Link: The Door Gates.

I haven't posted about The Gates yet, but this link is inspiring.   

In all honesty, I suppose The Gates because it is bringing in lots of revenue to the city.  I know someone in the hotel business and she told me that her hotel was packed on what would otherwise be a slow week when this thing opened.  So, since it didn't cost the city anything, and it brings in tourists, I'm a fan, even if I don't really see its artistic value.  To me, it just kind of looks like an orange obstacle course for oversized dogs at Westminster.

Link: Branding Blog: Confidence - Where to Get it and How to Keep it.

I've been thinking about the subject of confidence, and its close cousins cockiness and brashness, so its fitting that I came upon this Branding Blog post.  This is an excellent post and I'm posting it on all my sites.  What makes it even better is that Baltasar Gracian was a Jesuit.  I'll add another quote from him here:

"Attempt easy tasks as if they were difficult, and difficult as if they were easy; in the one case that confidence may not fall asleep, in the other that it may not be dismayed."

While I've often been noted for my confidence, I've just as often been called overconfident and cocky, but I never thought those descriptions were particularly fitting.   I think people have a tough time discerning between people who think they are great and people who earnestly desire to accomplish great things.   In all honesty, I don't believe that anyone can be great, existing in a state of greatness.  We are nothing save for the aggregate sums of our actions. Many people have contributed greatness in their deeds, on many different scales.  At the end of the day, we are all just people.   None of us is any better than the next guy (or girl).  That is why my blog is called "This is going to be big."  Its not "Charlie is going to be big."  That's a major distinction as far as I'm concerned.  While I may often promote the things I'm involved with, I never actually promote myself, and I don't plan on starting to either.  Its interesting how that line seems to get blurred sometimes.  It seems difficult for others to seperate the two when it comes to my activities, because I am indeed so passionate about them.  Perhaps there is something in my style that seems to elevate my persona over and above the activity or the content, but its by no means intentional.  In fact, I try to avoid it.  I've never liked being in the spotlight and would much rather have my accomplishments get into the spotlight turning myself into a small byline. 

The other aspect of this is that my blog is not entitled, "This is going to be bigger than you."  I am a vervent believer in the potential in every one of us to succeed on our own terms and positively affect the world around us, and in no way do I see life as a winner take all game.  It should be win-win all the way around, and just because I'd like my accomplishments to be great, doesn't mean that yours can't be as well, or that I don't want to see you succeed.  Everyone out there should make "This is going to be big" the tagline of their life.  I don't have a patent or copyright on it, and by no means do I want to live in a world where people don't believe themselves capabile of big things.  (And, for the record, by big things, I mean what is "big" to you... not big as defined by monetary gain.) 

But, to be fair, the blog is definately named "This is going to be BIG", which is a rather unapologetic tagline.  Why do I brand my contributions this way?  Its because of what I believe about how goals translate into accomplishments.  I don't believe success is accidental, and I certainly don't believe that people with small goals stumble into larger accomplishments.  I'm sure it probably happens once in a while, but for the most part, I think you never quite get where you want to be, so you need to try and overshoot.  This is me overshooting, and I'm also the one that needs to deal with the "disappointment" which equates to the distance between what I was shooting for and where I wound up.  Of course, I need to keep in mind that usually, where I wind up is a pretty good distance from where I started from in the first place--underscoring the need to put everything in perspective as you set and reach goals.  So I toss my hat in the ring, starting out with huge visions and winding up with reasonable deeds. 

Take my Success Blogging site, for example.  I definately want to be to career blogging to what Steve Rubel is to the blog marketing world.  I want someone to "discover" me and ask me to write a book.  I want my Learning Annex class to be packed...  maybe 100 people will show up.  Its all going to be very BIG.

But you know what will probably happen?   I'll make a handful of good contacts...  we'll probably have about 15-20 in the class and maybe I'll speak on an occasional panel now and then.  No book.  No 1000 people on my Feedburner. 

