On both my home and work computers (not that I would ever do anything non-work-related on my work computer...)
As soon as the page loads, within a couple of seconds, it freezes up. Maybe there's just been too much controversy lately :)Anyone else having this problem?
Loving the discussion that is going on among the readers on the post: At what price ‘social’ media?", but here’s another angle.
Let’s work on the assumption that we are all creatures of perception and, to some extent, it’s more important than fact.
Ok, good…
Now, I’m in a start-up business, right?
I’ve had some client wins and some setbacks. Well documented.
Potential clients want to associate with winners, right? They want to feel like they are betting on a proven commodity.
So, here’s the rub…
If my blog is a place where I can be open and honest with you, the reader, and I write about, say, losing a proposal, or a client not happy with my work (hasn’t happened, don’t worry) and I try to frame it within the context of personal development, am I taking too big a risk?
What if a potential client, who isn’t a longstanding FOJ, reads that post and concludes: “nice guy, but obviously not a winner. If others aren’t hiring him, why should I?”
Then, if that’s the case, the unfortunate end result could be an unwillingness by me to share what is REALLY going on via my FOJ blog.
Or, should I just do what “feels right” and hope that clients will have the courage to hire me even if others have decided not to?
Thoughts?
Note: this is entirely hypothetical. All of my clients love me and people are knocking down my door to hire me :-)
life can change.
I was swimming in the pool, just doing laps.
All of a sudden, I feel a strong kick in my back.
I look up.
There are two lifeguards(!) in the pool, laughing. They had pushed each other in, but in their teenage stupidity, they don’t realize that their joking around could have seriously hurt the father of 3.
I was livid and I screamed at them, using words I’m not going to put on the blog (and remember these were lifeguards).
And then I was shaken.
Shaken at how close a call it was (or could have been). And what could have happened if I’d been seriously injured.
Perspective really matters, eh?
You were warned :-)
My kids call me “Abba,” which is hebrew for Father.
The other day, Paco (3) and Tonka (4.5) were asking for things incessantly…
“Abba, this. Abba, that. Abba, I want cheese. Abba, I want yogurt.”
It was driving me crazy.
Finally, I said, “ok, for the next five minutes, no one says ‘Abba.’ I don’t want to hear it.”
Tonka sits quietly.
Paco looks at me and says,
“Jeremy, can I have some water?”
Wonder where he gets it… :-)
Image via WikipediaIt was the marketplace for “time buyers” and “time sellers” that was my start-up prior to joining Microsoft.
The objective was to connect people who needed small jobs (painting, errands, computers, etc.) with those who could perform the service.
You put in a request and within 24 hours, you got a list of people in your zip code, willing to do the job you wanted done, for the price you were willing to pay, and you could read feedback and ratings from other customers.
We had revenue, we were in the Wall St. Journal and Washington Post, but we didn’t have profitability.
Anyway, got a note from Ari Goldberg the other day and it was a trip down memory lane. This was the email that we sent out to our community members.
We like to think we were “ahead of our time.”
Found this while restoring an old .pst file. Made me laugh so wanted to share but also saw that I still have two clients from then that are still active
From: info@silentfrog.com [mailto:info@silentfrog.com]
Sent: Tuesday, April 30, 2002 11:51 PM
To:
Subject: Welcome to SilentFrogDear Ari Goldberg
Welcome! We are excited that you have chosen to join the the Silentfrog community. Please keep this email for your records.
YOUR NEXT LEAP
Now that you're a Silentfrog TimeBuyer, your next step is to log on with your username (email address) and password and visit your home page, where you can:
- search for local Time Sellers, view their ratings, and read feedback
- send job requests to find help and get things done
- view your 'Track Jobs' page to see the status of any pending job requests you've sent and select a TimeSeller to hire
- start building your personal TimeSeller list, where you can save names of Time Sellers you'd like to contact regularly
SENDING REQUESTS
To help you out, we've answered some Frequently Asked Questions about sending job requests:
Should I send my request to multiple Time Sellers?
Not all the Time Sellers you contact will be available to do every job, so you can increase your odds of finding someone who is available to do your job by sending this request to multiple Time Sellers.
What if I don't have any Time Sellers on my own list? How does SilentFrog pick the Time Sellers to send my request to?
We base our selection of who receives your job request on several factors, including how close they live to the zipcode where you need the job done, a skill match with the task you request, their TimeSeller ratings and references, and the number of jobs they've completed successfully in the past.
