Steve Woda's blog

Perspective... The ultimate weapon in the fight against "chase the shiny object" syndrome

Life, business, politics, competition, family... These things can all be challenging at times.  Stress in inevitable.  Over the years, I have determined that the most valuable tool you can acquire for managing these challenges is "perspective" or "context".

When you think about the big picture and put your daily stresses into a proper context or perspective, you often realize how minor the bumps are.  In the short run, challenges can seem huge and the desire for quick fixes is strong.  I like to call this the "chase the shiny object" syndrome.  For organizations, "chase the shiny object" syndrome leads to inevitable failure. 

In the long run, most challenges are manageable.  By staying focused on the big picture and by continuing to put one foot in front of the other, you can make amazing progress that compounds on itself to create success.  Intuitively, we all know this, but it is often hard to keep that state of mind when you are in the weeds and when the pressure is on for instant success.

As a leader in your organization, it is always important to keep folks focused on the big picture... to give your team perspective and context on what is going on around them.  Create a roadmap or plan.  Concentrate on execution.  Put one foot in front of the other over and over again.  One morning months later, the team will wake up and be pleasantly shocked to see how far they have traveled and how much they have accomplished.

If you want the ultimate perspective, watch this video.  It is awe inspiring to me, and it certainly puts our daily, personal challenges into a much bigger picture.  :)

Hanging in my hood... Arlington, Virginia

I live and work in Arlington, Virginia, and as this hilarious video points out, it is the toughest town West of the Potomac and East of the Beltway.

The funniest part of the video for me was that I was sitting in a Starbucks wearing my brown flip flops when I first watched it.  Check out this video if you want to understand the inside humor here.  :)

Hot Streaks! How do they happen?

I just arrived home from a terrific, extended, overdue vacation on the beach in Florida with my family.  I really had a great time as I am sure you can imagine.

While there, I was practicing my putting stroke on the beach-side putting green when I suddenly starting knocking in every putt I looked at.  Since I couldn't seem to miss a putt, I grabbed my video camera to see if I could record a bit of my hot streak, and that is when the following video was taped...



Since we are on the subject of hot streaks, I want to recommend a book to you that I read while on vacation.  Rosabeth Moss Kantor's "Confidence: How Winning Streaks & Losing Streaks Begin & End" is a fabulous read, and it is now one of my personal favorites.  The book digs into the subject of how teams, organizations and people get on winning streaks or losing streaks.  What separates the two?

My favorite observation from the book, because we all know it is true, is that "failure and success are not episodes, they are trajectories."  Doing the little things well, every day, breeds success.  If you think success comes from a lucky lottery ticket, you will be a disappointed person in the long-run.  As my childhood basketball idol, Dr. J, once said, "Inch by inch, life's a cinch.  Yard by yard, life is hard."

"Confidence" is an awesome book, and for every current or aspiring leader, it is a must read.  Enjoy!

Thank you buySAFE!

Today, I am starting a new chapter in my entrepreneurial story. It is with both a bit of sadness and a lot of excitement that I share with you the news that I have left buySAFE to pursue other start-up and entrepreneurial interests. In addition, I have joined buySAFE’s Board of Advisors so that I can continue to assist the company in whatever fashion is necessary.  Click here to see buySAFE's announcement on the buySAFE blog.

After almost nine years of building buySAFE, I am leaving the Company in very capable hands, with fresh funding, and the brightest future that the Company has ever had. It has been a deeply satisfying experience to create something valuable, and I want to sincerely thank our customers, our partners, my colleagues and the many investors who made buySAFE possible. I am obviously looking forward to my next adventure, but I am also very much looking forward to buySAFE’s continued success over the coming months and years.

I founded buySAFE after getting burned in an online transaction on eBay. As a student, I didn’t have any extra money to lose to ecommerce fraudsters, and so I decided that there had to be a better way to buy and sell products online. buySAFE was born!

This adventure started for me while I was earning my MBA at Wharton in 2000, and as with all start-ups, there have been huge successes and great challenges. For me, both have proven to be invaluable learning experiences.

