And because I am an old man, occasionally people younger than me (usually when drunk), ask me for advice.

This advice asking always amazes me given that I have made more mistakes than good choices in my life, and that while I am currently not in jail (another fact that always surprises me), I am also not the most successful person ever.

In fact, I could potentially put myself in the category of mediocre at best if categorization was called for, although I would certainly get extra points for wearing a pink hat.

Now it might be the constant stream of Bright Eyes and other emo rockers that is streaming out of the computer speakers that is causing me to Jew-up this post or it could be that my left ear is itchy as shit and driving me nuts.

But, I digress.

Seeking happiness.

One’s life can be distilled down into two major components: Life and Work. Now Life includes things like: family, sports, writing, art, etc. Basically, anything that is not Work. Work, on the other hand, includes, well, your job.

And for those seeking happiness, here is the secret.

The source of your happiness can only be one. Work or Life, you choose.

Immediately, the naysayers (amazingly there are a few) will say that happiness is derived in part by created a balance between the two.

You can only balance time, you cannot balance the source of your happiness.

Here are two examples:

My friend Lawrence. Lawrence worked for the same company for six years (he has since moved on), his job was from 7am - 4:30pm. He drove an hour to and from work. Every day, he dealt with the same group of people, doing the same thing.

I never understood why he did that job, until one day we were sitting on a bluff over the ocean and I asked him. Lawrence replied “Everyday at 4:30pm, I get to go to the things I want to do. The job gives me the ability to do that. I work out. I play lacrosse. I travel. I buy what I need. It makes my life happy.”

My other example. Me. when I first was working out of college, the president of company I worked for pulled me aside and said “Micah, people will always assume you dont do a lot of work, because your work style creates the perception that you dont work. You are never at your desk. You are always talking to people. Remember that perception trumps reality.” But, I was happy. The people that saw my production, knew I was putting in 60-80 hours a week. Even now, I leave the office, feed the animals, and turn on a computer.

In Lawrence’s example, he does enough work to have the life he wants; and in my example, I do enough life to have the work I want.

In each case, we have learned that the source of our happiness came from a different location.

Interestingly, I would imagine that most people feel that Lawrence made the right decision, and I am an idiot. I would also imagine that without the previous explanation that most people feel I am an idiot.

The bottom line: You cant have it all. Pick a place, Life or Work that you want to be the source of your happiness and build around that. You might find the results interesting.

Where is the source of your happiness? Life or Work?

I know this because of the enormous research I did over the course of the previous 12 months based on multiple factors including number of followers, percent followed, age of account and 28 other measures.

$6.19

Of course, if you believe that, I have a bridge in Brooklyn you can buy.

For some reason, a intrinsic value has been placed on the number of friends or followers we have accumulated in social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and others.

A week ago or so, I mischievously tweeted:

“base requirements for a SM expert: LI (>500); Twitter (>2000); FB (>1000); and at least 100 pics of you on flickr. (not self or mom taken)” - @micah

For many people, as their stature online grows they assume that their offline value also increases.

It seems that numbers equate to worth.  RSS subscribers, pageviews, twitter followers, Facebook friends all equate to true value.

As an individual’s number of followers/friends grows, they become more aware of how people view them and begin to develop a “personal brand.” (”There are 10,000 people that read my tweets, I cant tweet a joke like that!”)

If a person has an intrinsic value online (meaning that they can influence behavior or thought online), should they also be aware of how they are valued and adhere to that?

Take for example Guy Kawasaki. Most of hs communication online (at least recently) is about Alltop (which is an information aggregator that includes this blog in the startups section), Truemors posts and other efforts he is involved in. How would people react if Guy started talking about just hockey? Would his following leave? Would he no longer have value online?

Or Robert Scoble. Robert is a great source for information about what he is doing and whats going on in the technology space. If he stopped talking about technology and started talking about nature, would his value subside?

Both do a great job of interacting with their respective communities, is that their real value?

Tim Ferriss and Lance Armstrong are both involved with Twitter and have a high number of followers, but neither follow anyone. Do they have no/limited value because of the lack of interaction?

As long as quantity drives online value, quality will always be seen as secondary, driving the voices of truly interesting people into the noise of the “valuable.”

Social Media Value should not be tied to number of followers or friends (or even previous recongnition or fame).

The value of any participant in any social system is just that: participation.

Image by micahb37 via Flickr

Until I began to use Twitter and get more heavily involved in social media, I never heard the term “personal brand.” With more than 15 years in marketing (and more than 30 years in marketing myself), I certainly am aware of the concept of reputation management and branding.

Recently, there have been two concurrent discussions occurring around SEO and personal branding. One, here on this blog (SEO is dead), where the basic point is that great companies will learn how to integrate SEO principles into their organization structure, has been interesting. Not surprisingly, as it begins to make it round among SEO consultants, there is a cry of “you idiot! SEO will be here forever!”

Over on my friend Geoff Livingston’s blog, there has been a fantastic discussion around personal branding. Geoff’s point (at least as I think I read it), is that personal branding is a crutch that people use to create the visage of real value, when they are unsure of their (or their company’s) real value. Not surprisingly, as it began to make its round among Social Media experts, there is a cry of “you idiot! Personal Branding will be here forever!”

