I was watching the Dark Knight over the holiday and hoped to “diagnose” the Joker’s psychosis. In the process, I re-learned some of the common psychological issues connected to criminality. I found several articles highlighting similarities between those that create the most and those that are the most destructive — the entrepreneur and psychopath.
Caterina Fake, co-founder of Flickr, stumbled upon similar inspiration
Two years ago I left a lot of big numbers for a lot of zero. Left one billion users for none, millions in revenue for debt, several products for nothing and dozens of teammates for me, myself and I.
So, if you missed it, I had no product, no users, and, yes, no friends (I deleted Facebook).
Less than a week ago, I started to let friends and our alpha testers on the product we’ve been working on since I left AddThis (formerly Clearspring). We had a new zero to cope with. Zero members. A week later, we’re looking towards our first ‘fluff’ milestone of 1000 members and focusing on other, more valuable metrics around engagement and retention.
Don’t be confused, I keep looking for zeros. Currently there are zero members who have ever posted 10 conversations in a month. There are zero members that spend more than one hour a day on the site. There are zero conversations with over 10K visitors.
I’m not stating this to be negative because we’ve come a far way; rather, the point is that you don’t get anywhere looking at “good” numbers. You get somewhere by flipping the zero.
Zero is an opportunity, one is a milestone, and two’s a reminder that you’re spending too long looking at one.
When’s the last time you stared fat zeros in the face?
Great song lyrics and a reminder to keep rockin’ and rolling.
They all laughed at Christopher Columbus
When he said the world was round
They all laughed when Edison recorded sound
They all laughed at Wilbur and his brother
When they said that man could fly
They told Marconi
Wireless was a phony
It’s the same old cry
They laughed at me wanting you
Said I was reaching for the moon
But oh, you came through
Now they’ll have to change their tune
They all said we never could be happy
They laughed at us and how!
But ho, ho, ho!
Who’s got the last laugh now?
They all laughed at Rockefeller Center
Now they’re fighting to get in
They all laughed at Whitney and his cotton gin
They all laughed at Fulton and his steamboat
Hershey and his chocolate bar
Ford and his Lizzie
Kept the laughers busy
That’s how people are
They laughed at me wanting you
Said it would be, “Hello, Goodbye.”
And oh, you came through
Now they’re eating humble pie
They all said we’d never get together
Darling, let’s take a bow
For ho, ho, ho!
Who’s got the last laugh?
Hee, hee, hee!
Let’s at the past laugh
Ha, ha, ha!
Who’s got the last laugh now?”
“We forfeit three-fourths of ourselves in order to be like other people.” - Arthur Schopenhauer [1]
The issue I see with being “original” is that it requires people to go outside of their existing pattern matching and actually think. This leads to some finding the same quality ridiculous, humorous or offensive. As we all look at the world through a set of foggy mirrors, you never know exactly how someone sees a situation. It’s impossible to know what’s going to happen when the black box of perception starts working. For that reason, I see no reason to worry about it.
Whenever I stress about someone thoughts of me I think, “I love a sunny day, but the weather has no care for me.” It’s possible to live in a world where we revere, love and hope for the uncontrollable and still keep our sanity. They key is realizing that the phenomenon or thing we want is truly uncontrollable and relatively unpredictable.
“Shakespeare will never be made by study of Shakespeare.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson, from Self Reliance
Since I’ve moved to the Silicon Valley, I see an undue amount of hero-worship of existing and prior tech folk. I never understood why people tend to put others on pedestals; however, it seems to me that they should realize that many of those the look up at never would have looked up at another. No great man has ever stood alone trying to be another man. Some tried to be greater than a man by holding themselves to a religious or spiritual ideal that has not ever been; but that is very different than looking to your fellow man to understand how to be.
A closing by Blaise Pascal.
[1] As attributed in Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern English and Foreign Sources (1899) by James Wood, p. 624
I’ve wanted a new way to consume music that was both personalized and didn’t require much action if I wanted to basically listen to the radio.
An interesting dynamic would be starting users in the same room based on the song they are listening to. When you get in a room, you can “chat” with everyone in there as long as the song is playing. You can control your own playlist or jump on another user’s by basically following them so you’ll attach to their playlist.
