Watching the Wheels - Texting, Surfing, Emailing While Driving

In 2009, the NHTSA reported 5,474 deaths on the US streets and highways caused by distracted driving.  An additional 448,000 motorists were injured by drivers who were using cellphones and texting.

For the record, I am guilty of distracted driving. Today, I read about Bob Okerblom, who lost his son, aged 19, to a texting driver. His son, Eric, was a molecular biology major at Cal, National Merit Scholar, and all round great kid.

There but for the grace of God go I...

What?

Having texted, emailed, and surfed the web at the wheel, it could easily of been me who struck Eric.

Erik's family started a foundation in his honor - http://www.eofoundation.net/. His Dad biked across America reminding us all of the risks and losses we face when we drive distracted.

Starting today, April 22nd, I pledge not to text, email, program Pandora...etc, while I am driving.

Join me, if you like, in avoiding future tragedies.

Unusually Excellent: Skills Required for Leadership

Tony Zingale, CEO of Jive Software, recently sent me a copy of John Hamm's Unusually Excellent; The Necessary Nine Skills Required for the Practice of Great Leadership.

Hamm breaks the nine skills into three core segments:

1. Credibility, or a matter of character
1. Authentic
2. Trustworthy
3. Compelling
2. Competence, or a matter of skill
1. People
2. Strategy
3. Execution
3. Consequence, or a matter of values
1. Decision making
2. Communication
3. Impact

The book reminds me a great deal of Bill George's work. George is currently an HBS Professor and served as the long-time CEO of Medtronic. George wrote two wonderful books on leadership. You can follow Bill George on Twitter here. 

George's central argument is that mission-driven, rather than profit-driven companies, generate greater shareholder returns. Moreover, mission-driven companies require leaders with a True North, ie a moral compass/center of gravity that anchors not only the leader, but also the company. Hamm extends that concept and underscores the value of authenticity to leadership.

The moral compass proves its value in times of stress and ambiguity - it is the spirit of the law, not the letter that governs leaders with a True North.  As Hamm's model notes, competence is only 1/3 of the battle. Self-awareness, trust, a compass to navigate challenging decisions, the ability to share and empathize...are all EQ level traits. Pure competence, IQ, is not enough.  Lehman, Enron, AIG....all companies full of high IQ people who lost their way and operated without a compass.

My favorite book that speaks to the power of self-awareness and authenticity is Thich Nhat Hanh's The Art of Power.  Yes, a Buddhist monk wrote a book on business leadership! It is a brilliant read that reminds us not to let fear control us, not to focus on the wealth at the cost of well-being (golden handcuffs), and of the importance of living in the moment rather than in a guilt-addled past or a anxiety-laden imagined future.

The common abstraction of all these books is self-awareness. Who are you? What makes you authentically who you really are? Do you act out of fear? Do you act out of a desire to please others?

Why are you working where you work now? How did you end up here? What compromises have you made about who you really are? Are they worth it? What's stopping you from....?

The Journey is the Destination

Three years ago today, I left my MD role at Hummer Winblad to join Widgetbox. While Widgetbox grew into Flite, the leader in cloud-based advertising , I too have grown in ways I could not imagine.

While a VC, I worked on a deal that focused on testing wafers. The state of the art was to test the circuitry of a quarter wafer. This new company offered the promise of a full-wafer test.

The metaphor is meaningful to me. The CEO role tests one's skills, leadership, tenacity, and self-awareness in ways not possible in other jobs. Through each test, each challenge...hidden parts of who you are, what you are made of...reveal themselves.

The last three years have tested me in ways I did not think possible. The journey of company building, restructuring, and scaling both deepen who you are, while simultaneously revealing how you react to challenge, how you exploit advantage and insight, how you handle the good, the bad, and the ambiguous.

Three amazing years. Three years of better learning who I am.

Widgetbox Raises $12m from General Catalyst, Sequoia Capital, and HWVP. Rebrands as Flite

I am thrilled to announce the close of our $12m Series C. Neil Sequeira and General Catalyst led the round, with participation from our existing investors Sequoia Capital, Hummer Winblad, and NCD Investors. In addition to the funding, we also announced a new company name, Flite.

