Learning from Google ... and the Marine Corps

In 1998, while still serving on active duty in the U.S. Marine Corps, I co-founded what later became a speech recognition web development company. The following year, I completed my military service, moved to Silicon Valley to join my three partners on a full-time basis, and unwittingly launched myself onto a personal and professional path centered on entrepreneurship and innovation.

You would think that the transition from military life to a high-growth startup at the epicenter of the "Internet Boom" would have been jarring. Ironically, it was not. It took me a while to realize that the Marine Corps and High-Growth Tech Startups share a common culture, and so my military training actually helped to prepare me for the crazy hectic life of a startup leader.

In Corps Business: The 30 Management Principles of the U.S. Marines, author David Freedman seemed to agree with my assessment. His research indicated that Marines are uniquely trained to handle quick decision-making in uncertain situations with limited information. Perhaps more important--and contrary to popular misconceptions about Marines--the Marine Corps fosters a culture of de-centralized decision-making that empowers even the most junior enlisted Marines to make significant critical decisions, often with life-and-death consequences or even international policy ramifications.

Years later, former Google executives Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg wrote How Google Works to provide some valuable lessons on how to foster an "Internet Century" culture in a corporate environment. As you can see from their slide presentation below, they focus on the "smart creatives" that are so essential for modern business success.

How Google Works from Eric Schmidt

The environment that enables companies to recruit such talent and allow them to thrive is in many ways the exact same environment that the Marine Corps has been pushing religiously for over two centuries. In this way, perhaps business executives seeking new ideas for how to turn their companies into innovative growth engines should look to both Google and the Corps for some valuable lessons?

Semper fidelis!

State's Two-Letter Abbreviations

I am a huge fan of "intelligent comedy", which sometimes requires the comedian to pause while the audience catches up with him/her. My timeless favorite is Abbott & Costello's "Who's On First?" routine.

I recently came across this late-night show performance by Gary Gulman, and I have watched it a gazillion times already. I think it is creative and hilarious. Just FYI ... here is the real story behind the two-letter abbreviations for the states.

Walking the Mast with Alex Thomson

Most folks in the sailing world have heard of Alex Thomson and his prolific racing career. However, his stunts seem to garner much more attention from the general public, especially in today's YouTube age.

His "Keel Walk" from a couple of years ago has garnered over 2M views. However, I believe his latest "Mast Walk" is even better:

Conference Calls in Real Life

Since I am not that creative, I tend to admire individuals who are ... especially when they are truly talented. My latest favorites are the sketch comedy duo of Tripp and Tyler. If you haven't already checked out their red-hot YouTube Channel, it is well worth the visit.

Here is one of my favorite Tripp and Tyler sketches, perhaps because I live through this just about every day of my life? Enjoy!

Perfect Circles

Over the years, I have taught my kids the story of the Italian painter, Giotto. He may not be the most famous of the many talented Middle Age painters, but my kids were fascinated by the story of "the perfect circle". At one point the Pope asked Giotto to draw something to prove his skills as an artist, and Giotto proceeded to draw a circle so perfect that everyone thought he had used a compass.

My kids were naturally skeptical of their father's claims about perfect circles, until last week when my daughter found the following video on YouTube:

I was likewise fascinated, and it turns out that there may be even more background to this story.

Regardless, every now and then I catch myself trying to draw a perfect circle. Let's just say that I don't think Giotto has to worry about my outperforming him!

The Venus Project

A few months ago, a friend of mine introduced me to the work of renowned futurist, Jacque Fresco. Over the years, he has developed a number of amazing theories about how to structure our global human society in ways that are much better -- on so many levels -- that our current systems.

To showcase his work, he started creating a microcosm community in Venus, Florida. The culmination of his life's work has taken the shape of The Venus Project, which I hope to visit later this year.

Since Jacque is about to turn 98, I want to get there soon. In the meantime, here are some images of the amazing buildings and communities he has designed:

Frank Medrano

As part of my ongoing fitness training, I recently started focusing more on "bodyweight exercises". This is where you use only the weight of your own body to provide the resistance in strength training. In other words, no free weights.

While the common thinking is that you cannot build up large defined muscles without free weights, Frank Medrano is proof positive that it IS possible. In fact, some of the stuff this guy can do is simply amazing ... and inspirational.

Pentatonix

I've always been fascinated by a capella music, especially modern versions where vocalists make such incredible sounds using only their voices. Most recently, I've been especially blown away by a young LA-based quintet called Pentatonix. This video is by far their most amazing (and popular) work so far:

Psi U + Transformers

During my undergraduate days at UC Berkeley, I was part of a fraternity called Psi Upsilon. Since "Psi U" was a primarily East Coast fraternity, it was rare for me to ever find anyone who had ever heard of it. In fact, many people thought I was making it up.

So you can imagine my surprise a few weeks ago when I was watching Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and saw my fraternity featured prominently in one of the scenes! As it turns out, the director of the movie, Michael Bay, is a Psi U brother from Wesleyan University (we graduated roughly around the same time). Small world!

