Ok, I Swear I've officially consolidated all my blogs this time. All my writing is now at Pinstripes and Sneakers and I've switched to wordpress. Please Update your bookmarks.

Adventures in Life Has Moved!!!!!!!

Hi Readers,

In the interest of consolidating the blogs I run and the ideas I have, it is time to merge my blogs. The new Blog is called Real World Basic (http://jobbasic.blogspot.com) and it offers life and work advice for recent grads with some fun stuff thrown in along the way. Please check it out and change your feeds and bookmarks! I understand that in the beginning some information gets rehashed. Hopefully bringing others up to speed will further the discussion.

Thanks,

Brad Maier

6 Simple Questions with Humor Columnist Dave Barry

So I recieved half a response from Dave Barry. Perhaps Dave's love for his art never ceases because answering three questions out of an interview titled Six Simple Questions is funny in its own way. Whatever the case, any response at all from Dave was more than we could have hoped for.

Dave, a Haverford College alum, was a Humor Columist with the Miami Herald from 1983 to 2005 and has written over 30 books. In 1988, He won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary. Two of Dave's books, Dave Barry Turns 40 and Dave Barry's Greatest Hits, were used as the basis for the sitcom Dave's World, where Harry Anderson played Dave. Barry's first novel, Big Trouble, was made into a movie directed by Barry Sonnenfeld. The movie which starred Tim Allen and Rene Russo included a cameo by Dave.

Though he frequently asserts that he's not quite sure how it happened, Dave has taken a path of his own and carefully crafted a career that he loves. Here's Dave's handle on some of the Six Simple Questions:

What did you want to be when you grew up?

I don't recall having any career goal when I was a kid. I mostly remember looking for ways to amuse myself. This is still pretty much what I do.

Whether it is in a big way or a small way, how do you change the world?

Well, I try to make people laugh; I suppose that's a good thing, as long as what they're laughing at is worthy of being laughed at. Here I am thinking specifically of Barry Manilow.

What's one invention or innovation that would change the way you do your work?

I could really use a cheap, reliable time machine.

Unfortunately, Dave didn't have a chance to relay his favorite ice cream flavor... but for more information on Dave or to do some reasearch of your own, check out his website at DaveBarry.com.

Announcing Where is the Director?

For a while I had been preparing an article on people who have broken out of the traditional mold and were working in a career and living a life that they loved. I was keeping the interviews at a site called Where is the Director? Inspiration and advice from those who run the show. In thinking about it more, the topic is very relevant to what I write here and in the future I will be posting the responses to the Six Simple Questions here as well for the people who already subscribe to this feed. To start here's the short interview format as it played out with Keith Schacht of JobCoin.com:

Keith Schacht is Founder and CEO of JobCoin, which provides a user-friendly job board application that gives websites a new way to monetize their content. He also currently co-edits Freshwater Venture and previously co-founded Inventables, Lever Works, Inc., and Chicago Beta. As someone experienced with living the start-up life and succeeding, here’s how Keith tackled the Six Simple Questions:

What did you want to be when you grew up?

Back then I would of told you “Someone who can just make stuff all day.” Give me some space parts and a little duct tape, and I was entertained for days.

Whether it is in a big way or a small way, how do you change the world?

I’m changing the way people connect with one another around job opportunities. I’m constantly amazed at how inefficient the process is.

What’s one invention or innovation that would change the way you do your work?

I want a tool that knows what I’m working on, or what I’m looking for, and automatically connects me to people who are in the same boat as me or who can help. It has to be instantaneous and it has to be smart. Yahoo Answers and other sites are almost there, but not instantaneous enough. People have an inherent desire to help each other and answer questions.

What problem do you encounter most frequently in your everyday life?

I don’t feel like there are a lot of problems, I’m amazed how many tools exist to help you day-to-day. It would be nice to eliminate batteries, no more charging laptops, cell phones, etc.

If you could go back to when you were just starting out, what are two things you’d do differently?

I don’t think I’d change anything. I know that sounds cliche, but it’s a learning process and you have to experience the good and the bad to learn the lessons.

What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream?
Cinnamon!

If you’re interested in learning more or getting a job board for your site, check out www.jobcoin.com. Also, be sure to keep up to date with new developments at the JobCoin Blog.