With the rebrand we have firmly positioned ourselves as the leader in cloud-based advertising. The Flite Platform allows advertisers, agencies, and publishers to create, serve, and measure ads that are as dynamic as the Web—delivering up to a 10X increase in ROI with ads developed in 1/10th the time.

The new company rebranding and platform-as-a service approach to advertising will empower advertisers to increase brand recall and purchase intent, while allowing our publisher partners to win more business and deliver more marketing value.

In addition to the rebranding and new company name, we have launched a new interactive site www.flite.com. Here we’ve highlighted our available services, solutions, and platform features. The new site also includes case studies, insights, and a new Ad Gallery that showcases how leading brands are using Flite to connect with consumers.

Finally, please find below coverage from of our funding and rebranding announcement.

TechCrunch
Sequoia-Backed Widgetbox Rebrands As Flite, Raises $12M For Rich Media Ad Serving Platform
by Leena Rao
http://techcrunch.com/2011/03/09/sequoia-backed-widgetbox-rebrands-as-flite-raises-12m-for-rich-media-ad-serving-platform/


VentureBeat
Widgetbox becomes “cloud” advertising company Flite, raises $12M
by Anthony Ha
http://venturebeat.com/2011/03/09/flite-widgetbox-funding/

Wall Street Journal Venture Capital Dispatch

The Daily Startup

http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2011/03/09/the-daily-start-up-incube-parts-ways-with-dfj-network/?mod=google_news_blog

Paid Content
Widgetbox Rebrands As Display Platform Flite, Raises $12 Million 
by David Kaplan
http://paidcontent.org/article/419-widgetbox-rebrands-as-display-platform-flite-raises-12-million/

MediaPost
Widgetbox Rebrands As Flite, Lands $12 Million 
by Mark Walsh
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=146312

Brand Spend On-line- A Secular Growth Trend Worth Betting Your Money and Career On

When I graduated from Harvard, I went to see a series of successful people to ask them what do do with my life.

I sat down with corporate executives, investment bankers, entrepreneurs, teachers, hedge fund managers, etc.  While few meetings remain with me years later, my meeting with John Tozzi, a leading hedge fund manager, still rings in my ears.

John asked me, "Will, when I started my fund, do you know where the Dow Jones Index stood?"  I had no idea and told him so. "800," he answered.  He then asked, "do you know where the Dow is today?" My answer, "8,000."  He then noted, "what are the odds that you will experience a sustained, secular bull-market like the one I have enjoyed?" "My advice", he sighed, "is to find a 10x secular growth trend that you can bet your career on."

I have thought about that advice many times in my life. In many ways, I believe that the Internet sector of today is the same as Mr. Tozzi's Dow 800. Over the next 25-30 years, a massive long-term, secular growth trend will occur. Capital, demand, customers, companies....will all ride this shift in asset allocation.

Isn't this old news? Yeah, Will, note to self, this Internet will be big.

The graph below, however, highlights that we are in the first inning (from AdAge).

Brands in US spend $91 bn a year. The % on-line = 6%. 6 freaking percent.

How's this for a no-brainer - what will the # be next year, in five years, in fifteen years?

In a zero-sum world, flat growth, the market will grow from $6bn to $12bn to....yes, $60bn, the same 10x market growth that Mr. Tozzi enjoyed.

In 1982, being long equity turned into a 20+ year bull market run.

In 2011, being long technologies that help brands shift their spend on-line is bet well worth making Bet your money, career, and passions on riding that wave.

10x....find a 10x market and sink your teeth into it.

America Inc.

If you read my blog, you know how passionate I am about our country's fiscal health and the threats we face from entitlement programs. The welfare state is no longer viable.

Mary Meeker's America Inc presentation below is an important contribution to educating all of us regarding the fiscal state of the union.

USA Inc. - A Basic Summary of America's Financial Statements

Running on Empty

In 2005, I wrote the post below on the dangers of entitlement programs to our financial viability and national security. In the intervening six years, the challenges addressed in Pete Peterson's book are only larger and more frightening.

