The quote was by Nolan Bushnell the founder of Atari and Chuch. E Cheese’s. The quote goes like this “The world is stupid in the short term and smart in the long term” . He also goes on to say how entrepreneurs are the mediators of this connect it is their responsibility to drag the world from stupid to smart.

I highly recommend reading the article on him in April 2009’s Inc Magazine.

College was a great ride. By far the best 4 years of my life and not just because of the excessive partying or drinking (that was definitely fun) but because of how it changed me in almost every aspect as a person. I walk out feeling equipped to take on the challenges that will come my way.

That being said i am now ready to step out of college mode and start taking on responsibilities. I really want to get my shit together because there are problems to be solved, work to be done and a world to be changed.

It has also made me realize that i am not trying as hard as i should be. I need to hustle a lot more since i have ways to go. But it has also provided me with a new way to measure my progress. I was too caught up in defining success the wrong way (in terms of wealth, fame etc). This definition has helped me focus and has helped remove the distractions of trying to acquire fame or wealth. What i need to do is simple. I have to spend every single day working towards being the best i can be. I need to hustle more there is a lot of work left to be done.

This got me thinking about breaking the rules. Before i start we should keep in mind that just breaking the rules or straying away from the safe path is not enough. These people have heart, determination, laser focus and a never say die attitude. But these are all points worth blog posts of their own. For now i am gonna keep my focus on the rule breaking part.

I personally believe rules are put in place to hold us back and to test if we have the guts to break them. We go through 12 years of school 4 years of college and 2-5 years of grad school for a select few of us. Over these 16-21 years we are systemized. We are told what we are supposed to learn, what HW/projects to do and when to take our exams. The system doesn’t in most cases leave any room for us to discover our true potential. I have seen a lot of my friends consumed by the system. All of this annoys me to say the least. I have had enough of this and i can’t wait to get the fuck out of this.

I am a month away from graduation and i have promised myself that from now on i am going to live on my terms and do what i want to do. If i don’t feel passionate about something i will not be involved in it. I am tired of half-assing stuff and just doing it for no concrete rhyme or reason. A simple guideline i am setting for myself: Don’t stick with the rules/system unless the rules/system are in place to bring the best out of you. If you ever have an inkling of a feeling that these rules/system are holding you back break out of it. It’s not worth the while to stick with them.

I am going to make a bold prediction here. I think twitter is going to be way more profitable than facebook and i think facebook sees this threat. I am not just pulling this out of my ass. Read on if you want to know why.

I know this is a long article. I would really like a conversation starting around this topic though. So please try and read through this.

Facebook has a huge userbase. Way bigger than twitter’s. Unfortunately facebook is far from being profitable. Facebook’s revenue for the last year was somewhere in the region of $350 million. Facebook has 175 million users. This equates to about $2 per user per year. This is an absurd figure. Oh and by the way Facebook’s operational costs exceed their revenue so even more bad news. It’s going to be a while before things turn around for facebook. They have a tough path ahead of them.

The only knock i have against twitter is that mainstream still doesn’t understand the purpose of twitter. I have tried explaining this to a ton of my friends but i don’t think they get it. I almost feel like you have to use this service to truly understand it. Twitter is not just about letting the world know when you eat or sleep. Its a lot more than that and the sooner this misconception clears out the better it will be for twitter.

1. Viral abilities: Facebook’s viral abilities are fast disappearing. The privacy settings are a huge barrier in this respect. The amount of customization they allow on the news feed further hampers this. In addition to that i think their new feed hurts their viral abilities even more. Think about this: the new feed updates every 5 minutes or so. Which means if i log in every couple of hours there are going to be atleast 10-15 stories that i will definitely miss. I know there exists a highlights feature on the home page but i doubt that’s gonna cut it. Take a look at twitter now: by typing up 140 characters i can reach thousands of people instantly with their real time feed. Re-tweeting is a huge viral feature. In addition to that your message could me discovered on search.twitter.com. Twitter also sends out their tweets to desktop clients, mobile applications, text messages etc. This means i don’t need you to be on your twitter page all the time to get my message across (unlike facebook where you have to visit the homepage).
2. Facebook Pages vs Twitter celebrity profiles: Facebook pages have horribly low visibility. In addition to that facebook doesn’t provide any worthwhile communication tools for brands to be able to reach their fans (the update feature just does not cut it). On the other hand twitter celebrity pages have hundreds of thousands of followers. Since each celebrity carries a cell phone around it is far easier for them to tweet than it is to log in to facebook and send out an update. This makes twitter a more suitable platform for brands and marketers.
3. Advertising: So this is how both services plan to make their money (more or less). Facebook is going to have a rough time advertising mainly because of privacy concerns. The fact that they use the information you give them to advertise to you makes people feel their trust and privacy have been violated. Add to that the fact that no one is looking for advertising on a social network and now facebook has one huge mess of a problem. Twitter on the other hand has a far easier road to take to make it to advertising glory. One thing to consider here is that people choose to follow a certain brand or celebrity which means they are interested in knowing more about them which is perfect for marketing (think of it as google ad words but real time, now imagine the power).Here’s a true example: I tweeted out to a friend of mine (@reply to be exact) that i loved potbelly’s cookies more than insomnia. It so happened that VP of brand for potbelly’s happened to see my tweet (probably on search.twitter.com) and asked me for my opinion on an idea they had. What if my local potbelly’s could tweet out every time a fresh batch of cookies came out of the oven. This is an absolutely brilliant idea. This is the kind of information i want as a potbelly’s customer and this is the kind of real time marketing potbelly’s would like. Now imagine this: this kind of marketing can be used by every single business big or small. Not everyone needs to be on facebook but everyone will eventually need to be on twitter. Once again the ability to reach thousands within seconds is of huge importance here (through phones, mobile apps, web interfaces etc)
4. The developer divide: Facebook developers are not super thrilled to be developing for facebook. There have been some apps that have been questionably removed from facebook. In addition to that the new approval program and site design make it so that facebook apps have low visibility to the users. People have forgotten about facebook apps (atleast a huge chunk of users have). On the other hand twitter developers are a happy bunch. One example is search.twitter.com (used to be called summize) which was acquired by twitter (huge acquisition btw. this can open some gates for twitter- more info later)
5. Search: Facebook search sucks. Lets be honest – all it comes up with is a sparse profile on the user nothing more. This in all honesty is worth crap. The reason they can’t be more creative with it is because of (you guessed it right) PRIVACY settings. On the other hand search.twitter.com is a real time feed of people’s thoughts. This i have to believe is worth its weight in gold for marketers. Not just that twitter could implement google adwords like schemes here more ad revenue (once again because a user is looking for something they are more likely to want to be advertised to)
6. How are these platforms viewed: Facebook is just another communication. It might even have replaced email, text messaging and IM for a fair number of users. unfortunately these wont make you much money. In addition to that facebook is a photo,video repository for a ton of people. Twitter on the other hand is this amazing information sharing platform. I can get realtime opinions on topics through their search. In addition to that tweets i send out and receive are a valuable source of information. Twitter also provides and individual to have the ability to reach thousands in a matter of seconds. Through their followers and Re-tweeting abilities of twitter users.
7. Simplicity: Twitter’s simplicity will ultimately make it a way more useful tool for users than facebook. facebook is too convoluted right now. There is too much going on.
8. Mobile vs. Web: Mobile is the future isn’t it?. Twitter is way better positioned to take on the mobile market than facebook is. Reason: it’s lightweight nature of use makes it usable on any cellphone on the planet.

