I’m about 5 weeks late in writing this article, postponed by a breakup, lack of motivation, work projects, political protests, getting distracted by tons of new friends, and by going on extended mental vacation! This Christmas I’m writing from my new temporary home in Bangkok, Thailand, and I wanted to finally share some of my goals for traveling abroad in 2009. I’ve let a lot of personal issues get in the way of my writing in the past year, but in the new year I will strive to offer you much more frequent updates about my attempts at living the dream, and tips on how you can too!

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I left the States only about a month ago, and already I feel like I have shed my “old” life and am living in a completely new reality! Before my departure, I’d been asked a number of times why I wanted to go to Thailand. My answer back then was simply that I was ready for change. I had lived in Sacramento for 24 years and I was ready for new scenery. But I don’t think I’ll fully understand my reasons until after my journey ends (if it ever does!—life is a journey with no destination).

I was literally two weeks away from moving down to San Diego a little over a year ago. I had left my job at Sac State and was interviewing with marketing & design firms there (which is how i came across a few awesome individuals, like Rodney Rumford and digitaltelepathy’s founder Chuck Longanecker), when suddenly I split up with my girlfriend at the time, so the bottom fell out on those plans.

After that, my desire to travel abroad started as a bit of an escape—to eliminate all ties to my old “self” and start fresh somewhere new—and my interest in crossing international boundaries was fueled by Timothy Ferriss’ inspiring New York Times Bestseller The 4 Hour Workweek.

Reading Tim Ferriss’ 4 Hour Workweek changed my outlook on the world, and it literally shaped the future course of my life more than any other book has. I learned that the rules have changed. Earning a living doesn’t require you to put your life on hold—working 40- to 60-hour weeks until retirement age is the “deferred life plan” as he calls it. And most importantly Ferriss introduced me to the concept of geo-arbitrage (something I’ll get more into in a future post, but put simply, geo-arbitrage means earning in stronger currencies like the US dollar, Euros, and British Pounds sterling, and then living/spending where the cost of living is considerably lower). Ferriss, like many other business backpacker/vagabond/digital nomad types, says that Thailand and Argentina are two of the world’s best remaining destinations where Americans can easily stretch their dollar.

I had been interested in Thailand since I was just 17, when my high school French professor—Alec Hodgins, who I still maintain a relationship with and whose teaching had an immeasurable impact on my life—took his wife and son for a three-week excursion to the small Southeast Asian nation and came back with wonderful stories of the friendly people and photos of the gorgeous landscape. Thailand in my mind became one of the last sought-after paradises. It was beautiful, you could live on the beach, and the price of living was inexpensive.

So rather than dream about some future vacation there or wait for retirement, I decided to mold my life into something where I could work and travel at the same time. I’ve spent the last year and a half building a business that I can run remotely from anywhere on the globe (as long as there is a decent internet connection). And then I went for it!

When I got serious about my goal to move to Thailand and start traveling through Southeast Asia for a year, dozens of people in my extended network began to come out of the woodwork. Every single person I talked to had good things to say about Thailand. I still haven’t met a single person who didn’t enjoy their time here, and many have stayed here indefinitely or moved their families here. I met several PhD students who did an exchange program with my university for a semester, and they were so friendly and selfless—I was looking forward to change of pace from Sacramento, where it felt to me like strangers are typically pretty impolite to each other.

I felt much more jaded with my hometown than the people around me, but perhaps I was just tired of being in the same place all of my life. I had been fortunate to do quite a bit of travel across North America and Europe, but I had always lived in the same city. I felt like I needed new inputs, and going somewhere as different as I could find from what I was used to was appealing to me. Fast Company magazine ran a fascinating article a few months back about creativity and how to come up with new ideas, in which Gregory Berns, author of Iconoclast, describes how in familiar contexts, your brain falls back on experience—old neural connections—to fill in the gaps and reduce its workload, thus processing the world, both perception and imagination, more efficiently. He talks about the importance of new environments and new experiences for creative thinking and innovation:

“Novel experiences are so effective at unleashing the imagination because they force the perceptual system out of categorization, the tendency of the brain to take shortcuts.”

