Entrepreneur In Training

Goals progress

Its been a busy time since I wrote my last post goals post on Feb 5th. Unfortunately I’m not doing too hot with blog posts or keeping up with my goals. Here is a status on each plus another goal just for the fun of it.

January Goals

1. Kick my soda habit. I kicked the habit but I feel myself slipping back into it. I actually bought some soda for the house last week which is the first time I did that since making the goal. Prior to that I had reached a point where I could easily go days without a soda. I really like drinking the Diet Mountain Dew and have begun rationalizing why I should abandon this goal.
2. Run 50% more than I did last year. I just added everything up and so far this year I have run 282.74 miles which is 30 miles behind the pace I need to keep to reach 965 miles in 2009. I can easily make this up though since we just entered May. I’m lining up a couple of half marathons in late summer/fall which will force me to pick up the mileage. I’ll make this one.

February Goals

1. Volunteer more. Back in February I said I was going to volunteer at the Houston Food Bank. I didn’t do that but I did volunteer to help teach some computer classes to veterans through Houston Goodwill. That was a great experience and I’ll make volunteering part of the rest of the year. 
2. Implement and stick to Inbox Zero. Complete failure. I never actually reached Inbox Zero and after managing to keep it steady at about 10-20 email in my Inbox a couple of weeks of business travel have completely destroyed my plan. I need to get this going again.

New Goal

My new goal added today is to complete the Hundred Pushups plan. According to the website this is a 6 week plan to get you to 100 consecutive pushups. I just completed the initial test and completed 33 good form pushups without resting. Back in my Army days I would have paused and knocked out several more but I think with this the idea is to not stop at all.

That’s the goals update. Be back in a few weeks with another update.

Posted in Entrepreneurship | 239Commentshttp://muchosalsa.com/blog/entrepreneurship/22/goals-progress/Goals+progress2009-05-03+23%3A22%3A20David

There is no beauty in Twitter

I have been thinking about this for a few days and it worries me. I picked on Twitter in my title but the same could said for Facebook, MySpace or just about any Web2.0/social media product out there. There doesn’t seem to be any craft. Maybe it is because all the “social media experts” just became that within the last couple of years. What concerns me is who will be creating beautiful architecture, writing the next great novel, dancing with grace when the world is moving towards 140 characters or less?

There is a lack of touch with social media. The keyboard feels the same to everyone. The mouse offers no depth. How will a population reduced to sending Lil Green Patches grow a garden?

As the great newspapers fight for their existence and people seem to rally behind their demise, where will the journalism come from? People link to the masters but they don’t support them.

I enjoy Twitter, Facebook and their cousins. But I’m more concerned that we will become a civilization incapable of creating anything worth a link.

Posted in Pop Culture, Social Media | 237Commentshttp://muchosalsa.com/blog/pop-culture/47/there-is-no-beauty-in-twitter/There+is+no+beauty+in+Twitter2009-03-09+00%3A47%3A02David

A New Year of Resolutions

I established 2 goals last month. I’m going to update progress on those and name two more. I’ll establish two additional goals each month for the year. Goodbye New Year’s Resolution, hello a new year of resolutions.

January Goals

1. Kick my soda habit. I’m doing really well on this one. I can count on one hand the # of Diet Mountain Dews I’ve had in the last month. I switched to drinking green tea so I’m not caffeine free but the amount of caffeine and chemicals that I was ingesting have dropped significantly. A few years ago I completely stopped eating french fries. With soda I’m fine with picking up one at the convenience store every now and then.
2. Run 50% more than I did last year. So far this year I have run 69.69 miles. Seriously. I didn’t make that up. I also just discovered that my Garmin Forerunner 205 is dead. Not real happy about that right now. Anyway. I need to pick up the pace here. To reach my goal of 965 miles in 2009 I need to run 18.5 miles per week. I’m a little behind that right now. I did sign up for my first race of the year. I’ll be running in the Conoco Phillip Rodeo Run 10K on Feb 28.

Now announcing the February goals.

1. Volunteer more. This is something that I have told myself for along time that I’d like to do and just haven’t made it a priority. That’s pretty selfish and I need to bring it to a stop. I’m looking at helping out with computer classes for veterans at the local Goodwill. I also will be volunteering at the Houston Food Bank starting this month.
2. Implement and stick to Inbox Zero. Like many people these days I spend a lot of time communicating and working via email. I need to become more efficient in processing the volumes of data that come in to my work and personal accounts. I think an Inbox Zero policy will help me be more productive and less concerned that I’m missing something.

Any ideas on what the problem is with this Garmin?

Posted in Other Stuff, Running | 233Commentshttp://muchosalsa.com/blog/running/41/a-new-year-of-resolutions/A+New+Year+of+Resolutions2009-02-05+15%3A41%3A46David

A book review: The Cluetrain Manifesto

The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual by Rick Levine

rating: 3 of 5 stars

I have a love/hate relationship with this book. On one hand I am a believer in the basic messages of the book. Corporations are shells, corporate speak is a joke, people need to be themselves and the web provides a platform to do so on a scale never before available.

