Interview on the JOurneY (tm), Part 1 of 3

Recently, I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Steve Golab of FG SQUARED. I hope you enjoy this first installment of our three-part conversation:

Steve: How do you view your role in Austin's entrepreneurial scene? What is it that you think you're doing in the midst of all of it, other than just observing it?

Bijoy: Way back—ten years ago now(!)—I started Bootstrap Austin, a community for bootstrap entrepreneurs. Now the broader word that I use is “stewardship,” a term I learned from Charles Herrman. I'm a steward of the scene. What does that really mean, tactically? It's thinking about the scene's journey. We’re going to talk about journey a little bit later—the journey of the Austin entrepreneur scene and how we can make it more effective. Really, the goal of the scene—which is a collection of communities, experiences, people and resources—is for entrepreneurs to go and build their ventures. And so the stewardship of the scene is about how you make the scene better, help it to help entrepreneurs more effectively and make it more user-friendly.

I'm a cartographer. One of the things I’ve done is make a map to make the scene easier to navigate. I update the map. People let me know when things go away and new things show up. I update the map of the scene. I also started bringing together the leaders of the scene on a monthly basis. Elijah May does that now. He's taken over that part of things.

Steve: How long have you been doing these things?

Bijoy: We did it for a few years. Then, when Startup America happened, we paused for a little bit and then resumed again this year. So we started maybe three or four years ago, then paused, and resumed again.

The third thing that I do, and it’s really the main thing that I do, is serve as an evangelist for the scene. Part of my stewardship is to tell the scene's story and to relate it back to Austin and make sure people know there is a scene, that they should be part of it, use it, and that they should also steward it in whatever ways they can and want to. It's really about giving the scene a forum. And all the artifacts like the map and the stories and the convening, all help to tell the story. Now we know what's in the scene and we can relay that internally in Austin as well as to the world.

Steve: So what you're talking about a lot is what's under the hood, right?

Bijoy: Exactly. We’re exposing things that are assumed or below the surface.

Steve: If you're not inside Austin, you don't necessarily know all of the things that are going on.

Bijoy: Absolutely. And even if you're in Austin, you might be plugged into one or two things, but not realize that there are two or three other things you should be plugged into. Or if a resource is missing, that you can add it! When you’re aware, you can say, “I think we need this,” and then someone can raise their hand and create that thing. My role has changed. Before, I was one of those people doing that. When I started Bootstrap Austin, I was creating something that I thought was missing—a community for bootstrap entrepreneurs. But now it’s about getting other people to create things like Bootstrap Austin, you know, inspiring them to do things like Bootstrap so, well, [laughing] so I don't have to do it so much!

Another thing to think about is that a scene is only as strong as the number of people who are actively taking stewardship responsibility of it. You can't have a scene that is dictated by a central leader or a central organization. It has to be decentralized, have lots of nodes, like the Internet.

Steve: I imagine you see a lot of people working on similar initiatives, or people who think that they should be working on a certain initiative that you're aware is already going on somewhere else. How do you address that? Do you see much of that going on in the entrepreneurial scene—people who are working on the same sorts of initiatives, but not aware of one another?

Bijoy: I mean, I really don't. For example, take coworking, a space you're involved in. Part of making everybody aware of who everybody is and what they're doing and that, oh, there's this space and that space, gets people to start thinking, okay, let me not just make another co-working space right next to GoLab; I'm gonna configure a co-working space in another part of the city. It gets people thinking about what's unique about the GoLab, and even about sending people there when a coworker’s needs don’t coincide with their particular co-working space model, right? That is already happening in Austin.

I think one of the things that awareness of the scene does is it tells you you're in an ever-expanding pie, and there's enough space for everybody. When you know what’s already in the scene, then you can go chart out your own course. So I think part of what I've seen is less duplication, less of that. That's one of the goals that we at Bootstrap have, really. If someone is going to go create something, they should create something new or partner up with somebody that’s already doing the work. And you won't get that without awareness of who the people are and what's actually going on. You can let people know, hey, that's an interesting idea, but did you know that this person is already doing it, without creating an offering that’s competitive. This one of the big factors involved in owning scene stewardship and the steward mindset. You don't approach the scene from a competitive point of view; you approach it from a collaborative and communal perspective.

