Ultra-marathons

"Running ultramarathons, as in 100 km long races is EASIER than starting a company."
Greg Tseng, the co-founder of social network Tagged

ActualSun here we go!
More posts on living the entrepreneur, start-up, acceleration, international, product creation life coming soon!

For the moment know that:
I'm the proud co-founder of a business analytics and information management company, focusing in solar plants, called ActualSun.
I have 2 partner, who I trust and respect. They do strategy, finance, sales and I do product.
We're on our way to Houston.

Entrepreneurship, now!

Do you have a Linkedin profile? What about facebook?

Now think... Linkedin and Facebook would not be possible without one thing...

Can you image what it is?

Reid Hoffman, the founder of Linkedin says an entrepreneur is someone that jumps of a plane and builds the parachute on the way down.

The Wikipedia has a somewhat more formal definition “An entrepreneur is a person who has possession of a new enterprise, venture or idea and is accountable for the inherent risks and the outcome.”

Putting it simply, and entrepreneur is someone that starts a new company and makes it work!

To me, personally, entrepreneurship is a voyage, full of discoveries, new paths, hardships, and happiness, my mission, as I work with entrepreneurs, is to help them in this voyage, to help them write their own map of the way!

Hummm…

So… Why is this important? Why should you care about entrepreneurship?

Well, 1^st of all because according David Audretsch, who had been considered one of the 60 most influential economists of all time, entrepreneurship is a driver for economic growth.

If we measure economic growth as, for example, the capability of companies to generate profit and consequently to pay taxes, the picture in Portugal is very, very bleak… 

37% of all the taxes collected in Portugal were collected from 90 companies, I’ll say that in a different way to make it clear – there are 90 companies that pay almost 40% of all the corporate taxes in Portugal (this is 2009 data). 

Amazing isn’t it?

So does this mean small companies are irrelevant? No! On the contrary!

Everything starts small, the biggest pine tree starts with a single, tiny pine seed! 

To have more BIG companies, countries need lots of small companies! In the USA 90% of all companies are small, 85% of new jobs are created by new, nascent companies. And that is why Prof Audrestch considers entrepreneurship to be the driver of growth.

In Portugal, only 4 in every 100 people are entrepreneurs.  4 in 100  is below the European average… and 3 times less than in the USA were the number is more then 12 in every 100 people.

Why is this? And what can we do about it?

There is a study, the Global Entrepreneuship Monitor that says Portuguese culture is not prone to entrepreneurship because

1. Entrepreneurship takes lots of responsibility, individual responsibility, it demands taking responsibility for our actions and results, being able to plan, to execute and to follow through with your commitments. And according to that study, we Portuguese are not individually responsible people.

This means that to foster entrepreneurship we need to foster responsibility too.

So, from today, something you can do is – everytime something you don’t like happens – take the responsibility to change it! This can be small things like if you see something out of place, put it back, don’t use the traffic to excuse you for being late anymore, leave 10 minutes earlier! In the small things, and in the large things, take responsibility.

2.  Entrepreneurs are risk takers – they jump of the plane! Statistics from the USA show that after 10 years, only 30% of companies are still in existence. That means 70% fail, are sold, stop existing somehow.

Have you considered lately what risk you could take in your life? Could it be asking for a raise? Telling someone you love him? Go back to school even though you’re not sure if you’ll success?  Small and big risks are in our lives everyday! Take them! Try it! Test it!

Like this a new culture of entrepreneurship may be born in our country! And with it a new possibility for economic growth!

Movies like “The social network” have shown us the potential gains of taking responsibility, of taking the risk.

Facebook had 18.000 dollars to start with,  it is now worth more then 30 billions dollars.
30 billion! 24% of this still belongs to Mark Zuckerberg the founder, and more or less 30% belongs to the staff – to the people that believed in it from the start!

So it can be worth it!

And this takes me back to my initial question… What made Linkedin and Facebook possible?

My answer is: their founders, the entrepreneurs behind the idea that had the passion and the guts to follow their dreams! These websites or should I say services, networks, enablers... could not exist if their founders had decided it was too risky, too hard, it would take too long to build them! They would not exist if the founders had not committed themselves to building their dream! And I tell you more – Zuckerberg and Hoffman probably had no idea how big their companies would grow to be!

And this is a really important too – to create a company, does not mean it has to be Facebook – aim high! But do not let the big things that have already happened deter you!


Remember the seed – all the big trees start as tiny seeds and grow, step by step, inch by inch.

10 Ways to Good Health

Less alcohol. More tea.

Less meat. More vegetables.

Less salt. More vinegar.

Less sugar. More fruit.

Less eating. More chewing.

Less words. More action.

Less greed. More giving.

Less worry. More sleep.

Less driving. More walking.

Less anger. More laughter.

I am me

I am me.

In all the world, there is no one exactly like me.

There are persons who have some parts like me,

but no one adds up exactly like me.

Therefore, everything that comes out of me

is authentically mine because I alone choose it.

