Sunday Musings: Chris Anderson's Game Changers
Wired’s Chris Anderson talks about what he thinks is the ‘sleeper’ game changer today.
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Posted from brad garland’s stream
Five most influential people in my life
Got this idea from James Gardner and thought I’d follow his lead to starting this new meme. Who would I classify as the 5 most influential people in my life? Hmmm….tough tough question but let me try.
1a) Father AKA Henry Garland - I’m wired like my Dad. Stubborn, constantly distracted, surprisingly sensitive at times, and a 100% entrepreneur at heart. He set the bar high. I have learned from his successes in business and as equally as important, his mistakes, and for that I’m incredibly grateful.
1b) Mother AKA Roz Garland - (sidebar: I know, I know, parents are so cliche but it’s true.) My mom and I have always had a strained relationship but I would say that is because we’re so much alike. We’re equally stubborn, a bit dramatic at times, and always striving for absolute perfection. My mom has taught tons of great things from my love of the arts, design, music, and doing the things that make you happy.
2) Michael Gerber (author of E-Myth) - I obviously don’t know Michael but his book changed me when I read it. It was the clarity that many people are looking for in regards to building a business. Now with that said, I don’t believe everything he says but I definitely think his organizational approach has effective be as a CEO.
3) Dr. Lori Byers AKA college professor - Lori was easily the most influential teacher of my life. She was my Communications professor from UNT. She was able to take us out of our selfish, holier-than-thou perspectives and made consider other options. From demographics, to gender, to cultural and religious differences. She always lead classes by getting out of the way and allowing us to find our own opinions instead of buying into hers. She’s a gem.
4) Courtney Treadaway - Court is an old old friend of mine. He’s also been a best friend/co-worker/roommate/employee too. My parents originally didn’t think Court was a good influence on me but turned out to be the most positive while growing up. Court has a pretty amazing story in his own right but his/our battles along the way have taught me the priority of things.
5) Al Gore - The vice-president? Well not really him specifically but what I really mean is what Al Gore helped get started. The Internet has connected me with new insights and perspectives from people around the globe that without it, I would never have even consider. People like Larry Lessig, Chris Anderson (Wired), Chris Anderson (TED curator), Clay Shirky, John Battelle, Tara Hunt, Ryan Carson, Jason Fried, Kevin Rose, Gary Vaynerchuk, Tim Ferriss, Malcolm Gladwell, Craig Newmark, Jeff Bezos, Jason Calacanis and so so SO many more. They have all been influences in my life sorry that I cheated there but if you want to single one person out (jokingly), I’d say Al Gore.
Pass it on. Who are the 5 most influential people in your life?
Posted from brad garland’s stream
Apparent risk and actual risk
I enjoyed this article from Seth Godin since it relates so closely to two things on my radar: risk & entrepreneurship. Enjoy.*Posted this via Google Reader
via Seth’s Blog by Seth Godin on 10/12/09
There are people who I will never encounter in a restaurant.
That’s because when these people go out for dinner, they go to chain restaurants. These are the tourists in New York who seek out the familiar Olive Garden instead of walking down the street to Pure.
That’s fine. It’s a personal choice.
But it got me thinking about the difference between apparent and actual risk, and how that choice affects just about everything we do.
The concierge at a fancy hotel spends her time helping tourists and business travelers avoid apparent risk. She’ll book the boring, defensible, consistent tour, not the crazy guy who’s actually a trained architect and a dissident. She’ll recommend the restaurant from Zagats, not from Chowhound.
Apparent risk is what keeps someone working at a big company, even if it’s doing layoffs. It feels safer to stay there than to do the (apparently) insanely risky thing and start a new venture.
Apparent risk is what gets someone who is afraid of plane crashes to drive, even though driving is more dangerous.
Apparent risk is avoiding the chance that people will laugh at you and instead backing yourself into the very real possibility that you’re going to become obsolete or irrelevant.
When things get interesting is when the apparently risky is demonstrably safer than the actually risky. That’s when we sometimes become uncomfortable enough with our reliance on the apparent to focus on the actual. Think about that the next time they make you take off your shoes at the airport.
Posted from The Banktastic Blog
Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta 2009
We headed to Albuquerque this weekend for the international balloon fiesta they have there every October. It’s was a ton of fun and the girls had their heads on a swivel with all the balloons that were there. We went Friday morning to one of the ‘special shapes’ launches. It’s an amazing feeling being in the middle of literally hundreds of ballonists launching their ‘birds’. We also spent the entire next day at the Albuquerque Zoo & Aquarium, another fun field trip.
