Darik's Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Darik Volpa) — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 16:28:00 +0000

Marketing

noreply@blogger.com (Darik Volpa) — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 20:01:00 +0000

The Formula

noreply@blogger.com (Darik Volpa) — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 16:31:00 +0000

Over the years I've read hundreds of business books. I had the good fortune to work in a world-class organization and be mentored by an exceptional man. I've meet and talked to many successful business owners and superstars.

When I break it all down there is a simple formula that works:

talent/expertise + work ethic + great attitude = success

Talent/expertise- become an expert on something by doing (Malcolm Gladwell's data suggests it takes 10,000 hours to master something). Take risks. Make mistakes. If you have been bestowed with God given talents too, even better.

Work Ethic- by the time you get into the work force you have it or you don't. You naturally take on more than you should. You are proactive. You are prepared. You get up early, work late, and never seem to turn it off. And you love it.

Great Attitude- life is too short to work with jerks (even talented ones). People help and gravitate to people they like. They get more opportunities. Doors open easier. Things seem to fall into their lap. People call them lucky.

When these three ingredients come together in an individual, you have something special. Hire them (even if you don't have an open position). Work with them. Work for them. Learn from them.

Darik

Well Done Caine!

noreply@blogger.com (Darik Volpa) — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 22:04:00 +0000

Update as of 4-15-12- Caine has raised $117,000 for his scholarship and counting. Fantastic!

2012 Software Company of the Year!

noreply@blogger.com (Darik Volpa) — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 23:29:00 +0000

What a fantastic honor, but the best is yet to come! Bravo U Team!

It's a real honor to work with such talented people!

Darik

Good Stuff...

noreply@blogger.com (Darik Volpa) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 15:38:00 +0000

Update- I'm reading Isaacson's book on Jobs. No question he was a driven genius, but I did not fully appreciate what a gigantic ass he was as well. That man had some demons. A must read.

Darik

From Forbes.com 10-5-2011

By Eric Jackson

Three weeks ago, I wrote a post about the top ten lessons Steve Jobs could teach us.

I had a feeling – like I suspect many others – that he only had a few more days with us on this Earth.

He’s irreplaceable. We’ll never see anyone else like him. Edison, Einstein, Henry Ford… he has left an indelible mark on our society in the last 35 years and for many more to come.

Yet, despite his greatness, he also taught us that he’s just a man. He got up every day, like you and me. He kissed his family goodbye and he threw his heart and soul into his work – his passion — just like we can.

We all can be great. If we try, we’ll honor him.

Here are the Top Ten Lessons Steve Jobs taught us:

1. The most enduring innovations marry art and science – Steve has always pointed out that the biggest difference between Apple and all the other computer (and post-PC) companies through history is that Apple always tried to marry art and science. Jobs pointed out the original team working on the Mac had backgrounds in anthropology, art, history, and poetry. That’s always been important in making Apple’s products stand out. It’s the difference between the iPad and every other tablet computer that came before it or since. It is the look and feel of a product. It is its soul. But it is such a difficult thing for computer scientists or engineers to see that importance, so any company must have a leader that sees that importance.

2. To create the future, you can’t do it through focus groups – There is a school of thought in management theory that — if you’re in the consumer-facing space building products and services — you’ve got to listen to your customer. Steve Jobs was one of the first businessmen to say that was a waste of time. The customers today don’t always know what they want, especially if it’s something they’ve never seen, heard, or touched before. When it became clear that Apple would come out with a tablet, many were skeptical. When people heard the name (iPad), it was a joke in the Twitter-sphere for a day. But when people held one, and used it, it became a ‘must have.’ They didn’t know how they’d previously lived without one. It became the fastest growing Apple product in its history. Jobs (and the Apple team) trusted himself more than others. Picasso and great artists have done that for centuries. Jobs was the first in business.

3. Never fear failure – Jobs was fired by the successor he picked. It was one of the most public embarrassments of the last 30 years in business. Yet, he didn’t become a venture capitalist never to be heard from again. He didn’t start a production company and do a lot of lunches. He picked himself up and got back to work following his passion. Eight years ago, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and told he only had a few weeks to live. As Samuel Johnson said, there’s nothing like your impending death to focus the mind. From Jobs’ 2005 Stanford commencement speech:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

4. You can’t connect the dots forward – only backward – This is another gem from the 2005 Stanford speech. The idea behind the concept is that, as much as we try to plan our lives ahead in advance, there’s always something that’s completely unpredictable about life. What seems like bitter anguish and defeat in the moment — getting dumped by a girlfriend, not getting that job at McKinsey, “wasting” 4 years of your life on a start-up that didn’t pan out as you wanted — can turn out to sow the seeds of your unimaginable success years from now. You can’t be too attached to how you think your life is supposed to work out and instead trust that all the dots will be connected in the future. This is all part of the plan.

Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

5. Listen to that voice in the back of your head that tells you if you’re on the right track or not – Most of us don’t hear a voice inside our heads. We’ve simply decided that we’re going to work in finance or be a doctor because that’s what our parents told us we should do or because we wanted to make a lot of money. When we consciously or unconsciously make that decision, we snuff out that little voice in our head. From then on, most of us put it on automatic pilot. We mail it in. You have met these people. They’re nice people. But they’re not changing the world. Jobs has always been a restless soul. A man in a hurry. A man with a plan. His plan isn’t for everyone. It was his plan. He wanted to build computers. Some people have a voice that tells them to fight for democracy. Some have one that tells them to become an expert in miniature spoons. When Jobs first saw an example of a Graphical User Interface — a GUI — he knew this was the future of computing and that he had to create it. That became the Macintosh. Whatever your voice is telling you, you would be smart to listen to it. Even if it tells you to quit your job, or move to China, or leave your partner.

6. Expect a lot from yourself and others – We have heard stories of Steve Jobs yelling or dressing down staff. He’s a control freak, we’ve heard – a perfectionist. The bottom line is that he is in touch with his passion and that little voice in the back of his head. He gives a damn. He wants the best from himself and everyone who works for him. If they don’t give a damn, he doesn’t want them around. And yet — he keeps attracting amazing talent around him. Why? Because talent gives a damn too. There’s a saying: if you’re a “B” player, you’ll hire “C” players below you because you don’t want them to look smarter than you. If you’re an “A” player, you’ll hire “A+” players below you, because you want the best result.

7. Don’t care about being right. Care about succeeding – Jobs used this line in an interview after he was fired by Apple. If you have to steal others’ great ideas to make yours better, do it. You can’t be married to your vision of how a product is going to work out, such that you forget about current reality. When the Apple III came out, it was hot and warped its motherboard even though Jobs had insisted it would be quiet and sleek. If Jobs had stuck with Lisa, Apple would have never developed the Mac.

8. Find the most talented people to surround yourself with – There is a misconception that Apple is Steve Jobs. Everyone else in the company is a faceless minion working to please the all-seeing and all-knowing Jobs. In reality, Jobs has surrounded himself with talent: Phil Schiller, Jony Ive, Peter Oppenheimer, Tim Cook, the former head of stores Ron Johnson. These are all super-talented people who don’t get the credit they deserve. The fact that Apple’s stock price has been so strong since Jobs left as CEO is a credit to the strength of the team. Jobs has hired bad managerial talent before. John Sculley ended up firing Jobs and — according to Jobs — almost killing the company. Give credit to Jobs for learning from this mistake and realizing that he can’t do anything without great talent around him.

9. Stay hungry, stay foolish - Again from the end of Jobs’ memorable Stanford speech:

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960′s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

10. Anything is possible through hard work, determination, and a sense of vision – Although he’s the greatest CEO ever and the father of the modern computer, at the end of the day, Steve Jobs is just a guy. He’s a husband, a father, a friend — like you and me. We can be just as special as he is — if we learn his lessons and start applying them in our lives. When Jobs returned to Apple in the 1990s, it was was weeks away from bankruptcy. It’s now the biggest company in the world. Anything’s possible in life if you continue to follow the simple lessons laid out above.

May you change the world.

The Seven Habits of Spectacularly Unsuccessful Executives

noreply@blogger.com (Darik Volpa) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 19:14:00 +0000

A friend sent me this article on seven habits of spectacularly unsuccessful executives.

I have always found it fascinating to read stories of business failures. They serve as a sobering reminder to stay engaged.

Darik

The truth for anyone who wants to do great things

noreply@blogger.com (Darik Volpa) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 15:58:00 +0000

I Heart Talent

noreply@blogger.com (Darik Volpa) — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 19:37:00 +0000

Attracting and retaining talent is no easy task. In fact, it has been the hardest thing I have done as an entrepreneur.

Harder than raising money.

Harder than creating a new product.

Harder than increasing sales.

It doesn't help that I don't know HTML from fortran, or that I can't pontificate the nuisances of Maya versus Max. I'm a simple sales and marketing guy.

What I can tell you is that if you are able to convince a superstar to come join you, they will tell their network that is likely filled with more superstars. Soon, something magical starts to happen and attracting even more talent becomes easier and easier. Products get better and better. Things become more interesting and fun.