And, in all honesty, that's just fine with me, because I'm 25, and I've only been blogging about a year.  I've only been talking about career blogging for a few months and I already have three speaking engagements.  That's pretty darn good and I'm very pleased with that, and had I not aimed higher, I wouldn't have had what I got.

Why do I want the opportunity?  Its not to promote myself.  Its because I want to contribute and I believe I can.  I believe I have great accomplishments in me waiting to get out.  I feel the same way at work.  I want Brad and Fred to look back and what I've done and think that it helped make the firm better--something really special.  Isn't that the way we should all be approaching our efforts? 

I'm not special.  In fact, I probably have no more great accomplishments in me than anyone else.  I just don't want to waste mine and look back and wish I had done more.  You shouldn't either.

When I woke up this morning, the snow was pretty deep, and too wet to get much writing done in it...

_________________________________________________________________

Link: CNN.com - Author Hunter S. Thompson commits suicide - Feb 21, 2005.

I think we all need to be challenged a little more in our lives.... to have people pick our snowglobe world up, turn it upside down, and shake it up a little.  We cast aside and discount a lot of the people who push limits... who think out of the box, but they're the ones that really keep things interesting, and I think, in a way, we secretly envy them.  Its comfortable to think of ourselves as "regular" and to think of people who walk through life turning over unturned stones as some sort of fringe element.  This way, it makes us feel as if we're not missing out on anything by not testing the limits ourselves.  Its like when someone blows past you on a highway.  You yell at them and say they're going to hurt someone, but part of you wants to know what its like to drive that fast.  Sometimes, when you do that, you realize how little of the world we've limited ourselves to makes sense, and how the far the accepted reality is from where you think it should be, and that's where it takes a toll.  It took a toll on Hunter Thompson yesterday.  Yesterday, the wave finally broke and rolled back.

"There he goes. One of God's own prototypes. Some kind of high powered mutant never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die."

Fordham wins!  Fordham wins!  Stout hits a three to win it 56-54!

Down to the wire...

Tipoff!!

Check out the snazzy new Metro North trains!  The things you learn when you've lost your wheels...

I suppose after the Disney-fication of Times Square, they had to go somewhere else...         (Its  really Essex Street, for the record.)

Dad's 65th at Lai Yuen.

Link: Regis High School.

So, I may have found the answer to my recent banishment to the sidewalk since I turned in my GM car....    Regis is auctioning off a Mercedes C 230.  The price?  $500 a ticket.   hmm....    Feelin' lucky?

Link: Many-to-Many: Social Software: Stuff that gets you laid....

Keeping your eyes on the prize...

That was the quote from a temp that came in this morning to replace Kerri while she was out at a vendor training.  I told her, "I had come to terms with it, but thanks for opening up that wound again."

This is my new desk and yes, its out here in the open, but I wouldn't say its in "Reception".  We're all kind of out in Reception, because you can see everyone's office as soon as you walk in the door.  Key items on the desk include a picture of my nieces and a sunset picture I took at Fordham.  I also have a little Fordham banner and a mug full of pens.

In all seriousness, I like being out here.  We have a small office here, but I already did the office thing at GM and I really didn't like it.  I'm right here in the thick of things and nothing happens that I don't see.  In fact, I tried to get into the "bullpen" at GM, but no one wanted to switch with me, so I got "stuck" in an office.  (sob, sob... I know)

First new digs offline, now a new site.  I think its interesting from a square footage perspective how much of the front page they've dedicated to Typepad versus the other services.  LiveJournal is a little box under the fold, and the main LiveJournal.com hasn't changed at all.  Its not as "menu"y as I would have expected and LJ doesn't really appear as a tier in the structure.  Nonetheless, its yet another thing to follow in this company's interesting story.  The site is much more professional overall.  They're really putting together quite a bench there. 

The big question for me now is whether to shamelessly submit my blog as a featured site.  Perhaps after I get a Blogmoxie redesign.   Speaking of which...  I need to ping them again to see if they have an opening for me.

Question:   Am I a sellout for putting the strip of Google ads at the top of the page on my personal site?

