7 Signs it is Time to Quit your Job

A while back, I wrote an article titled, "7 Management Traits that Will Make All Your Employees Quit." The article produced an amazing conversation surrounding the traits of both effective and ineffective managers that is now 1800 comments deep. Many people were very gracious to share their personal experiences and stories from their careers. In that article, I described a brutal management style that led to all the employees in the regional office to either quit or get fired. In case you missed it here is the link: 7 Management Traits That Will Make All Your Employees Quit

Today, I am going to share with you the story of the day I quit, and provide a few of the signs I experienced that told me it was time to get out of there. When I left this company, for the first time in my life I didn't give two weeks notice. Nor did I type up a thoughtful resignation letter thanking them for the opportunity like I had with other companies I left in the past. When I got to the office on the day I quit I was both nervous and anxious, because my boss was very unpredictable. He had shown violent tendencies in the office, as well as, told stories about his violent past. I think the crazy and violent stories he told us were designed to intimidate us, and it worked. I had no idea how he was going react to the news that I was quitting. I made sure to get to the office before he did so I could have all my stuff packed up and ready to go. When he got there I told him right away. He became very upset and irrational. He threw out some major verbal insults my way. However, at least I got out of there without him inflicting any physical violence on me!

Yes, I know that leaving without giving two weeks notice is very unprofessional. However, the company had shown me no respect, and degraded me to the point that I honestly could not stay there a second longer. The day I quit that job was one of the most liberating experiences in my life. I couldn't get out of there fast enough. As I was leaving, when I got to the lobby area I had a quick decision to make, take the elevator or the stairs. I quickly decided to take the stairs as I could hit them running. I didn't want to wait for the elevator! The feeling I got once I made it to my car and started to drive away was amazing. I truly felt a sense of freedom like I had never felt before!

I had decided to pick up my daughter from daycare, and take her up to Horsetooth Reservoir (pictured here) to go swimming! The next few days were spent relaxing with my family and preparing to move on professionally. This is important, If you quit your job make sure to schedule some time to relax and spend time with your loved ones before starting the new job. If you need help with transitioning or finding a new job check out Mae Chapman's plan.

I'm not advocating quitting your job. However, if you are experiencing some or all of the symptoms I have listed below, it might be time to weigh your options:

1) You can't sleep at night due to the stress and thought of having to go into work the next day. The stress and lack of sleep really began to negatively affect my health.

2) The stress from the job makes you irritable and cranky around your family and friends. I was no fun to be around during this time. This job was so stressful that it started tonegatively affect the relationships with my loved ones.

3) The job has zapped all the life out of you. You are tired all the time and lack the motivation you once had. This can happen when your company has no policy or no intention of ever implementing a work/life balance program for employees.

4) You don't agree with the corporate culture or the direction the company is headed. In my case, the culture was a turn and burn environment. They had a high pressure environment, and we lived in constant fear of losing our jobs. There was no value placed in sales professionals, and the place was a revolving door.

5) Your ideas are not being heard, and your work is not valued. Many companies do a very poor job of recognizing their employees for their hard work and accomplishments. They don't have any concept of the value in saying thank you.

6) The "good old boys club" at the top has made it impossible for advancement. Nobody likes to work in a situation when they know where there is no chance that they can advance within the company. If you see a pattern of upper management hiring their friends over more qualified candidates this is a sign that your company has a "good old boys club."

7) You are the victim of verbal abuse, sexual harassment, or other types of illegal behavior. At the job I quit, I was bullied and verbally abused by my old boss. HR was no help and upper management turned a blind eye to it. DO NOT put up with this!

For me quitting that poisonous job was the one of the best decisions I ever made. Today, I'm in a much better place professionally at Skybeam . I am far less grouchy and stressed. Additionally, I am sleeping much better, and my family likes me a lot more these days. Why did you quit your last job? Was it because of any of the scenarios I described above? Has the grass been greener at your new job or do you regret your decision to leave?

Please note: The company I quit and described in this article and the "7 Management Traits" article, is not listed on my profile. I was only there a short time and have chosen not to include them in my professional highlights. As you can tell by the article the experience with this company was a "low light" to put it mildly.