The battle lines drawn this week in Wisconsin mark only the start of a looming battle between public workers and private tax payers.  California, Illinois, New York, and other states face a "Sophies'" choice - raise corporate and income tax rates, slash workers from government payrolls, or renegotiate union contracts.  The future looks bleak, but I take comfort in one important fact. Our leaders will no longer be able to "kick the can" down the road. Moreover, as legislators seek to avoid cutting union benefits, they will be forced to slash discretionary funding for transportation, K12 education, higher education. Such cuts will inflame the voting public and driven an increase in political activity and voter participation. 

The public will, ultimately, side with investments in the future rather than continuing to stomach public entitlements that are much more generous than private employer benefits. The net result for public employees will be higher retirement ages, the elimination of defined benefit programs, and increased medical premium co-pay rates.  In many ways, a new class war is brewing - not, however, between rich and poor but between private sector employees and public sector employees. 

It is time for our leaders to address the roots of our fiscal ills - military spending, social security, medicare...We deserve an honest accounting and an all programs need to be on the table.

2005

Several years ago, Pete Peterson, the founder of Blackstone and an ex-cabinet secretary, wrote an important and sobering book titled Running on Empty.

The book indicts both Republicans and Democrats for ignoring two troubling twin deficits - the the trade deficit and the budget deficit - which, he believes, may ultimately bankrupt the country. The hard-hitting book highlights the off-balance sheet, unfunded entitlement program liabilities that will fall due in the coming decades. With trillions of dollars in Medicaid, social security, and drug benefits promised to current and future retirees, he warns of some very hard choices that face the nation. For example, he estimates if Congress was forced to fund promised entitlement programs, we would face, "an immediate and permanent 60 percent hike in the federal income tax, or a 50 percent cut in Social Security and Medicare benefits."

Recently, news of corporate pension plans failing reminded me of Peterson's important book. For example, Delphi's unfunded pension liabilities present a scary harbinger of what is to come in corporate and government pensions. Delphi, the world's largest auto parts maker, faces an $11bn shortfall in its obligation to retirees. Delphi management, unable to negotiate with the unions, may file for bankruptcy, which would transfer the pension liability to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp, a government agency that insures pension plans. Unfortunately, the PBGC is itself underfunded, with assets of $56bn and liabilities of $79.2bn. Total corporate pension plan unfunded liabilities are estimated to be $450bn, well beyond the financial resources of the PBGC. Ultimately, tax payers will be liable for the failings of management to properly fund future obligations.

Roger Lowenstein wrote a wonderful NY Times Magazine article, The End of Pensions, which provides scary and powerful insight into the failing of the defined benefit program and the massive state and local pension obligations that dwarf the corporate dilemma.

Why am I writing about this?

Economic growth is a function of investment. As entitlement spending drives deficits, we will need to finance them with either massive tax increases or massive borrowing to cover our shortfalls. As we borrow more, we will see a higher percentage of our tax base go to interest payments and the lions share of our local, state, and federal budgets go to entitlement spending that reward historical work rather than into investment programs that drive future growth. Both parties appear incapable of addressing this fundamental problem, and I hope that the writings of Peterson, Lowenstein, and others wake the electorate up to the scary prospects of a failing corporate and government pensions and the mortgaging of our future to fund entitlement programs.

Made to Stick, with hat tip to George Orwell

Chip and Dan Health's book, Made to Stick, is a fun read. The sub-title is a good one; "Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die."

Chip and Dan created a mnemonic framework for evaluating ideas and ensuring their stickiness: SUCCES.

1. Simplicity
2. Unexpectedness
3. Concreteness
4. Credibility
5. Emotions
6. Stories

The Heaths contrast "sticky" language with the all too common, obtuse jargon many tech companies suffer from. 

Orwell's great essay, "Politics and the English Language" is highly relevant to "sticky" positioning. His essay skewers political writing and the overly obtuse, self-important, self-referential writing common to academic publications.

His rules follow:

1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print
2. Never use a long word when a short word will do
3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out
4. Never use the passive when you can use the active
5. Never use a foreign word, scientific phrase, or jargon work if you can think of an everday English equivalent 

As we all work to bring technology ideas to market, it pays to think of how to make the ideas "stick." Far too many sites and PDFs sound like the passage below, selected by Orwell for ridicule and an example of what not to do!

