Blog / Entrepreneurship

How you know when a deal is done

I have an easy way to tell when I've completed a deal with someone: A deal is done when the contract is signed. Or as I think of it: An unsigned contract is not a signed contract. I've found it valuable to distinguish between them. I've learned not to spend money due on an unsigned contract. Many people consider a deal done with people have agreed on terms. People often say things like, "We have approval, all we have to do is sign it," as if that means you can start acting on the deal. Sometimes they'll more clearly state the contract isn't signed by saying something like, "We have approval. It's as good as signed. All we have to do is send it to…

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October 24, 2013
Awareness / Blog / Entrepreneurship / Freedom

Goenka and 10-day meditation retreats

Two days ago a guy named Satya Narayan Goenka died. Who was Goenka and why should I care? First, I'll mention how I found out about him. I had no experience with meditation when a longtime friend I hadn't seen in a while suggested I try it. The idea made no sense to me because meditation made no sense to me. I didn't know or care about it to that point in my life -- somewhere around 2006. But my friend knew me a long time and I valued her perspective. I decided to try a ten-day meditation retreat, I guess like jumping in the deep end -- these retreats allow no talking, reading, writing, etc for the first nine days. You can leave if…

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October 1, 2013
Blog / Entrepreneurship

“Getting the hang of” working in big companies taught me to keep starting companies

I know some people like working in big companies. They like the feeling of stability, the benefits, the uniformity, I guess. Regular readers know I prefer small companies, especially having co-founded one. Why? Because of big company culture. One incident cemented this perspective for me. I'll tell you the story that made me not like big companies. You may feel I extrapolated too far. Maybe. What turned me off from big companies Co-founding my company was my first experience in business. Before that I was a graduate student. I ran the company as CEO as best I could. Eventually it was no longer a start-up and needed different skills than I had and someone else became CEO. I went to work at a friend's company.…

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September 24, 2013
Blog / Education / Entrepreneurship / Events / Leadership

Reminder: See my leadership seminar this weekend!

Brought to you by the Distinguished Leaders committee of the Columbia Business School Alumni Club of New York (copying the following announcement from that site): Leadership Through Self-Awareness and Emotional Intelligence In a weekend, learn how to develop your personal leadership skills, self-awareness, and emotional intelligence through the latest advances in cognitive behavioral science, evolutionary psychology, and positive psychology. While business schools and corporations are increasingly focusing on personal leadership, self-awareness, and emotional intelligence as foundations for leading others, many MBAs never had the opportunity to take a formal course in personal leadership. Joshua Spodek, MBA, PhD, has developed a two-day weekend workshop in just this area. His experiential course combines advances in cognitive behavioral science, evolutionary psychology, and positive psychology with successful business leadership…

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September 17, 2013
Blog / Entrepreneurship / Freedom / Leadership

People who succeeded despite adversity, part 2

[This post is part of a series on people who succeed despite adversity. If you don't see a Table of Contents to the left, click here to view the series, where you'll get more value than reading just this post.] Ask yourself which helps more — having advantages or learning to overcome adversity? I base this series on noticing how many extremely successful people had problems that mediocre people claim hold them back. Sure, many successful people emerged from privileged backgrounds and sure, some social problems keep many people from any chance at success, but if you’re reading this blog you probably have reasonable access to success. I decided to create a list of people who succeeded and some problems they overcame. I plan to…

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September 11, 2013
Awareness / Blog

An essay on money, part 2

Today being Labor Day makes it an interesting day to think about money. I've noticed my post "An essay on money" gets almost the most number of hits of all my posts so I re-read it periodically. (Speaking of money, today is the also the last day to get the early discount on my awesome seminar on September 21 and 22 -- "Leadership Through Self-Awareness and Emotional Intelligence" so sign up now and save money!) My mom pointed out we never went on welfare when she read that essay, just that they gave the food out on our block without checking because the neighborhood was so poor. We loved the food I now wouldn't touch because the bread was so sweet and white and the…

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September 2, 2013
Blog / Education / Entrepreneurship / Leadership

