I heard this very weird-sounding term from a rock climber friend, but he says it applies to any type of exercise, biking, hiking, etc.
Bonking: "Expression to describe exercise induced low blood sugar levels; being a feeling of light-headedness and weakness in all limbs."
Usage: "I ran 10 miles and bonked out at 5 miles."
OK, so I know that there are people out there who work so hard that they forget to eat. I do it sometimes. In fact, this happened to me just yesterday at a barbecue. I ended up being the cook and being so industrious, I forgot to grab a bite. This was a grad student barbecue so no one was shy about taking food.
I hadn't had any lunch either, so I bonked out halfway through the barbecue. I had a turkey burger, but that really wasn't enough to make up for the day
And I am really feeling the effects of low blood sugar today. If I didn't, I would probably have an amazing post about something in marketing or social media.
So the lesson to this story is: Make a point of eating when you're supposed to, because the effects can last longer than just a day.
Monday, April 7, 2008
Word of the Day: Bonking
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Start-Up 101: Goal Setting and Visioning
Usually, I post about other entrepreneurs but today, I decided it was about time I wrote from my own experience.
I am sure many people have experienced this situation: you wake up in the morning, practice all matters of human morning rituals and then get to work. When you arrive, you are faced with a long to-do list, and all anyone cares about is results.
I will admit that today is not an easy day for me. My to-do list is long and it is easy to forget why these tasks were created in the first place.
On days like this, I remember my goal-setting mantra: "Strive through the narrow gate." It means that if you want to something, anything, you must work to achieve it.
This mantra gets me through my most frustrating moments. Entrepreneurs won't tell you this, but they have these moments too.
Three things a person must do to continue to strive through the narrow gate:
1) Determine the goal you want to set and when you want to accomplish it.
I set a goal to run on the treadmill for 40 minutes (10 minutes more than my usual 30) in addition to 5 minutes for warm up and 5 minutes to cool down.
2) Consider the motivation behind this goal. What will be your reward for your achievement? I decided that if I could run the treadmill for 40 minutes, then I could prove to myself that I was capable of completing any goal that I set. The reward in this case was the accomplishment itself. It may not always be the case, however.
3) And most importantly, celebrate the goals that you accomplish and evaluate the ones that did not have the outcomes you anticipated. Find meaning in yourself as a human being before you commit yourself to accomplishing tasks like a robot.
For me, this is the toughest part of goal setting, because routine was not a part of my life as a child. My parents tended towards the unexpected. But it is also the most important because it sets the stage for consistent, successful goal-setting.
Whenever you feel yourself getting frantic and thinking about the next task when the one in front of you is unfinished, close your eyes and take a deep breath. Try to feel comfortable with yourself as a person in the present. It is difficult to do because it is a human state to be dissatisfied. We worry constantly about what is next on the to-do list.
If you can admire yourself for being who you are, then you won't be worried about job titles or stay with in-the-box thinking. I have found that if I give myself more credit for my accomplishments, I can trust myself well enough to try more daring things. When I set the goal to run on the treadmill for 40 minutes and I succeeded, this event led to a 1 hour rock climbing session and I had no fear of what anyone would think of my rock climbing abilities. I was able to ask more questions and learn more tricks. Because I was open to myself, I was open to others.
Entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship is about "striving through the narrow gate" and staying optimistic. When things get hard, it's best not to get angry, but to step back and look at the opportunities to do things differently.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Social Media Marketing - Observations
Social media-ites say that companies have to get into the conversation and that this is the "it" trend. Yet according to Charlene Li's Groundswell/Forrester blog, from a 2007 Forrester survey, most people in the overall US fall under the "Spectators" (people who read online content) or "Inactives" (Do not use online media at all) category.
It could be that we are in social media bubble. Some companies will rise and fall--thus is the name of the game, as competition is the main motive behind business.
