Its all over. The Red Sox have come back from the dead and have finally made it to the Series. As a Met fan, I was more than happy to watch Johnny Damon stick a fork in them with a slam in the second. It was a beautiful thing to watch. The best part about it was that it wasn't even close. It makes the book thing a little easier to swallow... at least my day ended on a high note.

In other news, I'm pretty excited about a meeting I have with someone from GM corporate this Monday. I think they're part of a research and development group, but GM is so large, its hard to get a handle on what anyone is doing. One of my goals over the next year is to streamline our process of leveraging our relationship with the IT guys in the company. Not only that, we should be better leveraging our relationship with the IT folks from other clients that we manage money for, like Delphi and Xerox, as well. Its the kind of think that just needs someone dedicated to it and willing to keep after these guys... the kind if relationship building we do with our own GPs. We have relationships and connections to such a huge group of IT consumers that its a waste of a resource not to know these guys better--especially since GM can be such a difficult organization to get inroads to. That's probably my number one goal over the next year.

That makes me think of a post that someone wrote about what to look for in a VC if you are an entreprenuer at a startup. In this case, I think connections to a large organization should be one of the things that VCs should look for in their LP base. That would make for an interesting post... what to look for in a good LP. I'm sure that VCs and GPs in private equity in general are looking for more than just dumb money. Over the weekend, I think I'm going to put some thoughts down about this, because its something we think about a lot here in terms of what makes us a more attractive LP.

I'm feeling really cruddy about this whole book thing.

Do you know what sucks? This sucks. After sitting with my thumb up my butt for months waiting to hear back from this publisher, the death knell came BY E-MAIL yesterday... I'll intersplice my comments in between.

Dear Charlie,

Attached please find the first of two reviews we have received for Start Strong, Graduate Great. Ordinarily, I don’t forward authors reviews until both are in hand, but since I know you are very eager to move ahead I wanted to get back to you. The second reviewer has not gotten back to us after her son’s spinal accident, and given the potential seriousness of his injury, it’s not really appropriate to nudge her to get back to us as we usually would. I will forward you her review as soon as it

**So, basically they are basing this on one review. Nice. Doesn't Angela Yorio count as a review? She likes the idea.**

The first reviewer likes the idea behind the book, but has some concerns about its execution. Most importantly, she feels the informal tone and your background as a former student rather than a practitioner would discourage most career counseling professionals from using the book. As I tried to explain from the beginning, this professional market would be critical to our ability to publish the project.

**Same B.S. Far be it from young people to have any clue what's best for them. Obviously, you need lots of degrees to know your ass from your elbow.**

The problem, then, is unfortunately not the content, but the marketing and more specifically [publishing company]’s ability to target the potential audience for this book. After reading this first review and discussing the project with marketing, I’m afraid we do not believe that we are the right publisher for your book. We do very few “trade books” in our education program---that is, books geared for a general audience or non-professional audience, and that require significant publicity. Even those few trade books we do publish here are written by academics---it’s part of our identity as a scholarly publisher and what readers and reviewers expect from us. Your book, while on an interesting topic, doesn’t fit that mold. It would require a much different marketing and publicity machine than we have in place for our other books. In other words, the potential readers of your book are not a group we regularly target now, and those same readers wouldn’t think to look to [publishing company] if searching for such a book. Regretfully, then, we have determined that we are unable to pursue publication of Start Strong, Graduate Great.

**Seems like you knew that... oooohh about four months ago! What was this reviewer going to say that would have convinced you that you only want to publish textbooks? If you were waiting on one reviewer to decide whether you'd change your entire business model, I question your ability to run your firm. What a waste of time...**

I would suggest that you instead try contacting “tradier,” rather than scholarly, publishers---check out which publishers have even moderately comparable guidebooks on their list to determine which might be the most appropriate fit. Just so you know, many big-name trade publishers will not accept unsolicited manuscripts. They only accept manuscripts that come through an agent. Finding an agent might be another avenue for you to pursue (granted that’s easier said than done). There’s a reference book called Literary Market Place, which you can find at any college or large public library. It includes listings of publishers (broken down by type and subject area) and agents---this might be one place to research potential agents to submit to. I’ve only worked with one agent for my education books, but I will check with her and see if your project might be of interest to her. One last thought is for you to try a smaller publisher I found called Natavi Guides. They publish a series of college guidebooks called “Students Helping Students,” which at least sounds like it would be a great match with your project. You can check them out at http://www.nataviguides.com/.

