I met Jennifer in April of 2004. We got married in January of 2008. We celebrated our 10th Wedding Anniversary this week.
Wow, how time flies!
On one hand, it seems like just yesterday. On the other hand, portions of that decade seemed to take forever.
As an entrepreneur, I live in a weird "tense". For me, the future and present are often blended. Meaning, I imagine the future I want – and then I find the path to create (or manifest) that destiny. Not surprisingly, some of the things that were easy to imagine were hard to bring into reality (in a reproducible, efficient, and effective manner or process) ... And these things seem to take forever.
Other things (like relationships or the growth and maturation of my kids) seemed to happen in the blink of an eye.
I am consciously trying to be more mindful and grateful for the progress (and even the minor moments, wins, or curiosities) before me. The truth is that if you fail to notice them, you don't experience them.
Here is to experiencing all that you need or want ... and I hope the rest serves as raw material, learning, or fuel to get you there faster.
Human's can't do a lot of things. Honestly, the fact that we're top of the food-chain is pretty miraculous.
We're slow, we're weak, and we're famously bad at understanding large numbers and exponential growth.
Our brains are hardwired to think locally and linearly.
It's a monumental task for us to fathom exponential growth ... let alone its implications.
Think how many companies have failed due to that inability ... Radioshack couldn't understand a future where shopping was done online and Kodak didn't think digital cameras would replace good ol' film. Blockbuster couldn't foresee a future where people would want movies in their mailboxes, because "part of the joy is seeing all your options!" They didn't even make it long enough to see "Netflix and Chill" become a thing.
Innovation is a reminder that you can't be medium-obsessed. Kodak's goal was to preserve memories. It wasn't to sell film. Blockbuster's goal wasn't to get people in their stores, it was to get movies in homes.
Henry Ford famously said: “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” Steve Jobs was famous for spending all his time with customers, but never asking them what they wanted.
Two of our greatest innovators realized something that many never do. Being conscientious of your consumers doesn't necessarily mean listening to them. It means thinking about and anticipating their wants and future needs.
Tech and A.I. are creating tectonic forces throughout industry and the world. It is time to embrace and leverage what that makes possible. History has many prior examples of Creative Destruction (and what gets left in the dust).
The leadership in your company is often the difference between a good company and a great company.
Leadership (not just the boss, but the top-level managers as well) can make or break a company.
Am I hands-on or hands-off? Am I encouraging my team to grow? Have I made our company objectives and values inherent?
These are all questions that we - as leaders - need to be asking.
As you answer those questions, you can also be thinking about what leader archetype you follow ...
Laissez-Faire leaders are hands-off. They don't directly supervise employees or provide regular feedback. Highly trained employees may benefit from this style, but most employees find this a hindrance.
Transactional leaders show the difference between a leader and a manager. They're worried about tasks and provide reward/punishment based solely on task completion.
Autocratic leaders make decisions without the input of others. They possess total authority and impose their will on their employees. This can benefit low-level employees who require close supervision. This will stifle creative employees.
Participative leaders are democratic. They value the input of their team members but hold ultimate decision-making power. This can cause challenges when there's a time crunch.
Transformational leaders require high levels of communication from their management team. They motivate employees through effective communication and high visibility. This requires more involvement from the various layers of management.
Or you can check out this less serious flowchart to see which fictional boss you are.
We often talk about Artificial Intelligence's applications – meaning, what we use it for – but we often forget to talk about a more crucial question:
How do we use AI effectively?
Many people misuse AI. They think they can simply plug in a dataset, press a button, and poof! Magically, an edge appears.
Most commonly, people lack the infrastructure (or the data literacy) to properly handle even the most basic algorithms and operations.
That doesn't even touch machine learning or deep learning (where you have to understand math and statistics to make sure you use the right tools for the right jobs).
Even though this is the golden age of AI ... we are just at the beginning. Awareness leads to focus, which leads to experimentation, which leads to finer distinctions, which leads to wisdom.
Do you remember Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs? Ultimately, self-actualization is the goal ... but before you can focus on that, you need food, water, shelter, etc.
In other words, you most likely have to crawl before you can walk, and you have to be able to survive before you can thrive.
Artificial Intelligence and Data Science follow a similar model. Here it is:
First, there's data collection. Do you have the right dataset? Is it complete?
Then, data flow. How is the data going to move through your systems?
Once your data is accessible and manageable you can begin to explore and transform it.
Exploring and transforming is a crucial stage that's often neglected.
One of the biggest challenges we had to overcome at Capitalogix was handling real-time market data.
