Hypothyroidism
I learned recently I suffer from hypothyroidism. Sucks. I’m just so always tired, no energy at all. If I have to do something, I have to speak to myself and find some sort of positive side to it, otherwise I can’t do anything.
The symptoms are weird: lack of energy, insomnia, weight loss/gain, leg/joint/muscle pain (for me that’s the worst), feels like you are depressed, burnt-out, emotionally unstable, grumpy, everything seems like a mountain, etc… It is often misdiagnosed as depression, burn-out, imaginative disease, etc…
Everyone (doctors, people I met who suffer from it also, websites & chats) agrees that its easy to treat (medically and not), that the medication prescribed will take somewhere between 11 days & 8 weeks to take effect and that the reaction to the medication will be awesome. I am suppose to feel my energy coming back like never before. It’s been a month so far, and I don’t feel a change. Only one month to go.
The analogy I give people is the following:
- I feel like I went camping by myself in the woods and were suddenly attacked by a wolf.
- The blood-sucking prick is gone by all my stuff is destroyed, and I’m badly hurt.
- I have to walk to the nearby village where I know I’ll be safe & sound.
- But the walk there is painful.
- And as I am making progress, I’m mad at myself and feeling guilty at the same time. If the wolf-eating analogy were real, I’d probably say to myself: “Why the hell did I go camping in the woods by myself, leaving the garbage by the tent, not bringing some sort of a emergency radio handset, sat-phone or even a GPS beacon for people to find me.”
- I am mad at myself for not having the energy to go through my day, for being guilty (feeling guilty of feeling guilty, for christ’s sake!), nervous about not knowing when this will end, while knowing it will all be better soon.
Anyways, that’s been the feeling experienced since the diagnostic came in a month ago. And the few months before were quite the same.
So, as a positive side to this (everyone knows I am a positive), here’s a small graph that shows we can’t have everything. So, we’ll see what I’ll end up with! :)
Hahaha! So funny! Nerdy humour like I love!
This is an excellent video done by CNET UK: History of the iPhone, dedicated to the memory of Steve Jobs. (Through Business Insider, through Laughing Squid)
Saying no is the key to focus. It’s part of the new details I am obsessed about.
This is Steve Jobs at the ‘97 WWDC.
“Focus is about saying, No. And the result of that focus is going to be some really great products where the total is much greater than the sum of the parts.”
The idea is to do one thing and do it better than anyone. This is my goal. And to be disruptive.
(Through Techcrunch)
This is awesome. The dude Duke is 90 years old. We already wished we were him because he married a Queen… (From through Business Insider).
Making the decision to work with someone.
Making the decision to work with someone is not something you tend to do on a regular basis. There is a major difference in working for and with someone.
I was reading an article tonight that had a very good quote:
One of the best pieces of advice I ever got, back when I was 23 and newly out of school, is this: look around and figure out who you want to be on your team. Figure out the people around you that you want to work with for the rest of your life. Figure out the people who are smart & awesome, who share your values, who get things done — and maybe most important, who you like to be with and who you want to help win. And treat them right, always. Look for ways to help, to work together, to learn. Because in 20 years you’ll all be in amazing places doing amazing things.”
Seeing one of your partner leave
When we started the company, I had 2 partners I really wanted to work with: they both had highly complementary skills to me. Now, the one who put us three together (our glue) decided to part ways. There are a few reasons for his leaving the company, but the most important: an offer he couldn’t say no to. It’s sad to see someone him go. I truly wish him luck and I dearly hope he’ll be available to partner with again in the future.
Making the decision to stick
Francis was our original glue. I had to decide if I wanted to stick & work with Yves, the remaining “new half” of the company.
I’ve known from the start I could not handle a start-up on my own. I’m too much in my head and not enough in action sometimes to lead a company through regular payrolls, monthly accounting & everyday operational or admin stuff. I’m good at handling 2-3 projects extremely well, go in quite a level of details… But not running a full operation. So I had to find that person.
And I did. Yves is that person.
He’s truly someone I want to work for with for the next 20 years. He’s that good. A smart guy, open-minded, always looking for both sides of the coin (a quality anyone who works around me must have) before making a decision. I learn a lot from him and I hope he gets to learn around me. And most importantly, as much as I want to help him win, I feel like he’s the one who wants that for me even more!
Now for the next step!
1.5 years ago, my life changed.
We’re early September 2011 when I am writing this.
1.5 years ago, my life changed. I decided to launch my first (100%) own business. No start-ups with others, no corporate credit card, no outside financing: two partners, myself and faith (and a very comprehensive & patient girlfriend).
Quick Summary:
- Launched with no precise business idea or business plan.
- Decided to look for opportunities with 2 guys I knew I could work well with (team mattered most).
