Michael D Lilly.com

Awesome Pete tipped me off to a new service from startup NuevaSync.  The service essentially enables you to use your Google Services (gmail - which I don’t think is working yet, gcal, and contacts) via the Microsoft Exchange integration on the iPhone or iPod touch.

I enabled the calendar syncing and it works beautifully!  It automagically syncs (wirelessly) with all of the calendars that I have “write” rights to, meaning my calendar as well as Diana’s.  I’m sure it will work better when Google gets it to gether and does it themselves and doesn’t make me go through a third party.  But for the time being, this works fine for me

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Google labs just released a gadget so you can view your 5 most recent google docs, and your google calendar on the left toolbar inside of gmail.

To add this, just go to settings (in the upper right corner), click the “labs” tab, scroll all the way down and you will see the calendar gadget and the google dogs gadget, just click the enable button.

This makes me very happy, you have no idea.

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I am currently cruising down the highway…. My laptop is tethered via bluetooth to my work cell phone to get me onto the internet, and both devices are plugged into a power inverter running off of the car’s cig lighter for power.

Complete geekery.

Now I am curious if I can video chat like this

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Diana needs a laptop for her classes…  She decided this days after Apple ended their “get a free ipod with a new computer” deal.  So I told her she would have to wait untill they released their next version of laptops.  And vioala, the time is almost upon us!

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Guy Kawasaki (not Robert Kiyosaki), published an article I found very interesting, perhaps motivating even.  Here is the article, check the site for the others he has written in this series.

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Monday, August 18, 2008

Five most important lessons I’ve learned as an entrepreneur.

1. Focus on cash flow. I understand the difference between cash flow and profitability, and I’m not recommending that you strive for a lack of profitability. But cash is what keeps the doors open and pays the bills. Paper profits on an accrual accounting basis is of no more than secondary or tertiary importance for a startup. As my mother used to say, “Sales fixes everything.”
2. Make a little progress every day. I used to believe in the big-bang theory of marketing: a fantastic launch that created such inertia that you flew to “infinity and beyond.” No more. Now my theory is that you make a little bit of progress every day–whether that’s making your product slightly better, increasing your skill in one small way, or closing one more customer. The reason the press writes about “overnight successes” is that they seldom happen–not because that’s how all businesses work.
3. Try stuff. I also used to believe that it’s better to be smart than lucky because if you’re smart you can out-think the competition. I don’t believe that anymore–this is not to say that you should strive for a high level of stupidity. My point is that luck is a big part of many successes, so (a) don’t get too bummed out when you see a bozo succeed; and (b) luck favors the people who try stuff, not simply think and analyze. As the Chinese say, “One must wait for a long time with your mouth open before a Peking duck flies in your mouth.”
4. Ignore schmexperts. Schmexperts are the totally bad combination of schmucks who are experts–or experts who are schmucks. When you first launch a product or service, they’ll tell you it isn’t necessary, can’t really work, or faces too much competition. If you succeed, then they’ll say they knew you would succeed. In other words, they don’t know jack shiitake. If you believe, try it. If you don’t believe, listen to the schmexperts and stay on the porch.
5. Never ask anyone to do something that you wouldn’t do. This goes for customers (”fill out these twenty-five fields of personal information to get an account for our website”) to employees (”fly coach to Mumbai, meet all day the day the arrive, and fly back that night”). If you follow this principle, you’ll almost always have a good customer service reputation and happy employees.

I hold these truths to be self-evident and hope you can use them to kick butt and change the world.

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I think my favorite point was:  Try stuff, as the Chinese say, “One must wait for a long time with your mouth open before a Peking duck flies in your mouth.”

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