I had a great time with most of the MindTouch product team today. We sailed in the San Diego harbor. It was a bit too windy and the swells were too big to sail in the ocean comfortably. But we did sail to the edge of the ocean and turn around. It’s important to know one’s limits and I know from experience where my limit is with respect to motion sickness.

I am blessed with brilliant and fun coworkers. See more photos.

Being with the team got Damien and me reminiscing. It caused me to think about the coworkers we’ve had that were less than successful at the company. There has been a common theme among these individuals. A lack of interpersonal chemistry. There have been times we’ve hired and overlooked a potential cultural mismatch in favor of a person’s work experience. To date I’m not aware of this ever working out. It is important to have diverse personalities, backgrounds and skills within a team, but the individuals must compliment and mold the culture not actively fight it in an attempt to eek out more control or clout for themselves.

This is a long song. I had no idea we only sing 1/4th of the original.

Oh, say can you see by the dawn’s early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
‘Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps’ pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war’s desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav’n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust.”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

– By Francis Scott Key 1814

Did you know Mr. Key merely set these words to a old popular drinking song?

I missed including this photo of Ashby in my Disneyland post.

I read there are over 80 marijuana dispensaries in San Diego County, but I had never noticed one until yesterday while returning from Ashby’s liberal arts class in Balboa Park. Hillcrest Compassion Center. There are more than 400 dispensaries in Los Angeles County.

Ashby had more of a 4th birthweek than a 4th birthday. We took her to Disneyland, but she also emphatically asked for a birthday party with her girlfriends from pre-school. We had a small gathering in Pioneer park for her on Thursday.

More photos.

Last week Tara and I took the kids to Disneyland for Ashby’s 4th birthday. We stayed two nights and thanks to a friend who works at Pixar we had our hotel for a fraction of the price. The whole trip was nothing short of magical for Ashby and the entire family.

I was amazed by the quality of service and professionalism at the park. I had not been to Disneyland since I was about 10 years old. It was the first time for everyone else. I’m excited to return.

Photo slideshow.

This is what a $12 balloon looks like. It lasted two days.

I am not in the least interested in cars. However, while on my Sunday ride (a 44 mile bike ride) I stumbled upon a car show at La Jolla Cove that penetrated my apathy and managed to impress.

Notice those are all Fords. Fords! I would have never guessed. And last, but not least, the Volkswagen.

I spent the last two days with the MindTouch executive team. While sequestered in an undisclosed location in San Diego we plotted another year of remarkable success in 2010.

MindTouch 2010 executive offsite. Left to right: me in my favorite Debian tshirt, Mark Fidelman, Rion Morgenstern.

2009 was another great year for MindTouch. I love my work. We achieved most of the milestones that we set out for the company at the beginning of the year. We even hit some stretch goals out of the park. We more than doubled our annual revenue and revenue growth was not the most important achievement of 2009. I’ll be posting a year in review on the MindTouch blog later this week.

MindTouch has been enormously successful in driving adoption of our software, in generating revenue and in building a recognizable and respected brand. There are many factors that have contributed to our success, not least of which is our brilliance of mind and modesty ;-), but I want to share some of the less obvious.

Set and communicate goals and expectations. At MindTouch we do this top-down by setting annual and quarterly initiatives. These are high level goals not projects. People prefer to think in terms of projects rather than overarching initiatives. Thinking at project level makes it impossible to manage forward progress, guarantees distraction and restricts you to the tactical when you need to be strategic.

Once you’ve established your goals then define how success is measured. Once you’ve done this the projects you need to execute on and how you prioritize them is obvious. And you’ve created a system for tracking and measuring success. Everyone likes success. This reminds me of something I read as a kid: the answers are easy, it’s finding the right questions to ask that is difficult. 

This slide is from Mark Fidelman’s slide deck. With which he asserted: "Fuck strategy #2, I removed it"

Measure. If you can’t measure it you probably wasted your time. How do you know your resources were well spent? We measure and track damn near everything at MindTouch. This includes individual, departmental and corporate wide performance. In the last 72 hours I’ve examined dozens of key performance indicators (KPIs) of each department and the company as a whole. I have reviewed a hundred graphs and charts visualizing various aspects of our business. This includes several lead funnel conversions, site traffic analytics, ~20 views on revenue alone, software distribution and installation, customers (10 different ways), even individuals at MindTouch are examined to determine how we can improve. We make very informed decisions and we have a deep understanding of the mechanics of our business.

While MindTouch is a highly data-driven company not all business models can achieve the same level as we have. Personally, I don’t know that I will ever be interested in building a business that can’t be as data-driven as we are. Even in less data-driven models there are ways to track and measure performance, I encourage all entrepreneurs to do so, you’ll be better for it.

A side note, nothing pisses me off more than colleagues who make statements based on assumptions without, at least, anecdotal information to back it up. Commonly these are the same people who stubbornly cling to ideas even after data has proven them wrong. It is a demonstration of either laziness or stupidity.

Beware false KPIs. A common mistake of companies and people who wish to become data driven is that they’ll track for the sake of tracking. Meaning, they won’t actually measure anything useful. Be sure to set goals and measure the success of these goals.

This is the actual revenue graph for MindTouch

Love your coworkers. To say I care for my coworkers is an understatement. I love my coworkers, even those that piss me off. Seriously, you don’t have to like your colleagues, but you do have to love them. Some ways we express our love at MindTouch:

• Superlative benefits.
• Equity in the company.
• Honesty, Improvement and Pride. This requires its own blog post to communicate. 
• Every MindToucher has $600 a quarter to spend on professional development: classes, conference, books, etc. This is paid by the company.

In short, I want my coworkers to be the best human beings they can be. Professionally and personally. I will help them in any way I can to achieve this and MindTouch has done a good job of systematizing this.

Love what you do. If you do not love what you do you will never be great at it. Also, If you don’t love your work I don’t want to work with you. Not just because you won’t be great at it, but also because you’re a downer. Do whatever it is you love because life is too short to waste on bullshit, even if it pays less.

Four guys who absolutely love what they do. Left to right: Timo, Cote, Jevon and Aaron.

Few people know this about me, but I love to cook. I cooked for many years when I was a young backpacking dharma bum. I even received accolades in culinary magazines. I helped to open four restaurants (three successful) and I held positions as sous chef and executive chef. I worked as a cook from the ripe age of 17 to 24. I loved it. It was creative and fast paced. I had the flexibility to travel. Every several months I spent weeks on end camping or months on the road. Moreover, I had a lot of time with the people I love. Sure, my clothes came from Goodwill, my cars never exceeded $500 (American K-cars are awesome) and I didn’t live with the amenities I do now, but damn I was happy. If I didn’t love what I was doing I would, in a heartbeat, move my family to a resort town, like Ely MN, Meta Italy or somewhere in Costa Rica and live a simple life as a lowly cook. I wouldn’t have as much stuff, but I would still be happy. Do you work for stuff or because you love your work? Don’t work for stuff.

Surround yourself with people that love what they’re doing. It makes work fun and it increases the likelihood that your team will be incredibly effective. This alone usually nearly guarantees monetary success.

Follow all four of these tenants if you want to increase your odds at achieving monetary success. However, if all you take away from this blog post is the following two things:

1. love your coworkers,
2. and love what you do 

than you are guaranteed success. Perhaps not monetary, but you will be happier.