Startup Tip: Surround Yourself With Optimists

Life in a start up can be tough. Shit happens, things don't materialize as you hoped they would, and of course nothing goes as fast as you wish.

If you have people around saying "I told you so" while the tough is going, it will be even tougher.

I think one of the most important factors in choosing co-founders or early employees is to get people who ask themselves how to overcome problems when they encounter one. Optimistic people that see a glass half full. People who believe in trying, not in analyzing potential pitfalls.

Of course, you always need a sense of realism. But chances are that realism kicks you hard enough anyway and you need the optimism to survive the kicking.

Five Easy Tips to Survive Slovak Restaurants

1. Forget about Slovak specialties. These are things like Bryndzové halušky, which only Slovaks can/should appreciate.
   
2. Limit the damage they can do. Order food where you know the ingredients are simple and can't be fucked up. Example: Order Pizza Margherita, not Pizza capricciosa (the ham is industrial, the mushrooms from an unidentifiable source, the artichokes from 2007, and the olives are missing anyway).
3. Be prepared for a 45 minute wait. You can't avoid this. If you order take-away, you will wait 40 minutes. If you complain, the response is "this is no McDonald's".
4. Choose the restaurant by the look of the waitress. At least you will enjoy one thing.
   
5. Slovaks drink a lot of beer and hard liquor. This makes it easier to survive the food. Don't even think of trying Slovak wine.

Planets/Aggregators

To support some of our sites, we have topic-related aggregator sites, for example Forex Updates or Denmark Blogs. I like to think that they have at least rudimentary value to users - before I switched to Google Reader, I did use a few planet websites to aggregate different news sources. At least they are better than parking and the sites get indexed.

Favor.it

I had registered what I think is a nice domain: favor.it. Any idea what to do with it? I put a pligg there for now but would like to do something more interesting.

Wait 'Till the Sun Shines, Nellie

Everyone is doom and gloom about 2009. I have no doubt that it will be a tough year with shrinking revenues in our existing lines of business.

I've been there in 2002. For me, a crisis year is a year for ground work, for hard work in an environment of cut spendings. The goal is to build up new business that can blossom in the upturn. I feel confident in that because more than ever I am surrounded by people determined to build substantial business this year.

In the region I come from, Südtirol, there is a story about a castle called Greifenstein that was belaguered in the 1400 by the armies of Duke Frederick IV of Austria, also called Frederick of the Empty Pockets (no kidding). The siege went on for weeks and the food reserves of the castle's inhabitants were thinning. When they had almost nothing left to eat, the lord of the castle came up with an idea: he instructed his people to throw the last fat pig over the walls of the castle. Thinking that the castle's food supplies must be unlimited, Duke Frederick gave up and withdrew his forces.

Not reckless spending - but if you have been feeding a special reserve pig, this year is the time to throw it out!