Additionally I felt that if I didn’t take my opportunity to go for a “gap year” if you will, while I’m still just 24 and have no commitments—no relationship, no kids, no car payment, no mortgage—then I might get stuck in that game and never be able to go wander the world like I truly desired. Another quote that the jet set and the location-independent entrepreneur types often like to allude to is by Mark Twain:

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

So with that I think I’ve talked enough. Finally, here are some of the things I hope to learn as I travel throughout Southeast Asia in 2009:

Simplicity.

Extended travel is a great opportunity to separate oneself from dependence on material possessions. Before my departure, I sold most of my stuff on Craigslist. You’d be surprised how little you need to travel with (with exception of my laptop in my case!). Since I am essentially homeless, wandering from one city to the next, from one apartment or hotel to the next, I hope to learn to be content with only the possessions that are most necessary.

Pace of life.

In many Asian cultures, unlike American career-centric thinking, care for oneself and for others is much more important than business. With less need for material things and the ability to get by with less income, I thought this would be a good chance to scale back the amount of work I do, slow down, and concentrate more time on reading, personal growth, and improving my writing. I’ve got a long reading list of books on simplicity, psychology, positive attitude, the alleged law of attraction, success, and entrepreneurship to read in the year ahead.

Personal growth.

Life in paradise is not without its many challenges. I’ve already been stuck in travel purgatory because of unforeseen political protests, had to sort out un-sortable visa and immigration issues, and, well most recently I’ve woken up to a cockroach, two poisonous centipedes, and a dead lizard on my apartment floor in the past two days! But part of this adventure is to overcome challenges, and especially to learn to be more self-reliant. In Sacramento, not that I relied on it, but if I ever really needed it I had parents and family to fall back on and tons of friends to spend time with daily. Here, I am forced to make new friends, build a new network, and solve problems entirely on my own. To seek new solutions to new problems, almost daily. It can certainly be frustrating, but I think in the end it will be well worth it.

Openness to new ideas, new values, new people.

I think that, as a traveler, there is an ease in making new friends. Thais are intrigued with Western culture, and with other expats you have an immediate common bond simply by the fact that you are a stranger in a foreign land. You can easily form friends with people you might not normally engage with back home. Additionally, as a traveler, you must learn to be more trusting of those around you simply because you rely on them: your taxi driver, people who give you advice on the street, your fellow travelers, and so on. If you can learn to trust people and assume the best in others, most of the time you won’t get burned, and you will learn a lot about foreign cultures, religions, and ideas at an accelerated rate.

Calm down.

One saying the Thais have is “mai pen rai” or “it doesn’t matter.” It’s similar to when we say “no worries” in the US. My Thai friends are always telling me not to be so serious. In the last few days, I’d been stressing out about getting outside of the country before my visa expires, and how to get my paperwork with the immigration bureau in order. Well my good friend Tiam (who we call “The Protector”) told me that Thai law, unlike law in the US and many other parts of the world, is very flexible, and he took me to the immigration office where we were assured that overstaying one day would be no problem at the border. Customs, social norms, and rules are different all around the world, but in general as I face the challenges of travel and living abroad, I hope to cultivate Jai Yen, or “cool heart” in the face of adversity, and trust in the fact that one way or another things will work out okay.

In the end, I hope to prove to myself that life is only as hard as you make it. Although there are tons of language and cultural barriers/differences (some of which I will discuss in my next post), I believe that people around the globe are really all essentially the same. Some of my friends and family from back home were worried about my safety—the media is good at scaring people when there are robberies, kidnappings, acts of terrorism, etc.—but I really don’t think that life in other countries is any more dangerous or difficult than it is in the States. As seemingly “crazy” as people drive here, I haven’t seen a single vehicle collision since I’ve been here, whereas back home I could easily get in a car crash any day of the week (one of the leading causes of death in the US). I choose to accept that I could get hit by a bolt of lightning and die at any moment, so I should do as much as I can with every day I’m given. Why not live my dream in the meantime!?

You can too! Stay tuned.

