Today is a big day! Foundups.com 1st official early adapters meetup group take place in Washington DC.

What is a foundup and how does it differ from a startup?

I like Eric Ries' definition. "A startup is a human institution designed to deliver a new product or service under conditions of extreme uncertainty." A foundup is that very specific point where you have that epiphany and get your first seed investment or "sustaining" customer.  You could also think of a foundup as any startup that hasn't crossed "the chasm".

Today is a big day! Foundups.com 1st official early adapters meetup group take place in Washington DC. 

So if you are attending tonight welcome and hello! You are an officially an early adapter and foundup leader. Remember, "a foundup is a founder with an idea for a lean startup bootstrapping a proof of concept" It's that simple! 

To share a bit of my story. I have been living in Japan for the last five years and in June 11, 2010 relocated back to DC to pursue my dreams and move my foundups forward. They include EDUIT.org, Wikitube.TV, and Foundups.com. A massive void exists from the the idea to the seed investor stage. I want to help eliminate this void and replace it with a systematic process that will allow virtually anyone to do foundups to startups.

In October 2010, I was first introduced to Eric Ries' lean startup ideas and my interest was tweaked. In December 09, 2010 a paradigm shift occurred as a result of applying my take on lean his methodology and I did my first foundup, "Wikitube.TV." Wikitube (a pandora/netflixs for social media) is an idea I have had since 2004 (it plays a key role in my plan to flattening global education) but just couldn't get it going using the startup 1.0 method. 

Foundup aims to address and solve a very specific state in the startup life-cycle. I would like a group that talks and share their lean startup experience and to also teach other about the lean startups. The Foundup startups 2.0 method I am helping to pioneer (I don't like the term "lean")  is an exciting new approach to develop startups. If you want more information on the lean startup 2.0 method being pioneered then I would strongly recommend you check out this blog.   I have tried to consolidate the crux of Eric and others startup 2.0 ideas in one location and even talk about the foundup method that I am pioneering (foundups.com).

The purpose of the Foundups Meetup group is to share and network with other passionate startup 2.0 practitioner in order  to help one another to get their foundups going.

Good luck! And thanks for the interest in this 1st of what I hope will be MANY foundup meetup groups around the world.

Sincerely and passionately,

Michael J. Trout
Founder

Transforming Global Education? It comes down to a simple paradigm shift...

My friend Dheeraj Prasad, Director of MS Education, India invited me to join his Ning

"Transform-EdTransforming Education in this century" Here is what I wrote:

Since 2001 I have had a strong desire to make all learning free and accessible to all via Information Technology. I have termed the moment when all learning is free and accessible to all as The eSingularity moment (link to FB our movement). In 2001 I established an entity EDUIT.org "Education using IT" and over the last 3 years I have been promoting and branding the idea of eSingularity and Education 3.0 paradigm. E3o, simply put, is education driven by autonomous learning software that removes the need for having schools and teachers in the learning process, empowering family and communities to take control of their learning. Most cringe at the idea of making school and teachers mere accessories and their imagination will put words into what I really mean.  


Why I have this profound desire radically transform learning is really a mystery to me. I was severely dyslexic and hated traditional education. I grew up on video games, I wasted, what must amount to years playing them. I remember In the 70s and 80s we had same vision to eradicate world hunger and we have failed at it. "Give a man a fish, he eats for a day; teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime... " That is provided there are fish to catch, which is an issue I will not cover in this post, directly. I know, with current, hardware we could give everyone education. The UN states that for something like $20 billion we could eradicate world illiteracy... I laugh... because for as little as $100m I think we could do it better and faster by simply promoting the development of Autonomous Learning Software (ALS) solutions that would transform how everyone learns. So the transformation of global education comes down to a simple paradigm shift. And the good news is I see it coming.  Let me put it into context.