I own everything about me

My body including everything it does;

My mind including all its thoughts and ideas;

My eyes including the images of all they behold;

My feelings whatever they may be...

anger,

joy,

frustration,

love,

disappointment,

excitement

My mouth and all the words that come out of it

polite,

sweet or rough,

correct or incorrect;

My voice loud or soft.

And all my actions, whether they be to others or to myself.

I own my fantasies, my dreams, my hopes, my fears.

I own all my triumphs and successes,

all my failures and mistakes.

Because I own all of me I can become intimately acquainted with me.

By doing so I can love me and be friendly with me in all parts.

I can then make it possible for all of me to work in my best interests.

I know there are aspects about myself that puzzle me,

and other aspects that I do not know.

But as long as I am friendly and loving to myself,

I can courageously and hopefully, look for solutions to the puzzles

and for ways to find out more about me.

However I look and sound, whatever I say and do, and whatever I think

and feel at a given moment in time is me.

This is authentic and represents where I am in that moment in time.

When I review later how I looked and sounded, what I said and did, and how I

thought and felt, some parts may turn out to be unfitting.

I can discard that which is unfitting, and keep that which proved fitting,

And invent something new for that which I discarded.

I can see, hear, feel, think, say and do.

I have the tools to survive, to be close to others, to be productive,

and to make sense and order out of the world of people

and things outside of me.

I own me, and therefore I can engineer me.

I am me and I’m OK

Virginia Satir

Where Should We Put Our Money?

(...)

Place your bets on young people who are building real products and
services that solve real problems and delight real customers. Heck,
even if they're old people with young energy, I say invest in them
too! (Note: my stance on entrepreneurship being a "young man's game"
is inversely proportional to my actual age).

Encourage young people going into the work force to forgo the promise
of unearned and absurd compensation on Wall Street for the more
appropriate and soulful option that comes from creating real value at
a startup company. When you meet a young person who wants to go to
Wall Street scold them. Tell them how sad it is that they are going to
waste their talents trying to manipulate money instead of creating
value. Explain to them that when they look back on their career, even
if they are successful, they will see a bunch of transactions and
models (they've dated and built), but they will never know the
satisfaction of having built something real. Something tangible that
they can be proud of.

(...)

(...) we need to find and support these entrepreneurs. Develop
the ones who think big, work hard, are resilient, honest, resourceful
and who are willing to take reasonable chances with our investments.
Also, we should only invest in the people whose prior products haven't
left  huge craters of unemployment and financial pain when they
imploded--but I digress.


Jason Calacanis
My blog: www.calacanis.com
My company: www.mahalo.com

Imagine

My intention for today

Here is a good reminder to set an intention for our day. Mine will be gratefulness.
Gratefulness for my life, my house, all conforts, for my body, my mind, for my friends, my family, for all the opportunities that open each moment.
With a slight smile on my face, I feel grateful.

Gaza - Avatar on Earth?

This video is circulating on facebook and a friend ask for comments on these provocative thoughts... Here is my comment.

Avatar is a metaphor. Good against evil, again. Who's who only depends on the perspective the movie is shot from. In Cameron's own Alien, the alien was the bad guy (bigger and uglier then, but again, that's just a perspective)

I don't even find the video too provocative because this is an old story, first the Romans 2.500 years ago, they conquered all of Europe, Ghenghis Khan invaded all his neighbors in XIIIth century China, there are examples in all cultures, in all times. Even the Arabs were the attackers when in the VIIIth century they invaded Iberia (that's not so long ago, the buildings, the words are still here). And even then peace was kept by letting each population live their spirituality freely and with commercial and trade agreements.

Same story: two sides fight for land, for profit, for domination. If you want someone else's resources, de-humanize them, make them your enemy, and take it. It's always been like this. Only the weapons have changed, the images, and how fast they travel. 

It's been the politicians and philosophers' responsibility to find solutions for 3000 years. Being human they have fear in their hearts. Fear of not having enough food, enough water, enough space for their children. Fear for our own survival.

I was living in Madrid in March 11th, I drove by one of the bombs that did not explode, it could have exploded, and it could have been me on the list, my father could have gotten a call "we're sorry, your daughter is dead"... and later that week I marched the streets with fear in my heart because someone wanted to kill me. Fear. Fear that turns into anger. Fear that turns into greed.

From my perspective, the only thing we can do is replace this fear with love and compassion, finding the spirit in us, the dust of stars we are made of, the connection to the grand scheme, our soul, or whatever you want to call it. We can chose to recognize the spirit and the love in both jews and arabs, and chinese, and korean, and indian, and blonds, and darks, and black, brown, purple... We are all in the same human boat. We can find the balance of the planet, accept the symbiotic relations in all environments, accept each other.

And facebook is a great platform for it! Millions of people all around the globe, exchanging points of view, insights, opinions, exchanging their humanity, where ever they are. Thank you Dave, for starting this discussion!

May Peace be in our hearts first, and then in the whole world!