The reaction that I have to the Forrester tool is that if they are using random samples of people across the US and other nations, and most people fall under the "Spectators" category (around 48% of the sampled US population), how do you increase participation? Marketers are often challenged with creating brand loyalty and only few companies, like Apple do it well.
Here are a few ideas:
1) Blogs are an easy way to transition from traditional PR to social media PR.
It's highly involved, however and so some way of building analytics into your blog is important as well. Most people read online content and the lines between traditional media and online media are becoming blurred.
2) Your Brand Followers will respond to some ideas more than others. Listen to what they have to say and continue on those avenues but don't be shy about introducing other relevant content.
3) Relevance is important. Sports fans won't be interested in a conversation about cooking, although you can have sports fans that are avid cooks--it's just a smaller group of people, and ideally you want to reach out to a larger group. I try to keep random topics to the weekends, and industry talk and peripheral marketing stuff seems to be OK because my objective is to offer my point of view.
4) Think Viral Marketing and how to employ those same kinds of strategies to proliferate talk about your company, but be ready to listen to negative comments as well as positive.
5) Since there are different levels of participation, think about ways to reach out to people on those different levels. While some might enjoy creating content, the majority of people are happy just reading a few things and then moving on.
Feel free to add to this list!
Updated Monday, March 24, 2008
Sunday, March 16, 2008
China Blocks YouTube
So the story on BoingBoing today is huge. I had heard the news through the Facebook RSS grapevine and an old high school classmate's status feed.
China has blocked YouTube due to religious issues or what not and generally being the big bully, turning a cold shoulder against Tibet and YouTube lovers in China are also suffering.
Not such a smart move right before the Beijing Olympics creeping up in August.
Friday, March 14, 2008
Angry Journalist Gripes About Social Media
Whenever a journalist writes a blogpost with an angry rant against public relations practitioners, the word spreads like wildfire. Agencies cross their fingers and close their eyes before reading the forward that gets past around.
I didn't really believe it before but journalists apparently do get angry about being under appreciated for their talents. Good writers are getting quickly trumped by technology and the paper boy isn't worth much to me either. As far as I am concerned, I don't want a wad of paper delivered to my home every day, especially when my News Central is right at my desktop after I check my e-mail.
I visited The Angry Journalist and the most recent gripe by Angry Journalist #2201 is a fairly amusing gripe about Social Media:
"Does journalism even exist anymore? A five-line blurb on the Web? Whoop de doo. Get a real job."
It's not really clear what his gripe is about exactly, it could be the idea that newspapers don't publish new news and blogs are ubiquitous at this point. But yeah, I get that. Journalists are struggling to keep up, but just like everybody else, journalists have to innovate themselves. After a few months at a local daily paper, entirely paid by local advertisers, I knew I had to get out. The newspaper's publisher at the time refused to even archive their paper on the web.
As a girl who met her first Apple computer at age 9, I thought this was just ridiculous.
Angry Journalist #2201, I get where you are coming from. News quality is decreasing and the level of information on the web is just crazy. But maybe, just maybe, "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em." Who said journalism has to be owned by a select few? The first newspaper was probably started by a guy who was experimenting with a printing press and just went around talking to people. No joke.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Start-Up 101: The Beat of a Different Drum
This may be stepping away from the norm but one of the challenges in the hi-tech world, but it seems necessary to take a different perspective. Social media-ists are really into their social media world and just waiting for creative tools to take off.
We really forget that Silicon Valley isn't made up of just social media-ists or web 2.0 or those who support all these new ventures made possible by the Internet.
True--Silicon Valley is a place for start-ups and it is only here that people are willing to try, financial pros are willing to fund and overall, everyone is prepared for failure, if it happens.
I spoke with a professional drummer with a 20+ year career, Dave Gary, Jr. and asked him what he thought about Silicon Valley. Dave has talent--at age 14, he picked up a drum set for the first time and impressed a teacher.
I couldn't tease much information out of him with the typical interview questions. When asked about his professional goals, he asked in return, "What is the goal in life?"
