Do Not Plan Your Career!
Oct 1 2007

According to Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Netscape, Opsware, and now Ning (a social networking site) you should NOT plan your career.  I wholeheartedly agree.  We are living in different times where there are too many variables to plan for a life-long career at say IBM, GM, Dupont, etc.  He then says focus on developing your skills and pursuing opportunities.  I agree with this too because you may just stumble upon your, shall we say, happiest LIFE.  This doesn’t mean don’t have goals.  If you want to be a CEO of a Fortune 500 company, then pick opportunities to help you develop those skills so that when the opportunity presents itself, you are ready.

Check out his lengthy but interesting blog post where he describes in depth his following rules of career planning:

The first rule of career planning: Do not plan your career.

The second rule of career planning: Instead of planning your career, focus on developing skills and pursuing opportunities.

His thoughts reminded me of the thoughts shared by one of my interviewees (available on the Succes Means… tab of this blog).  His name is Jimmy Treybig, and he happens to be the founder of Tandem Computers, which is now part of Hewlett-Packard.  Oh and Jimmy also happens to be one of my Babble Soft business Advisors.

One of the things I notice most prominently about Marc’s blog posts is that he often uses the feminine gender (i.e., she, her) in his writing when he gives illustrations.  I think that’s great and it’s a small step to help adjust all of our minds and remind us that women comprise at least 50% of the world population!

Oprah and Obama
Sep 10 2007

I just finished reading a wonderful re-cap of the fundraiser thrown by Oprah for Barack Obama posted by PamelaW on Silicon Valley Moms Blog.

Oh man, I hope to meet Oprah one day.  I admire her on so many levels.  I don’t get to watch her show often (but most of the ones I’ve seen are great!) because I’m too busy working, hanging out with the kids, or trying to get some sleep. 🙂

Here’s the comment I left on the SVMs Blog:
Thanks for the great re-cap! I find it wonderful to be part of a very diverse crowd because diversity is our future. Plus, I personally find it more interesting than being in a sea of White.

I am still unsure of who I will vote for but I wouldn’t say inexperience is a reason not to vote for someone. I am an entrepreneur and by definition many young entrepreneurs are inexperienced…they are helping to create a new future. If experience is the main factor then I’m sure George Washington wouldn’t have been elected today.

Bush was a governor and I’m not sure that really helped America or him do the best job.

To me the questions to answer are: Are they smart AND intelligent? Are they trustworthy? Do they listen? Can they learn quickly? Are they willing to acknowledge mistakes, make course corrections, and move on? Are they a good family man or woman? Are they genuine? Etc.

I hope to get the opportunity to meet Oprah in my lifetime!

I don’t know enough politically to offer an educated opinion on all of the candidates, and I will refrain from doing so here on this blog because everyone has the right to their own opinion.  I mainly wanted to bring up for discussion the subject of being experienced or not when it comes to being judged on whether someone is the ‘right’ person for a particular job, to start a company, to run for election, etc.  What do you think?

Success To Me – Robb Lanum
Aug 31 2007

As some of you may know, I co-write articles on the topic of success for university alumni magazines with my wonderful writing partner Pam Losefsky. Our latest article for The University of Texas at Austin’s alumni magazine, The Alcalde, is about Robb Lanum, a husband, father of two and a writer with published script credits to his name. Robb blogs at the Robblog.  Our goal with this endeavor is to get people thinking about what success means to them by reading about how others define success. Click here to see additional articles we have written.

A correction: The Alcalde gave me credit for taking the picture of Robb, but I did not take it since I live in Austin, TX and he lives in sunny CA.  We conducted the interview over the phone.  His lovely and very talented wife, Michelle Campion, took it. 😀

Lady Bird Johnson – 94 years of a wonderful life
Jul 14 2007

Since we live in Austin, Texas we have probably experienced the great touch of Lady Bird more so than any other city.  She brought the Wildflower Center to life and helped manage the construction of the LBJ Presidential Library among other things.  Many well known political figures including the Clintons, the Carters, Laura & Barbara Bush, and Nancy Reagan are here today at Riverbend Church to pay their respects.  She was the first First Lady to have a press secretary and used her role as First Lady to actively help others.  I never had the honor of meeting Lady Bird, but I did have the honor of meeting her former well-known press secretary, Liz Carpenter.

I hope I’m able to make as significant a difference in the world as she has.

Aruni

Success to Me: Marc Seriff, founding CTO of AOL
Jul 10 2007

As some of you may know, I co-write articles on the topic of success for alumni magazines with my wonderful writing partner Pam Losefsky.  Our latest article for The University of Texas at Austin’s alumni magazine, The Alcalde, is about Marc Seriff, founding CTO of America Online.   Our goal with this endeavor is to get people thinking about what success means to them by reading about how other people define success.  Click here to see other articles we have written.  We’d love to hear your thoughts…