*Check out Where is the Director for the other interviews so far and look forward to more on the way. If you're interested in learning more check out the About section on Where is the Director and if you have any ideas for who should be featured next please let me know. Eventually I plan to merge the two blogs into one.

The Importance of Traffic

If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? The same thought could apply to the Internet. If a great website exists but no one knows about it, what's the point?

It's true, great content is what keeps visitors coming back and with the advent of RSS and other web technologies it is becoming arguably the main thing that attracts visitors. However, with the amount of content on the web today, the ability to market your offering is still incredibly important.

Like it or not, your website or blog is a brand. It is important to make sure that your content and presentation is uniform and professional. You also need to take steps to establish your "brand" and to make it known to others. The most effective way to do this is to network through the Internet and especially in the blogosphere. Make friends, read blogs frequently, and join their communities by posting correctly. The more friends you make the more allies you have to drive traffic to your site.

***NOTE: learn the blog, read some posts and get a feel for how the community works. Above all do not post spam. If you are going to contribute a link please also take the time to contribute a relevant comment. Behave on other people's websites as you would wish them to behave on yours.***

We also hear a lot about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) these days. Search engines, if used correctly can generate a lot of traffic for your site, especially as search technology improves. Thankfully this cottage industry has far more information on the web than one could ever ask for and more than I could possibly present. If you're interested, check out Search Engine Watch to learn more. Perhaps, the best advice I can give is that it is very important to learn how to develop and implement an effective META Tag. It will prove very valuable when it comes to controlling how your site is indexed by a search engine.

Another often overlooked tool is a press release. Chances are if you're publishing a website worthy of traffic, you're doing something newsworthy as well. In a sense, your website is a community or a project and big or small you're working towards something. The media is always looking to keep tabs on these types of things and specifically if you target your release to members of the media who cover the area of interest that encompasses your site (this takes some research), a press release can provide you with leads, contacts, and media coverage. All of which can lead to increased traffic for your site, not to mention opportunities you may never have even thought of when it comes to getting involved with an area you love. Here is a great article on how to use this tool to market your site. If nothing else you'll gain great experience in media relations.

Finally, we touched on Really Simple Syndication (RSS) in the beginning and it has become an increasingly important traffic tool. Users are becoming tired of having to check all the different sites every day to get their information. RSS brings information and your content to the reader through a feed. This makes it easier to get return visitors and to keep visitors tuned into your site. Projects like Feedburner and Technorati have simplified the process even further and remove any hassle that was left from syndicating your feed. If you'd like to learn how to make any site into an RSS feed check out this link from Search Engine Watch: Making and RSS Feed.

I really can't stress it enough but in anything you do you should be conscious of how you are going to sell it. If people aren't interested in what you're doing, you need to take steps to either reach a different audience or to make what you're doing interesting. If you're creating a website or a web application, it would serve you well to reread Everyone Should Learn to Sell, it applies to your website as well as your person.

Tip of the Day: Shh! Don't Neglect the Library

I've been doing a lot of research lately and have come to realize just how important and useful the public library can be. Where else do you get a free and helpful service these days? In some cases the librarian's knowledge itself is worth the visit. Whether you need to learn how to write a business plan or are just looking for inspiration, the library is one of your greatest and cheapest assets.

Perhaps its because we grow to loathe them in college after spending long nights doing research for papers or cramming for tests, but we tend to neglect them as a valuable resource once we leave school.

For a budding or contemplating entrepreneur, the library can save valuable dollars and prevent an onslaught of restraining orders from the employees at Barnes and Noble.

If you haven't been there in a while, libraries are catching up with the information age. Unless it is a newly published business book you're looking for, the library is likely to have books with the information you need. We all know most of today's business books are just rehashing yesterday's ideas anyway.

So if you're looking to commit the ultimate act of bootstrapping, get a library card.

The Changing Way We Organize Our Lives

Over at Brazen Careerist, Ryan Healy of Employee Evolution has written a guest post about the advent of the blended life and it has caused quite a stir; typically among people who believe that a blended life can't possibly work for them.

I think it is important to clarify some aspects of the blended life. A blended life is not the same as multi-tasking (i.e. you're not on your blackberry while you're at your kids play). This is typically an inefficient way to operate and causes problems when neither one of your tasks receives the focus it deserves. The concept of the blended life might be better stated by saying that things no longer occur in set schedules. In a blended life, work is no longer confined to 9 to 5 and family life and other pursuits are not confined to the rest of the day.