Developing buySAFE’s early business/technology plan, acquiring our major financial institution and strategic partners (including two major strategic partners to be announced in the coming months), and raising our $30 million in venture capital financing were all challenges that I ultimately found to be great learning experiences. Over time, I was able to lead almost every aspect of buySAFE’s business operations, and all of these experiences were amazing for me personally and professionally. I plan to share with you many of the lessons I learned at buySAFE over the coming months.

Perhaps the thing I am most proud of at buySAFE is our team. Early on, I recruited Jeff Grass, Tim Woda, and Hans Dreyer to buySAFE. Today, Jeff is buySAFE’s CEO, Tim is the VP - Sales, and Hans is the VP - Operations. They are the core of our team even to this day. The rest of our team is amazing as well, and it has been a pleasure working with each and every one of them.

I never intended to spend almost a decade working on my Wharton class project, but along the way, buySAFE provided me with an amazing opportunity to make great friends, to learn important new skills, and to see that anything is possible with persistence and creativity. It also taught me that you can’t build a company by yourself.

Although I could never hope to name all of the folks that deserve my thanks, I wish I could. A few folks in particular - my wife, my brother, and buySAFE’s employees, customers, investors, and advisors - have all obviously been invaluable to both me and buySAFE. To all of you, thank you! I sincerely appreciate your investments in time, capital, expertise, and support. There would be no buySAFE without you.

As far as the next chapter in my entrepreneurial story, I am not ready to share the details quite yet, but please stay tuned. I will share my adventures with you here on my blog, so if you are interested, please make sure to subscribe using the form below.

Thank you buySAFE!

Related posts:

"Steve Woda, Founder and Chairman of buySAFE, Pursues New Entrepreneurial Ventures" on the buySAFE blog

"Founder of buySAFE, Steve Woda, Steps Down" on AuctionBytes.com

Do you get a passing grade?

One of my favorite Twitter-related services is TwitterGrader.  If your competitive (and who isn't?), TwitterGrader will give you a sense of how you are doing as a member of the Twitter community.

Here is my grade...  http://twitter.grader.com/stevewoda

What's your Twitter Grade?  :)

How Do You Win a Business Plan Competition?

The short answer is that you need to be very, very good.  There are a lot of terrific, aspiring entrepreneurs out there, and so a bit of luck is useful too.  Having said that, winning isn't everything. 

buySAFE is actually a product of the 2002 Wharton Business Plan Competition, but the plan was not the winning plan.  PayMyBills.com has a similar story.  The founders and my good friends, Jeff Grass and John Tedesco, were finalists, but not winners, in the 1999 Wharton Business Plan Competition.  However, they went on to raise tens of millions in venture capital and they built a really nice business in the process. 

Simply going through the business planning and critique process is the real benefit of these competitions in my opinion.  Business plans are funny things.  Business planning is a fairly simple exercise, but if you haven't previously developed a plan, the effort can seem very daunting.  Business plan competitions typically provide basic advice to the entrepreneurs on how to get started.  The competitions also have multiple stages with each stage presenting an opportunity to receive valuable feedback from the experienced entrepreneurs and investors that are judging and/or mentoring in the competition.

The following Business Week video does a nice job of covering the basics regarding what you need to know before submitting your business plan.

Winning a Business Plan Competition | The Businessweek Video Library

In the video, the University of Oregon's Randy Swangard talks about how to win that business plan competition -- what to keep in mind before you apply, and why it's sometimes better to come in second.

The Wharton Club of New York is running a business plan competition now, and here is all the information you need to enter as a participant.  I highly encourage you to participate if you can.

Also, you might find the following NY Times article interesting.  "Beyond Grades: Business Students Put Their Start-up Ideas to the Test" does a nice job of covering the ins and outs of business school business plan competitions.

Have fun, and good luck!

The eMarket for Lemons at The Wharton School

I had the opportunity to speak at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania last week about an article that Dr. Eric Clemons recently authored for the Journal of Management Information Systems, "An Empirical Investigation of Third-Party Seller Rating Systems in E-Commerce: The Case of buySAFE".  My presentation was focused on marketplace economics and specifically about information asymmetry, signaling, the "Market for Lemons" concept, and buySAFE.  In addition, I was able to share a few thoughts about my entrepreneurial experience with buySAFE.

