Great Ideas

12 hours after posting my Taxi geo-location idea I read this on Jamie's Blog. The TaxiMagic iPhone app has been download. I can't wait to put it to use.

Mind of an Entrepreneur 005

I spent the day at the #140Conf at the Kodak Theater here in L.A. The conference was focused on new media and featured Bijan Sabet, Robert Scoble, Arianna Huffington and many more of the most innovative folks in new media. As a young entrepreneur it was exciting. I was really impressed by just how many great connections I was able to make in such a short period of time. But more about my thoughts on the conference in a future post.

For now I want to talk about the real time, location aware, mobile media. Let me break it down:

Real Time - You can watch it as it happens. When the photo, video or tweet is posted it is instantly discoverable to you.

Location Aware - When you post anything it is tagged with your location, using the GPS on your mobile device or the IP address of your computer.

Mobile Media - Your cellphone.

The players in this space currently include FourSquare, Loopt, Whrrl, BrightKite and Google Latitude.

This evening, post conference, I was talking to my mom trying to explain these networks, when she proposed what I think is a pretty neat idea - Taxi Tweets (not necessarily a Twitter app, but a catchy name).

The general premise is this: I'm sitting at a friends house getting ready to go out. Instead of picking up the phone, dialing 411 for a cab company and then waiting on hold with the taxi operator for 10 minutes I post a Taxi Tweet, geo-tagging the post with my exact location. In time the cab company responds that a taxi is on the way and gives me an estimate of how long it will take for the taxi to arrive.

Who Benefits:

The customer - because ordering a taxi is easier than it was before.

The taxi company - with some innovation (that would take full advantage of their taxi's GPS systems) these companies could get rid of their operators. The nearest taxi driver would be made aware of the location of his next pick up via an on board computer.

As with all of my Mind of an Entrepreneur posts feel free to steal this idea. I would love to see one of the companies mentioned above putting this into action. I could certainly use it.

Wifey

Saw this on Jamie's blog who saw it on Daryn's blog. Anyone who has ever built an organization with a partner knows just how true this is:

My relationship with my cofounder went from just being friends to seeing each other all the time, fretting over the finances and cleaning up shit. And the startup was our baby. I summed it up once like this: “It’s like we’re married, but we’re not fucking.”

Persistence

Yesterday I posted about the importance of persistence and focus in building a successful organization. Last night I was in my dad's office fixing one of many his persistent computer problems when I came across a Japanese proverb he had scrawled on his wall:

Nana korobi, ya oki

Seven falls, eight rises - a zen Buddhist saying. The story written with the proverb said that the Buddha persisted in his pursuit of enlightenment for nine long years, loosing limbs and failing many times. My father is handicapped, completely his left leg is completely paralyzed, and he moves slowly with the help of a cane. The pain and frustration he exudes as a result has infected our relationship. But in an ironic way, though our pursuits are very different, we are both struggling to persist.

Pivotal

Rich has been in town since Wednesday. Rich was my roommate and best friend from college and my time investment banking in New York. We have both since left the city and returned to our home towns to pursue entrepreneurial endeavors. Whenever we get back together I get a real chance to reflect on my progress. Rich is an excellent advisor and confidant.

The lesson from this weekend is that building a successful enterprise requires focus and persistence. This may seem simple and obvious, but Rich embodies this philosophy so whole heartedly that just being around him I feel infected with dedication.

This past year I have encountered endless challenges. I expected building a business to be easier than this. I've bobbed and weaved my way through two businesses, two offices and countless projects and clients. As I come up on the beginning of my second year in business I am focused on a few core goals.

While, change is necessary, the biggest change maybe an unrelenting commitment to success.

Social Media and the Psychology of Success

I've written previously about social media's effect on history. There is no doubt that the presence of social media will fundamentally shift our perspective of the famous historical figures of the future. As a young entrepreneur aspiring for success, one group whose minds I would love to peer into are self made successes. An entire industry has been built around understanding and attempting to mimic the psychology of success. In the next decade we will get incredible new insight into the process, growth, ups and downs of those who pull themselves up by their own bootstraps and tweet along the way. Naturally, the more honest this group is when using social media, the more valuable and truthful the insight.

The Odyssey

I started this blog after returning to LA from New York, after leaving a job as an investment banker for the dreams of entrepreneurial success, after a long humbling journey to Argentina and a painful goodbye to the city I had come to love.

My first post mentioned that this blog would chronicle my Odyssey Years a phrase coined by New York Times columnist David Brooks to describe my generation's long transition from college graduation to adulthood.

During this decade, 20-somethings go to school and take breaks from school. They live with friends and they live at home. They fall in and out of love. They try one career and then try another.

We wander like Odysseus trying to find our way home, trying to establish our place in the world. This is a period of anxiety and anguish, but also a period of adventure. Through out the ups and downs I'm consistently overcome by the feeling that one day I will look back on all of this with feelings of nostalgia.

When I wrote that first post my Odyssey was just beginning. Over the past 16 months I have wandered. I've started two different businesses. I've opened offices in Santa Monica and in Manila. I've spoken at conferences, met some of the most brilliant minds in the tech and marketing world, and learned a tremendous amount. With all that I completely ignored the fundamentals. Fundamentals like making enough money to move out of my parents house. Fundamentals like making new friends (which can be tough when you move back to the city you grew up in). The kind of things that are fundamental to establishing myself in the world, becoming an adult and finding my way home.

And so in the past 16 months I have been humbled and been woken up to the reality of working hard, but more importantly working smart to be effective. In our first business venture Jaspar and I would each bring home as much money for a single evenings work as our friends did toiling in internships and retail jobs for the entire summer. And while only time will tell, I know that that wasn't a fluke, or a stroke of luck. This past 16 months has been the aberration.

It's time to find my way home.

My Love

Meena said this quote reminded her of me. It's from Nicole William's Girl on Top:

I've been having a love affair for the past few years. On some days this love of mine seriously drives me to drink but I never seem to tire of it. It's broken my heart and I've felt utter disappointment, but I never want to leave. Its simultaneously exhausting and exhilarating. It continually exposes me to brilliant, outrageous and engaging people.And for good or for bad, it's always waiting. My true love-my career

Being Sick

I'm healthy...finally...and it feels amazing! This point, just after the storm, is the only time we really appreciate our health. Believe me I'm appreciative of it right now. It seems like everyone has been getting sick. Jaspar was sick all last week. Shawn has a perpetual cold. Every client I meet with seems to be on the verge of, or just getting over being sick. It's nasty out there.

Being sick reminds us of our mortality. The slow process of recovery is frustrating, especially in our fast moving society. In a strange way this process is a lot like being an entrepreneur - two things are absolutely vital - patience and persistence.

Thanksgiving

According to Facebook's recent study of our Gross National Happiness, Thanksgiving is the most joyous time of the year. This makes sense to me, not just because I love endless helpings of stuffing and cranberry sauce, but because giving thanks makes me happy. Taking a moment to reflect on our lives and just how fortunate we truly are puts things into perspective. Too often I find myself spinning down a drain of negativity. I'm not rich enough. I don't have enough friends. Why doesn't this girl like me?

This weekend I took sometime to reflect on just how lucky I am. But the best part was taking the time to thank the most important people in my life, those people we spend so much time with that we tend to take them for granted.