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FAQs
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When will email be dead, and what will replace it?
Email is absolutely awesome. I LOVE email.We constantly hear people complaining that email is terrible. People keep saying that we need to invent something new.Email is the best means of communication that ever existed. And while email can be massively improved, it will remain the best communication means for many, many years.Asynchronous communication is really, really importantEmail is beautiful because it is asynchronous. When you get an email, it is not assumed you will respond that second. You can take a day, think about the message, and respond thoughtfully. Sometimes it is just used to convey information and you do not need to respond at all.Synchronous written communication (like SMS, chat, etc.) have their place and can be really important when real-time is a priority … but most things do not need to be real time.Email is openAnyone using any system can email anyone else. You use Google Apps and I use Microsoft Exchange? We can still communicate. The soldier using Military email can communicate with her grandmother using AOL.You can take your history with you. You can forward your messages to a new system. Don’t like using Gmail? No problem, you can forward your old gmail address email to the new one you like.Messages go through a common protocol.Most of the “new” cool systems are closed. They are not portable. They lock you in. They don’t actually have your best interest at heart.Email has a long history that you can searchThe older you are, the more useful this is. You can figure out when you met that cool person twelve years ago. You can read old communications. You can easily search. And, because it is open, you can take your history with you (though admittedly this is more difficult than it needs to be).Many “new” modes of communication are just emailSMS: synchronous email with threads. (Gmail is asynchronous email with threads)Facebook messaging: email with nice graphics.Slack: email that only works for internal communication.WeChat: synchronous email for people that live in China.Is email perfect? Of course notEmail still could be much better. Even gmail can sometimes be really, really slow. Searches can be awkward. Many great advances and email apps just slow things down or cause bugs.And, of course, the company-wide reply-all is a crazy time suck for everyone.And many people send too many emails. And many people write emails that are WAY too long. And sometimes people write emails when a quick phone or in-person meeting would be better.Email can also break down with big groups trying collaborate together.Email also needs to be much more secure.Like all good things, email can be abused.Email is alive, well, and flourishingYes, there are some high school students that don’t use email … but they use something that is just amore synchronous version of email. In fact, most ppl communicate most with either email or something that looks very much like email. Email makes the world go round. It is the easiest way to communicate with most people. It is the best way to invite someone to a function. It is the common communication language of our era. And like other common communication languages of our era (like the QWERTY keyboard and English), there are structural problems that we wish we could change. But I say, LONG LIVE EMAIL!
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What are some lesser known Gmail tips?
Perhaps not "lesser known", but I've been using keyboard shortcuts for years under "Settings": This probably comes from my vim background, but inside gmail, I almost never use the mouse. Instead:While viewing a list of threads (i.e. Inbox, All Mail, Drafts, search results, etc.):c to compose a new mailj and k to move the cursor down and upx to select/deselect the current thread that's pointed to by the cursore to archive all threads that have been selected [Enter] to go into the thread pointed to by the cursor"g i" to go to my Inbox"g a" to go to All Mail"g d" to go to DraftsWhile inside a thread:n and p to browse down and up messages inside a thread (move the cursor up and down)a to reply all (or r to reply individually, but that's rare) to the message currently pointed to by the cursorf to forward the message that's pointed to by the cursoru to go back to the previous thread list view, which could be your Inbox, All Mail, Drafts, etc. This is the same as the back button: s to toggle through the stars on the message currently pointed to by the cursorIn case you're wondering, the "cursor" is the very thin vertical blue line visible to the left of the third thread in this picture:Other useful shortcuts:/ to make the search bar active"* u" to select all unread emails"* n" to deselect all emailsShift+i to mark all selected emails as readShift+u to mark all selected emails as unreadWhile inside a thread, Shift+u will bring you back to the previous thread list view and marking the current thread as unread. I do this a lot to keep important threads at the top of my inbox.And that's basically all I ever do in gmail. It can be painful to learn at first, but just start with the very basics: j, k, and [Enter] to browse through your inbox. Within a month or two, you'll be zipping through your inbox like Usain Bolt through the 200m.Full list: http://support.google.com/mail/b...Edit: David Craige mentioned a very useful Google Labs add-on under "Settings --> Labs": a [Send & Archive] buttonAnd another useful add-on:
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Why was the F-117 retired so quickly?