As always, I had a great time as the guest of Dr. Eric Clemons, and I enjoyed hearing the passionate questions, insights and feedback from the students.  One of the students posted an article about my visit on his blog, The Un-Wharton. 

Should Entrepreneurs Worry About the Loyalties of Their Lawyers?

Should entrepreneurs worry about the loyalties of their lawyers?  That is the question posed in a recent article on TheFunded.com, and to be honest, it is a fair question.

Most venture financings have closing legal expenses in the mid-five figures, and I know of Series B deals where the closing expenses have approached a quarter million dollars (yes, you heard me right... $250,000).  At the end of the day, these expenses are ultimately paid for by investors.  In addition, within local venture ecosystems, the venture lawyers obviously do many deals with the venture capitalists in their area over the course of time.  These factors certainly create the potential for major conflicts of interest, and according to many entrepreneurs, the conflicts of interest are real.

My team has always had the benefit of terrific legal counsel, and we haven't personally struggled with this issue.  However, if you honestly assess the dynamics of the venture relationships as well as the economics of where and how corporate lawyers get paid, you will have to agree that entrepreneurs probably should be keeping a close eye on your lawyers.

As I mentioned, there was a terrific post on this subject at TheFunded.com - Venture Legal: A Conflict of Interest and a Complicated Mess.  The author of this post hit the issue right on the nail.

Facebook, Executives, College Students and Love

I was recently invited to join a professional colleague's Facebook network.  Up until then, I had strictly used LinkedIn as my only social network primarily because a) I have always found LinkedIn to be very useful for business, and b) I perceived Facebook as a playground for college kids.

Well I was wrong.  Facebook is awesome, and many of my professional colleagues were way ahead of me in discovering the network's value. Its utility becomes very powerful as your network multiplies and matures.  To be quite honest, I now view LinkedIn as a great place to view a professional profile or resume, but that is about it. Facebook provides a scalable method for communicating with your professional network.  The bottom-line is that I am learning to love Facebook. 

Since we are talking about Facebook, I thought you might also enjoy this article about the Facebook phenomenon.

"For college students, if it's Facebook, it's love | Reuters" 

For the Facebook generation, love now comes with a drop-down menu.

With profiles on the Facebook social networking site (www.facebook.com/) almost de rigueur on college campuses, students can define their relationship status with menu choices ranging from "married" to that perennial favorite, "It's complicated."

"It's complicated" could also describe the emotional calculations people in their late teens and early 20s make as they decide whether their relationships are what they call "Facebook-worthy." MORE >>

My Social Network Profiles:      
Facebook >>    
LinkedIn >>    
deli.cio.us Bookmarks >>

A Few Interesting, Recent eCommerce and Entrepreneurship Articles

Good morning everyone!  If you know me well, you know that I am a voracious reader of anything and everything that I believe is interesting or useful either personally or professionally.  My colleagues will attest to the fact that their Inbox usually has at least one article that I have recent found that might be useful for them or buySAFE. :)

Today, I have been catching-up on my reading list, and I thought I would share with you a few articles that I found interesting.  Hopefully, you will some of the info interesting as well.

Steve

The Wharton School and Entrepreneurship

The Wharton Business Plan Competition took place earlier this month, and NP Solutions was the big winner for 2007. The new venture took home the $20,000 grand prize for a business that provides a polymer based injectable hydrogel treatment for back pain.  Obviously, I wish these folks a bunch of luck with their new business.

As you may already know, I am a big fan of these collegiate competitions.  buySAFE (formerly known as BondMyAuction) is a product of the Wharton Business Plan Competition, and so I can speak from experience when I say that these events can be very useful in getting entrepreneurial ventures launched.  I actually entered the business plan competition in 2000 and 2001 with different ventures as a student.

Then after graduation, I teamed up with Peter Niessen, a 2002 MBA grad, to enter BondMyAuction in the 2002 Wharton Business Plan Competition (You need at least one current student on your team to participate, but the rest of the team can be alums, etc...).  Peter was a terrific teammate, and he and I were able to make it to the Finals of the competition.  Again, it was a great experience, and you can read about it in this recent article by the New York Times - "Beyond Grades: Business Students Put Their Start-Up Ideas to the Test"

One last interesting note for you...