You and I have talked about a community and social capital and all that. There's an infinite amount of it. I call it journey capital™. There's so much and there's enough space for all. And so immediately, when someone says, "Oh, I'm interested in this," and you say, "Did you know about this?" and they go, "No, I didn't," and you introduce the people, all of a sudden there's conversation happening. The idea can grow. It can separate or it can differentiate, which is what you really want to see happening.

Steve: Here's a question that keeps coming up, at least, for me. I keep thinking that the world is looking at Austin and wondering what is so special about Austin's entrepreneurial scene, and why is it that Austin is getting so much press and getting so much coverage. And people are moving to Texas and Austin, in particular. Why is that? What's Austin’s secret sauce? What is it about Austin that makes it special?

Bijoy: You and I have also worked on The Austin Equation, which Heather McKissick and I started. We asked the same question about Austin because any entrepreneur scene derives its identity from the city it's in. And I think what Austin represents is a viable alternative to Silicon Valley. I actually recently co-authored an article with a friend of mine, Victor Hwang, which talks about the Silicon Valley model, and he's helping share that with the world. We talked about the fact that what we're really offering is two very complementary approaches. I think that Silicon Valley entrepreneurship is really an outside-in entrepreneurship: let's go build the biggest, greatest technological tools that we can build. And the whole place is structured for how to do that—venture capital and all that—whereas Austin is a journey city. It's an inside-out model of entrepreneurship because the work of Austin and Austinites is to discover who they are.

The phrase we came up with, which is now used a lot around Austin, is "Be yourself." We've had all these different monikers, but really, what you see people in Austin trying to do is differentiate and individuate and discover who they are. Some of those people turn that journey, that personal quest, that journey of differentiation into a venture. They express it through a venture. And so our great ventures are based on a person's individual journey and their interests, their unique interests and passions. The city supports whatever people want to do in whatever domain of their life they want to do it in. We don't place judgment on people when they do something that is quote-unquote alternative or different or whatever. We say, "Keep it weird." If that's working for you, then you should do that, and that, to me, has been in the DNA of Austin for a long, long time. I mean, Austin was always a viable alternative to the rest of Texas. It was a different location that the hippies could always come to. I'm not just talking about modern music capital activities, which reached new heights in the 80s. I'm talking about the capitol-capital stuff, which began in the 1830s when the state was formed.

Steve: Tell me more about that.

Bijoy: Well, it was just that people needed a place that was not going to be a big center or already had a lot going on. Other Texas cities had a lot of commerce and things like that, but Austin was the place where they set up a seat of government. Why? People were able to agree that this is neutral ground. And then that neutral ground, which started first as a political scene, told people, hey, everybody can come here and be safe here. Everybody can come here and voice their opinions. Everybody can do what he or she wants.

Steve: It started out as a place that was more neutral than some others.

Bijoy: Where you can express your own opinions and agendas. It was the place you came in Texas to do that. You understood Austin as the neutral ground to talk about our differences, and that if you went back to the place you came from, you would not be on neutral ground anymore; you’d back to fighting.

I've been here since 1995, but I didn't really participate in Austin until the early 2000s or really see the city for what it is until that time. I hadn’t yet thought about cities as being on journeys. Now, I think of everything as being on a freaking journey! I think of a city on a journey, you on a journey, me, a community, a scene, a country, everything existing on a journey. It's the lens through which I look at everything. I look at the journey of Austin and it's funny because it's a journey of journeying! So people are all doing that work. So, then, when you think about entrepreneurship... What's our message when I go to Orebro, Sweden? I was just there a couple of weeks ago. Or Chiang Mai, Thailand or Ashville, North Carolina. What's the message I share? I say the message is to be yourself. Austin's message to the world is to figure out how to be yourself. You can't be Austin, but you can be you.

Steve: That's a good point. You're saying the secret sauce is not to be like Austin in any other way except in the way that Austin has embraced how to be yourself.

Bijoy: Exactly.

Steve: So, give me an idea of what you mean by that, how that applies to Orebro or Asheville or Wilmington.

Bijoy: Right. Well, every journey has a history. What I call your journey capital is what you accumulate through time. When you spend time, you accumulate journey capital. And people break that down into social capital and knowledge capital and so on and so forth. There are all these terms that people use in the world today, but if you sum it all up, the summation of your social capital, your knowledge capital, your intellectual capital—all of that is your journey capital. It's what you accumulate from the time you spend in your life. So, looking back, you have to start from zero. When did you start? When were you born? What happened? Where were you? Who were your parents? All those things are actually the first step to identifying a place’s unique journey. And every place has a unique story, a unique history to it. And that, really, to me, is the first step. You’ve got to go back.

