Yes, I know. There is a lot of money to be made in advertising.

Of course, Twitter is a huge platform and Facebook reaches a billion people.

I know.

And when people like Michael Lazerow – who’s very personal video is heart warming (pun intended), and shows why so many people I respect respect him – exit large, it makes me happy.

Happy that good people have good outcomes.

That being said, your startup makes me die inside.

I understand that having yet another place for brands to advertise in yet another unique and innovative way is awesome. I love that you are respecting the sanctity of my online experience by integrating the brand experience into my web experience. I do. Really I do.

But, the complete lack of adding to the beauty of the world, beyond the optimization of monetization, just makes me sad.

I spent part of this past weekend looking at art. I love art. I collect it...

I spend the majority of my day with creators, authors and publishers. The ability of storytellers to see a world that could exist and share it with words and pictures is amazing.

When I am not chatting with storytellers, I am talking about how to distribute their stories digitally.

Easy right? Just put it on iBooks or Kindle or NOOK. Done.

Turns out its not that easy, but thats a story for another day (or just go check out Graphicly, its what we do thousands of times a day).

What is fascinating is that creators are beginning to take into account the delivery mechanism of their stories.

That’s right. Tablets are fundamentally changing storytelling.

Think about it. A paper book is a self-contained item. Its the text, pictures, and cover. There is nothing within the delivery mechanism that takes away from its primary purpose – delivering the story.

But tablets are different. Their...

Then B.I. said, “Hov’ remind yourself
nobody built like you, you’ve designed yourself”
I agree I said, my one of a kind self
Get stoned every day like Jesus did
What he said, I said, has been said before
“Just keep doing your thing,” he said, say no more.

– Jay-Z, A Dream

These are the words I live by. Puts me in an interesting conundrum, similarity breeds acceptance, but challenging social norms changes the world. I would rather have a lasting positive effect on that world, than be accepted by it.

I got to thinking about this the other day. After months of growing my hair and having fun taking photos, I shaved it all off. I never stopped in the middle and got it styled. (I would argue it had a style all its own.)

There was never a minute where I wanted to have a [insert style here] haircut. I never cared if my choice of hair or hairlessness made it easier (or...

Over the past couple of days or so, I was in Moab. Thats in Utah. Which is in between Nevada and Colorado. Meaning its between bunny slopes and the Bunny Ranch.

Yes. Right about there.

My friend Francisco Dao runs a group called 50Kings. Its easy to compare it to The Lobby, or Summit Series or TED, or many other membership(ish) driven organizations that tout a high quality group of folk. What I like about 50Kings is that its limited to no more than 50 people, and the folks selected to attend are selected because of their diverse value and backgrounds. Basically, most of us that attend are people you never have heard of, but by the end of the event are thankful to know.

Back to Moab. This event, after having a cattle drive somewhere cattle-ly and a pirate war in the British Virgin Islands, this was focused on doing several things like downhill mountain biking, off-roading, white water...

Anger and hate against one we love steels our hearts, but contempt or pity leaves us silent and ashamed. – Edgar Rice Burroughs

Every Mother’s Day, I think about the post I should write about how awesome my mom is, but I always hesitate because I don’t want her to get a big head.

But yesterday I was at brunch with some friends, and something my mom used to tell me kept running through my head as I sat there talking to Nyla Rodgers of Mama Hope.

“Don’t play on pity.”

If you haven’t met Nyla, find a way to spend a few minutes with her. Not because her non-profit, Mama Hope is amazing. Nor because she has spent the majority of her life in service to others. There are a dozens and dozens of people that do amazing things and live a life of service.

Spend time with Nyla because she embodies not playing on pity. She understands that pity-based philanthropy is ultimately not the positive...

Best way to be happy professionally, is to find what you love get paid for it.

Liar.

As soon as I get paid for what I love, it becomes a job. Work. And I hate work.

Man, things are just screaming at my startup. We’re kill-ing it. I just love my startup.

Liar.

You don’t love your startup. You love the success you are having.

It’s that fundamental truth that causes so many startups to fail.

When you decide that you want to become a startup founder (I’m assuming you are already an entrepreneur, because that is something you are, not something you become) you do it most often for two reasons:

1. There is a problem you want to solve; and/or
2. Working for The Man sucks balls.

Lets start with 2. Working for The Man can, and most often, does suck balls. There is a lack of control around your choices of what to work on. You may think differently than The Man as to what has the potential to...

I was surprised at how hard the beat dropped.

I was in Alegbra II unable to focus on another lesson about buckets of multicolored balls and mathematical probabilities. It just didnt seem to matter after the way he spit his flow.

About a week earlier, my friend Matt, who, as far as I could tell, the most knowledgeable person about music I did, or ever would, know mentioned that he had heard this new group from New York. Rappers. White rappers. White rappers that didn’t suck. Listen to the beats, he explained. They are simple in their grooves, but aggressive in a joyful way.

A few days later, I rode my bike to Tower Records and picked up the vinyl. I had a new stereo system that I had spend a summer working and saving for. My father, who seemed to be able to build most anything, and had a record collection that spanned the walls of our living room was to electronics everything that...

Every couple of weeks I find that something that I thought was highly complicated had been rendered simple.

Each time it happens, I beat myself up a little for losing a bit of my curiosity.

For those of us that work in technology know that everything gets better faster. Speeds accelerate; communication accelerates; information flows more freely.

Yet, as humans, we get “set in our ways,” and stop being curious around things that we are “happy with the way they are.”

When I was ten years old, I got my first computer. It was a big deal in our house, given we only were able to afford it because my dad worked at Stanford and somehow he got to take one home.

It was a TRS-80, with a 5'4" drive, and the first time I fired it up, it had an green screen and a blinking cursor.

“Now what?”

“Now you read the instruction manual.”

That was how my dad taught me to be curious. I, of course...

I’m not sure when it happened. Maybe it comes with the territory. Or perhaps with the “tech bubble”.

It could have been the billion dollar valuations; or a secret dinner at Bin 38.

I wish I knew. I wish that the exact moment that becoming an advisor to a company became hip.

It may have arisen after the invention of the Internet Celebrity or perhaps its the fault of the accelerators and the rise of the mentor class.

I suppose at the end of the day, it just doesn’t matter.

What does matter is this:

Advisors stop screwing startups.

The last couple of years, I have become amazed at the emails I get from first time entrepreneurs or long-time employees (“entrepreneurs by proxy”) telling me about the latest startup they are advising. That the founder of said startup gave them real equity in return for…well, hell if I know.

Seriously, what the hell?

When did the fact that your name that...

“That shit is awesome.”

“I have 15,000 twitter followers, and they love it.”

“Clearly people love us; we got 30,000 downloads in our first two weeks!”

“You are too early for me, but you will easily raise money.”

These are all lies. Damn lies.

Its easy in this world of constant affirmation to see a retweet or a kind no from an investor as indication of current or impending success.

But, they are lies. Insidious lies.

As an entrepreneur we hope that everyone is being 100% truthful with us at all times, and therefore the heightened level of positivity comes with the assumption that its righteous.

Except its not.

There are two things working against the entrepreneur. The first is the realization by others that being an entrepreneur is hard, and therefore should be respected, and second a sense of jealousy from non-entrepreneurs.

This deadly combination leads to the incessant and...