In C.S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters, Screwtape, one of the devil’s servants, writes his nephew about the importance of disconnecting each generation from all others.

“It is most important thus to cut every generation off from all others; for where learning makes a free commerce between the ages there is always the danger that the characteristic errors of one may be corrected by the characteristic truths of another. But thanks be to Our Father [the Devil] and the Historical Point of View, great scholars are now as little nourished by the past as the most ignorant mechanic who holds that ‘history is bunk.’

Learn to bind your own books. tobycraig: Book Assembly Photo-Journal

John Bresee, co-founder of the best outdoor equipment retailer on the web, spoke at the UVEF today.
I always love to hear him speak. After the luncheon, we talked a little and he said he is really good at seeing things about three years out. His presentation riveted me every moment.

Basically:

Entreprenuers who actually start business are the only ones who ever succeed.
No lottery ticket. Really easy to start, but really hard to perservere.
Split the category. Geartrader.com is going to take on a niche of eBay.com.

Checkout the following sites:
Dogfont.com woot.com

Be first in the category.
Stay focused. “We sell outdoor gear on the Internet.” No manufacturing.

Split off companies. Apparently, Sony could have had Apple’s market share
if the publishing division in Sony hadn’t crushed the possible iPod division.

Convert the highest and ship cheapest and buy cheapest.
Don’t worry about channel conflict.
Let your customer create the product.
Overlaying on google maps.

iTunes is missing the boat when they don’t open up to all musicians who want to publish their music.
Gary Hammill - the scary way is the safe way.
Google - free matching soon to come.
eBay - free auctions sites will suplant it.
Digital services that charge are begging for a beatdown.
At Backcountry Store, we hire those in our culture to write the content for our culture. Showing up is 90% of life.
-Woody Allen
Never look back lamenting about what could have been.

Don’t choose sleep over entreprenuership.

I don’t agree with a couple of these, but this is an article I’ll want to reference in the future: How to be creative (long version).

“People will pay for the priviledge of working harder than they will work when they are paid.”

-Chuck Coonradt

I just got a PDA phone off eBay for $99.95 and I’m loving it. It’s going to allow me to post and access content from anywhere. I love the fact I can get such great technology for a great deal because I went with older technology that gives me everything I need: a phone, a PDA, and an Internet browser. I just wish I could have got the treo 180 because it has a b&w screen that is good to my eyes. However, it’s not supported by Sprint.

Paul Graham’s summer founders program also has a link to starting a start up that is very good.

Over the last couple weeks we have conducted focus groups and surveys about the Unforgettable Biography and the excercise has proven very useful. We have changed the name and tagline and rebuilt the website, improving it by leaps and bounds in ways that our customers want. The changes are receiving great reviews from our customers so far.

It’s now

www.iMemoryBook.com - collect a book of memories for someone special.

Even though we just released our site, the alexa ranking for today is 60,172, in the top 100,000. I predict this site and product will be a great one for FamilyLearn. Thanks to Paul for teaching me about focus groups.

The 30 Book MBA in entrepreneurship

Apparently, Seth Godin, famous for permission marketing, thinks that dedicated reading of 30-40 books and real life experience is more valuable than an MBA. I personally turned down an internship and PhD program and more from Penn State in order to work on FamilyLearn and get real life experience. Hopefully, Seth’s right and I’m learning more this path than I could have the other. I don’t suppose I’ll ever never know. Seth does know (for him at least) because he did both. Whichever path one takes, I believe a life-long love of learning is more important than anything else.

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