The data stream from exchanges isn't perfect.
Consequently, using real-time market data as an input for AI is challenging. We have to identify, fix, and re-publish bad ticks or missing ticks as quickly as possible. Think of this like trying to drink muddy stream water (without a filtration process, it isn't always safe).
Once your data is clean, you can then define which metrics you care about, how they all rank in the grand scheme of things ... and then begin to train your data.
Compared to just plugging in a data set, there are a lot more steps; but, the results are worth it.
That's the foundation to allow you to start model creation and optimization.
The point is, ultimately, it's more efficient and effective to spend the time on the infrastructure and methodology of your project (rather than to rush the process and get poor results).
If you put garbage into a system, most likely you'll get garbage out.
There are a lot of commonalities between successful tech companies. Pretty much all of them attempt to leverage software to do jobs that would be too expensive, too boring, or virtually impossible to do otherwise.
Obviously, technology is a huge force factor impacting the success of a company. As a result, there is an arms race to get to "next" ...
Research and Development has always been a key in growing companies. Now, that is truer than ever. As tech improves faster and more dramatically, technologies become relevant and irrelevant faster than ever.
Challenging ... sure, but a great problem to have.
What a great time to be an entrepreneur!
Good luck with your 2018 plans. I'd love to hear what you are focusing on next year.
I was lucky enough to spend time with family and friends watching the Cowboys make the Los Angeles Chargers look good.
My mother always used to lead the table in answering "What are you thankful for?" After the groaning subsided, we would answer. Typically, the focus was predictable – family, togetherness, and health.
Those answers neglect a pivotal part of our happiness. People often view happiness or gratitude as a consequence of their surroundings ... of good things happening in the world around them.
A different, but potentially related question is ... does money buy happiness?
I asked my son, Zach, to answer ... Here is what he compiled.
Happiness is a complex issue. It differs from culture to culture, and more granularly from person to person.
One of the more basic questions is, where are the happiest people?
Unfortunately, finding out where the happiest people are doesn't tell us how to be happy. In fact, there's a whole section of economics called Happiness Economics that strives to figure it out.
Most studies show that money doesn't buy happiness ... above a certain point.
The studies show that there's an income level (relative to your cost of living) where increased money does not increase happiness. For example, in Hawaii, it would be $122,175, but in Mississippi, the threshold is only $65,850. Essentially, past subsistence, other factors matter more. Quality of life and work/life balance being two key ones.
The Easterlin Paradox states that while individuals in higher GDP countries were more likely to report happiness, it doesn't hold at a national level, creating the paradox.
The existence of a hedonic treadmill - or set point of happiness - may be up to debate, but this hits on an important distinction. Most people start yearning for money as a means of protection and care for themselves and their families, but don't change their goals once they've accomplished that.
If obtaining more money comes at the cost of your happiness is it worth it?
Finding the right balance can be hard. With most high-achievers, there's always a best next step, a new mountain to climb, a tougher challenge to surmount ... and nothing is ever enough.
While achievement drives me as well, I think the story below is worth considering below.
The Story of The Mexican Fisherman:
An American investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.
The Mexican replied, “only a little while. The American then asked why didn’t he stay out longer and catch more fish? The Mexican said he had enough to support his family’s immediate needs. The American then asked, “but what do you do with the rest of your time?”
The Mexican fisherman said, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siestas with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine, and play guitar with my amigos. I have a full and busy life.” The American scoffed, “I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat. With the proceeds from the bigger boat, you could buy several boats, eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing, and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA and eventually New York City, where you will run your expanding enterprise.”
The Mexican fisherman asked, “But, how long will this all take?”
To which the American replied, “15 – 20 years.”
“But what then?” Asked the Mexican.
The American laughed and said, “That’s the best part. When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions!”
“Millions – then what?”
The American said, “Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siestas with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos.”
Finding your own personal brand of happiness is vital ... to your success, your companies success, and the success of your relationships, and I was reminded of a video my dad shot on zero-based thinking.
To be happy, or successful, are there things you need to stop doing? Something you want to start doing? Or things you need to do more of? Food for thought to pair with your leftovers from Thanksgiving.
Here Are Some Links For Your Weekly Reading - December 22nd, 2017
Here are some of the posts that caught my eye recently. Hope you find something interesting.
Lighter Links:
Trading Links:
Posted at 03:41 PM in Business, Current Affairs, Healthy Lifestyle, Ideas, Just for Fun, Market Commentary, Personal Development, Religion, Science, Trading, Trading Tools, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0)
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