Spring 2000: Freshman year wrapping up, summer internship hunt is on! Interviewing, networking, looking for a place to land my first college internship – get some experience, see what it’s gonna be like when I graduate college w/ computer engineering degree & starting making those six figures, baby! (seriously, this is what all the students were thinking – frosh to senior). Bling bling!

One of my fraternity brothers, Josh Griffiths, was at the time working part time at Kozmo.com, and he really said, “dude, you gotta work here”. Every day I’d be in the fraternity house, around dinner time doing the freshman pledge thing, and see him come in rocking jeans and a t-shirt….man that was awesome – I needed to get in on that deal! Josh has this special aura about him too; the cool Cali aura, but I’ll get to that another day!

Few weeks later, I was selected for the kozmo.com on campus interviews, Josh wasn’t interviewing, but he prepped the interviewers for me. Man, they were cool, all these other big firms, Johnson & Johnson, Goldman Sachs, wearing suits – Kozmo.com crew – jeans, visors, rockin out – NICE! So I, as instructed by my on campus recruiters, had a new suit, tie, and the whole deal. After sitting in on some other interviews, I sat down with the kozmo.com guys – YES! They looked at my suit and made some kinda wisecrack….hah, I definitely woulda done the same thing in their shoes. So they go on, bring up Josh, talk a bit more, I’m only a freshman, but I got heart man, I want in!

Second round interview NICE – on site interview, only a few from first round are selected. Josh sits me down in his fraternity room, something like, dude, do not wear a suit there, I know these Stevens recruiters will tell ya – you MUST WEAR THE SUIT, but dude, just yea-yea ‘em, and when you go to Kozmo.com at Broad street in New York city, you freaking wear whatever you want – meaning freakin’ wear shorts and a t-shirt, you got that! I’m thinking here, I gotta impress them over there, I gotta show them I really want it, of course once I get the job I can wear whatever I want, but in an interview? no way, that’s like a slap in the face….so sorry Josh, I didn’t listen to ya and I rocked the full fledged suit and tie.

I wake up early on an April 2000 morning @ Stevens Tech freshman dorm, throw on this suit, walk down to the PATH subway to the World Trade Center (WTC) in downtown New York. But I mean, yea I’d been there before, but to partake in that morning commute, crammed subways, mile long escalator getting outside of the World Trade Center Mall (basement of the WTC), that is something you had to witness to understand. Walking down from the World Trade, ten minute walk down broadway, left onto Wall street, then there, 80 Broad Street, New York City – which if you’re familiar with the city, is a few blocks away from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and man – that was one big freaking party over there! I’m trying to get to this interview, and I’m not sure what was going on that day, my first time witnessing this, but there were free tokens, shirts, hats bursting out of the seams. One big party – some IPO going on, bunch of promotional stuff pumped into everyone’s hands walking to their offices, unbelievable.

Rolling to the interview, I had to speak with Andres Correal, much laid back, type B personality, first thing he says – grins – thought we told ya in the first round, if you’re coming onsite, can the suit! Dammnit, I shoulda listened to Josh – but ah well, maybe it helped- I take off the tie. Sitting down with Andres, rather quickly, and then had a few more technical guys talk to me, test my knowledge, brain teasers, etc etc. I got the job! Had a couple other offers – one working with some on-site school database system and another at some backend office for an investment bank – no way man – you got a new kozmonaut here, baby!

Few weeks later, freshman semester is over! Move into Delta Tau Delta fraternity for summer housing – man, I couldn’t have had a smaller room, but it was a room….a.k.a. Cedar Closet. Crazy hot summer, first day at the office of kozmo.com I was assigned to the DBA group, they had just leased a new floor at this 80 Broad Street corporate building, so cubes (well half cubes here) were still being installed. Ahfan Chan was my manager, very nice woman. Not sure if it was the first day or not, but I remember many coffee breaks at Starbucks on the corner. Very friendly people – remember getting my logons and the first day I ordered my first Kozmo.com video, scheduled delivery for 5pm that day so I could watch it that night. Sweet, I was in it, dead center of the dot com mania, and it was awesome!