“All Our Patent Are Belong To You”

Word for word, "All our patent are belong to you" is the title of the latest blog post by Tesla founder Elon Musk. This is an inside joke for avid gamers, a takeoff on the phrase “All your base are belong to us,” from the 1991 video game Zero Wing, which was originally just a poorly rendered computer translation from the original Japanese which, more accurately, would have been “All your bases now belong to us.” Nevertheless, this inarticulate English phrase soon became an internet meme well known in the gamer community, often abbreviated with the texting acronym AYBABTU.

In his blog post, Musk announced that Tesla has decided to open all of its many patents to free use by anyone, including Tesla’s own competitors in the automotive industry. It was a momentous announcement, somewhat like Microsoft announcing that from now on Windows code would be available to everyone, and Windows software would be open-source.

As significant as Musk’s action is, however, it isn’t unprecedented. “Free revealing” like this involves the uncompensated publication of knowledge or techniques that could in fact be legally protected by patent or copyright. And increasingly, innovative companies use free revealing to hasten the pace of innovation in their category. I’ve written previously about Musk’s free revealing of the technology behind his proposed “Hyperloop” mass transportation idea, and in that previous post I cite a couple of other prominent examples.

A number of organizations have sprung up to help fashion the standards and customs for freely revealing intellectual property that used to be treated as a competitive secret. Creative Commons, for instance, is a “nonprofit organization that enables the sharing and use of creativity and knowledge through free legal tools,” and has produced several different licenses for intellectual property that are similar to patents and copyrights but different in important ways. Its “Attribution Share Alike” license, as an example, is the type of license most commonly applied to protect open-source software. It allows others to use and modify your work provided they credit you and they allow others to use their updates or revisions of your work on the same terms. (You can see the logic here: If you create a new patch or write new code for some software application, and you make it freely available to others, you don’t want someone then to incorporate your software into their own update and patent it themselves.)

As the pace of technological change continues to accelerate, more and more innovations happen in “open source” and “free revealing” contexts, while patents, copyrights, and other legal restrictions on the use of intellectual property seem to be holding us back.

Still, even though free revealing has become more useful to a variety of businesses lately, what Tesla has just done is extremely significant. Other innovative automotive companies (or non-auto companies?) could almost certainly use much of Tesla’s formerly patented information to bring out their own innovations in the all-electric car category. And that’s just what Tesla wants – to bring credibility and permanence to this brand new product category.

This is big, everyone. If you don’t know how big this is, you haven’t been paying attention.

Elon Musk, all my cool are belong to you.

Photo: Tesla Motors

6 Amazing Advances in Cloud Technology

The cloud is more than just dirt-cheap data storage and lightning-fast apps. These six innovations show that it's possible to manage servers, develop applications, run virtual machines and even sequence the human genome using cloud technology.

Nothing ever changes in the cloud, right? That might seem to be the case if, say, a company starts using Box for sales presentations or relying on one of the many online accounting device that works from anywhere and manages the security for you. Many of these systems are maturing and don't make radical improvements — and that's often a good thing.However, innovations do pop up. Many, including the six discussed below, could impact your business this year.

Genetic Sequencing

Using powerful supercomputers to help with cancer research isn't exactly new — but moving the scientific calculations to the cloud marks a major undertaking. Analyst Charles King says this is a significant project in two major ways: One, it's try to understand the genomic sequencing that occurs in brain cancer patients, and two, it's showing how the cloud is maturing. The cloud-based version of IBM Watson can scan databases and learn how to customize treatments to patient DNA.

This advancement might not seem that world-changing, although it's surprising that Microsoft has finally launched Office apps on the Apple iPad. What is game-changing for business users: The apps sync securely to the cloud. The apps are also free for business users who've already standardized on Office 365 and pay the monthly Web usage storage fees. Importantly, the apps were designed for tablet use, meaning they support swiping and other gestures.

Basic6

Using a console to manage cloud servers and data center services in one view lets you accomplish tasks such as managing accounts, setting passwords and controlling Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) features.