I look at those two discussions, and how the reactions are almost completely mirrored. Some great thoughts on both sides of the argument which are almost hidden by the noise created by those that see these opinions as threatening.

Most people that read this blog, or know me in real life, know that I have been seeing a therapist for the better part of 3 years on a weekly basis. Its an interesting conversation each week. A no BS conversation.

Most people that read this blog, or know me in real life, also know that I am not normal. Controversial at times, contrarian sometimes, I am unlike most people. I never really planned to be that way, or have a specific reason why, other than an intense belief in doing the right thing and being open and honest.

Yes, I believe doing the right thing and being open and honest is not normal.

This past week or so, my therapist and I have been talking about acceptance. One of the difficulties of being unique is that most people like to be around unique folks, but really only accept similar people into their “inner circles.”

Personal Branding is an attempt to show others how similar you are to them. Its about convincing others that being me is about being you. Its to allow acceptance and trust.

Chris Brogan, Laura Fitton and Aaron Brazell are people who use the concept of personal brand to allow their message to be accepted and for them to be “more similar” to a more global audience. Like actors, people often associate them with the personal brands that they have cultivated, created and articulated, rather than the people they are: funny, smart, intelligent (trying to make sure my friends dont hate me too much), real, flawed, family people, etc.

Am I saying Chris, Laura and Aaron are wrong or manipulative for what they do? Not at all. Rather they have made a specific BUSINESS decision to create two personas - their “public” ones and their “personal” ones. I understand and respect it, and it makes sense. In the case of all three, their knowledge of social media marketing allows them to produce quality content, and frankly, make a living.

Personally, I struggle with the concept of personal brand. When people say “thats part of your brand, Micah,” I bristle. Partly because I firmly believe that trying to live up to external expectations always leads to a loss of truth and “realness,” and partly because I DONT HAVE A PERSONAL BRAND. I am just Micah.

But, maybe thats it. Maybe the personal brand that I have cultivated is one of the “crazy uncle.” The guy you love to have a party because you never know what he might say–but it will be funny or wild–but isnt the guy you want to live in your house.

At the end of the day, if I want to be accepted as being similar, then building a personal brand makes sense. If I dont, then a personal brand has no value.

Why is being similar important? If I am my business (like when I owned a marketing agency), then its paramount, since people are hiring me (even if I dont do the work).

If my business is not me (like now while I am at Lijit), then being me is more important than my personal brand.

Plus being me is much more fun than being a brand, otherwise I could never post pictures of a drug test I took, or talk about horse porn in a presentation, or attempt to be the #1 douchebag or fashion icon.

Or is that my personal brand?

A hour or so after the panel was over, and we were all at a post-conference mixer, I sent out this tweet:

“If you do SEO for a living, you will be out of business or irrelevant in 3 years.” - @micah

Which got a lot more response that I figured, and I was asked to expand on that thought.

Almost as soon as the graphical browser was introduced, people have been trying to make money online. Over the years, online marketing has evolved, with some tactics continuing to have value, and many others falling by the wayside.

Banners - Still work, but the average click through rate on a banner is 0.4%, and there is research to indicate that its possible that 6% of internet users account for 50% of banner clicks. Banners have morphed a bit into rich media advertising, but really are only effective for brand plays (to get marketing touches).

Email - Noise/Signal ratio has destroyed what was once a great communication medium. Does email still work? Sure. Do people spend large parts of their marketing budgets on email? nope. Like banners, email has become relatively ineffective for lead generation or customer acquisition without an extremely targeted (read expensive) list, or a massive (read spam) list.

Which brings us to SEO. To be clear, I am not speaking about Pay-Per-Click marketing, which will probably be an effective medium for marketing for a long time. Its easy, specific, and makes sense. The market sets the price, so as people are priced out of the market, it should self-correct, and settle on pricing that works.

But the act of SEO - adjusting the code and content of a website with the primary purpose to be ranked highly in search results, is on its way out.

There was a time when SEO was seen as magic that only a few knew, but everyone wanted. SEO consultants could charge wild high rates and provide quick and obvious value. As all online marketers became wise to the tactic, more and more designers and developers were being charged with ensuring the SEO efficacy of the sites they were developing. Writers were expected to write for search engines.

Suddenly, everyone was an SEO expert.

Then social media blasted on the scene a couple of years back. People took their SEO tactics, and laid them on top of social media, completely missing the point of social media.

The content generated by users of social media began to rank highly in search engines, because it was RELEVANT. Because it had VALUE. Because it was TIMELY. Because it was REAL.

Suddenly, all the SEO experts also became Social Media Experts, as social media marketing became the hot new thing.

And, being resistent to change, as most industries are, SEOs just removed the word “search engine” from their tactics, and replaced it with “social media.”

With the net result being social networks and user generated content that is full of useless, noisy, crap.

Twitter, Facebook, even the biggest social network, MySpace, which was built as a place to market to young people, has been destroyed by the attempts to commandeer them by marketers.