"On the one side we have the free personality; by definition it is not 

neurotic, for it has neither conflict nor dream. Its desires, such as 

they are, are transparent, for they are just what institutional approval 

keeps in the forefront of consciousness; another institutional pattern 

would alter their number and intensity; there is little in them that is 

natural, irreducible, or culturally dangerous. But ON THE OTHER SIDE, the 

social bond itself is nothing but the mutual reflection of these 

self-secure integrities. Recall the definition of love. Is not this the 

very picture of a small academic? Where is there a place in this hall of 

mirrors for either personality or fraternity? 

         Essay on psychology in POLITICS (New York) "

My Top 10 Reads of the Last Year

I have a few friends who email me regularly for book recommendations.  I write to share my top favorite books of the last year.  All wonderful stories.

1. The Hangman's Daughter by Oliver Potzsch
2. The Last Child by John Hart
3. The King of Lies by John Hart
4. Conn Ingulden's Genghis Series (4 books)
5. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
6. Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
7. The Book of Saladin by Tariq Ali
8. Star Island by Carl Hiaasen
9. The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins
10. Getting Even by Woody Allen

Luck

In August 1956, my maternal grandfather, Herbert Merrett, wrote the following poem.

For any athlete, entrepreneur, and pursuer of excellence, the words ring as true today as they did decades ago...

Luck

The luck that I believe in is the

luck which comes with work.

And no-one ever gets it who is

content to wish and shirk.

The men the World call lucky

will you tell you every one

That luck comes not by wishing

but by hard work, bravely done.

Good luck!

Start-up Forecasting

"Forecasting is difficult, especially if it's about the future."

Forecasting start-up revenue is not easy. I write with a few thoughts on how best to handle the need to present financial forecasts vs. the uncertainty inherent in any model.

In general, two forecasting methods exist. The first, tops down, seeks to identify an addressable market and revenue becomes a function of market share. The second, bottoms up, is often best captured by detailed assumptions regarding how to get to revenue. For example, I am partial to the productive sales rep model: W# of sales reps * X rep maturity ramp * Y quota per rep * Z productivity per rep.

In my experience, both models are straightforward to develop. The art lies, however, in the skillful blending of the two approaches to satisfy a board, prospective investor, sales team, etc.

Forecast errors compound across time. Therefore, it pays to focus on three to six month bottoms up plans. A near-term bottoms up plan requires thoughtful detail and projections based on specific variables - how many sales heads, quota, ASP, etc. Operating history then turns the assumed variables into actuals and the model begins to solidify.

Beyond six months, the bottoms up approach is simply an exercise in guess work. How then should a management team think about the long-term?  I have found two useful models. The first is to examine historical comparables - for analog companies, what was the revenue ramp rate?  A model can be focus on projections that assume either the average, median, or top decile growth rates for comprable companies. Ie - it happened before and history looked like $xm, $ym, and $zm over three years.

Another model is to set strategic market share goals. In essence, the long term plan focuses more on clearly defining an addressable market and a strategic goal of capturing x% of the market.  Again, the art lies in defining the market, the market's growth rates, and a strategy for competing for 20-30% of the market at large.

It pays to invest in both near-term detail and longer term aspirations. The former assuages board members and investors and provides them confidence in your operating bona fides. The latter fires the imagination and helps paint the picture of how a very large, venture return company can be built.

The Power of Frameworks - Respect the Process

After winning the Orange Bowl, Jim Harbaugh saluted his team for "respecting the process." 

Stanford's Carol Dweck (must read book MindSet) argues that growth-mindset people focus on the "process and not the outcome."

With an outcome in their sights (lose weight, sell more, pick new year's resolutions, rebrand), most people jump right in.

However, outcomes are derivative of commitment to a sound process. Without a clear process, most people fail or practice random acts of violence that may or may not work.

Since becoming a CEO, I have come to appreciate the wisdom of frameworks and processes.  Whenever I think about an outcome, I must catch my enthusiasm to reach it and instead, step back, and define a process for how to realize the goal.  The universal application of "process vs outcomes" is very real. In fact, I find that any process is better than no process at all and the specific process matters far less than committing to one.

For example, how did you pick your New Year's Resolutions?  How are you planning to lose weight?  How will you develop a strategic development plan? Forecast sales....Develop software?

