Its 2003. 

The dust from the dot-bomb explosion is settling, and I start a small (and I mean small) content-marketing company www.businesswatchnetwork (BWN). I vividly recall the first company server in my basement, connected to a 750MB DSL circuit - adjacent the plywood shelving where my 12-year old son’s baseball and hockey equipment waited patiently for the next game.

I like author Malcom Gladwell.  Outliers, Blink, and of course the book that is everyone’s purview daily – Traffic. I vividly recall Malcom performing a CA road-test to find out what happens in the digital world when a heavily traveled route suddenly becomes less traveled: within a matter of hours, traffic siphoned from more heavily traveled roads, finds its way to the on-ramp of the less traveled route until it reaches capacity. In 2019 traffic is like water – it finds a way.

I’m about as much a scientist, as I am a science denier. If you don’t know exactly what that means, you’re probably not alone. I do have a Bachelor of Science Degree from Northeastern University – but that’s in Marketing. Perhaps that explains why I’m always creating my own hypothesis to test against real-world outcomes.

Contrary to popular belief, there was an evolution of Steve Jobs Management style during his career. Yes that’s right – even Steve Jobs recognized (albeit not publicly) when his Management style failed, and attempted to make course corrections the next time out.

I've had the pleasure of being on the ground floor of several successful technology startups, including the BusinessWatch Network. Having read Richard Branson's recent post, “What Does It Take to Be the Boss? Managers vs. Leaders” I'd like to suggest that determining whether you’re a "Manager" or a "Leader" is a matter of degrees.

I viewed most of my college business Professors quite skeptically, that is unless they had achieved some measure of success outside of Northeastern University. I was, however, very fortunate to have had several Professors that came to teach because their net-worth allowed them to do anything they wanted, and teaching was their choice.

70 Million Americans (26% of the US population) have some form of digestive illness. Of course, this statistic represents only those that have sought treatment. Given the sensitive nature of the disease and the high-cost of treatment, it’s reasonable to assume that if we added the number of Americans who have not sought treatment – it would be much higher.

Just about every NFL broadcast, and many other professional sports leagues, put Veterans front and center of their respective sport. On any given Sunday you’ll hear from Veterans that more often than not look like they played in the NFL. How are these Vets chosen by the NFL to be on National Television representing Army, Air Force, Marines, Navy (I won’t forget the Coast Guard?)

History will judge whether Elon Musk is perhaps one of the greatest entrepreneurial visionaries of our time, however, there is at least one entrepreneurial eventuality that he failed to see – his Facebook page. He shouldn’t feel too bad as he shares that distinction with approximately 1.4 billion people. What he failed to assess was the risk/reward he was taking IF Facebook successfully executed its business-plan. Neither did governments. Call me a skeptic, but I don’t think Mark Zuckerberg is uncomfortable giving interviews.

I originally posted this article just after inauguration day 2017. As an American one could argue there is more uncertainty within the Executive, Judicial and Legislative branches of our government than there was then, however, from my perspective the more things have changed since inauguration day 2017 the more they have remained the same.