Not only is SEO on its way out, (as platforms such as WordPress and other CMS’ integrate SEO principles into their frameworks), we see the glut of SEO consultants now gloaming onto Social Media Marketing in an attempt to not drown.

Here are the truths of todays marketing marketplace:

If you are a company who employs an agency to provide Social Media expertise, fire them. Hire an internal evangelist. Several companies are doing this. Zappos and Ford are two examples that come immediately to mind.

If you are a company who employs an agency to provide Search Engine Marketing expertise, fire them. First, take the principles of search engine optimization (write focused content and use clean code) and have them distributed among the important personnel (development, marketing, sales, etc.). Make SEO organic, integral and integrated into your organization. Dont “do” SEO. Dont make it a separate function. Make tracking it part of your marketing effort.

Second, select a CMS framework (I recommend WordPress–it works great for even non-blogs!), that supports solid SEO principles. With WordPress, install two plugins: All-In-One SEO and XML sitemaps. Thats it for SEO.

If you are a company that thinks that SEO and SMM will be the holy grail to success, please send whatever you are smoking to me. There is only one thing that breeds success, and that is passion. Hire people that are passionate about your product; that can talk about your product with passion. Remember, its not your call as to whether you are passionate or not. Its the people listening.

If you are an SEO or SMM consultant, you have three years. Three years to adapt or be out of work. Learn how to be passionate and breed passion or find another line of work (I hear that Personal Branding is the hot thing).

After all, like Rob Blatt at the Thin Air Summit tweeted “The issue I always have with SEO is that I ALWAYS feel like I’m being told how to lie, cheat and steal my way to optimization.” - @robblatt

“I would have never grabbed your boob if I wasnt drunk. (I would have thought about it for sure!)”

“I would have spent a couple of hours writing, but I wasnt inspired.”

bleh.

Writers write.

Thats it. Fear is a driver of excuses. You dont write (or do whatever) because you fear the outcome. Or the lack of an outcome. Or the quality of the work. Or the reaction to the work.

But inspiration doesnt do the writing, or excuse the lack of it.

Writes write.

I am learning that I might actually be a writer. Maybe not a great one. I wont turn a phrase or describe a situation, or formulate characters with the same verve or expertise of the great writers. But, I do write.

For the past couple of days, I havent written as much as I would as like.

But, writers write.

I said I was waiting for inspiration. But, that was a lie. I just was afraid that what I was writing wasnt very good. So, I was uninspired.

Today, I decided that I would get back to it. I started Tweeting a little. It’s a like a rapid fire warmup. Drop a couple of thoughts in 140 characters. Got some feedback; a little interaction. The more I tweeted, the more thoughts came through my head.

Then I opened up this blog, and started writing this post. It started slowly. It was hard to go, but now, my words, thoughts and fingers seem to be moving at the right pace. I cant wait to finish this post so I can get back to my book.

But, every thought should be complete, so I write this to completion.

Writers write. Its what we do.

E.L. Doctrow, one of my favorite authors, (take a moment to read The Book of Daniel), has a couple of quotes about writing (he is also an accomplished professor):

Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.

and

Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader—not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon.

Of course, my favorite American writer, Mark Twain adds:

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.

Even when that person is you.

Writers write. Leave the inspiration for those that need it.

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Photo used by permission from Andrew Hyde.

Last night was IgniteBoulder. For those that dont know what it is, it a series of presentations with the following rules:

1) The slide deck consists of 20 slides.

2) The slides auto advance every 15 seconds.

3) You can talk on anything you want to.

Thats it.

I was one of thirteen presenters, and was overly impressed with every presenter. My favorites: Jeremy Tanner, who spoke on how to crash parties. Michael Tseng, who spoke on the possibilities of perception, and Tara Anderson who was able to flex her standup muscles.

Done in front of a full room of 150 people or so, it was a resounding success. When asked if we wanted to do another one. It was apparently a resounding yes. Even Matt Galligan raised his hand in agreement. (Its like where is Waldo, can you spot the new AOL employee in the crowd?) I plan on speaking again (mostly to redeem a subpar performance), and if you want to, it is simple enough. Just go to the IgniteBoulder web site, and make yourself heard. The trick? Be innovative. Be funny, but most of all, just be true.

I also left a link to a recent at home drug test I took.

My friend Louis Gray asked me why I took the test.

Seems like an easy one.

Most of the folks that know me, or have spoken to me, know of my past. I had a lot of fun for a long time. During that time, the thing that scared me the most was ending up in jail. Not dying, at times that was the hopeful outcome, but the embarrassment of ending up in jail.

Could you imagine what my mom would say? What my sisters would think? The lack of respect my dad would have for me?

Almost as bad as jail would have been failing a drug test. First off, I dont fail. Anything. Any time. Ever.

Second, there was no way that I would ever take one. I mean, c’mon. I doubt they had the test that would cover everything I was taking at the time…

But, its almost more than that. When I was a senior at Independence High School, I was asked to apply to an internship at IBM. At the time, IBM was still a major employer in San Jose, and they were selecting one senior from all the high schools in the area.

I wasnt an amazing student (I did well), I didnt do a million extra cirricular activities (I did captain the swim team), and I certainly was no less of a smartass than I am now. There was no way in hell I would get the internship.