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By the way, if you want to keep up with my (mis)adventures around the world, please follow me at codymckibben.com where you can see live updates of my photos and activites around the globe and across the web. Additionally, I’ve just started a second venture with my friend Brooke Ferguson from Sacramento, called BusinessBackpacker.com where we’ll soon start coaching other entrepreneurs to follow in our footsteps and live the nomad/vagabond/location-independent lifestyle!

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: What I Hope to Learn in Thailand

For any readers in the greater Sacramento area, there is a great business networking opportunity on Tuesday, June 17th at the Mondavi Center at UC Davis: The New California 100. Billed as the Central Valley’s first leadership summit, the event will honor the top 100 companies in Northern California that generate more than $50 billion in revenue and employ more than 250,000 people. The event will feature 100 companies, 100 C-level executives, and 100 entrepreneurs and investors, so it will be a good opportunity for entrepreneurs or leadership-minded graduates to meet some influential individuals.

There will be a keynote address by Steve Sabol, President of NFL Films, discussions on the growing network culture among businesses, and some appealing showcases on the High Technology and Internet/New Media Industries. The summit will also have sessions focused on cleantech, manufacturing, consumer products, healthcare, land development, and more.

• The event is designed to bring together the top 100 companies in the 19-county area that stretches from Redding to Bakersfield through the Central Valley
• The economy in this area is different than in San Francisco, LA, San Diego or other coastal counties
• The goal is to bring together the leaders of these companies, along with several early stage companies from the region, and hope to stimulate ongoing dialog and business activity among them to benefit the area
• The primary producer of the event is Golden Capital Networks, based in Chico, and the producer of several regional venture capital events (Venture Vineyard in Napa, Silver & Gold in Reno and Angel & VC Investment Summit in El Dorado Hills)

The New California 100 summit should offer many opportunities for CEOs, entrepreneurs, VCs, development professionals and professional services providers, but Josh Morgan, principle of Morgan/Dorado Public Relations, also wants to draw a younger crowd out to the leadership event this year. I know that there are special rates for students and free press passes available for a select few business- and entrepreneurship-oriented bloggers. Follow me on Twitter and send me a direct message to get connected to Josh for student/blogger passes. Or you can contact Josh directly via Twitter.

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: California 100 Leadership Summit at UC Davis Next Week

Last time I wrote my travel journals, I left you with my New Years adventures on Ibiza, the serene little Spanish island in the Mediterranean known for its gorgeous beaches and incredible dance music, which has inspired the global house music scene. We then returned to the mainland, checking in to the five-star Hotel Arts Barcelona. Fancy place, but you can read my last Spain post for more on my thoughts about the Hotel Arts…or to catch up on the story so far. Anyway, I’ve been swamped with work, drama, setbacks, and moving for the last month and half (!). We apologize for the technical difficulties, but I’ll finally share the rest of my trip through Spain and Washington, D.C. with you today:

Jan 3: Thursday, while trekking across town for Paul’s misplaced passport, he and I met the El Diablo himself on La Rambla. The Devil first tried to fool with us, but then kindly gave us directions to the Picasso museum. However, as it started to rain, we retired back to the hotel for the night.

Jan 4: Friday, Paul and I enjoyed a café con leche across the street from the towering Sagrada Familia church, a Gaudi design that has been under construction for 125 years through the contributions of the public. Paul treated us to a fun bus tour that circles the entire city. But, it’s eye-opening how much of the city we had seen already with a few locals as our guides! We got off on Diagonal avenue for an €8 buffet (way cheap for 3 plates of food!), and later that night we met up with Tim and his French friend Nathalie at an Irish Pub in the Ramblas. Besides two others, there was a red-headed American gal tending the bar—turned out she was an expat from Southern California working to finance her stay here in Catalonia. Again, it’s funny how many people you find from back home when you’re half-way across the globe! Late that night, it was too late to catch the metro, so on our walk home, after all the Guinness had made my stomach rumble, I decided to give a Spanish Burger King a try. Can you believe a simple whopper will cost you the equivalent of about 5 bucks in Spain! No fries, no drink…just a whopper.