For over 50 years Hollywood wanted to produce "A Curious Case of Benjamin Button" but could not because they lacked the technology to do it until just recently. The technology to do it didn't exist, however they knew the pieces did. For the same ammount of time we have wanted to use technology to create an education transformation and it hasn't come for the vast majority of the world populations. However, in the last 3 years something truly amazing as happened, we now have the hardware and software engineering practices to radically transform global education for the first time. Consider for a moment what your latest "super computer like" smart phone, you are holding in your hand right now, will cost two... three... four...  five... years from now? Will they be giving them away, just like they do in Japan? My smartphone I bought for the same price as an iPhone today 3 years ago is now free phone in Japan.  We walk around with amazing super computers in our pockets with some truly amazing apps like Siri, Augmented ID and thousands of others that are just waiting for ALS to organize them, control them and tailor deliver them to us... Siri is a very crude ALS solution built on $150m in DARPA research funding and Apple just bought the company in April 2010. Apple as we speak are probably working on using Siri as an app aggregation tool.  Siri is powerful software that is potentially capable of taking control of iPhone learning and education apps in new and interesting ways. ALS will help reduce the burden of educators who are overwhelmed with paperwork, obsolete tests methods and grading; allowing teachers to focus instead on applying and developing student intellectual entrepreneurial and critical thinking (what commonly referred to as higher-learning) skills. And every year these devices will become cheaper and cheaper until every family in India, China and Africa will be provided one (initially to capture 2 billion in daily banking transactions). And promoting education solutions on them will be a marketing gimmick to get them to get a smart mobile device. The time in here to bring about eSingularity (level one) within the next 10 years.

There are levels of eSingularity... level one - create an autonomous learning software for smart devices that will takes a two-year old to 8th grade equivalent in math, science, and language arts autonomously without the need of a school or teacher -- the device becomes both. This doesnt mean I want to eliminate school and teachers as some will argue. What is means is in places that doesnt have them a device can play the role until that time school and teachers can be established. Level two - expand to ALL other subjects and trade skills enabling anyone to get a college degree for free or learn basic trades for free. Level three - learn anything, anytime, anywhere; becoming an accountant, doctor or nurse will no longer be a product of a school. Instead the information, testing and skills will be done on any smart device using very advanced technologies such as "virtual immersion" that will enable a full interaction experience in what will seem like real-life ALS learning environments.  


The eSingularity vision is massive... For many it is scary. it creates what some might refer to as a Nexus event. Other Nexus events in our past was development of: speech, writing, the industrial revolution, modern science, the computer etc... However, eSingularity is a massive Nexus in the order of magnitude as Ray Kurzweil's technology Singularity that describes a point in the near future when computer processing power becomes greater than the human brain. And I will make this prediction - The eSingularity will happen before Ray's tSingularity ;) And if asked, I'm sure Ray would agree too. 

For the last five years I have been in Japan testing some assumptions. Japan is a great place to be a teacher with technology. I watch my 3 year old successfully learn English on an iPhone with little help from me. I used the iPhone in my teaching of small kids and observed how they greatly improved and how technology greatly speeds up the learning process. I developed my own learning objects courseware for Smart.fm (User EDUITorg) and tested them in my classes and saw great results. I even presented video's on Youtube (user EDUITorg) showing the difference between "traditional" teacher driven learning and device driven learning. I observed 70% increase in the ability of my students from those that used smart.fm learning engine technology just one a week. I did my own personal case studies in elementary school comparing how different school responded with and without using smart.fm Cerego learning Enginne as part of their English Education process. And with 20 years of watching avatars develop from simple objects to complex entities I know the time is right to bring all these parts together and to being about a new education industry that ultimately will dismantle the inefficient, slow to adapt, Western Education Complex that for the last 3000 years has dominated global learning. Its time is marked. And a new industry the Autonomous Learning Industry that will usher in Education 3.0 (learning driven by ALS). 

So what is the next step? The next step is simple as I outlined on EDUIT.org. We set up and establish the eSingularity Prize for the development of Autonomous Learning Software (ALS). This is to encourage groups and people imagination. Since 2001 - 2006 I operated in stealth mode trying to ID folks to invest in my idea to build an ALS solution. What I discovered was that the idea of ALS was too much of a paradigm stretch and too much of the needed technology still hadn't surfaced.  In the last three years that is starting to changing and I can go into great length the kinds of technology and software development practices, just as Agile, that are changing everything. Even the way startups are done have changed in the last 5 years and will continue to evolve to a state that writing and developing ALS software become easy for even a high school student.  What I find amusing is that pedagogical hangups from folks trapped in an archaic learning model seem now to be the ONLY obstacle... Let me try to put what I mean in a different context. What I am saying is we can build the "Intelligent TV" that will eradicate illiteracy and provide a basic education in math and science; and what I am hearing is we can't build this "intelligent TV" because we need to first figure out what programs will run on it. That is complete nonsense, because the programming came about as a result of the first TVs and not the other way round. By having the tool we can figure out what pedagogically works and doesn't. When we look at the TV programming back in the 50s we laugh. It sucks! When we look at the ALS solutions on iPhone 4g ten years from now we will be amused with them. Just as when I look back at the multiplayers PC games that I played religiously 20 years ago and think of what is available now. 