.“If it don’t look right, then it don’t fly right.” Ancient aviation saying. I thank Donnie Morrow for sharing it with us.Okay, military pilots and people, get ready for a good laugh: the reason the F-117 was retired early was simple:It didn’t look right.Oh, I can hear the gales of laughter right through my screen. Look, you really don’t have to flame me. Just two words will do: you wrong.But look at this:And this:Yuck! That is not a plane a self-respecting USAF fighter pilot could love. One Commenter, Erin Samai, saw this “fighter” at the Farnborough UK Airshow and likened it to a “flying tent.”While we’re talking fighter, I notice that no other Answer gives the real reason this “boutique bomber” —Rajan Bhavnani’s great term—was strangely designated F-117.The reason was that crafty Air Force brass wanted to lure high caliber pilots. Those would be fighter jocks. A jock would see that F and think, ‘Oh boy, I’m gonna be flying some super secret high performance fighter!’ Certainly not a flying tent. Or, more technically, not flying a “stealth attack aircraft,” aka, invisible bomber.Fighter pilots live and love to dogfight, not driving bomb dumpers. Yawn. And there was no way in hell F-117 could dogfight: it carried no weapons for air-to-air combat. So imagine those hi-cal pilots’ dismay when they clapped eyes on the Nighthawk: “WTF is this? Guys, this thing ain’t no fighter! We been hornswoggled!”In Operation Desert Storm, Saudi’s named the F-117 "Shaba,” Arabic for "Ghost."Since other Answers provide such extraordinary technical details—I’ve learned a lot—I shall do what I always do in these circumstances: tell stories.In the late ’70s, I was in flight training at Burbank Airport (now Bob Hope Airport), north of L.A. I chose this field for its interesting array of flight operations: training, airline, corporate (flying “heavy iron,” pilot-speak for biz jets such as Gulfstream, Bombardier, et al) Many of these sleek mini-airliners were owned by movie stars from nearby Hollywood.There was another operation, an extremely secretive one: Lockheed’s famed Skunk Works. The U-2 and SR-71 Black Bird spy planes were designed here by aeronautical super star Clarence L. “Kelly” Johnson. (February 27, 1910 – December 21, 1990) His sinister black hangar stood just across the field from my training base, wreathed in mystery.Johnson (left) with Gary Powers and U-2. On 1 May 1960, Powers was shot down over the USSR, causing a major Cold War incident. The Soviets, in their frantic efforts to down his U-2, shot down one of their own MIG-19 fighters, killing the pilot.“Oh hey! Sure, come on up. I bet we won’t be able to do this in the future ….”At Burbank I befriended the tower controllers and would often climb up to the glassed-in cab—impossible these days, of course. One morning I came up and a controller said, Oh, you missed some fun last night, Cameron.Seems the Air Force had called up and ordered them to douse the lights on the field at precisely midnight. The controllers pointed out that legally they couldn’t do that. The Air Force played their ace: the “national security” card. The controllers didn’t fold. Nope. USAF had to settle for dimmed lights.At midnight, a gigantic C-5 ( for you non-pilots, this is the largest USAF cargo plane) landed and trundled over to the Skunk Works, sticking its monster snout into their black hangar. Tall shrouds were erected to block view of the C-5’s loading ramp. Grim USAF security in trademark blue berets and automatic weapons established a perimeter around the mammoth plane. It hastily gobbled up something skunky and flew off.Lockheed C-5 Galaxy. Its cargo deck is 1 foot longer than the Wright Brother’s first flight.Next day, the field was abuzz as controllers, pilots and ramp boys speculated on That Top Secret Thing snatched from the Skunk Works. Was Lockheed “reverse engineering” an alien craft? Gee, do you think the government really has…alien pilots on ice? Whatever. It was the usual UFO clap trap.Now, this amuses me about our Air Force. They love to go: “DON’T LOOK! THIS IS TOP SECRET!” So, of course, we all look. If that midnight C-5 had just landed at high noon, trundled in like any normal C-5 and, ho hum, gobbled up some plain ol’ package—no shrouds, no blue berets—and took off, well, no one would have batted an eye. No alien nonsense. But no fun for USAF, either.Much later, we’d learn that the skunky thing was Have Blue, prototype of a revolutionary aircraft designed to evade radar detection. Ironically, the father of stealth was Soviet mathematician Petr Ufimtsev. Fortunately for the United States—remember, this was in the Cold War—Lockheed engineer Denys Overholser took Ufimtsev’s work seriously; his own people, the Soviets, hadn’t.Have Blue incorporated decades of secret aeronautical design work. Now, in the belly of that C-5, she was headed for her first flight at a field so secret, it didn’t exist. There, an assemblage of Air Force brass and Lockheed engineers would watch, holding their breath. Then, as Have Blue climbed away, there would be cheers, high fives and hugs, and, sure, a tear or two from aeronautical engineers who had labored so long and secretly on this peculiar airplane.Have Blue. 60% scale F-117 prototype. (Scott Hanson informs me these weird names are produced by a random name generator to remove human bias)Top photo below: Until the advent of Google Earth, the Air Force denied Area 51 existed. “Don’t you look, ‘cause it ain’t there!”Bottom Photo: F-117s at Langley AFB , Virginia. 