Category Archives: Inspiration

Road Not Traveled.

After talking with a friend who had a tough decision in front of her, I was reminded of Robert Frost’s “The Road Not traveled” an excerpt from “Mountain Interval.”

1. The Road Not Taken

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth; 5

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same, 10

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back. 15

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. 20

You Could Hear a Pin Drop

If any of you know me personally, you probably know my feelings for the army run pretty deep. While I don’t necessarily agree with the implicit reasoning of most of the material below, the last statement should blow you away, and at least give you a deeper understanding for why I have so much respect for Armed Forces.

A friend at the Air Force academy, whose two parents are both Lt.Cols in the Army, forwarded me this from an email her dad sent:

When in England at a large conference, Colin Powell was asked by the Archbishop of Canterbury if our plans for Iraq were just an example of ‘empire building’ by George Bush. He answered by saying, ‘Over the years, the United States has sent many of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not return.

You could have heard a pin drop.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Then there was a conference in France where a number of international engineers were taking part, including French and American. During a break one of the French engineers came back into the room saying ‘Have you heard the latest dumb stunt Bush has done? He has sent an aircraft carrier to Indonesia to help the tsunami victims. What does he intend to do, bomb them?’ A Boeing engineer stood up and replied quietly: ‘Our carriers have three hospitals on board that can treat several hundred people; they are nuclear powered and can supply emergency electrical power to shore facilities; they have three cafeterias with the capacity to feed 3,000 people three meals a day, they can produce several thousand gallons of fresh water from sea water each day, and they carry half a dozen helicopters for use in transporting victims and injured to and from their flight deck.. We have eleven such ships; how many does France have? ‘

You could have heard a pin drop.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A U.S. Navy Admiral was attending a naval conference that included Admirals from the U.S., English, Canadian, Australian and French Navies. At a cocktail reception, he found himself standing with a large group of Officers that included personnel from most of those countries. Everyone was chatting away in English as they sipped their drinks but a French admiral suddenly complained that, ‘whereas Europeans learn many languages, Americans learn only English.’ He then asked, ‘Why is it that we always have to speak English in these conferences rather than speaking French?’ Without hesitating, the American Admiral replied ‘Maybe it’s because the Brits, Canadians, Aussies and Americans arranged it so you wouldn’t have to speak German?’

You could have heard a pin drop.

AND THIS STORY FITS RIGHT IN WITH THE ABOVE…

A group of Americans, retired teachers, recently went to France on a tour. Robert Whiting, an elderly gentleman of 83, arrived in Paris by plane.. At French Customs, he took a few minutes to locate his passport in his carry on. ‘You have been to France before, monsieur?’ the customs officer asked sarcastically. Mr. Whiting admitted that he had been to France previously. ‘Then you should know enough to have your passport ready.’ The American said, ‘The last time I was here, I didn’t have to show it.’ ‘Impossible. Americans always have to show your passports on arrival in France!’ The American senior gave the Frenchman a long hard look. Then he quietly explained. ‘Well, when I came ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day in ‘44 to help liberate this country, I couldn’t find any Frenchmen to show it to.’

You could have heard a pin drop

What Is A Veteran?

A “Veteran” — whether active duty, discharged, retired, or reserve — is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to “The United States of America,” for an amount of “up to, and including his life.” That is honor, and there are excessively many people in this country today, who no longer understand that fact.

Greatest Ad Campaign ever: Impossible is Nothing

This is my favorite commercial of all time:

“Some people listen to themselves rather than listening to what others say.These people don’t come along very often, but when they do, they remind us, that once you set out on a path, even though critics may doubt you, its ok to believe, that there is no can’t, won’t, or impossible. They remind us, that it’s OK to believe, impossible … is nothing.”

And the ad campaign version:

Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.

One day, I hope to bring original people, not just stars and famous athletes, and let them tell their impossible story.

The high price of coming to America

Death struck twice this week.

First a friend I went to elementary, middle, and high school with. Played football together even. Shot himself Thursday.

Second my dad’s mother, today, 2pm Nigerian time.

There’s a high price of coming to America, and the creditor came-a-callin this week, and he asked for his due.

My dad came to the US in 1979, a bit after receiving his master’s degree, to study for his Ph.D in Petroleum Engineering, first at PSU, then finally at Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago.

That decision would forever change a generation of Adewumis.

My mother came in tow, a year later after getting all the immigration stuff cleared, with my oldest brother and sister. I wasn’t yet born.

That happened several years later, after two more had been born, in State College, Pennsylvania, although my house is in Lemont.

I’ve always had my family: my dad, mom, brothers and sisters that is. The only other relatives we have this side of the Atlantic is a mother’s cousin in Baltimore, and my mother’s sister in Chicago.

I’ve always wondered what it’d be like to have odes of family to gather with at holidays, but I was grateful just to have the 7 or 8 of us there are here (and we’ve grown through marriages and children).

