Help Yourself!

Finally back to twitter/blogging after vacation in China! Boo for blocked sites…

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 10:32:58 -0700

Finally back to twitter/blogging after vacation in China! Boo for blocked sites…

This is funny stuff. Humor is such an important part of...

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 19:55:00 -0700

This is funny stuff. Humor is such an important part of communicating and the best way to learn it is watching funny stuff. And the voices are pretty good too.

alexdietz:

Barack Obama and Bill Clinton Phone Call Leaked (via barelypolitical)

Career Advice from Debra Dunn of Skoll Foundation

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 09:37:25 -0700

Career Advice from Debra Dunn of Skoll Foundation

the more I read about philosophy, the less qualified I feel to write a book about it. But still...

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 00:40:56 -0700

the more I read about philosophy, the less qualified I feel to write a book about it. But still … http://tinyurl.com/57d2wn

via wemadethis.typepad.com

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 23:38:34 -0700

via wemadethis.typepad.com

"In the life of the individual man, virtue is the sole good; such things as health, happiness,..."

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 23:19:10 -0700

“In the life of the individual man, virtue is the sole good; such things as health, happiness, possessions, are of no account. Since virtue resides in the will, everything really good or bad in a man’s life depends only upon himself. … Therefore every man has perfect freedom, provided he emancipates himself from mundane desires.[2]”

- Stoicism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Examining the Disadvantages of Attending Stanford (The Unofficial Stanford Blog)

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 00:09:01 -0700

Examining the Disadvantages of Attending Stanford (The Unofficial Stanford Blog): My reactions to an essay about how attending elite universities like Yale and Stanford can actually be harmful. - Jason

Melinda Gates goes public (Fortune)

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 23:20:42 -0700

Melinda Gates goes public (Fortune): This is a great article about Melinda, the other half of the biggest charity in the world. I really love the poignant images of her marriage to Bill and how they complement each other so well. He is a lucky man. - Jason

These guys are incredible good, but they’ve worked very...

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 10:16:00 -0700

These guys are incredible good, but they’ve worked very very hard too. If they win this contest, people will be talking about how Nuttin’ but Strings was an overnight sensation. But they weren’t. I saw these guys probably 4 years ago on Jay Leno. They’ve been workin’ for this fame. -Jason

strelau:

Nuttin’ but Strings on America’s Got Talent

WJW. They have an album too: Struggle from the Subway to the Charts

The Best Of - The Dip by Seth Godin

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 14:42:45 -0700

The Dip’s Big Idea

Don’t be afraid to quit the wrong stuff and have the conviction to stick with the right stuff.

On Being the Best

Vanilla is far and away the top ice cream flavor – 22% of all sales, (Chocolate is 8%)
The top movie of the week usually has 2x the ticket sales of the 2nd movie
Being the best in the world matters – no one wants an average product or service
Yet it’s easier to be the best in something than ever before – so many micro niche markets exist today
Jack Welch and GE – part of the transformation was making only #1 or #2 acceptable
Superstars – agents, dealmakers, artists, etc, get way more than everyone else, because they are the best
Average is for Losers – quit or be exceptional – those are the only two choices

On the Dip

The Dip is the hard part, the “moat” the prevents most people from being the best
The Dip is organic chemistry, law school, agent rejections, the last few pushups
Successful people don’t just “just ride out the Dip…They lean into it, changing the rules as they go”
If it is worth doing, there is probably a Dip
Woopeckers don’t diversify – they peck one tree 22,000 times to get dinner
Men’s Health cover models pushed through the Dip to get washboard abs
Being mediocre sucks – and so many people and organizations have simply settled for this
8 Dips – manufacturing on a larger scale, growing a sales team, getting more education, taking a risk to venture big, investing in a longterm relationship, giving up ego/control, reshaping one’s worldview, and getting your product into better distribution channels like Walmart.
The space shuttle is not a Dip, it’s a cul-de-sac, because it’s going nowhere and NASA needs to drop it

Further Advice

Market acceptance is a big Dip, but worth pushing through
There is a difference between quitting a tactic (action or behavior) versus quitting a strategy (or long-term goal/outcome)
Don’t quit in the Dip – push through short-term pain by visualizing the great long-term results – AKA no one quits the Boston Marathon at mile 25
“Never Quit “– this is a terrible piece of advice
“Don’t quit something with great long-term potential because of the stress of the moment” - much better advice!
Michael Crighton quit medicine after graduating Harvard Med and doing a prestigious fellowship. If he can quit – so can you.
Before quiting ask yourself
1) Am I just panicking, scared or hurting? All three are bad reasons to quit.
2) Who am I trying to Influence? A single person is hard to bring around, but a market is almost always climbable.
3) Am I making measurable progress? As long as you are making some forward progress, there is hope.

Final Thoughts

You are astonishing – how dare you waste it on half-assed efforts.
Quit mediocre things and use that additional energy, time and resources to assault the Dip that really matters. Make a dent in the universe.
It’s almost impossible to over-invest in becoming the market leader.
Last page:
“All are successes are the same. All our failures too.
We succeed when we do something remarkable
We fail when we give up too soon
We succeed when we are the best in the world at what we do.

"If you look at the people who have high impact, they have pretty general knowledge. They don’t have..."

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 01:14:31 -0700

“If you look at the people who have high impact, they have pretty general knowledge. They don’t have a really narrowly focused education.”

- Larry Page (via doqrs) - This quote makes my self-selecting biased mind feel better about my non advanced/focused education - Jason

Fourth of July

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 00:48:00 -0700

Celebrated the Fourth of July in San Jose, ate burgers, walked to downtown to watch Fireworks. I saw a sea of different faces - Mexicans, Asians, Blacks, Whites, the elderly, infants, kids, teens, adults. I also saw a lot of digital cameras and video cams.