64 were built.Flash forward a couple of years. I open the Los Angeles Times and, wow, there’s this big article about some USAF plane crashing in the remote mountains above Bakersfield. Now, normally such an event might rate a few lines of copy on page 15. Not this one. What was the big deal?The big deal was that the Air Force had called up all the major news outlets for an important press conference. OK, about what?Well, the Air Force Press Officer told the assembled journalists, we’ve thrown a “National Security Zone” around a crash site up in the mountains. Huh? Say what? One reporter asked to what altitude this zone extended. “To infinity.” WHAT? “Don’t look! Don’t look!” Big article. Much more fun than just saying nothing—which would have been logical given the remote location of the crash.Years later, we’d learn that the unfortunate craft was our little Have Blue. From the first, she had stability issues. Pilots nicknamed her the Wobblin’ Goblin. Luckily the pilot bailed out okay.F-117s were temperamental and required exceptional maintenance.Let’s return to my point about pilots and the (sexual) aesthetics of their fighter jets. Oh go ahead, laugh! I say sex is an unspoken factor here—and sometimes spoken, as you’ll see in a sec.There’s an old adage in the world of business: sex sells. Never truer than in the fighter jet business.In 1993, the Pentagon established a massive $200 Billion winner-take-all Joint Strike Fighter competition. Two candidates, Boeing’s X-32 and Lockheed Martin’s X-35 went nose-to-nose.I looked at them. Now, I’m no fighter jet expert, but without knowing anything about them, I knew, knew the Lockheed would win. Hands down. End of discussion.Boeing X-32Lockheed Martin X-35Why so certain? Well, look at them. The Lockheed is sleek and sexy in its graphite paint scheme, its come-hither canopy and raked tails. It’s a fighter jock’s dream! The X-32 is anything but. It’s more like—forgive me, Boeing—a happily vomiting albino frog with wings. Am I too unkind?In the testosterone-drenched world of fighter pilots, flying a sexy airplane is like going on a hot date. Seen Top Gun? The Grumman Tomcat is as much the star as that other Tom. I’ll go out on a wing: Tomcat was the sexiest airplane ever to fly. Show me another airplane that could upstage a movie star.Beyond the beauty of its lines, swing-wing Tomcat could fly faster—1544 mph and further, 575 mi—than its successor, the uninspiring McDonnell Douglas Hornet, (1190 mph and 460 mi.) And Tomcat regularly blew off Air Force jocks in mock air battles.But Sec of Defense Cheney had an inexplicable hostility toward the plane: it was a Grumman “jobs program.” (Oh come on! What defense program isn’t?) It had “60’s technology”(ever heard of…upgrading?) He denied a last-minute Navy plea to keep a few beloved, yowling Tomcats around.Some say he was bribed by Boeing. Could be. He certainly went to extraordinary lengths to make sure Tomcat never flew again, ordering Grumman to destroy all its machine tooling, making it impossible to build future planes. (Can you imagine being the veteran Tomcat builder ordered to do that?)The only ones flying now (July 2019) are Iranian. Which it is why it’s illegal to own one. Parts. Tomcats can be found on static displays around the country. Note: for those of you interested in owning a fighter, you can have an F-4 Phantom for $3MM.By any measure, the F-14 Tomcat was a magnificent fighter. It’s “variable geometry” swing wings were unique. It certainly deserves a place in the pantheon of fighter greats: Spitfire, MIG-15, Bf-109, P-51 Mustang, Mitsubishi Zero, Sopwith Camel. You probably have other candidates.I am saddened that Mr. Cheney lacked the vision to appreciate Tomcat.Oh, well—’sigh’—we’ll always have Top Gun.Grumman F-14 Tomcat, retired 2006. The Navy misses it…bad.Back to the Joint Strike Fighter competition:Strangely, the drooling jocks didn’t name the Lockheed plane and pilots love to name their craft. Examples: the unlovely Fairchild Republic A-10 is lovingly called Warthog, or simply Hawg. The Boeing B-52—in service 67 years!—is the BUFF: Big Ugly Fat Fucker—oops! I meant “Fellah.”(A pilot wouldn’t be caught dead uttering a warplane’s official name: A-10 Thunderbolt II, B-52 Stratofortress)Warthog firing its Avenger Gatling gun. Google up its unique “BRRRRT!” sound.The jocks did name Boeing’s X-32 and it wasn’t a nice name like Hawg. The test pilots called her…Monica. I tell you, that name was her death knell.Why Monica? A jock would happily tell you with a wink and snicker: she’s got a big mouth, she’s ugly and…she sucks. Scratching your head? Remember Bill Clinton’s presidency? Yeah? Good. That Monica. Aha!Now, if you’re still scratching at my stupid hinting, please Google up “Monica Clinton.” There’s your answer. And dear reader, I’m not being coy; we’re talking airplane sexuality here, not human. We’re not going there.Cool Cat won, of course. (pilots had begun calling her Panther) And to be fair, her win wasn’t all on sexy looks. She could refuel in flight and hover like a helicopter. Monica could do neither.She’s now the most expensive Pentagon program in history: $1 Trillion. Think of all the cool stuff we could have had for that: high speed rail, health care for all, a chromebook XL for every kid in the country. Think!Sure, Monica would have been way cheaper—Boeing had emphasized cost control—but trust me, there would have been a pilot mutiny if Air Force brass had embraced the Vomiting Frog over Panther.Many thanks to Howard Torman for sharing his first-hand knowledge of the Joint Strike Fighter competition.The F-117 was shot down once. It occurred in the Kosovo War of 1998–99 when NATO flew it against Serbia. The historic shoot-down date was 27 March 1999.A Serbian commander of an Air Defense Missile Brigade, former bread baker Colonel Zoltan Dani, made a study of the F-117 ‘s almost invisible radar returns. On Serbian screens the plane looked like a fuzzy sparrow, useless for missile lock. But Dani detected a chink in the stealth “armor:” when the bomb bay doors snapped open, that fuzzy little bird’s radar signature lit bright for a few seconds.Now add NATO complacency. Since F-117 was supposedly invisible, the air staff got lazy and ran the same course to targets in Belgrade, the Serbian capital, on every mission. Fatal. Unfortunately, Dani was an especially clever air defense commander. He now had the Initial Point of the bomb run and a probable course into Belgrade.Serbian “Goa” Surface to Air Missile (SAM)So, when the next Nighthawk came a-bombin’, Dani and crew pounced, hitting it with a brace of well-placed Goas. Badly damaged, the F-117 tumbled out of control, crashing in a field on its back. The pilot, Lt. Col. Dale Zelko (below) bailed out unhurt and evaded capture to be pulled out by USAF Pararescue six hours later.The ultimate irony: Dale Zelko is of Yugoslav ancestry.