When asked about his passions other than drumming, he wouldn't answer. "I do what most people do as a hobby, and that's just what I do."
But really, Dave isn't any different from your VC, entrepreneur or the next CEO. His biggest frustration is "bad musicians that think they're good, and they just don't have any idea what it takes to be good." Not even people with talent cannot take their gifts for granted.
He says that whoever you are, whether a doctor or a businessman, you will always face challenges. "A lot of college kids come out of college thinking they can just get a job. But what about the guy next to you who also has that piece of paper?"
He also sees Silicon Valley as a working beehive and he isn't sure if most people know how to think for themselves. "Most people in Silicon Valley attend (music) shows, but they don't really listen. They hang out because they have money to pour into The Place (whatever is trendy) but they don't really listen. They don't know what to do--they're a bit robotic."
He talks about passion and doing what you love. At age 18, he majored in accounting at university for "almost a semester--I quit right before finals." But when he went to college, he realized fast that an accounting major may please his parents but it wasn't making him money. When he played music, he was making money--at 16, "I made more money than most of my friends playing music than they made working at McDonald's."
But Dave is making money because he is doing what is important to him. He says people in Silicon Valley face a lot of competition and work hard, but it's not enough to just work hard. "Make money or invent something--those without vision perish."
As I spoke to Dave, it was simply clear that it's not enough to just work a 9 to 5 job, not enough to do what everybody else does. And, career paths aren't linear. Without redacting the message, it seemed to me that this was just a man who has done what he is passionate about all his life. It has made his personal life simple and his professional life challenging.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Getting Things Done
We've all struggled to achieve our goals and look at those who have done it successfully and think "oh, they're naturals--I'm not like that." I'm starting to think about this differently and although I've been aware that there are strategies out there to help achieve goals rather than think of goals to achieve.
Recently, I've been getting in over my head with a ton of projects, because I keep thinking that if I can do it all, then I would be like one of the amazing people that I admire so much. I didn't used to be like this and I didn't use to value perfectionism in this way before, but I think going to B-school can change that quickly, because it's hard to tell what your classmates will do to get ahead.
So I came across this blog article, the "Top 20 Motivation Hacks" and it talks about goal setting, how to stay disciplined, how to focus.
The funny thing about this is that when I first started college, I thought of myself as something Zen and hippy. I wanted to be relaxed and have no set expectations. I was also vegetarian. Ironically, I felt more disciplined, less stressed and got more things done. The vegetarianism set a precedent for my life, because it kept me disciplined and in other areas of my life, I did not let myself go too crazy with my impulses, and made the practice of staying consistent a focus of my daily life.
The Zenhabits blog really reminded me to keep things in perspective. This is the overall message: Try not to achieve perfectionism, but instead, focus on being in the moment, remember that every goal is a way to create something good and be forgiving towards the Self when things don't go as planned. This is the way to allow room for improvement and growth.
There's apparently a book out there which is famous for these ideas called Getting Things Done by David Allen. I think between motivation blogs and reality TV shows like Project Runway, Top Chef and Next Top Model, I might just have a solid recipe for keeping on track. Weird, I know, but those reality shows remind me that people who don't typically work in offices also have to commit to working hard to stay ahead.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Global Warming Affects Deluxe Foods
Well, get ready because global warming is affecting our food, some say. The delicious high end foods like black truffles that some of us enjoy with reckless abandon are going to disintegrate into our memories if nothing is done to save this earth that nurtures us.
I always feel anxious when I start thinking about global warming and what it could do to us. What if we drown? I think of the image of the polar bear searching for a nice platform of ice to rest upon and how Al Gore says in the Inconvenient Truth that more polar bears are drowning than has ever been recorded in history.
I have a surf board and it makes a fairly good boat, but imagine being on a boat with no food on earth to survive. Eerie. Very contrary, too, to Cormac McCarthy's version of an apocalypse in The Road where the world is ablaze in flames but I dare say it's the same concept.
