My Strengths and Weaknesses

For class we were asked to blog about our strengths and weaknesses are in regards to our business ideas. Here are a few of each.

My strengths:

-Creativity. I am a very creative guy and would be good to have on a design team.

-Logic. I am good at breaking problems down logically to find solutions.

-Dedication. When I become a part of something I have no problems dedicating myself to it.

-Sociable. I work well with others, and can typically strike up a conversation with anyone. I get along with everyone.

-Technical. I am great with computers.

-Handling pressure and stress

My weaknesses:

-Focus. I am easily distracted.

-Perspective. I am not good at viewing things from the perspective of others, meaning it might be a problem for me to imagine the needs of customers.

-Monotony. I can't repeat the same cycle for too long or I get bored.

-Having rational expectations. All of my expectations are based on what I would do and thus i develop unrealistic expectations for others.

So I would want to surround myself with people that could keep me focused and grounded. When I make my decisions, I want people who will tell me realistically whether the customers would want that or if it merely makes sense to me. For example the iPad, Apple's new toy, is an absolutely useless hunk of trash to me. It's literally a large iPod touch. All of it's competitor's products are better and cheaper. However, that thing will sell like water in a desert. Were I told about this product, I would scoff at it. I need someone who can say "wait, I know you wouldn't use it, but most people would love it."

Breakfast with John Goodman

John Goodman came to speak to our class today and it was quite the experience. From the moment she started talking I could tell she had a wealth of knowledge to share. As she spoke, her eyes reflected her personality as clearly as if it were written in front of us. Ms. Goodman could go from a caring, nurturing look, to a look of cold hard strength seamlessly multiple times per minute. It was clear that she is very passionate about what she was talking about, and that she was well versed in the virtues and difficulties that lie in front of the budding entrepreneur.

She said so much that it's difficult to really focus on a specific part. She did mention many strong points that she called "Goodmanisms" that I want to reflect on. This is, of course, only a taste of what she had to say.

Goodmanisms:

1. "Brilliant ideas are a dime a dozen. People who can implement them are as scarce as hens teeth."

- This was about how easy it is to come up with a great idea, yet finding someone who can make it happen in a way that achieves the goal is hard to do.

2. "Money is just a way to keep score."

- This is very poignant to me. She said it in regards to people who start businesses to make money with no regard for passion. I agree with it entirely. Yes, money is important. However, more important is finding something you are passionate about to make the money. If money is just the way to keep score, you can focus your efforts on far more important things.

3. "There's a new bus every five minutes"

- This is a good one too. She brought it up when discussing how to pick people for your board of directors. What it means is that if someone doesn't feel right, feel free to move on. There are plenty of people out there are you're bound to find one that fits your strategy better.

4. "If you don't learn to tolerate stress and ambiguity, don't be an entrepreneur."

- I like this quote because it kind of exemplifies one of her major points. Being an entrepreneur is an enormous amount of work and if you aren't ready for stress you should pick a different profession.

Overall I took away multiple large points. The first is that you should not get into this business if you are only here for money. The second is that it is extremely important to surround yourself with a variety of intelligent people to help you keep your head on straight. The last is that making a business plan should be a very big process. You need to make sure you have every angle figured out when you start pitching it. This includes market research.

All in all it was an amazing experience.

-noodles

Ted Mosby is a Terrible Father!

So recently I have become a huge fan of the TV show How I Met Your Mother. It is clever, and fresh, and interesting. It makes me want to move to New York and wear suits.

However, over the course of the TV show the writing has strayed pretty far from the premise of Ted telling his children the story of how he met their mother. The element is still there, but it has lost any sense of reality.

Ted has occasionally mentioned how much he looks forward to one day telling his kids the story of how he met their mother over the course of the story, but I don't think any real father would tell this story to his kids.

Let's recap the stories Ted has theoretically told his kids...

-the story of how he got in a three way
-various stories about him and his buddies trolling for bar skanks
-various stories about him and his friends smoking weed in college
-personal stories about his friends and the poor decisions they have made
-stories of adultery
-stories in which they are constantly drinking, or at bars
-stories about all the women he was with before their mother

I mean who would tell their kids that? What kind of values is he teaching them? "Hey kids, it's awesome to sleep with everyone you can, get high during school, get drunk a lot as an adult, and gloat about it." I mean, the story is theoretically supposed to be romantic, but what is romantic about all of the things he has experienced prior to his marriage? So many of these stories have NOTHING to do with that.

Now I'm not saying it's a bad show. I love the show. I think it's hilarious. I even find that the voice of Bob Saget's narrative to be an awesome element to the show. I'm just saying that the idea the show is based on is pretty disturbing if you consider that each show is supposed to be a story he is telling his kids...

-noodles

A Visit from Ron Kornfeld

Ron Kornfeld has gorgeous hair. His beard was magnificent to behold and he has great taste in shoes. He recalled working with MCI in the 80's meaning he must be in his forties, yet there was not a single grey strand to be found. But I regress...

Today Ron Kornfeld was the guest speaker in my Entrepreneurship class. It was really interesting to hear about the importance of business plans from someone who works with them on a daily basis. The way he broke down the process into steps and was very specific about how important those steps are was excellent and led to me feeling much more comfortable about the process.