As I watched the fireworks, I kept thinking - I wonder if the Founding Fathers had thought that America would turn out in such a big way - a superpower and a superpolluter that the world watches with a mixture of annoyance, fear, awe and envy

As Tom Peters says, America was the result of a crazy experiment by a “tiny band of “insaniacs” (later called “Founding Fathers”)”. I wonder how many of the people around me were thinking about what this country really means and what it stands for.

Perhaps more people need to be reading The True Patriot - which is just a fantastic and succint book on what it means love your country. Which I certainly do. America has provided so many incredible opportunities for me to live the life I create for myself.

Fear - committing to things: girls, majors, job offers, etc are all scary because other options are...

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 23:36:21 -0700

Fear - committing to things: girls, majors, job offers, etc are all scary because other options are gone so you feel like you can’t screw up

The Ultimate guid to making HTML Email

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 23:25:10 -0700

The Ultimate guid to making HTML Email: Gumball was told that our newsletter sucks, so I’m working to make it better. This website should help… alot.

Humbleness - was proud that nonprofit conference mentioned Gumball Captial’s success, humbled...

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 10:32:39 -0700

Humbleness - was proud that nonprofit conference mentioned Gumball Captial’s success, humbled when told our mailing list size (147) sucks…

Generation Y

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 10:20:00 -0700

Hey Jason?

I had a quick question for you.. I know you study up a lot on career trends and what people want to do with their lives? Have you read much about the Generation Y trend and how employers are dealing with a new generation of workers? I?m starting a project on this and I?m curious to find if you?ve seen any sources that talk about this trend. (If you haven?t, you might want to check it out yourself. I think you?d find it really interesting.)

In case you’re curious why I’m asking, I’m working on a small project to take a look at how companies can consider Generation Y in the workforce and, in particular, what companies who are really good at attracting new, young employees are doing and what other companies should do. Let me know if you have any particular thoughts on companies that are really good at this— e.g. Facebook, Google, consulting firms, etc.

Hope you find this interesting. I’m looking forward to hearing from you!!

Wendi

Hey Wendi,

I have three great resources for you:

1) Recruit or Die - a book by three ppl - one of them is Ramit Sethi, a Stanford grad who writes a popular blog on personal finance and is the VP of PBWiki - http://www.alwaysrecruiting.com/book-excerpts/
2) Penelope Trunk talks about Gen Y stuff all the time - (here she discusses the Recruit or Die book and other things —> http://tinyurl.com/4z496j) and her company - The Brazen Careerist Network is all about Gen Y bloggers
3) Peter Shehan is a 29 year old Australian who consults for Fortune 500 companies on Gen Y issues. Here is a Fast Company article on his book “Flip” http://www.fastcompany.com/blog-post/will-you-flip-peter-sheahan

Personally, (and these resources will basically say the same thing) Gen Y wants flexibility, no hierarchies, alignment of values, rapid feedback, mentoring and work that seems “cool” to them. That said, Google, Consulting and Web 2.0 start ups do well with Stanford grads, but for different reasons - amazing work environment, getting paid big bucks/prestige, super cool/dreams of blowing up.

Hope your summer is going well!
Jason

Persistence - I call alumni for $$, and even when they say they won’t give, if you are...

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 00:45:22 -0700

Persistence - I call alumni for $$, and even when they say they won’t give, if you are friendly and persistent, 50% will end up giving =)

July Gumball Newsletter

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 23:42:00 -0700

Hey Friends,

We’re sorry you haven’t heard from us in a while - it’s certainly not because there hasn’t been any news! Belinda, our marketing director is in Bolivia for a few weeks, but we’ve got a couple cool things to report on!

Radio

We were featured on a show called Here on Earth – Radio without Borders at the University of Wiscosin. Three members of our team were on the show – and talked about starting up Gumball, relived the excitement of the Gumball Challenge, and encouraged callers to pursue their entrepreneurial passions. Check out the recording at – http://www.wpr.org/hereonearth/archive_080507k.cfm

Partnerships

We’ve formed partnerships with two organizations who have a network of colleges that will run the Gumball Challenge in fall 2008. Recycle to Eradicate Poverty is a group that encourages people to recycle old cell phones and ink cartridges and will use the Gumball Challenge as a way for its network of colleges to take action and spread the word. College Kiva is an organization whose mission is to spread the work of Kiva in the collegiate setting, so the Gumball Challenge is almost the perfect way to pursue their mission.

Free Gumballs!

Finally Gumball.com has contacted us, and they’ve agreed to be our official Gumball sponsor! While we still have a few thousand gumballs tucked away here and there, they are definitely getting stale. Gumball.com has generously agreed to provide all the fresh gumballs we need to keep our teams going!
That’s all for this issue of Gumball Greetings. Stayed tuned for more updates as the summer goes on!

Jason
Executive Director

Our Mission

Gumball Capital engages students with micropreneurship for social good through experience, education and investment. We created a one-week microfinance-benefit competition called the Gumball Challenge, where students form teams and create value using $27 and 27 gumballs. They return any revenue they generate to the Gumball Fund, which supports the working poor in developing nations through Kiva.org.

The art of the hire

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 12:13:38 -0700

The art of the hire: A good discussion of hiring for small businesses - something Gumball will be doing in the coming months. - Jason

"Habitat has not chosen the easiest way to build houses. The easiest way is like the construction..."

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 08:18:32 -0700

““Habitat has not chosen the easiest way to build houses. The easiest way is like the construction companies do it, with paid skilled labor and lots of it. Habitat does not work this way because the ultimate goal is not the house, but [to transform] the people who participate in the building of that house, the families who will live in that house, and the society that they are a part of.””

- Eric Duell, Habit for Humanity International Partner - via Forces for Good: The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits