Keys of a good CEO – Fred’s Thoughts

Fred Wilson is known in the tech world and venture capitalist world because he has been very involved in both for many years & posts lots of content on his personal website, or blog.

Today he has a great post in a series titled MBA Mondays about the role of a CEO.

It tells of the basic criteria that he evaluates CEOs on:

“A CEO does only three things. Sets the overall vision and strategy of the company and communicates it to all stakeholders. Recruits, hires, and retains the very best talent for the company. Makes sure there is always enough cash in the bank.”

I tried to shorten that and not lose any meaning, with no great success.

Any organization will falter or fail if someone does not fulfill those three tasks, and they really are keys to success.

Another way to look at it is:

• promote where we are going – general direction
• get the right people on the bus
• make sure the bus does not run out of gas

As far as “all the other stuff that a CEO could do” … that is addressed in the post, and I agree.

Thanks to Fred Wilson for taking the time to share his thoughts to others.

Starting a Nitch Site – Pat’s method

Many people ask me about starting website.

Today I read a post on The Smart Passive Income Blog about the starting out process Pat went through recently.

I have gone through and coached others through the same process, with some exceptions.

Here are some highlights:

Dreamhost

Pat mentions Bluehost, many others rave about them too.

Long ago I looked at all the options equivalent to those two. I read lots of good and negative reviews of all the webhosting options.

Dreamhost won me over with their Virtual Private Server (VPS  or DreamhostPS) option they were developing. At that point I had played with Dreamhost, a client was using them, and liked the systems, but the VPS option meant to me -> if the site gets too big for the shared server (the style all those options are) – Dreamhost had an option I could turn on with a press of a button and not have to move to another system manually.

Both have great affiliate programs – all links to them should be assumed to be my affiliate link – but that is also why they are raved about so much.

Plugins

I use Google XML Sitemaps and a Google Analytics plugin, but I am currently evaluating a couple and not sure which I will use moving forward.

All in One SEO Pack is not needed in my case simply because I use StudioPress themes, which have all the really good functionality built into the themes.

There are some more plugins that are my standard, but this is not the section I really want to spend time on.

Monetization?

The method depends on your end goals.
I wish he had posted more on this topic, but the idea for finding direct advertisers & affiliate opportunities might make me re-open an AdSense account.

Niche Site Content

The Most Important Section.
The reason you go to a website, and return to the ones you do, is the content.

The method for content development he is using is – Shared Journey. This is similar to what Cliff Ravenscraft is doing with The Virtual Assistant Podcast, and many others.

The general idea with Shared Journey is “I am on a journey to learn about ABCD, as I travel, I am sharing what I learn with you.”

Lastly

I love this mindset:

Remember, it’s all about working hard now, so you can reap the benefits later.

With all that said, I look at a pile of little nitch domain names I have & am inspired to do a little with some – I think I’ll start with Krav Maga Ally & know others who could easily do the same.

Thanks again to Pat for all he shares.

Inventing Merit Badge

Today a copy of Scouting (magazine) came in & as I was flipping thought I pick up on this article titled “Mother of Inventing” in the What’s New area. (article not online yet)

It tells the story of how there use to be an Inventing MB – that 10 scouts earned before it went away.

Inventing MB is back and this time the Scouts don’t have to “apply for and receive a U.S. patent on an invention.”

Looking though the requirements, there is some basic knowledge, but what interests me are things like:

• Choose a commercially available product that you have used on an overnight camping trip with your troop. Make recommendations for improving the product, and make a sketch that shows your recommendations.
• Build a working prototype of the item you invented for requirement 6*. Test and evaluate the invention – [including] cost, usefulness, marketability, appearance, and function. Describe how your original vision and expectations for your invention are similar or dissimilar to the prototype you built.
• Participate with a club or team (robotics team, science club, or engineering club) that builds a useful item.

I am thrilled that the Boy Scouts of America is working towards helping those involved in scouting to go though the process of solving problems in the world around them.

The Ten Cannots

• You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
• You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
• You cannot help little men by tearing down big men.
• You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
• You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
• You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money.
• You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
• You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn.
• You cannot build character and courage by destroying men’s initiative and independence.
• And you cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they can and should do for themselves.

These statements are generally what I understand and why I vote the way I vote &  promote both independence & interdependence.

These quotations are sometimes refereed to as Lincoln’s 10 “Cannots” – but it is wildly understood that where the spirit is what Lincoln believed, it is not what he said. These were written in 1916 by William J. H. Boetcker [wikipedia]

Thanks to John “Hollywood” for sending me a reminder of this.

Why America is Great by Rubio

Unscripted and from the heart – this speech was delivered in 2008 when Marco Rubio had been elected to the US House and was leaving the Florida Legislator.

I really like a lot of what he says here. [Read more]

new release of albums?

Today I was looking through my RSS Reader and found a “listening party” for the new Newsboys cd that came out this week.

[Read more]

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

[text & image found at Archive.gov]

Great Seven Habits for Photographers Post

Today came through a post that peaked my interest : The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Photographers

That’s a great point, as all 7 of them are.

Not only for photographers, but also pretty much anyone. Here is one more point:

5. They don’t wait for permission. Unless you work for “the man,” you can’t afford to stand around and wait for someone to tell you to go out and shoot. Pick up your camera, go out and make images, show those images. It’s up to YOU to make something happen. Don’t wait around for someone to tell you what to do. Do SOMETHING and do it now.

Just doing what you do best, are passionate about, and there is an economic engine that works for you – is important. Everyone needs practice.

Now look at what I said that is different from the post.
I said “everyone”.

It does not matter if you work for “the man” or not, you need to practice, improve, and increase your ability to produce.

If you are working for “the man,” one thing that can help you is to think of yourself as working for yourself and contracting out your work to “the man.” Ways to increase your skills, might be through training provided by “the man”,  podcasts, volunteering with a Scout program, or even a part-time gig.

The key is what he said – don’t wait for permission.

All the seven habits for photographers are great & I will be working to apply them to my life.

changing my world

How do we get to a different outcome? Given that you don’t vote? (Russ)

Work to build through the promulgation of ideas and by example: freedom and liberty. If that culture is built, it will be reflected in the political process. If people want to be led by the nose, they will be.

Don Boudreaux on Public Choice, Econtalk.org (1:05:10+)

The Tortoise and the Hare

One day a hare saw a tortoise walking slowly along and began to laugh and mock him. The hare challenged the tortoise to a race and the tortoise accepted. They agreed on a route and started off the race. The hare shot ahead and ran briskly for some time. Then seeing that he was far ahead of the tortoise, he thought he’d sit under a tree for some time and relax before continuing the race.

He sat under the tree and soon fell asleep. The tortoise, plodding on, overtook him and finished the race. The hare woke up and realized that he had lost the race.

Wikipedia Article – The Tortoise and the Hare

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