Had a very nice day today. Gerry is moving with lighting speed on things, which is exactly what I had hoped for. It’s like he had never left. I’m a luck guy to be able to roll back mistakes of the past. Seriously, how often do you get chance at that!?

So, we are focusing on marketing as, I had know, has been neglected. I love Gerry’s focus on the business and cross-analysis with marketing. All I can say is that I’m sure we will crank up our volume quite shortly. We are talking facebook, Twitter, etc, etc. Basically, we are going to SOP 5 to 10 channels to market. Idea is that they all will not work for all products and streams BUT they will work for some. So, we are planning to fail on most – and accept that as part of the site growth process.

So, in this way, our business model is Plan to Fail. Basically, if you can accept failing in some parts, my theory, as well as that Nassim Taleb (see Blowing Up by Malcom Gladwell), is that in long term you eliminate dumb luck. But planning to fail (9 out 10 times) is not easy – huge mental toll. But if you build failure into your business plan – and you can stomach the failures – you will succeed long term. Only future will tell if my bet is right.

Had a great evening mingling with Beijing entrepreneurs at an EO event. Lots of very cool people – very fresh. So much positive energy. Had a nice chat with Sam. Sam authored a book – and I’m gearing up for that also – so it was great to get first hand play by play on how to do it.

But let’s keep this real. Not all of today was great. My worry is that I on on boarded more staff – all without clear financial visibility. Another words, I can handle the cash flow – but is my infrastructur going to choke me. Without any outside injections I’m good for at least 12 months – although it does mean going all in. But if you look at actions my decision to fully commit has been made some time ago. I’m doing it now. There is risk. There is my conviction that with the right people on boarded we can really, really launch. But, it’s not done yet. Sure, I can 100% visualize it in my mind – and all my instincts tell me that my actions are right – but, but – I feel the risk. I feel the risk. So, there is some fear, some discomfort. But I know that if I play it safe, the next stage will not launch.

So, I’m making some blind moves – without all data – and following intuition. It feels right but my engineering brain so wants supporting data and info to validate the intuition. So, good learning for me to learn to make decisions in a state of ambiguity. It’s uncomfortable to be honest – but if if was comfort that I wanted – I would be just milking PearlsOnly and the retiring in a few years. Where is the fun in that.

On the super up, my buddy M… is in UK for a few days. We just texted – and his meets in London went well. Very well. So happy for him. He jumped into London for 3 days – and will be back for Saturday – so quite excited to hear just how much butt he kicked! :). So nice to see your friends doing well!

On a personal note, I can say that “life is good”. Ok, maybe “very good”.

So, from the 10,000ft view I have to say that I’m one very, very lucky guy. My days maybe up, and some down – my challenge may see big, and some may seem like a struggle. But, but… It’s never boring, it’s never dull – and it seems everyday I learn yet one more thing. And to me that equals happiness.

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Location:Jiangtai Rd,Beijing,China