Great Huston Rockets!

Beat LA~

Are You Really an Entrepreneur?

(from readwriteweb.com)

1. You're always looking for opportunities. This is almost the definition of an entrepreneur. Every pain point is an opportunity.

2. Are you prepared to work long hours, every day, for an indefinite period of time? Ahem, let's dispel illusions. Put down "The 4-Hour Workweek"; it is a myth that the author spun to sell books (so that he could work 4 hours a week).

3. Good Health. You cannot answer "Yes" to item #2 unless you are blessed with good health and the discipline to maintain it in tough times.

4. Do you have a unique service or product? Most entrepreneurs have a pocketful of ideas, many of them viable. But they suffer from the "kid in a candy store" dilemma, not knowing which to choose. The trick is choosing the one that really is a winner and having the discipline (see item #9) to ignore all the others.

5. Are you willing to make short-term sacrifices for long-term success? There will be long periods of time when everyone around you questions your sanity, and on all normal metrics (hours worked and stress endured vs. material rewards gained), they would be right.

6. Honesty and integrity. You often have to be able to work with people without the protection of legal contracts. It is the essence of moving fast, and you often simply won't be able to afford a lawyer. So, you have to work with people who have honesty and integrity. It is hard to do that unless you have honesty and integrity yourself.

7. You're dreaming miles ahead while focused on what you're doing right now. The entrepreneur is an odd mix: part dreamer, part brutal realist and pragmatist. You should focus first on today and, secondly, on the big picture, and ignore the rest. Today is about the immediate stuff that you have to get done to stay in business, to deliver projects to clients, to collect cash, and so on. The big picture is about looking at what the world might look like 10 years from now and then building towards that. We cannot know what will happen next week, month, or year. The medium term is totally unknown. However, many long-term trends are fairly clear, even though the timetable is unknown.

8. Are you self-confident? You will almost certainly be going against odds that would make most people run away.

9. Discipline. This relates to many of the other traits mentioned in this checklist. You will need discipline to maintain your health (item #2), so that you can work hard (item #3), so that you can focus on the one product or service you have chosen and ignore all temptations (item #4).

10. You're prepared to say, "I don't know, but I'll figure it out." Entrepreneurs have to be generalists. They may know one thing very, very well. But they also have to know enough about almost everything else to occasionally do those things themselves, and have the judgment to eventually hire the right people to do those things.

Good things about journalism

From the New York Times

1. A really strong desire to find the truth, wherever it may lurk;

2. An assumption that everyone knows more than you, and that your job is to find, cultivate, question, and listen to your sources, and then come to a view;

3. An inclination not to take anything at face value, because everyone has a point of view, and those points of view are usually driven by self-interest;

4. A resolve not to let commercial interests (in other words, advertisers) influence your search for the truth.

文章探讨的是新闻工作者真正的意义。不过，写出的却似乎是一个放之各个行业皆准的原则。

No watching when walking. When watching no walking

这是华山上最为常见的一个标语。

在忙碌过后的一个急刹车，用一种近乎自虐的方式。体能还没有从接连的熬夜里恢复过来，就选择了攀爬这座以险峻闻名于世西岳，回想起来还真是佩服自己。一趟华山，需要总结的东西很多。譬如，应当结伴而行，否则很有可能半途而废；应当下午开始爬山，而不是像华阴镇上很多小旅店招揽顾客宣称的“夜爬华山”，否则会错过许多奇美的景致；上山沿盘山道而行，下山坐索道，是个符合体力曲线的好方法；山顶旅馆贵的夸张，租个帐篷若干好友连聊带休息，既经济划算而且别有趣味；早晨登顶，掐算好时间，完全没有必要租什么军大衣，否则就是像我一样，纯粹变成了考验自己体力的负重训练；等等……

千丈崖也好、天梯也好，还是临空的栈道也好。考验体力，更考验毅力。路上偶尔可以遇到有人坐在石阶上咒骂“他妈的，老子再也不来了”，或者是“不爬了，老娘把这辈子的山都爬完了”……而我们同行的四个人，就像是大多数人一样，互相鼓励，开着玩笑，然后一路向前。最搞笑的是猪，这哥们儿对于时间很是敏感：几点了，爬了多久，需要再多久到那个里程。途中租我们帐篷的小哥说话总是不靠谱，问他再爬多久到东峰，他说20分钟，结果我们爬了40分钟；问他几点日出，他说六点半，结果幸亏没有信他，我们五点半看到了红彤彤的太阳。还有一次，问他再多少分钟能到下一个洗手间，他说两分钟。然后猪说，“好，我就掐两分钟的时间，时间一到我马上就尿……”……挺好的。

路上的八卦也不错。猪和志，一眼就能看出有夫妻相，可是两个人都装傻。于是，我只能从对话中窥探某些线索。譬如，志说，“爬山爬的，我的大腿小腿都不是我的了”。于是，猪说，“那就都是我的”。又譬如，志问猪，“你背个军大衣不累么？”猪说，“没关系。再多的衣服也能背！”志说，“那我就把衣服都脱给你背。”猪大喜，说，“@#￥%&。”然后就被志晾到一边，半天没有搭理^_^

有关标题的这个警示语，本想写篇励志文章的。结果发现明显跑题了。写不来那种小故事大道理的文章。不过感触很深。景色很美，但看景走路，很容易就会掉入深到恐怖的山涧。于是，两者只能择其一——视体力而定，视心情而定，视目的而定。其实，不只是爬华山。其实做什么事情都是这样的。