If you haven’t been to Albuquerque sometime, I’d recommend it and definitely bring the kiddos. Here’s the pics from the weekend:
Posted from brad garland’s stream
Gastric Bypass | The Fear Post-Surgery
It’s been a while since I’ve talked about gastric bypass. It’s only a few more months until my three year anniversary but I wanted to touch on something that consistently rears its head, almost daily. The fear of before. The fear that I will go back to what I once was. Overweight, unhappy, and in pain. I made this extreme choice at such a young age to not only to extend my life for me but also for my girls. I can not go back to before…for them.
I hear the stories of many of us that have had the weight loss surgeries “beat the surgery” and it just makes me sad because I can see how easy it can be done. Since my lowest weight (~190) I have gained weight back (~205 now) and although some weight gain is supposed to happen I still fear falling back into my old ways. And yes, I’ve been at or around this weight for about 18 months now but it’s still a constant fear I deal with everyday. Addiction is a scary thing and if anyone doesn’t think that food is one of those then I suppose we will just agree to disagree but it’s real for me.
Anyway, I didn’t have an agenda here other than convincing myself its ok to be a little vulnerable at times and to talk about some of the things that keep me up at night. For those in the same spot and need some people of like minds or situation, check out our GB network. Thanks for reading everybody.
Posted from brad garland’s stream
Remote worker abuse but from the family side
Interesting issue has arisen in regards to my remote working but not from me but from my family.
Sent from my iPhone
Posted from brad garland’s stream
Entrepreneurs: Is there a 'success to family' pendulum?
As those of you that keep up with my random thoughts (i love you all btw) you can tell I’m very much on an entrepreneurial kick lately but it’s an important aspect of my life that I haven’t had the chance to often share. I often find myself running pretty solo with most of my friends due to the fact that they work in a corporation or business but don’t necessarily understand the risks/decisions/fears that someone owning a business go through. But I digress to my current thought.
In my last post I talked about family. Today, I want to think about the entrepreneur herself. It is often discussed in business books and in seminars on what it takes to be an entrepreneur and to succeed at starting a business. Stories of 80-hour work weeks and late nights are the norm to be “successful”. Based on those readings, there appears to be a diametrically opposed sentiment stating that one that starts a business you either choose a successful business or successful family life but never the two shall meet. Is that the case? Does someone, in today’s connected world, have to sacrifice the time from the people that are the reason you try to build a successful business?
Can’t wait to see your comments. Sound off! Success or family?
Posted from brad garland’s stream
Entrepreneurs: Its also about the family
In my recent post about the differences between the lifestyle and high growth entrepreneurs, we discussed what strategies are used to run both types of businesses. Either way, however, those strategies have to be implemented by people and sometimes entrepreneurs take that point for granted. Businesses are a support system of people employed (and not employed) by the company and are often bigger than we realize. Normally I’d say that we have 15 employees in our organization but that’s not everyone effected, see below:
15 employees
10 couples
12 children
All of these people are supporting or being supported from our business and that’s something an entrepreneur can also be proud of. Many times we forget that fact. Be thankful for the extended families that you have.
Posted from brad garland’s stream
Entrepreneurs: Lifestyle or High Growth? Why not both?
I just started a book on my Kindle recently about learning better ways of finance for entrepreneurs. (Book details here.) One of the things the authors address right at the beginning is the differences between a lifestyle entrepreneur and a high growth entrepreneur. Let me break those definitions down for those not familiar:
Lifestyle - Someone who starts or runs a business to create a very consistent lifestyle for themselves. Not necessarily in it for the big money potential but more the financial stability to lead a standard middle-class life. Easiest example is the ‘mom and pop’ shops of the world.
High Growth - Someone who see their companies as assets or tools to lead to further investments. Always looking to continually grow their business in hopes to lead to future exponential profits or towards acquisition.
Now with that defined, let me get to the point. The author tends to think that as an entrepreneur you can only be one way or the other but I don’t think it’s true. I hope, in my life, to run multiple businesses concurrently and will consider how to run my businesses accordingly to their potentials. Some businesses that earn very consistent and recurring revenues may work for a ‘lifestyle’ investment and some may lend themselves to a ‘high growth’ play. I don’t understand why I can’t balance both like anyone would with their stock portfolios.
Maybe I missing the point. What kind of entrepreneur are you? Can you be both a lifestyle AND high growth entrepreneur?
Posted from brad garland’s stream
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