Jan 5: Saturday was Three Kings Day as the locals refer to it, the Catholic Epiphany. We completed the second leg of our city tour, scoping out Parc Guell again, the Palau Reial, the F.C. Barcelona Stadium (a.k.a. where BC’s soccer team plays, for you beginners), Montjuic mountain, the facilities built for the 1992 Summer Olympics, and the Palau Naçional museum.

I guess that traditionally, in Spain, Three Kings Day is when children would receive their Christmas gifts. It makes more sense really, framed within a Christian viewpoint, that the three kings would bring gifts, as opposed to a jolly old fat man in a red suit. I don’t really remember him in the nativity story! So, we joined a few local Catalonian gals—Meye , Iva, Joanna, Núria—that evening for the Three King’s Day parade that snakes through Plaça Catalunya. It’s more for kids really, but around here it’s apparently huge, and pretty fun to see, as a visitor.

Later, we all enjoyed the finest sampling of local Spanish tapas and wine that €20 can buy, at La Vinateria del Call in the Barri Gottic (Meye knows all the best local spots!), followed by a few drinks at the popular nearby DJ bar and disco.

Jan 6: Sunday morning was Tim and Paul’s time to say goodbye and catch their planes home. It was a pretty decent day, so I voyaged over to the beach near Villa Olympica for a while, then I strolled through the Museu Picasso, with great collections not only of his own work, but also many pieces from his private collection of other artists’ work. It was very interesting to see where he got his inspiration! Finally, I enjoyed some prime people watching in the nearby Parc de la Ciutadella. It’s a huge city park—the kind I only wish we had back home. There are people walking dogs of all breeds, lovers basking together, joggers, bicyclers, elderly men enjoying a quiet solitary walk, peddlers, ganja dealers, parrots, peacocks, and a city zoo! Parents playing tag with their kids, young men playing soccer in the wide alleys, a father playfully wrestling with his toddler son, hippies jamming in music circles, and street performers practicing their juggling techniques. It’s an interesting collage of people of all different demographics. Much like Balboa Park in San Diego, it’s the kind of peaceful, pretty, lively place you want to spend all your lazy Sundays!

Later that night, I met Meye at Plaça Molina near her home at north end of city. As a Barcelona native, she had said earlier that the lookout point atop Mount Tibidabo is the best place to see the whole city, so we made the drive to the top to see Barcelona glowing in the night. Tibidabo mountain overlooks the entire city, and has a glimmering church at its summit. It was a great spot to take some of my last photos of Spain. Afterward, we chatted more about travels and business (she operates her own business called MascotRaceClub) and enjoyed some warm coffee at the Mirablau cafe on the hillside overlooking the city streets below.

Jan 7: For my final day in Barcelona, I spent the afternoon sunbathing, reading, and trying not to stare at the topless runner that kept racing back-and-forth across the beach at Villa Olympica! Later, I continued my book from the park bench and did some more people watching at the vast Parc de la Ciutadella again. Not as many people playing and enjoying the sun’s rays as a Sunday, but still a great place to enjoy the good weather. But, I couldn’t stay long; I had to catch the Renfe train across town to get to the airport. It’s time to go back home.

Jan 8: Originally, I’d hoped to catch a friend or two as I passed through London on my way home, perhaps grab a pint with Sarah and crash with Farmer Tom. But, unfortunately engine trouble set us back two hours, and by the time I got through the customs queue in London, I knew it was too late. They have university and work in the morning, so I gave up and spent a long, sleepless night at a Heathrow airport cafe. I finally arrived in Washington, D.C., where my cousin Ian was awaiting my arrival at Georgetown University. We borrowed his housemate’s SUV, drove over to Capitol Mall, and checked out the Lincoln and FDR memorials by night.

Jan 10: I got the chance to meet my colleague Karen Seeh, a successful nonprofit and sustainability consultant who I’ve worked with online several times but never met in person yet. Later I joined Ian and his friends for a fun evening at the nearby Georgetown pub and piano bar with fellow grad students.

