slow the fuck down

09Aug09

About 9-10 months ago I wrote a post about balancing life, but recently I have moved further and have been putting a lot of thought into “enjoying the present”.

Am I starting to show my age? Most of my friends or people that I mix with are 10 years my senior so they probably think I am very young still, however all this deep analysis gets me thinking that I am getting old

I have been frustrated over the past few years that often I am not really particularly happy (or as happy as I would like) and often feel exhausted. Is it too much work? the kids? diet? my weight? not enough sleep? not enough work? don’t have ‘x’ item? not enough balance? not enough holidays? too many holidays? not enough money? too much money?…

Over the last few months I started to research ‘positive thinking’… which in turn lead to information about ‘living in the present’. Now of course I have heard and read about these topics in the past, but they always seemed so obvious or a bit ‘airy fairy’… anyway they seem to make so much sense to me right now, it must just be the stage of my life.

I decided to list down a few key points to remind myself. Below is what I have so far. I have them printed and stuck to the bathroom mirror… I must say that since doing this I am so much happier far more often, like right now

Anyway, enjoy, you may learn something, then again you may just think its all just a crock of shit. Whatever, it really doesn’t bother me, the exercise of typing this blog post has been another opportunity to think about them again, which is beneficial to me regardless.

However, before you dive into the information below, here are a couple important points…

1. Point #1 below is the ‘major one’. In my mind it makes up about 90% of the positive effect.
2. Yes, there are more than 10, this is a ‘work in progress’.

–<snip>–

Clay’s 10 COMMANDMENTS

live life by

1.  Slow down and enjoy every moment. Life is not to be “endured”. Live life in the present, don’t worry about the past or the future. If you are not enjoying ‘now’… when will you? Life is not a race, are you trying to get through what you are doing now, as it feels in the way of the next thing? Be grateful for everything happening around you now.

What does it mean to live fully in the present moment? It means that your awareness is completely centered on the here and now. You are not worrying about the future or thinking about the past. When you live in the present, you are living where life is happening. The past and future are illusions, they don’t exist. As the saying goes “tomorrow never comes”. Tomorrow is only a concept, tomorrow is always waiting to come around the corner, but around that corner are shadows, never to have light shed upon, because time is always now.

People are always convincing themselves that they will be happy ‘when they have a bigger house, or a new car, or a holiday’. Haven’t you noticed once you have these things, you start convincing yourself you will be happier when you have ‘x’. Think – their are people less fortunate than me that think “I would be happier if I had all the stuff Clay has”…

Hurrying and being ultra-efficient are very often enemies to true enjoyment in life. Enjoy ‘the process, enjoy the journey’. Why be in such a hurry to get onto the next ‘job’? There is always a lot to do, if you keep rushing from job to job, you will never enjoy any period of time.

Why are kids so happy? = because they live in the present… they dont worry about the past, or things coming up in the future.

Have you ever been to a 3rd world country? If so, you may have noticed how happy the general population is. In my experience they are generally far happier than most communities I have spent my time living around, yet they have far less personal items and wealth. Why is this? I am convinced one of the reasons is due to them living in the present far more often than most. They don’t seem to worry about the past, or what is coming up in the future, they are just living the moment, whatever it may be.

2.  Positive Thinking. Always use only positive words while thinking and while talking. Use words such as, ‘I can’, ‘I am able’, ‘it is possible’, ‘it can be done’, etc. Think positive and expect only favorable results and situations, even if your current circumstances are not as you wish them to be. In time, your mental attitude will affect your life and circumstances and change them accordingly.

3.  Stop beating yourself up. Stop the negative thoughts. Stop being so hard on yourself. Massively decrease the pressure, 90% of the pressure you feel is self induced!

4.  Think “What’s it like being me?”. If someone were me for 24 hrs… would they go away saying… “wow that guy loves life and has a great life”… or would they go away saying things like… “how stressful”, how boring… etc

5.  Money is not the end game. Should never be the key focus.

6.  Keep your body fit and healthy. It is your ownly body you have, take care of it, don’t let it get run down… it can’t be replaced and you will pay in the long run BIG TIME.

7.  Don’t take yourself too seriously. Laugh at yourself. Why so serious?

8.  Be grateful. We all have so much to be grateful for, yet we take it for granted the vast majority of the time.

9.  Spend more time with HAPPY people, and less with unhappy people. Happiness is contagious.

10.  Laugh a lot every day. Listen to music every day. Don’t watch much TV. Read a book regularly. Cook often.

11.  Get outdoors as often as possible, soak in the sun’s rays.

12.  Help others regularly. Making a difference in other’s lives is very rewarding.

I am Grateful for…

• A loving beautiful wife
• Loving amazing children
• a fortunate life
• being born in Australia
• living in an amazing house and suburb
• Living in a safe suburb
• my health – good body weight and fit body.
• my top quality education
• having an interesting business
• surrounded by good shops and resources
• surrounded by water – river and sea

Self Affirmations…

• I am the best husband
• I am the best father
• My wife loves and appreciates me
• My kids love and appreciate me
• My wife and I make a great team
• I have the most amazing wife and children
• Today is a wonderful day.
• I deserve to be very happy
• I am flexible and open to change
• I always think positively

Filed under: Uncategorized   |  7 Comments

social or focus

13Feb09

How embarrassing, I haven’t blogged for four months!  I don’t really even have time to do this blog post, however it is probably important that I do at least this one to explain why, so here goes…

Recently I have been focusing on “getting the job done” and “doing less in less time”. As a result I have been spending FAR less time on things like Twitter, Plurk, Facebook, and blogs (including my own blog).