**Fuck that. I'm self-publishing. The Literary Market Place just gives people the false hope that anyone besides Dr. Phil and Monica Lewinsky can get a book published. I'll check out the nataviguides thing, though. **

I’m sorry not to be writing with better news, but in the end I do believe our decision is in the best interest of the book—it wouldn’t do your work justice to publish the book and not be able to get it into the hands of its potential readers. I do appreciate you giving us the opportunity to consider your work and hope the reviews will at least prove helpful as you revise. I wish you the best in finding an appropriate publisher---if I can answer any questions or offer any advice as you prepare for your next submission, please feel free to call.

Sincerely,


C. B.
Acquisitions Editor

*********************************************************
You know how I knew that she wasn't interested? I wrote her about my new website, and she didn't even respond. No matter what, a publisher, in my mind, has to take at least a mild interest in the kind of work someone is doing for them to be a right fit. She didn't even respond!!

On a completely unrelated note, I was at the game last night. Not much to say... you all saw it on TV yourselves. Being at the game was exciting, but cold... very very cold. And wet.

While I'd love to see the Sox pull it off, I know what's going to happen here. Miguel Cairo is going to be this year's Aaron Boone/Bucky Dent and end it in the bottom of the 9th on a homer that just clears right field porch.

Playoff quote...

Every time I see Jeff Bagwell, I want to get on my Total Gym. He looks like Chuck Norris."

Of course, I don't know who said the quote, because I'm watching the game on closed caption at DTUT while I write my Stanford Essays.

I was just IMing Anne and she wrote, regarding the impending jump to grad school...

Besublime5: plus, you have savings
BeSublime5: after working 3 years
BeSublime5: it's goin broke that's the salt in the wound

To which I replied:

Ceo21: Dude... I'm loaning this sucker out
Ceo21: I'm not tapping my equity
Ceo21: Its an MBO of myself.

I love that concept. Grad school is like a management buyout of yourself, using a lot of leverage. haha

In fact, it gives me a bit of inspiration around the theme of my new blog when I move from Blogger to Typepad.

I think I need to get out of here... at least, for a little while.

I remember a conversation I had with a Jesuit scholastic on one of my Emmaus retreat. He had dated before he became a priest, worked at a job in the legal profession, but he realized he needed a change. As he put it, he just realized that "If something was going to happen with all that, it would have happened already," meaning job, family, house, etc.

I think I need to leave NYC for a while... to shake loose some friends I keep going back to for who knows what reason, and to test some friendships to see if they can withstand a dramatic scene change. I want to know who follows me with calls and visits. There are some people that may choose to come along, but I can't wait up for anyone. What I am going to do is going to be a positive influence on the world around me... and I can't force it on people who don't want to be a part of it.

My boss and I talked today, because I needed his recommendation for the application, and that opened up a whole pandora's box of issues related to my place in the firm. He said something interesting to me. He told me that he thought I had plans that were greater than what I could do there. Going into the conversation, I felt like maybe there were things above me that I couldn't get to... I didn't expect him to turn the tables on me and tell me that there weren't enough things I could do there to be as great as I could be.

When I was a Regis freshmen, I got intimidated by my surroundings, because no one told me what I had the potential to accomplish. I learned that lesson late, and tried to make up for it at Fordham.

In the last day or so, I've found clarity of vision. I understand now how Stanford fits into my life... because its the best and biggest thing I have the potential to do right now, and I shouldn't be shooting for anything less than that. I don't want to look back on my life over the next few years and think I left anything on the table. Let's see how far this can go. I want to let it ride.