Jeff Grass, buySAFE's CEO, was also a finalist in the Wharton Business Plan competition in 1999 along with his business partner, John Tedesco (John is currently the CEO & President of Guardian Mobile Monitoring Systems).  Jeff and John launched PayMyBills.com shortly after graduation, and they ultimately sold the company to PayTrust in 2000.  Today, the company's service is owned by Intuit, and it powers the bill payment and management solutions for some of the country's largest financial institutions.

Needless to say, collegiate business plan competitions can provide aspiring entrepreneurs with a generous leg up on the formidable challenges of starting up a company out of school.  For me, the Wharton Business Plan Competition experience was invaluable.

The Three Qualities of Great Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurship is one of the most exciting things that you can choose to do as a profession.  It is also tough to be an entrepreneur.  Entrepreneurship is definitely not for the faint of heart.  I ran across this quote recently, and I thought it perfectly describes the attributes of successful entrepreneurs.

"Top people, especially entrepreneurs, seem to have these three qualities: First, they learn more things. Second, they try more things. Third, they persist longer than anyone else."

I can't source this quote unfortunately because I did not write it down at the time I originally heard it.  However, I did find it mentioned on the NVTC website with a quick Google search. The quote is right on point.  I could not have said it better myself. 

Great entrepreneurs are extremely curious people.  They are constantly seeking to learn about new stuff.  That is how they innovate and develop new ideas.  That is also how they successfully manage their ventures. 

Great entrepreneurs know that although the goal is always success, failure is to be expected as well.  If you try twice as many things as your competitors, you are twice as likely to hit on the right formula.  This requires creativity, speed and action.  It also requires a confidence to weather those pesky failures.  Again, great entrepreneurs continue working the problem until they find a solution.

Most of all, great entrepreneurs never quit.  They keep at it much longer than most folks.  They fail, but they get right back up and try again.  In my opinion, persistence is by far and away the most important quality that great entrepreneurs possess.

These also happen to be the qualities that I most admire in the folks that I hire to work in my organizations.  In start-up ventures, entrepreneurship cannot solely be the role of the founders.  Every employee needs to be entrepreneurial.  In my opinion, I would take an entrepreneurial employee over others almost any day. 

The entrepreneurs thrive in startups.  They plow new ground, and take ventures to a place they could not have been imagined before.  The "big" resume folks typically do the same things that worked in their last organization.  Unfortunately for them, most great startup ventures are doing something completely new.  That requires entrepreneurship. 

You show me a team of talented entrepreneurs working well together as a team, and you will probably also be showing me an organization that has a great chance at success.

While I am on the subject, let me also recommend a book for you to read that illustrates my last point.  "Entrepreneurial Marketing: Lessons From Wharton's Pioneering MBA Course" by Len Lodish, Wharton professor and marketing guru, is one of my favorite books.  For marketers, I believe Entrepreneurial Marketing is required reading.  The following article will give you a brief overview of the book as well as an introduction to Len and his philosophies on teaching marketing to the MBA students at Wharton: Cheaper-Better-Faster.

Enjoy and have a great weekend!

Where Can You Meet the Largest Merchants on eBay?

Every couple of months, the Professional eBay Sellers Alliance (PESA) pulls together a collection of eBay's largest, most successful merchants.  These events are always terrific opportunities to meet experienced e-commerce professionals, and to get an insider's view of how the e-commerce market is developing.  Next week, PESA will convene its sixth PESA Summit in Chicago.

buySAFE has attended every one of these remarkable semi-annual events.  In fact, we have sponsored every PESA event since the organization's inception, so we are obviously a huge supporter of this organization.

Therefore, I wanted to give next week's PESA Summit a mini-plug.  If you are a professional merchant or simply interested in e-commerce because you are a member of the media, a financial analyst or a third-party service provider, you should attend this event.  You won't be sorry.  You will meet amazing folks and get the inside scoop on where e-commerce and eBay are headed.  Christie Hefner of Playboy Enterprises will be giving the Keynote Address.