And, as expected, I didnt. I decided I would go back to the job I held since I was 14 years old, and be a lifeguard and swim instructor.

Of course, since I wasnt planning on joining any sports teams in college (which turned out to be not correct, given I played 4 years of lacrosse at UC Davis), I began to drink and smoke weed. A LOT OF WEED. Like Cheech and Chong amounts. I sold a little (not much to be anything to talk about), and in case I didnt mention, smoked all day every day.

I still remember the first time I got drunk. I had gone to a party with my friend Christine, and someone handed me a 7-11 Big Gulp. I took a sip. It tasted horrible.

“Its beer.”

I wasnt convinced.

“No, thats how beer tastes.”

I allowed myself to be convinced that a mixture of ice, Bacardi 151 and beer was beer. So I drank the entire 32 oz of this concoction.

That night is still pretty blurry. I do know that I licked everyone’s hand before leaving. I do know that I got home lied down in my bed and began to wonder why the WHOLE FUCKING WORLD WAS SPINNING!

Needless to say, the rest of the night was filled with my face in my toilet singing the Puking Song.

My mom told me years later that when she heard me, her first reaction was “My Baby!” to which my dad replied “He’s drunk,” and rolled over and went back to sleep.

After that, it was almost two weeks before I could drink again.

Why does that story matter? Well, as the school year ended, I got a call from IBM. The person they had selected decided to drop out of the internship program. It turned out to be a great program:

• IBM would pay me $300/week;
• I would work there through out the summer;
• If I kept my grades up at college, they would give me a job every summer;
• I had a guaranteed job once I graduated.

It also turned out that I was #2 on the list. The only hurdle was that I had to take a drug test.

I convinced myself I had made a commitment to the swimming pool, and didnt want a “corporate” job. I convinced myself that it was my senior year, and I just wanted to have a fun job for the summer before heading to college. I convinced myself that it would be a horrible experience to work at IBM.

I never said it was because I was afraid of taking a drug test. Of disappointing my parents when I failed the drug test. Of disappointing myself when I fail. After all, I am Micah Gabriel Baldwin. I dont fail. Ever.

So, the other day when I walked into the pharmacy to get my bipolar prescription filled, I saw this row of at-home drug tests. And for the first time in my life, I knew that the results could be nothing but positive (I mean negative.) I bought one.

I took it home. I took pictures of my piss in a cup. (Or if you like, my urine in a receptacle.). I took pictures of the negative result. Then posted them on Flickr, and tweeted about it. (BTW: The reference to @tylerwillis was that I explained that I had tried everything to lose followers in droves. Pictures of my piss? Gained 5. Is there nothing I can say? Nothing I can do?)

Beyond the humor of it, for the first time, I was really proud to have a non-positive result. To know that it would return clean, which stands as a symbol of a new direction in my life.

That when presented with two choices; my decision is always to make the right choice rather than the fun choice.

I wonder if IBM still has that internship open?

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Image by Brian Hathcock via Flickr

I really wanted to blog tonight. It feels like I should. But, I am drawing a complete blank. There is nothing that currently interests me enough to blog about it. Nothing.

Instead, I give you the above picture. It is only bested by UpsideDownDogs.

Just be happy I am not posting pictures of my recent drug test.

Peace out bitches.

Virtual communities have existed since communication developed beyond face to face. Im sure in ancient Rome there were letters flying between people that may have never met, creating a bond that is much like what exists today with tweets and email.

The development of online communities has been discussed since the advent of the graphical Internet. But those discussions grew rapidly when the concept of “friending” began to take shape with companies like Friendster and others. Suddenly, users could move beyond the simple information sharing aspects of the late 1990s-early 2000s web and interact with each other.

The web had become not your mother’s ebay.

Online communities sites began to grow not only in numbers but in usage. MySpace grew out of a desire to share music and other similarities between people. It was literally a place to create “my space” on the web, and share that “space” with others.

Facebook gained steam once it had opened to more people than the members of the Ivy League schools where it began. Built similarly to the standard “facebook” provided by some universities and colleges to its students so they could recognize other people in their class, Facebook leveraged the natural affinity that school attendance brought.

The term “social network”:

The personal or professional set of relationships between individuals. Social networks represent both a collection of ties between people and the strength of those ties. Often used as a measure of social “connectedness”, recognising social networks assists in determining how information moves throughout groups, and how trust can be established and fostered. - Source.

A sociological term to describe a specific type of interaction among groups, was now being used to describe how people interacted through sites like Friendster, MySpace and Facebook.

Online social networks were used to either replace or augment real interpersonal group relationships.

And web 2.0 was born.

Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform. Chief among those rules is this: Build applications that harness network effects to get better the more people use them. (This is what I’ve elsewhere called “harnessing collective intelligence.”) - Tim O’Reilly

Every site that claimed to be “web 2.0″ had some social network features.

There were discussions about how the world was becoming flat. How we could interact in ways that we never have before. Much of which, in terms of communication and information flow, were absolutely correct.

Twitter was born out of this continued innovation in communication flow. It was/is a simple app. Let people who cared, know what you were doing at any point in time, and allow them to consume that information in any format they pleased.