The difference is how you express journey in the world. In a business, it’s a business model, for example, right? Businesses have a business model. Apple used to sell Macintosh computers. That is what they did and that is how they made most of their money up until when Jobs came back in 1997. But the business model is going to keep changing because time changes, everything, the situation changes, environments change. How you express your journey is going to keep changing, but who you are doesn't change. You only deepen that and become more of yourself. Who you are is becoming more precise and how you express that in the world keeps evolving and changing. People confuse those two things. Like, they say, "Well, you know, we were a manufacturing town and now we don't make shoes anymore." Well, that's just the business model. What was underneath that? Why were shoes important to you and what was really going on?

Steve: You’re saying that people are experiencing difficulties in a competitive world that they need to look at, and that cities that are not growing maybe need to delve deeper into their histories?

Bijoy: Exactly. Because it's all there. You know, what was there that made you successful in the past? And then you see there's an underlying thread that was always there and you can use that to figure out how that's going to manifest itself today. You have to get underneath. It's like you’re mining. You're getting underneath the surface. The problem is people live on the surface, with things they can touch and feel. But when you go and actually mine your journey and your stories, you see underneath it that there was a theme. Our mutual friend Danny Gutknecht’s company helps organizations to do just that. And from that mining emerges a core question. I call it a quest-ion—your quest is your question! And this question is trying to be answered and it never changes. You keep returning to it. The answer keeps changing. And everyone has a unique question.

But, yeah, so when you're a city you've got to look back. It was really interesting, in Orebro, where I visited, there's a local castle. There's one in just about every Swedish city established by various kings over time. But the Orebro Castle is one of the only castles in all of Sweden that was changed and adapted over time for different uses. So that tells you something about the city. No other castles in Sweden have changed. They made a castle and that was the castle. The Orebro Castle has been used and repurposed for multiple things. So right there in the middle of their city, they've got something that kind of tells them who they are.

Or Asheville. Asheville is this city of wellness. That's what emerged for me when I spent a week there last year. And wellness is the key thing. People went to Asheville when they got sick with tuberculosis to take in the air. Asheville has the highest per capita healers and holistic practitioners. People are always coming when they're broken, and Asheville heals them up. What was interesting was the dialogue that I was having between Asheville and Austin. Asheville was saying, "We're Austin's little brother, a ‘be yourself’ city.” And I said, "I'm not convinced." And when I went there and started listening to their stories, that pattern of wellness emerged rather than uniqueness. They’re related, but they're different.

Under the surface, we’re all already unique. The idea of creating differentiation in competition is moot. If you really go to your journey and you realize who you are, you’ll recognize that you’re already unique. You're already differentiated. Why do you have to worry about adding this sort of pseudo-superficial veneer of differentiation? You don't need to do that. You just be the already unique thing that you are. Now that will take you to certain places and not others. Take Apple. They don't care about the enterprise market, really. They kind of have some small businesses that use enterprises, but that's more because individuals love their stuff, and if they start a small business, they get Macs for their small business. But the enterprise, per se, that's not really Apple's deal. Many people say Apple should be playing in the enterprise market. Why? They don't care about that. That's not who they are.

Steve: Well, it's funny that approach has changed the whole enterprise market. Now they call it the BYOD. Have you heard this, the BYOD?

Bijoy: Absolutely. But it's coming from Apple's strength. Delta just bought 6,000 Windows 8 devices. Apple gets the individual to buy and then the IT department has to support the individual's device. They're going to bring their iPhone to work or a tablet. But they're always going to convince the individual to make that purchase. They may be able to convince the enterprise—they certainly have a strong showing in education and things like that. The nature of command-and-control structure of enterprises is anathema to what Apple is in their journey.

Steve: I think they're toying with it.

Bijoy: Sure, but it's just like anything else. Everybody plays in everybody else's space to have a hedge there. Google has a hedge with Android. Everybody plays in everybody else's space, but what's really at the core? The core of Apple is always about the individual and making their life better through technology.

Steve: But what you are really talking about is people basically finding a true expression of themselves and not being worried about what other people are doing.