As a side note, I will be speaking at the PESA Summit on an interesting panel of e-commerce experts including Jonathan Gariss (CEO for GothamCityOnline), Sloan Gaon (VP of Global Strategy for MIVA), and Jimmy Duvall (Director of e-Commerce Products for Yahoo! Small Business).  The Website Design & Web 2.0 panel should be very interesting, and I will provide a summary of the discussion on this blog after the event.

I am looking forward to it, and I hope you can find your way to Chicago for this terrific event.

eMarket for Lemons at Baruch College

I was recently invited by Dr. Karl Lang to be a guest lecturer at Baruch College on the subject of buySAFE and my experience starting an e-commerce business.  I always love speaking to folks about buySAFE and its important value proposition (Making sure that buyers get what they pay for, and that merchants get paid what they deserve.), but I especially enjoy speaking with college students (in this case they were MBAs) about what I believe is happening with e-commerce today.

As many of you know, I believe there is a fundamental problem emerging with e-commerce.  Specifically, the problem is that buyers have a very difficult time reliably telling the difference between good sellers/product and bad sellers/product.  In economic terms, this is called "information asymmetry".  Sure, if you are large, recognizable brand, buyers know they can trust you.  However, if a merchant is unknown to a buyer, how in the world can that buyer reliably figure out if everything is going to be 100% okay?  The answer is that it is very difficult for them to do so confidently.

When a marketplace suffers from information asymmetry, it inevitably develops into a "Market for Lemons".  You can read my previous blog post on the subject at "What is a Market for Lemons?"

Obviously, buySAFE solves this major e-commerce problem, and as of Q2 2007, there are thousands of online merchants that have signed-up for the buySAFE service in order to help mitigate this issue for shoppers.

I thought you might like to see the presentation I gave the MBA students at Baruch.  You can download the "eMarket for Lemons" presentation here, or you can view the presentation below.

I want to thank give a special thanks to Dr. Lang for inviting me to speak at Baruch College, and I especially want to thank the MBA students for their fascinating questions and additional insights.

buySAFE Founder Guarantees Delivery by The Washington Times

The Washington Times recently did a nice article on buySAFE, and of course, I appreciated the generous coverage as well.

"buySAFE Founder Guarantees Delivery" by The Washington Times

I hope you enjoy the read.

Related articles & blog posts:
AuctionWire
TMCnet

Legendary VC and Entrepreneur, Vinod Khosla, on Entrepreneurship

I recently spoke at Wharton, and one of the students asked if I could periodically post on my experiences as an entrepreneur.  I thought it was a great idea, and so here is my first of many thoughts on entrepreneurship.

What is a "Market for Lemons"?

I have had a number of eBay merchants write me about a post that I made earlier this week suggesting that eBay seems to be displaying the early signs of a Market for Lemons problem (Some would argue it is far beyond the beginning stages, but I will let you debate that with your comments below).

Without focusing on eBay or eCommerce in general, it has been requested that I illustrate a simple example of how a "Market for Lemons" develops.  Obviously, there is a lot of academic research on this subject (I posted a Wharton case study by Dr. Eric Clemons earlier this week, and you won't want to miss it since it discusses eBay's challenges in greater depth.), and almost everybody has heard the "Market for Lemons" term utilzed at some point.  Wikipedia provides a basic overview of the Market for Lemons economic concept, so I won't regurgitate what you can read elsewhere.

In short, the "The Market for Lemons: Quality Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism" is a paper written by George Akerlof in 1970 that describes what happens to markets that suffer from information asymmetry problems.  Ultimately, Dr. Akerlof won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2001 (along with Michael Spence and Joseph Stiglitz) for his analysis of markets with information asymmetry.  While I was at Wharton, I was fascinated by the implications of this research on eCommerce marketplaces.

What's Wrong With eBay? It's Simple Economics

What's wrong with eBay?  Before I answer this question, you should download this Wharton case study by Dr. Eric Clemons of The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.  Dr. Clemons is one of the world's most renowned experts on information economics, and this case study is currently being taught at Wharton this semester.  It goes into great detail discussing eBay's current challenges, and I believe you will find it insightful.

