So yesterdays post was about our intern at Groupable
(not live yet), Nelson. Since we’ve been self-financing the company and essentially paying to work - I think I am going to take a new title.
So from now on my title is Intern. I figure it beats being Chief Bootstrapper. It’s more authentic. Think about it, all of us entrepreneurs out there are our own interns! So remember - the password to the copier is ABC123.
Now that Obama has won the election. The question that needs to be answered is: Will the election rally hold.
Historically, the answer is “For a while.”
Seeking Alpha compiled all the daily closings from 1929 to August 8th, 2006 and came up with the following results.
What do these results show us?
1.The market stabilizes around the election before dropping a few months after the inauguration.
2. Once the new executive has settled into office there is a period of rapid growth based on the hope of change, followed by a steep decline as the mid term election approaches.
3. These results are independent of party, candidate, or economic situation as they have been averaged over 77 years of the DJIA’s history.
However people seem to think things will be different this time around.
CNBC indicates that Obama’s victory comes a point where change is needed. “It’s a sense of absolute relief that some definition today will arrive,” says Diane de Vries Ashley, managing partner of Zenith Capital Partners in Coral Gables, Fla. “People are expressing ‘enough is enough’ and things are not as bleak as they appear to have been and now we can get down to business.”
But unlike previous periods where there is hope for change, a rally and then politics as usual, this time things seem different. Obama’s team is clearly focused and has proven its ability to deliver. This started with a bid for the Whitehouse. They put together a staff, not of politcos, but the best experts in the field of corporate strategy, corporate finance, social media, viral marketing, public relations and grass roots fundrasing to win the election. Then instead of touting rhetoric or attacking his opponent at his victory speech, Obama humbly asked America for its help in making it through the next several years. Today the Obama Presidential Transition Committe hits the ground running, without so much as 12 hours of celbration, to make good on dream of change that led Obama to victory.
It’s like they realize that winning only gets them the starting line. There is still a 26.5 mile marathon left to run.
So Bluey got into a car accident last week. Thankfully, she’s okay but she was really shook up and focused on the fact that she left her lip gloss from Body Bakery in the hospital. Now, this sounds trivial but she was under a lot of stress and in pain so I sent a note to the founder of the Body Bakery saying how Bluey loves BB and lost her lip gloss (the one she lost was a special edition not for sale anymore) and you know what - Lia, the founder wrote back the next day AND sent a feel better gift basket. Talk about amazing customer service. She also sent a personal handwritten note and put band-aids on the packaging. Soooo sweet. Bluey loved it and got not just another limited edition lip gloss but a whole bunch of stuff. So to conclude Body Bakery is a great brand with an amazing founder who really understands customer service. Thank you!
So I’m involved in a couple of different things and while I have been cutting them down lately to be able to focus more, there are still a few things in common. I’m involved with a pair of advertising companies and Bootstrapper.com related events. I was hanging out with a friend of mine and I made the comment that I’m a walking Confluence of Interest opposed to a Conflict of Interest. It’s interesting because everything I do falls into one of 2 categories, advertising technology or creation of media (blogs, conferences) around technology & advertising. The Bootstrapper stuff serves to promote me & my ventures and everything else is advertising technology so they offer complementary contact bases. Just something to think about I suppose …
Just for fun, at the tech meetup 2 months ago I sat next Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia and Scott had everyone swap cell phones with their neighbor for a minute and i got Jimmy’s phone. That was pretty cool. In how many other industries do you get to sit next to one of the most prolific and successful people in it and he just hands you his phone because someone else told him to 
?
Here’s something random, My macbook froze, then deleted my entire mailbox, then i restarted and it came back to life and started running 5X faster … go figure…
So yesterday I talked about how there is a tipping point of entrepreneurship where an entrepreneur becomes a crazy entrepreneur. However, there is the opposite of that which is that we entrepreneurs tend to go through periods of feast or famine with ideas. Like there are weeks where we can get a 12 great ideas and months where we can go without a single decent idea… usually it has to do with relaxation and happiness so the more relaxed and happy an entrepreneur is, the more ideas that tend to flow. Almost all entrepreneurs are manic-depressive. When we’re in depressive moods, we tend to not have very many ideas and when manic, we tend to have a million. Just something to think about …
So I would like to muse that there is a point in time where entrepreneurs become idea people. Now, most entrepreneurs usually start with a single idea and can think of nothing but that during their first company. However, somewhere along the lines, after about 2 years of running a company, just about every entrepreneur I know starts coming up with dozens of ideas for new companies. It is like there is some hidden tipping point where every hard driven entrepreneur becomes an idea junkie. Now some entrepreneurs are better than others at focusing and those are usually the most successful ones but still the ideas start flowing after some hidden point. I don’t know where/when it occurs but it almost always occurs. And that is the point where someone who fell into entrepreneurship becomes a true Crazy Entrepreneur.
