I recently sent a great article about raising funding as a first-time founder to my friend and colleague at the startup I work for. After the link I added, “Do you want me to keep sending you stuff like this? I'm not offended by No.” Those last five words sprung from my fingertips naturally and unconsciously, but I stared at them for a while before pressing send. These words signaled an important development in my personal growth. No can hurt. Really bad. When I got cut from the soccer team as a sophomore, I laid on the floor of my room and cried. When I threw the last turnover and lost the last game of my college ultimate career the message “You’re not good enough” came in loud and clear. I cried then, too. As an insurance salesman, I had more people hang up on me in one year than I thought I’d experience in my entire life. But, every time I got back up, dusted myself off, and kept on plugging away. And that is what will come to ultimately define me. When you’ve gotten back up enough times after being spurned, you’ll come to realize your own invincibility. That you have the courage, fortitude and experience to make the rejections bounce right off of you. After that, things will really start to change. That self-belief makes you more attractive to employers, potential lovers, and teammates. They will feed off of the charisma that is borne from authentic, balanced confidence and reasonable expectations. That’s why those five words meant so much to me. Now don’t get me wrong, it’s not a monster that I’ve slain. It would be ridiculous to equate sharing an article with some of the other “No”s I’ve faced. But it’s a step in the right direction, down a path that I’m excited to travel. If you need some inspiration, go watch Jia Jiang’s 100 Days of Rejection TED Talk, but, honestly, the best way to learn is through experience. So go out there and hear some Nos.
The best stuff from all around the web; read, learn and prosper.
The cost of mobile ads (NYT) This is not a joke - the mermaid economy is growing (Fast Company) Twitter is considering more than 140 characters (Re/Code) VW ignored warning and quieted whistleblower about emissions fraud (ExtremeTech) How American Politics is changing (Vox) The new game late night hosts are playing (Atlantic) Inside Watsi (Huff Po) Be sure to share your favorite links. The best stuff from all around the web; read, learn and prosper.
How to calculate social media ROI (Vaynerchuk) Influencer marketing works for small business (Entrepreneur) The operating model that is eating the world (Medium) Long live coffee (Harvard) Preparing for the next bear market (Fortune) Lessons to be learned from the porn industry’s business model (Economist) There is no “War on Police” (Washington Post) Job hunt like a Purple Cow (Going Deep) Be sure to share your favorite links.
The best stuff from all around the web; read, learn and prosper.
Uber is not an app, it’s a platform (Semil Shah) Teespring, a t-shirt company, is making other people into millionaires (Fortune) Kickstarter and the future of capitalism (Fusion) Starting a alcohol delivery company in a city with no happy hours (LinkedIn) The $57 million Medium investment (Medium) John Lee Dumas’s strategies for building a $250k/mo podcast (Entrepreneur) Be sure to share your favorite links.
One of my all-time best collection of links. Enjoy
Understanding Common Core - take the time (Patheos) AI is best when it learns from humans (Wired) Marc Ecko on how to drop a swag bomb (4HWW) How to raise funding as a first time founder (Medium) Cheap books saved us from the Malthusian Trap of unskilled labor (Unenumerated) How to land influential interview (Foundr) Appreciating the S iterations of the iPhone (Daring Fireball) Share with friends.
The best stuff from all around the web; read, learn and prosper.
Trevor Noah’s uphill battle (Bloomberg) Understanding the difference between skeptic and denier (the Ness) Tucker Max pitches his new startup (Austin Inno) The effect of book consciousness on the world (Unenumerated) Was Scott Walker bad or unlucky? (fivethirtyeight) Donald Trump, Master Wizard (Scott Adams) Staying in the VC game at 80 (LinkedIn) The journey of Medium (Medium) I’m buying Jonah Wisch stock now (Soar Journal) Be sure to share your favorite links. Below is a blog post from Bob Lefsetz. Bob is in the music business and I get his posts emailed directly to my inbox. He provides sharp insight and I recommend you consider doing the same. Plus, he loves podcasts. Enjoy
The Podcast Revolution By: Bob Lefsetz Why is it when major media is cropping its stories down to nothing, believing that's the only way to achieve virality, because America is dumb and has a short attention span, that podcasts are gaining traction and are generating the word of mouth traditional outlets crave? It can be really daunting to determine where you find the articles, think pieces and profiles that make up your weekly media diet. I drink from a firehose every day to produce the Digital Content Curator for you every day. Below is a brief synopsis of the major players that I engage with and enjoy.