We are experiencing that magical moment (that image is our latest piece on digestion). Our content, technology, processes, customer service...the entire organization is doing exceptional things. We have a world-class team.

Exciting times U Team...so honored to work with each of you.

Darik

noreply@blogger.com (Darik Volpa) — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 18:32:00 +0000

Thank you for not letting me forget the importance of brand...that even packaging can be elegant...how incredibly hard it is to make something easy to use. RIP.

Never Forget

noreply@blogger.com (Darik Volpa) — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 01:08:00 +0000

Do yourself a favor and read these two stories. You may know parts, but the complete stories should be read in full, especially today.

The story Rick Rescorla

"Let's roll"

Darik

This guy does for economics what Understand does for healthcare

noreply@blogger.com (Darik Volpa) — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 01:54:00 +0000

Conrad Hilton

noreply@blogger.com (Darik Volpa) — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 02:33:00 +0000

Any entrepreneur would be well served to watch this CNBC biography on Conrad Hilton. Certainly an inspiration when things get dark (and there will be moments of darkness).

You had guts Mr. Hilton.

Darik

Company Trademarks Red Soled Shoes

noreply@blogger.com (Darik Volpa) — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 20:06:00 +0000

Amazon patents single click check-out and now these guys trademark red soled shoes! Geez, tens of thousands of dollars and I can't get a process patent on an novel approach to patient education. Grrrrr.....

WSJ Article

At least Judge Marrero realized how ridiculous this is and is considering throwing out the trademark altogether.

Darik

Thinkers vs. Doers

noreply@blogger.com (Darik Volpa) — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 09:24:00 +0000

You really can't make this stuff up. This logo is from the Smithsonian Institute's blog on innovation, aptly named "The Department of Innovation".

The problem?

The gears would not work and would lock on the first revolution.

Full Article here from American Thinker.

Darik

Work Ethic

noreply@blogger.com (Darik Volpa) — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 19:53:00 +0000

We all know the story of the ant and the grasshopper…ant works hard, saves food for winter, lives happily ever after…grasshopper plays, winter comes and the lazy bastard withers away. Good, I’ve never liked grasshopper’s anyway…lazy people even less.

Last weekend I was reminded of this parable in the most unusual of places; a hummingbird feeder in my backyard.

Here’s the backdrop- my daughter got the hummingbird feeder for her birthday. A few weeks ago we filled it with red nectar and hung it by a nail on the top of an awning in our backyard. The awning is large and intricate and this specific location was at the end of the structure. The footprint of the nail on the awning is very small.

And within a few days an ant had found the honey hole.

Think about it…an ant would have had to climb up the awning, find the base of this nail. That in and of itself would be difficult. Then he would have to walk out to the tip of the nail and find the ring of the feeder, climb down the ring and onto the feeder and go to the bottom of the feeder and find this little 1 cm hole that the nectar comes out of. With his little mandible full of a pinprick of sugar, he then walks what must be equivalent of miles back to the colony…and repeats the entire process over and over again.

That’s the life of an ant…search, search, search, search, search, search, search, search, search, search, search, search, search, search, and bingo. GUYS, OVER HERE!!!!

It’s a simple reminder on work ethic from an ant in my backyard. And when work ethic meets talent…that’s when magical things happen. I’m seeing that from some people at Understand right now, and what they are indeed doing is amazing.

I’m not moving the feeder and I hope the hummingbirds never come. It’s an ant feeder now that I'm happy to keep full.

Ant, thank you.

Darik

A real gem...

noreply@blogger.com (Darik Volpa) — Sat, 28 May 2011 20:02:00 +0000

A major thank you to a good friend for turning me on to Radiolab.org.

They are all good, but to get hooked listen to Season 9, Episode 2... Finding Emilie. If that doesn't get you hooked, nothing will.

Darik

Well Done Boston...

noreply@blogger.com (Darik Volpa) — Sun, 15 May 2011 17:02:00 +0000

Some things just make be well up and cry like baby, like this. A wonderful display of humanity and compassion.

Darik

Understand quote of the day...

noreply@blogger.com (Darik Volpa) — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 23:29:00 +0000

"Mac people don't do specs, they do colors." The intra company Mac vs PC war continues...

Darik

4 Hour Work Week, yea right...

noreply@blogger.com (Darik Volpa) — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 20:31:00 +0000

I read the book "The 4 Hour Work Week" by Tim Ferriss a while ago and recently discussed it with a friend. We debated the premise and Tim’s suggestions.