Bijoy: Exactly. And that's really what's funny, right? If you're a city or businessperson or an entrepreneur, you’re supposed to start by doing a SWOT analysis. What's everybody else doing? Let me look at what they're doing and copy them. If you can go and figure out who you are, you won't worry about whatever anybody else is doing. Sure, be aware of what everyone else is doing, but if you know who you are, you can start based on that. If you close your eyes, how do you imagine the world? If you see it is a fixed circle, then you'll want to fight over stuff. Oh, that guy's in my space. It's gonna be a classic territorial battle. We have a fixed amount of land and now we have to fight over this fixed amount of land. We’ve had that for millions of years of evolution in the physical world. But the reality is that the spaces are ever expanding. These circles themselves are expanding, and there's enough space for everybody. If you have that as a mental picture, then you know you just have to occupy your own unique space in a very complex, interesting ecosystem. Evolution is very misunderstood in that way. “Darwinian” has come to mean: Grrr; eat; kill. But evolution is about finding unique little places that no one else, no other species has, and inserting yourself into that, and all of a sudden you enhance an ecosystem and you're part of it. You're interplaying with it, but you're also occupying your own spot.

Steve: We've been talking about Austin as a city. I think you've been talking about it as a journey city.

Bijoy: The journey capital. [Laughs.]

Steve: Austin is the journey capital of the world?

Bijoy: I think so. Certainly one of them. I mean, I don't know of any others.

Steve: Definitely the journey capital of Texas.

Bijoy: Certainly journey capital of the US.

Steve: So, maybe I'll get off track here and talk about something I wasn't planning on talking about. In my mind, I’m thinking about the difference between Austin and Amsterdam. Because I like to think of Amsterdam as a place where people believe there's something for everybody. How do you see the two cities being different?

Bijoy: That's interesting. It's been a while since I've been back to Amsterdam and I didn't have any of these frameworks in my mind when I visited, so I've got to go back and check it out! But I’ll answer that by going on another detour. I was recently in the Borough of Hackney in London. I was taking a tour and talking with some of the folks, some of the co-working spaces there. Hackney and Austin are doing a lot together these days. And again, it was like, oh, it's like Austin! But when I really delved into it, there was more of a "be subversive" vibe. They've got this interesting subversive edge to them that we don't have. Like being subversive, going around the system—street art with Banksy and others.

Steve: Yeah, yeah. I'm sure you'd find a difference between the two.

Bijoy: I mean, I don't think that Amsterdam is a place where people are actively working on their identity. It's certainly a place where they are "live and let live.” That's for sure. Which is really awesome. You know it more.

Steve: Well, yeah, I just question sometimes. It's actually in their history. What’s really interesting about their history that I always think about over time is that it's Dutch. And in the middle of Europe, it's very nationalistic. So what happened was in World War II there was a lot of destruction and there was a lot of immigration to the area from Africa. Right now, you have all these nationalists, you have all these Islamists living together, which makes it really interesting. Ultimately, if you watch the politics of Amsterdam or the Netherlands, it's much more conservative than probably Austin or even Portland. Even though they have this aura of variety on the outside, on the inside, they have this iron fist.

Bijoy: Yeah. Maybe Austin is Amsterdam 2.0. If Amsterdam is the Austin of Europe, then it's going to be within those structures and the history of Europe. Whereas Austin lives in America, in one of its two frontiers. The Southern frontier of America versus California, which is the Western frontier, and we might be the second wave or expression of Amsterdam's energy to the extent that they're encumbered by religion and Christianity and all those things we aren't necessarily encumbered by, at least, not to the same degree. And we're in a country that is young and has very little history relative to that. So that could be one thing, but, I mean, look at Holland, the country. What does it do to your psychology when half of you is underwater? You have to go and work against nature or work with nature to establish your land. I grew up in Hong Kong and Hong Kong is one of the great reclaimers of land. It's a tiny island, and they’re always running out of space. To me, Hong Kong is a city of great change. It's all about change. There's no nostalgia. It's just changes and evolves. And so with physical environment constantly changing, it's a real reflection of the idea of change. I'm not trying to make a definitive statement about Holland, but just…

Steve: Which is maybe different from here.

Bijoy: Yeah. We don't have that relationship. In fact, we don't have the kind of physical traumas that even the rest of Texas has, like hurricanes, floods, etc. So we don't have that. That doesn't inform us as much. Whereas in Portland, for example, which is another sister city to Austin, they're much more influenced by the ocean and the forests of the Northwest. That nature thing figures much bigger for them. And it's almost impossible to go to the Northwest and not be inspired by the grandeur of nature. We like nature in Austin, but we're not like, "Ooh, the environment." I mean, we do, but that's not our central core. So these are all again part of the layers starting to tease out.