Eveninigs come back to the fraternity house, pop in the new kozmo.com video in the pledge room, beers with the boys, life was good. John Davidovich as another brother there, working for a financial advisor firm, I forget the name of it now. He was looking to get me a part time gig there, Y2K or some sort of computer work needed to be done at night there…..nah man, I’m content @ kozmo.com – no need to stress myself out installing software after-hours at some financial firm…..you crazy!? But that was a memory of the times, IT work everywhere, money to be had, opportunities were a dime a dozen.

That same financial firm was slinging mutual funds, large cap tech funds! This is it, get in now, get in on the stock market boom, attended some presentations, looked at the 30 year charts, the rule of seven, yup, take your money out of the mattress and give it to these fund managers – they’ll make you rich! You’re only in college, a freshman? well then, just budget a few less beers a night and sock it away in these funds. Become millionaires with the rest of us! Well, we all know how that story goes….luckily, I was too lazy to open all these accounts, I had no idea what the stock market was, just some letters and numbers at the end of the evening news. I was a .com guy!

As much as I loved the tshirts and shorts to work, I quickly found database programming was not my destiny. We worked with a few different departments, software programming, marketing, and business management. Starting learning what others in the company were doing. But you got that feeling, late summer, rumors were out – no IPO coming, slowing growth, very early, but the sobering was beginning. I was scheduled to continue working there through the Fall, but I received a call from my Stevens Intern Program that I had to re-apply for a new job, and that one of my other offers I had declined was still available for september….no freaking way man! I was out of Kozmo.com due to cutbacks end of summer 2000, cutting me short of my 6 month experience. In any regards, I enjoyed my time there, walked down the Wall Street IPO mania every morning, took a tour of the exchange, and opened my eyes to New York City. wow.

Any job after kozmo.com was never the same, not that passion, heart pulse feeling of PR news hitting, kozmo/starbucks, kozmo/amazon – deals deals, growth, opportunity, to the moon! I hold these times I had there close to my heart, I was lucky enough to get a piece of the dot com world, and kozmo.com was probably one of the prime places to be

Note: Originally I posted this on Sunday, December 24, 2006 on an old domain miggity.com, but I’m going to re-direct the traffic here, merge the websites.

Incoming search terms:

• kozmo com
• kozmo
• kozmo com pictures
• what to wear to interview at a start up
• kozmo dot com
• kozmo com offices
• andres kozmo
• my first experience in college
• my first tech job
• startup living in my office
• startup second round interview
• tech startup hong kong summer internship

I remember my dad telling me when I was young, you are who you hang out with. If you are friends with people who are breaking rules and lazy, it will influence you to be like them. And even if you don’t “Act” like them, t will also make others think you are doing similar things they are doing. Sure, you/we/I can say it doesn’t matter what others think of you/us/I, but actually, in business and life it kinda does.

But while it seemed to be pushed on me negatively when I was little, that if I hang out with bad kids, I will be a bad kid, and forbid / discouraged by my parents to befriend bad kids in school – it also works the other way! If you work actively to surround yourself with POSITIVE people, and positive minds, then it will “rub off” on you as well. It will exponentially increase your chances of growing up positive. These people around you will support you, and prop you up when you get down. And you will do the same for them when times get down.

Putting this in today’s modern world – with the internet and social media, facebook, twitter, linkedin – if notice probably on our “streams” (daily updates from friends / followings) we see messages / thoughts / actions these people are doing. THIS IS INFLUENCING OUR MOODS AND OUR MINDS.

I think twitter is awesome, why? Because I can get information quickly, short messages, and normally my twitter lists (I break the followings into groups) have positive, happy messages. Sure, this is corny to some, and to me it sounds a bit silly, but it is positive energy throughout my day. I check my mobile phone, see status updates of positive thoughts, motivational quotes, and new perspectives, and its like my daily coffee – it keeps me going throughout my crazy day and insane lifestyle.

But there are those negative messages. I have to say, its more on facebook then on my twitter. Maybe I just have some more “special” facebook friends, getting messages about politics, negative news, and “I’m having a bad day”……this kinda knocks me down a bit. But on the other hand, normally I can crack a joke back to some of these negative messages, hopefully changing their perspective and those readers of it.