Then Twitter was compared to a village. Which was quickly followed by a discussion who should lead that village. Which, of course, was quickly followed by reasons that Twitter is not a village, or needs leadership.

While all this was happening, the business of social media began to grow. More and more experts began to appear. Much like the explosion of search marketing experts in 2004-2006, now there is no marketing or public relations firm that doesnt have a social media component.

Not so surprisingly, all the online social networks started to be touted for their marketing value. Almost no movie or band comes out without a MySpace page. FaceBook groups exist for all types of businesses (even Venture Firms), and Twitter, once the proclaimed village, has “bootcamps” being “taught” with claims :

“…while Twitter serves well as a vibrant social network, it also serves as a legitimate business tool…It allows you to connect with people who you may otherwise never know about, some who may seem unapproachable, and others who will become great business contacts.”

Even, my friend Laura, who originally proclaimed Twitter a village, has built her entire consulting business around Twitter, and other microblogging tools like it:

Pistachio Consulting’s exclusive focus on microsharing means you get the best expertise available, whether your need is for branding and market engagement or internal employee networks. We deliver briefings, strategy, research and best practices to maximize business effectiveness, along with soup-to-nuts program development and training. Drop us a line and let us help you turn microsharing into macro results.

At some point in 2008, the purpose of online social networks and communities ceased being about interaction and collaboration. Web 2.0, as defined as “harnessing collective intelligence” died.

Suddenly, social networks and networking became solely focused on the ability to market oneself, and much like standard “real world” social groups began to value participants based on their connections rather than the value brought to the group itself.

“Followers” and “Friends” have become currency. For example, Laura touts the 6,500 people that “follow” her on Twitter.

(Just a quick aside - I am not picking on Laura. I have an enormous amount of respect and love for Laura. She is just the first person to truly turn her online connections into her complete business publicly. I wish nothing but the best for her and her business.)

Communities have one characteristic that cannot be manufactured: Trust. Leaders and members are selected by a community because they have earned the collective trust of the group. Members that violate that trust are often ejected from the community. They become pariahs, outsiders.

Are marketers that use social networks and communities eroding any trust they have built with that community? After all, marketing (whether its brand, product or self) is based on emotion, not trust. It based on manipulation, not truth.

In addition, as people begin to use social media primarily for marketing purposes, are they truly looking to be a part of a community, improve that community, or profit from it?

Beyond the marketers, people are assuming that the constructed stature provided them online can be extended offline. There are “Internet famous” people. They write books. They are swarmed at conferences. They are given plenty of products in the hope that they blog or tweet or speak about them. Companies court them. They are the social media elite.

Yet, outside of social media, they are relevantly unknown. They have no additional social status because of their online activities. They are not leaders because they have 3,000 followers on Twitter.

And, because they dont get the same accolades in the real world as they do online, their participation in their physical communities languishes, and the community suffers.

Or, the opposite occurs. Because this social media elite believe that they have stature offline, when it is not given, when the trust isnt extended, the assumption becomes that their community has rejected them, and they separate from their community. Travel to places where they feel comfortable (social media conferences for example) increases, they attend less community events (unless they are headlining or organizing), and their blog posts (since all social media elite blog), tend to be “educational” or “national” in nature.

The end affect is the same. The community suffers.

Social media, in its use of false measures of importance and lack of reliance on trust, has destroyed community.

MySpace, Friendster, Facebook, even Twitter are no longer online communities. The online community as we know it is dead.

I dont have any solutions to offer. After all, it should be said as well, that I dont consider myself a social media expert. I have never hidden my intent in my use of social media to be an extension and promotion of me. I have no “personal brand.” I just have Micah. I like participating in communities both online and off. I like to be part of a larger group, and I like to be me, and it makes me just as culpable.

Dan Osit of Inighter was heading back to New York to run his company. Adam Sachs, his co-founder, will soon follow him. The women of People’s Software have moved back to their respective cities, as has many of the other teams. (Of course, some are staying Boulder, which is fantastic).

This was the first year that I was a mentor. I guess, an official mentor. I kinda helped some folks out at the tail end of last year, but that almost doesnt count.

The Techstars teams talk so much about what they learned from the mentors, but what did the mentors learn from the Techstars teams? (At least, what did this mentor learn?)

1. You are a piece of meat.

As a mentor, whether its for a program like Techstars or for the local college, you are viewed in terms of what value you bring to the table. Mentees get advice from so many people, that its difficult to wade through all the various pieces of advice and pick the pieces that are directly relevant.

Interestingly, every mentor feels that the information they are providing is the best. There is no question that the advice I gave Foodzie or Travelfli was the one missing piece of information that they needed to be successful. I mean it was, right?

In addition, with a program like Techstars (I imagine its the same for Y-Combinator, or other such programs), the team are eventually looking to have their companies financed. As a mentor, you then fall into three camps: people that can give money; people that know people that can give money; and not either of the previous two camps.

As a mentor, you have to be aware and accept the classification you fall into, and understand that there is a direct relation between the time spent with you and your ability to help finance the company. Is this a bad thing? No. Is it a reality? Yes.

