Great post from David Carr about the future of traditional print media – newspapers, magazine, books

Great post about the changes in print media by David Carr, media commentator for the NY Times:

The Media Equation – For Media, a Sunset Is Followed Quickly by a Sunrise – NYTimes.com

This lack of due diligence amazes me: Canopy Financial was allegedly a sham.

The short story is that a prominent start up financial services firm allegedly faked their audits and raised about $90MM in funding from VC firms over a couple of years:
Canopy Financial Accused Of Serious Financial Fraud, Investors Burned

Canopy Financial Turns Into Sad, Comical Game Of Hot Potato

As an active investor, entrepreneur involved in fund-raising and co-founder and officer of a financial auditing firm, this kind of story just makes me cringe. Leaving the validity of these accusations aside, running a good due diligence checklist is critical.

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Power from slow-moving water currents

If you’re an entrepreneur like me, this is the kind of innovation you want to help commercialize:
‘Fish technology’ draws renewable energy from slow water currents | Michigan Today

What is a System after all without Trust?

There’s a lot of discussion in small business and start up literature about creating a “system” that runs your business. You document your processes and hand those documents off to your people.

You script your back office. You script your sales process. You script customer support. You define your technical expectations and you script follow up. All good stuff, in my opinion.

Recently, I  heard a prominent business guru speak about this issue and he strongly urged small business people to focus on flexibility and put systems in the back seat.

He said flexibility, not systems, are your key advantage over larger companies.

Wow. I totally disagree.

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Time management is worthless… Think about this instead…

Time management is worthless. It really is.

I’ve spent plenty of “time” trying to get things done, solve problems and create value. But often, the most productivity comes from a few hours here and there during which I am energetic and focused.

So, don’t think about time management. There really is no such thing. You can stare at a screen for hours and get nothing done when you might as well be out playing with your kids.

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