Friday, May 29, 2009

The Vendor Client relationship - in real world situations

This is just like software development. Do it all for free, add in a bunch of features, then show me what and how you did it, plus give me the source code and then if it all works I’ll get back to you and we can discuss an upgrade.

 

Build it yourself and let me know how that works out for you!

I’m sure it was a good idea at the time

9 years ago – now down 90% (adjusted for splits and dividends). How could so many people have been wrong about this deal? (Of course those made out like bandits and have since retired).

 

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Something a little different for Friday

  Two Stories BOTH TRUE - and worth reading!!!! 
  STORY NUMBER ONE 
  Many years ago, Al Capone virtually owned Chicago . Capone wasn't famous for anything heroic. He was notorious for enmeshing the windy city in everything from bootlegged booze and prostitution to murder. 
  Capone had a lawyer nicknamed "Easy Eddie." He was Capone's lawyer for a good reason. Eddie was very good! In fact, Eddie's skill at legal maneuvering kept Big Al out of jail for a long time. 
  To show his appreciation, Capone paid him very well. Not only was the money big, but Eddie got special dividends, as well. For instance, he and his family occupied a fenced-in mansion with live-in help and all of the conveniences of the day. The estate was so large that it filled an entire Chicago City block. 
  Eddie lived the high life of the Chicago mob and gave little consideration to the atrocity that went on around him. 
  Eddie did have one soft spot, however. He had a son that he loved dearly. Eddie saw to it that his young son had clothes, cars, and a good education. Nothing was withheld. Price was no object. 
  And, despite his involvement with organized crime, Eddie even tried to teach him right from wrong. Eddie wanted his son to be a better man than he was. 
  Yet, with all his wealth and influence, the re were two things he couldn't give his son; he couldn't pass on a good name or a good example. 
  One day, Easy Eddie reached a difficult decision. Easy Eddie wanted to rectify wrongs he had done. 
  He decided he would go to the authorities and tell the truth about Al "Scarface" Capone, clean up his tarnished name, and offer his son some semblance of integrity. To do this, he would have to testify against The Mob, and he knew that the cost would be great. But, he testified. 
  Within the year, Easy Eddie's life ended in a blaze of gunfire on a lonely Chicago Street . But in his eyes, he had given his son the greatest gift he had to offer, at the greatest price he could ever pay Police removed from his pockets a rosary, a crucifix, a religious medallion, and a poem clipped from a magazine. 
  The poem read: 
  "The clock of life is wound but once, and no man has the power to tell just when the hands will stop, at late or early hour. Now is the only time you own. Live, love, toil with a will. Place no faith in time. For the clock may soon be still."


  STORY NUMBER TWO 
  World War II produced many heroes. One such man was Lieutenant Commander Butch O'Hare. 
  He was a fighter pilot assigned to the aircraft carrier Lexington in the South Pacific. 
  One day his entire squadron was sent on a mission. After he was airborne, he looked at his fuel gauge and realized that someone had forgotten to top off his fuel tank. 
  He would not have enough fuel to complete his mission and get back to his ship. 
  His flight leader told him to return to the carrier. Reluctantly, he dropped out of formation and headed back to the fleet. 
  As he was returning to the mother ship, he saw something that turned his blood cold; a squadron of Japanese aircraft was speeding its way toward the American fleet. 
  The American fighters were gone on a sortie, and the fleet was all but defenseless. He couldn't reach his squadron and bring the m back in time to save the fleet. Nor could he warn the fleet of the approaching danger. There was only one thing to do. He must somehow divert the m from the fleet. 
  Laying aside all thoughts of personal safety, he dove into the formation of Japanese planes. Wing-mounted 50 caliber's blazed as he charged in, attacking one surprised enemy plane and the n ano the r. Butch wove in and out of the now broken formation and fired at as many planes as possible un til all his ammunition was finally spent. 
  Undaunted, he continued the assault. He dove at the planes, trying to clip a wing or tail in hopes of damaging as many enemy planes as possible, rendering the m unfit to fly. 
  Finally, the exasperated Japanese squadron took off in ano the r direction. 
  Deeply relieved, Butch O'Hare and his tattered fighter limped back to the carrier 
  Upon arrival, he reported in and related the event surrounding his return. The film from the gun-camera mounted on his plane told the tale. It showed the extent of Butch's daring attempt to protect his fleet. He had, in fact, destroyed five enemy aircraft. 
  This took place on February 20, 1942 , and for that action Butch became the Navy's first Ace of W.W.II, and the first Naval Aviator to win the Congressional Medal of Honor. 
  A year later Butch was killed in aerial combat at the age of 29. His home town would not allow the memory of this WW II hero to fade, and today, O'Hare Airport in Chicago is named in tribute to the courage of this great man. 
  So, the next time you find yourself at O'Hare International, give some thought to visiting Butch's memorial displaying his statue and his Medal of Honor. It's located between Terminals 1 and 2. 
  SO WHAT DO THESE TWO STORIES HAVE TO DO WITH EACH OTHER? 
  Butch O' Hare was "Easy Eddie's" son. 
  (Pretty cool, eh!)

Sunday, May 24, 2009

U.S. National Debt Clock : Real Time

Click on the image to see it run in real time. It’s really scary.

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U.S. National Debt Clock : Real Time

Friday, May 22, 2009

Monday, May 18, 2009

Only Idiot CEOs Pursue VC Investments

A MUST read for any Entrepreneur out there.

That's how one of the many CEOs that contact me recently described his colleagues who submit to Venture Capital (VC).

This alternatively funded CEO describes other CEO's that seek VC funding as idiots -- with a 1 in a 1000 shot at a lousy valuation (52% Round A, 25% Round B and 15% Round C). He continues that many of the serial entrepreneurs trumpeted by VC's have no money themselves despite "successful" previous exits.

Only Idiot CEOs Pursue VC Investments

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Ed Freeman – A Real American Hero

You're a 19 year old kid. You're critically wounded, and dying in the jungle in the Ia Drang Valley , 11-14-1965, LZ X-ray, Vietnam.

Your infantry unit is outnumbered 8   and the enemy fire is so intense, from 100 or 200 yards away, that your own Infantry Commander has ordered the MediVac helicopters to stop coming in.

You're lying there, listening to the enemy machine guns, and you know you're not getting out alive. Your family is 1/2 way around the world, 12,000 miles away, and you'll never see them again.  As the world starts to fade in and out, you know this is the day.

Then, over the machine gun noise, you faintly hear that sound of a helicopter, and you look up to see an un-armed Huey, but it doesn't seem real, because no Medi-Vac markings are on it.

Ed Freeman is coming for you. He's not Medi-Vac, so it's not his job, but he's flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire, after the Medi-Vacs were ordered not to come.  He's coming anyway.

And he drops it in, and sits there in the machine gun fire, as they load 2 or 3 of you on board. Then he flies you up and out through the gunfire, to the Doctors and Nurses. And, he kept coming back..... 13 more times..... And took about 30 of you and your buddies out, who would never have gotten out.

Medal of Honor Recipient, Ed Freeman, died last Wednesday at the age of 80, in Boise , ID .......May God rest his soul.....

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Now compare this to the kind of crap news we’re getting at the moment. America’s media needs to do more!

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Quote of the day

“One must run as fast as a rabbit, but be as patient as a turtle.”

Everyone of my startups have been like this. Only as I neared the end did things really speed up (the end in this case was shipping the product)