The main innovation with Basic6, though, is that the dashboard works in real-time for services such as Box and AWS at the same time. Most features are managed using a tree structure on the left pane. The console maintains an audit trail of exactly which changes were made to which cloud services.

Box View

Writing code for the cloud might be about as dull as a routine health exam, but Box is making it as easy as possible. One innovation, Box View, essentially gives even nonprogrammers a way to upload a business document and create rich HTML sites with an embedded document viewer. It's also a sign of things to come — that is, the cloud will continue to evolve in terms of developing custom apps and features that match business needs.

Amazon WorkSpaces

Offering a virtual desktop to employees has always presented one great IT challenge: Making sure the desktop is always available and tuned for speedy performance. Amazon recently started offering WorkSpaces, a cloud-based desktop that runs on laptops and tablets.

The main innovation of Amazon WorkSpaces concerns network optimization using Amazon Web Services; this provides the same kind of availability you've come to expect from a cloud storage service or custom application.

SmartVue

Video surveillance in a corporate setting is a different beast from home surveillance; there are likely policies about encrypting the signal, storing the recorded video and managing the cameras, among other things. The Smartvue cloud surveillance servers lets you view and manage cameras from a Web browser. Security cameras installed on premises can link to the cloud server for policy management, storage and security controls — and many third-party cameras will work just fine.

When It's Time To Walk Away

If you are reading this -- you probably are not the type of person to give up easily. Neither am I. You are ambitious and skilled and continue to push forward regardless of what obstacles are in your way. And that makes you successful. But here's the secret, sometimes it's wise to turn your back and walk away. Sure, it's painful to admit defeat but when you are in a "no win" environment it's often the only action that can save you and your sanity.

One of the lessons I have learned working in Silicon Valley for the last 15+ years is that it's ok to walk away. And in many circumstances it's even healthy.

Sometimes the company or product problems are too great or your manager is too straight-jacket insane to work with. It is often wise to move on and pour your energy into something that has a better chance of being satisfying and creating value for more people.

I have recently done this with Aha! (the new way to create brilliant product strategy and roadmaps) and could not be more thrilled as the business is growing like crazy.

However, there have been a number of times in my own career when I identified a big hairy problem and after struggling against it for at least a year, decided it was best to move on. And every time my life has benefited and I have gone on to create more happiness for myself and others. The key is that I identified the problem, spoke clearly about it with those who could help me resolve it, and only decided to give up when it was obvious that they would not help and I would be better off doing something else.

In those instances, giving up meant looking for a new job and moving on. If you are in a long-term dysfunctional environment, continuing to do the same job and putting up with the same crap is disastrous for you and people who depend on you at work and home.

The problem is that when you try to persevere, you are in survival mode and a personal hell. You just don't care about the quality of your work and results anymore. Just walk into the local Post Office or DMV to understand what I mean. 

Now, I want to acknowledge that for some it's easier to walk away than for others. Your level of control depends on your career and financial status and I do not want to overlook that. However, I suggest that no matter your situation -- you do have the power to pursue a different course which in most cases will ultimately lead to a new job that will improve your life.

Let's take a look at how you know the time has come to move on. First, let's start with what creates a happy work environment and job joy. I think that job satisfaction is based on four forms of alignment. The more your job is aligned in each one of these areas -- the happier you are.

                             And here are  you  are not aligned does not mean that you can not become so. It's important to consider how long you have been trying to find alignment and if it's likely that you will get there.

If you have been struggling for over a year in any one of these areas, it might be time to move in a new direction.

Alignment with ambitionAre you working for a company and in a role that is getting you closer to your goal? This is a fundamental question to ask yourself and unfortunately most people never do. Because without a goal it's impossible to know if you are headed in the right direction. I often recommend a "goal first" approach to business planning, but it's also the first place to start as you think about your own direction. If you have never taken the time to write down where you want to be in three, five, and 10 years, now is the time to start. 

Alignment with skillsThe most enjoyable jobs fully tap our exiting skill sets and challenge us to grown new ones. Are you a master of the domain you are currently working in or are you on your way? If the answer is yes, you are probably fairly satisfied with the work you do. If the answer is no you, your confidence has likely been battered and you are constantly looking over your shoulder. Now, if you are out of your element a good boss and training can counteract any suffering and help you regain your mojo.