BUYER TIPS
Here's what other TimeBuyers have requested recently:
- Need babysitter for my 2 year old 1 evening /week
- basketball
- Babysitter
- Handyman
- Preparing Mailers
Thanks again for joining.
If you have any questions or comments , please do not hesitate to contact us immediately.
Asher and Jeremy Epstein, Co-Founders of SilentFrog
ashman@silentfrog.com
jer979@silentfrog.com
....at least according to My personalDNA Report
Do you think this accurately describes me?
What are you? (takes about 14 mins)
That’s the thesis put forth by the producer/director of The God Who Wasn't There.
He is a former fundamentalist Christian who essentially accuses the entire religion of being based on a questionable myth.
If that’s not enough to motivate you to watch it, not sure what else is there.
Felt sort of “Da Vinci Code-ish” at times.
As a non-Christian, I was really wondering how my Christian friends would react/respond to this one.
I wish I could recommend who recommended The History Boys to me because I want to thank him/her.
On the surface, it’s an early 80’s story about the pressure to get into Oxford and Cambridge in the UK, so it gives a very revealing look at the somewhat ossified approach to higher education there, but there’s a lot more.
The character development, IMHO, was very good. I felt connected to them (and there were many) and the numerous angles to the story made it quite rich. It felt a bit like a UK version of “Dead Poets Society” at times.
Solid film though.
A well-written (would expect nothing less from a NY Times best-selling author) testimonial on my services from Dan Pink.
Obviously, this made me feel pretty good.
this is neat. light cover of fluorescent at hospital showing kites and clouds
One of FOJ’s best, Tjada is getting married.
Knowing full well my penchant for efficiency, all things digital, and more recently “going green,” she reached out to me via Facebook and wrote:
Could you please send me your snail mail address.
We are preparing for wedding invites. Only b/c it's you, let me know if you guys find it offensive or paper wasting to get an actual mail invite. I wouldn't dare say that to someone else, but I think I kinda get you.
And wouldn’t you know it?
The other day, she sent the ENTIRE invitation digitized. Love it!!
It’s sales 101.
The executive assistant is just as important as the executive.
Whoops! I forgot that one.
Have a wonderful opportunity with a highly respected company. The assistant is fantastic. She was funny, greeted me with a hug when I met her the first time, and seriously asked me to bring my kids while I met with her boss.
After meeting with Chiron’s boss, I was given permission to submit a proposal. GREAT!
Then, I promptly ‘disappeared’ only to re-emerge in Chiron’s life when her boss wasn’t answering my calls.
Chiron called me on it. In a BIG way.
“I don’t hear anything from you for two weeks. You don’t say hi. You don’t drop me an email saying ‘what’s up?” and now when you need something, you come calling?”
She was partly joking, partly serious.
And she was right.
I deserved it. I forgot that ‘power’ doesn’t lie only with the title.
I’m not afraid to make mistakes. Make ‘em all the time. I’m afraid when I don’t learn from them.
I’ve learned from this one. Calling it the “Chiron Rule.”
During the 5 hour roundtrip to Michigan from Chicago with Josh Rogers (aka ‘Mishigas’ in Michigan), we had a number of very interesting conversations.
Given the somewhat ridiculous nature of our mission (though I suppose the trip itself was evidence that the “journey is the destination” since we had a great time hanging out with each other), Josh was talking about the idea of “doing it all” in life and living with no regrets.
Over time, we realized that it is, of course, impossible to “do it all” since you can’t be in Michigan and Chicago at the same time, obviously.
So, we settled on the idea of a “full life.”
We want to be able to say at the end, whenever that is, that we lived a “full life.”
Question for you: what does a “full life” mean?
How do you know if you are on track towards living one?
Say you are Pro-Choice. Would you buy a car from a dealer (assuming it was the best deal you had found, of course) if you knew the owner gave money to Pro-Life causes?
What about the reverse?
What about someone who supports Obama? or McCain? Or Hamas? Or enables Chinese suppression of Tibet?
Was talking to someone who sells products online the other day.
He’s got very strong political views. He was expressing concern about how “open” one can ‘afford’ to be in social media, given that there are those who would punish you economically (i.e. not buy your product) if they knew your political opinions.
He said, “I’m not willing to sacrifice profits for social media,” so he’s keeping his opinions offline.
A nice discussion of this in the comments section of my buddy Adam’s blog.
What are your thoughts?
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