My Tree-Hugging Weekend

I'll try and keep this short. Wish you were all with me this weekend for that conference. it was pretty refreshing. I hate public speaking and we had to do it quite a bit ha, but also made some good connections, inside the business school here too. I will let you all know details, but I'd love it if everyone went to this movie I'm going to help set up with some other CU students. It's called the Island President.

I guess the opportunity to help improve the human condition was made even more apparent through the people I met and talked to, ideas we tossed around, and issues we discussed. Even more apparent, was the notion that, if I was going to do business, I had to do it in a sustainable way, for a cause that's bigger than me, and that the power encompassed in a business person of high regards has an incredible amount of influence. Global warming is a pretty insane reality, not affiliated with any political party; it's a human problem with a business solution. How can we make sustainability profitable? Not only is that a multi-billion dollar question, but a multi-billion life-saving one as well.


Maybe it sounds a bit cheesy, but hope to share this vision with ya'll.


Cheers and, to Brad and Sushi Hana in a bit, Kassai,
Nate





Some random things I took away that I just wanted to post so I could look back and remember later:

Billy Parish:
"Making Good" (book)
Solar Mosaic - https://joinmosaic.com/how-it-works

Hunter Lovins:
http://www.natcapsolutions.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=47&Itemid=80

http://www.ecovativedesign.com/
http://www.mushroompackaging.com/

http://www.oceanspray.com/
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-02/05/sea-urchin-co2
http://www.startingbloc.org/stateofsb

Another Tuesday, Procrastinating the Inevitable with Some Thought

I met with my mentor today after my midterm, discussing ideas and future endeavors, and I think I'm heading in a more focused direction, at least for now. Speaking for myself strictly, a lot of people and tech companies lose sight of their objective, serving the customer that is, while looking for a breakthrough idea or technology. I needed to gain a bigger picture again, step back, evaluate what makes me passionate, and try and focus in on some questions, then narrow down those questions even more.
How can we make sustainability profitable, something that people want and Need?
What existing technologies are out there that can be applied in a more useful fashion?
What are the problems that people face in day-to-day life and how to we solve them?
What are the new/old and growing/stable industries right now?
For example, and then go from there. Jim Collins said, that before you start a vision, ask a question, work on a problem, or whatever else, start with finding and surrounding yourself with motivated excellent trusting people. Peter Drucker said instead of looking for success, look for what you're good at, start with results, and go from there:
http://www.jimcollins.com/article_topics/articles/management.html

I also had long conversations with my best friend from Atlanta, Carter (check out Loma apparel and be on the watch for other businesses this incredibly hardworking kid will be starting) who (especially you Turley if you're heading to San Diego or circa de) I would love all of you to meet someday, and with Ryan Sutton and Josh about all types of things. They would love to help all of us in anyway possible, and ya'll can trust them as well  and as I'm sure you all know.

So this little break I'm taking right now from reading British Historical detective fiction novels is more of a way for me to gather some thoughts and let ya'll know that I'm excited for the future and to see what all of you end up doing. I'll try and come up with some more focused posts in the future ha.

Diverging a bit, I would love to make a post with all our favorite Ted Talks, especially from you Madeline and Tay because I know you both have some good ones. These posts are updatable and editable so if we start a page, we should be able to all keep adding to it and I'll figure out how to make an archive out of it.

Cheers,
Nate

Lemme know if you get this...


Here are some articles I've been looking at this week and some that I had bookmarked away (haven't finished all of them yet). Browse through them if you like:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelnoer/2012/11/02/one-man-one-computer-10-million-students-how-khan-academy-is-reinventing-education/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/glennllopis/2013/02/18/the-most-successful-leaders-do-15-things-automatically-every-day/

http://elitedaily.com/elite/2013/scientists-mice-drunk-develop-instant-sobriety-cure/

http://www.oracle.com/us/c-central/cio-solutions/information-matters/importance-of-data/index.html

http://www.forbes.com/sites/bruceupbin/2013/01/23/one-hedge-fund-aces-essential-investor-reading-list/?utm_campaign=forbestwittersf&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social

http://rossdawsonblog.com/

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2y6Kq1/:5SW$.!l-:bn_$8g5I/laptoplogic.com/resources/64-things-every-geek-should-know/

http://www.werd.com/19005/transporter-off-cloud-storage/

http://elitedaily.com/elite/2012/average/

http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2012/09/picosatellites

http://www.economist.com/news/business/21571889-technology-companies-have-their-eye-africa-ibm-leading-way-next-frontier?fsrc=scn/tw/te/tr/thenextfrontier

http://www.entrepreneur.com/inspiration