Users could have some metrics, e.g. biggest tribe (following), longest party (session), ect. that would help power users re-engage and show some clout when restarting for the day.
The game play would basically push some folks to try to dynamically build a following as they go from room to room and basically take the party with them. Celebrities and musicians could be an early user engagement/acquisition strategy, e.g. chill and listen to music with Skrilex or Paul Oakenfold.
Eventually you’d get to know folks, “tribes” would dynamically form based on common musical taste and you could begin to deepen relationships with them.
Thoughts, any existing products that are doing this?
As the experts battle to predict the future of their respective worlds; I find myself in awe of how little the predictions actually matter to me.
Here’s a list that concerns me.
This list isn’t meant to be pessimistic or optimistic — just relevant to me. I don’t have any resolutions but will continue to focus on the mission for my life: turn beliefs in to bridges; create transparent technologies that enable rather than hinder our ability to truly connect; bring power to the populous; remind children they are the authors of their reality; and ensure every person that has ever impacted me knows the role they played in my story.
Best wishes in 2012.
“There are three forms of visual art: Painting is art to look at, sculpture is art you can walk around, and architecture is art you can walk through” - Dan Rice
The depth of the medium of art is analogous to how we learn about and judge the integrity of those around us.
At first, we get a view from a distance. We see the big picture, the painting, as that person’s brand. Today, we have a plethora of easily accessible information on people to create that portrait. As we get closer, we learn from them what they believe they are. Like a sculpture, they try to create a moral structure that fits together nicely. Many will never try to get past this point with other people and make their judgements based on this knowledge.
Eventually, if we spend time with the person we can see their behaviors and navigate the reality of who they are. They are no longer in control of the world we see. We control the angles and can compare the artful structure of thought and the shambles that are their actions.
Character comes from symmetry of action and thought.
Facebook recently announced the release of “timeline.” You can find more than your fill of tech analysis elsewhere, but I’m questioning whether or not it’s good or bad for creating lasting relationships.
For example, I understand people may post an update about losing a loved one for support, etc. Heck, you may actually use Facebook for your friends but now it’s easy and attached to your life timeline?
My care isn’t about privacy, it’s just not how humans build lasting, caring, deep relationships. I’d be happy to hand someone a document that outlined my life but we don’t just download each other by hanging out. We get to know one another and part of that component is time. What’s the fun in knowing about things in advance prior to a person telling you. That’s the majesty of sitting side-by-side or face-to-face and hearing their story retold, re-digested and with hind-sight’s learnings, for the first time.
Personally, I disagree with the premise that we are defined by our past; rather, at every moment we exist as a greater sum than that of our experience.
Setting aside my awe for the amazing tech, beautiful design — does this bother, irk, worry anyone other than me?
photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/benwerd/
There are five children in a mini-van. Four are contently watching the movie playing while the fifth sits in the front seat begging to put on music as he can’t see the movie.
This scenario pans out on a grand scale in consumer web products and specifically plagues social media products. The loudest voices are often also special cases in the systems as they are blessed with the largest, hardest to manage networks.
Social networks have created troves of monsters that on a quick turn can demolish there creators by influencing the masses to see problems that don’t impact them. They influence content users to move to products which favor some corner-case or, more likely, monetization scheme that favors them.
I find myself amazed that any platform that provides true democratic distribution payed for the noose that may eventually hang them.
As Google Hangouts received a major overhaul (9/20/11), I was reminded of some feedback I sent to Bradley Horowitz and Dave Girouard after Bradley posted the following on July 18th, 2011:
Does anyone have any ideas about how hangouts might be useful in a business setting? +Dave Girouard wants to hear them.
My private response to Dave and Bradley was:
The additional features needed for the hangout:
- Fly on the wall - e.g. viewers of the live-stream that can watch the action real-time.
- Questions & commentary from the viewers with some voting w/ curation
- Ability to re-broadcast or save the content that’s created and post to YT.
- Scheduling / calendaring hangouts. You can post a future hangout and easily add it to the google/outlook calendar w/ alerts.