It's perfectly acceptable to make your schedule flexible to fit your needs and it is not a bad thing to do some work late at night or to take a half hour to send work email while at home. If you're working at something you love this shouldn't even be a big deal. The same thing goes for tending to other interests or to children in the middle of the "work day" if the need calls for it. This is not an entirely novel concept. The blended life is just becoming more acceptable and in reality is probably a more efficient way to work.

I should stress again that multi-tasking is not blending. When you are doing something your attention is completely focused on the task at hand. When you begin to accept that your schedule is malleable then you begin to move towards a blended life.

The first step to a successful blended life is finding work that you don't mind blending into the rest of your life. Pursue something you're passionate about and enjoy doing. It is not surprising that most of the people who want their work to be separate from their lives are also the same people who don't like their jobs and don't want to have to think about it the rest of the day. If you take the time to evaluate yourself and find something you enjoy, you might be surprised when your life starts to become blended without even thinking about it.

Personal Competitive Advantages

As an extension of the posts on learning to sell and life entrepreneurship, I think it is also important to realize that something as simple as competitive advantage can be scaled to the personal level as well.

On a small scale, each person is their own business. Your work is your product. Your competition is anyone who does the same type of job or work that you do. You must examine yourself and know your strengths and weaknesses, just like a business would. You may not be able to sell as well as someone else or you may not have as many connections as another person but if you're a better researcher than both of them then you tailor your approach from that angle. You would succeed by doing better targeted research to find the clients who are most compatible and then you don't need to talk to as many people or cast as wide a net as the others.

Individuals in the same line of work still possess many different strengths and weaknesses. Those that succeed are the ones who take better advantage of their strengths and do a better job adapting their "competitive advantages" to the job at hand.

Tip of the Day: Required Reading and Research

In keeping with today's theme of self-improvement, it appears that Seth Godin's famous book, the Bootstrapper's Bible now has a free version available in Manifesto form. Its required reading for anyone with any interest at all in self-improvement and entrepreneurship.

Get the Boostrapper's Bible here and take some time to look around ChangeThis.com while you're at it. There's great information to be had all over the site.

Corporation You

A couple posts I've read recently have gotten me thinking about the merits of looking at oneself as an enterprise. In particular, Ben Casnocha's post about upgrading his personal IT infrastructure put my thoughts on the subject over the top and into the territory of writing a blog entry.

As an entrepreneur it makes sense to work this way, treat yourself as business and get the most from yourself. I don't mean this in a harsh or cold way but in a personal improvement way.

Think of your accomplishments as profits, your goals as earnings targets, and yourself as the product. What would you change or do differently in your life if you were running it as a business? From deciding whether you can reduce costs by living in a different place or apartment or changing your diet to reevaluating how effective your current technology use is, there are many ways to examine your life from an entrepreneurial perspective.

Put the same effort into your everyday life that you would put into a new business and the change in revenue may surprise you.

Where Do You Want to Go Today?

The blog Wisebread has an interesting post on the merits of doing the safe thing vs. following your dreams. I don't think I've ever seen it so logically summed up as in these two paragraphs:

Lest you think I'm just a sentimental idealist, we also realized (how practical of us!) that the relative value of the financial security we were pursuing wasn't very high. Even if we paid off all of our debt more rapidly than we could possibly imagine, we wouldn't be satisfied. We would be more secure, but not happy. The money that we could then accumulate (when we were not longer using it to pay off debt) could not buy us our dreams, nor the years spent not pursuing them. For us, that price was simply not worth paying.

The truth is that we're not quite throwing it all on the line here. We didn't just throw ourselves on the mercy of anyone who will help. We have a plan, and that plan includes (and even focuses on) our finances. With my job and his jobs, we will be fine financially. We may not pay off our debt early, but we'll make our monthly payments on time. We may not buy a home or have a kid for a few more years, but I'm not convinced I'm ready for that anyway. We will probably be living on a tighter budget than most of our friends, but that's a sacrifice we're willing to make. We're willing to be less successful financially to be more successful as whole human beings.

It begs the question, just how successful are you if you achieve the rewards of taking the safe route?

Function vs. Flash

In thinking about what I've written recently, it is very important to remember how critical content is in any offering.

Google succeeds with a plain page because it's search is better.

