The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible – and achieve it, generation after generation. Pearl S. Buck Ask people what makes entrepreneurs successful and you’ll hear a familiar list of adjectives; agile, tenacious, resilient, opportunistic, etc. What you don’t hear is that often they didn’t know any [...]
Filed under: Family/Career/Culture, Technology | 50 Comments »
My two daughters are now in college and have put their toes in the working-world with summer jobs. As they’ve grown older, they’ve heard their parent’s advice about women in the workforce. This post is not advice nor is it a recommendation of what you should do. It’s simply my interpretation of what I observed [...]
Filed under: Family/Career/Culture | 51 Comments »
I usually hear the “Should I get my MBA?” question at least once a month. If you’re an entrepreneur, the glib answer is “no.” It’s also the wrong answer. Should I Get My MBA? Last week I was having coffee with an ex engineering student of mine now on his second startup (and for a [...]
Filed under: Family/Career/Culture, Teaching | 29 Comments »
One of the hardest problems for engineers in founding roles in a startup is interacting with customers up close and personal. Over the years I’ve found the best way to learn to do this is by emulating empathy. The Problem I was having dinner in Palo Alto with some of my Stanford engineering students and [...]
Filed under: Family/Career/Culture | 23 Comments »
Entrepreneurs and the early startup team all need to be motivated by a shared vision, passion and desire to build a large company. Yet it’s the company legends that live on. Fund Raising Our little startup was less than a year-old. We had been busy assembling our team and had just hired the last member [...]
Filed under: Family/Career/Culture | 16 Comments »
I’m sitting next to the fireplace in my favorite chair listening to holiday music, looking at the ocean and making occasional attempts to “help” get ready for Christmas dinner. We went for a hike checking out our new trail signs and playing “spot the bobcat.” Our kids are home for the school break, some friends [...]
Filed under: Air Force, Family/Career/Culture | 7 Comments »
Sometimes financial decisions that are seemingly rational on their face can precipitate mass exodus of your best engineers. We Hired the CFO Last week as a favor to a friend, I sat in on a board meeting of a fairly successful 3½ year-old startup. Given all that could go wrong in this economy, they were [...]
Filed under: Family/Career/Culture | 70 Comments »
Thursday is Thanksgiving Day in the United States. Families gather from across the country to spend time with each other and feast on a traditional turkey dinner. Since our kids were little our Thanksgiving tradition was to head to Hawaii with friends and eat Thanksgiving dinner under the palm trees to the sound of the waves [...]
Filed under: Family/Career/Culture | 8 Comments »
For those that know me, I’m kind of a “life is too short” kind of guy. I liked to fail fast, move on, and not look back. However, in catching up with the VP of Sales of Ardent last night, I was reminded one of the few times I did return for closure. National Supercomputer [...]
Filed under: Ardent, Family/Career/Culture, Technology | 17 Comments »
Never mistake motion for action. -Ernest Hemingway One of an entrepreneur’s greatest strengths is their relentless pursuit of a goal. But few realize how this differs from most of the population. Watching others try to solve problems reminded me why entrepreneurs are different. Progress Report Last week I happened to be sitting in my wife’s [...]
Filed under: Ardent, Customer Development, Family/Career/Culture | 39 Comments »
Last week I drove my daughter on an east coast college tour (1500 miles, 8 colleges in 6 days.) We started in North Carolina eating BBQ and enjoying the Southern culture, went through Washington D.C checking out the shopping in Georgetown, saw beautiful horse country in Pennsylvania and upstate NY and headed down into the [...]
Filed under: Family/Career/Culture | 3 Comments »
I love TechCrunch. If you’re a startup raising money or just want to see your name online, there’s not a better blog on the web. Reading this TechCrunch post made me remember the first time I saw someone confront a worldview they didn’t expect. Discovering that your worldview is wrong or mistaken can be a [...]
Filed under: ESL, Family/Career/Culture, Secret History of Silicon Valley | Tagged: Tips for Startups | 14 Comments »
At Zilog I was figuring out how to cope with job burnout. And one of my conclusions was that I needed to pick one job not two. I had to decide what I wanted to do with my career – go back to ESL, try to work for the Customer, or stay at Zilog? While [...]
Filed under: Customer Development, ESL, Family/Career/Culture, Zilog | Tagged: Cold War, ESL, Steve Blank | 10 Comments »
If you hang around technology companies long enough, you or someone you know may experience “burnout” – a state of emotional exhaustion, doubt and cynicism. Burnout can turn productive employees into emotional zombies and destroy careers. But it can also force you to hit the pause button and perhaps take a moment to reevaluate your [...]
Filed under: Customer Development, ESL, Family/Career/Culture, Zilog | Tagged: Early Stage Startup, Entrepreneurs, Steve Blank | 13 Comments »
Raising our kids and being an entrepreneur wasn’t easy. Being in a startup and having a successful relationship and family was very hard work. But entrepreneurs can be great spouses and parents. This post is not advice, nor is it recommendation of what you should do, it’s simply what my wife and I did to [...]
Filed under: Customer Development, Family/Career/Culture, Technology | Tagged: Entrepreneurs, Steve Blank, Tips for Startups | 75 Comments »
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