Leadership problems today and a call to action

[I alluded to this topic before. I still have to write it up formally and edit it more than a daily post allows. I hope it gets the main ideas across. Please contact me if it interests you.] You only have to read the news to see the problems Do I have to convince anyone that we have many people in leadership positions who lead ineffectively? You only have to read the headlines. As I'm writing these words the New York Times' top headline is about a spy scandal in which the top person at the NSA lied to Congress, which is abdicating its Constitutional checks on the President, who is doing the opposite of what he promised the country during his campaign on this…

1 Comment
August 30, 2013
Art / Blog / Creativity / Entrepreneurship / Leadership

Another awesome success — Museum Hack and Nick Gray

An awesome side benefit of writing daily is that awesome people find you. Recently a guy wrote to tell me he liked my writing and invited me to participate in what seemed like a crazy project, but turned out to be one of the most awesome things I've done in New York City in a long time. And I've done a lot of awesome things in New York City. It's an amazing entrepreneurial story too -- the kind we love, which is why I, who endorse entrepreneurship and believe opportunities are everywhere, am sharing it with you. He started doing something that he enjoyed, for fun and personal challenge, and shared what he loved and got good at (another example of how "Sharing what you…

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August 27, 2013
Blog / Education / Entrepreneurship / Events / Leadership

See me on Leadership through Emotional Intelligence and Self-Awareness

Brought to you by the Distinguished Leaders committee of the Columbia Business School Alumni Club of New York (copying the following announcement from that site): Leadership Through Self-Awareness and Emotional Intelligence In a weekend, learn how to develop your personal leadership skills, self-awareness, and emotional intelligence through the latest advances in cognitive behavioral science, evolutionary psychology, and positive psychology. While business schools and corporations are increasingly focusing on personal leadership, self-awareness, and emotional intelligence as foundations for leading others, many MBAs never had the opportunity to take a formal course in personal leadership. Joshua Spodek, MBA, PhD, has developed a two-day weekend workshop in just this area. His experiential course combines advances in cognitive behavioral science, evolutionary psychology, and positive psychology with successful business leadership…

0 Comments
August 16, 2013
Blog / Entrepreneurship / Nature

Today’s Harvard student versus 176 years ago

Let's look at two former Harvard students from now and nearly two centuries ago. 176 years ago Henry Thoreau finished Harvard in 1837, one of its best-known students of his age. Let's look at him before looking at this generation's most prominent Harvard student. Thoreau wrote Walden, his treatise on living simply, escaping petty human affairs and gossip, appreciating nature, self-reliance, and such. He lived for two years mostly on his own, growing his food, building his shelter, figuring out how to spend his time, and so on. The book opens When I wrote the following pages, or rather the bulk of them, I lived alone, in the woods, a mile from any neighbor, in a house which I had built myself, on the shore…

2 Comments
July 30, 2013
Blog / Entrepreneurship

A discussion I started last week

Last week's post The risks of someone calling you smart and how to avoid them, got reposted on another site and generated some discussion. The site, Hacker News, is a community with many entrepreneurs, geeks, and science and technology types. Here's a link to the discussion. Check it out. I like that community and its discussions.

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July 29, 2013
“That’s not art. I could do it.” — A new interpretation that activates art and yourself
Art / Blog / Creativity / Entrepreneurship / Tips

“That’s not art. I could do it.” — A new interpretation that activates art and yourself

We've all heard someone say "That's not art. I could do it." Maybe you said it yourself. The comment can lead to interesting discussion on what makes art, but rarely. It can lead you to realizing that the value of art doesn't depend on how hard it was to create. The usual response is "Well, you didn't. And they did it first." I suggest a new response. If the person who says it, perhaps yourself, sees beauty or truth in the work of art, suggest that they re-create it. Seriously suggest they do what they say they can do. They could have a museum-quality work of art on their wall if they do, for only the cost of materials. When you look at art with…

0 Comments
July 27, 2013
Blog / Entrepreneurship / Leadership

The risks of someone calling you smart and how to avoid them

When I was a budding entrepreneur, recently having earned my PhD in astrophysics, people would often introduce me as a rocket scientist. At first I enjoyed the praise. In time I found being called intelligent didn't help me in business. By "in business" I mean in business roles with leadership and decision-making. People talk about intelligence as valuable in business and some behave so, but I came to conclude successful businesspeople, especially investors, didn't value intelligence as someone's primary value. On the contrary, I came to find many venture capitalists and other investors viewed people with intelligence as their primary value as people whose inexperience they could exploit to make money off of. I think businesspeople in mainstream music look at talented musicians the same…

