But I feel ugly…

Feeling fugly? Don’t worry. Some of the best looking people feel this way from time to time. Including yours truly. You are not alone on this one.

In all honesty, I’m no model material. But I’ve always been told I was good looking since I was a little kid. Looking back at family pictures, I would constitute myself a 9/10 as a kid. As I grew older my ears got a little bit bigger, and so did my nose and I would rate myself as a 7/8 out of 10 as an adult. Still pretty good and above average on the population totem poll, but not enough to have girls jump all over me by default. Read more

One step at a time

A few days ago I was in a depression. My definition of depression is: “a state of being where you feel trapped, restricted, lost, and/or otherwise not living up to your full potential”.

Part of this is due to Accutane. 60 mg a day does takes it toll on the body. For the most part, the drug was considered a miracle drug when introduced over 2 decades ago, as the only “cure” for acne breakouts. While there has been no conclusive scientific study that links depression or suicidal thoughts to the drug, many patients have acknowledged a known depression curve when on high doses of Accutane. For me, this feeling just means that if you do nothing or have nothing exciting going on in your life, you will feel a little “blue”. Thus, a normal person with a healthy social life need not worry for the most part.

The medicine, at best, is a slight influence on how I feel. It tends to enhance any negative thoughts that you currently have. Behavior and conscious thought is still personal choice, as we deliberately control and direct them. Read more

The importance of “Play”

When working towards a monetary goal or entrepreneurial project, it is always important to remember to play. For when we forget, we forget the very reason why we are working so hard.

I found it interesting in the professor’s studies that criminals and murderers have a history of less play at childhood, while creative genuises played more. Animals also play, as part of their development cycle when growing up, as well as developing skills that will help them later on, such as cubs play fighting in simulating a real hunt for food. Read more

When you start living like an entrepreneur…

…you start developing habits that allow you to build the foundations of an entrepreneur’s mindset. That careful balance of preparation, skill, and opportunity. These behavior traits start to manifest themselves in subtle, yet important ways:

1. You start reading more about the subject. You look for role models who have made it Big. Donald Trump (The Art of the Deal). David Ogilvy (On Advertising). Larry Page and Sergey Brin (Stanford thesis on PageRank and how it works). Mark Cuban. Michael Dell. Warren Buffet. My list of heroes for entrepreneurs are two-fold – those in the valley (Tom Perkins, Larry and Sergey, the Twitter founders, my ex-CEO who sold his firm), and those in entertainment (Hugh Hefner, P.Diddy, Chris Angel). Most interesting is the story of Hefner. Borrowing against his furniture for $6000 at the age of 25, he launched the first issue of Playboy with the Marilyn Monroe cover. As his daughter Christie recalls, (Authors @ Google) “my dad never thought Playboy would become as global and as successful as it did. He just wanted to be good enough to not have to ‘get a real job’.” Read more