2. The value you bring is not always the value that other mentors feel you bring.

I was an SEO expert for a long time. I have not done any real SEO in years. Do other mentors still suggest that people talk to me about SEO. Of course.

Whats interesting about this occurrence, is that it teaches me how my peers value my skill set. Is it bad? No. Is it a reality? Yes.

I bet Eric Marcouiller of Gnip is a little tired of telling the MyBlogLog story. But, what is he often asked to do? Talk about MyBlogLog.

3. Pick an area of expertise.

When I owned an interactive agency, we focused on Search Marketing. It was great. I would speak on a panel, and the other panelist would talk about the million things they focused on. I would talk about search. Who got the most business afterward? This guy!

There are many mentors with many areas of expertise. Figure out the one thing you can add to the conversation, and focus on that. Can you provide more information around other things? Sure. But focus. I chose to help teams on their presentations. Was it helpful? I dunno, but the three teams I spent the most time with have all closed rounds or are awful close to doing it. I wasnt “the reason”, but I am sure my help was “a reason,” which is all I can hope to offer as a mentor.

4. Dont let mentees pick you.

There is a big fault that most mentors have. Ego. To feel that you have information or experiences to share, indicates a belief that your knowledge or experiences are valuable. Almost the definition of ego.

Many mentors will sit back and let the teams decide who they want to work with. Remember the classifications the teams will put mentors in? The mentors that have the highest potential to invest in the teams will always be selected over the other two classifications.

As a mentor, you must swallow your ego. Find a team that you are interested in working with (even if just the idea is interesting) and offer your help.

Its a privilege to be asked to be a mentor; its an accomplishment if you actually help the teams become better.

5. Learn from your fellow mentors.

The moment I stop learning, I hope to be dead.

I tried to attend all the sessions that other mentors gave. I listened and asked questions. I grabbed mentors afterward and spent time with them.

Its not just at Techstars that I try to learn from my peers. I probably ask someone a question every day. I do talk a lot, which probably hides the amount of listening I do.

Truthfully, its not just mentors you can learn from. You know how much I knew about artisan food producers or how frequent flier programs were cash cows for the airlines? What about how to technically and mathematically determine how photos fit together?

6. Be friendly, but not friends.

I sort of hesitated to list this one, because its so hard to define. But there should be a magic, invisible, hard line between the teams and their mentors. This line keeps both groups honest. This line makes everything easier.

After all, spending time with people you like, will always create the air of friendship. I do consider many of the members of the various Techstar teams my friends. But, I try to be overly careful to not cross that really weird, hard to define line. To be an effective mentor one must be able to critique without judging, be honest without being harsh, and support without requirement. That goes out the window when a mentor becomes too friendly with mentees.

7. Be good. Be great.

Realize that the more you give, the better a mentor you are. Be good. Dont hold back.

Be great. Be someone that the teams can look up to. You want them telling David or each other, “man, that <MENTOR> was great!” Not, “Jeez, who let that idiot in the Bunker?”

So, there you have it. My 7 rules for being a good Techstars mentor.

Oh, I guess there is an 8th rule, but it will only drive David’s ego.

Whats that? its impossible to blow that balloon any bigger?

Okay, here it is:

8. Be like David.

Do the one thing that David excels at: Answer the question asked; and the question that should have been asked. Then shut up. Let the teams figure out the rest.

Why do we need special days for thinking about things such as education, poverty, hunger, homelessness? Why cant we, every day, do something to help make the world a better place.

Poverty is an interesting thing. The poorest of the poor in one country are considered rich in others. So what is poverty? Is it a state of mind?

Here are the 2007 US statistics, as presented by the US Census Bureau:

Highlights

• The official poverty rate in 2007 was 12.5 percent, not statistically different from 2006.
• In 2007, 37.3 million people were in poverty, up from 36.5 million in 2006.
• Poverty rates in 2007 were statistically unchanged for non-Hispanic Whites (8.2 percent), Blacks (24.5 percent), and Asians (10.2 percent) from 2006. The poverty rate increased for Hispanics (21.5 percent in 2007, up from 20.6 percent in 2006).
• The poverty rate in 2007 was lower than in 1959, the first year for which poverty estimates are available, while statistically higher than the most recent trough in 2000 (11.3 percent).
• The poverty rate increased for children under 18 years old (18.0 percent in 2007, up from 17.4 percent in 2006), while it remained statistically unchanged for people 18 to 64 years old (10.9 percent) and people 65 and over (9.7 percent).

How is poverty defined in the US?

There are the numbers behind poverty. So the question becomes what do we do?

Should the poor be left up to their own devices? Should the poor be required to pull themselves out of poverty, or should they be provided handouts?

I dont know.

But, I do know that the quickest way to change your current circumstance is through education. Everything I have accomplished in my life I can track back to the expectation that I would become educated, and (I think more importantly) that education doesnt only occur in a classroom.

Access to education must be made a priority for all people, but especially the poor. When a single person is making less than $10,590 ANNUALLY its hard to think of much beyond eating and shelter. Education then must first allow people to satisfy their basic needs.

