david wurtz

2 years ago a Maltese puppy was born. Her name was Maya and she was
smaller than the rest. She was 1.2 lbs. She fell asleep during the car
ride home.

Maya was by our side at the start of our independent lives together.
After college, we had just bought our first apartment in Brooklyn,
right near Prospect Park. The apartment coop didn't allow dogs, but we
got Maya anyway. It just made too much sense.

Maya had the ability to make you feel like you were the most special
person in the world, with all her excitement and licks. Maya wiped
away concerns after long, hard days in the world. Maya spread joy.
When we traveled around Park Slope and further, she would brighten
people's day. They'd comment on her miraculously small size, beautiful
features, and big attitude. She made friends easier than we've ever
seen.

On Wednesday, February 24th, 3 days shy of her 2nd birthday, right
after breakfast and while wrestling with her little sister Lilly,
Maya's breathing and heart stopped. Frantically, we rushed her through
the streets of Manhattan to the nearest animal hospital. The cab got
stuck in traffic so we ran instead. But she couldn't last. Within 20
minutes of waking up, we had lost a family member and best friend.

Maya didn't get her fair share of life, but she did so much with the
little time she had. We'll cherish the memories.

           

Click here to download:

Maya_the_Maltese.zip (2708 KB)

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I was fortunate to attend Olin College of Engineering with some of the brightest minds in the country, and the bar of achievement was set high.  Inside the classroom, we worked on problems that were mind-numbingly complex and intricate.  Outside of class, most students aimed to develop incredibly elaborate and technically innovative projects: Robots that swam across a pool like a tuna fish, machines that harvested oranges from a grove, or a new design for a surgical device.

The projects I chose to work on during my time as an undergraduate were high-risk/high-reward. I spent many nights using the Electron Scanning Microscope to image the nanostructure of Neluma Nucifera (the common Lilly pad). I was attempting to exploit its nanostructure to construct a material with microsuction properties. It almost worked.

I spent another 6 months of free time experimenting with Ferromagnetic fluid (aka "ferrofluid"), a magical substance that comes to life in the presence of a magnetic field.  I wanted to stabilize ferrofluid in a clear liquid carrier, so it could be used in lavalamp-type environments to delight consumers at Brookstone.  I  built a make-shift lab in my parent's basement, borrowed a micropipette from a scientist friend and went at it. 

I learned a great deal from these (and many other) projects. My time at Olin was highly enjoyable, transformative experience and I was given ample resources to explore my intellectual and creative limits. I  learned more rapidly than any other point in my life. There was really only one downside. My experience in school lead me to believe that to be successful, you had to do non-obvious, difficult things. 

After being immersed in such a high achievement, intellectually stimulating environment, it is easy to believe you must invent an anti-gravity device or equivalent, in order to succeed.  This is a self-inflicted expectation that many  students place on themselves after years of being subject to the incredibly sophisticated minds of their professors. I believe this mindset can have counter-productive consequences.

Although I endorse those  who attempt to spend their time defying gravity (the world needs these people), I simply think students simply forget that the real world is not graded by professors with untamed beards.  Students are largely unaware that they could realize just as much success, or perhaps even more success, if they point their incisive intellect at simpler, "stupider" problems. So why don't they? Because these problems are typically unsexy, considered to lack academic rigor. 

I once met a man that made over $1,000,000/year selling bowling balls on the Internet.  I asked him how he had built such a fantastic business. I was looking for this guy's secret sauce. Was he a marketing guru, a tenacious entrepreneur that didn't give up, saw an opportunity earlier than most? None of the above. He was an average guy, with below average technical skills. He hired 2 kids to work out of his garage to build his website. 

If he can do it, so can I.... It's two years later, and I now make a decent sum of money selling TV Wall Mounts on the Internet. This is an area I can proudly say all of my fellow over-achievers have overlooked. But don't fret. The world is full of more stupid things to do.

The truth is, any endeavor, no matter how seemingly trivial, can benefit from an incisive mind taking a good, hard look. And almost any endeavor can be intellectually gratifying. You may be surprised to know that most people don't apply scientific method to their efforts, or even possess the reasoning skills or patience to achieve greatness. This puts you and your well-honed cerebral apparatus, at an incredible advantage. In the real world, you're no longer competing with your fellow geniuses at the school science fair...you're competing with your typical neighbor. And you're about to kick his (metaphorical) ass.

In high school, I founded a web development studio that carved out a niche making interactive websites with Macromedia Flash.  It made my friend and I the richest (but unfortunately not also the coolest) kids in class. But what if instead of making incredibly impressive, expensive Flash websites for our clients, we deferred revenue and focused on making free online Flash greeting cards? We may have built Blue Mountain Greeting Cards, a year or so before they did. Free greeting cards? That's so easy it's stupid. 