Berkshire Hathaway doesn't have a flashy website but it's content is incredibly popular because the mind of Warren Buffett generated most of it.

While marketing and persuasion are important, the ultimate barrier to entry is better content.

Why Google and YouTube will prevail

BusinessWeek published an article today regarding the video site that Newscorp-NBC is planning. The article debates the possible effects this will have on YouTube and Google. The gist of the article is that NBC and others can use their already established media rights and catalogs to make inroads into Google's giant market share in the online video arena. The problem, and one I think the author of the article has missed, is the power of the Google brand and the reason Google has become so popular.

Media conglomerates have typically missed the boat when it comes to creating effective online media. The reason being that the Internet is a far different animal from the areas that big media is used to playing in. Take one look at a website like MSNBC.com and you'll see what I mean. It's cluttered and overtly commercial and when compared to a site like GoogleNews it is relatively inconvenient to navigate. Big Media companies are taking a miss-guided approach when they haphazardly outsource their web presence development. They lack the technological culture of Google and from this once-removed position they come up with web products and services that, while functional, typically miss the mark.

Google has the pre-established market share and the "net cred" both underground and mainstream that will make it tough for others to compete. With younger users, especially those who have grown up since the new media wave ushered in by Napster, Big Media has made another mistake. They're taking taking a similar route to the one taken by the music industry; bringing large copyright lawsuits (We've seen how well that's working out for the music industry...). If recent history is any indicator, this will inevitably lead to backlash. It seems we've reached a point where the edge in public favor goes to that of the "disrupter" or the innovator and not to the big, old-fashioned and possibly outdated traditional company. Google wins because it is a tech company at heart, has a huge network and a lot of capital, and its focus is on features and usability.

Have we reached a point on the the Internet where anyone who attempts to tighten copyrights or revert back to old ways will be on the losing end of their battle? I for one am torn on the issue of intellectual property but definitely fall on the side of the disrupters when it comes to progress. What do you think?

Go Forth and Prosper Joblog

As an extension to the blog I've added a free job log to help others like my in their post-graduation job search. The StartUp Joblog is a result of my travels through the job search maze that is the first few months after college graduation. As comprehensive as the internet has become, its still pretty darn tough for a recent graduate to find jobs in new ventures and startups that they didn't have a hand in starting. It becomes exponentially more difficult if you're are looking for non-programming jobs with these new ventures. A job feed serves the company equally as well. They make one posting and have it broadcast to a ready-made pool of targeted applicants. Some websites are making progress with the concept of the job feed but run into problems when it becomes too broad in scope. The feed gets bogged down for the searcher and inefficient for the employers. This joblog makes an attempt to target those individuals interested in working for newly formed ventures with a focus in the realms of internet, technology, social entrepreneurship, and eco-entrepreneur firms. The goal being to simplify the process for all involved. Want to post a job? Send the posting to b (dot) maier (at) umiami.edu

Take some time check out the Joblog. It's free for potential employers and potential employees and will remain that way.

Everyone Should Learn To Sell

If you have an entrepreneurial take on the way you live your life, it is likely that you're already familiar with the importance of being able to convey an idea or to present yourself in a way that motivates others to work with you.

In light of my recent experiences in the the post-graduation world, I think that knowing how to sell or knowing the process of making a sale is an invaluable skill to have. A sale is inherently more complex than someone deciding to make a transaction. A sale involves researching to find and target prospective buyers, developing knowledge and understanding of what it is you are selling, and then articulating this knowledge in a persuasive manner so that the buyer decides that your product or service is a worthy or functional purchase.

Believe it or not, transactions like this happen all the time in areas that you wouldn't necessarily think of as the world of commerce. Ideally, the ability to sell is quite helpful in what could be referred to as human commerce. An excellent example occurs in the process of job searching. Effectively, when searching for a job, you're selling yourself to potential employers. If done correctly, you will have taken the time to sit down and decide what skills you actually possess, to research and find companies that are in need of those skills, and once you're knowledgeable of your skills be able to tell these companies that you are in fact capable of fulfilling their need. This then is an example of why it is vital to know how to sell and is where it becomes a skill that can translate to many facets of life. Many would argue that a little sales knowledge could have saved many failed start ups. Its important to realize that many everyday interactions can benefit from sales experience. Getting a loan from a bank, convincing your extended family where to take this years family vacation, and pitching your business plan are all examples of "sales" you might make.