**Thanks to Desiree Arceneaux for shoot-down details.The gleeful Serbs then invited the Russians and Chinese in for some serious reverse engineering of the dead F-117. That ended the 25 year American monopoly on stealth technology.Despite this costly embarrassment, Nighthawk continued in service for another 8 years. The Air Force had expected at least 13. But the Ghost had been outed and in the most humiliating way: by a tiny Balkan air force (Serbia combines air force and air defense) To add insult to injury, Ghost was downed by obsolete Soviet SAMs. The Air Force was stunned. There were red faces at the Pentagon.Then there was the F-117’s record in combat with its Paveway II laser bomb system. After it’s first several missions, the Air Force crowed that the plane had destroyed 80% of its assigned targets. However, on closer examination this was found to be wildly overstated. Like about 100% wildly.So, here we had this weird black plane which hit targets barely half the time, which had embarrassed the Air Force and which was a bitch to maintain.And what was that impatient roaring in the wings? Panther! The expensive love of the fighter jocks, clawing to take center stage.No pilot ever loved The Black Jet—or at least confessed to. It was a revolutionary freak and revolutionaries are rarely lovable—nor are freaks.Nighthawk had been born in great mystery at the Skunk Works and out at Area 51—mystery made greater by Air Force antics. But now, in late middle age, it’s mystique was gone—and soon it would be, too..Colonel Dani gloating over his kill.“Get me Dimitri on the phone. And that Chinese guy. I can never pronounce his name.”But why did they have to rub it in? Why? The day after the shoot-down, the Serbs, giddy with their spectacular triumph, erected this huge, hand-painted banner over the shattered Nighthawk carcass for all the gathered international press to see:“S O R R Y ! .W E .D I DN’T .K N O W .I T .WA S **I N V I S I B L E!**”JerksThe author gratefully acknowledges the many suggestions and corrections from military and civilian readers. You improved this Answer—a lot! Thank you.** Zelko and Dani would later become friends.
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How can I increase my business online with the best services?
You could try the following steps:1. Use the same hashtagIf you do a big holiday sale, don't be afraid of hashtags! Hundreds of other businesses will do the same, and you want to stand out from them by appearing first in searching for any tags by your potential customers. Try using various hashtags that include general options like #holidaysale, along with special hashtags that describe the focus of your business. After you find a happy media, obey it! Use a combination of hashtags on all of your social media platforms.2. Fast SalesFast selling is a great way to encourage sales because they create a sense of urgency. Offering special prices only for a short period of time. Announce your intention to do light sales in the previous few weeks throughout your social media sites, but don't say when that will happen. This will ensure that people will continue to check your feed to see when that happens. When you hold flash sales, be prepared for heavy traffic to your site.3. Offer CouponsThe use of coupons jumped during the recession because people were looking for cheaper prices and offers, especially during holidays. Invite customers to buy your product with a coupon code only available to those who "like" your page on Facebook or follow you on Twitter. This will increase the number of your followers and attract more customers.4. Embed the Contest on PinterestMany small businesses are still trying to find ways to use Pinterest to their advantage. Whether you have a page for months or years, one great strategy is to run a contest on Pinterest that rewards everyone who enters a coupon code for ten percent of an item. Winners must receive bigger prizes such as free items. Ask followers to pin one of the items they want most from your catalog page to one of their boards, and select a winner randomly. This is a big win: You not only involve your followers, but you also spread the word about your product to other people who see the contestants' boards participating.You can also use your page to run promotions.5. Promote Free ShippingDuring the holiday season, people buy most of their purchases online. Shipping costs when buying online can increase, especially if customers buy from several companies. Offer free shipping to those who click on the link from your Facebook or Twitter account. You will be intrigued by how many "likes" and new followers you can get from this promotion, not to mention increasing sales.6. Generate instructions through prizesHolidays are the right time to generate new prospects for your business. Try a free promotion that requires a registration page. Include an option for users to receive bulletins as an additional incentive. Not only will they have the opportunity to win big prizes or a percentage of services, they will also register themselves to get the opportunity to hear more about your business. Way Easy Gifts follow this trend with their "12 Day Gift" promotion. Users can choose between three different prizes with the same theme and enter to win prizes. Not only promotions that generate direction and recognition for brands, it also enhances their social platforms. Everyone who enters a promotion must like a Facebook page to check prizes.7. Go MobileDo you already have a mobile site? If not, get one as soon as possible. A large number of people now access their social media accounts via their telephone; in fact, more people use Facebook phones than Facebook on their desktops. Any sales promotions that you put on social media are likely to be accessed on the phone, and you don't want to bother your customers with slow friendly sites that are not mobile where buying things is troublesome. If you don't have a lot of technical expertise, try a cellular trading provider that can do it for you, like Shopgate.8. Posting ImagesStrange but real: You tend to get a response to something on Facebook when you post a picture along with your words. Encourage your fans to like and share your things! Facebook has just implemented a new algorithm that will repost the link every time someone comments on it. This means more exposure for your brand! Whatever additional "likes" you get for status leads to more people seeing them in the feed of their friends, so be sure to include photos of your product with each promotion you post.9. Increase Exposure to Your Social Media SiteYou might have a button that connects to your social media account at the top of your website, which is a great way to make words. But do you have a link on your e-mail signature? In your blog post? In your bulletin? Whatever way you get more followers means more people hear about your social media sales.