The eSingularity Prizes for the development for autonomous learning software solutions. How will it work? There will be one pot and many prizes :) iPhone, LINUX, OLPC, Android, etc.. eSingularity Prizes in math, science and language arts.  The ALS solution will be judged to take a child to an 8th grade equivalent in math, science and language arts. All content must be community developed via, open source communities like Moodle, Currike, OCW etc.  Investors in the fund just set aside funds in an escrow account and dedicate 0.5% interest to the management of the fund and the promotion on the prize. Prize deadline is exactly 7 years from the date the fund is establish. By accepting the Prize you are giving full IP access to the fund and it's investors. In return you share in an negotiated profit sharing plan on all technologies that come out of the technology.  Very simple. 

As of June 11, I have arrived back in DC to help set in motion eSingularity via EDUIT's establishment of the eSingularity Prize and I am working to establish the Autonomous Institute that Dheeraj should chair ;) The visionaries gathered on this group have it within their power and understanding to know what I say is true and support the vehicles by promoting and sharing the vision of eSingularity. I am looking for allies, partners and sponsors. Are you willing to make a difference in the lives of billions? I am and will pushing the envelope and the silly paradigm that thinks "living" teacher and schools are requirements for a basic educaiton in math, science and language arts. That will change within the next 10 years. 

Don't Be Evil... Be Google

What does it really mean "Don't Be Evil?" What is Google's definition of Evil? Is ripping ideas from small bootstrapping startups Evil? My simple definition of Evil is "any imposition that has potentially a severe negative consequences on an individual or group is evil."  China governmental groups hacking Gmail with the aim to find out who the dissidents are, in order to jail them is definitely Evil. Very evil in fact, because by gaining access to them and their data their well being is put in grave jeopardy. However, dialectically speaking, China sees these individuals threats to their way of life and society and Google is harboring these evil dissidents and their associates. The thing is, a society and culture that imposes negative consequences on an individual or group is Evil. So in Google's defense China desire to control and harm individuals who are seeking to do good is Evil. It's a pretty clear cut case.

So what about Wikitube? Is ripping off another's idea Evil? It depends... Do you think the Carlos Slim Helu & family Mexican monopolization of the Mexican Telcom Evil? Talk to any Mexican and they do. He cause great harm to many with outrageous phone bills. Getting a one of his phones cause a negative consequence to them as they could not pay their bills. How about our Fannie Mae loan crisis? And all those that participated in the bonanza? Greed is the world biggest inspiration for being evil. BP's greed for oil has ruined the Gulf. Bill Gates went after Netscape and did all in his power to destroy them... in what is now referred to as the "Browser Wars." Ironically, it is a search engine that has surpassed them. One could argue Gates' obsession to do it was considered "Evil" and suffered the consequences. I think that it probably was a big reason for his stepping down as CEO and why he now focuses his time on being Good via his Gates Foundation.

Is it harder to "Don't be Evil?" or "Be Good?" It's a lot harder to "Be Good." "Don't Be Evil" is passive. It implies not to impose negative consequences on others. To "Be Good" requires intent and being conscious of ones actions with respect to others and insuring that what you are doing isn't imposing negatively on them. For example: Drilling for oil in the gulf to insure independence from Middle Eastern oil not being Evil. But drilling for oil with complete disregard public safety and cutting corners is not being good to the environment, animals and the people that depend on it.

Google and others companies should strive to do more than "Don't Be Evil" they should really strive to "Be Good!" And in the process of being good make the all their activities sustainable and good for all people, animals and the environments they live in.

Google's vision statement "Don't Be Evil" was the inspiration for writing this blog and Wikitube's vision statement. My thinking was that Google vision statement just doesn't go far enough and is incomplete and needs more to complete it. By adding "Be Good" it completes the vision statement: "Don't Be Evil...Be Good."  I figured that by writing my blog that I could strive to be more than "Don't be Evil" and try to "Be Good" to all that my interactions. So I challenge you, regardless of  who and what you are strive to "Be Good" and be proactive in making the world a better place!

