Could not have said it better myself

I had a chance to connect with a recent graduate from FHSU (Graduated this December) this year. He was having some problems finding a position and his way. I wanted to end the year with some advice from me in Nanshan's words

"now I just found myself a room to live in Flushing area in Queens ($350 a month, the cheapest room I could find so far) and was able to focus my mind on this letter..


Now that I got a place to live, the next step would be finding the internship and preparing for applying graduate school. Even till now, I still think the conversations I had with you beneficial and influential. Being honest and also being confident.. Always get done what are promised to do.. networking with people and being persistent...I can't thank you more for teaching me those things.."

Sometimes in business we forget what we know and more importantly to pass it along.

Nanshan, I wish you the best in NY and in your experiences. I still cannot imagine coming from the other side of the world to Hays KS and then finally on to NY City. (Heck, NY would scare me now!)

The lesson for me next year? Do something really scary. (I always preach doing something scary) Do something Nanshan scary.

What have you been up to?

I know, it has been a while since I have posted and I am positive that next year I will get back on the consistency wagon.

Like every year I have hours and hours of holiday time building Lego's, games and toys. It all started here with the Batman helicopter. Caden built many of his own Lego;s himself however this caused him some problems.

Then came the marble thing. 3 1/2 hours building this thing. Carsen has been entertained for quite a while. It is in need of some repair now.

Last came the robot. A few hours and programming via USB. It just walks, talks and identifies colors. But it is just a start.

And of course the free build, the tower.

Jim Collins

Had a chance to see Jim Collins present at IT Nation and this alone was worth the entire week. If you do not recognize Jim Collins name you most likely recognize his books like; Good to Great, Great by Choice, Built to last. And much, much more.

I thought about posting some of his amazing thoughts on business. However I really feel that you would be missing out if you do not read his books. Many of the finding in the books goes against standard thoughts in business. The unique thing about the books is that the findings are confirmed with facts over and over again.

If you are in business you would be doing a favor by investing in all Jim Collins books.

A great trip

We made a trip down to Disney world for 7 days. There were 6 of us. Jenifer and the boys along with Jenifer's parents. We started everything at the parks on October 30th for a half day. One thing that in my mind cannot be argued is the quality and attention to detail that Disney puts into the entire experience. We stayed at Radiator Springs (Art of Animation) where the entire Car's world was recreated.

You can see in the above photo that we spent Halloween at the Magic Kingdom. What a great night. We trick-or-treated Disney. This will be a Halloween that both boys will remember for life.

We then moved on to Christmas on November 1st. Most of the park was transformed overnight. We had character meals, went to all parks (Many twice)

Everyone went home and I stayed another 6 days for a conference. I am finally caught up from being gone that long.

I really wanted to hate it...But I didn't!

As you know I have been a fan of the iPad for some time. I recently had the opportunity to get a iPhone4s at no cost. I jumped in.

It is pretty much superior in every way.

1. Visual Voicemail. (Easy to see who it is from, simple to play and more)
2. Screen. (I had a larger screen on my Droid and the smaller Apple screen is brighter and higher resolution) I don't miss the larger screen at all.
3. Simplicity. Easy to use.
4. Mail interface is better! And yes, I tried all the free and paid apps for the Droid!
5. Messaging interface is better!
6. Siri. Sweet!
7. Touch response is better. Even the smaller keyboard works great (On screen)
8. I kinda like not having this huge brick to hold when making a call.
9. Speaker on this is great!
10 Apps are great!

The down side? A few.
1. Apple land is limited but controlled. If you want to work outside the box, this is not for you.
2. Widgets. No such thing on the Apple.
3. Battery. Look, I really have had this one day and by noon I was looking at 50% battery. I have spoken to other and they are not having the same luck.


I really wanted to hate this thing...OK I love it.

Thought this was great advertising

It was at least interesting and entertaining. Something lacking in lots of marketing lately.

A new perspective

I am in the process of re-reading Good to Great. It amazes me how my perspective has changed over the years. This book almost feels like a new read.

I now wonder how many other good reads that I may need to revisit. I think I will at least go back and look at some of the best and skim again.