There are a lot of parallels between wind sports and startups. One thing we’ve encountered lately with JumpBox is something I can only describe as the tendency to “fight the wind” in our desire to artificially accelerate the pace of adoption. Everyone who’s tried to wind surf for the first time falls into the trap of trying to muscle the sail into position instead of respecting the wind and working with it. You end up completely wearing yourself out on that first day. By day two you’re so physically exhausted that your only option is to learn to work with the wind.

I feel like we just woke up on day two with our startup. We work ourselves into a state of mental gridlock with all these “open loops” as David Allen calls them. And the reality is we’re doing fine and just need to continue to execute and lower our expectations of how fast we can realistically run given our size.

I would be curious to hear from others who are running a small business: a) do you find yourself encountering this same tendency? and b) how have you coped with it and do you have any reliable techniques to relax and “work with the wind?” We’re in an emerging space and we’re not for lack of a killer product at this point- we have incredibly positive feedback from everyone who uses our stuff. Our real issue is that we see such incredible opportunities and yet we can’t tackle them as fast as we’d like and the market itself is still in its infancy. On first glance it seems our greatest challenge is in spreading awareness, but in reality it may be more in developing patience and becoming comfortable with the natural pace of adoption.

Anyone else in the same boat (or on the same surf board)?

Two forces of nature give talks that are a must-watch for anyone who is looking to change the world:

Steve Jobs’ commencement address at Stanford:

If you ever have an either/or choice of gaining all the knowledge or all the motivation to do something hard, choose the latter because it ensures you will find the former. Both talks put the daily minutiae of stuff like the post below in perspective and replenish the spirit that they sap. Do yourself a favor and take the next 2hrs of free time that you have and watch both talks. Whatever you’re working towards I cannot think of a more productive way to spend that time. Be warned- you will have a tear by the end of Pausch’s talk.

BONUS: The minute you finish the video, when you have the most possible wind in your sails, take another five to open source your goals.

I just noticed today is the 3rd anniversary of when I started writing this blog. I’m not going to do a lame recap or any forward looking vision for what this will become because frankly there is no plan- I just write whatever is on my mind. Reading that original post again it’s crazy to think how much my situation has changed and yet how much is precisely the same. It makes me wonder if it’s truly possible to write your way out of a paper bag into the life you want. There’s no agenda here other than to:

I realize that when almost every post is tagged with the category “nerd,” it’s more a statement about the author than anything ;-) If there’s a topic in particular you’d like to hear more about, I’ve added the skribit application on my social page as a suggestions box. Starting this blog was a big catalyst for me to get my $h%@ together and make progress towards my goals. I recommend it for anyone who’s on the fence about writing publicly because you’ll find that the act of writing itself will help refine your thoughts and having it public makes you accountable for what you say (*note- i believe blog as a verb should be banned). Thanks for continuing to follow along and here’s to imagining where we’ll all be in another three years!

Newly-remodeled, fully-furnished 3BR 1700sqft rental home in the heart of the action in Phx available for the entire week of the Super Bowl and the FBR Open. Located in north Tempe on the border of Scottsdale this house is perfect for entertaining and in the ideal location:

• 2min access to the 202 and 101 freeways
• 5min from famous Mill Ave in Tempe (shops and restaurants)
• 10min from Old Town Scottsdale (Superbowl festivities and commentary on the water front)
• 25min from the stadium in Glendale

House sleeps 7 (TV room has a pull-out couch and one room has bunk beds). Ammenities include:

• hot tub
• barbecue
• 17′ HDTV projection screen and 24" flatscreen both with cable
• wireless internet
• all new furniture including leather couches and recliners
• new stainless appliances and granite counters
• covered 2-car garage
• washer & dryer
• yard with horse shoes

$10k for 7 days rental

$5k due by Jan 11th, $5k due upon arrival plus $2k refundable damage deposit. Will accept paypal, wire or money order. No smoking inside. Pets okay. The game is only one day- proximity to the real action in Scottsdale and Tempe the rest of the week is where it’s at! Check comparables on Craigs List- this will not last long. Call or email Sean with inquiries: 480.221.5500 sean -at- jumpbox.com

I’ve just setup a Pledgebank here to encourage Kathy Sierra to start blogging again. For anyone who doesn’t know the story of what happened, you can read her statement and probably find traces of the original post somewhere in the wayback machine but basically some wacko made graphic death threats and scared her enough that she stopped writing. This thoroughly sucks because not only did her writing have huge educational value and daily insights for people making software, but it had massive inspirational value as well. The essence of her mantra “help your users kick ass” absolutely changed the way I look at how we build our stuff.

Kathy’s last post to Creating Passionate Users was a call for ideas on how she could resume her writing while avoiding a traumatizing situation like that one from recurring. At least half the value of her blog was the conversation that spawned the comments of her posts. I propose a member-only community site where yearly membership dues paid to Kathy gets one a year’s-worth of access to her writing and the ability to interact with other readers. I’m willing to set up this private site and pay the fee if we can get 200 other people to commit to joining. If you’re interested in this, sign the pledge here and spread the word. It sucks that those threats occurred Kathy but the software world misses your voice. RSS readers everywhere have a serious void. Please come back.

Expiration for the pledgebank is set for New Year’s ‘08.

UPDATE: put this image on your blog if you want to help recruit:

So my friend Scott who I’m staying with in SF earned a few speeding tickets recently. You might expect a formal warning from the Department of Motor Vehicles. Or you might expect a letter like this one to come from a disappointed parent (if you were still in high school). But this letter originating from a government agency with the tone, the language of “we,” the feigned concern for personal betterment, the use of ALL CAPS… it’s just plain weird.

I got $90 in parking tickets this morning for apparently parking on the wrong curb - if they had left me something like this on my windshield, it would have at least had some entertainment value.