- Eventually, allow commercial interruptions to be controlled by the organizer
User story is: +Bradley Horowitz decides he wants to do an EdTech talk. He invites Mitch Kapor and two others to join on as contributors (offline action). Bradley sets up the event and it’s broadcast to the circles he chooses. Users can one-click for a reminder to watch and it’s added to the calendar. When the time comes for the interview, the four get online, do the panel and 100’s of viewers watch simultaneously and contribute questions and commentary that they curate real-time.
After the fact, Cyrus (me), stumbles upon the content and can watch a “locked-down” version with the top questions/commentary in-line w/ the footage.
Personally, I think it would be a big win for schools as you could have experts do lessons or lectures from a distance and collaborate w/ students.
Businesses could use these for webinars, presentations, internal Quarterly reviews, etc..
Always nice to know that I’m not crazy. Would love to know if it’s just a coincidence. Probably is, but, heck, nice to be able to claim I have product ESPN.
Do not let your fire go out,
spark by irreplaceable spark,
in the hopeless swamps of the approximate,
the not-quite, the not-yet, the not-at-all.
Do not let the hero in your soul perish,
in lonely frustration for the life you deserved,
but have never been able to reach.
Check your road and the nature of your battle.
The world you desired can be won. It exists, it is real, it is possible, it is yours.
” —Ayn RandCarl Sagan was a well-known scientist, futurist and influential evangelist. He inspired a generation to envision a future where the scientist was the driver of technological revolution. Sagan, the US GI Bill, and other celebrity scientists made science fashionable and accessible. Fast-forward to July 9th, 2011 and I contemplate, who will play the role to inspire and enable the next generation to pursue the sciences? The futuristic stories that I grew up to are, far fetched or quickly becoming a reality. The futures that we see in the media are often dystopic or favor mysticism over reality.
Here’s my call to the writers, technologists and policy pundits that the world is in need of inspiration. We need a new futurist narrative — beyond robots, past flying transport, where technology and humanity are so interwoven that they are indistinguishable. A futurist that reminds children that science is neither obscure nor alienating; rather, it’s the path to a better world that they can create. A narrative that reminds us that technological advancement is a heroic endeavor.
The media that defines a generation influences the next. It’s time to inject some fresh perspective into the collective consciousness.
What will our media tell our grand children about our values, our priorities and what influences us?
Streams, friends and friend grouping existed before Facebook, following existed before Twitter, and video conferencing before the founders of Skype were born.
It’s incredible that people like to point fingers and say that some company stole from another by implementing a successful or incredibly obvious feature. Feature level comparisons are ridiculous. There’s very little that’s completely novel out there — everything I’ve seen is a re-implementation or transference of a solution from one vertical or problem-set to another.
Should we expect every architect to re-invent the door knob or find a better “nail”? In product design, there are similar affordances which we should consider seminal building blocks; rather than discoveries by a single person or team.
This post was inspired by the ego-battle between Google+ and Facebook fans who are pointing fingers at the originality of the feature-set of each party. So to both sides I say, Google+ and Facebook copied Usenet. Both are bulletin boards where each person has a page. The novel concept is the “feed” which was stolen from the publish/subscribe model popularized by RSS, and prior to that, by this little thing called email lists. Real-time chat, groups, lists — ever heard of email lists, IRC, AOL chat rooms and buddy lists?
The fact that these products look alike in some ways is a function of limitations of technology and what would be obvious for users.
The idea is not to slight the teams or products, but rather a reminder to stop looking at nails and step back and look at the structure as a whole. Realize they’re quite different and spectacular in their own ways.
Products that follow others should be expected to take what works and evolve them.
In the online product world, there’s a large thrust towards “gamification” and creating viral product loops. In reviewing several recommendations from teams that have been successful in implementing these features; I’ve been wrestling with the fact that, although it works, it may not necessarily be good for our society.
The human brain is a pattern matching machine. The more you reinforce synaptic paths, the more likely that path will be followed again and a resulting behavior will (re)occur. If children and adults continue to create and reinforce their perception of self from external stimuli it guides them to be controlled by the world rather than the other way around. This is the basis for the theory of “Locus of Control.”
