
Here are some of the things I learned, beliefs I had confirmed and resolutions that were strengthened by my eighteen months at Mahalo.com.
- Always Do What’s Right.
- Fear of Advocacy Reveals a Need for Advocacy.
- Work to Live.
- Pay On Time, Every Time.
- Law Trumps Want.
- Deeds Trump Charisma.
- Don’t Build a Mirror by Looking In a Mirror.
- Flat Hierarchies Require Equilateral Respect.
- Don’t Ask the Plumber to be the Architect.
- There is Only One Math.
Practical Take-Aways
I learned a lot about search engine optimization, affiliate marketing, Internet research trends and MediaWiki. It was my pleasure to take part in a discussion with Chris Anderson. I got to hear Andrew Keen present his view of the commons, Internet culture and creativity, and his opinions — entirely in opposition to my own — helped reinvigorate my commitments. I got to spend a lot of time thinking about how people use the Internet and social media. I helped build something, and however fleeting that construct may turn out to be, it was a great exercise.
The Next Chapter
The next chapter is largely unwritten… and anyway, one can only divide one’s life into chapters when each chapter closes, not before. What comes next is, unavoidably, unknown.
It’s my hope that I keep the lessons from this last chapter — the ten listed here and many, many others — at the ready from here on out. I’ll be writing more about how I plan to do that in future posts.
Written on January 18th, 2009. Filed under
Sonitotum. Tagged with
podcast,
Scribtotum.
I’m sneaking this little promo into the feed to remind you all that I’m putting on a live virtual house concert on Sunday, January 25, 2009 at 3:00 PM Pacific time via streaming video!
Feel free to pop this promo in your own podcasts… or, you can embed this video on your blogs, Facebook and MySpace pages and so on! Help spread the word, and I’ll see you January 25, 2009 at 3:00 PM Pacific time!
Scribtotum