People would always ask “how often do you go back to Nigeria?”

Once.

In 6th grade, we mustered some cash (with a family of seven, flying during high season, each plane ticket is about $2k … do the math) and visited family for three weeks in South Western Nigeria.

Family I’d never known, some who spoke a language that is a bit native to my ear, but mostly foreign to my tongue.

Both my parents’ fathers had passed away, one over thirty years back, the other when I was four.

I never knew them.

I did meet both of my parents’ mothers, and it was a joy to meet in flesh and blood people you only know from stories, seemingly carved out of myth and legend.

My dad particularly would tell stories about his mother — how great a storyteller she was, and how every night when he was young, the family would crowd around as her words cast a spell over them and took them through time past, present and yet to come.

I’ve discussed before that I’m from everywhere and from nowhere — not truly from Nigeria being born and raised in America, but not truly from America with a heritage still strong and true running hundreds of years before this country’s birth.

I was supposed to go back to Nigeria last May. I secured my Nigerian passport, after a hassle, but had already missed my flight and as reliable as booking companies are, they bungled the chance for me to go in June as well.

I had always told my dad I wanted to go back before my grandmother’s passed away. Well now it’s too late to see one of them.

I firmly believe in God, despite the trials and tribulations we go through — and I’ve had a few over the past few years — but at times it seems a laugh in the face to have missed a chance to see the woman who brought my father into this world for only the second time ever.

Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, our second meeting will be in Heaven.

I don’t feel sorry for myself at all; quite the contrary I feel delighted to even know who my family is, where we come from, and to have a fair relationship with my parents and brothers and sisters.

After reading a wonderful memoir titled “Three Little Words,” by Ashley Rhodes-Courter, I know that here, even in America, hundreds of thousands are orphaned or even taken away (or abandoned) from their birth parents.

One of my best friends’ dad died when he was little. And another good friend’s dad passed when he was but a bit older — old enough to remember him, but not quite aged to be able to remember their experiences but more than fondly.

There’s a high price to coming to America, and the creditor came-a-callin this week, and he asked for his due.

My dad’s mother was in the hospital for the past several months. She called him not ten days ago to plead with him to return to Nigeria to see her. He asked for more time — busy with school you see and a long and far trip at that to return.

Even for him who goes to Nigeria for work five times a year, the earliest he would be free was June.

You can’t turn the wheel of time back, and now she’s gone.

There’s a high price of coming to America, and the creditor came-a-callin this week, and he asked for his due.

Whatever the riches and wealth in this country, with glory untold; where commoners eat, drink, and sleep like kings and queens of ancient times; where the lowliest can rise and dare to rule; where the heart yearns for the life with work left wanting — there’s a sacrifice we’ve all paid.

We’ve laid our families, for better or for worse, at the altar of dreams come true and success with sometimes nary a thought on what life could be, on how life SHOULD be lived.

I have no doubt my father has done what had to be done — and in fact has changed a generation because of it, and maybe one day two countries — even the world.

He provided for the education of countless cousins, nieces and nephews, and in fact was the one paying for the care of his mother — and will be handling the costs of her funeral — but yet, at the end of the day, is it really worth it?

I believe some truths, some rewards demand a high price to pay, and I strongly believe that my father has laid down his family at times, not at the altar of success, but with the knowledge in his heart, that the price he has sowed will reap times again and more.

There’s a high price of coming to America, and the creditor came-a-callin this week, and he asked for his due.

And we told him, fine, take what’s due, but there’s one thing abundant in a Nigerian, that at the end of life, there is not only death, a funeral, and sorrows untold. There is feasting and celebration, as the old pass into the sleep that from which none awake, one constant continues, one truth to hold on to dearly and share with the family that still breaths …

Joy.

Life is a Gift — from the mouth of a US infantryman

A friend from basic, Grant Chapa, wrote this while in Iraq.

“Ive been in Iraq about 8 months now and I’m getting ready to go back to the states. In the time that i have been here, i have learned a lot of things, one of which being that life is a gift that we all too often take for granted. Ive seen comrades and friends of mine get killed. These people had families and children and were relatively young. They should have had many years left ahead of them. I realize that God has a purpose for everyone and that what happened was for a reason. I know too many people who have fucked up their lives, who have so much potential but just choose to let it go to waste. I’m not the best person in the world, either, but i now know and understand the value of life. Recently we had another comrade die. His convoy was going through a city and an RPG (Rocket Propelled Grenade, similar to a rocket) went thorough his window, through his head, and out the window on the other side of the truck. He was 9 days away from leaving this place. He had a family and a kid back home. Tomorrow isn’t promised to us. Unfortunately most of us don’t realize this because we are back home where the worst we have to worry about is getting gas money or figuring out how we can get Friday night off work. Being over here has showed me that Life is a Gift and that we could leave this world at any moment. Make every day count, because it could be your last.”