Locus of control in social psychology refers to the extent to which individuals believe that they can control events that affect them. Understanding of the concept was developed by Julian B. Rotter in 1954, and has since become an important aspect of personality studies.
As we build and design the products that children will use, we should be mindful of the results they will have on helping them shape reality. Does it reinforce the premise that “you are in control and create your own reality,” or that “reality is shared and must be accepted by your friends.”
Social works and has been embraced by marketers because it drives people to act; however, so does pornography.
Keep this in mind as you build the next social network for people watching.
I just finished my change of address with USPS, banks, etc and it sunk in that I don’t know my ZIP code just yet.
After three days, I’ve met dozens of San Francisco natives and transplants. Thankfully, they’ve ameliorated any latent concerns on making good friends out here. I am quickly finding my personal “pipeline” filling up. Not like I have much time anyway! Nevertheless, I’ve had a handful who can’t handle my loudness and boisterous energy. Extrapolating my findings, probably 20% of people will be completely freaked out by me and have some sort of cognitive dissonance with a core belief that I will state. As my brother recently said, “You’re a polarizing person.” Sadly, I am not changing anytime soon as I like me, and that’s really all that counts (#stuffmymommysays). Meanwhile, I am working on turning in to pure energy and demonstrating what a single passionate person is capable of when they do what they love.
Back to hiding from Royal Wedding coverage.
Spoiler alert: strolling down metaphor lane.
Two men are on the beach. Both start with buckets and a shovel.
They begin to create castles adjacent to one another and find themselves in awe of the other’s creation. They begin to compete to build the most glorious castle and find others to help them. As the castles grow larger, they begin to add the accouterments one would expect in a castle: a moat, drapery, carpeting, plasma screens, and a throne.
One day, a storm comes in and washes away the first man’s castle. All his work gone in a few short moments. The second man watches in disbelief realizing his creation may be next. He guards his castle, musters all his help and begins to build a large wall to protect it. His castle is no longer spectacular, he can no longer approach, the moat has collapsed, but his defenses do hold off the attack of the water. Passers by are no longer in awe of his castle, as it’s not visible over the wall and the large trenches that surround it. The castle stands, but that was not its purpose.
The man whose castle was washed away was seen smiling shortly thereafter atop a pristine hill building a new castle looking over his prior success.
Our builder confused his time and effort for irreplaceable value and progress.
Failure defines the moment vision is confused with the vehicle that was built to take us there. Great vision is infallible; however, executions must fail eventually. Failure finds those who forget that every castle, no matter how spectacular will fall and will make way for a more perfect creation.
The next month will be pretty crazy for me. Just in September, I sold everything I owned and left DC to move to Pittsburgh. A few short months later, I have a working prototype and am going on my pitch-fest. I’ll be traveling from April 18th through June 7th hitting cities including DC and San Fran.
I’ve decided to move to San Francisco to build my team and go to market. I’m looking forward to my second cross-country drive and second move in the last year. When I start paying SF rent, I’m predicting, I’ll be missing a pay check!
Now, those who’ve attended recently returned home to “reality.” The truth is the positive energy on the boat was no more a reality than any dull or negative that’s felt off of it. I’m compelled to remind every summiteer that stumbles upon this to keep the ethos of Summit alive every day.
Summit was about bringing a group of people together to share an experience, become friends and learn from one another. Most importantly, if you really thought deep, it was about learning that when you open up yourself to others amazing things happen. The part which we should all remember is it’s possible to live every day like that. You don’t require a curated group to say hello to everyone you meet. I promise you, I wrangle conversations with countless strangers wherever I may go and it’s been invaluable in my life.
So I challenge you to make sure to stay open, kill your filters, and view every person you meet as a person that YOU can help. Start by adding value with no expectation of reciprocation. Why should everyone prove themselves to you — seriously, you’re not special and no, nobody owes you anything because you’re the CEO/CTO/Founder/Billionaire/Genius whatever. You are who you can help, so get started.
I enjoyed the experience but fear a few things:
In the end, if you’ve made it this far, I’m speaking to the choir :) Contact me, I’m always open to help people.
Been a while since I’ve updated the interested world on where I am. Spoiler alert, I’m in an incredibly thoughtful aka cheesy mood. I’ll probably be embarrassed by this note a few days from now.
