David Fossas

In Retail: David Fossas followed a question.

In User Interface Design: David Fossas followed a question.

In Startups: David Fossas voted up an answer.

Build it in Wordpress.  To echo Paul's answer, it's also likely already been conceived of by someone else.  Closely anyway, such that you can find an approximation of what you want the site to do.

Don't think WP is for blogs... WP is the most diverse content management system on the planet and it's being used for local business sites, photography portfolios, large communities (I built one with 700,000 members), ecommerce sites, and yes, there are off-the-shelf designs like Quora.

Such a design will run you about $50.  You can hire a good WP developer for about $30/hour (less overseas) and you can't possibly need them for more than a $1000.  Let me be clear... no MORE than that much.  You can design an amazing online experience for a couple hundred bucks.

• Sketch you idea in something like https://gomockingbird.com

• Browse a site like http://themeforest.net/ to find a close approximation
• Hire a developer on oDesk

Let me be clear (again), you can't build software this way.  You can't build the next Mint, Twitter, Trello, or TurboTax this way.  But you'll be surprised what you can build... Groupon? Easy. Zappos? Yep. Quora. Already mentioned. Hulu?  Sure.  I even know a guy who is building Slideshare via Wordpress.

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I'm surprised that no one has mentioned Elon Musk yet.

1. Co-founder of 3 different companies; each one aims to solve one of the biggest problems of our generation
2. Absolutely zero fear of risk; he is willing to put his entire bankroll on a single project (500m+ invested in his own companies)
3. Arguably the most brilliantly diverse engineer of our time
4. His level of optimism and determination is unmatched by anyone of our era. Elon will literally not stop a project until it succeeds, regardless of its size (http://www.wired.com/science/spa...)

Forget about iPhones and iPads, Elon is trying to solve some of the biggest problems of this world's future.

And he's doing so without being properly noticed.



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In Life Advice: David Fossas voted up an answer.

I think the cardinal rule of input of any kind is to not take it personally.  Always focus on the substance of the input - is it valid?  If so, what does that mean for your work?

I've found the most impressive leaders to be those with the greatest ability to hear input. They don't get hurt by negative feedback, and they equally don't get unduly high from positive input. They focus on what they can learn from everyone.  So, over time they accumulate the most wisdom. 

I think it's also true that leaders who are good listeners attract the best teams.

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David Fossas voted up an answer.

Learn public speaking.

Of all the skills that an entrepreneur can have, I think the ability to convey an idea or opportunity, with confidence, eloquence and passion is the most universally useful skill.  Whether you're pitching a group of investors, rallying your employees, selling a customer, recruiting talent, addressing consumers, or doing a press tour, the ability to deliver a great talk is absolutely invaluable.  And it is perhaps THE most under-recognized and under-nurtured skill.

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In Badassery: David Fossas voted up an answer.

The assassin had trailed the candidate for three weeks through eight states. He saw his chance and fired. The bullet hit the speaker and ran three inches into his chest. Blood seeping into his shirt, Theodore Roosevelt staggered into the auditorium. Unsatisfied with having been President twice, he had formed his own party, the Bull Moose Party, and was running for President again. Ignoring everyone's advice, he mounted the podium.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I have just been shot ... but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose."

He then proceeded to give his planned hour-and-a-half speech.

Roosevelt was then rushed to hospital and kept there for a week. The bullet stayed inside him for the rest of his life.

Flash back to 1884. After his wife died in childbirth, and his mother died of typhoid (On the same day. In the same house), Roosevelt moved out West to work as as a cowboy. A man with intentions on Roosevelt's ranch hired a killer named Paddock to get rid of him. Hearing of this, Roosevelt armed himself and rode over to Paddock's residence. He said:

"I understand you have threatened to kill me on sight. I have come over to see when you want to begin the killing."

Paddock did not bother Roosevelt again.

Later, in a South Dakota town, a gun-wielding cowboy called Roosevelt "four-eyes." Though unarmed, Roosevelt was displeased, so he punched the gunman three times in the head in quick succession, knocking him unconscious.

Right now, he's hunting grizzly. Alone. At dusk. He's found a big one, and wounded it, but not severely. The grizzly charges. He shoots it a third time, then a fourth, but is unable to get a head shot during the charge. Worse, the smoke from Roosevelt's antiquated gun conceals the bear's charge. The next thing Roosevelt sees is the grizzly's left paw swiping at him. He ducks. The grizzly leaps over him. It turns to attack again, but it's weakened from the four hits and the failed charge. Roosevelt is able to deal the coup de grace.

Roosevelt's rise to the presidency was inevitable - he was a war hero after personally leading several assaults in Cuba. He was the youngest US president ever. He earned only two medals:-

• The Medal of Honor;
• The Nobel Prize.

