Charles Kettering, Problems and Character Flaws?

Photo by: startupquote.com

 Article first published as Twitter Helping People Like Robin Roberts Find Strength in Weakness on Technorati.

"I am not interested in the past. I am interested in the future, for that is where I expect to spend the rest of my life." ~Charles Kettering*

Ohio born inventor, businessman and graduate of Ohio State University in electrical engineering, Charles Kettering was a man who believed in the future, because as he stated, "that is where I expect to spend the rest of my life."

Charles held 186 patents. He says, "A problem well stated, is a problem half solved." One can see that he must have been good at stating problems if he held 186 patents.

Have you ever found yourself stuck in a slue of problems? Have you ever found that you are constantly uncovering problems all the time? Well, this might be considered a character flaw in some, however, as Kettering says, you are half way there just by defining your problem.

Inspiration comes from so many places, especially if your eyes are open. Today, I wanted to lift someones spirits. Someone who I have never met, yet comes into my living room on a regular basis. I found the Kettering quote and thought it might help. Then, I decided to go one step further and find out who Kettering really was. I was so inspired by him, that I decided to write this post.

"Keep on going and the chances are you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it," says Kettering.  As I read this quote from him, I was wondering if the founders of StumbleUpon had ever happened upon this quote.

I continue to be inspired by inventors, scientists and futurists. They are what keep me going; keep me pushing; keep me stumbling. Life is like that. If you have your eyes open, you can see 1,000 times more things than those who are living nothing more than a mundane life completely content with the status quo. Now, don't get me wrong, there are good qualities about mundane actions.  We really can't avoid them, but not looking forward to the future and being content with your problems will never grow you; evolve you.

Oddly enough, I stumbled on the fact that Charles Kettering helped establish the New York cancer research facility, The Sloan-Kettering Institute. The journalist that I was trying to lift up is Robin Roberts from GMA, Good Morning America. She happens to be battling a blood medical condition classified as pre-leukemia and going through Chemo and a bone marrow transplant on Thursday and lives in New York.

Somehow, life has a way of bringing everything together. Somehow, I am going to believe that my donated quote that was looking to raise spirits will do more than that; that it will bring an energy from Kettering to me to her that will carry her into the future...because that is where we will all spend the rest of our lives. Inspire someone today. It's the little things that matter in life.

So Ms. Roberts, I send positive energy your way. I see you have a bright future. I see everyone in the future with fear, however, fear with energy creates courage. I wish you courage for these coming days. I send you energy for your tired body. I send you energy to lift your spirit. I send you hope for a bright future where we all will live.

You inspire me, Ms. Roberts; as a journalist and a kind human spirit. Carpe Diem. 

"The future can be anything we want it to be, providing we have the faith and that we realize that peace, no less than war, required 'blood and sweat and tears." ~Charles Kettering

Read more: http://www.finestquotes.com/author_quotes-author-Charles%20F.%20Kettering-page-0.htm#ixzz26pOfihMX

*Quote pulled from Norman Vincent Peale, Words That Inspired Him.
Interestingly enough, the quotes that I found on-line differed slightly from the quote I pulled from Peale's book. And so it goes, the battle to define fact checking in journalism.

Has Facebook Surpassed It's Darkest Hour? Zuckerberg Brings an Aersonal of Stats and Strategy

 Article first published as Has Facebook Surpassed It's Darkest Hour? Zuckerberg Brings an Aersonal of Stats and Strategy on Technorati on 9/12/2012

Facebook is not looking into building a phone. Mark Zuckerberg made that clear during the 30 minute, standing room only interview with Michael Arrington at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco this past Tuesday. It seemed like Mark had quite a bit to cover on his agenda. He spoke like a man with a mission spewing stats about mobile and covering topics from regrets to open graph product opportunities.

He said, "building a mission and a business go hand in hand." As much as he believes in the company mission of building a more open and connected world and a focus on long term growth; he recognizes the importance of both. He had plenty to discuss as his first public appearance since the IPO in May. He was laden with stats and what sounded like a plan that was now humming like a well oiled machine focusing on mobile. You could feel the energy exuding from Zuckerberg as he chatted it up with Mr. Arrington. He spoke quickly to get out all the data that he wanted to share with everyone. It was great to see Zuckerberg really does have things under control, despite investor feedback and forecasts.

What Facebook has done is retool the product infrastructure and the way they build product from a more vertical model into more horizontal product grouping beginning last December. Mark said this retooling did have an impact on the growth of the company. They have just released the iOS improved mobile Facebook app and expect to deliver an Android version in the near future after switching from HTML5 to Native. Mark admitted he regretting putting all his eggs in one basket re HTML5, however they have moved on from that and are in a good place using Native.