Van Damme and Volvo

Growing up as a teenager in the '80s, I couldn't help but love Jean-Claude Van Damme. I even tried becoming more flexible, so that I could do they splits as easily as he could. Well, he's now 53 years old, and he's STILL doing his famous splits. Check out this amazing commercial he did for Volvo:

"Dream Bigger, Change History"

On October 31, 2013, I moderated a roundtable discussion at the Pioneers Festival in Vienna, Austria. The "Explorers Panel" including Ariel Fuchs of SeaOrbiter and Bas Lansdorp of Mars One, both of whom are working on incredibly ambitious entrepreneurial ventures. The Festival was a 3-day celebration of technology innovation, with 50+ speakers, 25+ startups, and 2500+ attendees.

There were some technical glitches that prevented the introduction and conclusion from going exactly as planned, but overall the entire session went quite smoothly.

It consisted of 4 sections:

• Part 1: "Dream Bigger, Change History"
• Part 2: Highlights from my professional life
• Part 3: Panel discussion
• Part 4: Conclusion

Here is the video:

Since the final edit of the public video focused more on me and the panelists than on the constantly changing slides, here is the entire slide presentation:

Camille Seaman -- Incredible Photography

My 14-year-old daughter is an aspiring photographer, and she was initially hooked by taking pictures of clouds. Well, Camille Seaman takes this type of photography to a whole new level. She was highlighted in a CNN feature, which is truly awe-inspiring. Here is just a sample:

"Space Oddity" on the ISS

Many of my friends and colleagues in the space industry have complained that since the heyday of Apollo NASA has suffered from twin ailments: (1) lack of vision and leadership; and (2) lack of connection with the public.

Well, last week the outgoing Canadian commander of the International Space Station, Chris Hadfield, released a video that in 5 minutes created more public support for human space exploration than decades of effort by NASA's PR machine. This was the first music video shot in space. With over 13M views on YouTube, here is his rendition of David Bowie's Space Oddity:

Overview Effect

Some of you may already be familiar with the "Overview Effect", which is "a cognitive shift in awareness reported by some astronauts and cosmonauts during spaceflight, often while viewing the Earth from orbit or from the lunar surface." It has been nurtured and promoted by The Overview Institute. Many astronauts, space enthusiasts, sociologists, and even politicians have espoused its virtues.

The video below is a terrific introduction to the power of this effect, in the words of astronauts who have actually experienced it firsthand.

Human Flight Through a "Bat Cave"

It is only mid-April, but 2013 has already been a busy year for wingsuit-BASE jump athlete Alexander Polli. He kicked off the new year with a unique practice flight:



Most recently, he pulled off an historic first, flying at over 150 mph through a narrow passage in a mountainside. This dramatic feat led to this CNN feature story:

Passion, Practice, Perseverance ... and Yo-Yo's

My kids tire of my always telling them that the best way to get good at ANYTHING is to practice, practice, practice. Regardless, they occasionally enjoy when I show them what others accomplish by combining a strong personal interest with countless hours of commitment. Enter BLACK, a Japanese yo-yo world champion.

"Newsroom" -- Opening Scene

First, let me say that I have been a huge fan of Aaron Sorkin ever since I fell in love with West Wing. His writing style is unmistakable, providing rapid-fire inspirational and insightful dialogues among various intelligent characters. And he is unafraid to be honest.

This was on display in spades with last year's opening scene of his latest creation, Newsroom, an HBO series. I believe every American should watch this scene, especially starting at 3:07.

Amazing Photos from the Great Pyramids

Last month a couple of young Russian photographers made headlines for scaling the pyramids at Giza and shooting photos of the surrounding landscape. In order to preserve these ancient wonders, such climbs are strictly forbidden. The daredevils escaped unnoticed, and then brought down all sorts of public condemnation on themselves by making the photos freely available on the Internet.

I agree that the young men should have gone through proper channels for their project rather than taking it upon themselves to risk injury and property damage with a clandestine operation. However, I don't think anyone can deny that the powerfully unique images they captured are awe-inspiring. They should certainly help re-vitalize public support for preserving, studying, and protecting these and other treasures of human society.

On Leadership and Space

Whether it is teaching entrepreneurship to students, analyzing leadership with colleagues, or discussing myriad issues with my three kids, I have always found a powerful tool in drawing parallels to popular culture. Points really seem to hit home when viewed through the lens of something that we otherwise feel is benign or simply entertaining.

About a year ago, Alex Knapp, a staff writer for Forbes, wrote three wonderful blog posts about leadership. The posts would have been fine as stand-alone analyses of sound leadership principles. However, what really drove home his points--and made the pieces such an easy read--was his framing the arguments within terms of two popular space media franchises, Star Wars and Star Trek.

Regardless of whether you are a fan of either series, his articles still focus on solid leadership advice.

	Five Leadership Mistakes Of The Galactic Empire
	Five Leadership Lessons From Jean-Luc Picard
	Five Leadership Lessons From James T. Kirk

[Loose] Personal Ties to Pope Francis

Earlier this week (on March 13, 2013), the Catholic Church elected its new Pope to become the "Archbishop of Rome". The cardinal they selected, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, was an historic choice on many counts, but he was also special for me through two very personal connections. First, he was formerly the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, which is where I was born and spent my first six years. Second, he selected the papal name of "Francis" after St. Francis of Assisi, who was also the namesake of my high school alma mater. Felicitaciones, Papa Francis!