Okay back to the question...  What's wrong with eBay?

Thought of the Week - 08/26/06

For those of you that know me, you know that I appreciate inspirational quotes, poems and stories.  Life is a complicated journey, and personally, I believe one of the keys to success in life and business is learning from others and their experiences.

As Otto von Bismarck once remarked...

The Virginia Joint Commission on Technology & Science (JCOTS) Cybercrimes Advisory Committee

I was recently appointed to the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Joint Commission on Technology & Science Cybercrimes Advisory Committee. The general purpose of the advisory committee is to study and advise on key cybercrime issues under consideration by JCOTS and by the Virginia legislature.

The focus for this year’s advisory committee is computer trespass and cell phone spam.
Specifically, we will be studying HB 254 (2006) and HB 1354 (2006) during the 2006 legislative interim.  We will work to determine what changes need to be made, if any, to further refine these bills.

HB 254 ammends the Commonwealth's existing computer tresspass statute by adding three provisions prohibiting certain forms of spyware. In addition to the three provisions, there was a proposed amendment exempting certain software providers from the three spyware provisions.

HB 1354 attempts to prohibit unsolicited text messages (spam) sent to wireless devices in the Commonwealth. However, both the CAN-SPAM Act and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) regulate certain types of messages sent to wireless devices. This advisory committee will need to determine what types of messages the state may regulate and if there is a sufficient need for regulation at this time.

During our first meeting in late July, the Cybercrimes Committee also discussed ideas on how to combat eCommerce fraud, pharming, phishing and MySpace.com safety problems.

I was very impressed by both the legislators and the citizen advisors. There are a lot of smart folks in Virginia thinking, proactively, about how to make the Internet a safer place for all of us, and I will keep you up to date on our work over the course of the year.

The Cybercrimes Advisory Committee consists of the following members:

Virginia Legislators:

• Senator Ken Stolle
• Delegate Cosgrove

Citizen Members:

• Michael A. Aisenberg, VeriSign
• Patricia Boggs, Cyveillance
• Charles Curren, AOL
• Steve DelBianco, Association for Competitive Technology
• Anne Gavin, Microsoft
• Thomas W.J.C. McCrystal, Creative Perspectives
• Russell E. McGuire, Virginia Office of the Attorney General
• Adam Ruttenberg, Cooley Godward
• Gerry Stegmaier, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
• Steven L. Woda, buySAFE

Related articles on the Internet:
AuctionBytes
AuctionWire

Help me fight cancer!

The Light The Night Walk is The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's nationwide walk to raise awareness and funds to cure leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma, and improve the quality of life of patients and their families.

My wife and I are participating in the Walk in honor of my father-in-law, who lost a valiant struggle with acute leukemia. Douglas P. Lawless was diagnosed with lymphoma almost 16 years ago. At that time, he was told to get his affairs in order and prepare for the worst. However, he was a fighter and under the treatment advice of an expert, he remained healthy and vibrant for another 15 years. During that time, he was able to see his kids get married, hold and watch his three grandchildren grow and, most importantly, spend time and take many trips with his wonderful wife. Mr. Lawless also played a role in helping to get buySAFE funded and launched.

In early 2005, we learned that Mr. Lawless had complications from the chemotherapy required to treat his lymphoma. Last summer, he underwent a stem cell transplant in Boston in an effort to combat these complications. The stem cell transplant was not successful. In the fall, we learned that the complications had morphed into Acute Myeloid Leukemia. There was nothing else the doctors could do and we returned home in October. Mr. Lawless passed away on March 4, 2006. He was 59.

Doug Lawless was a great father and husband, and there isn’t a day that goes by that we don’t miss him and think about him. It was his wish to increase funding for research so that others would not have to endure what he did. To honor his wishes, I am participating in The Light The Night Walk to raise awareness and funds to cure leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma.

Please join our Walk team or make a donation to support my participation in the Light The Night Walk.  Details are below. Thank you in advance for your generous support.  I sincerely appreciate it.

Join my Light The Night team
Anyone who wants to join my team for the Walk can do so online via this registration form.