- Decided to focus on consulting while we built our thing (even if consulting has never been my thing), but with a twist: focus on sales & performance.
- Studied a few business opportunities and decided on buying one.
- Learned I was to be a daddy!
The Good(s):
- We passed our 1st year profitable. But… (see The Bad(s) for more).
- I am learning (more of) my own strengths everyday.
- I discovered a new friend, one that will most likely be one forever.
- Am having a blast at working for a great company & for a great president for my first official consulting gig… And I
thinkknow they like what we do for them as well!! :) - We have our own software, business project & steady revenue stream.
The Bad(s):
- We finished our 1st year profitable, but discovered the true meaning of “Accounts Receivables”. A (good & long time) customer had a bad financial situation and owes us $60k+. Impact: we own the government tax money we don’t have, we can’t pay ourselves, we have to look into our 401k to meet ends, we have to re-work our business plan & a partner is thinking of leaving.
- Learned what it means to “downscale” your lifestyle, a.k.a: make half the money you used to… It really sucks ass!
- Learned that even if you have a great lawyer, you’ll forget something that might cost you.
- Building a website is not easy! It takes time, more than you think. Can’t wait to see the result!
- I have more weaknesses than I thought, not easy to learn.
The Conclusion:
- I’m tired, but that’s OK!
- We’ll see where this all brings us but I feel very confident.
- I’m learning a lot. I’m discovering strengths about myself I never knew I had.
- I learned to pause & listen, and am still learning. At work and at home!
2011 & 2012 will be challenging nonetheless. And I’m looking forward to it.
The Evolution of Competitive Advantages, Or How Networking Can Change Your Business.
Over the past 100 years, organizations have faced tremendous challenges in the ways they compete. In doing so, we clearly saw different layers of competitive advantages appear. The pyramid below (found in a PDF on the InterWeb) presents how competitive advantages evolved over time and transformed organizations. It also identifies what will drive business in the second decade of the 21st century: relationships.
What are relationships? Is it social networks? Is it happy hour? Is it friends, colleagues, family relations? Relations is networking. Business networking is the new competitive advantage. Who you know and who knows you is the new competitive advantage. After decades of figuring out how to manage and optimize manufacturing, technical support, information, data and knowledge, we must learn how to develop, nurture and profit from relationships. This is the most important business opportunity of the next decade.
Excerpt from the document
Each step on this pyramid represents a major shift in the competitive advantage of an organization. Going back to the turn of the century, economies of scale and manufacturing led to price advantages. When price was equalized in the market, quality and service became the new differentiators. Producing widgets with fewer defects and/or providing value-added services to enhance an enterprises’ product offering allowed them to compete more effectively.
The explosion of information technology led to the central role of data in an enterprise. Collecting, disseminating, and managing data in cost-effective ways, aligned with continuous improvement of an organization’s business processes, were key measures of viability and growth. Information technology became a critical success factor in evaluating organizations. Organizations unable to leverage automation and information technology to reduce costs and realize new opportunities were at a huge disadvantage.
The next phase of competitive organizational evolution revolved around knowledge. This has been elusive, partly because knowledge in essence is unstructured data. Unlike the 0s and 1s of this document that can be digitally stored as one self-contained document, knowledge sits in the minds and experiences of people. Therefore, it neither lends itself to being easily packaged and stored in centralized repositories nor can it be marked up with metadata (the data that label and describes the data stored in the repositories). There are some excellent examples of enterprises that have learned how to tap into knowledge to spur innovation and create competitive advantage. Design industries offer excellent examples. Through math-based, knowledge driven CAD/CAM (computer aided design, computer aided manufacturing) initiatives automotive manufacturers have been able to significantly reduce design time cycles, costs of producing prototypes, and increases in safety. In these cases the information technology paradigm morphed well to match these data-driven knowledge opportunities. The short tenure of actionable knowledge strategies is less a function of failure and more an indicator of exciting times that lie ahead.
Cultivating and nurturing a complex and rich collection of relationships is paramount to success. In the future, employees will create value through interconnected relationships. These relationships will need to be capable of and organizationally empowered to synthesize information in real time to fabricate new products, services, information, or relationships to respond to real-time, emergent market needs.
I am moving in the business of developing, nurturing, managing and profiting from relationships. Anyone wants to learn more?
Dakx
"Nouriel Roubini, the New York University economics professor who predicted the financial crisis, said the global economy may suffer another slump due to higher oil prices and widening budget deficits.
“I see the worry of a double whammy” from energy costs and fiscal burdens, increasing the risk of a setback in the economic recovery, Roubini told a conference in Paris today. Oil may rise to $100 a barrel, he said.
"
— Bloomberg
