Great commencement address by Chris Sacca. There is some great advice in the video, particularly for those who have recently graduated or will be graduating.

I really liked the part in the speech where he spoke about doing a master reset on life. Far too many times I have seen people pursue paths they thought were the “right” paths, based on what they had studied or were told. Taking the opportunity to reset everything you have been told and then follow what you really want to pursue is extremely important.

Wishing all recent graduates all the very best!

This is a truly inspiring video. Would highly recommend that you take 20 minutes out of your schedule to watch this video. The speaker articulates his journey as an entrepreneur and the lessons he learned along the way.

http://www.slideshare.net/OliverWoods/foursquare-in-southeast-asia-statistics-culture-marketing

Foursquare is a simple mobile based service that gives you the ability to checkin to places you visit on a daily basis. In return you get badges, rewards and it turns into a social activity that keeps your friends updated with the whereabouts that you choose to share. The surprising factoid is about its massive adoption in SEA. It generates a tremendous amount of very valuable data that can be used in a host of third party applications. If you are building a social product in SEA you should definintely look into integrating foursquare into it.

Great presentation for startups currently looking for funding.

What sources have worked out for you and which ones have not?

2011 is shaping up to be one of the busiest years I have ever had. Projects that I had started working on years ago, are finally starting to pay dividends and Identifii keeps on growing! Looking at Fred Wilson, Brad Feld & Seth Godin’s daily blogs I am always humbled at their ability to blog everyday. A pattern that is clearly visible in their blogs is that there is always some immediate context to what they write about daily and that is something that I hope to incorporate more.

Today I received the following message:

Dear Usman, SInce I have never heard back from you I do understand that there had been no serious contact from your side in regard my application. I consider there is at this point also no interest to remain in contact for any other mutual co-operation. Wish you best of luck in your future.

–

This is a person who connected with me out of the through a weak acquaintance and wanted me to assist her in finding a relevant position in the Middle East. I sent her details to a couple of people, however there was no interest. After that life moved on and today, probably 7 – 8 months after no contact I get the following skype message, not an email.

I found the message very interesting. It epitomizes the notion of a one sided transactional relationship.

If someone wants to learn how to build a strong network of contacts, this is exactly the opposite of what should be done. Building a strong network requires you to be available and to give to others rather than to always want something back from the other person. Building a relationship where you are constantly seeking to add value is hard and takes time. At the same time, that network becomes the most powerful asset you have. Always look for ways to add value when establishing new relationships, rather than activating the network when you need them for something,

Where there is a will there is a way. I think this video encapsulates that sentiment completely.

I am a big Oatmeal fan. One of my favorite strips on their site is “How a Web Design Goes Straight to Hell“. You will be surprised as to how often this scenario actually happens.

This is a slidecast from the founder of Oatmeal during SXSW this year. I enjoyed the talk and picked up quite a few things on generating viral traffic growth for your website.

http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=2457

Marc Andreessen is another very successful serial entrepreneur that I look up to. This video compromises of him been asked some great questions about both, venture capital and entrepreneurship. If you don’t have time to watch the whole video click through on the video to watch snippets from the talk. I particularly like “Defining the Voice of a Start-up”.

Dropbox is one of those products that I use on a daily basis. It has completely removed my need for USB sticks. This presentation goes over the starting stages of Dropbox, and then onto where they went from idea to execution. It provides a great roadmap for companies that are building products in categories that cause a fundamental shift in existing behavior.

As a side note, if you haven’t signed up for dropbox yet. Please check it out Dropbox.

I really liked this short video on some of the major lessons that were learned during the Box.net journey. The five take-aways are:

1. Do something that was not possible three years ago.
2. Do something you are extremely passionate about.
3. Don’t compromise.
4. If you feel comfortable, you’re probably not doing it right.
5. Don’t write your obituary too early.

In my opinion point number 2 is really important. Without a passion for what you are doing, after year #1, things become far too difficult to handle. This is the point at which I see many people throw in the towel. Whatever problem you are solving, make sure that it is one you have ideally set yourself and want to create the solution for.