Ad books

via motivateusnot.com

I found myself enjoying advertisement books. It took me about an hour to read Paul Arden's "It's Not How Good You Are..." http://www.amazon.com/dp/0714843377/?tag=iwhite-20 and James Webb's "A Technique For Producing Ideas" http://www.amazon.com/dp/1907590137/?tag=iwhite-20. Apparently no secret sause recipe, but really nice and relaxing reading. Very recommended!

# Posted via email from opportunity__cost

Engineering Your Way To Marketing Success

I visited Thomas Ptacek and the gang at Matasano (who are developing a firewall management product) over Christmas break and had a very productive discussion about marketing.  One of the things Thomas mentioned was that I should probably blog out how you can use engineering resources to improve your marketing.

via kalzumeus.com

Very interesting approach to marketing. Not much of engineering, but no doubts absolutely worth reading.

# Posted via web from opportunity__cost

Business and passions

During many years I developed many passions. And I also tried many (and, sometimes, very different) ideas. Some of them [ideas] worked well and some of them don't.

Passions allowed me to acquire some skills. Trying out ideas gave me priceless experience.

Roughly, the business is about skills and experience.

I'm a tech person. I started into tech by reading books at the age of 10 or so. We couldn't afford a personal computer, but I compensated it with the theory. The tech became my life now (in very wide meaning). The forms of it can change, but never the meaning.

I like numbers. I'm not good with them, but I like them. The numbers are all around and the more comfortable you're with them, the most advantages you'll get in life.

I like interaction with user (through UX and UI). I find it very challenging to approach different problems and come up with solutions that people love. (Sometimes, it really works out.)

I like both business markets and consumers. And I believe that good consumer-based market always has an application for business. So I prefer consumers.

Whatever I'm busy with, I am always aware about generalism. Generalism is dangerous. It can even be suicidal, especially when you don't know what risks are you taking when approaching general markets.

And to crown it all, let me tell you this. Experience matters. Passions matter. Intellect matters. But this is not enough. We've got to be honest with ourselves about one true desire for entrepreneurship. It could be either making a fortune, going out public or building serial companies. And this is what will be driving us through the life.

As for me, my true desire is to be the part of the big thing and my real passion is building things.