Blog has been Moved

My blog has been moved to sergekass.tumblr.com. All updates from this point forward will be there. This blogger account is inactive.

Failure and What It Means

Three years ago at the All Things D Conference, Steve Jobs had an amazing quotation about his past failures. Its something I constantly try to remind myself when looking forward.

"There’s a lot of things that happened that I’m sure I could have done better when I was at a Apple the first time and a lot of things that happened after I left that I thought were wrong turns, but it doesn’t matter. It really doesn’t matter and you kind of got to let go of that stuff and we are where we are. So we tend to look forward.

And, you know, one of the things I did when I got back to Apple 10 years ago was I gave the museum to Stanford and all the papers and all the old machines and kind of cleared out the cobwebs and said, let’s stop looking backwards here. It’s all about what happens tomorrow. Because you can’t look back and say, well, gosh, you know, I wish I hadn’t have gotten fired, I wish I was there, I wish this, I wish that. It doesn’t matter. And so let’s go invent tomorrow rather than worrying about what happened yesterday."

Today, Chris Dixon (who has become one of the most respected new tech minds in NYC) posted the following about  his past failures and everything he has gotten from them (http://cdixon.org/2010/09/12/getting-rejected/) It reads as follows:

"If you aren’t getting rejected on a daily basis, your goals aren’t ambitious enough

My most useful career experience was about eight years ago when I was trying to break into the world of VC-backed startups. I applied to hundreds of jobs:  low-level VC roles, startups jobs, even to big tech companies.  I got rejected from every single one.  Big companies rejected me outright or gave me a courtesy interview before rejecting me. VCs told me they wanted someone with VC experience.  Startups at the time were laying people off.  The economy was bad (particularly where I was looking – consumer internet) and I had a strange resume (computer programmer, small bootstrapped startups, undergrad and masters studying Philosophy/mathematical logic).

The reason this period was so useful was that it helped me develop a really thick skin.  I came to realize that employers weren’t really rejecting me as a person or on my potential – they were rejecting a resume.  As it became depersonalized, I became bolder in my tactics. I eventually landed a job at Bessemer (thanks to their willingness to take chances and look beyond resumes), which led to getting my first VC-backed startup funded, and things got better from there.

One of the great things about looking for a job is that your “payoff” is almost always a max function (the best of all attempts), not an average. This is also generally true for raising VC financing, doing bizdev partnerships, hiring programmers, finding good advisors/mentors, even blogging and marketing.  I probably got rejected by someone once a day last week alone. In one case a friend who tried to help called me to console me. He seemed surprised when I told him: “no worries – this is a daily occurrence – we’ll just keep trying.”  If you aren’t getting rejected on a daily basis, your goals aren’t ambitious enough."

What I find so interesting thing about both of these messages is that they touch upon what I see as the two most important aspects of failure: 1)Don't dwell on the past and look to the future (Jobs) 2) Failure helps you mature and learn (Dixon). Putting these two perspectives side by side make each more powerful together (ha, the sum of the parts is stronger than them standing alone). These views on failure can be valuable to anyone, whether in your personal or professional life. And if you don't fail, well, I guess you are a robot (I could not think of a better insult).

And since I like to add a video to everything. Here is what I believe is Steve Jobs' most inspirational moment (but note, I am biased):

Pirates of Silicon Valley

Its been about ten years since I last saw Pirates of Silicon Valley (back when I was still in college).  I know a lot of the truth in the movie has been stretched a bit, but I still love the movie. I watched it again today and its amazing to me how the same basic ideas and arguments around innovation still hold true. Both Apple (which is now a very different company in Steve Jobs' second tenure) and Microsoft were trying to build platforms for consumers/enterprises. Apple did it by building the largest closed platform or walled garden. They wanted their software to be exclusive to their hardware (which they still do now, but in a much more open lenient way by allowing others to create software and apps for their hardware). Microsoft tried to create the biggest open platform for software that would work on any hardware. The movie depicts Gates stealing Jobs' UI (which Jobs stole from Xerox) and using it on an NEC, IBM, etc.  