So I’m Chairman of a company called Apparition Ads, Apparition means Ghost and I had a dream where I was running an ad agency for ghosts. The ghosts were given me grief and making it so i had trouble moving and had trouble breathing. One of them woke me up in my sleep and demanded I work on their account. Talk about a transparent client …. being a pain in the ass …
So if you love your job like I do it is also a curse. This is because you work too much and neglect your personal life. At least I do. So yes, the great job i have that i love is also a terrible job because i work too much and get confused as to what is my real life and my work life. It’s something to think about … is your great job worth it?
So i got this fwd’d to me by a friend of mine a few day ago…i thought it was interesting …
Hey Ryan-
I’m sorry, b/c I’m covering for Lindsey’s usual asst., could you tell
me, who’s Rosh Hashanah and why would he/she affect Kristi’s meeting
with KN and MC?
Thanks! I really appreciate it!
Michelle
So i sent a note to a friend that one of my assets is now worth poop….he sent me back this …
even the value of poop has been crashing…..ther fertilizers have been in a free-fall for a week
OPEN
$87.25
PREVIOUS CLOSE
$95.36
DAY HIGH
$88.50
DAY LOW
$76.86
52 WEEK HIGH
06/19/08 - $241.62
52 WEEK LOW
10/6/08 - $76.86
MARKET CAP
24.3B
AVERAGE VOLUME 3 mo
20.4M
DILUTED EPS TTM
$6.47
SHARES OUTSTANDING
305.0M
EX-DATE
10/16/08
P/E TTM
12.3x
DIVIDEND
$0.40
DIVIDEND YIELD
0.50%
K = Thousands M = Millions B = Billions
Current stock quote for Potash Corp of Saskatchewan Inc POT
So some of you know my Bluey, the girl i’ve been dating for 5 years (we’re currently broken up but I still love her and she’s my best friend). Well I was hanging out with her today and she said she’s “officially in a recession” i asked her what she meant and she said that she spent too much money and owes a lot of money on her credit cards and can’t buy more stuff. She then asked me for a “bail-out” so she can get even and …. and buy new Tory Burch shoes (for $300) … OY VEY!!!
PS. I refused the bail-out. Moral Hazard = way too strong!
So i was thinking, my lawyer charges $800 an hour. Some lawyers charge $1000, even $1200. Standard rate for Corp/M&A/securities type lawyers (the tier 1 guys you want working on your term sheet/sale docs/option plans…) typically run at the very least $300 an hour but more than likely between $500-1000 an hour. Now that’s just crazy. When was the last time you paid any other consultant that much money in an early stage company? I never have. It’s pretty crazy. I think i should become a lawyer so when I do some marketing consulting I can charge $800 an hour. The little consulting I do these days is between $100-300 an hour. Still great but nothing like my lawyer gets. Oh yea, 90% of what our lawyers do is take templates, make a few changes, give work to a paralegal and give back to us. Then we pay them to explain to us what they did so complexly. Oy vey!
So those of you that know me know that I tend to put my foot in my mouth quite a lot. I can’t keep my stupid mouth shut. So I apologize to all of you out there and yes, I say stupid things and make myself look stupid, like an ass, like a space cadet and all sorts of stuff from time to time. But it’s part of the package of being a crazy entrepreneur and never being able to stop running. Sometimes you don’t even realize what the heck you’re doing. That’s why its important to take a day off once a month as a breather. My principal in like 8th grade used to say that boys get their periods too. I find that to the case where I get one day where I’m neurotic and insecure and breaking out in pimples. Those are the days I recommend to take off. It’s stress / lack of sleep and eventually it catches up.
