Relentless - by Drew D'Agostino

We're a generation that has a unique opportunity - we can change a lot with very limited resources. Keep building, and declare war on complacency.

[drewdagostino]

The Grind

It's Sunday. I just heard someone say "ugh, back to the grind", as they got up to leave. 

If you're in America, after the big game is over tonight, you're about 86% certain to hear someone say that same thing when they talk about what's going on tomorrow. 

It's very easy to automatically fear "The Grind" as a dreadfully negative thing. And it definitely can be. Studies suggest more than half of Americans feel this way.

I've been there, and I'm sure you have been too at some point. 

But what's the answer then? Strive for the comfortable? Should we be looking for the career and life that throws the least resistance in our direction?

Maybe - I know a lot of people are looking for that. But that's exactly how you stagnate.

Because if you're not grinding, you're not growing. 

Ask anyone successful, and most will tell you that The Grind isn't just necessary, but responsible for a good part of their wins. 

It's because grinding builds momentum. Even if the particular job, or project, or business never takes off quite like you hope, there's just something about letting yourself get absorbed into your work - to care about it enough to endure frustration, self-doubt, ridicule, and failure. The universe seems to favor those bent on purposeful action. Beautiful things can happen in The Grind.

You could spend a year training for a marathon that you lose, but then find yourself in the best shape of your life. 

You could spend months of late nights coding a web app that never gets any traction, but in doing so, make yourself enormously valuable to someone with a better idea and less skill. 

You can push the limits of your craft, create something so unique that most people consider it ugly, but make yourself known as the only one that had the guts to try it. 

If you're brave enough to risk your life and fortune in a treacherous journey into the unknown, you may not ever get to Asia, but you might stumble upon a little-known American continent. 

We shouldn't be afraid of the Grind. We should look forward to it. Of course it sucks. It's humbling, emotional, and downright unpleasant most of the time.

But you can love and hate it at the same time. I realize this every time someone asks me why I run so much. I just think...

I don't love running. Sometimes I despise it. But I love having run. That love outweighs the dread of getting up and doing it in the freezing Boston morning.

My challenge to you (and to myself) is to make sure "The Grind" in life, whatever it is, is actually pushing you farther.

Genius is one-percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration. - Thomas Edison

[drewdagostino]

How a Website Became One of My Best Friends

Yes, I recognize the fact that I am a massive nerd for writing that title, but let me explain...

Aside from Facebook and Google products I can't really think of a web application that I've willingly and actively used almost daily for over a year. Except one...

Ohlife. 

It's so painfully simple, but so incredibly valuable to me and a handful of other people I know. 

Every day, I get an email at 8pm, asking "How was your day?". I respond the email and it saves my response as a journal entry. 

I'm unashamed to honestly say that the app has become almost like a human friend. I tell it everything. Then it remembers. It tells me exactly what I was thinking a year ago, when I can't even remember what I was thinking 3 days ago. 

I honestly don't even know if the people that built it are still updating or maintaining it. It doesn't seem to make any money, or have any other purpose than helping people like me actually maintain their journal every day. 

Since 8th grade I've tried to keep a journal. It's sometimes been on paper, and sometimes in huge Word doc, but Ohlife has lasted longer than any of those notebooks or documents.

As web people, shouldn't we be trying to build products as sticky as that?

Products that become friends - I'd love to figure out how to do that consistently. 

I think one of the secrets is that Ohlife doesn't make me remember anything. I just have to reply.

That in itself takes away the stress and subsequent guilt that comes with trying (and then failing) to keep up with something important to me like journaling. 

It's been a loyal ally to me, and I just wanted to share it with you in case you haven't heard of it. 

[drewdagostino]

6 Tactics for No-Fear Negotiation

In America, we have this deeply rooted fear of conflict that keeps us from fighting for what we want - especially things that are worth fighting for. I wrote about this in the context of arguing a few months ago, but today Iet's talk about negotiating. 

To most of us (including me most of the time), negotiating anywhere outside of car dealerships, real estate offices, or Monopoly is a totally foreign concept, and absolutely terrifying. But what exactly do we fear? I think it usually falls into one of these buckets: 

Awkwardness after rejection

Fear of someone arguing/raising their voice. 

Appearing cheap.

Somehow messing up the long-term relationship if you actually get your way.

However, by letting anxiety over these short-term consequences block our judgement for the better long-term solution, we wind up with a win-lose outcome. One side is unhappy…

And it's probably you. 

That's obviously bad, but how do we avoid it? 

We negotiate EVERYTHING.

That's right. Everything. We should look for for win-wins in every single area of life, in every transaction, no matter how big or small. Whether it's a mattress, your salary, a contract, a car, a grade, or a cup of coffee that you think is too expensive, you and the other party both want to get the maximum value out of every encounter.

And here's who we go about that big, hairy, ambitious goal…

1. Not negotiating is a negotiation tactic. 

Viewing every decision as a negotiation doesn't mean arguing down prices all day. It's about looking at the outcome, figuring out if it works for both sides, and weighing the cost of action to make the outcome more fair. Lots of the time, the free market does the work for us and we don't have to say anything. I happily pay the Shawarma guy on the corner $7 for a sandwich.

2. Don't play tic-tac-toe. 

In a game of tic-tac-toe, sometimes there's a point when you realize you can't win. So, naturally, your new goal is to make the other guy lose. It's so easy to fall into this trap when you're negotiating something. Most of the time, two parties have more to gain by figuring out how to increase the size of the whole pie, rather than trying to carve out the largest piece of a small pie. 