Huffington Post - A trailblazer in the online media space, HuffPo is a news aggregator that is slowly gaining traction as a journalistic entity. You can expect some more liberal-minded political pieces and your fair share of click-bait headlines. New York Times - It has been around since 1851 and won more Pulitzer Prizes than any other organization. Slightly left-leaning, but always striving to keep up with modern times. If you were to only read one site, NYT would provide the broadest, quality coverage. Forbes - My dad bought me a subscription to Forbes when I was a freshman in college to “counterbalance” the strong liberal bent of campus life. I’ve learned the stories of countless successful entrepreneurs in years of reading. Conservative Editor Steve Forbes writes a column for every issue. Wall Street Journal - The de facto source of journalism for the financial industry is one of the oldest media organizations to have made it to the digital age and maintains its conservative slant. While a lot of content is behind the paywall, columnists Jason Zweig and Morgan Housel are at the top of the pile for personal finance advice. Washington Post - Ever since Jeff Bezos bought the Post in 2013 for $250 million, the site has been on the rise and is now nipping at the heels of the New York Times for journalism supremacy. They follow the NYT lead in being left-leaning in their news coverage. Earlier this year, the Times responded by releasing a controversial piece on Bezos’ work culture at Amazon. The Onion - Parodies the major stories of the day and provides tongue-in-cheek social commentary. One of the most consistently funny sites on the web. Grantland - Launched by Bill Simmons when he was still with ESPN, the site covers sports and popular culture (ESPN’s original mission). Thought Simmons is gone, the site still has top basketball writer Zach Lowe and BuzzFeed - The other digital media company giant has evolved past putting together listicles to develop a real journalism wing and a robust video production team. Buzzfeed is the envy of the industry for its ability to create shareable, if slightly superficial, content that millennials devour. Also, its comfort with profanity further separates it from other news organizations. Clickhole - An off-shoot of the Onion that brilliantly parodies the click-bait fiends like Buzzfeed. A Plus - Episode seventeen of my podcast featured A Plus Editor Isaac Saul, who left HuffPo to help run Ashton Kutcher’s new media company. The company’s mission is to focus on “positive journalism”, in an attempt to make readers feel better about themselves or the world after reading. Daily Beast - Short snippets of opinion and gossip keep the Beast from entering the conversation of top journalism websites, but their scoops are admittedly interesting. The political commentary can provide an occasional dose of contrarian from the mainstream. Re/Code - Let’s say you’ve never taken a computer science course but want to understand what’s up with Apple’s new operating system or read a review of the features of the hot new app people are talking about. Re/Code is the place for you. Wired - The quintessential early adopter resource carries the torch of announcing new technologies and making proclamations about the future (i.e. The Internet of Things). Mashable - A digital media site dedicated to the “connected” generation by focusing on social media, tech and pop culture. NPR - liberal leaning organization produces journalism that will tug on your heartstrings. Their monolithic radio station has enabled them to dominate the podcast market with hits like Serial and This American Life. Bloomberg - Former NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg built the business news media company out of a financial services data company when he realized how thirsty people were for business news. A huge stable of columnists lead the conversation in financial markets and economics. Vice - The home of exclusively hardcore journalism has its own show on HBO. Specializes in dragging shocking images and topics into the light like forced prostitution, footage of glaciers collapsing and kids smoking cigarettes. Has no problem with profanity, but you sometimes have to weed through weak articles on their site. Business Insider - Stealing the click bait headline tactics of HuffPo and Buzzfeed allows BI to produce business and pop culture content covering a broad array of subjects. It’s genesis comes from the collaboration of former Wall Street execs and marketing gurus. Fast Company - FC aims to find the middle ground between creating content that is engaging for millennials and generation Y folks, while delivering the high level of business journalism you’d expect at Bloomberg, WSJ and Forbes. Vox - The 9 year old blog is built on explaining the complicated political and economic world developments to those of us out there who aren’t policy wonks or political science grad students. Al Jazeera - Originating as an Arabic New Service, Al Jazeera brings a fresh perspective when you get too mired in seeing things from the “western” point of view. Has far and away the most reporters on the ground for Middle Eastern News and a ton of former BBC journalists. British Broadcasting Company - Another monolith, the BBC covers European news and provides another form of outsider commentary on American and world events. Medium - The site, founded by the Evan Williams from Twitter, employs a unique style called social journalism where pros and amateurs can publish content. Great place to hear from tech leaders like Brian Chesky, Marc Andreessen, and Gary Vaynerchuk. The Guardian - UK news company that broke the Edward Snowden story has a long and decorated history of breaking big stories. The company historically operates at a loss, but is sustained by a charitable trust. The goal being unbiased, high-caliber journalism. The Intercept - Founded by Glenn Greenwald, Edward Snowden’s confidant, to combat the lies and expose the falsehoods reported to us by our governments. With backing from Ebay billionaire Pierre Omidayr, the site relies on unofficial sources to break alternative stories. Rolling Stone - Great music and film reviews to go hand-in-hand with hardcore, deep pieces of journalism. The UVA rape case aside, solid reporting on counter-cultural phenomenons.
The best stuff from all around the web; read, learn and prosper.
10 Things I love about Twitter (Wealth of Common Sense) Government is the problem, not the rich (Bloomberg) Check out the startups trying to disrupt insurance (LinkedIn) Carly Fiorina’s lie is absolutely bonkers (Slate) The only two things that matter - Larry Lessig for President (Medium) Women initiate 69% of divorces (Live Science) What Deezer’s IPO tells us about the subscription music business (Billboard) Be sure to share your favorite links. |
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