YouTube's Leanback -- Imitation is the best kind of flattery - Thank you.

As it is pretty commonly said "Armatures copy. professionals steal."  It's pretty cool that Wikitube.TV was an object at inspiration for Google's YouTube Leanback. For anyone that cares (probably you don't) and for the record in some future legal preceding (that I hope never happens, cuz I hate throwing away $$ at attorneys) , Youtube Leanback is a blatant rip of  Wikitube.TV.  I think some of their dev team have been using us as inspiration... Think about it... for the last 3 years YouTube been pretty much the same ol' thing and then since March (WT alpha release) we have seen a ton of improvements all of which mirror what we have been doing... hmmm.  The only difference is budget. Wikitube has ZERO budget and one part-time developer and YouTube... well you get the picture.  Wikitube went live in early March 2010. YouTube "Leanback" in the last week, Its just a nicely developed full screen version of Wikitube.TV (btw, we did have live test engines in January constantly streaming YouTube).

Wikitube had the:

1. first YT playlists, thought only the developer could make them, 
2. first YT video site to have the bottom scroll bar feature (they always used the side video bar. I copied the bottom bar off Flickr - I guess they will say the same :) 
3. WT was the first site to auto-play YouTube content. Maybe doing a partial screen version like we have would have been just too obvious? Leanback has an dumb up/down/left/right key-stroke control system that makes no sense.  I think that maybe they were trying to do something that set them apart?  
4. Oh, their search bar location is taken from an earlier WT incarnation (I took the initial idea of Google search)... We actually moved it to just above the bottom close to the video selection. 

Anyone who know's me knows, I love all things Google. Always have (I still fondly remember Google Beta and Gmail Beta). I really don't think this is a management choice, but rather unimaginative developers taking creativity from others WITHOUT giving Credit. If this was "copy (text)" is would be a "copyright" violation. But then it comes to art and ideas it is so hard to govern without deep pockets... which I have none. I might file some more TMs and a submit a patent or two... But that's about all I can do...

If you read my blog or follow my videos I posted 2 months ago that I spent 30 min chatting to YouTube marketing employee on the DC metro.  I even joked how some of our users call us YouTube for "Couch Potato's" hmmm "Leanback"... "Couch Potato" is it just me that sees the connection? Obviously the marketing guy probably spent his time chatting to devs in the lunch room about this silly little alpha startup called Wikitube and how they are doing some really cool things with YT videos... I told him the future of TV is mobile devices that over 2billion out there 1st TV exp will be on a smartphone.Hmm... Leanback is mobile focused? -- coincidence? probably not. Or did he present the ideas as his very own trying to make an impression? And not even tell them about Wikitube? Who will ever know what really happened. But what is obvious is the message got to the YT devs... and they acted on it and rolled out Leanback clone of Wikitube. I am hoping some YT dev will read this and go "Wow... this is very uncanny... this is where "Youtube Marketing Guy" he got the ideas." (if so email me @mtrout.com) I so wished I would have rememberer his name or gotten his card -- but in my excitement of meeting a YouTube Marketing Guy in the middle of DC on the way to a metro... well, I went WT evangelical on him. Maybe next time, I'll just keep my mouth shut ;p

The great news is YouTube/Leanback massively validates Wikitube.TV! They have developed a very polished and cool looking product.  I pray...hope Larry or Eric will come to me and say:

"Hey, mike love what you are doing, sorry for what happened, it's not how we do things at Google... Let's make it right... how about we name Youtube/leanback 'Wikitube' and why not take change of it's vision..."  

Or maybe some other Angle or VC group will see YT validation and say "Mike, you're on to something big... here is $2m. Now go kick some YT butt!" Which, I am very confident I could and would do. Because WT fits in with a massive vision supported with nine years of planning and preparation.

The potential problem, as I see it,  is that YouTube Leanback beta infringes on my development look and feel of Wikitube and visa vera. Wikitube's future development will infringe on Leanback and in all likelihood it might becoming legally messy.  So for the global record... I am righting this post to be used should things get messy. I have instructed folks to keep a daily development log and to start detailing and monitoring both our and Leanback releases in anticipation that someone in the future Google might decide to come after us for infringing on YT/Leanback. -- That's pretty much all we can do... Oh. we do have every email address and can in the future determine if they work for Google...

