Just Because You Can Do Something, Doesn’t Mean You Should This has always been one of my favorite axioms for life and for entrepreneurship. Today’s example comes from Brad’s new running blog, and ultimately from an AP story reported in the Northwest Florida Daily News. The full story is here, but this teaser ought to get you hooked enough to click through, much as drivers slow down to see accidents on the other side of the road: Pain doesn’t defeat unshod marathoners Last month, after returning from an eight-mile run, Tsuyoshi Yoshino heated up a three-inch sewing needle until it turned bright red. Then, he says, he plunged the glowing instrument into the ball of his foot, puncturing a three-inch-long…
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Current Affairs
For Whom the Bell Tolls, Part II
For Whom the Bell Tolls, Part II Two years ago, when we got Vonage at home, I blogged raves about the service, which I continue to believe today (although I do hear mixed reviews of it from time to time, depending on the user-in-question’s internet connection). And I blogged about Skype when I started using that last year. The theme of both posts was a big “uh oh” to phone companies everywhere. So let me add another note on this theme. I spent some time yesterday at the offices of Skype, now a client of ours. From the minute I walked in the door, something seemed odd about the office. I couldn’t put my finger on it, there just seemed…
Book Short: You’d Never Run Your Business This Way…
Book Short: You’d Never Run Your Business This Way… I am an unabashed conservative, so you might wonder what I was doing reading A Country That Works, by union chief Andy Stern, the President of SEIU (Service Workers International Union) this weekend. Well, part of it is that my mother-in-law Carmen works for him. Part was that he was quite inspiring during his recent appearance on the Colbert Report a week or two ago. And part was that I always like reading about different points of view, especially with the current, somewhat dismal state of the Republican leadership in Washington. The book was very short and a worthwhile read. I may not agree with Stern on some of his illustrations…
Only Once, Part II
Only Once, Part II As many of you know, this blog is called Only Once because You’re Only a First-Time CEO Once — that’s the general theme of my writings on entrepreneurship and on the email marketing industry (read the initial posting which explains all of that here). As of today, I am entering into another Only Once because "You’re Only a First-Time Parent Once" as well! Mariquita and I welcomed Casey Joanna Blumberg into the world at 8:46 this evening. Everyone is doing well, and you can see our official announcement here.
Friday Morning Chuckle
Friday Morning Chuckle It doesn’t get a lot funnier — or weirder — than this. Harvard’s annual Ig Nobel awards, given by Annals of Improbable Research magazine for weird, wacky and sometimes worthless scientific research. Nails on a chalkboard, teenage repellent, and a somewhat unorthodox cure for the hiccups.
Doing Well by Doing Good, Part IV
Doing Well by Doing Good, Part IV This series of posts has mostly been about things that people or companies do that help make the world a better place — sometimes when it’s their core mission, other times (here and here) when it becomes an important supporting role at the company. Today’s post is different — it’s actually a Book Short as well of a new book that’s coming out later this fall called Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage, published by Yale Press and written by Daniel Esty (a Yale professor and consultant), and a good friend of mine, Andrew Winston, a corporate sustainability consultant. Green to Gold…
News Travels Fast
News Travels Fast Fred’s post was Day 1 of the currently-seems-silly TSA ban on liquids on airplanes. One day later, today, I had the pleasure of traveling from Idaho Falls to Boise and back (one metropolis to the next!), and I noticed almost no difference in security and passenger behavior at either airport. Most people in line zinged out one bit of sarcastic resignation after the next about the silliness of banning all liquids. My favorite was “next thing you know, we’re going to have to travel naked” — yikes — YIKES! — but as terrorists find new and exciting ways to terrorize us, and as our now-nationalized airport security staff doesn’t seem to understand the phrases “anticipation” or “long-term…
Maybe I Should Shave My Beard
Maybe I Should Shave My Beard I just couldn’t resist. I’d apologize to Mel if he weren’t such a jackass. Not that I don’t love the Lethal Weapons and other fine films, mind you. But if anything in the last four years has nudged me towards shaving my beard, or at least keeping it neat and trim, it’s this stark comparison: <g>
Social Computing: An Amusing Anecdote About Who is Participating
Social Computing: An Amusing Anecdote About Who is Participating We learned something about Wikipedia tonight. Mariquita was reading an article on Castro on CNN.com entitled “Castro Blames Stress on Surgery” about his upcoming intestinal surgery. [Quick detour — I’m sorry, Castro blames the surgery on stress? Isn’t it good to be the king? And he’s handing the reins of government over to his oh-so-younger brother Raul, at the tender young age of 75?] Anyway, we were debating over whether Castro took over the government of Cuba in 1957 or 1959, so of course we turned to Wikipedia. Ok, so Mariquita was right, it was 1959. But more important, we learned something interesting about Wikipedia and its users. There were three…
9/11 Redux: Deja Senti
9/11 Redux: Deja Senti I’m not sure if Deja Senti is a real phrase in French, but it should be. It’s at least the grammatical, if not idiomatic equivalent of Deja Vu, but for smells (literally “already smelled”). That’s what it felt like coming home to Tribeca last night, after yesterday’s horrendous fire that destroyed seven abandoned warehouses in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, right across the East River from downtown. It smelled just like it did on 9/11 and for three months afterward while Ground Zero’s rubble and oil tanks were still smoldering and spewing out a constant acrid smell across downtown. There are some kinds of Deja Senti that are quite pleasant — baking bread, campfires, fresh cut grass, even Elmer’s…
Doing Well By Doing Good, Part III
Doing Well By Doing Good, Part III In Part I of this series, I blogged about my friend Raj Vinnakota and his amazing adventure starting the SEED School and Foundation in Washington, D.C. In Part II, I extended the conversation to some of the things we do at Return Path to help make the world a better place — even though our business model is less “inherently virtuous” than that of many other organizations, particularly non-profits. One thing we did last fall in the wake of the hurricane devastation on the Gulf Coast was pledge to send one or two groups down to New Orleans with Habitat for Humanity to assist in the recovery and reconstruction efforts, giving people the…