Jan 11: Ian and I explore Capitol Mall, including the White House, the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum, the Nation’s Capital, and the Washington Monument. Later, we go for some great music and good vibes in the Adams Morgan neighborhood with Karin and Amanda, a few lady friends we made at the piano bar the night before. Nicole, who spent a year in D.C. as an intern for National Geographic, gave me all the hip tips about the nightlife and music scene in town, and the Adams Morgan is a trendy part of town with great dub music and lots of hoppin’ night spots.

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Also, I just couldn’t help but share Nicole Pefley’s awesome list of awesome things to do in Washington, D.C., because it should benefit others just as it benefited me! I didn’t have time enough to utilize the whole list, but all her hard work shouldn’t go wasted. Let me know if you try out any of these places and enjoy it! Signing off. Here it is:

Top 12 Badass Washington, D.C. Nightspots

by Nicole Pefley

1. Tryst – Adams Morgan (on the main drag 18th st.) -Chill coffee
   house by day with cozy furniture, hip bar with great dub by night.
2. The Diner – Open 24/7, great alternative if you still haven’t eaten
   (they’ve got whatever you’re craving, I guarantee it), cousin and
   neighbor of Tryst. There’s a whole slough of sweet brunch places on
   18th, as well as where most of the Ethiopian restaurants are. GO TO
   ONE. They’re cheap, tasty, and have amazing jazz. Just ask your cab
   driver.
3. Old Glory – Georgetown. Good atmosphere
4. Blues Alley – GTown. Solid blues joint with great jazz too. Show up
   in advance (1 day prior) to buy tix (See also Madam’s Organ in Adams
   Morgan)
5. 18th St. Lounge – Fruit Loop (Dupont Circle) – Tucked in a narrow
   doorway by a mattress store. The best lounge in D.C. Period. Dress for
   it.
6. Cafe St.Ex (as in St. Exupery, author of Le Petit Prince) – 1847
   14th st. NW. Great Belgian beer, Samba and Bossa Nova beats
   sometimes–great vibes always.
7. Cafe Citron – Dupont – nice happy hour that turns into a hot salsa
   club later
   (see also Habana Village in Adams Morgan)
8. Capitol City Brewing Co. – Cap. Hill – Great brewpub with a good
   happy hour, inexpensive and extensive menu, across from Union Station
   in the historic Post Office Building
9. Hawk and Dove – Cap. Hill – Free food at happy hour and good
   political buzz- need I say more?
10. The Front Page – Dupont – Waaaay too many nights here. Another
    killer happy hour hang.
11. Union Pub – Cap Hill – 201 Mass Ave NW, Where I got my first DC
    buzz. Every night has a different happy hour deal. The brews are
    great, like the food, and on thurs. when I was there any beer was $1
    for the ladies. Worth investigating!
12. Tune Inn – Cap Hill – 331 Penn Ave SE – My favorite D.C. dive, bar
    none. Which is appropriate, since it’s really not much of a bar.
    Dingy, with good late night burgers. And check OUT those bathroom
    walls! Scary, but good times:)

And would it be an email from me to someone traveling to one of my
favorite cities without recommending at least one (ah hell I can’t
help myself) restaurant?

• Mai Thai – my fav Thai place in D.C., in Dupont on P st if I
  recall. Lovely interior, bitchin drinks and ridiculously good prices
  for the stylish and beautiful Thai interior. Enjoy what tastes like a
  $40 dinner for $20.
• Les Halles – 1101 K St. – A French bistro place serving those
  working-class unforgettables, steak, fries, salad, anything else
  French you may be craving, and even the finer things like pate foie
  gras with calvados. Won’t break your wallet either. Did I mention the
  great wine list? I should.

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: Our Journey Through Spain Comes to an End; and a Brief Visit to the Nation’s Capital

Ah, blogging…

Okay I’ve been meaning to participate in Robert Hruzek’s latest meme since May 24th! That’s been over a month now (!), and I feel really horrible I still haven’t shared how I feel bloggin’ has impacted me since I started. What can I say? … I’ve been swamped with work, and interviewing authors and entrepreneurs, and calling San Diego business owners, and test-driving BMWs, and Toastmastering, and MasterMinding, and NetImpacting! It’s a hard life!