Steve: Where you grew up.

Bijoy: Where you grew up. Who influenced you. And that's the most relatable thing to start with—your own personal journey. These things start becoming more abstract when you're talking about a company's journey, or community, a scene or a city's journey. But if you start with your own journey… Who were your parents? What did they bring to the table? What values did they give you? What physical place did you grow up in? Did you travel? Did you stay put? Who are your siblings? What was the context of where you were? What education did you get? These all attribute to you and create your story.

Part 2 of 3

A first-time voter picks Barack Obama

This is the first US presidential election where I get to vote. In fact, I have never voted before, having grown up in India, Taiwan & Hong Kong and coming to the US to study at Stanford at the age of 18. It took me 14 years to become a citizen through a succession of status changes: student (F-1), employee (H-1B), and resident (Green Card). Green Card status gives one the right to perpetually live in the country with none of the responsibilities. For me this was not an option - America is my home and I wanted to declare my commitment to it. Precisely 4 years and 9 months after the mandatory Green Card waiting period, I applied for my citizenship and received it on April 14th, 2005, a day before my 32nd birthday. With April 15th being tax day, my birthday has now become a celebration of red, white and blue.

Given this journey to citizenship, I approached my decision-making process with a deep sense of gratitude, pride and responsibility. I want to share this thought process and my final decision, as it might be useful to others who must make up their own minds.

I do not belong to any party and will not join one - except if I choose to someday run for office myself! Why? First, I don't see any party accurately reflecting my diverse views on the broad range of topics that parties must preside over. Second, party allegiance causes a bias in objective decision-making. Third, parties change over time, often becoming opposites of what they stood for in a previous era. Fourth, each moment in time requires different energy and leadership, something the Greeks called kairos. As a voter, it is for me to evaluate the times I find myself in, then assess the candidates and match them with the moment.

The genius of America (described in the book of the same name) and its Constitution, is that it is a device which allows us to move forward only when the players listen to and accommodate each other. This was a direct result of the failure of America 1.0, under the Articles of Confederation, which gave disproportionate powers to the states and a mere ten years in, resulted in near collapse of the grand experiment. In the America 2.xx that we live by, every entity - individuals, states, party, politicians, special interests, etc. - is allowed and encouraged to assert their selfish agendas. They will succeed for a time, but will eventually find their way blocked if they attempt to run roughshod over others. Both the assertion of extreme positions and the accommodations are intrinsic to the process.

The surprising conclusion is that the candidates' position on specific issues is not as important as their approach. We must, therefore, test more for their savvy in the "guardian syndrome" that Jane Jacobs outlined in her book, "Systems of Survival."

Sometimes we need candidates that stand apart (Reagan), and at others, we need them to bring us together. This is a time for the latter.

I believe we are currently in the latter situation, having asserted a particular set of positions for a sustained period. In order to move forward in this moment, we must now come to the middle. This is why I was initially enthused when John McCain and Barack Obama became the nominees of their respective parties.

I had had initial doubts about Barack's capabilities, being as youthful as he is, but these were allayed through the course of the nomination process, when he out-played the Clintons at the tactical game of securing the nomination by rolling up his sleeves and getting it done on the ground. Likewise, John McCain seemed a strong candidate with a consistent track record of working across party and other lines. I imagined I was going to have a tough decision on my hands.

The turning point came when McCain chose Sarah Palin. I was incredulous at first, especially given McCain's earlier promise that he would choose someone who was ready to assume the presidency on day one. And then we learned that he had met her only once before. Not only had he passed up many obviously qualified candidates (of either gender), but he had not vetted Palin in any substantial way. The dark side of being a self-proclaimed Maverick was starting to emerge. After the Palin choice, a whole series of self-created contradictions and flip-flops started mounting: using personal attacks when he had vowed never to, pseudo-suspending his campaign, reversing positions on Bush and the economy. When the damming Rolling Stone article came out, it all became clear: McCain's rendering of his biography belied a deep and unresolved personal struggle, similar to George Bush: a lifetime of shortcuts leading to disaster, solved by external forces such as family position or technicalities. And McCain has never reconciled the dark side of his core tendencies.