Alignment with reward expectationsThere are two types of rewards and both are important. Intrinsic rewards are based on the personal fulfillment you get out of a job well done. External rewards include your salary and any other material benefits you receive from your employer. Your reward expectations need to closely match reality for you to be satisfied. If there is a disconnect here for too long, you will grow disenchanted with the work you do or worse. You might not be able to pay your rent or mortgage.

Alignment with bossIt's in vogue right now to suggest that people do not leave their jobs but instead leave their bosses. As you have already read, there are many reasons for leaving a job that have nothing to do with your boss. However, I agree that an unsupportive boss is at the top of the list driving folks to update their resume. I have left bosses who: chased employees around the office, did not allow their staff to speak with other managers, and threatened retribution when someone quit. Does your boss have your best interests in mind?

If you have misalignment in any one of these areas I suggest you admit it to yourself first. Next, have a conversation with your boss or a trusted adviser in the organization who you think can help you.

I want to be clear that you are responsible for trying to overcome the challenge and owe it to yourself and the organization to try and work through it. But, if you can look at yourself in the mirror and are comfortable saying out loud that you tried, you may need to move to plan B. If there really does not appear to be a way out and your misery is increasing, it's ok to admit defeat and walk away.

Do you agree? When do you believe it's not only ok, but healthy to walk away? Add a comment.

Six Signs Your Boss Is a Coward

1. He has others fire his direct reports.

This probably is the most cowardly act of the cowardly boss.

I’ve seen this first hand, and probably so have you. If your boss does this, he likes having the authority of his position, but not the responsibility.

And, he does not deserve you.

2. She will make a decision in private, then fail to protect her people in public if it does not work.

This is the classic behavior of someone who lacks confidence and is afraid of making mistakes.

And, she is someone you cannot trust.

3. He tells each person in private what the person “wants to hear,” which means he’s delivering different messages to each.

This is referred to as “divide and conquer.” Rather than having a consistent message and leading by example, he tries to control everyone around him.

And, he is a truly terrible leader.

4. She will not have face-to-face meetings to resolve conflicts.

This behavior goes hand in hand with delivering different messages to each person. If she gets everyone in the same room to resolve differences, or expose and deal with problems, she can’t divide and and conquer.

And, she has blown her cover.

5. He slips in a negative comment about one of your colleagues in every conversation.

You may think he’s complimenting you by confiding in you. But you can bet he does the same when speaking about you.

And, he is a jerk.

6. She really never says anything personal about herself.

She does not make personal connections with people, putting herself above all else – even the company. She is someone who doesn’t really want you to get to know her.

And, if you think about it, why would you want to?

In my decades as a communications consultant, I have worked directly with, and observed, hundreds people who are bosses. The best are genuine, expose their own weaknesses, deal with controversy directly, and do not sweep issues under the rug so they become larger problems.

The worst are cowards – and the way they go about trying to hide their insecurities have just the opposite effect. You can see their fear a mile away.

Now, the question is: Do you have the strength to leave that cowardly boss and find a new one who is a true brave leader?

Here comes Generation Mobile - Are You Ready For What Comes After Gen Y?

There is naturally a lot of focus right now about the millennials, the so-called Generation Y - Gen Y for shorthand - and the implications for societies and the workplace as these new digitally aware citizens grow to become the leaders of tomorrow.

For those not familiar with the term, Gen Y generally refers to people born roughly between the early 1980s and the early 2000s. You can read some of my thoughts about the impact of Gen Y in a previous post of mine on here.

They are the first generation, certainly at the later end of that date range, to be born into a digital rather than analogue world and to grow up using technology as part of their everyday lives and not just something that is in the workplace.

But what comes after Gen Y and are we ready for them? On a superficial level what do we even call this next generation? The newspaper USA Today and, separately, the Pew Research Centre have been running contests to try and find a name for them other than simply 'Generation Z'. Some of the suggestions include iGeneration, @generation, the Swipe Generation and the Tweennials.