Oh well, I have the time now. Part of the reason it’s taken me so long to address is that I’ve been reflecting on the question for about three weeks! To quote Robert, “The irony is that while we bloggers are out changing the world, we’re also changing ourselves, you know? And by that I mean me, personally. To my surprise, I’ve changed in significant ways – directly as a result of blogging.”

I just had my first blogging anniversary in early June! (Although I started online journaling in 2003, I consider my blogging birth to be June 2006 when I started ThrillingHeroics.com and started writing for an audience, not just for my family members.) So how has it changed me in those 13 months? A LOT! That’s how.

How Blogging Has Changed Me

I’m addicted to the internet! I experience information overload firsthand. On a daily basis! But, the good side is that I’ve gotten really good at filtering what information I let in, what I care about and what I waste my time on. I read MUCH more (I’m almost done with my 5th book for the year — that’s 4 more than last year — in addition to the thousands of news articles and blog posts I read from week to week). I don’t let myself get as distracted by television (most of it is pointless drivel), video games, or other forms of laziness and distraction. I’m much more informed — I always know the latest trends in technology and business, and I often hear the headlines days before they get reported on your local TV news station. I’m addicted…but I’m always constantly learning and growing.

• Cody Recommends: Google Reader for organizing all those RSS feeds; and Suggestica for good book recommendations

I’m much more well connected. I’ve learned to appreciate the importance of and power of relationships. Considering myself a bit of a rogue journalist, I like to interview and talk to people in different businesses and I always enjoy reaching out to form new connections and learn from people who are doing it! I’ve somehow managed to build a global network of friends — a columnist in Wisconsin, a career coach in Arizona, a photographer in Pakistan, a student of design in Norway, an American student in Ireland, an executive in Palo Alto, a professor in India, entrepreneurs in the Bay Area, and so on. I’m a businessman, and what I’ve realized is that business is all about people. Relationships. You’ve gotta foster them before you need them, and you’ve gotta keep fostering them. You can never assume that you don’t need someone just because they’re not a customer! (They might be a future customer.) The best practice is simply to always look out for how you can help others and promote others, and it will come back to you, guaranteed. Think Karma.

• Cody Recommends: LinkedIn for business networking and asking questions to your professional peer group; and Facebook for connecting with old friends, coworkers, and classmates; also read Keith Ferrazzi’s Never Eat Alone

I have loftier goals. 13 months ago, I didn’t want to go to Stanford GSB. I didn’t want to run my own company. I didn’t think writers or CEOs would give me the time of day. But, through lots of patient persistence and trying to learn about my interests — in green business, career development, and tech startups — and through trying to get in contact with important people, I’ve become much more motivated to do BIG things. I’m more of a goal-setter. I’ve started a career development group. I’m trying to start a professional organization in Sacramento! And I’m learning how to rubn shoulders with the big guys — the ones who are doing what you want to do! I’ve learned that pretty much anybody is accessible. Even CEOs. They may not have a lot of time — but everyone, in their own private lives, considers themselves just another regular guy (or gal). Everyone LOVES to talk about themselves! If you have a sincere interest in what someone does, let them know. We all like to feel important and like our experience and knowledge are valuable to others.

• Cody Recommends: Start a MasterMind group (or join mine!) to excel your career and for goal accountability; and join a Toastmasters club to practice your public speaking

I take more initiative. Perhaps through trying to keep a clean email inbox, I’ve picked up the habit of attacking tasks more aggressively. I break down projects into actionable steps and I just go after the next goal. I didn’t always have such a proactive approach to getting things done — in fact I was quite a procrastinator. But procrastinating doesn’t work if you want to be a writer. You’ve gotta put out regular, good content. And that means you have to go out and chase it down! Now, if I see something that needs to get done, I try to just DO IT. When I want to accomplish some big goal, I call up those important people who I think can help. Just ask them (make it worth their while — frame it how it will benefit them). What’s the worst they could say? No? So what…you can’t lose what you don’t already have. So do it now, or else you won’t ever do it. Same with cleaning the house, starting that 401k, taking that vacation, saving the $10 service fee the bank tries to screw you for, reaching out to your favorite author, going back to school, and so on. Do it now, or you’ll never do it.