To take one example - New Year's Resolutions - the American Association of Happiness happens to have a very handy framework with which to develop a sound list.  MAPS - pursue personal resolutions that will result in MEANING - AUTHENTICITY - PURPOSE - STRENGTHS.

I would argue that the power of frameworks compounds across the # of team members - ie the more people that you have working to a goal, the more value you will derive from a joint commitment to a process. Why? Frameworks provide a common mental model, semantics, structure that help overcome individual idiosyncrasies and biases. The shared model provides a vocabulary for common action, dialog, and progress. Without a framework, individual biases will make communication challenging - leading to frustration and failed missions.

Little in the world is truly new. For any particular goal - running a marathon, swimming a mile, to brand positioning - there are sound frameworks. The value of frameworks helps teams focus on the "upstream" work that will lead to the outcome rather than the outcome itself. Moreover, the value of a process compounds with the # of team members - the larger the team the greater the value.

Harnessing Entrepreneurial Manic-Depression: Making the Rollercoaster Work for You

This post really captures what the ride and the graphic, pasted below, hit home.

The crisis of meaning does pass and then the stage of informed optimism begins!

How Does Happiness Co-vary with Age and Why 46 Is a Tough Year

Sep Kamvar and Jonathan Harris are the creators of We Feel Fine. They have built a crawler that indexes the blogosphere to analyze occurrences of the phrases "I feel" and "I am feeling."


Every day, 15,000-20,000 blog posts are indexed and the system extracts, where possible, the authors' gender, age, country, state, and city. The net result is an incredible data set that helps understand the covariance between feelings and age, gender, weather, location, and season.


The analysis on age found the following "major emotional themes as we age.",

"We start simple (11-14), but soon fill up with angst (15-18) and feelings of confinement (19-22), until we leave those behind to go conquer the world (23-26), before gradually trading ambition for balance (27-30), developing an appreciation for our bodies (31-35) and our children (31-35), and evolving a sense of connectedness (36-40), for which we feel grateful (36-40), then happy (41-49), calm (41-49), and finally blessed (50+)."

Their analysis and amazingly cogent summary are truly fascinating. While the site is impressive, the authors also released a book, We Feel Fine: An Almanac of Human Emotion.

The data is increasingly the study of economists, who are looking to move beyond GDP per capita to a more satisfactory measure of human well-being.  The Economist recently published "The U-Bend of Life: Why, beyond middle age, people get happier as they get older."

The Economist study, noted in the graphic above, finds a different relationship between age and emotional well-being. For Arthur Stone, the nadir of life is 46 - this is a global average. A few explanations for the covariance between older people and happiness are listed in the article - the death of ambition, greater acceptance of oneself and setback, not being prone to anger, being more mindful of mortality and hence more present.

Between the two studies, we find that age materially impacts our well-being. While we are all unique, on average there are times in our life, or the lives of loved ones, when we must recognize larger forces at work on our psyche.

We are all familiar with teenage angst and the mid-life crisis, however, we can now see that all chapters in life come with a set of expected feelings and, thankfully, that as we age it will get better!!!

Ad Innovation and the Joy of Product Market Fit

In June 2010, Eric Schmidt noted that future display ads "...would be mini-Web pages. That means they could allow users to watch a video, leave a comment and see real-time content updates..."

The article below highlights how we do exactly that. 

The key is allowing rich media to both morph into app-like ads, while allowing it to scale through a powerful platform.

http://emediavitals.com/content/who-needs-website-enter-nanosite-ad-unit?utm_source=Daily+Buzz&utm_campaign=773c229a16-_nl_DB_12_13_2010