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As a defense attorney, how would you handle having to “break” someone on the witness stand that you may believe is a victim of y
Shades of Nero Wolfe! I am not and never have been a criminal defense attorney, but in my articles I have occasionally been assigned issues of criminal law or procedure, so have isolated bits of knowledge. I do believe, however, that criminal defense lawyers are in the front lines of those who defend democracy since their constant job is to see that every defendant receives a fair trial before an impartial adjudicator and that the result is supported by the trial evidence properly admitted. Plus they seem to always have the best stories.I once did have a witness, not mine, who more or less “broke” during a trial. This was a state court matter. My client owned a business selling cell phones and leasing service for them. The future defendant came in and purchased a cell phone and service, and for some reason signed the related documents over the course of two days instead of all at once. I don’t remember why and it didn’t matter to the trial. He paid the phone fee on the second day, but refused to pay for service over the course of nearly three months. His reason for not paying, he said, was that he was “testing” the service. My client had records of the numbers he called and the length of time for each call. I had taken his deposition, and he had admitted he signed each document I showed him concerning the purchase. The only real issue was whether his claim of testing the phone service was going to stand up.For our trial judge, we drew an older man who probably presided at God’s case against Cain, but was one of my favorites because he was experienced, didn’t like having his time wasted but would listen politely, and knew contract law. It was an excellent draw for us since I wouldn’t have to spend time explaining how contracts worked.The defendant showed up for trial with another fellow he introduced as his cousin and said he had been with him on the second day when he signed the rest of the documents and picked up his phone. I assumed the cousin was there to try to bolster the defendant’s claim of testing. But if they hadn’t already discussed the case, I was going to deny them the opportunity to coordinate further, so I invoked the “Rule” at the start, meaning the exclusionary rule that said anyone not a party had to wait outside in the hall until called.I started with the defendant. I put him on the stand and we began the basic stuff - the contract and its terms. I asked him the same stuff I had in the defendant’s deposition - “do you recognize this exhibit? what is it? is that your signature on page #?” Usually these are pretty routine, but the defense hadn’t wanted to stipulate admissibility, so I was just laying the groundwork. Needless to say, there was nothing in the documents about a period for testing, but there were warranties. So I am just loping along doing something I had done lots of times before and then …For some reason never made clear, the defendant decided to deny he had signed the second day’s paperwork. This really was the less important stuff, but it had warranty language in it, so one would think he would want it in. I suspect he just lost track or panicked. I am standing there with the transcript of his deposition in plain sight in front of me. It even had little paper tabs in it. I was careful not to react in any way to his denials - just a bit about being sure he looked in the right place and knew he’d seen them before. I took him through the rest of the paperwork and he insisted he hadn’t signed anything on day 2. No one seemed to catch it except my client. But what I did next got the judge’s attention because it was unusual.I asked the judge if I could suspend the defendant’s testimony for a bit, subject to recalling him later, while I called another witness out of order to “clarify” a point. Still no penny dropped with the defendant or, as far as I could tell, with his attorney, although I noticed the trial judge changed his posture so I figured he knew something was up and it had to do with the signatures. The judge let me call the cousin in from the hall, and now looked alert, waiting to see what was going on.The defendant went back to his seat beside his attorney and there was a lot of whispering until the judge shushed them. I called the cousin in from the hall, telling him only that we were going to be there for a while yet, and were taking him early so he wouldn’t have to stand around in the hall any longer than necessary. Now he is not my witness, so I designated him as hostile before I called him in so I could lead him some, but there really wasn’t much need.He obligingly recognized his cousin’s signatures on all of the documents, even correcting me when he thought I missed one, and explaining that he was present when the paperwork was all signed. He was pleasant, cheerful, and completely oblivious to the implications, so I knew they hadn’t discussed denying the signature beforehand - plus I still had the deposition statements to whack the defendant with if necessary. But it wasn’t.After the cousin finished and was excused, subject to later recall by the other side, the judge invited counsel up to the bench. And here is where experience mattered. The judge caught on that I wouldn’t have done what I did if the defendant hadn’t lied about signing some of the documents.I don’t use profanity, so I will use *** instead. The judge was annoyed by the defendant’s obvious lies. In whispers, the judge asked me if I had any further evidence regarding the question of the defendant’s signatures on the documents we’d been discussing and this was when the defendant’s lawyer woke up. He tried to object to the question, but the judge burnt him with a look that was better than a ruling. I just said I had a transcript of his deposition during which his memory was different, and that was all I said. The judge gestured to the defendant’s lawyer to come a bit closer (he’d backed up some during the burning) to the bench and the judge said words to the effect that his “G**D*** client had better settle with me before he was judicially determined to be a ***** perjurer and maybe recommended for prosecution for wasting the court’s time on a ****show like this case, and he was giving us a recess to resolve it without his [the judge] having to listen to any more **** from the *********** defendant.So we went outside, the defendant’s attorney “conferred” with his client, and we did just what the judge ordered. I never did find out why the defendant thought three months of free testing was appropriate.
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As first time entrepreneurs, what part of the process are people often completely blind to?