The famous Donner Family up in Lake Tahoe ate each other while stuck in the snow and in hunger, so who is to say that we won't do the same?
Monday, February 25, 2008
Your Story Matters
Ever see Pursuit of Happyness, the movie starring Will Smith? The movie was based on the life of Chris Gardner, who took an unpaid internship and homeless, he and his two year old son slept in a BART restroom for the duration of the internship. Whenever I think of this story, I think that this man must have been made of something superhuman. "Could I have survived like this?"
Did you know that no matter who you are, whether an individual or a company, you have a compelling story to tell? Last Saturday, I attended my graduate school's yearly networking event, the Fisher Fiesta. Prior to the usual dinner, Carmine Gallo spoke to us about his latest book, Fire Them Up!
Leaders who inspire, he said, don't do it through numbers and technical facts. They paint a picture of their vision for the future. And, Gallo said, leaders like Steve Jobs, Suze Orman, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Chris Gardner are not the only ones who can motivate and inspire. Everyone has a story to tell.
There was another message that Gallo did not illustrate outright but it became very clear to me during his talk. People have a really strong ability to influence each other. Our words and actions have impact on others and that is a power that we can learn to wield through practice and dedication. Each individual has the unique ability to inspire others and make a difference in the world.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
The Start Up 101 Series - The Opportunity
Last week, I posted a little bit about what makes an entrepreneur, and that's the drive to succeed, stay focused and know when you see a good opportunity.
There's a joke that I hear often in Silicon Valley that whenever someone says "I have a good idea," the common response is "You should start a company and get some VCs on that."
A lot of times they don't mean it and anyway, it never matters what your friends or family say if you have an entrepreneurial idea. The only exception to that rule is if your friends are in the market that you want to appeal to.
It's important to get it straight: opportunities and ideas are two different entities. An idea is something creative, fun and can certainly spark opportunities, but opportunities mean that you have something with which to create a business.
Here's an example:
At the Girl Geek Dinner hosted at Google, Katherine Barr of Mohr Davidow Ventures made a great suggestion to me. "If you think you have an opportunity, do some research first, test out your idea and ask them if they will buy your product or service."
Let's say I am a former veterinarian with lots of experience and I decide that I want to sell fancy, customized natural dog food diet because I find that it's easy to make at home in manageable batches in my home oven.
Will anyone buy it? If I do my research, I could go to a dog park and chat with the owners because that is where they all hang out and ask them, "I have this great customizable dog food product that is good for your dog, would you buy it?" It's best if I find places where dog fans, breeders, and owners hang out. Maybe at a dog park or a breeder's association gathering.
If I talk to one hundred people and they all say "yes, I would buy it" then I have an opportunity. If they all say no, then I have a great idea but no opportunity. Maybe you have an 80 out of 100, then your chances are still high.
Basic, but hard to put into practice. Next week, we'll talk about risk and revenue models specific to Web 2.0
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
The Start Up 101 Series - Traits of the Entrepreneur
In the next week or so, I will be writing a series of articles that I will call "The Start Up 101" Series which will be my observations on entrepreneurship from meeting entrepreneurs and what makes a start-up opportunity successful. Not only that--but people can be entrepreneurial while working at corporate companies and there are several Silicon Valley companies prefer this approach than the traditional corporate style.
Some of things that I will cover in the next week based on my observations:
- Characteristics of an entrepreneur
- Identifying opportunities
- Goal setting and creating benchmarks
- Surveying the competitive landscape
- And more as I think of other related topics.
Today is about defining characteristics of entrepreneurs.
First, I'll start by defining my personally coined term "Rookie Stylie." I don't think I had a chance up to now to define what "Rookie Stylie" really means to me. It is finesse, confidence and individuality to make connections and think critically about the business world. Not only that, I will have to say that it is also about being a young professional, maybe in your twenties and having a ton of potential to live up to your passions versus the old skool paradigm of working for the Man.
