How have I never heard of Frank Harris?

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For other persons named Frank Harris, see Frank Harris (disambiguation).

 

Frank Harris by Alvin Langdon Coburn.

Frank Harris (February 14, 1856 – August 27, 1931) was an Irish author, editor, journalist and publisher who was friendly with many well-known figures of his day. Though he attracted much attention during his life for his irascible, aggressive personality, editorship of famous periodicals, and friendship with the talented and famous, he is remembered mainly for his multiple-volume memoir My Life and Loves, which was banned in countries around the world for its sexual explicitness.

via en.wikipedia.org

And I would never have heard of him but from the quote on the front of “My Wicked Wicked Ways”, Errol Flynn’s autobiography (which is excellent).

“A major autobiography in the tradition of Cellini, Casanova and Frank Harris” – Guardian.

How could someone belonging to this list have originated in Galway and I have never heard of him?

Have you heard of him?

I told the little monkey not to do it!

Months ago, (like last November), Joe Scanlon asked for my opinion on a web-based business idea. I was delighted to give my opinion, and told him it would never work. He’d never get the required number of users and it would never make money. My main problem with the idea was that it wasn’t different enough.

Several months later, and it turns out Joe has been busy.

LittleQuiz.com

Take a wander over to LittleQuiz.com – The fruit of his labours. Nice fruit eh?

Will it work? Not usually. But Joe has brought an amazing amount of energy and determination to bear on this problem. It is that energy will define the success or failure of the venture. Even “ok” ideas can be hugely successful in the right hands and good ideas reduced to muck by a lack of the right people.

The key becomes the person and not the idea.

Best of luck Joe.

(By the way, some background on the development of the gorgeous site is available here).#

Update: “Don’t worry if someone else is already working on your idea. I’m certain they are, but they are decidedly not you and it’s the you that makes your idea unique.” – Read this two hours after writing about Joe’s site. Its from the brilliant RandsInRepose blog.

I hate soccer.

I really do. I literally had no idea what Soccer was until I was about 11 and thought as a youngster that “The Red Devils” sounded like something I should definitely be afraid of.

I hate Soccer.

But I love Kevin Coleman’s new project: http://backpagefootball.com/

Kevin is a 42 year old Web genius/millionaire who is the secret brains behind many of the greatest web brands we use every day. He divides his time between Silicon Vally, London and Dublin 4, but is only really at home on the web. For the last 15 years he has delivered success after success, selling many of the sites on, always looking for a bigger success. Determined and hard working and all the other usual flaws one finds in real achievers.

Look at his latest effort, its beautiful.

Among those flaws I mentioned earlier, Kevin detests the spotlight and also has a flare for mis-direction. Hence his disguise as a Teenage Tipperary Student enjoying his summer holidays.

Weird, but hilarious. Typical Kevin. Although, I am not sure how he expects us to believe that a mere kid could get a really excellent team to commit to a years worth of writing and create such a beautiful looking product on F*** all resources. Gas.

Twitter Fixed My Shower.

Well nearly… A big thanks to @plumbtweets for helping me out with some plumbing queries tonight.

I have the good Golez crew from Limerick to thank for providing such an excellent service.

This is the most valuable thing Twitter has done for me in a while… I may not get a job through it or anything drastic like that, but I got professional advice when I needed it.

Am tempted to do something similar myself in my own field of expertise… We’ll see.

Code Name Ginger – An Excellent Read.

“Code Name Ginger – The story behind SEGWAY and Dean Kamen‘s quest to invent a new world” by Steve Kemper.

I found it to be an excellent read. Its product development and adventure in one. Covering engineering, leadership, finance, people – Its got the lot. A “Lord of the Rings” for business.

And for Gandalf, we have Dean Kamen, the absolute stereotype of Inventor and Innovator – Genius, but hard to live with. But the hero of the story for me, the Frodo, the man doing the unglamourous miles, was Doug Field – The man who led the engineering team and produced the Segway. The inventor may get the credit when a prototype is wheeled out, but its the likes of Doug who convert the idea into a mass-produced reality. Signs on, Doug is currently VP of Product Design at Apple.

Photo owned by nichol alexander (cc)

The book was originally written around the time the Segway was released in 2003.  Many people might wonder why such an insignificant product deserves much attention, but prior to launch, everyone who saw and rode the Segway thought it would change the world, with the result that Dean Kamen was turning down offers of money from the likes of Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos.

Lucky for me, there is now a Segway agency in Ireland. And more importantly, as they can be expensive, they run Segway tours of Dublin. Woo! I am going to try this first chance I get, if you want to join me, leave a comment, and we can get organised.

Thanks to Jackie Danicki for the original lead on this book.

These are the people I look to – January 2009.

I don’t buy or read newspapers. Too much opinion, not enough news.

I have recently given up on Wired, Techcrunch and the Guardian tech section. Too much news, not enough quality.

Here is what I am left with.

My Google Reader usage for January 2009.

I am putting more emphasis on people over media organisations. Especially as these days the Irish media seem hell bent on depressing us.

Special mentions: Mulley and his FTR mantra. Seth Godin and his practicality.

But the blogger who did most to keep me going this month is Keith Bohanna and his continued optimism for small businesses in Ireland.

Thanks Keith.

But I want more visual hits. My favourite at the moment is Who Killed Bambi?

Who else should I be subscribed to? Let me know.

Twitter follower mosaic – More Sxoop Magic.

Go here to get your own Twitter Follower Mosaic.
More magic from Walter Higgins and Sxoop Technologies.

Lots of beautiful people here eh? (Ok, a few mingers too).

Balls + Brains + Backbone

Thanks to a @patphelan tweet, I came across this excellent blog post.

Its  written by Morten Lund and concerns a failed venture and the fall out for him and his colleagues.

He made mistakes and owns up. I feel better for reading it.

We all make mistakes – Its a mandatory part of business. We don’t all handle the fall out well.

These days, a lot more mistakes are being made because the margin for error has disappeared. A small screw up can have an exaggerated impact. How do we handle it?

They will happen. You can’t eliminate risk, just minimise it. So be careful, (especially with cash flow!). And when the screw ups do happen, take a deep breath before you lose your head.

Or you might lose your business.

Photo owned by pshutterbug (cc)

2009 will be a fucker.

No two ways about it.

Especially if you are involved in small business.

No sitting on portfolios; property, shares or other.

No sitting around.

Creativity will lead to Value which will lead to Money.

Be aggressive about it.

Grubs Up, Come and Get It!

Well done to Joe Scanlon (Kerry born hero) for organising the Cork Bloggers Lunch.

http://joescanlon.net/2008/12/05/bloggers-lunch-cork/

Sign Up, Sign Up.

(Disclosure: I haven’t yet cos I have loads going on and I amn’t sure I’ll be able to make it. But you should definitely go).

Prominent bloggers Tadgh and Tony at last year’s lunch.