IBLA – Investment Banker Los Angeles

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The Hunger Games has been a global blockbuster and revenue record-breaker. So my wife Shelly and I were curious to see it. Its premise lowers society’s respect for life and freedom and shows how this kind of human depravity could be a reality.
But for those of us who have lived life or studied history, we know that kind of depravity isn’t a fiction fantasy.
In just the past 100 years, the Turks massacred 1.5 million Armenians, Hitler slaughtered 6 million Jews as well as 17 million other “undesirables,” Stalin killed 20 million people and Mao, 65 million citizens.
And even as recently as the Vietnam Era, Pol Pot massacred 800,000 of his fellow Cambodians–20% of the country’s entire population. This depravity is no fantasy.
What’s more, in The Hunger Games world, there was no hope…no faith…nothing to rely on…no idea of redemption

A friend sent me the above from www.electionforum.org and I’ve been pondering it for a week. On a personal note, let me say that I was a reluctant Hunger Games reader. My daughter pushed me to read it (not sure why she wants me to realize what she’s reading), it’s on our Kindles and a beloved bestseller to boot. As a parent the concept turned me off: killing children?

Eventually my girl got her way, as happens, and I read the trilogy, in about a day. I love The Hunger Games! As a parent I even love The Hunger Games! Let me tell you why – the story is compelling, fast paced and exciting. The characters are engaging and readers are dropped immediately into life threatening drama and emotional desires. We root for our heroine much as we cringe at the costs of her success.

The Orwellian lurking government isn’t that different from our public school system which must look equally arbitrary and random to the powerless kids who now – outside school – control online worlds and there make consequential decision daily….

Continue reading → Why The Hunger Games is appropriate reading for children...

Yesterday I was reading something Richard Riordan gave me to read. He has been a wonderful friend and mentor over the past years and I can recite his axioms of leadership in my sleep (courage, giving/caring, empowering others and relentless pursuit of goals…with vision and sense of humor perhaps added…and already all over the Internet). What I was reviewing was more personal, about his life and struggles, and made me reflect deeply.

We all have those roll models and influences who make us think differently. I’m a very creative person and having spent so much time in Silicon Valley believe that the real edge any person or company has is the ability to think differently and then execute on that vision.

I’ve been blessed with…

Continue reading → Richard Riordan, leadership and mentors...

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So said my yoga teacher, Tom.

I took his advice. Thus I haven’t been writing many blog postings but I did finish my hardcore first revisions on Escape, Captive’s sequel (I also completed the actual first draft of the whole book). Now it’s all polishing and perfecting, which is a lot less work than earlier efforts.

For, I was juggling too much and not finishing enough. And it’s absolutely true that anyone’s mind, even mine (though I aspire to more) can only handle so many disparate efforts at once. My projects as of late have also been complex, requiring deep analysis and a written output…which is hard, grueling and doesn’t time share attention well….

Continue reading → Do less, accomplish more...

Lucky or unlucky, I’m an action oriented person. Always happy to jump into new challenges I must hold myself back…recognizing that time is a limited commodity and doing a thorough analysis before undertaking a major commitment is essential (otherwise lots of unfinished projects!).

Currently, I’m buried deep in revising draft one of a sequel to Captive (at over 400 pages) and nursing a business plan. How to allocate my time and give each their proper attention and chance at success? Well luckily the two projects aren’t as diverse as they may sound and the skills required are very similar in many ways. But first I want to draw a distinction between writing a novel and writing non-fiction: in my opinion, non-fiction is much more predictable and structured, though not necessarily less creative.

So how is writing a novel like starting a company?

1. Creativity is an absolute must. One could argue that all stories have been told and indeed the best ones are variations of the classic story lines. Likewise, many new companies are only reinventing what has already come before or tweaking a new reality. Thus in both cases, seeing the possibilities in the marketplace or on the page differently is key to success.

Continue reading → How writing a novel is like starting a company...

Or, why iterative changes matter more than disruptive ones.

Punk rock erupted in 1974 as a response to the excesses of the mainstream 1970s rock world (big bands, big shows and big hair; more focused on business than music/audience; arrogance; bad music). Punk music was hard, fast paced and raw, with shorter songs and less instrumentation. Oftentimes a political or anti-establishment message was worked in. Audiences loved the authenticy and accessibility. And what is rock music if not rebellious (corporate wasn’t cutting it)? These artists struggled in the real world like we did. A subculture developed. The movement spread.

Remind you of YouTube and the Arab Spring?

Continue reading → Punk Rock Circa 2012...

Yesterday I sat down with an ambitious young entrepreneur who was having a hard time raising $10 million dollars. I seem to be having a lot of this same conversation recently.

In today’s world I can promise you that raising $10 million dollars for a concept is next to impossible. I feel like saying that unfortunately it still does happen (but there is something else at play…a serial entrepreneur with a long term track record, an expert with a revolutionary and proprietary technology, a wealthy investor with an idea meets the right team to execute, etc). Still those “starts’ give everyone else a false hope. At other times, doing so has been much more likely (before the financial crisis, or the late 1990s, for example).

My advice was to start something, no matter how small, first….

Continue reading → Start something before you raise money...