Whatever we end up calling this generation, they are going to have a transformative effect on the world around us as they move into adulthood. Their coming of age is starting to happen now, peaking around 2020. This is a generation that is not only growing up with digital interaction but also with a more mobile-first mindset as those interactions take place on smartphones and tablets.

What made me think about this was an interesting US-based study just published, calledSpeak Up, as part of Project Tomorrow. The study is mainly about the use of mobile technology in education but the results highlight some noteworthy trends among young kids today that will have implications for consumer trends, society, business and government as they grow older.

The study polled 3.4 million students, teachers, administrators and parents about the use of tech in education. Here are some of the most interesting stats from the research that highlight how much mobile is a part of their lives (and bear in mind that these stats relate only to access in school). When the home environment is also factored in I would expect these figures to be even higher.

• 41 per cent of K-2 students (ages 6-7) have access to a tablet.

• Half of students in elementary grades 3–5 (ages 8-11) have access to a smart phone, and 58 per cent have access to a tablet.

• 73 per cent of middle school students (ages 11-14) have access to smart phones, 61 per cent have access to tablets.

• 89 per cent of high school students (ages 14-18) have access to smartphones, yet only 50 per cent have access to a tablet.

The study also reveals some insight into future social media trends with students reporting less regular interaction with traditional social networking sites like Facebook. Meanwhile almost half (44 per cent) of students in grades 6-12 report using social media apps like Instagram, Snapchat and Vine. Nearly a third of high school students report using Twitter.

Given the evolution of social media over the past five years we may well see another start-up turn into a market-dominating giant like Facebook or Twitter but these stats seem to show the primary and middle school students favouring more instant and mobile app friendly social media over the likes of Facebook. If that is true that will have an impact on consumer trends and how brands and marketers will need to target those people.

Back to that contest to name so-called Generation Z - I propose Generation Mobile. Do you agree?

Maahi ve (Cover by Masala Coffee)

Microsoft Rushes to Fix Browser After Attacks; No Fix for XP Users

BOSTON — Microsoft Corp is rushing to fix a bug in its widely used Internet Explorer web browser after a computer security firm disclosed the flaw over the weekend, saying hackers have already exploited it in attacks on some U.S. companies.

PCs running Windows XP will not receive any updates fixing that bug when they are released, however, because Microsoft stopped supporting the 13-year-old operating system earlier this month. Security firms estimate that between 15 and 25 percent of the world's PCs still run Windows XP.

Microsoft disclosed on Saturday its plans to fix the bug in an advisory to its customers posted on its security website, which it said is present in Internet Explorer versions 6 to 11. Those versions dominate desktop browsing, accounting for 55 percent of the PC browser market, according to tech research firm NetMarketShare.

Cybersecurity software maker FireEye Inc said that a sophisticated group of hackers have been exploiting the bug in a campaign dubbed "Operation Clandestine Fox."

FireEye, whose Mandiant division helps companies respond to cyber attacks, declined to name specific victims or identify the group of hackers, saying that an investigation into the matter is still active.

"It's a campaign of targeted attacks seemingly against U.S.-based firms, currently tied to defense and financial sectors," FireEye spokesman Vitor De Souza said via email. "It's unclear what the motives of this attack group are, at this point. It appears to be broad-spectrum intel gathering."

He declined to elaborate, though he said one way to protect against them would be to switch to another browser.

Microsoft said in the advisory that the vulnerability could allow a hacker to take complete control of an affected system, then do things such as viewing changing, or deleting data, installing malicious programs, or creating accounts that would give hackers full user rights.

FireEye and Microsoft have not provided much information about the security flaw or the approach that hackers could use to figure out how to exploit it, said Aviv Raff, chief technology officer of cybersecurity firm Seculert.

Yet other groups of hackers are now racing to learn more about it so they can launch similar attacks before Microsoft prepares a security update, Raff said.

"Microsoft should move fast," he said. "This will snowball."

Still, he cautioned that Windows XP users will not benefit from that update since Microsoft has just halted support for that product.