Meanwhile, Barack was a picture in contrast, whose star kept rising. With each successive debate, he became more poised and unflappable, demonstrating wisdom and temperance beyond his years. Despite being attacked maliciously, he never took it personally. How could this be? As I reflected on his biography, it became clear - he has had a lifetime of being in the middle and having to reconcile those differences within himself and between others. Starting with race and religion (his parents), culture (living in Indonesia, Hawaii) and age (being raised by his grandparents). Being a "third-culture" kid myself, I experienced the same machinations.

Examining the key issues of the day, we again see a sharp contrast. The candidates each wrote an essay in the Wall Street Journal, published on the eve of the election. Obama's essay on the Wall Street Journal and compare it with McCain's. Notice the amount of space devoted to the issues. McCain spends five paragraphs outlining security and international issues, while Obama begins and ends with the economy and devotes just one paragraph to international concerns. Certainly with recent events, the economy is at the center of our concerns and it is McCain who is out of touch with this fact. The more subtle issue is that of tone and metaphor. McCain's abiding metaphor is a war-based one - he exhorts his supporters to "fight and never give up" and titles his essay "What We're Fighting For." Meanwhile, Obama has made his about "Change" and the fact that we can accomplish it together.

What is the moment we are in as a country? At home, our profligate spending and abdication of personal responsibility has caused a precarious economic crisis. Yes, bankers who knew better sold house notes that they shouldn't have, but individuals were equally complicit in it, fully aware that we were spending beyond our means. And housing is just the start. Credit card debt is the next elephant in the room that must be dealt with. Abroad we have squandered the well-deserved sympathy we had after 9/11 by overstepping our bounds in a misadventure in Iraq. We have alienated friends and foe alike. A Sep 25 Charlie Rose interview with Sergei Lavrov illuminates this point quite clearly. America has turned into a the big bully on the playground and all this does is cause others to dig in their heels and oppose us. What do we need to meet these challenging issues? In both cases, we must come together - these problems require a posture of inclusion, dialogue and innovation - a position supported by David Petreaus.

From the party viewpoint, it is in our interest to have two strong and vibrant parties that can host the debate about the issues of the day. It seems, though, that we get instead, oscillations, where each party rises, grow arrogant, and falls. While the Democrats lost their way during this decade (as evidenced particularly by an uncompelling 2004 candidate in John Kerry), it seems the Republicans find themselves in a similar position. Specifically, having courted the religious right to win the 2000/04 elections, the party now suffers from the interference of religion. In particular, spiritual beliefs are articles of faith, not reason. This way of thinking has infiltrated the Republican Party and must be rooted out. This can only happen through the inevitable self-examination that comes with having to sit in the corner.

Major newspapers, including the NY Times, Washington Post, New Yorker, the Conservative Chicago Tribune, LA Times and international Economist and Financial Times have endorsed Obama. It is also noteworthy that a number of vocal Conservatives like Colin Powell, Kathleen Parker, Chris Buckley, and CC Goldwater, have done so as well. On the other hand, no prominent Democrats or inter/national newspapers have endorsed McCain.

Finally, we cannot ignore the larger historical context. Race relations, particularly black/white have been with us since before the founding of the nation. Despite a civil war and the civil rights movement, in recent times race has been used to divide people, often because it serves certain politicians' platforms. Forty years ago from just outside the corridors of government, MLK appealed, "Let us participate!" The final resolution will only come when an African American takes the highest job in the land. Obama is not only black, but white as well. What better way to resolve the issue with someone who literally has both sides in his blood!

Viewed from multiple points of view, it has become clear to me that Barack Obama is indeed the person to lead in this moment in history!

John Langford shoots...

...people's essence.

John and I met through mutual friends in the Bootstrap Austin Art community and discovered that we went to the same high school in Hong Kong. Six degrees? More like 0!

He has an incredible knack for photographing people and capturing their essence. His impromptu series of black and whites from the Art Subgroup's Monday meeting is a testament to his penetrating eye.

Mawwaige

I've had the great honor of participating in different ways in dear friends' weddings over the years. Here's a catalog of them:

In February, 2003, Venky and Nipali were married. There isn't an official "best man" role in Indian weddings, but I got to contribute by doing the needful throughout the proceedings and behind the scenes.

In September, 2004, I was in Matt and Love's wedding party, a fairytale affair in Dana Point, California. I received a beautiful pair of cuff links with the initials, "BKG" on them. I don't have a middle initial, but Matt gave me one!

