I read a post by James Clear a few weeks back (6 to be exact) and in it he was speaking about taking cold showers and how it was the perfect start to his day. The benefits are numerous, increased blood flow, high metabolism, and more energy to get the day going. Without thinking twice, I decided to try it.
I turned 35 this year and for some reason this year feels very different. I say that every year but this year is special. I’ve had a lot of opportunities to analyze my life, and more importantly to LIVE MY LIFE. To spend time with my precious babies and my beautiful wife. I have no income and no itch to try changing the status quo. I’m basically retired. I’m at peace with my life like I have never been before. So I decided to start jotting down my thoughts on the blog which I have neglected for a long time.
Why is it so easy to fail? When someone says “key to happiness is….” do you really believe them? When they say “he’s so successful he has sold two companies for 100’s of millions of dollars” does that make you feel empowered to do something? Sad because you haven’t achieved the same? Jealousy because you know “he got lucky” twice”. In this post i’m going to speak my mind on my last few years and things I have learned being in the startup epicenter, Silicon Valley.
We’ve all liked and commented on photos like this one below, yet rarely do we go out and experience this for ourselves. We experience life through other people and forget to produce these experiences for ourselves.
Why I will never return to Sprint, even though I was once an admirer of the company. Sprint has amazing customer service. That’s where it ends. They are seriously awesome and work well in the city (san francisco) and with unlimited data + talk this is a no brainer! That was part of my Sprint
“Nanak dukhiya sab sansar” — Sikh Kirtan The translation from Gurbani (language of the Sikh gurus) to english translates to this. O nanak, every person in the world has pain and sorrow. Think about all the people you meet in your life. When you engage them in a conversation more so than not the conversation will turn
Interesting Rooster Amazing Bouchon Bakery Macaroons Bouchon Bakery Artesa Winery Home on a Napa Valley hill Artesa Winery Artesa Winery
Every so often I think back on something my cousin said to me a long time ago while I was visiting India. This memory randomly just popups in my head so this time I wanted to write down my thoughts. I think there is also a good takeaway for startups. We were driving on a
I am writing this article because after 14+ years of investing, for the first time I feel like i’m in a FIFO crowd (explained below). I bought in to Facebook at $19 and rode it out to $70+ today. This is my exit before the herd also leaves. Am I leaving early, very likely. Am I going to be annoyed when Facebook hits $90, probably. But being able to dictate to the market my belief and be able to walk away is an amazing feeling and having a 3.5 bagger (350% return) is not a bad time to walk away.
Ever walked away from a casino happy that you came? How many times have you won? lost? I am willing to bet you think you have won more than you have and in-fact most of us have lost money in aggregate. A few painful events at the casino and we tell ourselves
ok this time i’m going to spend $100 and if lose it I walk away (100% lose) or If I am up anything more than $100, I walk (100% return).
We set these boundaries because we know our pain tolerance of losing money, but we rarely know when to walk away, even when we have triggered the 100% return threshold. Stock market reminds me of a casino where losers are abundant and winners far and few. Three personalities which come to mind, two are long term losers and only one a winner.
Hello startup entrepreneur, let’s start off with flashy headlines like these which inspire and depress us both at the same time :
Ultra-Hot Secret Sharing App Whisper Raises $3 Million From Lightspeed, Trinity, And Others
http://www.businessinsider.com/secret-versus-whisper-2014-2Secret Raises $10M At A $50M Valuation
http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/09/shh-secret-raises-10m-at-a-50m-valuation/
Our VC’s, advisors and “smart people with exits” always start their conversations with “this is a great app but….”
Where’s the revenue?
If there’s no revenue how are you going to make money?
What’s your differentiator and value proposition?
Next time I get asked these questions I plan to ask a follow up on if they invested in Whisper or Secret or 100’s of other products which have no revenue model, fairly similar to products already in market and only play is a buyout. Anyhow, I digress.
I like to download, use and delete lots of apps and new products. In this weekly column, I write about two products which caught my attention. This week I am looking at Secret, an anonymous way to speak your mind and NBC Live Extra, a way to watch all the Olympics and other content live on your devices.
You can read last weeks post here, http://www.hansgill.com/apps-this-week-facebook-paper-flappy-bird/
Facebook Paper has established a permanent spot on the main page alongside snapchat, google maps, whatsApp and chrome. It’s my goto source for news now, so long google news!
I played Flappy Bird everyday this week multiple times. If I had to put a time on it, I would say I spent about 10-15 minutes each day on average. I rarely spend any time on games so the fact I wasted more than an hour in a week on this game is a amazing. The big news out today is that Dong Ngyuen has decided to remove the game from the app store citing concerns that he cannot “..do it anymore”. Who knows the real truth about this. Perhaps he was bought out and buyer wants to keep the purchase underwraps or perhaps he is being strong armed by someone, whatever the reason he created an amazing game!