This is going to be big. I can feel it.

So I definately just stole a towel from the gym this morning. I've never done that before. It was in my hand and I just walked out with it. I didn't notice it until I wiped the sweat from my forehead about halfway home and realized that I've never been able to do that. :)

Anyway, so I had a random run in with someone I knew in high school yesterday and it got me thinking. Its really interesting when you are younger that you get into accepted modes of thinking about certain people... people who were out of your group, or in your group but then seperated. You fall in with a certain crowd and inevitably, their ideas about certain people become generally accepted thinking. Later on, sometimes you are lucky enough to cross paths later in life and realize that these were pretty decent people after all... of course you realize this after you figure out that the crowd you may have been in wasn't all you thought it was cracked up to be either. Its a lesson I've experienced several times and I need to do a better job of remembering it. Just because they are your girlfriend's best friend or rooomate, doesn't make them your friend, too. Just because the crowd your in parts ways with someone, doesn't mean they aren't worth keeping around in your own life. Be very careful to judge people by association, because perspective can skew things in odd ways.

Its funny. When I ran into this girl, Lauren, she asked who I still hung out with. Its been over a year since I've seen or heard from Dena, and having this genuinely pleasant run-in with this girl just made me wonder whether I need to be more discerning about who I invest time with in my life.

Site up for good. :) Post away.

Site back down. Dammit!!

Ok, so here's the issue. I had screwed up on the aliases (what makes www.findmypath.com point to findmypath.typepad.com) by typing in two of the same aliases, which just apparently confuses register.com. Ok, so my bad, BUT... Why do you set it up so that you let me do that? If I type in the same forwarding setup twice, shouldn't their system say, "Hey bud, by the way, if you do that, you'll be fucked." That would be a neat feature.

So, please check back in about 6 hours, or just go to findmypath.typepad.com.

Turns out the e-mail subscription thing didn't work either. It would have been nice of the owner of that service to tell me that as well.

This running an internet site is sketchy business.

Site back up. Just make sure you type in the WWW's. :) www.findmypath.com. I just added a feature that lets you subscribe to updates by e-mail, too. I'm not sure if it works yet, though. :)

For some reason, the Find My Path site is down... it has something to do with the forwarding from the URL I bought to the place where it actually sits. I hate register.com and at the moment, I have zero time to fix it. Stay tuned.. its going back up.

In the meantime, you can find it at http://findmypath.typepad.com . I'm so pissed off, because I got 500 hits in the first couple of days, which I was really happy about.

So we went to the "Graveyard of Ships" over the weekend. (I know, its Tuesday, but its been a busy week.)

Here are the pics...

http://findmypath.typepad.com/photos/kayaking_photos/

Now, I know that putting them up on my career posting site is absolutely the worst place for them, but I didn't realize how the naming convention and structure of Typepad would work. One of these days, I'll fix it and put them in the right place, but for now, you can't get to them unless you know the exact site. Besides, so what would be so bad if they knew that their career advice was coming from someone who kayaks in the Hudson River. Well.... umm.... nevermind.

By the way, I got my first question up on the site. I need more, though... lots more! Encourage your college student friends, parents of college students, etc. to find people to e-mail to findmypath@gmail.com and checkout the site at www.findmypath.com.

Have I mentioned the site enough?

findmypath.com

Once more... just to be safe...

findmypath.com

Use it. Post questions... or I'll hunt you people down like the dogs that you are.

Or... I'll just be disappointed. Either way. :

1:22PM Monday. Still no questions. I'm on pins and needles. This whole grassroots thing is going to be frustrating.

www.findmypath.com

Anyone who knows me well knows that I'm always taking on some new project. I'm an idea guy, and in the last few years, a lot of my ideas have related to students.