The other side of it though is, why should I follow someone who has such negative vibes? The rule in life is normally you cannot change people (we naturally want to help CHANGE someone) but they have to be the ones who want to change themselves.
I just think social media and the internet is so amazing...and now with my friends, followings, and linkedin connections, these people are with me all day, everywhere, supporting me and motiviating me, and I am doing the same back.

I truly believe this is helping society and growing / expanding people’s minds and horizons. I am never alone anymore, I have my “Virtual friends”, and will keep on traveling.

Incoming search terms:

• surround yourself with positive people quotes
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I have had this talk with some chinese internet friends as well, and they think of it this way-
What if there is a war, or a political dispute between usa and china? If all the data, servers, hosted information is on usa soil….then who has the “upper hand”?

As an american, i never think this way….many innovations start in usa and grow internationally….i blog about copying products overseas last year…..and rationalize why should the rest of the world wait and hope for the US company to enter their market?

I have talked to some europeans, and when i say its innovation, they call it money! They say wall street has all the money, and therefore chooses to fund companies and projects that are american managed and owned over international ones. It was a little bit heated of a talk, as i believed growing up in free minded, opportunistic america was the reason for innovation whereas he felt it was due to moneyflow and international countries (ie his european country, i forget now) had just as good of innovative and groundbreaking ideas and startups just not the funding to support them.

So maybe china has some logic to this internet filtering…..as much as i dont like it, probably everyone in china would be on facebook now….and the chinese versions (some say copy/paste versions….) may not be thriving as much as they are now.

Then you think about it politically, with usa officials saying this internet filtering in china is wrong….and add that to rumors google leaving china that turned true and you can be lead to believe maybe it is american attempting to gain control…..as the new internet and virtual world is where the power will be in the future, the influence, the money…..of course usa wants chinese people using google and facebook……..

Sure. That is a bit of stretch on the motives of the us government pushing chinese officials to take down the GFW (great firewall)….. But why does usa want iraq……i dont wanna get too political here, but its more about control of oil flow then anything Maybe flow of information is the new “oil” of the future But another thing that sparked this blog….in philippines, almost everything is foreign owned! I felt like i was in a state (province) of usa! And philippines is so poor…….so, if it were to control information and investment in its country like china does, would its people be richer and owners of their own businesses today?

Just food for thought…….i hate the GFW and anyone who tries to control what i say or do, i love the idea of “freedom of speech”…but i am putting some additional perspective on why countries may filter or ban foreign websites.

Many people only think “small businesses” or startups fail.  But while working in Deutsche Bank, there many internal failures – I especially remember the global launch of a new backend system marked “eSpear”….man that was a huge disaster and was eventually rolled back massively.

And an article I read today from search engine land titled Lets Celebrate Google’s Biggest Failures,

Some believe that anything Google touches is golden. Yesterday’s closure of Google Wave is another reminder of how this isn’t so. Below, a summary of important Google products that haven’t made the cut, over time.

Google Wave (May 2009 to August 2010)

Google SearchWiki (November 2008 to March 2010)

Google Audio Ads (January 2006 to February 2009)

Google Video (January 2005 to January 2009) – ended up buying YouTube instead

Dodgeball (May 2005 to January 2009) – could have become like foursquare

Jaiku (October 2007 to January 2009) – could have become like twitter

Google Notebook (May 2006 – January 2009)

Google Catalogs (December 2001 to January 2009)

Google Print Ads (November 2006 to January 2009)

Google Page Creator (April 2006 to August 2008)

Google Answers (April 2002 to November 2006)

And the search engine article goes on about each of these projects and the stories behind them. Thats not my purpose on this blog. My reason for showing this is to make people realize -

IT IS OK TO FAIL!

Do not be afraid to fail! Being afraid to fail will prevent you from taking the risks necessary to do something unique, something great! Digging in my collection of motivational quotes I will share a few here regarding “Failure”:

There is no secrets to success, it is the result of preparation, hard work and learning from failures.~Colin Powell

“You’re never a failure until you fail to get up.” -Evel Knievel

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts

Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently

“Failure is a prerequisite for great success. If you want to succeed faster, double your rate of failure.” -Brian Tracy

That last one from Brian Tracy is AWESOME. And its so freaking true, just keep getting up again, be the man in the arena! be the warrior. Sure, you’re gonna get dirty, have your critics, but it takes that to achieve success.