I’ve been heads-down the three months building a prototype of my product. By heads down, I’ve lived at the office. I’ve been home in my bed twice in 20 days. Last night was one of them. It’s important to note, although at times, I’ve been tired; but I’ve never been more happy. If someday down the road I say otherwise, hindsight bias has taken its toll. I’ll dedicate a few posts to describing some of the cool technology and engineering that went in to the design. Suffice to say, I’ve never been prouder. This is my Mona Lisa; thankfully, there’s no failure scenario that can take that from me.
Today I remind myself (and you) one simple thing: life is simply about finding the challenges worth tackling and making it happen. The moment you stop chasing something, you wither and die. It can be love, it can be a dream, but chase something and I promise; you’ll thank yourself for it.
I’ve created a new blog focused on looking at how technology can help educators. I also hope to learn from the educational community about what problems they currently face.
Check it “I Learn Good.” I’m also tweeting from my alter-ego @ilearngood.
Just got a text message that said “Just got engaged. ;)” from my hero and good friend Justin. I am completely floored so I thought I’d do my best to shame the most extroverted, public person I know.
I can recall several months ago when Justin was sitting in the car and was talking about an incredible young lady he met at an event. For those that know Justin, you know he talks to a lot of people. This time was very different, because he followed by saying he thought he’d “met that girl.” Mind you, my jaded and cynical self nearly crashed my car laughing at this. I recall telling him to relax and to set reasonable expectations. I’m sure the earlier conversation was probably about some ridiculous mess I’d gotten myself into.
Within a week they were inseparable. By three months, they were talking marriage. For the few, like me, at three months we’re deciding whether a real name is appropriate or we should continue to use aliases (mine is Serpico). Meanwhile, I’m starting to give him tips on jewelry from my experience buying trinkets. By 7 months, he’s got the ring and I’m trying to pull teeth to know when, where and how. Well, December 18th, 2010 seems to be the day.
New revelations:
They are both incredible and I’m excited to have more people to harass going forward. Cheers and all the best Justin! I look forward to seeing you both on Tuesday.
The last few weeks have been a hodgepodge of tasks to get organized for
development. Development started on Monday Nov. 29th. The goal for the last week was to get the back end running end-to-end.
So here are some of the early development choices:
So, I’ve made my first tag which includes an end-to-end implementation that allows me to add and remove data from the DB. Some pretty fun annotation-based serialization provided by GSON to the frontend and a custom serialization engine to add entities to Mongo. I’ve been really religious about test-driven development and haven’t cut any corners yet!
Onward and upward.
Our name is Kapuno. We’ve chosen our logo and put up a splash page.
I dwelled on what I wanted to do for a bit because I really never enjoyed the check us out later static page. Hopefully, it has a bit more character than most stealth splash pages. Check it out, leave an email, tell me what you think in the comments.
The feedback I’ve received has been varied. Some think it’s original, unique and engaging. Meanwhile, there are those that differ from that train of thought. In the end, I want the brand and feel of the products to be unique and far from sterile.
You can see it at: http://www.kapuno.com
Enjoy!
I’ve recently set up a landing page for my new endeavor at http://www.kapuno.com. Talked to many people about setting up analytics and thought it would be useful to share some tricks that I’ve found to be helpful.
Some important considerations when instrumenting a web site/app:
I’ll speak through the thought process of instrumenting Google Analytics on our splash page.
Key Performance Indicators
I’ve been in many situations where I’ve had too much data. Early on, focus on the high-level assuming that you will update your tracking. Google Analytics and most packages have the idea of time-line notes or annotations. Take advantages of this feature to mark important events that would speak to a rise or fall in any metric. For example, annotate a newsletter, advertising campaign, press release, or major update to the site.
To simplify instrumenting the website and keeping up with the active events, I’d recommend you create an event tracker spreadsheet in excel or Google Docs. Here’s an example that you can use to start with the Event tracking spreadsheet on Google docs.
The spreadsheet includes the tracking codes that should be used in the page. This is helpful if you are handing it off to engineering and to QA. It simplifies the communication process.