In the last year there have been three more. First, Matt, from high school in Hong Kong and Mala from Austin. Mala moved to New Zeland after finishing her PhD in Economics from UT and I connected them in the summer of 2006 when Matt went visited. Little did I know it would result in mawwaige a year later! I celebrated their wedding on April 14th - the day I became a US citizen and a day before my birthday.

On May 10th of this year, I officiated at Bjorn and Kirsten's wedding. Years earlier it had become a standing joke that we were twins. We are constantly confused for each other, though we look NOTHING alike. Bjorn is German, blond and blue-eyed and I'm, well, not. We decided to throw a twin party in honor of non-biological twins and Kirsten, who had just moved to Austin, graciously hosted. It was just the spark needed to light the fire! I was honored to be asked to officiate and the three of us worked together on the ceremony. It was great fun, including my favorite part: kicking it off with the line from The Princess Bride, "Mawwaige. Mawwaige is what bwings us together today." I wore the cuff links Matt and Love had given me years earlier for the special occasion.

Finally, last weekend Amy and Josh had an awesome party in Austin to celebrate their wedding. I was present at the Paramount when they first met and got to be the camera man for the proposal a year later. Josh had the marquee changed with his succinct proposal, "Amy will you marry me?" The party had an all-white theme, dancers, incredible food, a burlesque show and a photo booth. My photo booth picture is here! I suppose it says it all. :)

The Internal Battle - saying "Yes!"

A reader asks:

I have recently been admitted to MBA school. Let us say I do complete my MBA and I am sure I will learn quite a bit in the process. But if I want to start a company or bootstrap a business, and that can take many years, how do I feed my family while this is happening? What do I do for cash flow? Do you advise that I put these plans off until I can answer that question for myself at a future point in time? Do people generally take on consulting assignments or something like that?

My response:

Here's the thing, you haven't really said, "Yes!" and your concerns about how you will make money belie this. See the Preideation Stage of the Bootstrap Map.

There are many aspects to the journey and most focus on the external - product, customers, organization, funding, etc. But the greatest battle is internal - as Krishna counsels Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita!

My excuse, many years ago, was my green card. I told myself I couldn't start my company unless I had. However, once I made the commitment, things started falling into place and the green card (which at the time was 2yrs away) showed up in 4 months! Every activity except doing your business is procrastination - or another way to say it is that all it does is prepare you to say "Yes!" There is a pervasive myth that you need to learn business skills before you start you business. If that were the case, Microsoft, Virgin, Dell and many others simply wouldn't exist. Great bootstrappers are lifelong learners who pick up the knowledge, skills and resource they need as they go along the journey. They know that the key is simply to get started and doing so is the only thing that truly begins the entrepreneurial journey. Awakening to yourself and developing your unique passions and talents begin at the Matrix stage.

With the inner commitment, you will easily resolve the money issue by massively reducing your burn rate (you need MUCH less than you think you do), asking your family members to help create consistent cash flow, taking on consulting in the area of your interest, etc. You will figure it out and take full responsibility for doing so. And every action will lead to the unfolding of your adventure and success.

A Short Parenting Book List

I've been having a lot of conversations around parenting recently - I suppose since so many of my friends are having kiddos! My Mom, Leela is a lifelong humanraiser and inspired this list as she alerted me to Reading Magic at her recent 60th birthday celebration. Of course, the book that Leela writes someday will be on it as well! At Mom's birthday, another friend Louiva Puffer recommended a book which I've been enjoying. Another amazing parent I know, Patrick Talley (aka the Talleyman), is working on his forthcoming book, Divorced Dad Rules, and it will be a great addition as well. It's on being a divorced parent and still doing a great job if/when it happens. Having known Patrick for 13 years and just celebrating his daughter Alyssa's high school graduation last weekend, I can attest to his incredible parental capabilities. While geared to other divorced dads, it will, no doubt, have insights to offer to all parents. My friend Barry Thornton describes his process as helping kids become great decision makers, an opninon that was shared by Josh Baer, a dear friend and bootstrap entrepreneur whose first kid is on the way.
I've also been thinking about this topic a lot in the context of bootstrapping and the recent addition of the Matrix stage to the process. July 2008 marks the completion of a 5yr (ha! lifelong more like) investigation into bootstrapping. It seems to me that if parents can Awaken their kids to their unique talents and passions and help them say "Yes!" to their hero's journey, a HUGE part of the parenting challenge is accomplished. Now just HOW that gets accomplished is a whole other ball of wax!

Here's my very short list of Parenting Books on amazon. If you have others you would recommend, please let me know!