And you can also say Google failed in China. Or it exited, being one of the last international internet companies in China. This just shows you how these MAJOR corporations have the same difficulties as the small guys. AND THEY HAVE SO MUCH MONEY.

This should give hope to the startup entrepreneur. you can beat Google if you FOCUS.

But then….focusing means putting EVERYTHING on the line. All energy to one project, that can fail. That is my weakness, to put everything on 1 project for risk of failure. This is why I have a few various projects, but at the same time, having too many projects takes away resources of time and money…….and puts the risks of failure even higher.

Just food for thought here……..MAIN POINT – as a startup, don’t be afraid to fail – even the biggest guys, like Google, fail, but keep on going forward.

Incoming search terms:

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I know it may seem “nerdy” (not sure how to write this for Chinese – nerd means like….geek or dork) but I love the movie “Lord of the Rings” – and I sometimes relate to my experience in china as being in the middle Earth (land of the movie) and seeing as I am trying to communicate with the outside world….and I am being watched by the eye of mordor in China.

But currently I am in Shanghai, and for some reason, the tools I use to get into twitter and facebook in Shenzhen are not working in Shanghai…..maybe because I am closer to Beijing, there are stronger forces and tools to block the systems I use.

And I am doing some online banking with my USA bank – the internet to the outside world is much slower these days, I think its because Shanghai’s underground internet goes through Korea and therefore its much slower – plus there are just such a high volume of people trying to access the outside internet, it clogs the systems. in Shenzhen, the internet seems much faster, and closer to Hong Kong, using that internet infrastructure system.

Yesterday I was in my friend’s ebay powerseller office, and he told me between 5 -6 pm, the internet is very slow in Shanghai, he is not sure why, but everyone in the office can notice a much slower connection….

just more COMPLAINING (I know, I know, I have to stop complaining) but Just expressing how amazed I am at myself for being able to still navigate a USA and international business while inside the GFW (great firewall of China). They really make you jump through hoops.

Incoming search terms:

• mordor
• eye of mordor
• mordor eye
• мордор
• the eye of mordor
• LORD OF the RINGs eye
• eye mordor
• All Seeing Eye Mordor
• discuss china in terms of being the Middle Kingdom
• lotr all seeing eye
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Today I went over my blog posts, read back through comments, and reflected. I am able to follow through life via the internet.

sure, i do miss my friends and family back home, but with email, blogs, facebook, skype VOIP – I’m chatting to people all over the world right now, commenting to blog posts, reading facebook updates. Staying connected.

And its getting even more mobile each day, who needs a computer even – it seems everything can be done by a mobile phone – I’ll be anywhere, posting and chatting.

now, only problem is the Chinese government blocks so many of these things….

But maybe that has what has made me…kinda go insane…I am saying everything on the internet, i don’t really have many secrets….its all just out there….and should I worry about that?  I get a bit bold with what I say, wonder if it will ever blow up in my face (maybe some people reading this even are hoping it does!  aiyaaa)

Incoming search terms:

• smiley face jpg
• kind face
• smiley
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• email smiley
• smiley face
• happy face jpg
• kind smiley face
• picture of happy face
• skype faces
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http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Alibaba-says-Yahoo-reckless-apf-1224635903.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=4&asset=&ccode=

Alibaba says Yahoo ‘reckless’ on Google stance

China e-commerce giant Alibaba calls shareholder ‘reckless’ for support of Google

BEIJING (AP) — China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba turned on major shareholder Yahoo Inc. on Saturday, calling the American company’s support of Google in its standoff with China “reckless.”

Google has promised to stop censoring its search results in China, threatening to pull out of the country altogether if it can’t operate an unfiltered search engine. Yahoo has said it was “aligned” with Google’s position, though it’s not clear what that means.

“Alibaba Group has communicated to Yahoo! that Yahoo’s statement that it is ‘aligned’ with the position Google took last week was reckless given the lack of facts in evidence,” Alibaba spokesman John Spelich said Saturday. “Alibaba doesn’t share this view.”