God bless our troops, God bless Iraq

Startup advice from George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw was certainly an interesting fellow, but who would have thought the “ardent socialist” would have such good advice for entrepreneurs.

A bit of background, courtesy of Wikipedia:

George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950) was an Irish playwright. Born in Dublin, he moved to London at the age of twenty and lived in England for the remainder of his life.

Although Shaw’s first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, his talent was for drama, and during his career he authored more than sixty plays. Nearly all of his writings deal sternly with prevailing social problems, but are leavened by a vein of comedy to make their stark themes more palatable. Shaw examined education, marriage, religion, government, health care, and class privilege and found them all defective, but his ire was most aroused by the exploitation of the working class; his writings seldom fail to censure that abuse. An ardent socialist, Shaw wrote many brochures and speeches for the Fabian Society. He became an accomplished orator in the furtherance of its causes, which included gaining equal political rights for men and women, alleviating abuses of the working class, rescinding private ownership of productive land, and promoting healthful lifestyles.

“Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will.” (”Make something people want”)

“An American has no sense of privacy. He does not know what it means.There is no such thing in the country.” (This certainly applies to the consumer web, e.g. Google, Facebook, Twitter, et. al)

“Few people think more than two or three times a year; I have made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week.” (Release early, release often)

“Gambling promises the poor what property performs for the rich–something for nothing.” (It takes more than pure luck to create wealth)

“If all economists were laid end to end, they would not reach a conclusion.” (Don’t worry about the economy and how that affects your ability to raise money)

Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it. (This certainly applies to people’s entrepreneurial convictions)

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man. (Product/Market fit — some products create new markets, while others are a solution looking for a problem)

There are two tragedies in life. One is not to get your heart’s desire. The other is to get it. (Success, in and of itself, won’t make you a different person than you were without it)

“People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can’t find them, make them.” (Take the opportunity because ain’t nobody gonna drop it in your lap)

“The golden rule is that there are no golden rules.” (Nobody has all the answers)

“We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it.” (Make meaning)

You see things; and you say, ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say, “Why not?” (The Ultimate Startup mantra — there ain’t no statues erected for a skeptic)

What is battle …

with all victories?

I just realized today, that although I may not enjoy it, these losses, these defeats, may be a necessary part of the battle.

Vision

Don’t get people on your team until you are 1000% sure they share the vision.

Or pay them.

It’s not worth the headache.

From the mouths of babes: What the young guns (under 21) have to say about success

Dan Tynan, for the standard, interviewed 10 entrepreneurs under 21 who have seem a bit of success. On his blog , he posted the Q & A with six of them.

What I found most interesting was his second to last question:

What advice do you have for other young people who may be looking to follow a similar path?

Or in other words — how can others be successful like you?

1. Anshul Samar, the 14-year-old founder and CEO of Alchemist Empire and inventor of the chemistry card game,

It took me two years with obstacles to get the product to where it is right now. There were times when I stopped doing it and then started again, but overall I have stuck to it. Don’t get discouraged — and keep on going. You should believe in yourself–that is all that matters.

It is also important to have a close mentor who has experience with the entrepreneur world, who can help you pick the right ideas.

2. Matt Wegrzyn, founder of domain parking site Bodis.com and a successful “domainer” (buyer and seller of domain names)

Don’t let others bring you down. Stay dedicated. Do what you know best. Keep your chin up. Never give up. If you can follow all of these standard rules, then you’ll have a fun life one day. I know, my weekends are very fun. Especially if you have money – you’ll have VERY fun weekends. But, really – it will pay off at the end. Imagine if you spend the next 3, 4 years buried under researching, developing, doing what you know best and trying to succeed, and then the next 20-40 years, you don’t even have to worry about work, or stress, or paying off debts. I mean, you really get to live your life the way it is meant to be. Life is all about having that good fun, and you can’t do that if you don’t play your cards right early enough. I mean, it’s never too late, but the sooner the better in my opinion.

TOT: What else might you want to say to our readers?

To be successful, you must have a good degree of dedication and hard work. Nothing in the world comes easy. And in order to do that, you have to stay motivated. Try to keep yourself motivated at all times. Remember where you can be and what you can have a few years down the road. Personally, I do that with music. I love music. Music keeps me motivated and keeps me working hard. It pumps me up when I’m tired (right now at 4:20 am). So find something that motivates you, and stick to it.

3.Ashley Qualls (AshBo to her friends) how it felt like to build a site to give away her MySpace designs and turn it into a thriving business. Whateverlife.com now pulls in more than $1 million a year in ad revenue

Don’t let others discourage you. It can be hard being young and wanting to jump and create your own business. It’s full of risks. If you have the passion, you can achieve. That’s my opinion. It is hard work, you have to know your audience and you have to relate to them, other wise, people will just walk away. Just don’t take no for an answer.

