Persistence means to never stop trying. You cannot stop. Make a mistake, do something. Some people plan it out, decide they can’t get past a certain roadblock, and they stop and drop.
You must always remember that necessity is the mother of invention, and that when people have to come up with an idea, they will. Preparation means opportunity. When in doubt, just do it. Don’t be afraid of failure. Continue reading
I mentioned to my friend Henry today that I’d like to be a professor, and he said he could see me as one. I think it’s a lovely job, with the benefits of being part of a university community– like I have as a student now– plus the opportunity to have a positive impact on students.
I listened to an interview with YouMail CEO Alex Quilici. It’s really excellent, I recommend giving it a listen. He mentions that being a university professor today is good practice for being an entrepreneur. If you think about it, professors nowadays have to be very entrepreneurial if they’re going to be good. They apply for research grants and have to sell other people on their ideas, to get new areas to explore.
Mark Redekopp proves to me it can be done and doesn’t take forever. He’s quite young (I think) and yet he’s a highly respected professor already. Continue reading
Yesterday, I talked with my friend Steven. We’ve been friends for many, many years. However, he has selected a much different path than mine, and we haven’t talked much recently. The main thing that struck me from our conversation is that he doesn’t know what to do with his life. What to spend his time on, what kind of job to get, what kind of life to live. He’s taking some time off from school, and it’s mainly for the purpose of finding a job. But he has only vague ideas of the job he’s seeking. My impression was that he needed motivation.
I recently picked up this small booklet from a local Target retailer. It was a great read, especially for a disorganized person like me. (Note, though, that organization is learned, not inherited.) A good portion of the book talks about setting very specific plans, missions, and goals for cleaning up and organizing. Why do they spend so much time on such trivial talk, when they could instead be getting down to the nitty gritty techniques that really make a difference? (These techniques are also included.) Continue reading
At yesterday’s Genesis lesson, Pastor Norbert covered James 4:13-17. Here’s what Jesus says:
Warning about Self-Confidence
Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.” How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.” Otherwise you are boasting about your own plans, and all such boasting is evil.
Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.
(New Living Translation) Continue reading
From October 5-7, I’ll be attending Big Seminar X in Atlanta, Georgia. There are 2 more free training calls, so sign up now and call in! I’ll be recording them, too, so let me know if you would like to hear some past episodes. If you’re in the area around Oct. 5-7, 2007, get in touch! And if you’re interested in BigSeminar, sign up– I’ll be there.
Life is a quagmire of options. I’m reading an article titled 10 Tips for College Students. I’m feeling pretty good about myself because I really understand what the author is saying. Yet this kind of focus is hard to maintain, and keeping these ideas in mind is definitely going to be helpful.
As a Firefox Campus Rep, I get a box of Firefox goodies to use while promoting Firefox on the USC campus. A few days ago, I received a box for this year. It contains a book called Firefox for Dummies, by Blake Ross.
I have to be honest. I’ve always been a little hesitant to pick up “for Dummies” books because they’re a huge series, which reeks of mass media and brainless fluff. With a title including the word “Dummies”, who can take it seriously? As usual, I was wrong. These books are often full of good stuff.
Firefox for Dummies is no exception. It’s written by the main man himself, Blake Ross, co-creator of Firefox. There’s no better person to write a book on this topic, and he’s fully equipped and a heck of a lot more knowledgeable than me.
Despite his stunning credentials, he comes across as humble and down-to-earth, at least in my opinion. Here’s an excerpt from the introduction: Continue reading
Here’s a wonderfully optimistic thought:
Greet the day. I love being able to get up, and greet a wonderful new day. I suggest creating a morning ritual that includes saying thanks for your blessings. I’m inspired by the Dalai Lama, who said, “Everyday, think as you wake up, ‘today I am fortunate to have woken up, I am alive, I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it. I am going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others, to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings, I am going to have kind thoughts towards others, I am not going to get angry or think badly about others, I am going to benefit others as much as I can.”
I’m inspired by Mark Zuckerberg. Is that a bad thing?
[Zuckerberg] began messing around with computers early on, teaching himself how to program. As a high school senior, at Phillips Exeter Academy, he and D’Angelo built a plug-in for the MP3 player Winamp that would learn your music listening habits, then create a playlist to meet your taste. They posted it as a free download and major companies, including AOL and Microsoft, came calling. “It was basically, like, ‘You can come work for us, and, oh, we’ll also take this thing that you made,’” Zuckerberg recalls.
He sounds just like me. I also began messing around with computers early on, and taught myself how to program. That was a long time ago now, but I still remember those days very well. As soon as I came home from school, I’d plug in my Cybiko and head to the Cybiko Forums to see what other developers were doing. I’d try coding some of the many, many ideas I had and quickly get stuck. So I IMed Greg Smith, the creator of the “B2C” or “Basic-2-Cybiko C” compiler. He would help me figure out what I wanted to do logically, put it into code, and actually write some real programs that did interesting things. I was hooked: finally I could create applications on my own– and very useful ones, too. I loved the fact that as soon as I announced a new version of my latest application, 10-20 people would be clamoring to download it. I’d get daily feedback from users of my programs, and I worked from their input to improve. That was a very early stage of programming for me, and I admit that my programming skills back then were severely lacking. Still, that’s how I learned the logic and syntax of BASIC and C, and lots of things about the practical aspects of how converters and compilers work. I learned how to work with variables of different types and to draw graphics on the screen. It was mind-blowing, and I loved it.