I'll end with perhaps the most outrageous example. It is the story of a middle-America teenager who created an incredibly annoying online video series called Fred Figglehorn, and publishes it on YouTube.  In the series, Fred talks about his days at school, his alcoholic mother, and his crush Judy. Fred's annoying voice has reached millions of people around the world. He's created a viral phenomenon...and his endorsements and ad revenue have already paid for college (if he decides to go). 

Success isn't only found in the complex, intellectual achievements.  Sometimes it's found in more obvious, less sexy places. Go find something stupid to do. 

PS: Want to sell something online yourself? There's no better time. 

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This quote about professional baseball struck me as incredibly relevant to starting a business. The best entrepreneurs are those that are in control of their emotions, and are perhaps a bit crazy.

"The point about Lenny, at least to Billy, was clear: Lenny didn't let his mind screw him up. The physical gifts required to play pro ball were, in some ways, less extraordinary than the mental ones. Only a psychological freak could approach a 100-mph fastball aimed not all that far from his head with total confidence." Lenny was so perfectly designed, emotionally, to pay the game of baseball," said Billy. "He was able to instantly forget any failure and draw strength from every success. He had no concept of failure. And he had no idea of where he was." Page 46 of Money Ball.

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"Put simply, Mr. Belichick (coach New England Patriots) is taking flak because he decided, in the middle of a close, hard-fought and emotionally charged game against a major rival, to throw caution to the wind. In other words, he's being pilloried for not being a wimp.

Somehow in American football, the punt—a clear and unambiguous symbol of surrender and retreat—has become the hallmark of sensible coaching.

...

In a recent study, researchers from Duke and UCLA found that when faced with a decision involving risk, people have an overwhelming tendency to make the supposedly safe choice—to err on the side of caution—even though doing so may lead to worse results."

Entire story here.

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Remember the scene of The Matrix where Neo is attempting to jump from one high-rise roof top to another? He's told he can make the jump only if he believes. Neo takes the leap, doubts himself mid-flight, and falls to the concrete below. (Luckily, the concrete was really made of rubber).

I think this scene from The Matrix can teach us all something about how to grow both personally and professionally. In Neo's case, he was learning to believe he was the One, and in yours, you're learning to realize the extent of your capabilities and talents.

In many situations, you need to believe you can succeed or you will fail...and its the very act of believing that leads you to success. Public speakers frequently employ the technique by envisioning their speech being well received before the give it, runners visualize a perfect race, and students the perfect test. Visualizing success tricks the brain into beleiving success is possible, and can actually improve results.

During my first week at Google, I was put in a room full of people smarter than me and told to lead the team on a new feature launch. I was intimidated, and out of my comfort zone. But I pulled through by mimicking the leaders I had observed at earlier Google meetings. I pretended to be someone else above my current skillset, and quickly became that someone. I took the leap.

Place yourself in difficult situations that explore the boundaries of your limits. Make that important phone call, sit on a panel at a big conference, run a marathon. Push yourself, and take the leap of confidence that you can get to the other side. Once at the other side, you'll have discovered something about yourself, picked up a new skill, and you'll be even more ready to take the next leap.

What leaps have you taken recently?

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A few days ago, I sent around a series of questions concerning posture. For your entertainment, I've summed up what you've told me.  Sample Size: 31

• 81.4% of you have been concerned with your poor posture at least once in past.
• Out of this 81.4% of you, the average frequency of thought is 2-3 times a week.
• 66% of you have experienced (or still experience) back or neck pain
• 75% of you have conducted research on optimal ergonomic practices
• 70% of you have invested in some type of solution for your posture.
• Out of this 70%, 20% have purchased an Aeron brand chair. Talk about a market leader.
• 34.6% of you have exercised specifically to improve posture.
• 19% of those who responded do Yoga or Pilates, but not necessarily to fix posture. I'm very surprised to see this % so high. Apparently, geeks like Yoga.

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Most of you spend 9-12hours a day sitting in front of a computer...

1. Are you ever concerned with your inability to keep a healthy posture throughout your work day?
2. If so, how often do you think about your posture?
3. Have you ever experienced neck or back pain as a result of poor posture?
   
4. Have you ever done research on how to maintain a healthy posture? or how to sit correctly at a desk?
5. Have you ever invested in a solution (kneeling chair, other expensive chair, brace, etc)?
6. If not, have you ever even considered investing in such a solution?
7. Have you ever done any exercises specially targeting the muscle groups that keep you sitting upright?

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"A startup begins with a vision: a vision of a new product or service, a vision of how the product will reach its customers, and a vision of why lots of people will buy that product. But most of what a startup’s founders initially believe about their market and potential customers are just educated guesses. To turn the vision into reality (and a profitable company), a startup must test those guesses, or hypotheses, and find out which are correct. So the general goal of Customer Discovery amounts to this: turning the founders’ initial hypotheses about their market and customers into facts. And since the facts live outside the building, the primary activity is to get in front of customers. Only after the founders have performed this step will they know whether they have a valid vision or just a hallucination." - Four Steps to the Epiphany

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