It was more fun setting up analytics on sites with organic traffic, but everyone starts somewhere.
If you have any questions feel free to drop a comment.
I’ve been sending a lot of chilly emails now a days and have always been saddened by peoples lack of concern for others. Here’s a recent thread from someone that reached out to me. I’ve heard different people with different philosophies but I’m a believer in karma so, I generally respond to every incoming message in some reasonable time.
The person below found me through a local event I signed up for.
“Hello Cyrus.
[ … ]
Do you have any interest in getting together over the Thanksgiving holiday to talk business? I am available any day, except Friday.
[….]”
My response:
Hi XXXX,
Thanks for reaching out. Any specific purpose? I’m not too clear on what you think we can accomplish together.
Happy holidays.
All the best, Cy
Their response:
Hello Cyrus. The reason for my email was to see if you would be interested in checking out a video that might take 30 minutes of your time. Deregulation of Electricity happens once in a lifetime. The opportunity is now. How would you like to make money everytime some one pays their electric bill? I am looking for a few key people, and trying to pass along the information to as many people as I can. The economy is slow. People are out of jobs. This opportunity can be done in addition to any job that you currently have. Please keep an open mind. 30 minutes could change your life. I would be really interested to hear your feedback. Thanks for your time. I will be in the city all day on Friday if you are available.
XXXX.
9XX-XXX-XXXX
Final response from me:
I’m not interested in the opportunity or in making additional money on the side. I have my own path, dreams, and goals that I am dedicated to reaching.
I appreciate your passion and wish you the best in your endeavors.
Safe travels and happy holidays, Cy
Time will test if I’m crazy to respond to everyone — but to date, I’ve never had someone really over-step their bounds. Some sales people don’t stop selling, but I always take away how much hungrier I could be. Take two seconds and remember that whether or not you’re interested there’s no need to be cold to your fellow man. Pretty much everyone has the time to respond, “No thanks, good luck.”
Back to the grind.
Had a few goals complete for week 1 & 2 and here’s an update.
Restructured my plans as I underestimated how slow the ISPs are to provide business level service. It takes two+ weeks to get a business internet line setup. They’ve deferred my ability to network my system two weeks and forced me to focus elsewhere. Bought an Android yesterday so I could use the 3G hot-spot in the office.
GOAL: Setup the office: buy/build furniture, buy dev servers, setup network.
Built my own servers from parts. Has been an interesting experience and has earned its own detailed post when all is said and done. Had quite a battle to get CENTOS 5.5 on the systems (with no internet in the office). On a positive front, furniture is built and setup.
GOAL: Fix my existing computers. Need some new laptop batteries, cords, monitors.
Wow, I didn’t realize when writing this bullet how screwy my two personal computers are. Between them, I have all the workings of one decent computer. So the change of plans is to leave them as is and to upgrade when I get some additional capital.
GOAL: Complete the product development environment and dev tools, e.g. source control, wiki, bug tracking, etc.
Decided to go with a hosted full-service solution. Specifically, going with Assembla (hat tip to @panutat).
GOAL: Complete building a rock-star advisory team (need a quick pitch deck)
It was unrealistic to be “done” in two weeks. Bad form, self. Nonetheless, great progress! Have financial, IT, legal, and media advisement. Would like some more product specific advisement and should be tackling that more in the coming weeks.
GOAL: Start meeting local entrepreneurs and the start-up community
Have a few meetings setup and two under my belt. Moving forward gingerly. I’m seeing a need to bring community together at a larger scale event that I may be up for putting together.
New item I added was to get started earlier on the logo/branding. We should have a splash page up, naming, etc by Thanksgiving.
I set some new goals for the remainder of the month on Monday.
Keeping honest :)
I recently visited the Cincinnati Symphony and found myself baffled by the incredible coordination that takes place to make every concert a success. After the concert, I spoke with the maestro, the guest pianist and principal cellist. I thought what I learned may be worth sharing.
The symphony is a fantastic example of brilliant people putting aside ego to create a product together. Each of the players are some of the best in the world at their respective instruments; yet, they all realize that they can’t produce the music (product) alone. They take cues from the principal in each section and, ultimately, from the conductor.