Yahoo closed its own offices in China several years ago when it sold much of its business there to the Alibaba Group. Yahoo retains a 39 percent stake in Alibaba that represents one of Yahoo’s most valuable assets.

I hope I don’t get in the middle, sure i’m a small business owner in china. I love my staff, my team, what I have here so far. Took a lot of dedication and persistence.

China is a great market, a place of the future. I cannot leave that now. i will not turn my back on what we have here. There will be an answer.

Just wondering…what does this all mean…..its bringing some strange tension in the air. google china internet how will it all add up.

Incoming search terms:

• china vs estados unidos internet

too much risk for me to sit and wait….i need to at least develop a plan B.

talking to my friend Dustin down in Phuket, Thailand – he’s already in the internet world and wants to cooperate. Been already in contact with some other internet and ecommerce companies there.

I’m not gonna just bail on my China office / staff like Google seems to be doing (reports they gave a few months severance package already), I trust they will work well like they are doing….I have already re-organized the company here and seems they are working indepently now. I plan to visit regularly….Thailand isn’t so far.

maybe this is just a wake up call for me, i can’t be so settled down in China. I need to explore more, see more, develop international relations.

Maybe Ill come back, i am going to try to keep some operations here, sourcing some products, maintaining some projects. I care about my team and won’t let them down.

Just can’t sleep these days…and it came so suddenly…only started hearing reports 3 or 4 days ago about this baidu / google / china government showdown….

its just gone that far in China….they are blocking my friend’s Chinese blogs here, they have blocked twitter, facebook and others….

it seems unfair, google is considered to be the last major foreign internet company in china….yahoo sold out to alibaba , so many others are blocked……

makes me start to wonder, how can i run an ecommerce internet company in china doing ecommerce and english promotion….when constantly blogs, facebook, twitter, and now google down.

how can i check my email – people all over the place here are backing up their email. its insane…..my company email is run on google apps for business. will my staff not be able to access their email.

so, i have to start thinking of what if….what if….

move to hong kong temporarily – i have some friends there. stay on their couch. decide what to do. i can continue to send money to shenzhen company remotely, i trust my staff to continue to go to the office. i will continue to pay them.

do i stay in hong kong. maybe thailand, or phillippines. i have some support and some friends in those countries. singapore is another.

or even back to usa. nah…..i have to stay on this side of the world.

am i over- reacting…..

i mean, i hope china then doesnt start to seize foreign companies in china. then again, the company is owned by the hong kong company, so the government wouldnt see me immediately as an american owned company here- they would see the company as hong kong owned.

just another day in china. is this another scare…..but it seems real, it seems a standoff between google and the chinese government. and i dont think google will win. Chinese government cannot change their censorship policy , it would make them look weak…….

here in the capital city of beijing, its up in the northern region of china. somewhat similar to northeastern usa, but i think a bit cooler here then new york city – maybe closer to a boston winter.

but the really noticeable differences is the dry air!! again, i noticed it being here, i become desparate to drink some water – my throat is anxiously awaiting liquid! and then there is the traffic, just the sheer volume of people in this city – subways, roads – all jam packed almost any time of the day or night. To control it, the government has issues license plates that only allow certain cars to be on the road monday, wednesday, friday and the other set on tuesday, thursday, saturday. Still, the roads are just overcrowded, and taking a taxi across town has the majority sitting in traffic.

so what is my plan here in beijing? well, firstly, its been a while since coming to this capital city, and i have made contacts here i really want to see. plus jonny from the bronx, my nyc friend, is ending his mba exchange program semester here in a few weeks – so i can hang out with him and have a couch to stay on too. Plus its my friend Yuki Sun’s birthday this weekend, so have a party with her and some mutual friends.

on the business side, I have arranged some meetings with ecommerce companies, seeing if there are synergies and ways to cooperate with loadpipe and online fulfillment, distribution, and promotion.

also for electrapour and bar products, meeting some marketing people in the bar and nightclub industry, hope to get some more representation up in the north of china.

so, rolling with the punches, exploring, networking, and seeing if i can get some business developments – the whole living my job is the real deal. but while overworked, under pressure, and a tad bit stressed, i enjoy this type of lifestyle more then anything..always thinking business and strategizing.