TOT: What else would you like to say to our readers?

Don’t ever give up. If people think running WhateverLife has always been easy, they are easily mistaken. There have been ups and downs and everywhere in betweens running this company. Luckily, I have always stuck everything through and made it as fun as I possibly could because after all, I love being creative and it has made it easier solving any issues that arise. Just because something goes wrong does NOT mean it can’t be fixed. Just don’t give up so easily.

4. Ben Casnocha, founder of Comcate, which makes software that allows local governments to track and respond to citizen complaints. It’s the third company he’s started since age 12. Casnocha has also written a book, My Start-Up Life: What a (Very) Young CEO Learned on His Journey Through Silicon Valley. He turns 20 in May and attends Claremont McKenna College in southern California.

Go do stuff, experiment, test, tinker. Best way to learn and find out what works and what doesn’t, what interests you and what doesn’t, is to try it, not talk about it or write about it or think about it.

5. Andrew Sutherland, the 18-year-old creator of Quizlet, an online study app that’s been used more than 12 million times.

The key to all this young entrepreneurial stuff is action. The best way to bypass low expectations from adults is to let your work speak for you. Ageism definitely exists in the business world, but people usually recognize talent when they see it, no matter where it came from

6. Catherine Cook, co-founder of myYearbook.com, the fastest growing social network on the planet and the number one destination for teens on the Net.

Really just to go for it and fulfill their dreams. So many people have great ideas, but let something else get in the way, or will for whatever reason think they’re incapable of making something great. They need to remember that getting the idea is the hard part, all they have to do is believe in themselves.

The secret of success (should I say now that I don’t have it either?)

I love how so many big mouths over the “blogosphere” get excited about these micro-debates. (I would link to some of these posts but I don’t want to provide even more trackbacks.)

I live in the real world — the one where those who don’t have time to bicker over useless topics for hours live. (And arguably the world in which real people make it possible for those pointless discussions to happen in the ’sphere.)

I love the internet — everybody wants to tear each other down and proclaim victory.

Ever heard of King of the Hill?

Pick up an Xbox (or if you’re cheap just go to Gamestop and play it there) and try a copy of the Halo series, link it to Xbox live, or battle with some friends, and you will see what I mean.

See when you have some virtual guns, grenades, and rocket launchers, its actually quite amazing.

But when all you have is a bunch of pretend know-it-alls running their fingers all over their keyboard proclaiming they have THE ONE SINGLE ANSWER.

Hilarious.

If they really did they probably wouldn’t be blogging, that’s for sure.

If it’s financial status you’re looking for — I haven’t read Bill Gates’ rant about workaholics (for or against) yet.

If it’s a solid family life you’re after — you’re family would much rather enjoy you then listen to you whine and complain about how “right” you are.

If it’s fame you’re looking for –keep blogging, because outside the tech world nobody knows or cares who you are — and they probably never will.

And if it’s beauty you’re after, well, suffice it to say that the sedentary lifestyle which this sort of mind-numbing useless, time-wasting calls for probably won’t allow beauty — but hey, it is possible.

I do really like one post (a positive post) and wanted to highlight one of my favorite excerpts of all time.

Former:

There is no secret formula or obvious path to success. Just one common trait…an indomitable desire to succeed against all adversity and doubt. Very few people have this drive and the leadership ability to attract great people to their cause. This drive is indefinable but we know it when we see it. It is sometimes misdiagnosed as being delusional and fanatical. The difference in diagnosis is success or failure. Succeed and you are a brilliant visionary. Fail and you are a delusional loser. The line between them is very fine.

Latter:

A well-regarded speaker spent several years compiling information on what makes a successful person. He was astounded by his results.

Of course, like most of us, I’d been brought up on the popular belief that the secret of success is hard work, but I’d seen so many men work hard without succeeding and so many men succeed without working hard that I had become convinced that hard work was not the real secret even though in most cases it might be one of the requirements. And so I set out on a voyage of discovery which carried me through biographies and autobiographies and all sorts of dissertations on success and the lives of successful men and women until I finally reached the point at which I realized that the secret I was trying to discover lay not only in what people did, but also in what made them do it! I realized further that the secret for which I was searching must not only apply to every definition of success, but since it must apply to everyone to whom it was offered, it must also apply to everyone who had ever been successful. In short, I was looking for the common denominator of success. And because that’s exactly what I was looking for, that’s exactly what I found.

He expected to find a correlation between gender, race, age, I.Q. or other hereditary factors out of human control; conversely, in his report titled “The common denominator of success” he found something entirely different: “The common denominator of success – the secret of success of every person who has ever been successful – lies in the fact that the person formed the habit of doing things that others don’t like to do…Because successful people have a purpose strong enough to make them form the habit of doing things they don’t like to do.”