My latest project is a Q&A website. Every year, I wind up talking to more and more students asking career advice--either because I'm on alumni lists, or through the SEMI program, or because they are friends with other students I've spent time with. A lot of them ask the same questions. Answering all of them all in one shot was the idea of the book--but getting the book published has been like watching paint dry. At the same time, I've been getting into this blogging thing--reading what basically amounts to online magazine columns written by VCs all over the web. So, I figured... why don't I do something on the web?

So... here it is: www.findmypath.com.

The idea is mindnumbingly simple. Students send in a question, and an answer gets posted on the site. Not only does that student benefit from getting the answer, but a lot of students benefit from hearing someone elses question, because they might not know what to ask, and getting the answer.

So, for anyone reading this... Do me a favor. E-mail as many people as you know--college students, parents of college students, anyone that might somehow pass this on to a student who might ask a question. The website is www.findmypath.com and the e-mail I'll be using for the site is findmypath@gmail.com. I'm really serious about this and if it succeeds, it will make publishing the book a heck of a lot easier. Thanks.

I just keep looking at this http://scbhooper.com/archives/000834.html and I have to say, its probably one of the most amazing things I've ever seen.

This is a great post about how the future of opportunites isn't going to be in the nuts and bolts of technology anymore... its on the content and services--how it gets packaged in a way that consumers find value in it.

http://www.adambosworth.net/archives/000026.html

I can't wait to go in tomorrow and check FeedDemon to hear everyone's debate posts. I don't think I'll have anything groundbreaking to add, so I'll just post the post debate IM exchange I had with Brian. I do have a lot to post about a Regis focus group that I went to, but I'll hold that one for another day. Maybe I'll write it tonight and give the debate a few days to blow over.

Ceo21: Any useful insights from the debate?
cuth23b: I thought Bush was excellent
cuth23b: Kerry didn't answer a damn question the whole night
Ceo21: I hate to admit it
Ceo21: but
cuth23b: I think Bush clearly left you with the impression of "If you care about keeping the homeland secure, I have to be your man"
Ceo21: I think I'm voting for Bush now
cuth23b: I think I am too
Ceo21: Kerry has lost my vote
Ceo21: and he had it by default to start out with
cuth23b: Kerry's done nothing to get my vote
cuth23b: EXACTLY
Ceo21: and he's shown me nothing
cuth23b: So frustrating
cuth23b: Is it something with the Democratic party
cuth23b: Where we can't have a candidate
cuth23b: who's not a Clinton
cuth23b: say something of substance
cuth23b: Bush spanked him
cuth23b: He pointed out mistakes
cuth23b: He hammered home his points
cuth23b: You had clear takeaways from Bush
Ceo21: Its not even that
Ceo21: I'm not sure if Bush was THAT good
Ceo21: but
cuth23b: And Kerry says NOTHING
Ceo21: Kerry is just such a zero
cuth23b: He's got no energy
cuth23b: Nothing that draws you in
Ceo21: They needed what's his face
Ceo21: the screamer
cuth23b: Dean
Ceo21: Dean
Ceo21: yeah
Ceo21: Dean would have had this election won
Ceo21: if the media wasn't such a bunch of fucks
Ceo21: and told people
Ceo21: that this man
Ceo21: was psychotic
Ceo21: because he screams
Ceo21: look at this country
Ceo21: we all scream
cuth23b: hahaha
cuth23b: We're a soundbyte culture
cuth23b: And he gave the perfect soundbyte
cuth23b: And got f'd
Ceo21: Jesuits batting .367 tonight
Ceo21: nice 4 hit night from Monroe
cuth23b: Yeah yeah ...
cuth23b: I'll have you collect money from Carpet Munchers
cuth23b: for your winings
cuth23b: haha
cuth23b: http://www.nytimes.com/
cuth23b: look at the ad in the middle
cuth23b: that cost a few bucks
cuth23b: to time it with the end of the debate
Ceo21: I'm reading Kerry's Plan for Iraq
cuth23b: There's a plan?
Ceo21: http://www.johnkerry.com/issues/national_security/iraq.html
Ceo21: Yeah... its on the website
Ceo21: b/c
Ceo21: to be honest
Ceo21: he keeps referring to it
Ceo21: and
Ceo21: I'd never heard it
Ceo21: so I figured he had to have it written somewhere
Ceo21: I can't say its really anything groundbreaking
Ceo21: and the funny part is
Ceo21: It talks a lot about building coalitions
Ceo21: working with other countries
cuth23b: Yep
Ceo21: but his plan for N Korea
cuth23b: Alliances
Ceo21: is just the opposite
cuth23b: with countries he just spit on
Ceo21: 1 one 1
Ceo21: Oh, and by the way...
cuth23b: Ah, the bi vs. multi lateral approach
cuth23b: Which was quite entertaining
Ceo21: How fucked are the Sudanese?
cuth23b: Like [Ed. Note, the name of the person mentioned had to be deleted -- even though it was funnier with the real name in there] during fleet week
Ceo21: Neither one of them cares at all.
cuth23b: haha.
Ceo21: No one seems to care.
Ceo21: I feel really sorry for those people
cuth23b: I agree
cuth23b: How can ya not
cuth23b: May do a happy hour tomorrow after work
cuth23b: good seinfeld on .... talk to ya tomorrow