Make a personal contribution
If you would simply like to make a donation in support of our Walk, or if you would like to more about why we are walking, you can visit my personal Light The Night homepage.

Walk Information
When:  Saturday October 14th, 2006
Where: Freedom Plaza, Washington, D.C.
Who: Anyone who wants to fight cancer is invited to join.  There is no particular level of fitness required.  The walk is approximately 2.5 miles.
How: The organizers encourage every walker to beat the national average amount ($100) by setting their individual goal to at least $150.  Minimum goals/ donations to walk are $25.  My personal goal is  $1,000.
Why: The need for cures is critical: Every five minutes, someone in this country is diagnosed with blood cancer. Every ten minutes, someone dies. Leukemia is the leading cause of cancer death among children and young adults under the age 20.
Fundraising Rewards: All participants raising $100 or more will receive an illuminated balloon and a T-shirt to wear during the Walk.  Walkers raising $300, $500, $1,000, $2,500 or more can receive other exciting gifts.  Visit www.lightthenight.org for more gift information.

The "Steve Woda LinkedIn Profile" is up and running

I spent a few minutes today working on my "Steve Woda LinkedIn Profile".  I love LinkedIn, and I like the idea of having an online profile that folks can refer to if they want to get the basics on who you are.  I have to be honest though, there are too many of these things out there, and it will be nice when one company has become the defacto standard.

This ties into my favorite subject, portable trust and reputation.  The Wall Street Journal discussed portable reputation on 8/2/06, and they mentioned a few of the companies in this space including Trufina and Opinity.  This subject is going to get bigger and bigger this next year, and I expect buySAFE will be leading the charge with its portable trust signal, the buySAFE Seal.

Important Portable Trust & Reputation blogs:
buySAFE blog
Trufina blog
Opinity blog
Rapleaf blog

Nice PR. I'll take it.

The Northern Virginia Technology Council and Bisnow on Business partner together to publish a terrific weekly email newsletter that includes interviews with Washington's top entrepreneurs. Well, I was lucky enough to be included this week, and I thought I would share. You can visit Bisnow.com to read the interview. I want to thank Mark Bisnow and Tania Anderson for asking me to participate.

How Do Successful People Get That Way?

My undergraduate alma mater, Florida Southern College, had its annual homecoming this past weekend, and unfortunately, I wasn't able to make it back for the event. However, it did get me thinking about my college experience and what I learned during my four years in Lakeland, Florida.

I think about one of my former professors often. Jeff Wiley taught finance, but the greatest gift he gave me had little to do with finance. One day in class in 1989, Col. Wiley decided to talk about how to be successful. He wanted to share his thoughts about how we would ultimately achieve success beyond the grounds of FSC. He gave each of us a brief handout that provided his view of how to be successful in life, and I thought I would share it with you.

How Do Successful People Get That Way?
1) They have plenty of drive.
2) They accept responsibility cheerfully.
3) They know that success is never an accident.
4) They know that the customer is their real "boss".
5) They look, listen, and learn.
6) They find out if they're not sure.
7) They set an example to others.
8) They know that the next field only looks greener.
9) They welcome new ideas.
10) They profit by their mistakes.
11) They speak clearly and convincingly.
12) They don't expect all the credit.
13) They cooperate.
14) They realize that their future is their own responsibility.
15) They think things through...first.
16) They believe that good manners are good business.
17) They know the world does not owe them a living.
18) They are willing to go that "extra mile".
19) They are careful about their finances.
20) They set a goal for themselves.
21) They realize that everything worth having has a price tag.
22) They keep physically and mentally fit.
23) They earnestly want to succeed.
24) They know the value of enthusiasm.
25) They make others feel important.
26) They try to help the "boss".
27) They never "pass the buck".
28) They control their temper.
29) They consider work a privilege, not a chore.
30) They are their own severest critic.
31) They've learned that easy does it.
32) They try to cut expenses.
33) They never forget!

Obviously, as flawed humans, none of us will ever be able to live up to all of these ideal attributes. However, Col. Wiley's advice on how to be a successful person is inspirational to me, and I hope you enjoy it as well. Have a nice weekend!