Every musician’s sheet music describes every note, every pause and every mood throughout the piece. Nonetheless, this meticulous plan is not enough. This fact resulted in some cognitive dissonance for the engineer in me that believed that the best plan would win all battles. I, for one, can say I’ve never made a plan like Beethoven. The conductor’s vision unites, guides and prioritizes across the sections and decides whether the final product will ultimately inspire the listener.
Returning to the world of software products - autonomous brilliant people don’t make a great team. A great team requires every member to play their part, truly recognize the value of their peers, and recognize both when it’s time to follow and when it’s time to lead.
A bit of inspiration from Beethoven (via YouTube).
Every once and a while, I get some spam that just is, well, incredible. I wish I could find the writer as he/she should be a SVP of marketing somewhere. It’s signed by “Andrew” but comes from “Linda10013_R@gmail.com”.
The jist of the story is that YOU are missing out on an opportunity that’s 97% bigger than Google, Bing et al combined. Earn $500K+ in profit. Andrew says it best…
MARSHALL MOORE ACCOUNTANCY RECRUITMENT
Thursday 4/11/2010
Linda10013_R@gmail.com has sent you details of a vacancy that might be of interest to you.
MESSAGE FROM Linda10013_R@gmail.com:
//THERE WAS A LINK REMOVED HERE
JOB TITLE: 867,981 visitors WITHOUT Google. Here’s how…
JOB REF: 07997
DESCRIPTION:
Hi,
Does making $540,430 profit sound appealing?
What about $86,299.31 ClickBank affiliate cash?
Or maybe you just want 867,981 targeted hits?
If so, you’ll want to download this software right now.
(Go NOW … before *Google* takes it down)
= = > > //THERE WAS A LINK REMOVED HERE
In fact…
It’s time to abandon Google, Adwords & SEO… and to profit by doing something *different*.
I’m talking about a hidden traffic source that’s…
* 97% BIGGER than *Google*, Yahoo & MSN COMBINED
* 7x more *TARGETED* than Pay Per Click hits
* 1,000% *FASTER* than any other traffic source
This is something radical.
A way to get profitable traffic, 100% on auto-pilot.
In fact, it’s *GUARANTEED* that you haven’t seen this anywhere…
GO here for the proof:
= = > > //THERE WAS A LINK REMOVED HERE
Now, here’s the FULL story…
About 6 months ago, Latif was desparate.
He was SICK of Google.
He was ANGRY at all the rehashed techniques out there.
He had tried Facebook, Adwords, SEO, blogging, article writing…
Nothing worked!!
He discovered they were all complicated and expensive.
He discovered they were overcrowded - and just didn’t work any more.
He was enraged.
So he decided to make a stand.
He spent over $100,000 on courses, advertising and software learning everything.
He tried every tactic out there…
And then, just as he was about to give up…
He made a BREAKTHROUGH!
He stumbled onto a secret traffic source.
An unlimited reservoir of targeted hits, over 90% bigger than Google.
He knew this was *THE ONE* he’d been searching for.
And, with his surprise discovery, he quickly began to profit.
$300 a day here… $3,500 a week there… it started to add up.
But… as profitable as it was… there was a *problem*.
For Latif, the money came too SLOW.
Sure there was almost *zero* affiliate competition…
But there was too much effort needed to make it all work.
So that’s when Latif hit on a breakthrough…
What if he could take this new tactic and *automate* it?
So he could pillage this hidden traffic source on auto-pilot?
Fast forward and that’s EXACTLY what he’s done.
And the numbers speak for themselves…
Lately he got 867,981 visitors using a software…He made $540,340 on autopilot.
And that’s just the tip of the ice-berg!
Go here for the PROOF:
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Now, I know what you’re thinking - “if this was fluke?”
Or “would this work for me?”
Well, just to prove to himself that this was for REAL, Latif tested the software on a handful of his students.
The result?
One of his test subjects made $86,299.13 ClickBank cash in a few weeks.
That’s $958.88 per day!!
All using this “hidden” traffic source, and this *BRAND NEW* never seen before software tool.
Now, again, let me be clear…
This does NOT involve Google.
This is radical and NEW.