So that's basically it. I really wanted to vote for Kerry... well, check that, vote against Bush, but I realized that's not enough. You need your candidate to show you at least a minimal amount of substance to earn your vote. I held the bar so low, and Kerry still can't step over it. He talk's in vague generalities. We're supposed to be working more with other nations, but yet he wants to add more military divisions, and work with North Korea one on one. And, on that note, why are we even discussing North Korea? Do they harbor terrorists? Has anyone tied them to al queda? I just find it so unlikely that, even if they did have a nuclear weapon, they'd ever use it.. and more importantly, use it against us. Call me naive, but I think that we're well past the days of fearing sovereign nations attacking us with a nuclear first strike. Besides, we make a big deal about everyone else dropping the bomb, yet we're the only ones ever to do it against another country... and we did it TWICE. I don't think whether or not China sitting at the table regarding North Korea should be how I differentiate my candidates... and unfortunately, that's just about the only difference of opinion of substance that I could actually detect tonight between the two of them. And, here's the thing about Bush. Can we all get past the idea that somehow he lied to us? Thus far, no one has been able to rationally explain to me why he would do that? Let's suppose, for a moment, he knew there weren't any weapons in Iraq. Why would he go to war then if Sadaam wasn't really a threat?

For oil? That's hard to believe, because oil is way more expensive now, and oil production doesn't even seem to be a central focus of the rebuilding effort. I would have thought that, if this was a war for oil, we'd be paying less than $2.39 a gallon for it by now.

To revenge his Dad's failure? I'm sorry, that's just stupid.

To give Halliburton something to do? Again, while I'm sure there's been lots of favorable treatment of certain companies over others, its not the reason why we're there and I don't believe it has effected policy decision. The idea that a president would fight a war so that corporations would get money... well.... if I believed that kind of nonsense, then I wouldn't be working for GM now, would I... the biggest, baddest corporation out there. :) PS... How is it possible GM doesn't get blamed for terrorism by being an LP in Carlyle. Its amazing that Michael Moore missed that.

So, at the end of the day, I've basically supported Kerry because I disagreed with Bush's political views--yet respected him for his conviction. I don't care about his view on gay marriage, because an amendment will never ever pass, so I doubt his view is relevent. He shouldn't be wasting his time on it. I also think he shouldn't be mucking around in stem cell research either, but I won't swing my vote over, contrary to Kerry's statement tonight, unproven science, even though I think it should be allowed.