3. Put lots of cards on the table.

If I'm selling a computer for $1,500, and you want to pay $1,000, chances are, out of convenience and fairness, we'll end up agreeing on $1,250. It's a compromise. Usually, compromises are crappy outcomes for both sides. 

Instead of heading straight to the middle, find other ways you can add value to each other outside of the price point. For instance, maybe if I'm a business owner and you're a web designer, we can find a way for each of us to win. If you offer build me a new website on top of the cash, I'd be willing to take $1,000 for the computer. Building the website only costs you time, and we both get the value we wanted. 

Compromising is apathy, and plain boring.

4. Negotiate from the same side of the table, literally.

I stole this one from Don Draper. Notice how whenever he gives a presentation in Mad Men, he's usually standing behind the people he's presenting to. 

If we're talking about your new job and what your expectations are, how much better do you feel if I'm sitting next to you instead of across a big wooden desk?

Your position has a huge impact on the perception of the person you're negotiating with. It's a simple yet powerful way to let them know that you're not interested in competition, but collaboration. 

5. Know your leverage. 

Your leverage is whatever you have in your pocket that's for some reason valuable to the other person. A lot of times, we just consider our leverage the obvious (i.e. "I have programming skills", "I have a car he wants", "I have money to spend on this fancy suit").

We can't forget about the other, less obvious leverage beneath the surface (especially the leverage the other person has). Example: When you're talking to a car salesman, what's his incentive to sell you the car today instead of tomorrow? What's the dollar amount? Or when you're negotiating a contract for work, what else could this client lead to? More clients? A big account? Perks?

The key here is to just think things through beforehand and get a plan down on paper.

6. Don't let a hardball tactic intimidate you. 

Unfortunately, when some people negotiate, they immediately resort to hardball - the "I will try to maximize my gain and minimize yours" mentality that ends up with a smaller pie. 

You have to be ready for it. One of the most common tactics is a high or low-ball offer right out of the gate. Even if you recognize it, it can cause you to doubt yourself and rethink your whole position.

Don't let that happen. Hold your ground and ignore the mind games. 

In this case, the one thing you do have to be careful about is not revealing too much information. In a collaborative negotiation, more information is good, but in a competitive negotiation, revealing too much about yourself can come back to bite you. 

[drewdagostino]

10 Things to Expect When You Learn to Code

When I decided to learn web development, it was for business reasons. I was sick of not knowing what I was talking about.

Now, I realize that it's become much more than that. It goes beyond the new languages, concepts, and opportunities. Coding has changed the way I think - both for building applications and doing any other productive activity.

These 10 points are all things that I've experienced multiple times during my self-education, and based on my conversations with other developers, I think they're fairly universal. Like the ebook I wrote for business students, this mostly speaks to the beginner, but I'd love to hear feedback from people that are more experienced than I am.

1. You will realize how smart you aren't.

It's easy to let it go to your head when someone tells you how "you're such a bright guy." All that goes out the window when you're just getting started with a new language. Smooth talking and good grades can sometimes let us hide how lost we are. Coding's not like that. It will slap you in the face when you're wrong. It's like a brutal cense that only excepts perfection.

2. You will run into walls that make you feel like giving up.

Learning how to code has a way of playing out like a video game. Every level seems to have a "mini boss" you have to defeat in order to progress. You can avoid that dragon/robot/giant octopus as long as you want and wander around the same level, but you'll never improve. Facing a problem head on is painful at first, but when you eventually beat it, and then another, and another, you gradually build the confidence to take on almost anything. So, when you run into a problem that seems insurmountable, when you feel like throwing up your hands and closing the computer until "tomorrow", take a deep breath and dive in headfirst. The pain of error messages goes away relatively quickly, but the looming knowledge in the back of your head about a battle you're running away from will eat you up.

3. You will "waste" hours at a time doing something wrong.

I say waste, because that's what it feels like sometimes. You spend an entire night creating a set of functions that you go to bed happy with, only to realize the next day that they're totally inconsistent with the system as a whole, and you have to redo them. It feels like a waste, but it's not. You're always building the logical muscles, whether your code sees production or not. The key is to record what you did wrong and actually act upon your lesson the next time it comes up (as with anything in life).

4. You will find a deep respect for the masters.

After you've worked your way through some of the educational mud, it starts to dawn on you… those awkward looking nerdy programmer guys from high school are freaking geniuses. And what about this language I'm coding in… someone created it. And the teams of smart people that build the fast, effective, user-friendly apps we use every day and whine about when something doesn't look right? It's humbling on a whole new level.

5. You will stop BSing.

Coding forces you to get it right. You can't skip things. People that go into non-technical college majors (particularly business) can usually find a way around the harder parts of an assignment. You can get pretty far with a killer opening paragraph, a sleek logo design, some financial "estimates" and lots of appendices. When you learn to code, everything becomes more black and white. There is a right and wrong (a true and false if you will). If you're a marketer, I have to warn you, it will likely make you resent a lot of your own habits, especially when it comes to explaining how your idea will work. You'll definitely be more direct, proof-driven, and effective, but the transition might be tough.

6. You will learn how to learn.

For the same reason that coding will push you away from bad BSing habits, it will teach you how to learn. That goes for everything - not just computer stuff. I never expected it, but coding changed the way I learn new songs on the piano and guitar. It also changed the way I write essays, and it helped me develop patience for instruction manuals and cooking recipes that I never had before.

7. You will learn the importance of creating systems.

Once you know your way around a new language, the best thing to do is build something. Of course, the first thing you build is never very good. Mine was a complete mess (NUFeed.Me: the dining hall menu reminder that sent its users about 120 emails one day because I didn't close a loop). Messy habits are amplified exponentially in development. You can't hide from sloppiness, because it comes back to bite you very quickly. So you eliminate it by necessity (which is more than I can say about my kitchen sometimes).