To be perfectly honest, I debated this for a while.  I've had ads up on the Success Blogging site since the beginning, and the site has basically paid for itself in the first month.  However, that, while still not entirely a business, is more of a pseudo commercial venture, so ads seemed not entirely inappropriate there.  But this is my page.  Am I crossing the line by pawning the space at the top?

I don't think so, and here's why:

1) The ads don't cost you anything, not even in terms of the annoyance cost.  They don't drop cookies, pop up, make sounds, or drop spyware on your PC.  They just sit there, white on black with a little grey, seemlessly blending into the color scheme of the page.  (PS... I've decided the format needs an upgrade...  that's like Project #7 on the list... too much to do.)   

2) They may actually provide a service for you.  Perhaps they link you to something useful. 

3) A good deal of the traffic on my site isn't necessarily from friends and people I know.  I get a lot of random traffic passing through.  I know that because I can see where people are coming from.  I think 10% of my traffic comes from people Googling "Gmail Notifier" or "Stanford MBA".   I think of my ads like a commuter tax for those people.  You don't live here, but you use the content.  Why shouldn't you contribute? 

One thing is bothering me, though.  There's an ad at the top that directly competes with Success Blogging.  In fact, the website has a very similar name.  Of course, there's plenty of room for consultants and speakers talking about how blogging can make you successful, so I'm not that worried, but still, if I had the choice, I'd rather not be advertising for a competitor on my site.  Or, perhaps his success will help my own and vice versa.  Anyway... I'll keep you posted on the progress.

Remind me again....  Is it the third, or the fourth sign of the Apocalypse when two mobloggers capture the same exact moment?  In this case, its the Six Apart folks (not surprisingly):  Ben and Barak.  Where was Andrew when all this was going on?  Clearly, he dropped the ball on the moblog trifecta.

From Steve Rubel...  Great quote...Link: Micro Persuasion: How Not to Pitch a Blogger.

Back in my early career my mentors used to tell me never put anything in email to a journalist that you wouldn't want on the front page of The New York Times. Well, nowadays you need to think bigger. I say, never put anything in an email to a blogger that you wouldn't want to stick on your own forehead for life!

We had an interesting discussion yesterday about blogging.  In particular, we talked about my blogging in relation to my employment at Union Square Ventures.  Blogging is a very powerful medium, and you never know who is reading.  While its very easy to put up a "My opinions aren't that of my company" note, that doesn't mean that there won't still be some entrepreneur who reads my blog and decides that USV isn't the kind of firm they want to work with.  Of course, my penchant for flip commentary and shooting from the lip doesn't help that.  Now, of course, flip commentary about baseball or kayaking is unlikely to have that kind of effect, but opinionated commentary about companies and technology might. 

In addition to my potential for saying something out of line that isn't reflective of my firm, I'm more concerned about putting myself out there as more of an expert on something than I am.  Its so easy for blog content to proliferate around the net, and perhaps I'll post some kind of groundbreaking insights that everyone will want to trackback to.  (It could happen!)  All of the sudden, I've put myself out there as someone who knows something more than they really do, and, at this point, that's not something I'm particularly comfortable with.

Therefore, I've decided to institute some new policies around here, in the form of a policy statement:

- I am employed by Union Square Ventures as an analyst, not a partner.  The opinions expressed on this site are not necessarily reflective of the opinions of other employees of the firm, nor of the official positions of the firm (if there are such things) and should not be construed as such.
- I have decided not to post my opinions, for the foreseeable future, on technology and venture capital related topics in terms of their viability or potential success as a business.  From time to time, I reserve highlight what technologies I find useful from a technology consumer standpoint or point out what features I would like to see added to existing products as a consumer. 
- I will not be posting any discussion about companies that Union Square Ventures is looking at for a potential investment or is currently invested in.  However, I may actually use or link to some of their publicly available services on my blog as a user.  Obviously, if we like a company enough, its not unlikely that we would use their services. 
- I will not be posting any internal business and technology related discussions, whether it be with Brad and Fred or with any companies I might speak to.  Fred can post on such discussions if he so chooses on his own blog, and Brad, well, I'm sure Brad will cave eventually on the blogging. 
- Please send any business plans you might have to Union Square Ventures through our website, and not directly to me.  This is my personal site and while Charlie as a person is an analyst for a venture capital fund, this site is not about that fund and mention of its activities are incidental to descriptions of my life.