If you look at the tech world now, a similar war is going on between Google and Facebook. Google is the open web that serves ads (and drives CPMs) based on everything on the web. On the other hand, Facebook is the closed platform or walled garden (which Google does not have access to), using the information that is created by its users to serve its ads (I have no doubt Facebook will create a larger ad network for all websites using Facebook connect). The question is which is more valuable to advertisers? The closed information that Facebook has or the open (which can include transactions) information that Google optimizes.


Here is a fun clip from Pirates of Silicon Valley:

SoundCloud: Kanye West Power Remix

I love the SoundCloud service. I am constantly getting send awesome remixes and indie stuff on it. Last week, Kanye announced that every Friday he will be releasing a new song. I hope they are all as good as this Power Remix (every remix needs to have Jay-z on it!!!) and I hope they will all be put up on SoundCloud legally (I assume Kanye's team is leaking them here). Its actually a great place to put up remixes that are not masters on albums. If you know anything about this, please let me know. In the mean time, enjoy this kick ass song:

  Kanye West feat. Jay-Z & Swizz Beatz - Power (Remix) by uristocrat

Twitter vs. Facebook Trailer

This is awesome. Compare the Facebook "The Social Network" Movie Trailer (real) to the Twitter Movie Trailer (fake) by Rated Awesome. Fun stuff:

How To Become a Rainmaker

Having been surrounded by MBA's and MBA type A people over the course of the last several years, it is abundantly clear that their goal in the long run is to be a rainmaker of some sort. A leader in whatever industry they choose where they make decisions that have impact,  become thought leaders and executives in that field and earn a lot of money. This can be true for start-up executives, media people, investment bankers, consultants, private equity guys, venture capitalists, hedge fund investors, brand managers, etc. One could even extend this to doctors, to lawyers and to any professional services.  They want to be "the man" in their field (fyi, women can also be "the man"). I have a theory of how you get there just through the people I have met and those who I have observed to be successful. You need to do one of three things:

1) Have a Career Path and Move Up-This seems obvious but it is much easier said than done. When you join an investment bank or consulting firm, there is a very clear career path. You work for x number of years get promoted along the way, become partner and boom you are a rainmaker (I know that is oversimplifying it but you know what I mean). The same can be said for corporate jobs in the right situation. However, for this to work, it takes a lot more than just moving up the ladder. You need to be good at the job, you need to like the job and the business has to be able to accommodate this path (through growth, changes, expansion, lack of attrition).  A lot has to go right and timing may play a role. However, I do believe that longevity can get you there in the right situation.


2) Start Something on Your Own-Everyone automatically equates this to a tech start-up, but it can  be anything: internet site, restaurant, hedge fun, shoe store, perfume brand. If you are the first or an early team member of something that is being built from the start and is successful you can quickly become successful.  Obviously, there are a lot of challenges with this, including market factors, timing, execution, team dynamics and competitive forces. However, if you build something and it grows, you can hit the home run. You can do this internally at a big company as well. Start a product or a group. Expand into a new market. There are endless possibilities. I think Google is the best at fostering internal start-ups.


3) Have a Great Senior Executive Mentor Who Takes Care of You-When you look at some of the most successful executives, they have aligned themselves with senior people and have followed them around from place to place. They basically will do anything for them (writing speeches, putting together board presentations, even getting coffee) just to keep them appeased and build trust. In return, these senior executives invest in the careers of the junior people and help them become a senior executive themselves, granting them access to their unlimited Rolodex. The senior executive grooms them and helps them grow professionally, providing access to lessons and positions that would have never been possible without this relationship. The junior person follows the senior person from job to job and gets more senior with each role.

So my advice to everyone looking to pick a job or career path. Think it over and make sure you have one of these three things met. On the flip side, you may be quick to dismiss your current job as not meeting these three criteria and that would be the wrong attitude. You can make it happen at your current job. Look for that mentor or try to start something internally that you can take ownership over and grow. It is always possible.