The 100 Rules for Being a First-Time EntrepreneurIf you Google “entrepreneur” you get a lot of mindless cliches like “Think Big!” For me, being an “entrepreneur” doesn’t mean starting the next “Faceook”. Or even starting any business at all.It means finding the challenges you have in your life, and determining creative ways to overcome those challenges. However, in this post I focus mostly on the issues that come up when you first start your company. These rules also apply if you are taking an entrepreneurial stance within a much larger company (which all employees should do).Just as good to be an “entreployee” as an “entrepreneur”. Either one will help you survive this world of increased economic uncertainty.For me, I’ve started several businesses.Maybe 17 have failed out of 20. I fail quickly. I fail frequently. Entrepreneurship is a sentence of failures punctuated by brief success.I’m invested in about 28 private companies. I’ve advised probably another 50 private companies. I’m on the board of several private companies and one public company. The companies ranging from $0 in revenues to a billion in revenues.Along the way I’ve compiled a list of rules that have helped me deal with every aspect of being an entrepreneur in business and some in life.Here’s the real rules:A) It’s not fun. I’m not going to explain why it’s not fun. These are rules. Not theories. I don’t need to prove them.But there’s a strong chance you can hate yourself throughout the process of being an entrepreneur. Keep sharp objects and pills away during your worst moments. And you will have them. If you are an entrepreneur and agree with me, please note this in the comments below.B) Try not to hire people. You’ll have to hire people to expand your business. But it’s a good discipline to really question if you need each and every hire.C) Get a customer. This seems obvious. But it’s not. Get a customer before you start your business, if you can.So many people say to me, “I have an idea. Can you introduce me to VCs?”There is a HUGE gap between “idea” and “professional venture capital”.In the middle of that gap is “customer”.D) If you are offering a service, call it a product.Oracle did it. They claimed they had a database. But if you “bought” their database they would send in a team of consultants to help you “install” the database to fit your needs.In other words, for the first several years of their existence, they claimed to have a product but they really were a consulting company. Don’t forget this story. Products are valued higher than services.And almost EVERY major software product company was a service company in the beginning. Don’t forget that.E) It’s OK to fail. Start over. Hopefully before you run out of money. Hopefully before you take in investor money. Or, don’t worry about it. Come up with new ideas. Start over.F) Be profitable. Try to be profitable immediately. This seems obvious but it isn’t. Try not to raise money. That money is expensive.G) When raising money: if it’s not easy then your idea is probably incapable of raising money. If its easy, then take as much as possible. If its TOO easy, then sell your company (unless you are Twitter, etc).(if its too easy, sell your company)H) The same goes for selling your company. If it’s not easy, then you need to build more. Then sell. To sell your company, start getting in front of your acquirers a year in advance. Send them monthly updates describing your progress. Then, when they need a company like yours, your company is the first one that comes to mind.Don’t be like that guy in the TV show “Silicon Valley”. If someone offers you ten million for a company that has no revenues, then sell it. Not everything is going to be a Facebook. And even the Google guys tried to sell their company for ONE MILLION DOLLARS to Yahoo before they were revenue positive.SELL THE COMPANY.I) Competition is good. It turns you into a killer. It helps you judge progress. It shows that other people value the space you are in. Your competitors are also your potential acquirors.J) Don’t use a PR firm. Except maybe as a secretary. You are the PR for your company. You are your company’s brand. You personally.I’ve never had a good PR company. I’ve had good PR secretaries. But they are cheaper. One time I hired a PR company and they accidentally sent me the contract for Terry Bradshaw. He was paying $10,000 a month. How did they do for him?K) Communicate with everyone. Employees. Customers. Investors. All the time. Every day.Employees want to know what to do. And they want to know you are thinking of their overall career.Customers want to know how to keep their bosses calm.Investors want to be your friend and want to know they can count on you when time’s are tough.L) Do everything for your customers. This is very important.Get them girlfriends or boyfriends. Speak at their charities. Visit their parents for Thanksgiving. Help them find other firms to meet their needs. Even introduce them to your competitors if you think a competitor can help them or if you think you are about to be fired. Always think first, “What’s going to make my customer happy?”Note: EVEN if that means introduce them to a competitor. If you are the SOURCE, then everybody comes back to the source.M) Your customer is not a company. There’s a human there. What will make my human customer happy? Make him laugh. You want your customer to be happy.N) Show up. Go to breakfast/lunch/dinner with customers. Treat.O) History. Know the history of your customers in every way. Company history, personal history, marketing history, investing history, etc.P) Micro-manage software development. Nobody knows your product better than you do. If you aren’t a technical person, learn how to be very specific in your product specification so that your programmers can’t say: “well you didn’t say that!”Q) Hire local. You need to be able to see and talk to your programmers. Don’t outsource to India. I love India. But I won’t hire programmers from there while I’m living in the US.R) Sleep. Don’t buy into the 20 hours a day entrepreneur myth. You need to sleep 8 hours a day to have a focused mind.If you are working 20 hours a day, then that means you have flaws in how you are managing your time. You can argue about this but it’s true.S) Exercise. Same as above. If you are unhealthy, your product will be unhealthy.T) Emotionally Fit. DON’T have dating problems and software development problems at the same time. VCs will smell this all over you.U) Pray. You need to. Be grateful where you are. And pray for success. You deserve it. Pray for the success of your customers. Heck, pray for the success of your competitors. The better they do, it means the market is getting bigger. And if one of them breaks out, they can buy you.V) Buy your employees gifts. Massages. Tickets. Whatever. I always imagined that at the end of each day my young, lesbian employees (for some reason, most employees at my first company were lesbian) would be calling their parents and their mom and dad would ask them: “Hi honey! How was your day today?” And I