Mark said today, "We are a mobile company." He had the stats to prove it. There are 5Billion phone users. Engagement and users are up from Facebook mobile. Mobile users are likely to use Facebook 6 out of 7 days per week. Mark appeared confident in his mobile strategy going forward.

Another idea they have been working on is a search product. Currently, they have 1Billion queries a day. Most users are looking for people, however, they are also looking for pages and apps from a business perspective. Mark said that they are looking to take a new approach to the search engine style and use the data that they have to answer questions that people want to know. He feels that this is a huge opportunity for Facebook, as well as a unique one since they are the only company with this kind of big data about users.

For Mark, he says, "It's not really about the fun. It's about the mission." He wants people to work for Facebook because they believe in the products and the mission. He wants people to be proud of what they are building and share it with their family and friends. It's a great time to be involved with Facebook as a user and an employee.

Mark said that Facebook is very self critical and that he prefers to be in the like of the underdog position where he can take risks and come out wowing stock holders and consumers. It seems this interview spurred on a rally on Wall Street and raised the stock price to close at just under the $20 mark. This begs the question...has Facebook passed it's darkest hour? If you haven't bought stock yet, this might be the best time to buy because based on an interview like this, the forecast looks good.

Pick a Revolution and Join It; Disrupts TechCrunch

 Article first published as Pick a Revolution and Join It; Disrupts TechCrunch on Technorati.

Photo by:James Martin CNET

This week TechCrunch Disrupt has taken over San Francisco with its 2012 conference. The interview conversations with the entrepreneurial speakers from Silicon Valley have proven to be chuck full of inspiration and direction. Jessica Alba, Edwin Lee, Jack Dorsey, Kevin Rose, Matt Cohler and Mark Zuckerberg were some of the speakers with a mission to distribute.

On Monday, Jack Dorsey, founder of Twitter and Square, spoke as the keynote. His presentation was short and amazingly powerful. He is a man with direction and vision. To Jack, "The future is already here. It's just not evenly distributed." This was his main point. Iterate and do it quickly. He'd like to see the buzz word disrupt replaced with revolution. "Pick a revolution and join it," says Jack. "Question everything." He believes civilization was meant to connect. "We don't want disruption where we move things from point A to point B. We want direction."

The Honest Company, run by Jessica Alba and Brian Lee, made an impact on stage discussing how they put their customer feedback as top priority and react quickly. Jessica talked about how it's hard running a startup. Both herself and Brian have families with children and work on making the best of a work/life balance. Jessica stole the stage with her honesty about what it's like raising a family and running a startup. It was great to see organic content like that disrupt the stigmas of working parents, yet still brings a sense of reality.

Tuesday, was full of even more wisdom for entrepreneurs and startups. Mayor Edwin Lee, of San Francisco discussed his strategy about supplying local San Franciscans with entry level tech jobs to support their economy and how they are using The Valley to build great relationships between the tech sector and the city. His enthusiasm, vision and candor seem to have only been helping the city of San Francisco.

Kevin Rose, Google Venture Investor and Milk founder had great advice. Some of the best advice he says he has ever gotten was, "Edit your team. Trust your gut." There are times where growth will keep you from always making the best decisions about who you hire. Kevin has found that as one realizes who fits best and who doesn't, that making edits to improve your team for your current needs keeps your team fresh. Ideas that VC's like Kevin are tired of seeing in the startup realm are cloning other startups and slightly changing them. Saying your version is better isn't going to win over VC's.

Matt Cohler, from Benchmark Capital and a prior Facebook product guy, had a great discussion about mobile and the continuing possibilities of growth with Michael Arrington. He says that you and your mobile phone have an emotional attachment and there have been studies to prove this theory. He believes that the mobile market place has exploding opportunities especially when we think of a smart phone as a remote control. The discussion about time to decision is imperative. Being able to use real time data while a customer is in the market place and interactive mobile apps to convert the transaction is key.

Mark Zuckerberg drew a standing room only crowd. He ran circles around Michael Arrington spewing out stats left and right about the growth of mobile consumers, engagement and usage. He said, "building a mission and a business go hand in hand." As much as he believes in the company mission of building a more open and connected world and a focus on long term growth; he recognizes the importance of both. He had plenty to discuss as his first public appearance since the IPO in May. He was laden with stats and what sounded like a plan that was now humming like a well oiled machine focusing on mobile. You could feel the energy exuding from Zuckerberg as he chatted it up with Mr. Arrington. He spoke quickly to get out all the data that he wanted to share with everyone. It was great to see Zuckerberg really does have things under control, despite investor feedback and forecasts.

Today's entrepreneurs have a large amount of support and feedback to work with thanks to companies like TechCrunch that run conferences such as these.

Wednesday is the final day of TechCrunch Disrupt full of speakers and a plethora of new startup company ideas. There is a lot to learn from these industry hackers.