The first thing to understand is that when shares are given to an employee or investor, they aren’t taken from someone else – they are newly created shares – the pie gets bigger. Of course, your slice of this newly enlarged pie is now a smaller percentage of the total. That’s dilution. A lot of people understand that. What they often don’t understand is deeper in the details.
He goes through several examples that made me even more suspicious of venture capital investment. A friend and I are starting a business together, so understanding how this works will (hopefully, assuming the business works out) be important.
I just watched a video of a sermon at Menlo Park Presbyterian Church by Nancy Ortberg entitled Jesus & Your Job given on 3/4/07 (via Guy Kawasaki). It’s a great presentation on work and has affected my views. She covers leadership and dignity in the workplace, giving several personal examples that surprised me by showing how good a great leader can be. Very worth spending 20 minutes watching or listening.
And while I’m recommending video segments, I should mention Steve Jobs’s 2005 commencement address at Stanford University. The video and audio are available for free on iTunes and I’ve included the YouTube version below. After reading and hearing about the legendary aspects of Steve’s personality from his early years at Apple, this speech seems to show a humbler, more insightful side – and perhaps some of the reason for Apple’s recent resounding successes.
The transcripts for these speeches are available but are not, in my opinion, as powerful as hearing or watching them. I’m not a big fan of listening to podcasts or watching video clips due to how much more time it takes. I prefer reading things quickly. But both of these videos are worth watching.
My wife and I just moved into a new house. We’re still in the unpacking phase, but the sheer number of unopened boxes is beginning to diminish. Several neighbors came over to help us put boxes into the moving trailer, for which we are both very thankful. We hired a moving company to handle all the larger furniture, including the piano. Looking back, I think that was a great idea. I’m not sure anyone really wants to help a neighbor move something that heavy anyway.
The night before the move my dad asked me if we were ready. We’d done a lot of packing (alright, my wife had done a lot of packing with some assistance from me in the evenings) and had put almost everything in boxes. He then told me, “Tomorrow you’ll learn why I’ve never wanted to move.” Enter ominous music, I though, though he was quite cheerful about it. I wasn’t quite sure what he meant then, but I think I know now. It was still the right decision for us, but it’s takes a lot of work to move your life – even if it’s only a mile.