8. You will learn to know what you don't know.

The biggest challenge of starting to learn to code isn't syntax or problem sets… it's the fear of the "blob". The blob is the huge mass of indecipherable letters, numbers, and characters you see when you open up a new coding tutorial. It's ugly and freaking scary. Why? Because you have no idea what you're looking at. You don't know where to start. It's the same for almost everything else worth learning in life. There's that moment when you think "holy crap, how is this possible?" What's awesome is the moment you realize that breaking down the blob is a two-step process. First, you learn what you need to learn, then you learn it. That key step translates across life.

9. You will think about EVERYTHING differently.

I think people from non-technical backgrounds that go into technical fields share this crazy shift in perspective that comes only from radically transforming your thought process. Only now do I realize how illogically my thought patterns have developed without the pressure to form coherent operations in the form of code. One of my good friends that just made it through the javascript learning curve told me how he's seeing software applications that don't exist. That weird collision of perspectives is where I believe lots of great ideas can emerge.

10. You will wonder why you didn't do this years ago.

I'm glad I learned to code in college, because it has made me realize that I can use software as a platform for creativity. I do question why I imagined coding would be a boring, monotonous activity for so long. Having worked in both marketing and technology now, I realize that your ability to be creative isn't defined by your job title. It really just comes down to your desire to be creative and how much you care about the thing you're building.

Did I miss anything?

[drewdagostino]

On looking for problems to solve...

It's now been almost 4 months since I got back from Africa, and there's been a few things that have been constantly on my mind since then. One of them is this:

Everybody has problems, and everybody has their problem, regardless of external circumstances.

It can be really easy to come out of a 3rd-world nation and instantly say, "wow, we sure do have it great here. Why complain about anything?"

But the truth is that, as humans, we are constantly comparing our situation with the situation around us. Letting that get out of hand can drive you crazy, but even if it's subconcious, you know if something is "bad" because it is less than the standard that you perceive around you.

A clogged toilet is really no big deal where I was (a flushing toilet, for that matter, was a HUGE deal). Here, a clogged toilet is a crime against humanity that must be fixed at once, or face the wrath of your roommates.

Here's my point: We shouldn't write off problems because someone else in the world "has it worse."

There can be great opportunities hidden in what we don't think is that big of a deal. You can really only discover it through talking to others and genuinely learning about their perception, and their world.

[drewdagostino]

Don't Waste Your Time Thinking

I'm very thankful to have a business mentor that is massively successful and eager to help me through the growing pains of starting up.

Recently, we had a phone call and I was rambling on about a vague future concern I had, which I knew wasn't pressing at this very moment, but felt obligated to ask about anyway.

He stopped me mid-sentence and said this...

Stop. Don't waste your time thinking about that.

For some reason, that hit me hard, and I had to pause.

At first, my instinct was to push back - "Of course I'm supposed to think about these things. I have to plan for it, right?"

Wrong. Thinking and stressing about a problem that doesn't exist yet won't make solving the problem easier down the road.

He wasn't saying "don't plan." He was saying, "Stop and look around you. This is the moment - you need to win this battle before you start thinking about the other battles that may or may not come up, much less the war."

Most of the time, passive thinking is probably a waste of time. I'm talking about the chatter that bounces around your head when you first wake up in the morning, or the cloudy feelings of doubt you have when you find yourself waiting too long for an important message to come.

Focusing and thinking in the moment creates real products, strong relationships, and real value. Thinking about the vague haunting of your self-doubt does nothing.

[drewdagostino]

Getting Lucky

As a 22-year old, I probably don't know enough people to make a fair assessment of this, simply because I haven't been around long enough, but here it goes…

I've noticed that among all the people I've ever met that have "gotten lucky" in business, or their careers, they actually share some similar qualities:

They have all put themselves in a position to get lucky.

That means they have sacrificed security in some way and taken a serious risk to pursue something they felt strongly about.

Before they were lucky, lots of people said that their time they could be using their talents more effectively somewhere else.

They were ready to put in the work and succeed without the friendly hand of luck.

I've spent a significant amount of my short career hoping to get lucky like those people. But I wasn't in the right position, I didn't make a real sacrifice, I acted to quickly upon other peoples' well-intentioned warnings, and was not ready to commit to a project in the absence of any success or recognition.

Then I decided to stop doing that (thanks for those tough words a while ago Josiah - not sure if you know how much that impacted me).

Maybe your path sounds similar to this:

You dive in headfirst to project after project, only to get lured away by another one when it loses the "fire".

When you see articles or headlines about successful people, there's an internal jealousy you try to cover up, but can't seem to shake.

Your conversations are filled with words like "maybe", "hopefully", or "someday".

I read this scripture the other day that really hit home about this:

Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits will have plenty of poverty. - Proverbs 28:19

Farms are hard work, but when you plant them, they grow and provide. Planting things in business (and life) like farms means you're building on a solid foundation, with ongoing rewards from your sweat as your work grows with you.

Pursuing wisps of emotion every time you see a new face on a magazine cover, however, will wind up sapping your energy and leaving you empty. It just puts off the day when you realize you need to be building farms.

You can't have a lucky harvest if you never plowed, planted, or cultivated in the first place.

[drewdagostino]

Why We Got Rid of the Internet

A few weeks ago, my roommate Greg and I unplugged the Comcast internet box and stuffed it in the closet.

Why would we do such a thing?