I may be taking a bit of an extreme position here in the interest of playing devil's advocate but I do believe that the ability to sell can serve you many times over and is essential life skill for anyone, no matter their business or occupation. How important do you think it is to know how to sell? Am I using the correct terms when applying it to real life situations? What experience have you had with this philosophy? Has it helped you?

The Perils of Being First

In light of the discussion floating around in business today regarding the necessity of an incredible idea when starting a business, The Wall Street Journal published an article yesterday pointing out the downside of being the first one to market with an idea. The article is based around a company named Sambazon which imports the pulp of the nutritious acai berry into U.S. Markets. Much of the article is a business profile but the really important part takes place in this editorial aside:

One cornerstone of entrepreneurship is to be at the forefront of trends, pushing the envelope to find and deliver the next big thing. But being ahead of the pack can also be a tough place to be, and -- as the story of Sambazon shows -- being first can be even tougher. From educating consumers to outmaneuvering new rivals and perfecting packaging, trailblazers like the Blacks face a raft of challenges.

"The first guy on the beach usually gets shot," warns Jeremy Black. "That's the danger when you are a small guy, a pioneer."

I think the important thing to be gleaned from this statement is not the difficulty of being a pioneer, but the importance of developing a competitive advantage; building a moat of quality, service, or innovation that separates your company from competitors and gives customers a reason to choose your product or service. Dick Costolo, the CEO of Feedburner articulates a critical point in his blog discussion of strategic advantage. Costolo postulates that:

A company's strategic advantage is based around Quantum Hidden Barriers to Entry... Of course, hidden barriers to entry are those great things that cause lots of people to look at what you're doing and say "that's simple, I could do that", only to realize that the more work they do to try to copy your solution or position in the market or whatever, the more they realize they are farther and farther away from what you've accomplished...

Hidden barriers to entry are particularly helpful to your company because potential competitors will severely underestimate the level of investment and resource commitment required to compete with you. I cannot tell you how many times since we first launched FeedBurner I have heard the following comments from senior executives at large companies, industry pundits, hobbyists, and my five year old son: "We could build FeedBurner in [a weekend, three months with three people, whenever we wanted]". When you have hidden barriers to entry, you don't get too worked up about these kinds of comments because you know there are lots of pitfalls and issues and challenges that you don't understand fully until you are far enough along in development that you stumble into them and think "oh wow, now what do we do"... [Read More]

It's important to realize that these hidden barriers to entry are one of the key reasons that it is more important to just begin working on something and to hash it out by doing than to over-plan and attempt to perfect an idea in theory and on paper before working towards solving the problem in practice. Having the perfect idea or being first to market has less direct influence and less importance than is often thought. The real benefit of being first to market it seems is being the first to work through and solve the hidden barriers to entry. Thoughts?

Urban Itinerant

I've decided to put my money where my mouth is and try out some new technology at the same time. I'm currently in the process of using some inexpensive web technology to attempt to create a web community for urbanites and urban adventurers with a social venture bent.

UrbanItinerant.com is the home of the community and it brings together the technologies of pbwiki, ning, blogger, and cafepress to create a site that will hopefully act as a forum and gathering place for urban dwellers who see the world a little differently than those around them. As we like to say, Urban Itinerant is for those with a big woods sense of adventure in the urban jungle.

The targeted groups include urban adventurers, outdoor lovers, eco-mavens, travellers, traditional urban dwellers, and the sustainability-minded in an attempt foster discussion regarding urban adventure and responsible city living along with sharing tips, organizing gatherings, getting behind causes, and anything else that might arise. On top of it all, one of the main goals of the site is to give a little something back to the community through the power of these like-minded groups. Urban Itinerant will begin selling merchandise designed for the adventurous urbanite and a portion of the generated profits will go to organizations that benefit the urban comunities and environment that we love so much. So please take the time to visit and look around, maybe something there will hit home with you.

www.urbanitinerant.com

An Interesting Discussion

Blogger Ben Casnocha put a thought provoking post up today regarding the need, or lack there of, to have a degree or certification when entering the business world. The gist of his post is this:

Can you imagine if there was a law requiring all wannabe businesspeople to have MBAs (or some other degree)? It would be pure madness.

Why, then, is there a law requiring someone who wants to be a lawyer to have a JD? Why is there a law requiring someone who wants to be a public school teacher to have an education certificate? Why is there a law requiring someone who wants to be a doctor to have an MD?