The software maker said in a statement to Reuters that it advises Windows XP users to upgrade to one of two most recently versions of its operating system, Windows 7 or 8.

50 years of BASIC

BASIC creators John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz.

The mainframe isn't the only technology hitting the ripe old age of 50 this year. On May 1st, the BASIC programming language, first developed by Dartmouth College Professors Thomas Kurtz and John Kemeny, celebrates 50 years.

At the time, computers were highly serial. You loaded punch cards and waited your turn to run the application. That was known as batch processing. As computers matured from vacuum tubes to silicon semiconductors, they became more powerful and gained the ability to run multiple programs at once.

Kemeny wanted a language that would allow people to write their own programs and execute at the same time. Kemeny and a programming student both ran a program at the same time written in Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code, and both got their responses back. BASIC was born.

BASIC lived up to its name and was fairly straightforward, making it much easier to program than writing in assembler language or punch cards. It would start on minicomputers like the DEC PDP line. It would be released on the growing number of personal computers in the 1970s.

When the Altair 8800 came out, there were actually two BASIC compilers for it, both inspired by the minicomputer version of the language: Tiny BASIC, a simple version of the language, and Altair BASIC, written by a company called Micro-Soft. You may have heard of them.

Radio Shack's TRS-80, Apple Computer's Apple II, and Commodore's PET 2001 all came with BASIC built into the firmware, and IBM would release a BASIC interpreter for its Personal Computer as well. BASIC would eventually be overshadowed in significance with developers by C and later C++, but it remained a popular first language for many programmers to grasp the concepts of programming.

Microsoft would return to its roots, breathing new life into BASIC in 1991 with the release of Visual Basic, which helped developers write Windows-based BASIC apps that were actually compiled, not just interpreted. Thanks to the power of the VB compiler, it found favor as more than just a teaching tool, and commercial apps were soon being developed with VB. Granted, many if not most were freeware/shareware, but it was more than anyone expected out of BASIC.

BASIC is still alive and kicking. Wikipedia lists 33 different compilers, plus there is True BASIC, the direct successor to Dartmouth BASIC from a company co-owned by Kurtz. There are even a few in the iOS App Store. It doesn't look a thing like the AppleSoft BASIC I was learning 30 years ago, but that's why it survives; BASIC adapted and grew.

Dartmouth will be holding a series of events to mark the anniversary on the campus, but they will also be broadcast on the Internet.

Your Right To Be "Un-Googled" And The Irony Of The Case

There is more than a touch of irony about Mario Costeja Gonzalez’s victory over search giant Google in the European courts, which grants him the “right to be forgotten” in Google search results.

Having successfully fought to have links to news reports of his financial affairs removed from search results, on privacy grounds, his name is unlikely to ever be forgotten now.

This week the European Union Court of Justice found in Costeja Gonzalez’s favor when it ruled that links to irrelevant or out-of-date information about individuals should be removed, on request. He had argued that issues raised in two articles in the newspaper La Vanguardia – and indexed by Google – mentioning that his house had been repossessed due to his social security debts, were out of date and no longer relevant.

His case is timely as support is strong in Europe for a “right to be forgotten”, giving anyone the right to have their personal information removed when it is “inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant”. The court-ruling, which can't be appealed, appears to show that European law supports this right – and Google (as well as a lot of other big data hoarders) could soon find themselves faced with a flood of similar requests.

Apparently, the Spaniard is not worried that his name will now feature far more prominently than it previously did in Google results for many years to come – in fact he has been clear that he is happy to have his name associated with the case. As he told the Guardian newspaper: “I was fighting for the elimination of data that adversely affects people’s honour, dignity and exposes their private lives. Everything that undermines human beings, that’s not freedom of expression.”

Google of course sees things differently – having called the decision “disappointing” – and argued during proceedings that such actions could amount to censorship. The law will not only apply to Google, but to all other search engines including Yahoo and Microsoft's Bing.

The “right to be forgotten” proposals in Europe in many ways reflect the recently passed Californian “eraser” law – requiring tech companies to remove material posted by a minor, if they request it – due to take effect next year.

