When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the two beers .

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was..

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous ‘yes.’

The professor then produced two beers from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.

‘Now,’ said the professor as the laughter subsided, ‘I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things—your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favorite passions—and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.

The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car. The sand is everything else—the small stuff.

‘If you put the sand into the jar first,’ he continued, ‘there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you.

‘Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Spend time with your children. Spend time with your parents.. Visit with grandparents. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your spouse out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal. Take care of the golf ball first—the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.’

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the beer represented. The professor smiled and said, ‘I’m glad you asked.’

The beer just shows you that no matter how full your life may seem, there’s always room for a couple of beers with a friend.’

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To recap some points I mentioned on Twitter using the #10yearsago hashtag: 10 years ago, I had sold my first technology business, was preparing for the successor company to go public, was wearing more of the venture investor cap investing in several promising start-ups, raising capital for a new start-up I co-founded, was traveling heavily and entering a period of semi-retirement with plenty of toys and money falling from trees. Now I’m just suffering a horrible hangover from the aftermath of all the “irrational exuberance” of the late 90′s. But what a decade it had been. The naughts were not so kind to me. I don’t hold anyone or anything at fault for this, though close-to-home terrorism mashed up with a renaissance of xenophobic, narrow-minded politics certainly didn’t vibe with me. Add some business failures (no fault of the businesses themselves but more of the common threads that seemed to string them all together; that is a subject for another blog post entirely or perhaps a book/memoir) to the mix and I’m glad to see it end. However, it’s always been my M.O. to persevere and never have any regrets. As my mother always tells me, “Sean, never, ever lose your edge.” I think my edge substantially dulled during the naughts. It’s time to get the sharpener out, folks.

There were lots of positives that happened during the decade that I would be remiss to omit. I kind of went into hiding during the last decade. Twitter, in many ways, brought me back into the mainstream. Even though he doesn’t know it yet, Ed Schipul is someone partially responsible for that. I thought Twitter was a ridiculous waste of time at first. Somewhere about February 2008, I decided to hop online (a couple of months after I launched this blog) and give it another go. One of the very first people I looked up from my prior technology days (Ed was one of my earlier customers of my technology company in the 90′s) was Ed. I read through his tweets and decided what the hell. So I created an account and followed him. He followed me back and tweeted something about our distant past, which garnered many followers. From there I searched for other colleagues and friends from the past and struck up many conversations. I had all but hung up my hat as a technology entrepreneur, but here I was reemerging into the Houston technology scene once again. It was therapeutic, to be sure. I have made tons and tons of friends in real life through the virtual connections forged through Twitter, Facebook, Brightkite and other social media platforms. I was pretty much the first person to dive into the social media bandwagon among my existing real life friends and served as the catalyst to get them all on board as well, strengthening ties with them in the process. As much as I would love to list all the new friends I’ve made, it would be too exhaustive a list as there are too many to mention. You know who you are. I adore each and every one of you and only hope to know each of you better as the teens unfold.

I will eventually write a series of blog posts/memoirs about my various misgivings and learning experiences of the last 10 years; they could fill a book books. For now, however, I want to simply bid the naughts adieu. I am very hopeful about the twenty-teens and what they will bring. I am reassembling the fragments of my life and forging ahead full steam ahead. I won’t bore you with my new decade resolutions here, but I have many I believe will result in a better human being. I can only hope I’ll enjoy a similar level of success and positive impact on others as I did 10 years ago. Actually, screw that sentiment. I am going to amp it up 100 times this time around.

2010, bring it on!

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In any case, Guy quickly got up into a crane stance and deftly kicked the gun from my hands and pointed it back at me. He told me I better put up some Alltop.com badges!! While I cannot hold a candle to the badges created by the Bloggess, I was nevertheless inspired.

Eat your heart out Guy!

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I could not possibly compile a list of all the awesome people out there in my life and my new and quickly growing social media friends on Twitter and other networks, since it would crash Firefox from taking up terabytes of memory! Gary Vaynerchuk, the most awesome host of Wine Library TV, came up with the idea for Good People Day (see the video below calling us to action!). It’s all about spreading the love and positive karma. For me, this includes all my tweeps and fellow twitterati, all my fantastic social network friends, and many nameless people that hang out in the numerous IRC channels and lend help to those like me who often cry out for it when we can’t get something to work. Gary is truly a role model for this spirit of helping and generosity. He literally answers hundreds of emails and tweets a day to people he doesn’t even know who ask about wine. Just the other day I was asking him advice via a tweet about a certain 1997 Merryvale Profile and whether I should drink or cellar it. His direct message to me within minutes, “DRINK IT.” This is at 10:41pm his time on a Saturday night! How much love is that? And he doesn’t know me from Adam other than as a fellow twitterati (though you certainly don’t have to be a top twitterati to get a quick response from him!).