wanted them to be able to say: “It was the best!” Invite customers to masseuse day. W) Treat your employees like they are your children. They need boundaries. They need to be told “no!” sometimes. And sometimes you need to hit them in the face (ha ha, just kidding). But within boundaries, let them play.X) Don’t be greedy pricing your product. If your product is good and you price it cheap, people will buy. Then you can price upgrades, future products, and future services more expensive. Which goes along with the next rule.Y) Distribution is everything. Branding is everything. Get your name out there, whatever it takes. The best distribution is of course word of mouth, which is why your initial pricing doesn’t matter.Write a blog about your industry and be very honest about all the flaws (even your own) that is currently in your industry.Authenticity is the best branding.Z) Don’t kill yourself. It’s not worth it. Your employees need you.Your children or future children need you. It seems odd to include this in a post about entrepreneurship but we’re also taking about keeping it real.Most books or “rules” for entrepreneurs talk about things like “think big”, “go after your dreams”. But often dreams turn into nightmares. I’ll repeat it again. Don’t kill yourself. Call me if things get too stressful. Or more importantly, make sure you take proper medicationAA) Give employees structure. Let each employee know how his or her path to success can be achieved. All of them will either leave you or replace you eventually. That’s OK. Give them the guidelines how that might happen. Tell them how they can get rich by working for you.BB) Fire employees immediately. If an employee gets “the disease” he needs to be fired. If they ask for more money all the time. If they bad mouth you to other employees. If you even think they are talking behind your back, fire them.The disease has no cure. And it’s very contagious. Show no mercy. Show the employee the door. There are no second chances because the disease is incurable.I don’t say this because I want anyone to be hurt. But if you’ve followed the rules above then you are treating employees well already. NOBODY should spread the disease and badmouth you or your customers.CC) Make friends with your landlord. If you ever have to sell your company, believe it or not, you are going to need his signature (because there’s going to be a new lease owner)DD) Only move offices if you are so packed in that employees are sharing desks and there’s no room for people to walk.EE) Have killer parties. But use your personal money. Not company money. Invite employees, customers, and investors. .FF) If an employee comes to you crying, close the door or take him or her out of the building. Sit with him until it stops. Listen to what he has to say. If someone is crying then there’s been a major communication breakdown somewhere in the company. Listen to what it is and fix it. Don’t get angry at the culprit’s. Just fix the problem.(you don’t want your employees to be sad.)GG) At Christmas, donate money to every customer’s favorite charity. But not for investors or employees.HH) Have lunch with your competitors. Listen and try not to talk. One competitor (Bill Markel from Interactive 8) once told me a story about how the CEO of Toys R Us returned his call. He was telling me this because I never returned Bill’s calls. Ok, Bill, lesson noted.II) Ask advice a lot. Ask your customers advice on how you can be introduced into other parts of their company. Then they will help you. Because of the next rule…JJ) Hire your customers. Or not. But always leave open the possibility. Let it always dangle in the air between you and them. They can get rich with you. Maybe. Possibly. If they play along. So play.KK) On any demo or delivery, do one extra surprise thing that was not expected. Always add bells and whistles that the customer didn’t pay for.This is such an easy way to over deliver I’m surprised people don’t do it 100% of the time. They do it maybe 1% of the time. So this is an easy way to compete and surprise and delight.LL) Understand the demographic changes that are changing the world. Where are marketing dollars flowing and can you be in the middle. What services do aging baby boomers need? Is the world running out of clean water? Are newspapers going to survive? Etc. Etc. Read every day to understand what is going on.LLa) Don’t go to a lot of parties or “meetups” with other entrepreneurs. Work instead while they are partying.MM) But, going along with the above rule, don’t listen to the doom and gloomers that are hogging the TV screen trying to tell you the world is over. They just want you to be scared so they can scoop up all the money.NN) You have no more free time. In your free time you are thinking of new ideas for customers, new ideas for services to offer, new products.OO) You have no more free time, part 2. In your free time, think of ideas for potential customers. Then send them emails: “I have 10 ideas for you. Would really like to show them to you. I think you will be blown away. Here’s five of them right now.”OOa) Depressions, recessions, don’t matter. There’s $15 trillion in the economy. You’re allowed a piece of it:FedEx, Microsoft, HewlettPackard, and many huge companies were started in recessions or depressions. Leave economics to the academics while they leave good business to you.PP) Talk. Tell everyone you ever knew what your company does. Your friends will help you find clients.QQ) Always take someone with you to a meeting. You’re bad at following up. Because you have no free time. So, if you have another employee. Let them follow up. Plus, they will like to spend time with the boss. You’re going to be a mentor.RR) If you are consumer focused: your advertisers are your customers. But always be thinking of new services for your consumers. Each new service has to make their life better. People’s lives are better if: they become healthier, richer, or have more sex. “Health” can be broadly defined.SS) If your customers are advertisers: find sponsorship opportunities for them that drive customers straight into their arms. These are the most lucrative ad deals (see rule above). Ad inventory is a horrible business model. Sponsorships are better. Then you are talking to your customer.TT) No friction. The harder it is for a consumer to sign up, the less consumers you will have. No confirmation emails, sign up forms, etc. The easier the better.TTA) No fiction, part 2. If you are making a website, have as much content as you can on the front page. You don’t want people to have to click to a second or third page if you can avoid it. Stuff that first page with content. You aren’t Google. (And, 10 Unusual Things You Didn’t Know About Google)UU) No friction, part 3. Say “yes” to any opportunity that gets you in a room with a big decision maker. Doesn’t matter if it costs you money.VV) Sell your company two years before you sell it. Get in the offices of the potential buyers of your company and start updating them on your progress every month. Ask their advice