So, my first day went well.... thank you to everyone who asked.  :)

Of course, it was a bit awkward.  I mean, you work for eight years in one place and all of the sudden you're thrust into a little world that existed before you got here.  Its really about the little things.  What's my best route to work? How loud to I have to be so Brad and Fred can hear me in their offices, which are about 12 feet away from me and glassed in?   How loud should I be?  Where's the bathroom?  What time do people go to lunch?  Where can I get lunch?  Should I be talking more or less to Kerri than I did to Jeff when he sat behind me?

And the answers?

I haven't figured that out yet, but this morning I just took the 4 train all the way to Union Square and walked back up b/c it was so nice out.  It seems to be too crowded at Grand Central to switch--that might be different when I'm back on my gym schedule.   I don't need to be too loud.  I can probably be loud enough to do it, too, without getting up.  I have a vague idea where the bathroom is, but in all honesty, it hasn't come up yet.  Maybe I should be drinking more water.  Brad gets soup for lunch, which would fill me for, ooooh, about two hours, so that's not an option.  Fred went at about 1, and he took me out minutes before I passed out.  Hench, I brought my lunch in today so I could eat at my normal noon feeding.  As for Kerri, I still haven't figured that out yet.  She hasn't had a coworker in such close proximity for years, so she's very focused on her work pretty much all day.  Since Jeff and I chatted endlessly all day, I'd bet that I'll be less chatty in general. 

So, I apoligize to anyone expecting to hear from me.  It will probably take me a good week to get fully back up to normal.  Cleaning out all of the office and car junk from my apartment would be a good start.  When my apartment is a mess, it definately affects me in the outside world... similar to the way I was in a funk when all my Ikea furniture hadn't been assembled yet when I first moved in.  I'll get there, though... don't worry about me.

I've been terribly out of sorts over the past four days, which is why I haven't posted.  In fact, this is the longest I've gone without posting for some time, but now I'm back.  Let's catch up.  Last Friday was the the last day of my employment at GM, after more than eight years.  It was very emotional, to be honest, and I found myself needing to stop saying goodbye to too many people in a row over a short period, because it was a bit much to take.

Friday started out exactly how you wouldn't want you last day to start out.  I completely overslept, forgetting to turn the alarm clock on.  I woke up at 8:58 AM.  I had the car on my block, but it was on the wrong side, which started at 9AM.  I was turning it in that day, and I still needed to empty it.  The last thing I needed was a ticket, in addition to the fact that now I wouldn't have anywhere to put it as I was emptying it.  So I threw on clothes, and ran like hell down the stairs... only to find that cars were parked on both sides of the street.  I stood there dumbfounded for a few moments.and went back upstairs.  It was almost 9, no?  I checked the internet...  turned out it was Lincoln's birthday!   No alternate side.  So I didn't get into work too late anyway.  Still, it was a shame to have to turn in the car.  I have no doubt that I'll be getting a car by the summer.  I just got so used to having one and I loved driving.  I took a picture of the final mileage as I was turning it in.  Sigh.

I have to say, I did get a very nice sendoff in my final days.  The team had a pizza party for me.  Marcy and I went out for sushi last Tuesday, and Larry and I have scheduling dinner with Dorean and Leslie to schedule.  I even got a Tiffany clock, which they promptly took back from me in order to engrave it.  If it wasn't a Tiffany clock, I'd probably dread what they could possibly write on it, but I don't think Reals would leave a joke message on a brand name item. 

I finally made it out at about 6:30 Friday night.  Everyone else was pretty much gone.  It was all so... well... final.  It really felt final.  Closing the lights in my bare office and heading out was surreal.  In fact, I was playing Closing Time by Semisonic on my iPod when I left. 

"...Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end..."