I'm a web developer. He runs a marketing agency. How on earth can we function without the Internet?

Before I get to that, here's why it had to go…

The Internet tricks us into thinking we're busy when we're really not.

Busy is an epidemic of our culture. We are exponentially more busy than we've ever been. But we're not exponentially more productive.

When you've got a project to do on the computer, that block of time is when you're "working", but if you're to be honest with yourself, how much of that time is spent reading articles, checking Facebook, linkedin, etc. I know it's always quite a bit for me.

But it's just a matter of self-control right?

Wrong. Human willpower is no match for infinite information (distraction) at your fingertips.

No matter how good you are at zen - I don't care if you're a Level 10 monk - you cannot focus on one thing for any length of time with so many other things so easily available.

It's not because you're weak. It's not because you have ADD. It's because you're human.

We are naturally inclined towards the path of least resistance.

When you're working on something worthwhile - writing, designing, coding, planning, studying - it's hard. That's why it's worthwhile. How much easier is it to take a break and head over to skim the headlines? Or what about if an email has arrived in the last 15 minutes? Or, how many likes am I up to on that clever status?

When you hit a bump in the road in your work, you are hardwired to look for a different, smoother path. Enter Internet.

How do we solve this problem?

Take away the path.

I don't think I would have made this decision if I didn't go to Africa. When we lived at times without Internet for 2 or 3 days, I still found myself opening up my computer (as habit would demand) to go down the list (Gmail… Facebook… News) hoping I would have a connection.

After the "SERVER NOT FOUND" error message came for about the 30th time in a row, I started to realize how pathetically weak-willed I am when it comes to shutting out distraction.

High-speed internet turns distraction into an automatic super-charged demon elephant that stampedes over the best work you NEED to create and the best relationships you NEED to be fostering away from your desk.

Since unplugging (speaking for both me and Greg)…

We've reconnected with people that we haven't had real conversations with in years.

We've gotten more exercise and generally done more stuff outside.

We haven't lost any productivity. Internet is always less than a 5-minute walk away when we need it.

We've actually become more productive. There's very little you absolutely need the Internet for. It's usually a momentary thing that you can write down and do when you're ready to get up and take a short walk. When you don't have the convenient escape hatch for your focus, it's much easier to focus.

Want to try?

To be honest, it was a scary decision. I'm half embarrassed to say that, but the other half of me knows that most people probably feel the same way.

If you really want to make positive changes in your life and work, just muster up a few seconds of courage and pull the plug. I promise, you will thank yourself later.

[drewdagostino]

5 Reminders on How to Avoid the Post-Grad Freakout

Now that the dust has settled for the class of 2012, the race has started. Post-grad anxiety is a real thing, and it's rising. In the noise, it's easy to make quick, panicked decisions.

I find myself in a weird position these days…

Most of my non-Northeastern friends have just graduated college, but since my school is a 5-year school, I still have 6 months as a student.

As a result, I can feel this rising pressure that most of my peers are starting to experience, but I don't really feel it, since I'm outside of that bubble for the time being. Now, I can see first hand how people end up in jobs they don't like. When you see your best friends, one by one, all announcing their new employment, it can be intimidating if you don't know what you want.

If you're unsure about what you want to do, the natural inclination is to feverishly search for something, ANYTHING to get rid of that painful -unemployed- label.

I'm feeling the strength of this nameless force (and I'm not even there yet), so I can only imagine what others my age are going through. Sometimes when there's that much pressure, we can act irrationally, and get stuck in a situation that doesn't maximize our abilities or ambition. Worse, we might just end up dreading work everyday.  Here are 5 things to remember if your a 22ish-year old in this situation:

1. Getting dirty is not a bad thing.

We have this picture that's been thrust upon us of what a sexy job is - you know the one I'm talking about. The one with the 20th story Manhattan corner office with the exposed brick walls, and oriental rug, and an espresso machine. Or the one with the impressive LinkedIn title at the big name company that will impress everyone from high school about how you're "going places". Yes, everyone wants those jobs. But there are only so many of those spots reserved for people our age.

And THOUSANDS if not MILLIONS of people chasing them.

I'm not saying don't go for sexy jobs like that. They're cool for a reason. But remember, if I'm an employer and I have thousands of people gunning for the same job, I have infinitely more leverage than each one of those resumes in the enormous pile.

Don't ignore the unsexy, or things that require you to get your college-educated hands dirty.

You could find the opportunity of a lifetime because nobody else thought to look there.

2. Facebook probably can't help your job prospects. It WILL make you feel like crap though.

People are excited when good things happen, so Facebook gives our generation the outlet to announce. And there's nothing wrong with that. The thing is, during this time of our lives, a lot of things are happening quickly, between jobs, engagements, weddings, etc., and when you see all the best things going on in someone else's life, it only exacerbates the lack of that thing in your own life. So, if you're in this valley between "graduated" and "career", take a break from the social network. Remember that your mood doesn't need to be affected by what others are up to.

3. Getting mad at the economy and/or the government won't help either.

Yes, jobs are hard to find now. Yes, the government is far from perfect. Yes, the media is deceptive. Yes, there is favoritism in our country. Yes, bankers still make a lot of money.

And you know what? We can't really do anything about it for the time being. Excuses make your problem go away for about 5 seconds. You eventually have to deal with it, regardless of external circumstances. Might as well speed up the process and get out the rants of unfairness right now.

Then proceed to build your empire in spite of it.