On the other hand the writing is arrogant. It comes off as we know better than the world and people who like to use spell-check or make decisions are sheep. The following paragraph I read while on a plane. I wanted to absolutely scream after reading it but thought better as that may have put me in Guantanamo.

Sometimes we run from our fallibility by being decisive. But doubt is the natural human state, and decisiveness — more addictive than anything you might shoot into your veins — is often based on a superstitious belief in the magic of action.

That paragraph and this one

If you need to hear how the professional voice sounds, dig out any memo you wrote four years ago and compare it to how you’d write an e-mail about it now. A professional memo obeys implicit rules such as one page is best, no jokes, admit no weakness, spellcheck it carefully, and send it to as few people as possible.

Both of these are examples of the tone of the book. Either you are flying by the seat of your pants, going against the corporate grain or you are sheep. I don’t buy it and it made this book difficult on many levels. Its has a forced coolness, an arrogant take that is very hard to like even if you believe in the message.

That being said I would recommend you read the book because it will remind you that you are human and to act like one. There are some very good messages as well. Unfortunately the voice of the messenger is pretty damn irritating.

View all my reviews.

Posted in Pop Culture, books | 230Commentshttp://muchosalsa.com/blog/pop-culture/42/a-book-review-the-cluetrain-manifesto/A+book+review%3A+The+Cluetrain+Manifesto2009-01-23+22%3A42%3A00David

Goals for 2009

Its almost half way through January and I haven’t set any goals yet for this year. Here are two that I’m putting down in digital ink today. That means they are as good as done.

1. Kick my soda habit. I drink way too much diet soda. Diet Mountain Dew primarily but I’m all over Diet Pepsi too. 5 a day is not a stretch. In the last week I have switched to drinking tea. It seems to be working. I have had 1 Diet Dew each of the past 2 Sundays, that’s it.
2. Run 50% more than I did last year. According to my handy Garmin I ran 643 miles in 2008. That means I’ll need to do 965 this year. In 2008 I only did 3 races, if I sneak in a couple more half marathons it will help me reach my goal. Any one up for a challenge?

Those are two that are easy to measure and I love throwing them out in public. Don’t be scared to call me out if you see me slipping.

Posted in Other Stuff, Running | 228Commentshttp://muchosalsa.com/blog/running/44/goals-for-2009/Goals+for+20092009-01-14+01%3A44%3A40David

What I didn’t do on my Christmas vacation

• I didn’t spend time in non-productive, time-wasting meetings
• I didn’t lose an hour a day my life sitting in traffic
• I didn’t have to tell anyone to get some numbers or put a presentation together for something that I knew was a complete waste of time
• I didn’t have to feign interest in some project that meant nothing to me, that was mediocre in design or that was more business as usual
• I didn’t have to feel guilty about reading about something really interesting on the Web when the people that write my check would prefer me working on one of those projects just mentioned.

I really enjoyed my two weeks away from my day job. There are some things that really excite me about going back in a few hours. I’m really jazzed about some ideas that came to me while listening to Tribes by Seth Godin. I’m looking forward to my new team and seeing if I can make it a Tribe. I’m looking forward to seeing what I can do to make the list above “What I didn’t do with my work week.”

Posted in Other Stuff | 225Commentshttp://muchosalsa.com/blog/other-stuff/22/what-i-didnt-do-on-my-christmas-vacation/What+I+didn%27t+do+on+my+Christmas+vacation2009-01-05+06%3A22%3A30David

The Supplier View after Christmas sale

I made the decision about a week ago to put the product of my entrepreneurial efforts of the last year up for sale. One of the primary reasons for presenting the Supplier View elevator pitch earlier in December was to get a gauge for where I was. The part I didn’t realize is that the signal would be internal not external. The external feedback was generally positive and 100% supportive. The internal feedback was a sense that it was time to do something different.

Supplier View has been a fascinating experience. I have interacted with so many different people that I otherwise wouldn’t have met. I’ve learned so much that you will not learn in an MBA class. I also learned some things about my self that I wouldn’t have without the Supplier View effort.

Enough with the sentimental memories. Lets get on with the sale.

Here is the package up for bid:

• The entire repository of code that powers Supplier View
• The domain www.supplierview.com
• The twitter account @supplierview
• The Supplier View logo

Who do I see as the buyer? Possibly one of the players currently in the procurement space: Ariba, Coupa, IQNavigator, or Emportis for example. All could benefit from an injection of innovation into their supplier performance management capabilities. Maybe some other budding entrepreneur wants a head start in this space. I am happy to talk in detail to anyone. You can reach me at 281-205-0466 or david (at) supplierview (dot) com.

As far as my next entrepreneurial step…its already begun. Its completely outside the procurement world and I’m excited about it. Stay tuned!

