Category: Media

When a man is young

Cutie and the BoxerWhen a man is young he is overcome with energy and seeks release. One moment he is risking his life at a new sport, and the next he is deeply absorbed in a book. New friends and women are drawn to him for he is generous and laughing, but his passion leads him to argue, and in its wake his heart is ashamed. He yearns, when he hears stories of men whose lives were as brilliant as they were brief, to find glory, and gives no thought to safety and family. He is the subject of gossip after he is gone. Youth is the time when a man learns what he cannot.

An old man’s spirit grows feeble; he seeks peace in his surroundings. His mind being tranquil, he shuns heavy pursuits. He avoids hassling others, and thinks often of faded friends. He agitates on the flow of time, and even there he is learning to let go. The old are as superior in wisdom as the young are in motion.

*playing with Kenko’s A Time for Ruin

10 simple beautiful piano songs to play (with pdfs)

My childhood piano experience was a stressful one, but today playing piano has become for me a nice outlet, a relaxing escape from the computer screen, from answering emails and scheduling calendar appointments.

Here are 10 simple beautiful songs that I like to play, with printable PDFs. Note: the YouTube videos are not of me :)

Enjoy!

1. Trois Gymnopedies by Erik Satie — really, just the premiere…

2. Comptine d’un autre ete by Yann Tiersen — the Amelie theme song

3. Forrest Gump theme song by Alan Silvestri

4. To Zanarkand by Nobuo Uematsu — from FFX

5. A Jay Chou Megamix — includes 安静 and 黑色幽默 :)

6. Angel Eyes by Jim Brickman

7. The Up theme song from Disney Pixar

8. Le Matin by Yann Tiersen

9. River Flows In You by Yiruma

10. Butterfly Waltz by Brian Crain — I haven’t played any other songs in this collection

*I’m amazed by the traffic this post gets…here are 6 more songs + pdfs!

A Time For Ruin by Yoshida Kenko

Yoshida Kenko

When a man is young he has such an overabundance of energy that his senses are quickly stirred and he has many desires. It is as easy for him to put himself in danger and court destruction as to roll a ball. He likes beautiful clothes and possessions and spends his fortunes on them, only to abandon everything for the shabby black robes of a priest. Or, his abundance of high spirits may lead him to quarrel, only to feel ashamed in his heart and envious of his antagonist; his uncertain whims shift from day to day. Now giving himself to his lusts, now moved by others’ kindness, now performing some generous action, he yearns, when he hears stories of men who ruined or even destroyed lives that might have lasted a hundred years, to do the same, and never gives a thought to leading a safe and long life. He is drawn wherever his fancies lead him, and becomes the subject of gossip that lasts even after his death. Youth is the time when a man ruins himself.

An old man’s spirit grows feeble; he is indifferent and slow to respond, unmoved by everything. His mind being naturally placid, he engages in no useless activities. He takes good care of himself, is untroubled by worries, and is careful not to be a nuisance to others. The old are as superior to the young in wisdom as the young are superior to the old in looks.

—

Discovered in Lapham’s Quarterly; currently reading his Essays in Idleness.

Jason Cohen on the perfect bootstrapped business

*standard caveat that the word “bootstrapped” is misleading and wildly overused

Jason Cohen gave a fantastic talk at Microconf 2013 on the perfect bootstrapped business.

Here is the Vimeo link.

Here are some other notes I found.