I have actually been picking up the telephone (remember what that is?) rather than emailing in a lot of instances… and the results are amazing… things get done a lot faster!

What do I mean by “doing less in less time“? It’s my own intepretation of a learning that is in the 4 hour work week book. Essentially I intepret it as; do only high priority items (ie: less things), and set yourself less time to achieve them in (ie: by setting less time, you dont stuff around with them… you just get on with it and complete the item. Less time also means I set much less time in the day for ‘work related’ activities.).

So, you probably wont see me on around here, at least for now anyway, until I get distratcted again…

Filed under: Uncategorized   |  Leave a Comment

Balanced Life Wheel

04Nov08

For a few years now I have been trying to balance my life better. It used to be largely all work, then all leasure, then all kids (and immediate family), and then work + kids. I have never been good at balance, I think I have an addictive behaviour.

Anyway, about 6 months ago I got a post-it note and drew a circle and split it into four quarters and wrote down four items that I thought I needed to concentrate on to have a happily balanced life. Since then it has been growing and growing, showing me that to have a truely happy balanced life I need to make time for a lot of things! Here is the list I have come up with to date…

1. Family time
2. Time with Rachel (wife)
3. Time with Children
4. Time with friends
5. Time alone
6. Work (Vibe Capital, Minti, ineedhits, Gooruze)
7. Admin (Finances, cash flow management)
8. Excercise
9. Spend time outdoors
10. Hobby (Movies)
11. Be well rested
12. Healthy Diet
13. Education/Learning

It is impossible for me to fit all of these into a single day, so I try and spend some time on each item each week.

Feedback?

• What do you think I have missed?
• Do you try balance your life?
• Is your life completely out of balance?
• When you are running a start-up is it even possible to have life balance?
• When you have a young family is it possible?
• Is this just a crock of shit?

Filed under: Uncategorized   |  8 Comments

Nik Cubrilovic Omnidrive lesson

16Oct08

The big lesson from this whole Omnidrive saga is make sure you communicate openly with your Investors and customers. It is my understanding that Omnidrive is no longer, and I have not heard from Nik for months, plus I believe customers have not received any word either.

I wrote a blog post back in May 2008 regarding my concern with my investment in Nik Cubrilovic and Omnidrive at that time.

As of a few weeks ago it appears as though Omnidrive no longer exists and Nik is no where to be found.

As the major investor in Omnidrive I am stunned not to have received any information from Nik on what’s been happening over the last few months. I have emailed him a number of times, but have not had a single reply. The last I heard he was flying around the world, after launching Techcrunch IT, and also building the Techcrunch tablet for Michael Arrington.

Quick run down…

1. The Omnidrive domain seems to have been sold (?) to Amnesty Financial Plus.
2. Not sure what (if anything) has happened to the Omnidrive IP. Did Nik also sell the IP?
3. There is a long list of creditors left behind.
4. No word from Nik to investors or customers.

God it sounds like I am bitching, oh well, there goes USD$100k, so be it.

Lesson: Your investors are here to help you, keep them informed and you have a much higher likelihood of receiving help.

Filed under: Uncategorized   |  14 Comments

warren duff qik

15Sep08

I did a quick mobile video interview with Warren Duff (CEO of ineedhits) today, using my new Nokia N95 (bought specifically so I can do Qik videos).

I founded ineedhits over 12 yrs ago (1996), and I think Warren has now worked at ineedhits for over 5 yrs (?). He originally started as Business Development Manager -> Sales Manager (?) -> COO -> Co-CEO -> only recently taken the reigns as the new CEO.

He’s doing a great job, please watch to the interview. The audio is not terrific… I will get better at that.

Filed under: Uncategorized   |  Leave a Comment

podcasts vlogs

14Sep08

Tech / Entrepreneur podcasts and vlogs that I like…

1. the 2 web crew – although they haven’t done one for ages and although I disagree with a lot of what they talk about, it is great to hear aussies talking tech and start-ups.
2. venture voice – venture/entrepreneur interviews by a vc. Only 2 so far this yr though.
3. venturecast – interviews of VC (David Hornik). I love David’s attitude and energy, funny guy. Another podcast though that seems to have stalled.
4. diggnation – vlog by Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht. Funny and not so serious, love it.
5. gigaom show – vlog – interviews tech entrepreneurs. Good however due to Om’s recent health concerns it has stalled.