Entrepreneurship is the art of "taking or entering into opportunities" and many people here have dreams of having their own start-up or company. In Silicon Valley, where everyone is trying to stay competitive, we have to be our own agents or consultants, even if we are working in the corporate world. I don't think you have to be a public figure in your community to be an entrepreneur, per se, but you can be an aspiring entrepreneur if you have passion and motivation to work towards dreams and life goals. The fame comes afterwards (and only if it really is fame that you are seeking. Personally I think being a strong thought leader is a service to the community not a celebrity role.)
Another aspect that is important is to stay focused. I learned recently that it is easy to get distracted because there are a lot of wonderful things in the world that can pull away one's attention, but having an entrepreneurial spirit means you're able to seperate the important stuff from the "crap" much like we have to do with a lot of the information that is available us through the internet today.
Next up: how can you recognize you have a good opportunity to pursue?
Resources
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Fashion at Work
There's always an issue with how women should dress at work and what is too revealing and what's just right. An article on WSJ discusses this. Not much to comment on except, you would think that as "highly evolved" human beings in the internet age, we wouldn't be so stuck on appearance. But people create visual cues on a professional's status level based on appearance. This is probably the most frustrating thing about working as a young professional woman, as I do try to uphold personal finance and spend within my limits. While a man can buy a single suit, women can't often wear the same piece of clothing twice and get away with it.
If truth be told, carnal traditions of status, hierarchy and power that have existed for centuries still exist today. For a country that values democracy and equality we can still say those are still values because no man or woman can climb the ranks in rags.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
On working and the workforce
It's Sunday so I thought to indulge in a little bit of blogging transparency, because after all, we are in a post-consumerism age where most people are used to being marketed to and I know that for myself, I'm just looking for a bit of honesty in the world.* I'm taking a stand on this in the perspective spirit of Cormac McCarthy's The Road and his book has a very scary but beautiful quality to it which I can't match up here, but at least that will help create the idea of why this blog post should be shrouded with a spray of misty fear.
On Friday, I alluded to this idea that according to the sociological belief about the different generations in the workforce, Millenials may not grasp the idea of what it means to hit "rock bottom" because we're spoiled. (PINK Magazine has a great article about "Gen Y" which will offer some perspective.)
Well, I'd like to disagree a little bit about Millenials being spoiled. I think a lot of us are willing to work and work hard, but our definition is probably a little bit different from generations of workers before us. One thing that has always perturbed me about the job marketing for young people entering the workforce in Silicon Valley is its highly competitive nature, relative to other cities, as it is full of seasoned workers. So, perhaps I am not looking the right places because the Hidden Job Market plays a huge role here, but it's tough going to win a job, especially for someone who is just starting out and looking for experience. Also, the pricing isn't a great motivator: I scanned a few job boards today just to get an idea of how I can illustrate this point. There are a lot of internships with exciting descriptions which are either don't pay or offer a small stipend. This means most of the money better be coming from somewhere else and it's scary to think, it's really true that survival is not easy.
And then there is something else that I find a little bit scary about working. Social networking tools definitely make networking easier and creating individual publicity easier but the economy is going up and down so much that people are working harder and harder. Work is a good thing, it keeps people busy and hopefully it leads to living fulfilling lives.
But since we're no longer confined to the 9 to 5 in professional jobs, and the internet is pervasive in all its ways, I've been debating whether this affects families and general human relationships, "in person" versus over your social network.
Sometimes I look at the myriad of ways people can communicate over the internet and the amount of time people may spend working just to survive; and maybe I'm being naive but it doesn't always make a lot of sense that families don't have a lot of time to spend together.
Also, I read this article called What should I do With My Life? and look at the comments. There are so many people who expressed their struggle and troubles trying to find passion. A lot of them sound disjointed and I think that is scary.
So, readers out there, what do you think? Is it possible to have a fulfilling family life and a good job? What does the "Pursuit of Happyness" really mean now in 2008?
