GetGeekStrong.com

There is a great article with the above title over at trizle.com. In particular, the part about “serial entrepreneurs” struck a chord in me. From the article:

Contrast serial entrepreneurs with those ‘long-term’ ones.
Who’s thriving like a mofo?
The ones who built on top of their experiences, then exploited those advantages every-single-frickin’-day.

Oh snap! Could I be one of these guys who starts something new every six months, sees little to know success and then spends blood, sweat and tears building another failure instead of building on top of the hard lessons I’ve already learned?

Take a project of mine for example, drinkshirt.com. This project is all but a wash at this point. My tendancy is to throw a wake for it, say some unclean things about why it did not work out and then move on to something else. But what if I looked back at this and gleaned from the wreckage some much needed education? I might learn stuff like:

• Don’t put all your eggs in one basket (or API in beta)
• Outsourcing development can be affordable and fast
• Your intended audience is not always who you will attract (Japanese coffee drinkers in this case)
• Quality referal links are way more effecteve than advertising

These ideas and more would be applied to my next project. Having learned these lessons already, I can focus more time on innovation and less time on the nuts and bolts of the above issues.

This article has also got me thinking about how quick I am to shelve projects. Sure, some are ideas that just never got off the ground, but in cases like drinkshirt.com, have I done everything I can to make this project a sucess? Is there any way I can adjust even the model of this project in such a way that makes it profitable to me and the community? These, friends, are the questions that plague me. Now go read that article.

Over the last year I have heard references made to Moleskine and their life altering variety of notebooks. Last week I got one, not knowing exactly how I would use it. My first model is the ruled Moleskine of the pocket sized persuasion. So far I have used it to jot a couple of notes related to changes that I want to make to my vocabulary and from a staff meeting. There is a large movement of people on the web who are using their Moleskines as productivity aids varying from simple to-do list management to GTD hacks. I am trying out these hacks at a leisurely pace and you will only read more Moleskine adventures from me if I deem this pretty little book blogworthy.

Here are a couple of useful links from 43folders.
Moleskine Hacks

More Moleskine Hacks

Yesterday I returned from a week long trip to Granger, IL for a work related conference. I went with the best intentions. Every place I stayed had a fitness center, I brought along shakes and bars to stay consistent with my eating habits and I intended to eat as well as possible while there. Read more »