I will first talk about our current projects and work here at Shadstone:

1) new office - today my friend Kitty Lee got me in touch with a great warehouse / office space outside of Shekou, near the Shekou theatre. Its an older building, high ceilings, 2nd floor walk up – but has lots of “character” and flexibility as office / warehouse. Think it will be perfect for our shipping and ecommerce projects. Plus customers can visit to see the products and buy on the spot.  I sent a list of questions to Jojo to talk to the owner about, this current lease ends in Feb, we will see what happens, not urgent but making plans.

2) looking to hire – we have a lot of work coming in for ecommerce, with loadpipe , electrapour, and other web promotion projects we need to keep the steady flow of good team members.  We are mostly looking for entry to mid level website HTML people to create and maintain domains.

3) Loadpipe – I made aversion 2.0 IT plan for the programmer, and also have him reviewing the bugs / revisions on the current edition.  Will bargain and discuss, hope to get some improvements on it soon.  Also, seems close to getting a few more regular customers, and discussing with multiple US fulfillment centers about cooperation – Webgistix company and I have been chatting over the weekend via email too.  Things getting interesting.

4) Electrapour – have the version 2.0 going to USA and UK after months of production. I have a phone call tomorrow with the New  York City patent holder to give him an update.  I am confident we will land some good sales and exposure, also developing a whole product line of LED bar products (glasses, ice cubes, and more) to cross promote and build value in the brand.

5) Samba Nights Bar – after talking to the restaurant owner of Gaucho, Tony, it is still in planning phase.  We did do a couple parties to get a feel for what people thought.  David Ho and I are talking about him taking more of a lead on this project.  Just a matter of “time” vs “ROI”.

6) New york Bar Store .com - I am getting back to one of my first ecommerce projects,  hoping to fix the financial crisis it is going through.  Restructuring, bargaining, and re-building the whole shopping cart and processing backend.  A good project, but consuming a lot of time.  Believe it will help the team learn ecommerce in USA and will be a fruitful return once things are streamlined.  Christmas holiday rush will be a strain though…..hold on to your butts and enjoy the ride!

7) Website promotion – we are doing a great job promoting all these projects and I am extremely pleased at how we are working as a team to get the job done.  Once we get even more organized, experienced, and familiar with how everyone works, it will be even bigger and brigher future.

Now….my schedule for the next few weeks is a bit crazy….while I work all weekend, weekday, and night, I do have a real LIFE, and sadly, my grandmother (nana!) has fallen deeply ill and was rushed to the hospital late last week.  My parents, and uncles are taking best care of her….but I feel I have to get over there and see how things are  going.

1) Hong Kong – my university friend from New Jersey is in Hong Kong for a week or so.  I am going to try to see her this Tuesday, meet her friends and family.  Also want to do some banking (HSBC is giving me trouble , again!) and check up on my Hong Kong company accountant (he is  too quiet….something is up, annual filing is due!)

2) Beijing – leaving this Thursday for almost a week.  Scheduling some meeting s with Internet companies, mainly to discuss loadpipe and integration on the internet.  Also, Jon Conte (most of the team met him when he came to Shenzhen) is finishing up his term at Beijing university, so he has a place for me to sleep & I can save on a hotel.  Plus its been since Oct/Nov 2007 since I was last in Beijing.  A good friend’s (Yuki Sun) birthday too.  So lots of business to attend to.

3) USA – seems to be more urgent then ever (been 1.5 years since I was to United States) that my Nana (grandmother) is sick, but its due for a visit anyway.  BUT I am filing my work permit….is this going to get in the way? Well first have to go to Florida to spend time with grandma….hope she gets well.  Then hope to do some business, see my university and coworkers in New Jersey, New York City.  then get up to Connecticut to see my high school and grade school pals.  Talk business of course too, with friends and people I ahve been networking with on linkedin, facebook, twitter, and finding me through my websites.  Hope to get some good business for all the projects open – especially loadpipe fulfillment and ecommerce.