4. You have your whole life for the dream house, car, boat, etc. But you have limited time with this degree of freedom.

We all want money, but most of us are not sure what we really want it for. We just know we're supposed to get it, because once we have it, life will be good. Over the last 2 weeks I must have heard this phrase about 6 or 7 times… "Youth is wasted on the young." Since I'm still in that group, I don't think I fully understand it yet. But what I'm thinking is that there is a lot we take for granted as 20-somethings because we never have experienced the real responsibility of a grown-up. But we think we have responsibilities that prevent us from doing the life-changing stuff we read about in books and watch in movies. But then the real world hits us like a freight train and we realize our "responsibilities" were really nothing holding us back. They were just excuses. But now we're stuck. What am I saying? Avoid debt like it's the devil breathing down your neck. If you already have loans, get a cheap car if you need one and live as frugally as possible to pay them off ASAP.

We have more freedom than ever to go out and do crazy stuff because we want to. In 20 years, would you rather tell your kids about how you backpacked through Asia, how you failed gloriously at a business you put your heart into, how you moved out to LA to pursue your movie producer dreams, how you biked across the country one summer, or how you showed off your new BMW when all your friends had old Fords?

5. Seriously consider entrepreneurship as a Real Job.

It's scary - actually terrifying. But almost every successful entrepreneur I've ever spoken with has said something along these lines…

"My only regret is that I didn't start businesses earlier."

Most of us are financially poor right now, and technically not in a great position to start something. But we are time-, freedom-, and imagination-rich. We have the skills to get something done, but still the childlike naivety to believe it can actually work.

If you have that idea, and you are ready to test it, market it, make it, and sell it with everything you have, what's honestly the worst that could happen? Creating a business is obviously not for everyone, because it's stressful, painful, and forces you to make sacrifices that employees don't need to make. But as I've said before, we're in a unique time in history when a kid fresh out of college can do A LOT with very few resources. Everyone can do this, even if you're not starting or running a business.

At the end of the day, make good decisions. Not "OMG I NEED A JOB" decisions.

[drewdagostino]

Argue More

Since getting back to America, I've been picking up on these little nuances we have; particularly the ones that are in stark contrast to Africa. I've noticed, for instance, how afraid we are of arguing. I am terrified of it, but I didn't even know.

When something isn't right, if it's a place or situation where you're "not allowed to argue", we'll go to such lengths to shy away from conflict that we let situations balloon into monsters that end with blown up business transactions, broken relationships, and problems that nag us for years because we don't have the cajones to face them. Often, all you need is one good argument. Take, for example, a roommate dispute in America. I've seen this happen lots of times. Both people avoid the room as much as possible, and when they're in the room together, they don't speak a word. This also holds true in the office and the classroom. In Cameroon, when there's a dispute, you can hear it in the street. It's loud and emotional, but never violent. Tempers flare up and everything gets left out on the table. But you know what? In 15 minutes the dispute has a conclusion and the two parties can get back on with their lives. No need for talking behind the other's back. No need for months of complaining. No cryptic Facebook statuses. The issue is settled. This isn't just about relationships either. When you're in the market, argument is the means to fairness. When you want to buy something, the merchant often gives a price that's 2 or 3 times what it should be (sometimes even 10x if you're an American). It's your job to argue it down - all the time. Otherwise, you end up getting screwed and not only do you lose money, but you're going to feel taken advantage of. Does that seem familiar? In the last day, how many people have you heard complaining about their jobs? That they're not paid enough, that they can't get off for a vacation, that the guy that sits next to them talks too loud, that they don't have enough responsibility?

These are long-term consequences of not arguing. Consequences of fear. We back down enough times that we develop the backbone of a newt.

Thunderstorms are like arguments. They suddenly, powerfully, and violently even out differences in atmospheric pressure. They might be scary, but ultimately, they correct an imbalance. If there's pressure building up in your personal or professional life, is it because you're afraid to put your stake in the ground and do battle?

Arguing is not mean.

You're an adult and you know the difference. Arguments are not pleasant. They are messy. Willingly thrusting yourself into a mess goes against our nature. But one well-timed argument can prevent years of frustration.

[drewdagostino]

Cameroon, Day 93 - 100: Bye Bye Bali

Yesterday, we left Bali and said our goodbyes.

It took us down to the wire, but we were able to accomplish almost all of our business goals for the trip.

We put together a database of thousands of farmers in the Northwest Region of Cameroon that signed up to be involved in Jola Venture’s platform.

We gathered a massive amount of information on the SolPOD’s performance in the target environment, so the engineers back in Boston can make final modifications for the production model.

We came up with a business model for the beautifully simple corn scraper, which will be launched later this year.

We put together a very comprehensive market study on the business challenges of agriculture in Cameroon and discovered trends that have never been publically documented before. The reports will be coming out soon if you’re interested.

We set up a radio show, “The Farmer’s Voice”, which will broadcast weekly in Bali and the surrounding areas.

We laid the groundwork for the Village Technology & Entrepreneurship Center, which will help farmers, youth, and the general population to learn things like basic accounting, inventory control, and computer skills to help manage their businesses and develop their careers.

I have about a dozen more videos I’ve created over the last couple of months, but the Internet prevents me from uploading them. However, they will be on YouTube soon.

When you leave a place like this, it really makes you realize just how much of a home it’s become over the previous few months.

There are things I know I’m going to miss, like:

Fresh food

When I say fresh, I’m not talking American “fresh”. I’m saying that every time you eat meat, that animal was probably alive a few hours before. The lack of food preservation here guarantees it.

