clipped from gizmodo.com Steve Jobs is leaving Apple. Not tomorrow, but probably very soon. That’s why he started to say good bye today, doing something more important than just presenting new MacBooks, MacBook Pros, and an updated MacBook Air. Today’s event was a play in which he clearly told everyone that the company is more than himself. Since the very first minute, when he immediately sat down to let Tim Cook talk, he was saying: “Hey, look, Apple is more than Steve. These are The Guys, the Goodfellas, the A-Team. They share the same vision I have. And they are going to push the company forward when I leave this company to drink caipirinhas suntanning on my private beach in Hawaii”.

]]> http://darrenlee.net/2008/10/steve-jobs-leaving-apple/feed/ http://darrenlee.net/2008/10/top-10-business-movies/ http://darrenlee.net/2008/10/top-10-business-movies/#comments Mon, 13 Oct 2008 03:21:15 +0000 Darren http://darrenlee.net/2008/10/top-10-business-movies/ Here’s my list of all time favorite “Business Movies”.

The 10 best in no specific order. Just can’t be too bias as I love them all.

1. Pirates of Silicon Valley

2. The Godfather

3. Boiler Room

4. Peaceful Warrior

5. The Pursuit of Happyness

6. The Aviator

7. Citizen Kane

8. Jerry Maguire

9. The Secret

10. Wall Street

Here are some of the feedback I shared and additional thoughts:

• Face the fact, the economic crisis will not help business as usual but there are pros and cons in any economic conditions. The goal is still the same but the rules to how the game is played will change. Understand the new rules and be cautious at all times.

• Bad times means there will be less people starting new businesses. This will mean less competition but in a tougher environment. Use that as an advantage and look for higher ground to stand tall in a less crowded marketplace.
• It’s my personal ambition to test out my entrepreneurial DNA and compare mine with already successful icons. Having such harsh economical condition might prove to be a rare learning and growing opportunity for one who wish to harness its best.
• I don’t think we are inferior to these already successful people but I think people/entrepreneurs are lack of courage (foolishness), tenacity (sense of desperateness)  and the capacity for greater opportunity (greater risk). Depending on how you see the cup - half full or half empty.
• You should aim higher. That could separate you from the average person and the elite. Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t be better than Steve Jobs or Bill Gates. Why let them? You should aim higher.

It was good when everyone was contributing positive, critical or constructive comments. But today, there is a new danger and it’s invading the blogs.

A new breed of bloggers and commentaries empowered by “Sour Grapes”. Meaning people who just wish to inflict negative comments regardless to whether the argument is valid or morally right thing to do. They just love to flame. The question is, where do these sour grapes come from and why?

If you read Wikipedia, this is what it means:

Sour grapes is an expression originating from the Aesop Fable The Fox and the Grapes, meaning to deny desire for something one cannot attain.

Here is a similar definition from another site:

In a famous fable by Aesop, a fox declared that he didn’t care that he
could not reach an attractive bunch of grapes because he imagined they
were probably sour anyway. You express sour grapes when you put down
something you can’t get: “winning the lottery is just a big headache
anyway.” The phrase is misused in all sorts of ways by people who don’t
know the original story and imagine it means something more general like
“bitterness” or “resentment.”

There are many other reasons and here are some:

• The person is a “downer” and naturally likes to put people down
• The person is having a bad hair day (or maybe on just every single day)
• The person is negative conductor and doesn’t understand what’s positive
• The person is just jealous (very jealous it may seems)
• The person is incapable of empathy and lack empathy from others

Whatever the reasons are, the Sour Grapes are invading the blogs.

clipped from www.eweek.com Will Google’s Android Be the Tipping Point for Smart Phones? ABI Research analyst Kevin Burden says smart phones such as the T-Mobile G1 that are based on Google’s Android operating system for mobile and wireless devices could push smart phones into standardization. Perhaps, but Apple’s iPhone will continue to be a big seller even as Android, Symbian, RIM and other mobile operating systems get their share of the market. Will customers recognize a standard when they see one? I don’t believe so, which makes the standardization moot unless the carriers embrace it.

Top 5 Facts for this Name:

• 44% of the letters are vowels. Of one million first and last names we looked at, 15.8% have a higher vowel make-up. This means you are very well envoweled.
• In ASCII binary it is… 01000100 01100001 01110010 01110010 01100101 01101110 00100000 01001100 01100101 01100101
• Backwards, it is Nerrad Eel… nice ring to it, huh?
• In Pig Latin, it is Arrenday Eelay.
• People with this first name are probably: Male. So, there’s a 98% likelihood you sweat just thinking of the price of shaver blades.

Name Origin and Meaning:

Forename:
Origin: Irish
Meaning: He Who Upholds the Good

Surname:
Origin: A pasture, meadow, lands not plowed, a common, a sheltered place; Lee, a river, a stream, from Lli, Welsh, a stream.

3 Things You Didn’t Know:

• Your personal power animal is the Siberian Chipmunk
• Your ‘Numerology’ number is 1. If it wasn’t bulls**t, it would mean that you are ambitious, independent, and self-sufficient. Although you are generally happy, loving, dynamic and charismatic, you can sometimes be egotistical, selfish and melodramatic.
• According to the US Census Bureau°, 0.064% of US residents have the first name ‘Darren’ and 0.2502% have the surname ‘Lee’. The US has around 300 million residents, so we guesstimate there are 480 Americans who go by the name ‘Darren Lee’.

To see full details of my name, just click here.

Find out more about your name just visit http://www.isthisyour.name

Simply because I have made a commitment. It was a long time ago since I have been climbing on this journey without a safety net. Looking upwards, working the best I can and having faith that the future is ahead of me. Also it’s just part of an entrepreneur instinct that tells me not to look back. It’s my commitment but to others it’s risk. And this is just one of the things we see differently as entrepreneurs.

There are many kinds of people in this world and there are some people who prefer to work for great companies and some who prefer to build great companies. I prefer the latter.

Thank You… whoever you are.

From TechCrunch

Zocdoc, the health appointment scheduling startup that launched at TechCrunch 40, has announced that Marc Benioff and Jeff Bezos
- two of Silicon Valley’s most prominent figures - have joined the $3
million Series A funding round it raised last month that was led by
Khosla Ventures.

ZocDoc allows users to book their doctor appointments online, even
for same-day appointments. The site is especially useful for urgent
visits and procrastinators who may wait until the last minute for an
eye exam or prescription refill. Doctors can also maximize the number
of patients they see by using the system to help reschedule missed
appointments or fill in last-second cancellations.