One very poignant thing that he taught me was when he talked about the worst case scenario. To me the worst case scenario would be nobody buying your product at all. He told me that isn't the worst case. What is much worse is a company that produces enough to grow and slowly stops being profitable. The logic is that if your company failed out the door it wouldn't hurt as many people as if it slowly stopped being profitable. By the time it fails it could affect the lives of tons of employees and many investors in a much larger way than if your business had just failed in the first place.

Another thing I took away from him is the importance of presentation. Ron discussed the idea of different business plans for different audiences, and how to make sure you present a polished, well constructed plan. I liked the idea of reading it backwards.

Overall it was an excellent presentation and I learned more from him than any other guest speaker I can remember.

-noodles

Movie Review: Public Enemies (2009)

Today I saw Public Enemies and my first impression was, "Holy crap a movie where Johnny Depp doesn't say 'savvy' and Christian Bale doesn't borrow the devil's voice!". My second impression was difficult to decipher. Public Enemies is the story of Melvin Purvis (Johnny Depp), an investigator for the newly developed Bureau of Investigation, and his attempts to stop America's most wanted criminal, John Dillinger. The film is an adaptation of Bryan Burrough's non-fiction book Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933–34.

Directed by Michael Mann, known for mediocre films like the 2006 adaptation of Miami Vice, Public Enemies is a well constructed film, with an excellent crew of actors. Visually, the film had no problems pulling me in and making me believe it was the 1930's. Depp and Bale play both of their characters convincingly enough and in terms of casting I have no complaints.

In fact, given a couple of good looking shootouts, an excellent soundtrack, and a strong cast you'd think this would be a simple review.... Sadly, you'd be mistaken.

Public Enemies doesn't fall fate to any of the obvious shortcomings I would normally complain about. Honestly, it's not a bad movie by any stretch of the imagination. However, I would argue that it commits the worst sin a movie can commit. It's forgettable.

Yes for all normal categories I grade a movie on, Public Enemies is a good movie, possibly even great. However, the question that matters is the one where I ask myself whether I'd buy it on DVD, or purposely watch it again. Sadly the movie is so forgettable I doubt I'll remember to make that decision.

Despite the quality of the product, it just seems to go through the motions. I don't know if this was an attempt to stay realistic and true to the real story, or an attempt to keep the viewer securely believing it's 1933, but it left no impression whatsoever. The plot was simple and obvious. This was one of those times I wish that they had taken some of those "liberties" Hollywood is so well known for taking on book adaptations. At the end it was "introduce characters, bad guy does bad things, good guy makes attempts to stop bad guy, bad guy evades, good guy stops bad guy". There were no twists or turns and aside from a brilliantly well crafted scene involving John Dillinger at a stop light, no memorable suspense. The ending left me bored and disappointing, like a little boy hoping for a train set on Christmas day that got socks.

All things considered, Public Enemies was well crafted and had all the elements of a great movie, except the one that mattered, entertainment.

Five Business Ideas

These are five business ideas I have:

1. A software company specializing in Facebook games. Our flagship product would be a reincarnation of Pogs with a role playing element. It would be micro-transaction based and you could earn rare Pogs on certain event days. Gameplay would of course be expanded from the original to incorporate elements of strategy and skill.

2. There is a location just off of Pacific, still in the heart of downtown Tacoma. I would like to open a bar there. It is literally adjacent to a gigantic city parking lot. One of the biggest problems with businesses in downtown Tacoma is parking. It would definitely be a bar/grill. It would be great because bars downtown get a lot of patronage, especially with how close it is to the school. This bar because of parking and location would be the most convenient, and with a very modern stylish atmosphere would be aimed at the early twenties crowd.

3. ScotchLovers.com, a site dedicated to helping people track down and purchase great scotch. I could scour the globe looking for hot deals on great scotch. It would be like a wine site but dedicated to a far superior beverage. Including beginner's guides to scotch.

4. a LAN center/computer repair shop. The major operation would be handled online, so that people can check the status of their computer repairs, check and see how busy it is, and reserve spots for gaming all from their Internet browsers. I would also write android/iPhone apps so that they can check the same information. This software would also notify them of events, or last-minute specials.

5. PersonalBeer.com, a site allowing people to order personalized beers. They could choose the beer to be in the bottle, and personalize the labels. It would be great for gifts. You could order a six pack that has your friends name on it or something cool on the labels. The site would allow you to submit pictures and data and we would design and email them a template.

-noodles

Thoughts on Entrepreneurship section 1

I read the first section of the Entrepreneurship guide today and it brought on a lot of interesting feelings. Firstly, I think that it is overall a good set of ideals. Secondly, I definitely think it is not a standard to hold fast to. I would say it somewhat admits that. Sometimes, a desire for success is not really necessary, because success is subjective. I have sometimes considered the idea of opening a game shop with a LAN center in it. I have loved these my whole life and I have always wanted to run one.

The thing is about LAN centers is that they aren't profitable. There are business models to make them sustainable, so that you don't have to dump money into them, but they aren't a business for big money. However, sometimes I feel like I could open one, and just enjoy the gamers and the people, and use it as a place that I belong. It would fufill me on levels not expressed in the article. Success in that case is merely making enough to keep the business open.

Anyway, bottom line is that it's good information to start with in general, but does not cover every possible base.

-noodles