We’ve all been busy in the past 2 months, as you might have been too.
A lot of good things came along the way and a few amazing opportunities showed themselves, thus we immediately acted upon them.
In our first exercise of transparency I’ll be announcing (INC)3’s current investment portfolio, as well as the latest acquisition but most importantly, the people that made everything possible. We’ll also share some insights on what we’re looking in a company and what we’re planning to achieve. I’m almost certain that no one is as excited as we are, yet I hope you’ll share our enthusiasm and commitment.
Thank you, save the date, the main announcement will go live first thing Monday morning, on the 8th of February.
Next Monday’s Announcements
Expect the unexpected
It’s quite obvious that unpleasant situations occur almost every day in each and everyone’s lives. I won’t call them unfortunate as I really don’t believe in fortune or luck.
I’ve been talking about morality and the inexistence of luck and hopefully that motivated you to become a more down-to-earth person. Yet some situations occur for what you’re totally unprepared for. Call them shocks, call them unexpected situations. Call them whatever you like but be aware of their existence.
More or less often these are quite nasty and hateful things that turn your life upside down in the most undesirable way.
Be it the loss of a job or contract, a complete disappointment in a friend or relative or death of someone you love, it’s something [...]
Private Morality
All my posts are inspired by daily events and by events happening in the lives of those close to me. I take my inspiration from making connections that some might not immediately see and sometimes I put a story coating on it.
I was reading Brian Solis’ latest post and his first quote by Gabriel García Márquez, “Everyone has three lives: a public life, a private life, and a secret life.” reminded me that I’ve been advocating that this should no longer be true. It’s no longer possible to live a secret life. It raises quite a few issues and creates a nasty gap in how you market yourself and how people see you.
Why have I’ve been advocating this: It raises [...]
Man up & deliver
I’ve had so much success supporting my arguments with the following presentation in the past months that I need to share it, hoping that it will motivate you enough to get past your own silly excuses. In a nutshell: you’re not at all special unless you take a stand, make a promise and deliver on it. Enjoy
If you can see this, then you might need a Flash Player upgrade or you need to install Flash Player if it’s missing. Get Flash Player from Adobe.
Dealing with disappointment
Or better yet, dealing with unsatisfied expectations.
We’ve all witnessed the unveiling of the almighty iPad, the joy of Steve Jobs and the aftershock of disappointment. We all expected the iPad to be a gamechanger, the next iPod, a heavenly mana. But it’s not for me and judging by the social media reactions, it’s not for quite a lot of people. It’s utter disappointment and many of you will not get over it, even after the hype will die out.
But you should. I’m disappointed by the form factor – I never imagined a more ugly looking Apple product. I’m still going to switch to a MacBook Pro, but you wouldn’t catch me dead with an iPad. I find it useless and certainly not worth [...]
Are you a Linchpin?
If not, you should become one.
Ever since Seth Godin mentioned his new book I became quite curious. Not so much because of the Apple-style hype (Seth says that this is his best work – I hope for more in the near future) but because it tries to smash the barriers of your conditioning, eliminate unhealthy fear and ultimately turn you into a linchpin – a remarkable and indispensable person.
I’ve been advocating this for a while and for a plethora of remarkable people I know this book will come in handy; it will change the way they think about fear and doing the thing they think they love.
If you’ve watched Seth’s presentation at 99% you need to read his guest post at Escape [...]
Startup Showcase
In the past few months I’ve come across a few very interesting and promising startups. Many of these though lack the opportunity and resources to get the word further out than their friends and close acquaintances but most importantly, go way beyond their national borders.
Therefore I’m going to start a series of showcases on these type of startups and I’ll try to point out what sets them apart, what problems do they solve and most importantly, why should we care.
I plan on starting next week with a local startup I’ve been following for a while. They do some amazing work and hopefully my showcase will do them justice. I plan on making Robert Scoble proud.
I’m quite familiar with the local startup [...]
Newsflash: There’s no such thing as luck
How many times have your heard someone saying I make my own luck and thought to yourself that’s a big bull? How many times did you wish for it to be true? And how often did you try to make your own luck, without even knowing what that means?
Well, let me get this out of your way really fast, so we can concentrate on what’s really important afterwards: There is no luck. There is no chance. There’s no such thing as coincidence. If you believe in luck you should stop reading right here.
Still with me? Good. Now, if there’s no such thing as luck, is there something else that could explain all the good (and bad) things that happen in [...]
The power of Reaction
It’s been almost two weeks since I’ve seen a genuinely happy person. Everyone around me seems so down and disappointed that it almost makes me physically ill. They all lack motivation, interest and sheer will power do get a thing done, even though the desire is still there. And even more worrying is the fact that these people get together.
Bad idea.
It’s quite a common fact that you’re unwillingly influencing the people around you, either in a good or a bad way. And when two disappointed people get together in an unsuspecting crowd it’s almost certain it will create havoc: all folks around you will act down, tired and bored and you’ll end your evening with a bitter taste in your mouth, hoping for [...]
How I Tweet
Without any doubt you will agree that Twitter has become an indispensable communication tool. Some even dare call it the next email. I’ve created my account almost two years ago but only actually started using it as a proper communication tool in early 2009 and I’ve never looked back ever since.
Twitter is at this point on the rise of fast becoming the real-time, main-stream communication tool of choice. It’s quite an understatement that if you’re not on Twitter, you don’t exist.
At some point I was actively following over 500 people and the stream was fast becoming a torrent of noise. For a while I was even auto-following everyone that followed me, out of common courtesy. Guy Kawasaki is still doing [...]