When I was a kid, we had lots of art supplies — crayons, markers, colored pencils, water color paints, even pastels — and the holy grail of elementary school drawing: Mr. Sketch scented markers.
Unfortunately I never wanted to use them for fear they’d run out of ink. Yeah I clearly had some issues.
Well this came [...]
It was the summer of 2005. I can’t remember the exact text message my friend sent me, but it was something along the lines of:
“Up $5k for the month.”
What?! I knew immediately what he was talking about: affiliate marketing. Here I was having just moved all the way across the country to start work at [...]
I really liked The Geography of Bliss. It probably helped that I read it in my personal version of paradise, poolside at the Hilton Los Cabos.
In the book, the narrator travels the globe in search of the secrets to happiness. (Strangely absent: the “happiest place on earth.”) The journey is both serious and funny, genuine [...]
I think this is a cute story, and appropriate this week after Ford’s $1 billion Q3 profit. Nice job guys!
Over 100 years ago, Henry Ford was tinkering in the shed out behind his house. He was building his first car. But when he finished, he realized he’d made one critical mistake: it was too big [...]
Traditional means of motivation in the workplace (rewards, incentives, commissions), sometimes do more harm than good. In this video, Dan Pink makes the case that for the complex tasks faced by today’s workforce, “intrinsic” motivators — autonomy, mastery, and purpose — are far more effective than the traditional “carrot-and-stick” methods. It’s kind of long, but [...]
It’s pretty exciting to have made it a full year on my own without having to look for another job. Still, with the Internet and the economy changing so fast, nothing is certain.
Last summer for example, I fell victim to the “Google Slap” and lost 75%+ of my traffic and revenue for three months. Stressful. [...]
JetBlue has free Direct TV on their planes, which is a clutch feature that really helps kill the time on long cross-country flights. Since it was the 4th of July weekend, TNT had Independence Day on repeat. Great movie.
It might even be the best movie ever. It has everything you could want in a movie: [...]
Nice work to Bryn and her Sandia team, braving the triple-digit heat this weekend to raise money for cancer research. The Livermore Relay for Life event brought in nearly $200,000!
I came by for moral support after the sun went down.
During last weekend’s Las Vegas trip, I had the opportunity to visit the Zappos headquarters in nearby Henderson. It was good timing, as I’d just finished reading this article in Inc. magazine about their CEO Tony Hsieh, their history, and their company culture.
Since Zappos is the largest online shoe-seller, it follows that they are [...]
The Mongolian Grill job the summer after high school was definitely the best job ever. I got to work with two good friends, eat mountains of great free food, and practice my Spanish all day long with the cooks. I looked forward to going to work every day.
The owner, Sam Han, was something of an [...]