20 Comments
July 24, 2013
Blog / Entrepreneurship / Leadership

What kind of leadership is this: Obama fighting for less accountability and more centralized power

Leadership and politics overlap. I generally try not to take political positions on this blog to make it accessible to more people, but the push to increase surveillance and erode protections like habeas corpus seem enough like ineffective leadership that I feel compelled to cover them. In response to this article stating that Congress granted the president the authority to arrest and hold individuals accused of terrorism without due process under the NDAA [National Defense Authorization Act of 2012], but Mr. Obama said in an accompanying signing statement that he will not abuse these privileges to keep American citizens imprisoned indefinitely Note it says merely "accused." Note it also says "indefinitely." I wrote the following on Hacker News (an entrepreneurial / geeky community site), which…

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July 19, 2013
Blog / Entrepreneurship

Napoleon, Pasteur, and luck

I read that when considering officers for promotion, Napoleon would ask if the man was lucky. Napoleon responded "Give me lucky generals," aware that "luck" comes to leaders who recognize opportunity and seize it. Consider all the words he could have used instead of luck. Louis Pasteur, pioneer of the Germ Theory of Disease, said "In the fields of observation chance favors only the prepared mind." How do you reconcile two of history's most successful and famous people valuing luck and chance so highly? Needless to say they are just two examples of many more. What are luck and chance from their perspective? I think it's clear they aren't talking about gambling. They're talking about skills you can develop that look like luck and chance…

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July 14, 2013
Blog / Leadership

People who succeeded despite adversity

[This post is part of a series on people who succeed despite adversity. If you don't see a Table of Contents to the left, click here to view the series, where you'll get more value than reading just this post.] Do you ever feel like things are stacked against you? Consider how many people succeeded despite the odds. Ask yourself which helps more -- having advantages or learning to overcome adversity? I've noticed how many extremely successful people had problems that mediocre people claim hold them back. I started noticing it with actors on Inside the Actor's Studio, but then started noticing it elsewhere. Sure, many successful people emerged from privileged backgrounds and sure, some social problems keep many people from any chance at success,…

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July 1, 2013
Blog / Education / Entrepreneurship / Leadership / Tips

“Needs as understood”: How to start sales presentations — and conversations where you want to influence someone

I've written before about a student group from Columbia Business School I still contribute to long after graduation called InSITE that promotes entrepreneurship and connects students at several schools including Columbia, NYU, Harvard, and Stanford to entrepreneurs. A recent post on InSITE's blog by Lukasz Strozek, Stanford Business School 2014, described a challenge common in product development and entrepreneurship. It reminded me of a great solution I'll write below applicable to many situations where you want to influence people. The challenge Read that post for the details, but broadly it points out We care about products we create We want to get feedback from customers and potential customers Pitching the product gets closed answers, not broad understanding of a customer's needs or interests So the…

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June 25, 2013
Blog / Entrepreneurship

Why dislike patents?

Here's something I wrote in response to someone who wrote about patents, confused why so many people, especially people who work in technology, are coming to dislike patents. I find people who don't work with patents have models about them that don't fit with how businesses use them today, their effects, and how and why we created them in the first place. The first quote is a question I read that I decided to answer. The rest is my response. In case anyone forgets, I've written several patents and co-founded and work at a company that fundamentally depends on those patents. I don't claim patents are bad. I'm only answering the person's question. What is with all the hate for patents? Should a company not…

0 Comments
June 21, 2013
Awareness / Entrepreneurship / Exercises / Models / Tips

Four models on entrepreneurship that counter discouraging myths

[This post is part of a series on “Mental models and beliefs: an exercise to identify yours.” If you don’t see a Table of Contents to the left, click here to view the series, where you’ll get more value than reading just this post.] Do you think about starting a company? Or something else entrepreneurial, like starting and leading a project where you work, a community-based project, or the like? Do you also hold yourself back? Do you fear it might not go well? Or worry you're not doing it right? Or feel like you should prepare more for it? Today I'll cover four discouraging myths about entrepreneurship and four encouraging beliefs that counter them. Having started a business out of school, presenting on entrepreneurship…