Posted in Entrepreneurship | 223Commentshttp://muchosalsa.com/blog/entrepreneurship/00/the-supplier-view-after-christmas-sale/The+Supplier+View+after+Christmas+sale2008-12-27+15%3A00%3A51David

Why I stopped following @lancearmstrong

This morning I severed my Twitter relationship with Lance Armstrong. I just wasn’t getting anything out of it. A few weeks ago when I found out Lance was on Twitter I started following him. I’m a fan and was curious on how genuine someone like Lance would be on Twitter. I thought he did a great job with his updates. At that time he only had a couple hundred followers. Today he has over 13,000. Lance only follows back about 40. That’s cool. I don’t prescribe to the model that you follow everyone that follows you. The noise level is just too high. Lance and I have lots in common though and maybe he should have followed me back.

• We are both on the wrong side of 35 but the right side of 40.
• We both live in Texas.
• We both have run marathons.
• We both have listened to Sheryl Crow sing.

Oh well.

What made me cut the cord was the fact that Lance seems to be primarily interested in pushing information. A one way road. I’ve attempted to engage Lance with a couple of questions. Simple stuff. I wasn’t asking for an autograph or for him to go on a bike ride with me.

I don’t think that’s stalkerish, though maybe he took the “Where should we go?” as an invitation. That would have been weird and definitely wasn’t the intention. Damn the pressure of short, poorly constructed conversation starters.

Unfortunately none of these tweets were responded to. Maybe Lance engages more frequently with the other people that follow him. A Twitter search indicates that Lance does very little replying. Its a one way flow of information. That doesn’t work for me. There is a certain responsibility when you decide to be part of Twitter. Twitter is in a social category because the idea is that you interact. Its not, in my opinion, a place for monologues.

My feelings aren’t hurt. I just feel like if you aren’t going to play the game than you should leave the field.

Posted in Social Media | 218Commentshttp://muchosalsa.com/blog/social-media/36/why-i-stopped-following-lancearmstrong/Why+I+stopped+following+%40lancearmstrong2008-12-17+22%3A36%3A38David

The Supplier View Elevator Pitch

This past Thursday I delivered my elevator pitch for Supplier View at the Rice Alliance IT & Web 2.0 Venture Forum. You can hear the pitch here. The audio recording is courtesy of The BusinessMakers. I appreciate the edit out of a pause that felt like 5 minutes to me but was probably only of a couple of seconds as I made sure I was getting out a point about the instant insight Supplier View delivers.

The audience at the forum wasn’t my target market and I’m not a candidate for any type of venture capital. I did however make some interesting contacts. Preparing for the elevator pitch was extremely useful all on its own. It helped me organize my thoughts and be able to articulate them. Also I appreciated the opportunity to get up in front of about 400 people. Public speaking is one of the many areas where I would like to improve.

Posted in Entrepreneurship | 213Commentshttp://muchosalsa.com/blog/entrepreneurship/36/the-supplier-view-elevator-pitch/The+Supplier+View+Elevator+Pitch2008-12-14+19%3A36%3A02David

My counter to the Calacanis 120% plan

Jason Calacanis in a recent thought provoking email proposed that in order to bring America back to greatness we’re all going to have to work 20% more. A 6 day, 48 hour work week is Jason’s way to address “our collective sloth, consumption and sense of entitlement that got us into this mess”.

I disagree with his solution but instead of doing whats easy and just poking holes I have an alternative.

Instead of putting in another day at the office, no matter how passionate you are about it, how about doing something that will really help move America towards greatness? Take that one day each week and do something different with it over the course of 4 weeks.

Week 1: Volunteer somewhere..anywhere. Your local food bank, Junior Achievement, or the Special Olympics are some examples but it doesn’t really matter. What ever is important or interesting to you. You will enrich the lives of others, yourself and you won’t be living the 20% excess life that Jason describes.

Week 2: Spend a full day focused on your friends and family. Turn off the TV, the computer, put your People magazine down and go to a park, the zoo, fly a kite. Spend time with those people you can count on. In the end its unlikely that your company will be by your bedside when your sick, when you need an encouraging word or when you want to celebrate something that doesn’t make your company money. Hopefully you have some friends and family that will. Invest in them.

Week 3: Create something or learn something (choices!). Spend time writing. Learn a new language. Ruby, Spanish, C++, or Japanese, you define what language means to you! Learn how to cut tile. Learn how to dance. Paint a picture.

Week 4: Fix something. Maybe its a relationship with an aunt you haven’t talked to in years. Maybe you need to seal the caulking in the upstairs bathroom. Fix something that is weighing you down.

Repeat.

You can mix and match what you do and how you spend that 1 day each week. The point is to stop shopping, stop eating, stop trying to get more. Giving back a little and being happier, better people are my steps to making America great.

*Jason’s email cannot be republished. I would be happy to forward it to you though. Hit me up on Twitter or request via email and I’ll send it to you.

Update: Jason has published the email on his website.

Posted in Home Life | 209Commentshttp://muchosalsa.com/blog/home-life/28/my-counter-to-the-calacanis-120-plan/My+counter+to+the+Calacanis+120%25+plan2008-12-09+16%3A28%3A58David