 Buying food here is a completely different experience and I’ve grown to love it. There are no supermarkets – just people on the street selling one or two things. Want fish? You go to Dorothy, the roasted fish lady. Want beef? You go to the Muslim guy that grills it every evening down by the junction. Want some vegetables? Stop by any of the hundreds of people in town that have brought the harvest from yesterday to sell today. I love this kind of community grocery shopping, because it’s a catalyst to building relationships with the people around you. I wish we had more like this in the US.

Having time

In the United States, we operate on a perpetual time famine. There is never enough of it. When is the last time you asked someone, “How is it going?” and they didn’t say something along the lines of, “I’m crazy busy right now.”

This isn’t a bad thing in itself – hard work is good. However, I don’t think we’re too busy. I think we’re afraid of not looking busy.

We occupy our days with tons of noise – lots of little actions that cover themselves up as “work” but really don’t accomplish much of anything. Yet they cause us to feel overworked and that we don’t have enough time. I’m talking specifically about habits that have been broken (with force) by this environment, like:

Checking email enough times that you’d be embarrassed to actually say the daily number in conversation, if you could even count it.

Reading article after article and telling yourself it’s a productive use of time.

At the slightest hint of boredom, whipping out the smart phone and using one of the hundreds of colorful apps you’ve downloaded to have something to look at.

I have to confess - at times, not being able to do these things has been embarrassingly painful. Here I am in an area where people regularly work a farm, a job, and school - not to mention the hours it takes to do daily tasks by hand like laundry, cooking, and cleaning, - and I’m freaking out about 48 hours without an Internet connection.

It’s embarrassing, but that’s what it took. I realized that by occupying my time, energy, and focus with these little US “necessities” I was robbing myself of the time it takes to think and talk deeply about things that truly matter.

People here always have time to talk with you. Yes, I believe this is one reason for the slow growth of the economy, but I think it is also a reason that you don’t see anyone stressed out like you do at home.

People that call you “brother”, “son”, and “uncle”

Family relationships in Africa have been the most amazing surprise to me, because they go so far beyond your actual family.

I wrote this the first week I got here –

We talk with Peter, a neighbor, family friend, and former school principle that tells us, “In our dialect, we have no word for uncle, aunt, nephew, niece, or cousin. Only father, mother, son, daughter, sister, and brother. If you are my father’s brother, you are my father. If you are my mother’s sister’s son, you are my brother. If you live nearby and you come to our door while we are eating dinner, come and sit with us. You are our son.”

 In Bali, this became real.

The neighborhood kids called me “Uncle Andrew”, my close friends would call me a “brother” and I would do the same, and older people would either call me “papa” or “son”. The Fon gave us Bali names last week, so people also started calling me “Bobga”. It’s hard to put your finger on what this does to the community, but you can feel the strength, like a tightly weaved basket.

And going along with my last point – people here have time for their family. If they don’t have it, they make it.

Now, I’m ready to get the next chapter of this thing started. It’s been a long 3 ½ months and I’m excited to go home, see everyone again, and to take back these lessons I’ve learned to incorporate them into “real life”.

This experience has given me “wow” moments, it’s been scary at times, it’s made me uncomfortable, and at times it has given me clarity that can only come when you’re forced into the unknown. Most of all, it’s humbled me in ways I can’t describe, and I’ll never forget it.

For now, onward to South Africa!

[drewdagostino]

Cameroon, Day 86 - 92: A Walk in the Jungle

My time here is winding down quickly, so I’ve been trying to just walk around and absorb as much of this place as I can.

I took a long walk one day out to a village called Baba, and I found a great place to sit, where I ultimately got distracted by a butterfly for about a half hour.

Suddenly, I felt a tap on my shoulder, and turned around to three Muslim guys who just felt like saying hi to the random white guy up on the hill.

They were cattle herders, and one of their cows had been bitten by a viper. They needed to treat it quickly to increase its chances of survival, so we walked down the slope of the hill to the watering hole.

The herd was really healthy looking, except for the one that was bitten. It seemed like all of the flesh was just gone and it was just skin and bones. I was amazed that the animal was still up and walking around.

Although I still don’t know their names, the guys invited me to ride their horses this week, so I might have some funny pictures for next week’s post.

Of course, on the walk back I saw my first poisonous snake. I also saw a woman with an incredible throwing arm. She took a rock the size of her head and crushed the creature in one toss from about 3 yards away.

This week, I learned how to smash corn. It involves a sac, a big stick, and corn. You put the corn in the sac, and then hit it as hard as you can. Food preparation, exercise, and anger management all in one!

My small church group took me to a bigger church this week, where the service lasted about 5 hours (but who’s counting?). I don’t know why, but I am always the one that’s called on to read. Like 4 times every service.

I’ve had my eye on this mountain in the distance for about two months now, and I finally decided that I would not leave Cameroon without seeing what was on top.

Two new friends, Anton from Germany and Rosa from Finland, joined me on Saturday at 6am to make our way across the valley to climb.

After about two hours of walking, we were already lost in the jungle. But the amazing thing is just how willing the people here are to help. On three separate occasions, people just dropped everything they were doing and guided us along. The first woman was a farmer, and she took us through her fields and the overgrown bush with a machete until we reached a little road that we could follow.

On that road, we eventually arrived at an orphanage, which I feel confident in saying was in the middle of nowhere.

But immediately upon our arrival, about 10 kids got together and stood on their porch to sing us a song:

You are welcome in the name of the Lord You are welcome in the name of the Lord You are welcome, you are welcome, You are welcome in the name of the Lord

I’d like to teach my brothers and sister to do that every time I come home.

When we finally reached the small village at the foot of this mountain, someone once again offered to take us all the way to the top.

It was a pretty tough climb, especially after trekking all morning, but the view from the top was worth it.

