Alexander Mimran's Blog

New project. Coming soon:

http://minbox.co

If you think we're "connected" now, brace yourself for a big paradigm shift. As wifi and 4G/5G becomes more pervasive (and cheap), and as hardware like touch-screens, processors, and storage plummet to $0, we'll soon be netoworked like never before. That means that all products and people, anywhere in the world, will have the ability to communicate with each other at the speed of light. Which can circle the earth over 7 times in one second.

The title of this post is pretty ironic considering I haven't written in my blog in some...

If all the obstacles in your life are walls, this is how to overcome them. Running full speed, with no fear, not stopping, even if there's another wall waiting for you on the other side.

If you're starting a company or running a startup, there will be no shortage of walls. And no shortage of others putting up walls just to slow you down. Apps getting rejected, competitors launching new products, natural disasters, the list goes on. Persistence and determination will get you through each challenge... and onto the next.

If you aren't running, get going! Simply walking won't get you through walls. GO!

Yesterday's keynote at WWDC 2011 was chock-full with juicy feature announcements and service unveilings. The biggest one, however, was iCloud, Apple's new cloud service that integrates with your current Apple ID and syncs all your device info to this data center in North Carolina (apparently filled with HP servers!).

Andrew Chen's recent post on product/market fit reawakened some questions I've had about the topic. It seems to be the most crucial and sought after stage in the life to a successful startup, but at the same time the most elusive. So far, p/m fit has been defined as:

I'm going to attempt a series of blog posts that profile other professions that aren't commonly thought of as entrepreneurial. They're all incredible lessons that we can all learn from, especially those of us in different verticals. First, The Rapper:

Recently while taking a shower I noticed the slogan on my shampoo bottle: Do what comes naturally. Not sure if it's the best fit for the Kiss My Face brand (I know, their products are natural, but still it doesn't work as well as it could), but I love the sentiment. It struck me as worthy of a blog post since I've given it thought numerous times...

Simple but powerful: If you are good at something, don't fight it. Do what comes naturally. 

This seems so obvious but you'd be surprised how many people try to make things harder than they should be. If there is something you can do better than most people, something that doesn't require much effort but at the same time brings you joy, then that is your calling. Don't go down a path that "makes sense" or is "what people expect". Do what you do and you'll be happy you did.

Obvious examples of this are in sports, where a person just has a natural gift despite the odds. Spud Webb, born out of poverty and way too short to consider being an athelete—let alone a basketball player—won the 1986 slam dunk contest over defending champ Dominique Wilkins, who was over a foot taller than him:

Clearly Spud had a gift. He was doing what came naturally to him. Give him a basketball, and he knew what to do with it. I doubt he could do the same with a paintbrush. And vice versa: Michaelangelo gravitated towards art at such a young age, despite his father's wishes for him to "study grammar with the Humanist Francesco da Urbino in Florence" (thanks Wikipedia). I doubt he would have been a very good point guard. Steve Jobs said that he "saw" the iPhone before it was made. He envisoined a device that changed the world long before it was designed. Imagine if he had been a farmer!! He can see the future of computing (and always could) so doing other stuff was never an option—though he did try meddling with animation, but John Lasseter at Pixar purposely kept him out of the loop. 

Obviously, as Malcolm Gladwell argues in Outliers, talent is just the kernel. It takes thousands of hours of practice to hone a skill and to be the best at your craft. Just because something is easy for you doesn't mean you'll be the best right away. But you gotta start somewhere.

Another point: it doesn't have to be your passion. Actually, so many people are passionate about things they suck at. Mainly because they want to prove to themselves that they can do it. One thing that an entrepreneur has to learn quickly is to stick to what he's good at. If you aren't good with numbers or filing, don't do your own bookkeeping. If you're a crappy designer, hire one. Help isn't for the weak, it's what all successful people have done at one point or another so they could focus on what they do best. 

So pour yourself a glass of Mangosteen juice, sit on the couch without the TV on, and figure out what it is that you have always been able to do with ease. It will take some work to find it—a skill that comes easy is often taken for granted—but when you do, see how you can use and hone that skill going forward. You'll be happier for it, I promise.

The latest juice from my mind-grapes: the two most important things you'll need to do as an entrepreneur are PRIORITIZING and exercising PATIENCE... 

Summed up, the paleo diet is eating according to our history and genetics. The way we eat, the fuel that the modern world runs on, isn't suited for us. Our hunter-and-gatherer ancestors ate a specific diet for millions of years, and just recently (in the last 5,000-10,000 years) we drastically changed what we consume. We became agrarian—which allowed for modern civilization to exist as we know it—but at the cost of our health and well-being.

Hunters and gatherers were extremely fit, tall, and almost disease free. This was because of regular exercise and eating a consistent diet of lean meats, fresh fruits, and seasonal vegetables. The above pic is exactly what happened. We moved from a healthy lifestyle to being fattened up by starchy carbs and more recently processed foods. Before farming, things like grains, dairy, and legumes didn't exist (how can you milk a wild cow?). These foods are now the mainstay of our diet (and economy) and are not inline with our genetic requirements. 

There's lots of evidence to back this up, but the main one that gets me is this: they feed grain to pigs and cows to fatten them up. Yes, we make our animals obese. And that's only done through overfeeding of corn and other grains. It's so bad that cows who eat this stuff get sick—because of the havoc it wreaks on the immune system—and so anitbiotics are used to keep them alive long enough so they can be slaughtered. Terrible. A great post by John Robbins outlines some frightening things. A must read. 

Without getting all technical, this is the gist. 

Things to never eat:
- grains and grain products
- dairy
- legumes
- processed foods
- too much saturated fat

Eat in moderation:
- sea salt
- alcohol
- sugar (unrefined, like raw honey, agave, or maple syrup are the best)

Things you can eat unlimited amounts of:
- lean grass-fed meats
- wild fish and seafood
- poultry
- veggies
- fruits

If you want to learn more, and lose weight immediately, cure your diabetes, prevent cancer, osteoporosis, and more, read the books mentioned above. You will never look at the world the same!