So I've been waiting.... waiting for Kerry to show me something. I wanted to see a clear and consistant vision.. detailed plans and ideas. He keeps talking about having a "Plan for Iraq." Check the website. Read it. Too many people are against the war and therefore think that by voting against Bush, they're voting against the war. Look at the plan. Its written well, but doesn't really say anything, and certainly doesn't seem to contradict much of what's going on there now. It doesn't say bring troops home. Perhaps we could be working more with other people, but then again, Kerry seems to criticize most of Bush's attempts to work with others anyway. Not only with North Korea, but with the search for Bin Ladin, where apparently we're not suppossed to use Afghans who actually know the territory, and instead, use US troops. You know who had detailed plans? Perot. He bought TV time to walk us through them, point by point. Maybe they can't do that anymore... I'm not sure. But Kerry could put streaming video on the web. Give us something, John, because so far, I just haven't seen anything. Just because I disagree with Bush on a lot of issues doesn't mean you automatically have my vote. Yes, the war became a mess, but I'm not sure Kerry has presented a clear plan to fix the mess. I don't know if anyone actually knows how. Is the mess Bush's fault? I don't know. I think he had a lot of people telling him there were more well thought out plans. So, perhaps Bush should be forced to replace his staff... and maybe that's what Kerry should be telling us---who is going to be on your staff? The Bush cabinate screwed over the war... tell me who you'll get that's better than what Bush has. (Seems to be a low bar there.)

I could go on, but basically, I'm a very disallusioned Kerry voter thinking really hard about how I'll be casting my vote. I may disagree with Bush, but I respect him for his conviction. I don't respect John Kerry... I don't disrespect him either. I'm indifferent, because he hasn't shown me why he's anything better than what we have now.

What's clear to me is this:

We have two pretty crappy candidates for president... AGAIN. I can't wait until Giuliani runs in '08.

The Sudanese are royally screwed. Obviously, neither candidate could give a shit about these people. It was so obvious in the answers to their question on it. Kerry's answer was, "Let's talk about Iran" and Bush was like, "We're already doing some stuff and we'll continue to do some stuff." Kerry said it can't become another Rwanda. I dunno, John, 50,000 people are dead already... how many more do you need to think that maybe its heading that way. Screw Iraq. Screw North Korea. If I was running, I'd jump out there and say that 50,000 people are dead and we need to fix that right now. I'd pull all my troups out of Iraq and just say, "Look, fix it yourself." What's the worst that could happen? Would 50, 000 people die there? Doubtful. I'd take them all out of Iraq and send then right to the Sudan and fix things there, because that's the greater risk of loss of life. Iraq won't survive unless it decides to help itself, and you can't run a country for someone. Anyway... that's all I have to say.

Dear Boathouse Volunteer.

Unfortunately we have to cancel the safety session we had planned for 9/30 due to poor water quality. The heavy rains have made the river unsuitable for wet exits.

Well.... that's just gross. :

I was talking to people about the Hudson River yesterday--we did a Hoboken kayaking program with Sandy. Someone said that the river flushes itself out twice a day with the tides. I wish my life would do that sometime. When you work at the same job for a while, things start to build up--little things that you just can't seem to get off your plate. You have little scraps of paper scattered around your office to remind you of all the things you were going to do, but have yet to get to. It just doesn't stop, you know--especially in private equity, because everything is so long tailed. GPs raise money for months and months... unless you give them a quick no, they hang around the hoop forever. I think that's what I liked about school... the fact that things come to an end at regular intervals. Semesters end, years end. Every three or four months, your life came to a close and then you had a little bit of a new beginning. You'd get new people in your classes, and the new classes would take you new paths around campus, at different times. Your work from last semester was done--there was nothing more you could do. It had a natural end.
There's so much on my plate right now. I wish the semester would end so I could have a fresh start. Perhaps our move to CT will do the trick.

ifoundsomeofyourlife.blogspot.com

The concept: Guy finds a memory card full of pics... doesn't know who it belongs to. So he gets a window into a year of someone else's life, well, sort of. He doesn' t know anything about who these people are, so instead, he invents the stories, and posts the pics one day at a time on a blog.

Moral? Maybe not... theft? Perhaps. Hysterical? Absolutely.