The landmark case may be settled but of course debate will rage on over the issues at its core for some time yet. And it is unclear at this stage how it might apply to social media companies such as Facebook or Twitter. Does this mean that anyone who doesn’t like something which has been said about them online can demand that it is struck from the record?

At the moment, this seems unlikely – the court was clear in its ruling that publishers will have various defences – including public interest – with which to resist requests for information removal.

I hope therefore that it means criminals or corrupt public officials won’t be able to simply ask for links to news articles about their crimes be deleted simply because they would rather people forgot them. My fear is that there is a grey area in all of this. Some might see it as legitimate that a restaurant ask for bad reviews to be taken down if they are “no longer relevant” following a change of chef? Or a builder ask for his terrible feedback on the local “trusted trader” websites to be consigned to oblivion? The danger is that is could open the door for rogue traders to clean their sheet.

Campaign group Index on Censorship has been forthright with its criticism of the decision – calling it: “Akin to marching into a library and forcing it to pulp books.” For me, it all depends on how this new law (which currently only applies to citizens of the European Union) is implemented in practice. It will surely make life more complicated and expensive for search engine providers.

Whichever side of the fence you’re on, this ruling could have a big impact on anyone involved with storing or publishing data, and I’d love to hear your views. Do you see this as an important step toward more control of your public data or do you see it as censorship? Please share your views...

How to Steal Ideas From Everybody You Meet

All creativity begins with the moment of conception.

That little piece of kindling that gets the fire going. That initial source of inspiration that takes on a life of its own. That single note from which the entire symphony grows. That single spark of life that signals an idea’s movement value, almost screaming to us, something wants to be built here.

And so, in this new blog series, I’m going to be deconstructing my favorite moments of conception from popular movies. Each post will contain a video clip from a different film, along with a series of lessons we can learn from the characters.

Today's clip comes from the Xerox scene of The Pirates of Silicon Valley:

So, what did they do right?

Good artists copy, great artists steal. According to the bestselling biography Steve Jobs, the Xerox agreement was sometimes described as one of the biggest heists in the chronicles of history. But the subtext is, it’s not because Jobs stumbled across some random fragment of an idea and casually incorporated it into his own strategy. He was ruthless, shameless and intentional. Apple knew whom they wanted to steal from, what they wanted to steal, and most importantly, how to persuade them to let them steal it. And, like any successful car thief, once they brought the stolen hotrod back to the garage, within twenty four hours, it had a new paint job, new rims, new tires, a convertible top and a better designed dice in the mirror. That’s not theft, that’s theater. Proving, that it doesn’t matter if you steal something, it only matters what you do with it once you’ve stolen it.

Ideas are free, only execution is priceless. Xerox’s technologies of the mouse, the graphic interface and the programming language were genius. But they were also ahead of their time. And because their team lacked the taste and design and finesse when it came to prototyping, presenting and the persuading their board of directions, they failed to realize their concepts. Steve, on the other hand, was five moves ahead. And as anyone in the startup world will tell you, he who ships first, wins. Ultimately”, with the help of his trademark reality distortion field, he convinced Xerox to open the kimono and share their new concepts in exchange for an equity investment. Who do you think got the short end of that digital stick? Jobs out executed the competition. He didn’t have an idea, he had an I did. To quote the Steve Jobsbiography once again, “The mark of an innovative company is not only that it comes up with new ideas first, but also that it knows how to leapfrog when it finds itself behind.”

Everything is prey. This scene perfectly points out the astonishing short sightedness and lack of imagination of top corporate executives. Steve knew the Xerox was sitting on a goldmine, and yet, he couldn’t believe they hadn’t yet commercialized their technology. And so, his philosophy was, if these dolts are so dense that they can’t realize the economic and cultural value of this software­­, that they, themselves, have developed, then they don’t deserve to have it. Xerox wasn’t worthy of their own innovation. And in the words of my favorite country song, “I could love you better than that, I know how to make you forget her, all I’m asking is for one little chance, baby I can love you better.” Jobs was right. It comes down to trying to expose yourself to the best things that humans have done, and then try to bring those things into what you’re doing.