Why wouldn't we just let the market self-sort itself like we do in the business world? Some people get MBAs, some don't. Some people value MBAs more highly, some don't.

Obviously it hit a nerve as it has sparked quite a discussion on Ben's blog. As I've written in the discussion over there, I feel the major reason is that the consequences of a failed business are far less than the consequences of a failed court case or failed education. It is interesting then, now that the discussion has begun to focus on the free market, that two reasonably educated people can come to incredibly different conclusions regarding the same subject. My opinion is that Reflexivity plays too large a role in the market in the short term for society to be able to weather the ups and downs without at least a little market regulation. What do you think? Join in the discussion.

Shred-It, An Interesting Case of Finding a Need and Serving It

I was walking down the street today and by chance I saw an incredible work of entrepreneurship. Out in front of one of the small businesses along the street I live on was a big white truck with a logo on it that said "shred-it". Upon closer inspection I found this truck to be an apparatus which pulls up in front of a building and handles the document destruction for the company that contracts it; a giant mobile shredder of sorts. When I got home I did some further research and found Shred-It to be a Toronto-based company with branches all over the world.

It got me thinking about how some of the best business ideas are the simplest and the one's that you'd normally overlook. I don't know about you, but I can't say I would have thought to create a company like Shred-It. Up until now I would venture that most people took document disposal for granted. When you look at it though, this company follows a very typical model for a thriving business. I believe it is the Heinz Company who's motto is "To do a common thing uncommonly well brings success."

In a world of increasing specialization it is important to seek out under-served niches. Shred-it has successfully done this by creating a simple solution to an ever-pressing problem. They chose to satisfy a common need and that provides them with a large market. When Shred-it's service combined with new found fears of identity and data theft, you end up with a blossoming company. In looking to Shred-it as an example I think the major points a young entrepreneur should take away are:

1. Find a common need and specialize (at least initially)
2. Develop an uncommon solution
3. Make it cost effective for the companies you serve

In the future, by following this model, I believe business service contractors like Shred-it will take up an increasing portion of the market as companies look to gain efficiency by farming out non-central tasks to specialists. If you're looking for further information on how it all works, check out Shredit.com or for another example of a company doing the same type of thing check out AccounTemps.com; a California firm that provides accounting services for companies not yet large enough to worry about the hassle of it all on their own and larger companies who would like extra piece of mind through transparency.

Reconciling The Real World

Coming out of college, today's students are faced with some distinct realities. More and more students are struggling with the balance between what they want to do and what they need to do to stay afloat and increasing numbers are simply refusing to settle for the latter. Much has been written about this balance but a few standout. As someone who has been contemplating this a lot lately here are some of the things I have found most helpful.

The Brazen Careerist

Penelope Trunk is a former corporate worker who has done extensive thinking into the subject of a balanced life and is one of the few out there who are actively, consciously, and thoughtfully taking steps to do something about it. Her blog should be required reading for anyone but especially those just starting out into the world after graduation.

IWillTeachYouToBeRich.com

The tongue in cheek title of this blog should not take away from the content that's provided within. In the absence of a real life mentor Mr. Sethi would be a good online starting point. Ramit takes the time to logically organize and disperse tips on how to face the difficult battle between finance and enjoyment in the real world while producing some sound financial advice and providing some great tips for entrepreneurs at the same time.

Feld Thoughts

For the entrepreneur, Feld gives interesting insights into the world of venture capital and high tech entrepreneurship along with some poignant writings on business and life as well. If you're looking for inspiration check this blog out its always good to see how the mind works of someone who's already "been there and done that."

In the vein of inspirational blogs that everyone should read, Ben Casnocha's might take the take. Ben has done more than most and hasn't even entered college yet. His blog possess a personal and conversational tone and is a great look into the mind of one of America's most fascinating young entrepreneurial minds.

Life of Meaning

Steven Tomlinson's Blog may be quite different from what you expect out of a blog but it definitely shouldn't be overlooked. The blog consists of one post; one very long post that should be read over and over again. Tomlinson's discussion of the balance between passion and career comes from a high school commencement address given in 2002 and while this may seem interesting and trivial, readers should be slow to dismiss these words coming from one of the instructors at what is arguably the worlds most innovative and rigorous entrepreneurially focused business school; The Acton School of Business in Austin.