Hope this keeps everyone up to date on what I am doing.  Glad I made this blog years ago, as Marie Balaan says….I can talk to the internet and it never gets bored!  sO I just keep on talking

Incoming search terms:

• webgistix sales tax in ny

But right now, I am part of DBR Shenzhen Oy and I have been back from a meeting in Finland to discuss business. I feel like my ideas and strategic direction has not been put in place. But, unfortunately for me, I am not the majority vote, plus I am not the one investing the capital. So I have tried my best to work as hard as I can for the embetterment of the company.

I guess I have a strong personality when I am passionate about something, and I feel lately that I am being held back with office space, hiring / firing, and other decisions in the company. I try to understand all sides of the story, and I have considered that I am not the investor here. I have also considered others have to have a more clear idea and communication of how the operations are run….I really do. But I feel I was put into this group to contribute my experience in China and on the Internet. I do not feel those points were well taken, and my frustration has gone beyond what I can withstand.

So…a Fork in the Road, do I keep sucking it up, maybe not agreeing, and almost giving up my “backbone” and just accepting the current situation….or, do I cause a issue and make my voice heard.

I guess….I choose to speak up, and I am now caught in this tough situation…..to stay or to go….and how to settle the situation, current business, and everyone can live life happily afterwards?

The sad part is, these business colleagues have been or become my friends during these times. But business is business, and I have to speak up or just burst later……

But yes, I may be walking away from something big here……….I really hope it does become big. But right now, for me, I can walk away from money – I am not driven by money…..I left Deutsche Bank at 4.5 years, if I waited 6 more months, I would have been “vested” and I saw the money in the online profile in my HR online account….but I didn’t want that to be a reason I waited to make my move in my life / career.

These tough times makes us stronger, the more difficult conversations we have, the greater we become, and the wiser.

Incoming search terms:

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The main difference being that twitter is public profiles and information for the world to see, while facebook users are a bit more private and have to be friends before seeing their status updates.

Well, this Monday morning I head to my computer to check my twitter – and it was SUSPENDED!

I check into my API tools, maybe its tweetlater, as a few of my accounts have been suspended – so I check their blog – twitter account suspensions then I start to wonder, is it this tweetlater tool that is behind my account being suspended?

Then, just twitter posted an update about the situation and specifically said it is not tweetlater’s fault.

Its just amazing how this has become a part of my life, and so many others. And how people like to point fingers so quickly. Hope it all works out ok.

Incoming search terms:

• account suspended
• the account is suspended facebook
• Twitter account suspension

I noticed it a few hours ago trying to access twitter…and it was working here maybe 7 hours ago, as I was using it in the office earlier.

Luckily I have a way around the great firewall, but I have to pay extra money for it, as well as its a tedious workaround. I’m trying to upload images on my wordpress blog, but keep getting errors, will try later with my workaround, but too tired to do it now. unbelievable….but yahoo and google still work, so what is this preventing? maybe those are next. Guess the internet needs to be controlled by the government here, and we need to seek approval for any information posted. hope this blog isn’t next….

help, China blocked me in a box!

crazy damn bird

follow me on twitter @michelini

But this twitter….for months I’ve had a username, hearing about it, but I’ve put tons of effort learning it…and yes, it takes some time getting the hang of it. And most of my friends still think its pointless…..which actually makes me realize there is still upside and opportunity for it.

Here’s how I’ve gotten exicted about it:

1) SHORT messages….I HATE LONG EMAILS….this is straight to the point, like my A.D.D. attention span personality needs.

2) CAN SEE WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING – no need to “friend request” like in facebook or linkedin to see who they are and what they are doing.

3) most people on twitter are friendly and curious! you can shoot messages to random people, and get answers. And both people enjoy it!

4) real time search – I want to partake in conversations about china, beer pong, new internet products – I go to search.twitter.com and then plug it in, see what people are saying, AND THEN REPLY TO THEM! get some answers. Interact. And most are still amazed – “how did you find me?”

5) use it when you want – roll my sleeves up, log in, jump into my messages, direct tweets, streams, and real time search. Interact with all people from the world, perspectives. Ruffle some feathers, get some perspective. now this is life!

So i’m pushing to bring back to life many old websites, learning more wordpress, more 2.0 ways to get internet exposure.

THIS IS THE NEW INTERNET, are you ready? strap in and buckle up.