People have said many things about the Black Panthers, but growing up in the SF Bay Area, the best programs they started was the Breakfast Program for school age kids. That program has since died away, but I would hazard to guess that kids who were fed prior to going to school were more successful.

Is poverty a state of mind?

No, but the feelings of despair, failure, lack of connection and belonging all are. By starting with education, its the first step to helping the poor overcome the artifical road blocks to success.

Is the solution that simple?

No, but the ability for each of us to affect true change in the world, in our communities exist. Donate time, money or expertise locally. Dont rely on others or the government to affect the change you would like to see.

Just do something.

Image by Funny_Games via Flickr

Do you have the Zemanta plugin? Its pretty cool. Searches through flickr and a few other places to suggest photos and articles while you draft your post in WordPress. As you type more, it begins to include your content and suggested links.

Pretty cool, right?

But this isnt a pitch about Zemanta.

I am trying to write a book. What I am learning is that the more I read and write, the better I get at writing. A crazy revelation, huh?

What does Zemanta have to do with that?

Well, I think I want to try something as a writing exercise, and I welcome others to try this.

When you load Zemanta, before you type a word, Zemanta has 9 pictures and a dozen or so articles. So, here is the exercise. Select a photo. Write the story behind it.

I chose the image above. Still not sure the story behind it, but it seems it should have one right?

Here goes…

Today on twitter, I had an interesting exchange with @phillymac and @spamspam about the images of Target and Kmart.

My parents never had much money when I was growing up. The two stories that always seem to be told after that sentence is written or spoken are these:

My mom used to give me her tennis shoes, because we couldnt afford new shoes for me. (Now thinking back, its interesting how much shoes play in my life.) and;

My mom once saved for a long time for a perm. I was young, maybe six or seven at the oldest. She came home one day with this gigantic Afro styled perm (I still remember it). Of course, this was 1976-78 (something like that), so I think ‘fros were still in style.

Anyway, my mom came home with this gigantic Afro and I burst into uncontrolable tears.

“Who are you?” I sobbed.

“Your mother”

“No you are not! You are some strange woman with an enormous Afro!”

(okay, my memory is a bit fuzzy around the actually conversation.)

What did my mom do? She went back to the salon and had them fix her hair.

My parents never seemed to make our lack of money a big deal. I dont remember a time when we couldnt pay a bill, and had to use candles. I dont remember a time when we didnt eat, because we couldnt afford food.

But, I do remember not asking for much.

When I was in the sixth grade I had a friend named Paul Luther. He moved to Texas. No idea what he is doing now. But, he had a super sharp wit.

I remember every Sunday I would look at all the ads in the paper and think about the things I could one day afford (yes, that did me well - see my IRS post…).

I have always been very aware of brands and style, but I think I pretend that I am not, because growing up, there was no chance I would ever get a name brand anything.

Until, one Sunday, as I was looking through the ads, I came across a pair of Pony shoes.

“Now, there’s a name brand that is still in style” I thought to myself.

The shoes were in a Kmart ad.

“Fuck.” I muttered. (I learned bad words at an early age. Thanks mom!)

I convinced my dad to buy me a pair of Ponys. We went late on a Friday night. (No one will see us).

All weekend, I wore the shoes. I was so happy to finally have a pair of shoes that my friends would see the name brand on. Monday was going to be fun.

Home room was the first class of the day. Paul and I sat next to each other every day. We talked about what we would be, and we made fun of each other and whatever we thought of that day.

“Nice shoes,” Paul said.

I was so excited; I figured that he didnt know I got them from Kmart.

“Yeah, dude.” I beamed. “They are Ponys.”

“Yup.” A huge grin broke out across Paul’s face.

“You got those from K-mart!”

I was struck dumb. I didnt know what to say. Embarrassed would be an understatement. My head hung low for the rest of the day, and when I got home, I put those evil Ponys in the back of my closet, and never wore them again.

I wonder if that experience led to my love of flip-flops…

I try to read feeds from blogs that are outside my immediate sphere of interest. So, there are feeds on Celebrity Gossip, Video blogs (one day I will do one, I think), even fashion. There are blogs on philanthropy.

At last count, there are like 500 feeds that I check daily. Now to be fair, they dont always have new posts. Some have multiple, but lately, they all say the same thing:

The Economy Sucks.

Each category of blogs will write about why the bad economy is either good or bad for what they cover (startups, government, politics, venture capital, even art)

So I am feeling a bit left out.

Here is my take on it. (Take this from a man who didnt need a bad economy to lose all his money)…

People that are good at something will fail. People that are great will fail.

The difference?

Great people take failure and learn from it.

Great people take that learning and build something.

Great people dont stop being great, just because the stock market is down, or they face difficult times.

Take a  breath. Take a look around you.

If you are a great person, you will be great.

If you are not, find a great person to hitch your wagon to. They are easy to spot.

They are doing rather than talking.

Accept it.

One of the best things about working in an early stage company is that you build relationships that are life long.

Enjoy it.

One of the best things about creating something new, something of value, is the friction that smart people who respect one another allow.

Seek it.

