I talked before about discipline. I’ve fallen back into the habit of reloading my reader if there is a moment of down time. Here’s what I did to fix that:
I dusted off an old computer that wasn’t being used, and I installed Ubuntu on it. I placed this old computer on a book shelf across the room from my desk. It’s not a convenient place for a computer to sit because I have to stand to use it.
I have a router that allows my family’s computers to all be connected to the internet. Normally on a home network the router will assign a dynamic IP address to any computer that tries to connect. That’s how mine was until I set up my main computer with a static address — that means the address never changes, and is always reversed for that one computer.
Once I created a static IP address, I was able to tell the router: Do not allow the computer at that address to access this list of sites, between 6:00am and 6:00pm.
So now I have a main computer which is free to search for, say, code snippets, or stock photography, but cannot go to my rss feed, my e-mail, or any forums I frequent during business hours. To go there, I have to walk across the room, get on my linux desktop, and stand up while I access any of those.
I’ve created a barrier between my wandering brain and the work I need to get done! Take that, ADD!
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Update on my life. I’ve been doing many things I had on my back burner for the past 3 weeks, and it’s been really great. I’ve set up the Linux e-mail and document station in my office that I’ve been meaning to build. I’ve cleaned out my 100-year-old detached garage that was literally full, floor to ceiling, with whatever nonsense all the previous occupants of my house filled with it from ancient hand drills (totally cool), to piles of rotting clothing from the 70s (totally not cool). Great way to get over your fear of cockroaches, let me tell you!
I’ve spent a lot of time with my loved ones, been able to attend political events in my area, write letters I’ve been putting off, read books I’ve intended to read.
It’s been a good time. Then there’s the part about the money.
Read the rest of Interview Process, Part 2 »
Thought I’d share this, I thought it was pretty good:
Davy Brion: Career Advice for Young Developers
I’ve been goal mapping in the past day or two, and I’ve generated two really plausible options to reach the goal of acquiring $2 million in liquid assets within 2 years, and with the constraint that I need at least $3,000 per month income to support my family.
The first is employment at a company that I’m not prepared to make public yet. The job pays substantially less than what I made at Ideal, but it’s a telecommuting position, and I plan during an upcoming negotiation to ask for a 4 day work week. That will keep me afloat and leave me almost half the week to build other projects.
The product or suite of products I’m researching the market for right now is in the medical services industry, possibly targeting veterinary practices. I’ll talk in much more detail about that later if it turns out to be worthwhile. I might also do a post about where to start with this sort of market research.
Read the rest of On the Horizon »
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Last we spoke, David had been fired, I was developing a goal map and polishing my resume. I said I would ask Jesper for a budget and a raise, but it turns out he had other plans.
The Lead Up
Jesper never liked David. He agreed to take David on board in order to get the cash from an investor who (rightly) didn’t trust Jesper to grow the business. I think Jesper’s plan was always to sabotage David and get him canned. He succeeded.
Jesper never approved of David’s expenditures — Jesper simply doesn’t believe in long term investment. It’s like that portion of his brain was extracted surgically. If it doesn’t produce cash in Jesper’s hand that day — that moment — then it was bullshit, period.
Read the rest of Lack of Work »
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
This is perhaps the culmination of my drivel: many close friends have told me that this writing is odd because it doesn’t sound like me as I am in life. It has a certain preachy quality to it that I haven’t settled into, so the voice sounds inauthentic to me.
It’s been clear to me since day one that I am not really achieving my goal of an unbiased account of my way toward the top. Instead, I am relating lessons I’ve learned previously and had the chance to digest and reflect upon in the form of allegory. My intention has been to write until I find my stride, and maybe in this uncertain moment, I have.
I think that allegorical style of writing is very useful for its intended purpose, but not necessarily for my purpose.
At this point I’m in the woods. I’ve run out of insight, and I am playing it by my gut. This is where I’ve wanted my writing to come from all along, but it’s different than what you’ve read in the past, I think. There is no call to action, and no prepackaged life lesson to be found.
The Time of Silence
I’ve decided to write a synopsis of the previous month or so because I’m hitting a wall with my writing. I normally like to package things in terms of the lessons I’ve taken away or practical advice I have about the goings on at Ideal or in my career generally. The issue is that this last month-plus has been intense and I can’t properly reflect upon it at this close distance. This is why I’ve been more quiet than usual.
Maybe a later post will have a full treatment of the material, but for now, let’s call this a journal entry to get my audience and my head up to date.
Read the rest of A Synopsis of the Previous Month »
Stop the presses. The CEO of Ideal, David, has officially resigned his position.
I was already generating options for my future a la goal mapping, but this changes the dynamic.
What I know is that he was ousted through some political machinations by Jesper.
Read the rest of David Quits Ideal »
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
My original exit strategy for my employment at Ideal had three basic phases:
- Kick ass at my job by designing superior products, and organizing my team to be efficient and productive
- Use the momentum of my success to simultaneously negotiate for options, and a larger, more visible role in the company.
- Use my role in the company to steer it toward a liquidity event in which we go public, or more likely in the current environment, we are bought by a large competitor. I exercise my options just before the event, then leave the company with at least $2 million in cash
The Goal Mapping exercise threw my grand plan into the shadow of doubt. There are too many dubious steps along this path: factors I can’t control, assumptions I can’t test, too many steps along the way to make the path very probable.
So how to recover? I need to generate more options. I need to consider alternate paths, perhaps more risky moves. I’ll try advanced goal mapping, and write about it here.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
This post is the first of at least two about Goal Mapping. It’s a technique that I invented, but it’s painfully obvious, so I doubt I’m the first. I’ll explain the simple (but still wildly useful) version of the goal map in this one, then the next article will cover the more advanced mappings you can try.
A definition:
A Goal Map tracks the relationship and topology of your goals and the steps you need to take to achieve them.
Each event that you plan for lives somewhere on this goal map — you have a starting position, an ending position, and all the positions in between. There may be alternate routes, dubious passages, and construction work, but this map will show you how to travel from start, to finish.
There are several ways a goal map might help you:
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Monday, September 22, 2008
Rich guys focus a lot on exit strategies. As they plan their next venture or deal, they decide how to achieve whatever goal they’ve set for this endeavor — that’s all an exit strategy is.
For example, Jimmy wants to open a restaurant, and his plan is to run it until retirement, by which time he hopes to have a good general manager that can run the day to day stuff while he collects a check from his beach house. That’s Jimmy’s exit strategy.
James, on the other hand, wants to build a medical services company and achieve a 25% market share with a 15% margin. He wants to do this because he knows the bigger players in this industry will buy his company when he achieves these goals. So, he creates a plan that will help him build this company in ten years, and sell it for $100 million to a large competitor. After that he’ll search for the next big deal (right after he flies around the world with his trophy wife for a couple months). That’s James’ exit strategy.
Read the rest of Exit Strategies »