Leanback is a cool product... If I had $$ Wikitube would have been their 4 years ago when I first conceived the idea. Larry and Sergey were both where I am today. And would have been pissed off if Yahoo or Hotmail immediately rolled out something that looked and felt just like Google or Gmail. No? We are both trying to do something amazing and great. Most of Entrepreneurial success is not on the idea but on luck.  I hope they remember their roots still. I hope they read this post. And I hope they Be Good and contact me. I know they no idea of this event or authorized the rip... Google is massive and people are human trying toget ahead and make a name for themselves. Whether it is some new Marketing Guy... or some unnoticed YT dev.  What is for sure...  someone knows the truth at YT/leanback and the devs working on Leanback definitely know where their idea came from... Wikitube. I hope to chat with Google and I hope they do the right thing to help fix this issue. At the very least credit Wikitube. We are both visionaries and we don't need to be caught up in the silly details when we have mountains to climb.  

Yet another adventure starts...

Degree-based Education is doomed... and so are your degrees!

I am predicting right now that within ten to twenty-years the idea of degree based education years will become a thing of the 20th century broken educational model. How can I make such a claim? Well, simple we all know that a degree is really worthless in todays market and what is really wanted is EXPERIENCE. How do I know this... Well, currently I am looking to find Federal Enterprise Architects for a project for Dept of Homeland Security and it doesn't matter how much education, what school you attended or training they have, what is sought after is applied knowledge. They want someone with 5+ years of FEA. I drill top executives... How many years have you done FEA? Where? How many segments have they written etc... In what area? What technologies to you know? What specific kind and how much time in each? I'm  sorry but your $200k our masters degree from Harvard or MIT is absolutely worthless to me! Understand that debt is a economic driving force and the entire capitalistic market is all about who owns it and controls it. That's the real power... The other reality is that there is no guarantees in a degree either... their is really nothing tangible or measurable about it. However, experience has milestones, accomplishments and real outcomes.

So where is education headed? Education 3.0 or as I call it #e3o on twitter. E3o is the next evolution of education and it is going to be a really exciting reincarnation/reinvention. Its impact will be far greater than other Great Leaps humanity has undergone: speech, writing, the industrial revolution, the information revolution...and so on.  The turning point will be what I have named "the Education Singularity" or "eSingularity" event -- this is the moment when any 2 yr old on a smart device running autonomous learning software will playfully and entertainingly guide any child to an grade equivalent education in Math, Science and Language arts.   We are just years away from such technology coming out in the West (it wont be free initially...but it will be eventually). When eSingularity happen's a Pandora's Box will have been open that will set in motion the collapse of the Western Educational Complex that for 3000 years has monopolized and governed over Western education and the rest of the world (Probably at this point you are laughing like I am Don Quixote describing dragons and all you see are windmills... but that's okay. New paradigms are tough to swallow the first time :) The eSingularity Dragon is coming.  It is a Pandora's Box because taking the nest leap to universal free education in all subject matters will be relatively easy to step to make.  And when that happens... well, you can use your imagination.  The shit will hit the fan!

Some milestones... Opensource media platform Kaltura 2007, Development of smartphones and their dominance over PC 2010. Apple buying Siri on April 28th 2010. Siri is a very rudimentary autonomous platform that acts as an personal assistant. Using the imagination one could easily see Apple releasing "Siri app finder" and coming out and "Siri Ed" for powering iPhone apps learning with Siri and doing some very cool things with it. I can imagine a host of other simple autonomous apps too... when others see the power and usability of Siri other autonomous software apps start hitting the market.  And out of this will evolve the autonomous software industry.  What these apps will do is allow anyone to take content and turn it into learning modules that can be translated into any of the 6782 languages and autonomously delivered to any smart device... Learning Engines like the Cerego engine will track these modules and actually deliver them intelligently to an end-user. I will be able to tell my smart phone what I want to learn and it would not only train me but also provide me the skill challenges that we only traditionally learn by experience... maybe it will be VR or augmented delivered or in other problem solving method... the ways we will be able to deliver the challenges and experiences would be near infinite and completely up to the the imagination of the community builders using easy to use autonomous software tools.

The eventual outcome is what we know will not be displayed on a CV, but more like a bar-code that is unique to me and only me. It would tell you EVERYTHING I chose to release to you. Maybe "Active ID (tm)" would allow anyone to just scan me with another smart device and provide you with my life playlist of my actual accomplishment, activities, roi, learning ability and education... No lies more BS or silly meaningless degrees!