Here are my notes with highlights for my big insights; JC = Jason Cohen

  • most companies don’t build something people want
  • most companies don’t build themselves in a way that allows for bootstrapping
  • JC built 4 cos, all made or are making $1M+/year, all bootstrapped
  • now swinging for fences with WPEngine
  • lifestyle and bootstrapped are pejorative terms, Hiten Shah: “let’s call it self-funded”
  • goal: predictable profit every month, $10K+ income per month per founder
  • revenue models
    • recurring revenue is the best way
    • Kevin Kelly’s 1000 True Fans – he actually redacted, after getting feedback from musicians and artists that getting 1000 fans is REALLY hard
    • Jason: get 150 customers; for WPEngine, asked 50 WordPress consultants on LinkedIn for an hour of their time, said he was building something for them, and since they were consultants and time was valuable, he was happy to pay for an hour at their current rate, 48 of them responded positively and NONE of them charged him!
    • goal is to get 50 people to agree to give you $50/mo to solve their problem — even before you’ve built the product!!
    • if you get 150 people paying $100/mo, you’re past $10K/mo
    • cashflow: annual prepaid is key!! (more on annual prepaid here)
      • “2 months free if you sign up for a year”
      • 1/4 of WPEngine signups choose pre-pay
      • infinite marketing budget because cash-in exceeds all marketing spend
      • in general, raise prices
      • hack: have 3-4 price tiers, highlight middle one, have highest one be crazy high; call middle one the “business plan” so people w/ businesses will purchase that one
      • switched from 15 day free trial to 60 day moneyback guarantee; sales went up and people appreciated they “had more time” (Jason doesn’t believe in free trials; in both, a credit card was required)
  • market models
    • almost all Microconf speakers sell b2b
    • don’t do:
      • b2c…app users complain about $1.99 (versus $0.99), Gmail only charges $5/mo, just can’t make money
      • anything real-time – you always need to stay current
      • anything that relies on virality for growth
      • don’t solve a problem that only occurs once in someone’s life — e.g., weddings, events
    • do:
      • focus on naturally recurring problems
      • finance, e.g., invoicing, reporting, billing; asked app developers how much they made – 30% made none; IT-focused apps made $1.5K/mo, finance-focused apps made $6K/mo
      • problems that change over time, e.g. digital marketing like SEO and Adwords, a/b testing
      • customer and technical support
      • build aftermarkets – eg, Apple App Store, Salesforce, Heroku
      • be in a big market
        • not for same reasons as VC, but proof that market exists
        • niches abound
        • can be a “me too” product and not have to be #1
        • have more room to change product, pricing
  • customer acquisition
    • social media sucks – isn’t repeatable, always changing
    • his blog has 40K readers, launch of WP-Engine led to only 2 sign-ups
    • cos like Buffer can do it, have to be really good at it and spend a lot of time on it
    • pay for visits
    • CPC = MRR/25 (if avg $50/month in revenue, pay $2/click) – here’s his blog post on why
  • things are going well ($30-40K in monthly revenues), what happens next?
    • you can sell it
    • his second co, IT Watchdog, built product as contractor, client was making millions more, afraid they were gonna build and sell to other clients (no exclusivity), so client bought them
    • raise prices – but can change clientele
    • Thales – Greek businessman/philosopher, Aristotle regarded him as the first Greek philosopher
      • what is hardest thing? to know thyself
      • what is easiest thing? to give advice

Thanks for reading, y’all!

Jason’s definition of the perfect bootstrapped business: PREDICTABLE ACQUISITION OF RECURRING REVENUE WITH ANNUAL PREPAY IN A GOOD MARKET CREATES A CASH MACHINE

An essay all online writers should read, from Patrick McKenzie

Patrick is an inspiring entrepreneur and writer who generously shares what he learns. His writings have taught me how to be a smarter, more effective business person.

“Making Your Writing Work Harder For You” is one of my favorites. Please read the whole thing; in the interim, here are some of my notes!

  • calling it “content” often devalues it
  • write things which retain their value over time (less news-y, less sensational)
  • remove dates from your work
  • call your best work “essays” or “comprehensive guides”, not blog posts
  • build your best work into the core navigation of your site so it’s easy to discover
  • have a goal for each piece of writing; often, it’s to continue the conversation via an email newsletter
  • provide something of immediate value to readers for giving you their email
  • build a library of your best content that you can re-use and remix (e.g., a case study, data)
  • types of content:
    • high-quality beginners’ guides (e.g., Moz’s beginner’s guide to SEO)
    • next steps for intermediate learners
    • dedicated task-oriented content (e.g., how to setup Rails on your new MacBook)