• Cody Recommends: David Allen’s Getting Things Done (this is the productivity Bible!)

Thanks go out to Robert for starting this little exercise! I’m not going to tag anyone for this meme because I’ve attacked all of my blogger friends with plenty of memes lately, but you readers out there who happen to blog, please feel free to continue this discussion and let me know how you’ve changed since you started blogging…

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: How Has Blogging Changed Me?

It took me three weeks, but I wanted to share some of the photos from my trip down to Indio, California for a 3-day concert in the desert. The last weekend of April was the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival down in Indio (which is near Palm Springs), with headliners Bjork, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Rage Against the Machine! It was awesome.

I flew down to San Diego and drove from there with Maria and her roommate Camilla. We camped at the Empire Polo Fields for three days, and I’ve heard that the temperature hit about 104 at one point! There were about 30 bands and DJ’s each day, with music going from around noon to midnight. There were also several large-scale art installations (like the ones you find at Burning Man), and a renewable energy exhibit that was pretty cool.

There was lots of neat stuff to take photos of at night—fire machines, light shows, Tesla coils… My favorite acts were Faithless, Regina Spektor, Willie Nelson, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Peter Bjorn and John, and Rage.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival 2007

So, on Monday I took the day off and went down to Palo Alto for an interview. My friend Patrick Briggs works for a small internet startup called Zazzle.com. They were founded in 1999 by brothers Jeff and Bobby Beaver and their dad Robert, did R&D into new printing techniques for a few years and came out with some awesome inks that are supposed to stay on apparel better than any other. The site opened up in ’03, and from what I’ve read, they’re already turning around $20m in sales annually. Pretty good.

So, they basically just allow users to upload their own designs and artwork and create custom t-shirts, posters, buttons, mousepads, and dozens of other things. Simple idea. It’s cool.

I’ve been keeping my eyes open for jobs in the Silicon Valley area (because I’d like to make a move to be closer to Stanford), or in San Diego, so when I heard about a possible new position opening up from Briggs, I saw it as a big opportunity. I’d heard Jeff and Bobby (the co-founders) speak about entrepreneurship and innovation before to the Stanford Technology Ventures program. And the new project they’re starting up is sort of a community-building effort, utilizing web 2.0 social communities and so on, which is EXACTLY the sort of thing I’m personally interested in improving my skills at. (I’m interested in using social communities to gather support for environmental/social causes one day when I start my own biznazz.)

Anyways, I spoke to my mentor John Pefley (a VP/attorney at a local law firm) for quite a while the day before the interview, and he gave me an INCREDIBLE resource: it was a list of the top 12 things hiring managers are looking for in new employees, and much of it reflected the qualities I know a strong entrepreneur needs (check out my friend Ben’s “Top 10 Ways to Know You’re an Entrepreneur”). So, I took the 9 qualities/values I felt I best reflected and made a list of why I value them or how I bring those characteristics to the table, and I tried to have a story for each one:

• TEAMWORK
• PASSION
• EXTREME FOCUS
• ENTHUSIASM
• AWESOME COMMUNICATION SKILLS
• RESPONSIBILITY
• RESULTS-ORIENTED
• PROBLEM-SOLVER
• INITIATIVE

I turned this into a neatly-designed little “Who Am I?” document to supplement my resume. And I think that (and the mindmap chart I did of all my ideas for where we could take this new project) really impressed them. I know at least one of them said it was better than a traditional resume! I interviewed with five individuals from Zazzle’s team, and it was a really awesome experience. I think I really connected with Jeff because I let him know that I really desire to go to Stanford for grad school (he’s an alum) and that I REALLY want to participate in that fast-paced, bootstrapped entrepreneurial environment and learn from some guys like him and his brother.

After the project/responsibilities are nailed out a bit more, I’m hoping to sit down with them again in the next few weeks. So we’ll see where this goes. At the very least, it’s an awesome opportunity and I’ve gained a few cool new contacts! And if I get to be a part of the team, it’ll really stretch me and teach me some new things I really want to know…

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: My Job Interview with Zazzle