After being blinded in one eye during a boxing match, Roosevelt switched to judo, training 3 times a week in the White House basement under Yamashita Yoshiaki, and becoming America's first brown belt.

Roosevelt was the first President to fly in an airplane. He was the first President to go down in a submarine.  He once killed a cougar with a knife. He was also a sensitive man who loved poetry and nature, making Yosemite a national park.

In office, Roosevelt - though a natural conservative - grew to understand and fight the dangerous power of the wealthy. The Supreme Court, in thrall to business interests, battled him every step of the way, handing down decisions whose essential evil has to be read to be believed. Roosevelt's courage and intellect grew in office. By 1910, he could stand on the site where John Brown launched the Harper's Ferry raid, and deliver an "anarchist," "socialist" speech to 30,000 people:

We regard the executive power as the steward of the public welfare. We demand of the judiciary that it shall be interested primarily in human welfare, rather than in property. Whenever the alternative must be faced, I am for men and not for property.

(This is a two-term Republican president, I remind you).

Bored after winning only 4 million votes as the Bull Moose presidential candidate, Roosevelt launched an expedition to find the source of South America's "River of Doubt." During the voyage, he mapped a completely uncharted 1000-km long river, now named the Rio Roosevelt. He shrugged off flesh wounds, jungle fever, delirium, and infection, but the jungle broke his health. When he eventually died, the Vice President said,

Death had to take Roosevelt sleeping. If he had been awake, there would have been a fight.

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In Brainstorming: David Fossas added a question.

In How Much Is X Worth?: David Fossas added a question.

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Men do statistically better. Should I attach a penis?

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Never.

Always be yourself.

Being an entrepreneur is a life, not a game. You need authenticity and truth to succeed.

You lose sight of that, you fail.

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In Twitter: David Fossas voted up an answer.

I'm going to have to take a contrarian view on this one, but with all due respect. Influence is a perception, if not even an illusion. It's not actual power to move and cause (people to say or do things). It's not even an attribute of a person. People don't *have* influence. They don't *influence* others. Influence is in the eyes of the beholder. And the second that beholder loses faith, the influencer has no influence.

It's only because in this medium the "views" of many are anchored on statistics assigned to a common point of reference -- the influencer -- that we fall into thinking that the influencer *has* influence. (twitter is interesting in that users can ride the influence of an influencer -- by @naming an influencer, you borrow his/her reputation -- virtual elbow rubbing. which raises the question: what's influence, really, when a person refers to an influencer for their own purposes?)

That said, influence can be a perception, transitory and intangible as that "force" or "power" is, has influence as long as people legitimize it. So the metrics outlined above can work -- can be a more or less accurate measure of what people believe.

I helped Klout with its 16 personality types (from 4 in the old version). There are multiple facets to influence, as measured by twitter metrics.

--a retweeter of mainstream news may have influence as an amplifier
--a retweeter of celebrities may have influence as a trend spotter
--a pundit or thought leader who has a high retweet count has influence for what s/he says
--a connector/maven who has a high retweet count has influence characteristic of social status

and so on. There are many ways to slice it.

I tend to think that people are self-oriented, other-oriented, or socially-oriented. And some on twitter just use it as a publishing channel. Look closely and you will see many ways of "exercising influence" on twitter. Some earn it by giving face and attention -- reply to others, for example. Some by commanding the heights of 140 character oratory and sustaining the illusion of stagecraft from atop a plastic soapbox. Some observe the comings and goings of a peer group and intervene in ways that disclose their attentiveness and observations.

There are so many differences, and they're all effective. I rue that we reduce our social measurements to a single yardstick, to numbers that reflect the value only of the lowest common denominator. Perhaps we need a common bearing. Perhaps it's culture -- our media are rife with stats, polls, surveys -- as if the majority opinion really exists, or were reliable and consistent.

Fact is, nobody really knows, so we need something to lean on. Twitter's bias is the follower count. Because that's the simplest social gesture on twitter -- what it's relationship model is built on. It's not a lasting social model, and something else is bound to come along.

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In Twitter: David Fossas voted up an answer.

People continue to be overly obsessed with Follower counts - with the exception of celebrities that are current, they don't matter. Focus on quality not quantity.

So what does matter? Simple: the ability to drive action. Reasonable people can debate and disagree on what actions are measures of influence on Twitter and how these actions should be weighted. That's a welcome, healthy debate that will be never ending as actions on Twitter and other social media ecosystems evolve.

Everyone who is active on Twitter has influence. When you create, share and converse on Twitter - your network, whatever its size, is in the mix and ripe to engage. The more genuine, relevant, conversive and generous you are on Twitter, the more your network will engage.

Driving action requires engagement, and in an open network like Twitter, the opportunities to ignite engagement and drive action are abundant.

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