I was amazed to see Bali, Mbengwi, and Bamenda all in one eye-shot.

All I could think of was, “How did I never know a place like this existed?”

[drewdagostino]

Cameroon, Day 78 - 85: Yaounde, His Excellency, and a Stampede

I’m really not having great luck in the Unfriendly Bug department. In this latest episode, some creature (I forget its name) excretes acid on my neck as I sleep and leaves a nice cross-shaped burn.

After about a month delay, we finally made our trip to Yaounde, the Capitol of Cameroon.

I had expectations similar to Douala – that it would pretty much be a hot, crowded, unplanned mess. I was wrong. Quite wrong.

Right in the center of this country, Yaounde is developed to an entirely different decade, maybe even a different century, than most other areas. It’s all there – traffic lights, double-lane highways, fast Internet, convenience stores, garbage collection, buildings larger than one or two stories, etc.

Everyone in the Northwest has been telling me this whole time about what happens to the wealth of this country. I get it now. Quite simply, most of it stays in the Capitol.

We had a whole lineup of meetings to attend in Yaounde, the biggest one being with the Minister of Agriculture. Politics is royalty in Cameroon, so you must call the minister “His Excellency”.

And we found a Chinese restaurant. In Africa. Of course we had to go.

After meeting with more people from the Ministry, the World Bank, Customs, and the US Embassy over the next few days, we headed back to Bali. When we returned, it seemed strangely like home. It's even stranger that I'll be leaving in 2 weeks.

It was nice to see my chicken friends again.

Of course, I still can’t walk around with kids all yelling “White man! White man! White man! Hi.”

The medical industry is funny here. Well, every industry is kind of funny, but in particular, the doctors in Bamenda all sound like either kid’s action movies or comedians.

There’s good old Dr. Mofo:

Also, “The Infection Blaster”:

And if you need some pills, just head over to Black Star Pharmacy:

This guy wins most impressive head-balancing act this week:

I also realized that I really need to be a little bit more careful around the cows, so I don’t have to end up in Dr. Mofo’s office.

P.S. If anyone has been to South Africa and knows some really cool things to do, places to see, or people to meet, send me an email ([email protected]). I'll be there for a few weeks and I am clueless. Thanks!

[drewdagostino]

Cameroon, Day 69-77

So, I can now cross off “Act in a Cameroonian movie” from my bucket list.

The part was tough, but I was ready for the challenge. I was selected to be “Edward, the white visitor from the United States.” It didn’t take too long to get into character as they took me to the set in a random village house. In a few minutes it was time for my scene.

No script, no problem. That’s how they do movies in Africa. However, I think I was a still a little behind the curve, because even now, I could not tell you what that movie was about, what I actually said, or even what the name of the movie is.

They just told me “you are a white visitor from America. Talk to the chief for a while about the people and education you are going to bring.” After I finished my completely made-up schpeal, a princess (the star of the movie) came out and started waving a feather in my face, yelling at me for something that I had no idea I did.

They said the movie should be released before I leave, so I’ll be able to show you my Bali-wood debut.

After the radio performance a few weeks ago, Chop My Money (Acoustic Version) is now at the top of the charts in Njenka (our neighborhood of Bali). Seriously, nobody lets me play anything else anymore.

Also, I have a beard now.

Take a second to appreciate some grilling beauty (most of this was not my doing)…

Since getting to Bali, we’ve made some close friends that have taken so much time to introduce us to their village and help us get used to the lifestyle. I’d really like to introduce them to you.

One of them is Aloys, who lives close by and runs the bar across the street.

I want to write about what he does, because it’s such a good example of working with what you have to create as much value as possible. Like I said, he runs the bar across the street full-time. He also has his own chicken farm and a new tomato farm he just planted, which should yield something around 500 buckets every week. He’s also a part owner of one of the largest chicken farms in Bali, and I’ve been studying his business to look for ways to improve and grow.

This should be an encouragement for any entrepreneur or really anyone that wants to live productively… Every morning, Aloys wakes up around 4:30 or 5, and often goes for a run or plays a game of football. Most of his days are spent at one of the three farms I’ve mentioned, which includes doing tough physical labor by himself, managing his purchasing & selling, and managing laborers as they complete large projects like clearing, planting, or harvesting. Every evening, he is at the bar counter, serving local customers until around midnight. The man sleeps about 4 hours each night (which I still cannot understand).

He’s a hard worker, and he’s not alone. There are lots of people in this region of Cameroon that are ambitious and hardworking. However, most of them eventually hit a glass ceiling because of either 1) lack of access to capital, or 2) politics. These are real, very widespread problems that the western world usually doesn’t think about, because when we think about about Africa, we usually focus on the masses of starving people or the corrupt elite.

I don’t know what it will take for places like Cameroon to finally become “developed”. You can talk about things like better roads, faster Internet, less corruption, and more reliable electricity, but all of those things are really a byproduct of putting power and money in the hands of the right people.

[drewdagostino]

Cameroon, Day 61-68

Last week, I mentioned the month-long lack of rain. That continued for about a day, right up through a big meeting we had planned with the Bali Farmer’s Federation.

It was an outdoor meeting with the leaders of about 130 farming groups in Bali. It’s a huge deal to get the support of these leaders, because that means we have relationships with thousands of farmers here, and we can use it as a model to replicate.

Of course, during the meeting, the heavens opened up and we all had to huddle under a small porch nearby. 

Every day since then, it’s been a downpour for at least a few hours. Somehow though, we still don’t have running water, and the electricity goes out all the time. Two months ago, this would have annoyed me. Now, it’s just life.