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June 4, 2013
A model for strategy
Education / Entrepreneurship / Exercises / Models / NorthKorea / Tips / Visualization

A model for strategy

[This post is part of a series on "Mental models and beliefs: an exercise to identify yours." If you don't see a Table of Contents to the left, click here to view the series, where you'll get more value than reading just this post.] Strategy is a fundamental study for many fields, including leadership, military, games, and plenty areas of business. If you're reading this page, you don't need motivation to understand its value. I've read a bunch on strategy, taken classes, written a book on strategy and North Korea, and lived through my share of strategic situations. I play chess decently too. Of all the resources I know, one stands above, the book Competition Demystified: A Radically Simplified Approach to Business Strategy, by Bruce…

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June 2, 2013
Blog / Education / Entrepreneurship / Leadership

My Seminar on Leadership Through Emotional Intelligence and Self-awareness in four evening sessions starting June 17, 6:30pm-9:30pm in New York

I'll be leading the next session of my leadership seminar in New York in June. I'm experimenting as four three-hour evening sessions Session 1: Monday, June 17 Session 2: Wednesday, June 19 Session 3: Monday, June 24 Session 4: Wednesday, June 26 I'll give the same full attention I do for a weekend session. Sign up here. Here's the course description: What You’ll Learn If you don't know how to lead, you can only do what you can do yourself. If you can lead, you can achieve anything anyone else did with a team. Even if you want only to live a quiet, happy, rewarding life you still have to lead yourself. The more you know how to lead, the more you are in control…

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May 18, 2013
Awareness / Entrepreneurship / Exercises / Models / Tips

A model on achieving goals: The Samurai Walk

[This post is part of a series on “Mental models and beliefs: an exercise to identify yours.” If you don’t see a Table of Contents to the left, click here to view the series, where you’ll get more value than reading just this post.] You want to do something meaningful. You know it will take resources -- time, energy, attention, etc. You have your goals. You have a general plan. So far so good. Most people get this far. How do you finish your project? How do you stick with it despite inevitable distractions? Would you be amazed to find you can use those distractions in your favor? Today's model gives an effective way to work on something, keeping your goals in mind, avoiding getting…

0 Comments
April 9, 2013
How not to overspend on things you don’t want
Blog / Entrepreneurship / Fitness / Leadership

How not to overspend on things you don’t want

I can't resist reposting a comment I posted on the forum of one of my favorite other blogs, Mr. Money Mustache. I'm reposting it because two other readers rated my response highly, one giving my response this animated image, making me proud. The post I responded to Alright mustachians [the term for people in the Mr. Money Mustache community who practice his principles of not spending money on stuff that doesn't improve your life] I need your sage advice. In the last three months I have really cut down on my bad habits. I pack my own lunch to work every day. I broke up with cable. I stopped ordering books from amazon on a regular basis. I changed my eating habits from quick and…

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March 28, 2013
Blog / Entrepreneurship / Freedom / Tips

“I am a freedom junky” — David Allen’s inspiring words that simplified my life

Do you feel stress from too much stuff to do or lose track of things? Many entrepreneurial and management types I know read Getting Things Done and put it into practice. I recommend it. I read the book and like the philosophy -- in particular, his observation that if your mind has to remember something, it will allocate resources that distract you from everything else. The more you have to remember, the more it will preoccupy your mind. I didn't connect with it on my first reading, when I thought it was just about efficiency. What made me appreciate it was meeting David Allen at a cocktail party. He described himself as a "freedom junky" and the book his way of creating freedom. I value…

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March 14, 2013
Blog / Entrepreneurship

Kingpins of Silicon Alley: meeting entrepreneurial luminaries and supporting entrepreneurship in New York City

If you're an entrepreneur or VC in New York, clear off Monday, April 15, 2013 from 7:00 PM to 9:30 PM. I've written before about InSITE, the entrepreneurship group I started working with at Columbia Business School, and a friend there winning a competition with a business to reduce pollution. If you didn't know, InSITE brings together graduate students at various schools around NYC (mainly from Columbia's and NYU's business, law, engineering, computer science, design and PhD and post doctorate programs in natural sciences and medicine) for a two-year program designed to engage these talented people in the NYC startup community. It recently expanded to Harvard and Stanford too, but it's still strongest here in New York. I learned a lot working with the group…

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March 7, 2013

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