Who needs a website? Enter the nanosite ad unit

Rich media ads continue to evolve, effectively becoming mini-websites in a box.  Tech publisher IDG and developer Widgetbox have teamed to create a new “nanosite” ad unit that can include video, real-time content, social media and other interactive elements.
The Nanosite Ad Unit, announced today, basically turns an ad into a microsite, housing multiple, clickable assets.  A sample unit that IDG and Widgetbox created (shown at right) includes a branded white paper, a video, case studies and editorial content from IDG publications such as CIO. In a press release, the companies claim the nanosite unit “can dramatically increase brand engagement, brand recall and purchase intent relative to traditional display advertising.”
The nanosite unit is the latest in a number of display advertising types that are adding more functionality and interactivity as advertisers seek better ways to engage website visitors and publishers look for ways to boost digital revenues.
Increasingly, these ads blur the lines between branded and editorial content. AOL’s Project Devil, for example, can include a mix of what AOL CEO Tim Armstrong calls “real content.”
For their nanosite offering, IDG and Widgetbox will collaborate on the creative direction for campaigns, design the ad, and provide the underlying technology and metrics for the campaigns, which IDG will sell across its brands, which include Computerworld, CIO and Network World.
“We are providing more value to marketers by delivering innovative ad concepts that provide highly engaging content choices for readers,” Jeremy Rueb, vice president of program development for IDG Strategic Marketing Services, said in a press release.
IDG has emerged as a pacesetter among B2B publishers expanding their custom publishing offerings into full-blown marketing services businesses, in an effort to drive more digital revenues as advertisers embrace “vendor as publisher” models.  

The US$/RMB: China's 16 year trade war and what we should do about it

Ten Years Ago Paul Tudor Jones Had An Acute Case Of Plantar Fasciitis « Dealbreaker: A Wall Street Tabloid – Business News Headlines and Financial Gossip

This article fundamentally changed my view of US-Sino relations. We need to deal with China' currency, unilaterally if need be.

A 30% tax on Chinese imports is not the start of a trade war, but instead of awakening to the pernicious effects of China's currency manipulation on our manufacturing base, employment, and future.

Hear, here, Mr. Jones!

Jeff Immelt on Leadership

The Sunday NY Times ran a very good piece on GE. The article centered on GE's strategy to focus future growth and profits on manufacturing vs. financial services. GE Capital used to deliver 50% of GE's profits, however, the recent financial crises led GE to return to its roots.


The barrier to entry - scale and capital - highlight the strategic value; "heavyweight products that take patience and piles of cash to develop, weigh tons and last for years — next-generation jet engines, power turbines, locomotives, nuclear plants, water-treatment systems, medical-imaging equipment, solar panels and windmills. Mr. Immelt notes, for example, that the cost of a good-sized solar-panel plant, about $70 million, is more than twice the total investment in Google in the six years before it went public in 2004."


The article also touched on his leadership style. I loved this quote. "Leadership by fiat when done in moderation, Mr. Immelt says, can drive change and set a course. “I think that if you run a big company, you’ve got to four or five times a year, just say, ‘Hey team, look, here’s where we’re going,’ ” he says. “If you do it 10 times, nobody wants to work for you. If you do it zero times, you have anarchy.”


We hear all the time about Steve Jobs, perhaps the ultimate rule by fiat leader.  However, I personally believe that strong teams, decentralized decision making, and not top-down central planning lead to better companies and stronger results.


The genius CEO, Steve Jobs, is sui generis. Not a scaleable model to mirror one's company or leadership style after. There is only one Steve Jobs. However, all leaders can hire well, empower their teams, and set strategic direction, while avoiding the micro-management and rule by dictate.

Primal Instincts, How Body Language and Personality Dictate Success

Want to be successful, well-liked, effective? Want to make more money, receive the lion's share of promotions?  Want to raise money?

Well, according to Amy Cuddy of HBS, it is vital that you understand how our primal psyches process personality traits and non-verbal behavior.

The two most critical variables in how people perceive us are warmth and competence. These two traits account for up to 80% of our overall evaluation of people, "i.e., do you feel good or bad about this person."

The article notes, "warmth - does this person feel cold or warm to me? - is the first and most important interpersonal perception. The warm/cold assessment amounts to a reading of the other's intentions, positive or negative. Competence is assayed next: how capable is someone of carrying out those intentions."

We admire warm/competent people, we envy cold/competent people, while we pity warm/incompetent people, and exhibit contempt for cold/incompetent people.

Meanwhile, like dogs, non-verbal postures signal dominance and power, or, conversely, fear and meekness.  Nonverbal postures impact our endocrine system and link stances, gestures, and hormone levels.  The photos below illustrate "power" positions, while the following photos illustrate low-power positions. Hugging your arms close together is akin to the dog with its tail beneath its legs:)

"In all species, postures that are expansive, open, and take up more space are associated with dominance. Postures that are contractive - limbs touching torso, protecting the vital organs - are associated with low power, being at the bottom of the hierarchy."