This is completely automated.
And this could be a a MAJOR turning point to your success.
So go here right now…
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I strongly advise you to watch this URGENT video, and see why this could change *everything*.
But, be advised…
This offer simply will NOT last.
In fact, there are only a *few* copies available.
And word is, Latif already has a waiting list of over 34,000!
So, this could sell out any second.
Heck, it could already be sold out.
As such, my advise is to go here right *now*
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… and watch the shocking video.
Take in the proof. And take action right away (if its not already SOLD OUT).
Seriously. Go NOW (this changes everything)
Thanks
Andrew
As I’ve been scanning comments about Facebook’s Places and Deals announcement, I’ve noticed a lot of people disregarding the existing leaders in geo-spacial games and services.
Although Facebook continues to dominate as the foundational layer for creating social applications online and on mobile, that does not mean that the rest of the space is destroyed. Yes, they negate work that these businesses have done to date building community and building traction; however, they’ve actually done the companies a favor.
How’s the space improved:
Now the location-based games and services can jump to the vision and get past their first slide of “how do we get enough data and users to be useful?” I wouldn’t underestimate the leadership that created a space to die the moment the space is maturing!
Facebook’s innovation should be viewed as we view the innovation in the operating system and the browser. These are the building blocks but not the end. Sadly, as some get burned, the OS/Browser take a lesson from app developers. It’s just another layer that product developers should consider when building consumer products.
Those of us outside the blue walls need to think about how to augment and leverage the graph to create new fantastic experiences. If you don’t want to — build the next layer. I’ll be the first one to pat you on the back before you go in the battle!
Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist. He who would gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness, but must explore if it be goodness. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.
[…]
No law can be sacred to me but that of my nature
[…]
I ought to go upright and vital, and speak the rude truth in all ways
[…]
What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think. This rule, equally arduous in actual and in intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness. It is the harder because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it. It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude
[…]
Is it so bad then to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.
” — Ralph Waldo Emerson from “Self Reliance”Had my first day of my new life as an “entrepreneur” and realized it’s exactly like my old life. I woke up, dragged myself out of bed and drove in to my office. There are some open problems that need solved and I’m back to making lists and knocking stuff off it. Big difference is that I’m not getting paid!
The next two weeks are all about getting settled in Pittsburgh. My goals are pretty straight forward:
Tomorrow will be a fun day of shopping, building furniture and spending money.
Week 1 and 2 will be setting up the office, the network and development environment.
When “Tare” is referring to weighing objects:
Tare weight is often accounted for in kitchen and analytical (scientific) weighing, which often include a button that resets the zero of the scale to a higher value, in order to measure only the content of a container without measuring the weight of the container itself.
- Wikipedia
I spent the last month road-tripping and couch surfing the east coast to “tare life.” I needed to let go of my last job, many preconceived notions, and my assumptions with technology to find out where both the market and I stand. Basically, re-set my 0.0.
I started in in DC then went to NYC, Richmond, Atlanta, then back up the through Greenville, Charlotte, Raleigh, DC to Pittsburgh. There were a few points that are applicable to any person venturing out on their own:
I don’t know if it was an understanding of my mortality or my hope for a legacy that started me thinking; nevertheless, in July of 2010 I resigned from my job to strike it out on my own. My reasoning wasn’t wealth or power; rather, I wanted to make the greatest impact possible with the time I have.
I worked for a software start-up my brother founded. I was the first intern and subsequently hired with the first employees aka alpha team. I grew up with the company in a way that only those who’ve been through a start-up understand. I was learning everyday, had a stable paycheck, great friends in Washington DC, upside, etc, etc, etc. It was a hard internal sell for me to give it up. What I realized was the only thing I should be worried about giving up is time.
When you have a fantastic life, the hardest part of making the change is realizing you can do better.
After resigning, the fun stuff had to happen. My life was a tad bit too expensive so I gave up my penthouse apartment, sold all my stuff and took my last month salary while I was living at friends. All the “boats were burned” and I was ready for launch.
September 30th, 2010 was my last day at my job. So, for the first time since my childhood summer breaks, on Monday Oct. 4th, I woke up “free.”