After that conversation I felt compelled to state an observation to aspiring entrepreneurs…there is absolutely no substitute for long hours and hard work. I am personally unaware of any successful entrepreneur who has worked anything close to a 4-hour workday, let alone week.

If you believe this is possible, ride your unicorn back to Narnia. It’s not gonna happen. Promise.

“I am only an average person, by George, I work at it harder than the average person.”
- Teddy Roosevelt

Darik

UPDATE- after much thought and introspection, I must correct my above statement. There probably is somebody who started a business and achieved great success working 4 hours a day or less. At some point in history. Somewhere. Maybe.

noreply@blogger.com (Darik Volpa) — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 18:34:00 +0000

Life is supposed to go something like this…you are born and have a good 18 years to be silly, and largely make mistakes. You think you will live forever, consequences are abstract and you look back and wonder how you made it through this time virtually unscathed.

You then go to college and/or get a job and enter the “real world”. You work hard, make sacrifices and climb up the proverbial ladder. Somewhere in all this you get married, have kids and hope to make more good decisions than bad. You try and make good financial decisions so you can enjoy your “golden years”. Then you retire.

In your golden years, you take up all those deferred hobbies, go on cruises, spoil your grandkids by letting them stay up late and eat all the candy they want.

But life doesn’t always work that way. I wish you could ask Mike Pierce.

Mike was a friend and occasional mentor at Stryker. He didn’t have an especially profound impact on my life, but he was friendly, knowledgeable and no matter how busy he was he always made time for a young Marketing Associate who had stupid questions. More times than not I found Mike in his office, deep in thought, surrounded by books. I called him The Professor. He was a good man. Mike retired a few years ago.

To say that Mike was a lifer at Stryker, is an understatement. Mike was one of the two key originators of Stryker Endoscopy. He and engineer William Chang, nurtured and grew this division in the early years and I’d be hard pressed to name anyone else that played a greater role in its success, especially in the formative years. Today, Endoscopy has thousands of employees and has sales in excess of 500MM.

I was visiting my old employer yesterday when I learned he had passed away several months ago. Cancer of the adrenal gland. Very rare. Afflicts one person per million.

I’m struck by the injustice and irony of it all. Here was a man who worked hard his whole life, and prepares to ride off into the sunset. We all know stories like this and it certainly gives pause to rethink our life and priorities. It's not fair and I don't understand it.

So with this, I’m not going to work today. I’m going to go do something else. Take a walk. Go to the movies. Or maybe I’ll go to the bookstore and pick out something in honor of The Professor.

Rest in peace Mike.

Darik

Innovation

noreply@blogger.com (Darik Volpa) — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 18:17:00 +0000

This is a cool video on how memory sticks are made: Video

All that, and they are able to sell them at $24.95 and make a profit. Amazing. Wish the beginning of that video said Reno, Nevada.

Darik

The Sleeping Giant

noreply@blogger.com (Darik Volpa) — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 20:49:00 +0000

Back in late 2009, I was given a unique opportunity to write a chapter for a book that was the idea of best-selling author Ken McElroy on the first year of being an entrepreneur.

Throughout 2010, I watched as my story, along with the stories of 19 other entrepreneurs slowly took shape. In January of this year the book was finally published.

Ken, thank you again for this wonderful opportunity and thank you to the other entrepreneurs whose stories I have read, enjoyed and learned from.

www.thesleepinggiant.com

Darik

December 7, 1941- A day that will live in infamy

noreply@blogger.com (Darik Volpa) — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 17:27:00 +0000

Thank you to our Veterans for your continual sacrifice. 69 years...never forget.

Video

Darik

True Story

noreply@blogger.com (Darik Volpa) — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 15:45:00 +0000

This is an absolutely awesome story that just happened a few minutes ago. The team has been tasked with taking the quality of our animations to a new level. It's been a massive project, thousands of hours invested and lot's of money spent upgrading our infrastructure.

Yesterday, I got a peak at our new 3D model. Wow. This has truly exceeded my expectations in every way. U-Team, YOU ROCK!!!

In my excitement I forward the attached screen shot to one of my best friends. My email to him said nothing, but just included this image.

Within minutes the phone rang. It was him. I couldn't answer, and he didn't leave a message. A few minutes latter I get this email from him:

Ok, that has to be Tiff. Give her a kiss for me when she wakes up. Call me when this is all good. YO!

Sent from my iPhone

He thought my wife had been taken to the hospital and I had taken a picture of her going into surgery! Honest to God! I called him and he was all panicked. He even refused to believe me at first that this was our new 3D model!

This is the ultimate compliment. I'm just going to float around the office for the next few days!

Darik