So I’m sending out much love and positive karma to all those who save my bacon and otherwise lend a helping hand, and to those who follow me on twitter, read my blog or have any interest in what I have to say. This goes to all my close friends, family and total strangers (whom I hope to meet someday at a tweetup or meet up or camp)! Try not to complain or be negative and extend the golden rule to the maximum to everyone you interact with, on line or off. I vote we make April 3 Good People Day every year!

PASS IT ON and keep showing the love!

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I’m going to keep this initial post very short since I just got back to Houston and am tired as hell and need a few days to recoup and recall everything. For the sake of brevity, I’ll highlight some things I learned about SXSW, in no particular order of importance:

• twitter is essential to knowing what is going on and where it’s happening
• beer is served promptly starting at 3 pm in the bloghaus (critically important)
• the numerous parties are on the schedule until 4 am and very much a part of the event (as are flash mob parties through twitter)
• you know people more by their twitter handle than their real names
• you don’t sleep; show up with a huge sleep surplus or bring some Provigil
• the tone of the conference is irreverent and raw; people cuss during sessions and keynotes
• bring comfortable shoes
• bring extra phone batteries or have your charger with you (twitter drains it quickly through SMS if you’re tracking a lot of things)
• don’t track “zuckerberg” through twitter and SMS during his keynote; your phone will experience epic fail
• hallway conversations are as important (or more so) than sessions
• network and get to know as many people as possible (I failed a little bit in this regard due to severe sleep deprivation and my usual shyness, or “closet extroversion” as Dan Light brilliantly put it – not next time!)
• take business cards with you next time, dumb ass!
• Guy Kawasaki is the most kick-ass, easy going, VC ever. Period.
• Hugh MacLeod got a kick out of my last name (but added I didn’t look like a stoner . . .)
• spend lots of time in the bloghaus blogging, playing guitar hero, eating, drinking and tweeting
• you drink a lot (no really, a lot)
• keep your laptop charged at all times!
• Macs outnumber PC laptops 30 to 1 (at least)
• twitter!! (again) – it is an important back channel, or the conversation of the collective consciousness
• don’t let Sarah Lacy interview you if you’re doing a keynote and you’re a young billionaire
• even if you don’t own a computer and can’t spell blog, this conference is still the deal of the century with all the great people, films, venues, music, booze and food you can enjoy
• Geek and good-looking are not mutually exclusive (quite the contrary methinks, especially when you’re doubly turned on by someone with looks and brains)
• the conference is completely casual and everyone is approachable no matter their status

I could go on and on. I have many post motifs drafted from the conference which I will flush out soon, once my sleep patterns have recovered and my long term memory is functional. In the meantime, I urge everyone to read Daniel Light’s most kick-ass post about the show. I think it nails it on the head. Until next time!

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Next in my series? A rant on what merging traffic means and how it’s supposed to be done.

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Needless to say I was quite exasperated by this point and simply wasn’t going to tolerate it any longer. I told her something to the effect that they could shove my account and balance where the sun didn’t shine and they would never get another penny from me, ever. After going through 3 other providers, including Cingular (another customer service nightmare), I landed with T-Mobile and have never looked back. The mobile phone service providers really need to use T-Mobile as a case study on how to run a customer service organization.

I still haven’t paid Sprint and never will.

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METAR as promised (you know you love it):

KHOU 210618Z 11003KT 8SM FEW003 OVC009 19/18 A2991 RMK AO2 CIG 006V012

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I must agree – t-mobile rocks. I’ve had literally ten (I mean, literally, ten. Really.) cell phone providers and have enjoyed my stay with t-mobile for the last 3 years. When I call, someone answers, chit chats if necessary while solving the problem (i.e., not reading from a script somewhere in India) and fixes it to my satisfaction. No 3 hour hold times (cingular), no arrogant jackass posturing (sprint), nor ineptitude of any kind. I plan on sticking with them for a while!

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