on a regular basis in the guise of just an “industry catch-up”WW) If you sell your company for stock, sell the stock as soon as you can. If you are selling your company for stock it means:a. The market is such that lots of companies are being sold for stock.b. AND, companies are using stock to buy other companies because they value their stock less than they value cash.c. WHICH MEANS, that when everyone’s lockup period ends, EVERYONE will be selling stock across the country. So sell yours first.XX) Execution is a dime a dozen. If you have an idea worth pursuing, then just make it. You can build any website for cheap. Hire a programmer and make a demo. Get at least one person to sign up and use your service. If you want to make Facebook pages for plumbers, find one plumber who will give you $10 to make his Facebook page. Just do it.Fail quickly. Good ideas are HARD. It’s execution that is a dime a dozen.YY) Don’t use a PR firm, part II. Set up a blog. Tell your personal stories (see “33 tips to being a better writer” ). Let the customer know you are human, approachable, and have a real vision as to why they need to use you. Become the voice for your industry, the advocate for your products. If you make skin care products, tell your customers every day how they can be even more beautiful than they currently are and have more sex than they are currently getting. Blog your way to PR success. Be honest and bloody.ZZ) Don’t save the world. If your product sounds too good to be true, then you are a liar.ZZa) Your company is always for sale.AAA) Frame the first check. I’m staring at mine right now.BBB) No free time, part 3. Pick a random customer. Find five ideas for them that have nothing to do with your business. Call them and say, “I’ve been thinking about you. Have you tried this?”CCC) No resale deals. Nobody cares about reselling your service. Those are always bad deals.DDD) Your lawyer or accountant is not going to introduce you to any of their other clients. Those meetings are always a waste of time.EEE) Celebrate every success. Your employees need it. They need a massage also. Get a professional masseuse in every Friday afternoon. Nobody leaves a job where there is a masseuse.FFF) Sell your first company. I have to repeat this. Don’t take any chances. You don’t need to be Mark Zuckerberg. Sell your first company as quick as you can. You now have money in the bank and a notch on your belt. Make a billion on your next company.Note Mark Cuban’s story. Before he started Broadcast and rode it to a few billion, he sold his first software company for ten million.GGG) Pay your employees before you pay yourself.HHH) Give equity to get the first customer. If you have no product yet and no money, then give equity to a good partner in exchange for them being a paying customer. Note: don’t blindly give equity. If you develop a product that someone asked for, don’t give them equity. Sell it to them. But if you want to get a big distribution partner whose funds can keep you going forever, then give equity to nail the deal.III) Don’t worry about anyone stealing your ideas. Ideas are worthless anyway. It’s OK to steal something that’s worthless.IIIA) Follow me on twitter.Questions from ReadersQuestion: You say no free time but you also say keep emotionally fit, physically fit, etc. How do I do this if I’m constantly thinking of ideas for old and potential customers?Answer: It’s not easy or everyone would be rich.Question: if I get really stressed about clients paying, how do I get sleep at night?Answer: medicationQuestion: how do I cold-call clients?Answer: email them. Email 40 of them. It’s OK if only 1 answers. Email 40 a day but make sure you have something of value to offer.Question: how can I find cheap programmers or designers?Answer: if you don’t know any and you want to be cheap: use Hire Freelancers & Find Freelance Jobs Online, Elance, or craigslist. But don’t hire them if they are from another country. You need to communicate with them even if it costs more money.Question: should I hire programmers?Answer: first…freelance. Then hire.Question: what if I build my product but I’m not getting customers?Answer: develop a service loosely based on your product and offer that to customers. But I hope you didn’t make a product without talking to customers to begin with?Question: I have the best idea in the world, but for it to work it requires a lot of people to already be using it. Like Twitter.Answer: if you’re not baked into the Silicon Valley ecosystem, then find distribution and offer equity if you have to. Zuckerberg had Harvard. MySpace had the fans of all the local bands they set up with MySpace pages. I (in my own small way) had Stock Market - Business News, Market Data, Stock Analysis - TheStreet when I set up Stockpickr! Your Source for Stock Ideas. I also had 10 paying clients when i did my first successful business fulltime.Question: I just lost my biggest customer and now I have to fire people. I’ve never done this before. How do I do it?Answer: one on meetings. Be Kind. State the facts. Say you have to let people go and that everyone is hurting but you want to keep in touch because they are a great employee. It was an honor to work with them and when business comes back you hope you can convince them come back. Then ask them if they have any questions. Your reputation and the reputation of your company are on the line here. You want to be a good guy. But you want them out of your office within 15 minutes. It’s a termination, not a negotiation. This is one reason why it’s good to start with freelancers.Question: I have a great idea. How do I attract VCs?Answer: build the product. Get a customer. Get money from customer. Get more customers. Build more services in the product. Get VC. Chances are by this point, the VCs are calling you.Question: I want to build a business day trading.Answer: bad ideaQuestion: I want to start a business but don’t know what my passion is:Answer: skip to the post: “How to be the luckiest person alive”. Do the Daily Practice. Within six months your life will be completely different.Question: I want to leave my job but I’m scared.Answer: same as above question. The Daily Practice turns you into a healthy Idea Machine. Plus luck will flow in from every direction.Final rule: Things change. Every day. The title of this post, for instance, says “100 Rules”. But I gave about 70 rules (including the Q&A). Things change midway through. Be ready for it every day. In fact, every day figure out what you can change just slightly to shake things up and improve your product and company.Your business is not your life. When you start a business you also get a cognitive bias that makes you think your business is GREAT.Every day make sure you are not smoking crack. The most important thing is your health so you can be persistent. If you smoke crack you can die.I hope you succeed. Because I really need that smart toilet that sends my doctors text messages after doing urinalysis on my pee every day.Good luck.
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