Recently, one of the board members at Lijit, Paul Berberian, wrote a post entitled Partner Dynamics and Nuclear Weapons. In the post, he uses the analogy of how cofounders/partners should each have the ability to make ONE decision that the other cofounders/partners abide by without question. The reasoning, as I read it, was that above all, the trust and respect that the cofounders/partners had for each other was sacrosact.

“I went home that night and thought about how I misread his willingness to go along with my decision - I was losing his trust and confidence.”

As I finished reading Paul’s post, I had two reactions. One was self-preservation (”Man, at Lijit, I am not a cofounder/partner, shit, I dont get one of those!”) and one was complete understanding and respect. (Companies come and go. People that you trust and have confidence in dont.).

The next day, I read Todd Vernon’s reaction to his former partner’s post. It was a great example of Todd’s thought process:

You inevitably end up in a few knock-down-drag-out fights over the years in about any startup scenario. I think this is just a natural occurrence and depending on the passion and emotion of the people involved it can be hard to distinguish this normal disagreement from one that is really a serious event.

Friction is inevitable. There have been many disagreements in my startup life. Honestly, when things are running too smoothly, I get worried. I start looking for the other shoe. I start questioning my effort.

Todd goes on to write:

You know turning the key will suddenly take the discussion potentially into an uncontrollable place (for good or bad), therefore you don’t turn the key unless the threat equals the potential consequences.

My partner, Matt Hessler, at Current Wisdom pulled his warhead out about 2 years into the endeavor. I was making bad decisions personally, and they were affecting the company as a whole. In this case, he blew himself up. He left the company (or as I assume he thought, the shell of what could have been, and the wasteland that was what my life had become).

Unlike real nuclear war, when the warhead is pulled out in a company, among friends/partners/cofounders, it is always done in deference to the company and the people. When Todd pulled out his warhead with Paul, it made 1) Paul re-evaluate his stance based on his relationship with Todd; and 2) allowed Todd to have a clearer head and come to what appears was the proper decision collectively. When Matt pulled the trigger on his, it was the beginning of my re-evaluation of the choices I was making. (It wasnt the end of them, that took another couple of years — I am a slow learner).

While Raindance (the company I assume Paul is writing about), continued on to a successful exit; Current Wisdom was never the same. We continued on, we did okay. We even had a successful exit. But the company no longer existed.

Using the warhead is a signal that the partnership has broken down - the ultimate wake-up call that something is wrong. It is designed as a measure of last resort - everyone fears being in a company post detonation. If a warhead is detonated, it will be the beginning of the end.

If you are a new startup, heed the words that Paul wrote. When the trust and respect breaks down among the partners/cofounders, the company is dead.

Have your disputes. Let them be screaming matches full of bad words. Call each other bastards. Just dont ever stop trusting or respecting each other.

It is at that moment, you have lost.

Joshua: Greetings, Professor Falken.
Stephen Falken: Hello, Joshua.
Joshua: A strange game. The only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of chess? — Wargames (1983)

picture by Wikipedia

About four years or so ago, I started a search marketing agency with a friend. But you know that.

About a year or so into Current Wisdom, we were generating quite a bit of money. But you know that, too.

Around that time, I began to party. A lot. But you know that too.

What you dont know, is that during the better part of the time Current Wisdom was up and running, I paid little to no taxes.

Why?

Because it was more fun to spend the money on partying.

And, boy, did I spend money on partying, which included a ton of sales calls and client engagement, so I never felt too bad about it. And, I figured that the big, bad IRS would just not think about little old Micah.

So time passed. I paid a bit here and there, but mostly avoided the taxes.

Until a couple weeks back.

I went to use my debit card, and it came back declined. That hadnt happened in years.

After watching Willie Nelson at Red Rocks (irony!), I went home, I checked my bank account.

What did I see, but a negative amount, about 4Gs.

WTF! I exclaimed, and saw a withdrawal.

It was the IRS, and dammit, they took it all.

Thats right boys and girls. I was broke.

Because the IRS doesnt play around.

They took some flesh, about a pound.

(Which is cool, because is means a pound of my flesh runs well over $20,000.)

Ok. I am done with the rhyming.

The IRS took everything except for $100.01. The bank took $100 as a service charge to allow the IRS to take all my money. The horse head in my account was a single penny.

After spending 5 years without having to worry about money; I now have very little. I am looking to sell assets, such as some of my art. Perhaps even my car (to eliminate the monthly car note). Ive had to borrow money from my father (for the first time in like 10-15 years), and I have figured out a payment plan with the IRS.

What does that all mean?

It means that all the hard work; all the late nights; all the blood, sweat and tears on Current Wisdom, has left me with a single penny. Thats it.

Could it have been different? Of course. Was I an idiot? Of course.

But, I see my friends Matt Galligan, Ben Brightwell and Brian DeWitt, of SocialThing and Jon Fox and Issac Keyet of IntenseDebate experiencing the high of selling their companies.

And with the continued success of TechStars, I assume that many more will follow their footsteps.

Besides the silly comments that I have heard again and again (”You sold a company, so you must be buying dinner!”) and the vast amount of financial advice they will receive (from good and bad people), I can only think of one piece of advice to offer.

“Pay your taxes. The IRS doesnt mess around.”