So now that i have gone on a full blown rant/analysis what do you guys think?

Its a really short book with a very simple premise. The book talks about one of the basic tenets of success (something we seem to forget all too often) – Focusing on what matters. When we try to do too many things at once all it ends up doing is diluting our talent, motivation & energy which leads to results well below our true potential. Bottom line we can’t win every battle but what we can do is to pick the ones that matter the most to us and to our goals.

This book has re-affirmed my decision of dropping grad school and moving on to being an entrepreneur full time. I have been telling myself over the last year or so that i can manage both school and a startup but in all honesty i am doing justice to neither of them. Which is why at this point i have decided on picking what matters most to me and sticking with it.

That’s my side of the story. Any thoughts/comments?

Consider this as a checklist to follow when you start working out.

1. Set Goals: One of the biggest mistakes you can make when you decide to start of on a workout plan is to not set any goals. No goals means you have no direction to your workout, nothing to look forward to and finally no motivation which means you will be giving up on your workout in a matter of months.
2. Do some research: Now that you have set some goals for yourself do some research to figure out how to get there. There are tons of online resources (don’t bother buying expensive books online google can help you find tons of articles).
3. Plan: Now that you have put in all that hard work into research let’s try to utilize all that information come up with a workout plan. Try to come up with the different exercise routines you want to try on each day of the week etc. This will help keep you more motivated and organized.
4. Find a partner: This is the one item on the checklist i haven’t had much luck with. But finding a workout partner is a great way to stay motivated. In addition to that competing on workouts is a lot of fun. Leads to benefits for both parties involved. (It’s a good idea to find just one workout partner. Try not to make your trips to the gym an outing with friends. Having more than 2 people distracts you from your workout)
5. Spice it up: Try to introduce some variety into your workouts. The same workout over and over again gets to be pretty boring. For example if you are into lifting weights try to change your workout every couple of months to incorporate new exercises. If you are into cardio try different workouts (swimming, biking, boxercising etc).
6. Eat right: I cannot emphasize what an essential part of a workout this is. I see a lot of people either starving themselves in an effort to lose weight or eat random junk because they already worked out for the day. You need to eat according to your goals. Once again a there are a ton of resources available online which can guide you towards the right kind of diet for your goals. I know most of us are busy which affects our eating habits. One thing that has worked for me through college is the use of supplements. I would strongly suggest looking into that if you have a tight schedule.
7. Intensity: Now that you have gone through the effort of planning out your workout and figuring out your diet you are all set to hit the gym. To get the most out of your workout remember to BRING THE INTENSITY. Just showing up at the gym and half-assing your workout will not help. Even if all you do is workout for 20 minutes a day make sure its an intense workout. Remember quality over quantity
8. Be regular: This is a tough thing to do for all of us with our busy schedules. Do not worry about missing the odd workout or so every now and then just try not to make a habit of it. If you can stay regular for even a couple of months you are well on your way to a healthier lifestyle. Its only the first month or so that is difficult.
9. Stick with it: Don’t quit early. Remember it takes a while for you to see some serious changes. Just stick with it and trust me you will start noticing a lot of positive changes. Here’s a quote i heard from Tony Horton (fitness guru) “Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither was your body”. I am not saying its a great quote or anything but its definitely true. Quitting early just flushes all your hard work down the drain.
10. Have fun: Last but not the least try to have fun. A workout can be a great stress buster and can get your mind off of your daily worries. Try to make the most of it and have fun.

I hope this helps some of you out there.

P.S – Finally got the Twitter Updater plugin to work. I can sleep now