Excellent Reference Materials December 12, 2010
Posted by hoitomt in Education, Observations, Programming, Self Improvement.add a comment
I have recently encountered two excellent resources:
1). Michael Hartl’s tutorial on Rails3. This is an excellent overview of Rails3, Test Driven Development, and the most popular tools for developing applications in Ruby on Rails. This tutorial is really for anyone that is involved with producing applications for the Internet. If you are a graphic designer it will help you learn to start adding database functionality to your sites. If you are a developer the tutorial will introduce you to the best language/framework available for creating web-based applications (Ruby on Rails). And if you already know Ruby On Rails the tutorial is truly like “looking over the shoulder of an expert RoR programmer” as the quotes claim. Fantastic and well worth the $95 for book and videos.
2). The Intelligent Entrepreneur by Bill Murphy Jr. I came across this book accidentally when my wife brought it home from the library for herself. I picked it up and started reading and couldn’t put it down. The title of the book sounds stuffy and the quotes don’t make it seem like it is going to be an inspiring read but this is an excellent book for anybody that has entrepreneurial dreams. The stories are inspiring and show you 3 ways in which businesses can be started. They also form an anecdotal account of the business climate of the late 90′s early 00′s, most notably the Internet boom and collapse. It is fascinating to read about actual entrepreneurs dealing with the challenges of that time.
One particular line prompted me to write this blog post. On the second to last page of the book he refers to a book written by a Harvard Business School professor that tries to “show readers how to juggle … the four key elements in work and life: happiness, achievement, significance, and legacy.” That line nailed it for me for that is exactly what what I’m searching for. I have asked myself the question often: Why do I want to run my own business? I have a great life with a well-paying job and low stress. After reading that line I realized that I only have 1 of the 4 (happiness). I want them all. In my opinion those four factors define complete self-fulfillment.
Entrepreneur thoughts – Albom Column November 11, 2009
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It’s been a long time since my last post. It’s funny, right about the time I want to start posting every day, I end up not posting for over two months. I started my third Java class and transferred over to a new position at work as a developer so needless to say, it has been a busy Fall.
Mitch Albom inspired me to write today. His column today about fame was excellent and it pertains to business and entrepreneurship as well. The best part of the column is when he states “Didn’t you once have to DO something to become famous? Now being famous IS doing something. The most important currency in this country is not measured on green paper. It’s measured by how many people point at you and say, “Aren’t you …?”"
To me this is almost the same thing as Twitter and Facebook and their ilk being considered businesses. The comment could easily be re-written to say: “Didn’t you once have to make money to be considered a business? Now having “customers” is being in business. The most important currency in this country is not measured on gree paper. It’s measured by how many people point at your website and say, “I’m with them…”"
The whole premise of their business is to attract more customers. Just like Albom’s column where the whole premise of Fame is to be seen by people, not necessarily to have any talent, skill, or other exceptional quality. They don’t make money (enough to justify their valuations), nor do they have any concrete plans to make money. Yet the fact that they have tons of users makes them “Famous”, which in this sense means that they are great businesses which attract millions of dollars in investments.
At the core of these businesses is a single person that was in possession of one key element: TIME. Evan Williams sold Pyra Labs (Blogger) to Google for enough money to buy him all the time in the world. With that time he created Twitter. Mark Zuckerberg was a student at Harvard when he created Facebook, with enough free time on his hands to create a cool app for his friends to stay in touch with one another. In both of these cases, and many others, the founder was wealthy with either time, or enough money to buy time. Take a look at the stories in Inc. magazine once. Most of the founder stories are about people that were successful before they were successful.
Back to the Albom point: With time, and in most cases money, the business doesn’t need to make money. The founder is just fine with banging away on it until something better comes along or until enough people find his cool time-killer. This is a sobering fact for a lot of us wanna-be entrepreneurs with day jobs and families. Time is something we don’t have.
It’s not too late August 28, 2009
Posted by hoitomt in Observations.add a comment
The Inc 500 arrived in the mail a couple of weeks ago and here is the most interesting fact: 72% of the CEOs are over 35 years old. In the world of Zuckerberg (Facebook), Williams (Twitter), Rose (Digg), and every other famous Harvard drop out it’s easy to get the feeling that you need to start a business in college or shortly thereafter in order to be successful.
In reality most successful entrepreneurs don’t get that way until after the age of 35. Granted there are usually early signs, perhaps a few failed ventures prior to that age. But the key is that you don’t need to be a wunderkind to start a successful business.
It’s not an earth-shattering revelation, but it’s re-assuring to those of us that are already beyond 30 and feared that our entrepreneurial chance had already passed us by. Another intriguing stat: 80% of the CEOs are married. Also good news to those of us with competing priorities in our lives.
Macro De-Duplication of data August 26, 2009
Posted by hoitomt in Observations, Programming.add a comment
I thought I would use some buzz words in the title to get everybody excited. I’m not referring to removing duplicate records in databases and tables. I’m referring to an overall strategy where application developers should be looking to reduce the amount of data that is stored in their databases in context of the entire Web. Through the use of web services and a some other cool new technologies we should be looking to connect to external sources to retrieve data as it is needed. Web-wide data warehouses are sparsely available right now but they are coming online. For example do you really need to store a person’s address if you can go to the address source to get their latest address every time?
Yes, there are hurdles (speed and reliability) but with every passing year these these hurdles get lower and lower. But there are also huge benefits such as access to the most up to date information. Corporations are already leveraging Web Services to communicate between their vast number of internal applications. Many coporations are going to SOA (Service Orientated Architecture) platforms across their business. Independent developers/web designers need to start thinking the same way. The maturation of the Internet relives us from having to store non-proprietary/non-mission critical data in a “local” database.
The Intersection August 13, 2009
Posted by hoitomt in Observations.add a comment
Mark Cuban wrote a couple of really good blog posts about media and the internet here and here. His argument boils down to this: If the sole purpose of your website is to bring in ad revenue, you’re not going to last. In other words: giving away content for free, drawing visitors, and making money solely off of ads on your site is not a long-term business model. Specifically he is referring to large media conglomerates such as Newscorp (Fox) and the NY Times with huge brands that offer different types of media
This brings up a good point about web-based businesses all together. You aren’t going to make money just because you know the Internet and how to create websites. We are exiting a 15 year period since the early 1990′s where Internet knowledge (knowing how to build websites) was all you needed to start a little company and do it professionally. You could be mostly dumb to the business for whom you built the website.
Internet knowledge is becoming a commodity. Now the Internet is more of a tool, than an end result, to be used by those who know business. It is like a hammer. Just because you can hammer a nail doesn’t mean you can build a house. Just because you can build websites, doesn’t mean you can run a business. However, The inverse is also true: it is difficult to build a house unless you know how to use a hammer. Just like it is difficult to build a business unless you know how to use the internet
More and more people are learning how the use the tools (the Internet). Just like more and more programmers are learning the business. You need to have these skills to keep up. Even if you think you are in a position/career track where you will never cross paths with the Internet. I can almost guarantee you that you will cross paths with somebody who knows the Internet. And that person will beat you in a competition based on their knowledge. Knowing the tool is a competitive advantage.
That is why I’m learning this stuff (programming) and putting the information out there to help you learn it too. We need the tools so we can fully apply our business knowledge. I guarantee you there are better programmers than Bill Gates. But there are few if any better businessmen/technicians. Now and in the future, those who master the intersection of business and technology will be the ones that are calling the shots
