Dan Sweet

…or, how being a parent kicked my butt.  I did a review of 2009 goals post before I made my 2010 goals post last year.  I missed on many of them but still hit on a good number of them in 2009 and came away with the realization I needed to dramatically reduce the number of goals.  I simplified for 2010 but still missed almost all of them.  2 for 9.  I went a little big too big in 2010 as a new parent with an expectant spouse, lesson learned.  On to 2011, with two kids this time!  Fewer goals and a little more modest.

2011 Goals

PERSONAL:
Drop 30+ pounds by end of July (brother’s wedding)
Build a basic functioning web app (thinking Python / MySQL)
Keep learning (complete a MIT OCW course)

WORK:
Get “1″ Rated
Meet quarterly with mentor(s)

A friend at Apple brought this video to my attention.  Mary Meeker covers 10 questions for Internet company CEOs.  Watch the whole thing.  We are in very interesting times.  I found the 2.5 minutes starting at 14:25 the most fascinating.  Apple grew $12B in revenue to $20B between fall 2009 and fall 2010.  Wow!  Thats about all I can say.

I find Vinod Khosla fascinating.  He founded Sun Microsystems, was a general partner at Kleiner Perkins, and then formed his own fund where he now focuses on cleantech investing.  He’s from San Francisco but he talks trash about hybrids, solar, and wind power.

This post over at VentureHacks brought this recent interview with Vinod Khosla to my attention.  Vinod is on from 10:40 to 20:40.  If you want to hear the LinkedIn founder not answer some questions in a typical CEO-like manner feel free to watch the preceding portion of the video.  I wouldn’t bother.

A couple quotes that struck a chord with me from this video:

“If you succeed, it better be material.  I say, I don’t mind failing, but if I succeed it better be worth succeeding instead of some incremental thing.”

Also…

“This is really really important and misunderstood about startups.  Startups aren’t big or small, they are MADE big or small.  So an entrepreneur picking the right partner will more likely end up as a big company than if they pick the wrong partner who wants a 3x return on their money.  Any investor who looks at exit strategies, or multiples of investment, or even does an IRR calculation, a rate of return calculation, probably is the wrong partner for you.”

I work for P&G.  Everything we do is huge.  At the same time most of what we do is very very small.  We are absolutely thrilled if we grow a business 10%.  We consider 5% growth a very solid performance.  We regularly put significant effort into growing a tiny piece of something in one small channel a couple percentage points, do this all a few times over, and then are proud to put together a plan that moves the needle by incremental points (by points I mean one or two).

When we do something new, we do WAY more than “an IRR calculation”.  We’ve got teams of people from multiple functions, worksheets with tons of tabs, financial review meetings, and  years-long timetables.  According to Vinod, this would be guaranteed to smother the idea, result in failure, or at the very best something only “incremental.”  And often that is what happens.  However, occasionally the team turns out a Swiffer and builds a billion dollar category out of thin air.  P&G is full of paradoxes.  Big and small.

I’ve struggled to find the balance between contributing and consuming.  Folks like Fred Wilson write a blog post every day.  That is some serious contributing.  Over the last two years I have read blogs consistently but have never found the time to post consistently.  Serious consuming. Recently, I’ve been striving for a better balance between contributing and consuming.

Over the past couple months I’ve begun commenting on blogs more frequently.  I’ve struggled as I’ve attempted to share my point of view.  It is difficult to balance being concise, sharing your experience, saying something meaningful, using humor, and being persuasive.  I’ve found the experience of commenting regularly (primarily on Fred’s blog A VC) has forced me to think more carefully about how I communicate in writing.  The experience has made me more determined to actually write posts myself and stretch myself further in this area.

Thoughts on writing:

1 – Writing well is a differentiator. (Check the 100+ comment threads daily on A VC.  The same people consistently write the most interesting comments, receive the most “likes”, generate the most discussion, etc.)

2 – Commenting, or posting yourself, builds the skill.  (classic skill-building grunt work here)

3 – The right tools help a lot. (I really like the Disqus/IntenseDebate comment systems.  Avatars, likes, threaded replies, etc.  It all comes together to make the commenting experience much more fulfilling.)

Net, I’m pledging to comment and post more.  I encourage you to do the same and put conscious effort into building this critical business skill.  In that vein, leave a comment below if this post has resonated with you.

PERSONAL:
Drop 60 pounds by June 30, 2010
Establish “date night” (min 1/month)
Host people at home (min 1/two months)
Blog more (min 1/week)
Pray / meditate (nightly)

WORK:
Get “1” Rated at work
Continue to use GTD at work – weekly reviews every week
Monthly join-ups to grow network
Meet quarterly with mentors