Examples - she looks at her MBA students and finds, "classroom participation is 50% of the grade. There, women students have a harder time getting airtime, and speak more briefly when called. Women are also more likely to cross their legs and arms, or to lean in: low-power poses. While men raise their hands straight up, women tend to raise them with an elbow bent 90 degrees, commanding less space."

Another example comes from Laksmi Balachandra's research. He looked at 185 venture-capital pitches. His findings? "Changing one's mindset also changes the mindset, and neuroendocrine secretions, of others. The success of VC pitches turns on how comfortable and charismatic you are. The predictors of who actually got money are all about how you present yourself and nothing to do with content. Key variables include - calmness, passion, eye contact, and lack of awkwardness.

Back to warmth...Cuddy finds that we want to cooperate and help warm/competent people...we are rooting for them. However, we tend to resent, envy, and do not help cold/competent people.  Envy drives ambivalence and ambivalence is clearly a hindrance to progress and support.

So - warmth, power postures, calmness, eye contact, passion.

Now you know:)

The 4-Hour Work Week and What I Took Away from Ferris' Book

I recently attended a conference where I received Tim Ferris' book, the 4-Hour Work Week, as a gift.  While much of the book is hyperbole, I found two enduring lessons in the book worth reflecting on further.  The first takeaway is the importance and power of fear.


Perhaps, Mark Twain said it best, "I am an old man and have known many troubles, but most of them never happened."  


What? My reading of the quote and Tim's points on fear is that we often let our brains beat us - fear of the unknown, fear of what might happen, fear of making mistakes, fear of change, fear to realize our dreams....fear is a self-defeating, calcifying presence in all of our lives. We all suffer from insecurities, self-doubt...however, we must recognize that most of the "bad things" that we fret about are figments of our imaginations/stories we tell ourselves. Overcoming fear and conquering self-defeating thoughts is vital to self-realization and achieving a life well-lived.


My other favorite quote regarding fear and overcoming it comes from Teddy R, "

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."

The second key insight, for me, from the book is reflection and projection. Am I happy/excited about my current direction in life, my job, my current reality?  If yes, then great. If not, then what must I do, what path must I follow, to align my life's work with my life's passions?

Projection?  Tim writes about the importance of taking a good, hard look at your boss. Do you want his/her life? In 15 years, do you want to be the person, live the professional life that they are/do?

If not, change it.

In summary - the book is a shot across the bow. First, are you fears holding you back?  What are you missing in life by letting fear trump growth, experiences, and discovery.  Second, are you sufficiently reflective about the path your life is on? Are you projecting where that path will lead? Do you like what you see? If not, what are you going to do about it?

Widgetbox Mobile: A Bet on Mobile Web Apps

Today, Widgetbox announced the launch of Widgetbox Mobile, a mobile app service that allows businesses of all sizes to easily make and distribute a feature-rich mobile app in minutes.  In addition, we are pleased to announced that Ali Diab, former VP of Product Management at AdMob, joined our board of directors. 

TechCrunch covered the story, click here for article.

Widgetbox Mobile: Build and Deploy Mobile Web Apps for iPhone and Android in Minutes

Widgetbox Mobile delivers the following to customers:

• Mobile App Builder: make a mobile web app in minutes without writing any code; create a custom app for a fraction of the cost and time of traditional native apps.
• Cross-Platform Functionality: create a mobile web app that works on both iPhone and Android devices.
• Widespread Distribution: distribute the app through multiple channels including social media, email, text (SMS), quick response (QR) codes, and your own website. No need for complex and lengthy app store approvals—just quick and easy distribution on the customer's own terms.
• Ripple Live Updates ™: edit an app anytime, any place and push live updates through the cloud-based online service.
• Advanced, Detailed Analytics: detailed insight into how the app is performing to allow customers to continually optimize performance.

Why are we betting on the mobile web?  It is our belief that open standards and browser-based solutions, over time, trump native, client-side applications. While today's mobile web is native-centric and app-centric, the promise of HTML5/web standard technology allows for businesses to development, distribute, and optimize highly engaging mobile apps via URLs, QR codes, and text messages.

Please try out the service and let me know what you think.