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The Trend

John could not understand the reason for third failure in
a row. He had a blockbuster success during the dot-com
days so this was really puzzling. Finally, his mentor’s question
solved the mystery for him - “John, what was the real
reason for your success first time - You or the Trend?”

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Note1: A mini saga is a story in exactly 50 words.

Note 2: For the other 21 mini-sagas in the series, please visit
my collection of mini sagas

If something is too good to be true, it normally is. Enjoy the story

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The Price

An experienced entrepreneur launched a company with a shoe-string budget.
The company was very successful. The entrepreneur got on a
speaking circuit explaining how easy it was to build a
company. What was not mentioned was the PRICE entrepreneur had
paid in the last two decades to build his identity.
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Note1: A mini saga is a story in exactly 50 words.

Note 2: For the other 18 mini-sagas in the series, please visit
my collection of mini sagas

Some background first:

We will be working with a few dating companies as there is an OEM opportunity for one of my portfolio companies. So I started thinking about this business a bit.

Fundamentally, the promise of a dating website is to find the “right” match for you.

Let’s think about some other businesses who also promise to provide you the “right whatever they are selling” for you.

Dell built a business on customization but it is Starbucks took it to the next level. You can go to Starbucks and order a “Grande with whip and glaze Oranges and Creme Frapuccino LIGHT Blended Creme” (courtesy: WikiHow article - How to Order at Starbucks)

You can see examples of “Do It Yourself” and “Build Your Own” options being offered by many businesses.

In other words, you can get that “perfect” item just made for you.

I think people are getting used this so much that now a lot of people try to apply it to human beings. With a few clicks they can go to their choice of dating sites and start looking for that perfect match. They may find someone that is almost there but why stop search when you “might” be able to find that “perfect” one?

So the quest continues

As long as people are in pursuit of perfection in something (in this case a human being) that can never be perfect, the dating business will continue to flourish.

Jourdon Soh from Pick Me Up sent a note about their project - creating a book in 24 hours flat. While I haven’t read the book to endorse it, I was fascinated by the project.

42 people getting together to create a book - from start to finish - in 24 hours.

From what I understood, they were all students of “The Courage To Create” coaching program run by Kelvin Lim Kian Meng (founder of Executive Coach International). Kelvin challenged them to create a book in 24 hours or not do it at all. These students rose to the challenge and the book was created.

I wish them the very best.

I know that irrespective of whatever happens to the book, something “cool” has happened to each one of them on the project - and that’s what matters!

The link to the book website: Pick Me Up Book

Happiness

It was a good year for John. His hard work had handsomely paid off albeit with sacrifices on the family side. When he told his friend Bob that he had many reasons to be happy about the year, Bob asked – “Why do you need a reason to be happy?”

–

Note1: A mini saga is a story in exactly 50 words.

Note 2: For the other 18 mini-sagas in the series, please visit
my collection of mini sagas

Note 3: Story courtesy - Arun Nithyanandam

Here is a partial list:

If the books you are reading are not be helping you, they may be hurting you.

If your philosophy towards life is not helping you, it may be hurting you.

If your current thinking is not helping you, it may be hurting you.

If the company you are employed with is not helping you, it may be hurting you.

If the associations you are involved with are not helping you, they may be hurting you.

If the education you are getting is not helping you, it may be hurting you.

Why? Simply because engaging in any of these activities takes your precious resource - TIME. Because you can’t be in two places at the same time, engaging in the above activities will preclude you from engaging in alternate activities that might help you. It’s a huge opportunity cost to engage in things that are not helping you.

This program was recorded in the KZSU (Stanford Radio) studios for “It’s Diff” program hosted by Sri Srinivasa.

First, a video excerpt summarizing the discussion

For those of you, who are interested in the full program, audio version (two parts) are updated on my Facebook page along with other audio and video segments.You can also look at my latest manifesto on ChangeThis called

Making the Most of Your Time: Going Beyond To-Do Lists

Have a great year ahead!

Sri who runs the “It’s Diff” show on KZSU Radio will be interviewing me on the show this Wednesday. Here are the details:

Date: Jan 9, 2008
Time: 7.30am to 8.30am
Station: 90.1FM
URL: http://kzsulive.stanford.edu/
(Live Streaming on the Internet for listeners outside of the bay area)
Topic: Expanding your capacity in the New Year

Look forward to the conversation with those of you that can make it.

Have a great week ahead!

Those who know the history of Suggestica know that we started off as a recommendation service for books. Of course, over the last year, we transformed ourself to build private and public vertical discovery engines.

We don’t build vertical search engines. Search focuses on “recovery” of information whereas we focus on “discovery” of information.

Last year we launched All About Steak (focused on steaks) and Theologika (focused on theology) and this year we are launching Boomer411, a vertical discovery engine for baby boomers.

Only those resources that are useful for seniors are indexed on this site. People who are indexing the content on the site are called “Trustees” and they typically scour the net to find the best resources to be included in the site.

Please take a test-drive of the site. I would greatly appreciate if you pass along the link to any seniors that you might know of.

Thank you.

Disclaimer: I am involved in this company currently in the capacity of a mentor to the founders.

Dhingana is the first ever hybrid website combining streaming music and social networking.

Dhingana had reserved 200 invites for Life Beyond Code readers and they were all used up. Thank you for all the music fans who registered. Hope you are enjoying the songs and music.

Last week, Dhingana Team was kind enough to extend 200 more invitations for our readers. You can grab an invite to register with Dhingana here:

http://www.dhingana.com/invite/lifebeyondcode