The next night, when the rain subsided, we had a barbeque for the community (it took us a while to throw a housewarming party). Nobody knows what barbeque is here. I’m surprised, because it really doesn’t take anything but come cinder blocks and a metal grate.

Jason is now raising a bunch of chickens, and we christened the new homemade grill with one of them.

As I’ve met and spoken with more farmers from Cameroon, I’ve discovered this ongoing battle between them and the cattle herders.

The cows are literally walking around all day, every day, eating grass. Sometimes (actually pretty often), they cross into a farm and completely ruin the crops.

This happened three times in the last two months to Beatrice, a hardworking farmer I met a few days ago. She had a field full of vegetables, and a month into their cycle, a bunch of cows came at ate them. She planted again. Cows came again. Then she built a fence around the field and planted again. The same cows ate it all again.

You can imagine how this is not only tremendously annoying, but really damaging to her business. Still, she has reported the issue to the counsel but nothing has been done.

Somehow, I was invited to be a guest musician on Bali’s local radio station.

In the western world, we’re used to a Top 40 list that gets annoying. In Cameroon, it’s a Top 5, and nobody ever seems to get sick of the songs. Rather than resist, I’ve tried to like these 5 songs.

For the radio show, I played an acoustic version of “Chop My Money.” “Chop” is “eat” or “food” in pidgin.

Now, I've been invited to act in a Cameroonian movie. I have no idea what the part is, or really what the movie is about at all. I'm just assuming they were waiting for a random white guy to play the "random white guy" part.

[drewdagostino]

Cameroon, Day 54 - 60: Where is the rain?

It's supposed to be the start of the rainy season, but we haven’t had rain for almost a month, and the running water went out two weeks ago. All of a sudden, many of the African struggles we hear about have become very real.

For instance, I was complaining about not being able to wash my clothes… until I realized that for most of our neighbors, the lack of water means that their crops are in serious danger of dying. That equals no money and no food.

In America, we have that expression that always goes something like “I’m working to put food on the table.” When people say it here, they mean it.

  I visited a farmer named Nelson yesterday. He’s in his 40’s and has a large farm that pretty much covers a whole mountainside in the jungle.

  On a typical day, he wakes up around 4:30, walks about 3 miles to his farm if the motorcycle isn’t working or if he can’t pay for gas. He and his children work the farm all day – walking up, over, and down the mountain (about 300 – 400 feet from the road-level path), carrying buckets of water from the stream to cultivate everything (some things, like tomatoes, need to be watered twice a day).

He and his two boys were in the middle of clearing a field to plant some cassava. It’s a few days of work on your hands and knees in the dirt – under the Cameroon sun.

  To give you an idea of the market for all this… he has a field of pepper. The field yields about 2 buckets of pepper every 3 months. In a good market, pepper sells for about $10 per bucket (that’s after he harvests it, carries it up the mountain, and walks it 3 miles to the Bali market).

  So working the pepper nearly every week day for 3 months, he and his family get about $20 for the field - about 35 cents for every day of labor. In a bad market, pepper can go for $4 per bucket.

  Even in his situation, the man would not stop offering us fruit. He gave us a stem of bananas, some avocados, and passion fruit.

I am amazed by the generosity of these people. I was walking way out in the bush today, and I passed by a family that was working their farm, and had just broken for lunch and called me over. They insisted on sharing their picnic with me – almost a full serving of foo-foo and jamma-jamma (I love the food names here).

  In other news, there are cows everywhere this week and I don’t know why.

  We also climbed the biggest hill in Bali, as we were told we’d find monkeys on top. No monkeys, but a wonderful view.

A few days ago, I found a gorgeous wild horse out in the fields.

And this is a patch of huckleberry that one farmer planted for his wife. 

[drewdagostino]

Cameroon, Day 47 - 53

Yesterday, I had ants in my pants. Fire ants. I suppose it could have been worse, right?

The more I collect data from these farms, the clearer (and more confusing at the same time) it becomes to me why there is such a cycle of poverty here, and really in places like this all over Africa.

I’ve been interview a bunch of farmers to find out every detail of their input costs, as well as their production and market prices. Doing this has given me a better idea of what the most profitable crops are (and often, that means the crops that end up causing less of a loss).

More than half of the farmers I've spoken to seem to be losing money farming on at least one of their main crops. The numbers just don’t add up. He’ll rattle off the costs of labor, tools, fertilizer, transport, etc. and then I’ll stack it up against what he would sell in an ordinary market and the estimated costs always exceed the revenue, even in a decent market. It just doesn't make sense.

I think it ultimately comes down to culture – and these farmers have developed a culture of subsidizing the country (and the world) with their labor. There’s no accounting for one’s own time in farm work here. What needs to be done simply gets done. Unfortunately, when you calculate a value for their time, you find that it causes people to literally generate pennies for every hour of labor.

That’s why these simple technologies we’re bringing over, like the corn scraper, are so impactful. They would be useless in the U.S. but in Cameroon, a simple, cheap piece of plastic can save people hours every day, and can save their hands from the tough repetition of grinding thousands of ears of corn.

Seriously, I’ve been amazed by the farmers’ responses to this little thing. I walked into a village with Marie to demonstrate it, and within minutes, we were surrounded by about 30 people and thunderous applause.

What’s even cooler is their response when we say it’s going to be somewhere between $2 - $4. I wish we had a few thousand to sell right now.

One eerie thing I’ve noticed here is how big the funeral business is here, and how consumerized it is. To give you an idea, I recently saw vehicles for these two companies:

Big Frank’s Funeral Service

Destiny Service (funerals) – yes the parentheses are included in the name.