I just found these but haven’t listened to them yet…

1. VC-IO – a VC podcast.
2. Podtech – vlogs.

Listen to them in your transit (travel) and travelling time, if you are a busy person…

== Edited: 17th Sept ==

I also just found another great Angel and VC podcast: the Frank Peters show.

Filed under: Uncategorized   |  Leave a Comment

outsource yuk

12Sep08

Everyone knows this, but very few do it!

Smart and successful people know that your most precious resource is your time… you need to place a value (ie: a $$$ figure) on your time and start outsourcing your life more!

The general rule is… if you can get someone else to do a task for less than what you can earn while they are doing that task, then outsource it ASAP!

Rachel (my wife) and I outsource far more than anyone we know. For example, some of the people we outsource certain life and business tasks to are house keepers, cleaners, nannies, personal assistants etc. Some of the tasks include cleaning, baby sitting, shopping, grocery delivery…

If your time is worth $250/hr, then why are you cleaning your house 5 hrs per week? You could have a cleaner for $20/hr and you could be spending the time with your family/kids, or working to increase your income and net worth? Unless you love cleaning of course

This is how I work out my hourly value…

Calculate your net yearly income (ie: income after tax), add your estimated increase in net wealth for the year, then divide this figure by the hrs in a year that you have time to do things (ie: 10 hrs/day, 5 days/week, 48 weeks a year = 2400) = $x/hr in hourly value

Lets run an example…

$65,000 (lets assume a $90k income) + $100,000 (lets assume an increase in your home equity of $50k and an increase in your portion of the net worth of the start-up you have founded of $50k) = $165,000 / 2400 hrs = $68.75/hr . So if you can get anyone to do something that you dislike doing (and they do a comparable job) then outsource it ASAP and create more value.

Note: These is a very basic equation and everyone uses different metrics to measure their hourly value, however hopefully you can use this as a starting point and work out what works best for you. For example, you may include total yearly income (including tax) if you are looking to outsource a task that you can use as a tax deduction (ie: a business expense). You can also add an opportunity cost element into the equation to account for the potential of a greater increase in expected net worth the more you are able to free up your own time.

Note 2: Do not outsource tasks that you enjoy doing and actually improve your quality of life (ie: spending time with your kids)

Note 3: You can take this to the extreme by outsourcing the running of your company to free up your time to think of and start up your next company. This is exactly what I have done with ineedhits. We have a great team of people running ineedhits, and it freed up myself and Rachel to start property investing, start a family, and also Vibe Capital and Minti. Caution on this one… you need to really plan this well. It took us about 3 years to find the right person and implement the succession plan.

Filed under: Uncategorized   |  Leave a Comment

focus

11Sep08

People often ask me what I am focused on right now considering I am involved in so many projects.

My main focuses for the past 3 years have been and continue to be…

1. Family and quality of life – consumes most of my attention and time.
2. Minti – 95% of my ‘work time‘.
   
3. ineedhits – 5% of my ‘work time’.

What about the other ‘projects’?

1. I am a passive angel investor, so no time required in any of my angel investments. This is not to say that I am not approachable for opinions or referrals.
2. Gooruze is still relatively small and managed by other great people.
3. Refurber is on auto pilot.

Filed under: Uncategorized   |  Leave a Comment

jason calacanis

10Sep08

People hate on Jason Calacanis a lot.

My view is… I really like him (although never met him personally). He is successful (Silicon Ally, Weblogs Inc, Mahalo), probably has a net worth around 30-50M, speaks his mind, and 99% of people are just pure jealous.

He truely is the king of internet spin and has been able to build a brand over a number of years through hard work. I find it interesting that he has just quit blogging, and has started a limited (750 people) email list. He has done this because blogging has become so saturated and the crowd has turned on him. He will get a clearer message through his emails.

What’s interesting to me is that at the same time as he is quitting blogging I am starting to test it out again. I agree with him that it is saturated and very hard to be heard and noticed, however what I like about blogging is that your views and thoughts are recorded and can be found through the Search Engines and re-read. A few people will likely subscribe to this blog feed.. however how many of them are really going to check it regularly… probably as little as 1% ?

In regards to an email list… great idea, love it… in fact I started one about 12 months ago myself. I should get it fired up again too and do it quarterly. The thing about email is that it is more personal, and it is far more direct.. straight into people’s inbox! Just be sure to have very easy unsubscribe functionality.

Anyway – follow him on twitter.

Note: Was surprised to find that he has shut down his blog (“server not found” error messages). I know he said he was quitting, but I thought he would still leave up his old content. Oh well, well done on him. On to new and better things.

Filed under: Uncategorized   |  1 Comment

my feed

10Sep08

Apparently my feed for this blog is http://claycook.wordpress.com/feed/

What I can’t understand is – why doesn’t WordPress have an option that promotes your feed on your blog somewhere?

By default your blog should have an RSS icon on the top right of your blog, so that your readers can easily find and subscribe to your blog. Do we really think that 100% of blog readers know what a WordPress feed address will look like for the blog they are on?… I certainly didn’t and I consider myself fairly up to date with Web 2.0 stuff…

Filed under: Uncategorized   |  Leave a Comment