Smart phones beating out computers... Yet another milestone towards eSingularity

Daily Nebraskan - Smart phones beating out computers


Autonomous software solutions will be coming in the next five years. Within ten we will be handing out smartphones to families in India, Africa and China (China will do it first) loaded with autonomous learning software that will make schools and teachers accessories to learning and not requirements to it.

2010 was the year of the smart devices overtook PCs. It is also the year tablet PC and mobile devices finally came to fruition as the 2010 consumer electronics expo showed the world.  I am predicting that by 2017 a child anywhere with a smart device will be able to get an education to an 8th grade equivalent in math, science and language arts!

2010 is the year APPLE bought Siri built on $150m worth of DARPA AI research (I talked about the importance of Siri in January 2010 as port of the eSingularity Prize and even blogged about it in March as an way to become an autonomous app finder.)

e3.0 is coming far faster then ANYONE realizes (except maybe me;)  It will be here one day soon and EVERYTHING we know and think about learning will be disrupted...

Some questions to ponder...

1. How much will the iPhone 4 cost 5 years from now?
2. Do you think that within 10 years anyone will be able to mix, mash and self syndicate any video into ANY  of the 6792 languages?
3. How will the 500 million illiterate Indian's who will NEVER be able to build enough school, let alone train enough teachers learn within 10 years?
4. Did you know 98% of China has connectivity and that the new 4G network can transmit 10mb of data? 
5. Do you think a TV or a mobile smart phone will be an rural Indian's or African's first TV?

The speed of change, innovation and disruption is coming too fast for anyone to truly appreciate. All, I am pointing out are the markers and making an educated guess that within 7 years we will have the first autonomous learning software powering global education... 

The scary thing for the industrial education complex is that it is their Pandora's Box... 

What's the chasm? and How to cross it as a #leanstartup?

Probably the most important graph for a lean startup to understand. Let me try to explain each cunstomer base and your objectives. All the graphs are pretty much the same... 

Early Adopter - friends, family and thieves.
Pragmatists - you are solving pain
Conservatives - they just want to be really sure its a good thing
Laggards - they only move when everyone else does

What's the chasm and how to cross it (read this book)... It's where most startups FAIL and size and money doesn't matter. The biggest mistake is trying to be all things instead of focusing on the niche markets and out competing the competitors by focusing on giving the customer what they want. By following the lean startup methodology and by pivoting when the time is right and not too early Eric Ries argues no company should EVER fall down the chasm. 

Facebook and Google are really 2 great pivoters. Facebook started as a college student niche, then pivoted to include their friends and family, then to include fan-sites and causes and then finally pivoted to include businesses. Myspace from day one focused on trying to be all things for everyone and even though they had the market share. They lost it to Facebook's very skillful and focus driven pivots. The same is true for Google vs Hotmail and Yahoo. 

The lean startup idea is all about being nimble and customer centric! Seth Godin does a great job talking about the importance of customers and how fickle they are.  In todays age... corporations are starting to accept the lean startup POV: the problem is in fact unknown and the solutions are to unknown! The only place to start is with your customers!

Focus instead on being better than you were yesterday.

I recently wrote... "Our emotions creates actions. The trick is giving the right thing emotions and NOT be consumed with giving emotions to unimportant activities...like watching Fox news"

My Dad loves watching FOX and other TV shows that suck out our emotion like some TV vampire feeding and keeping us glued to skillfully crafted shows that's real purpose is only to remain the top viewed news network in America. The things is getting emotionally worked up around silly non productive activities (like watching TV news) are things you are POWERLESS to change. Why not instead focus on "being better than you were yesterday." Everyday. And train yourself to use your emotions wisely, intelligently and keenly focused them on the things that matter. Ask yourself... "Is this an activity that I want to be emotionally focused on? Is this activity going to benefit those I love, and help even in a small way make the world a better place?"

This is Tony Robin's "trick" It's really that simple and with directing your most powerful asset your emotions and passion you can do incredible things. Achieving or failures in the great scheme of things are meaningless. Its what behind both that is important. So Be Good and start focusing on the things that matter and learn to catch yourself when you are not. It's not hard to do -- learn recognize emotion (very easy) and ask yourself a simple questions "Is this emotion focus helping me and the people I love?" When it is not... smile to yourself and defuse the emotion, and realign your energy on the things that matter. It is really that simple ;)