1000 Times 1000

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

We just decided to reschedule Feest.je to Thursday 30th od August (next Thursday) due to conflicting party schedules. We already rsvp-ed ourselves to go to a party in Rotterdam on Friday the 31st…

You’re still invited and if you already rsvp-ed you’ll receive an email from Dorothee to confirm the date swap. If you couldn’t attend in the first lace, this is your chance. So as Johan Cruyff would say: “every disadvantage has its advantage”.

After my post “Wanted: a Friend” almost instantly the first request came in. It was Jasper Soetendal, also Gerard van Enk and Roy Tomeij are added to my friends. Welcome and thanks :-)

IMGP2945.JPG

Originally uploaded by Patrick de Laive.

It sound a little desperate don’t you think….
To tell you the truth… IT IS :-)

I just got an invitation of Caroline vvv to be my Hyves friend, I accepted her. But now I have 149 hyves friends. As I’m a number fobiac and 149 is a prime number, I NEED a new friend!

Who wants to be my 150st friend?

invite me here

L1131476.jpg

Originally uploaded by Guido van Nispen.

What was I thinking of?

Fleck and heather harde

Originally uploaded by Patrick de Laive.

We signed up for TechCrunch20 in Silicon Valley in September. 20 Startups will be picked to launch their new service. We’re working hard to finish the new version of fleck. I expect it to be ready at the beginning of September. We are preparing some major changes, based upon all feedback we’ve had over the last 9 months, and our own vision.

TechCrunch20 received 600!! submissions! They are interviewing 100 companies (semi-finalists).
Last Friday we had a conference call / interview with Heather Harde (CEO TechCrunch) about Fleck, about our new features and about if we could finish things on time. The interview was a little bit chaotic (I made a minor mistake in calculating the time difference between San Francisco and Amsterdam -it’s -9 hrs, I did +9 :) ), but I think in the end she understand what we’re up to. They are planning a new round of interviews somewhere this week…

I’m up for it!

Whatever you want to achieve in life, it is possible. Do you want to be a professional soccer player? or a highly skilled professor? or do you want to work from 9 to 5 and get drunk during weekends? Whatever it is, it is possible. I think the two ingredients you need to get what you want are dedication and talent. Where dedication can live sometimes without talent, but talent alone is not enough, it needs dedication.

All guys know this feeling. You’re watching Studio Sport and see all these professional soccer players, then you think I can do this too, how hard can it be…. You’re probably right, you can become a professional soccer player, the only thing is that you’re already 28 or somewhere around 30. All these guys are so young! They made a choice, they started when they were 6,7 or 8 and played soccer all day long. They were so dedicated to become a professional player, and that with a fair amount of talent got them to the first division of Dutch soccer.

In other sports you see the same thing : Dedication and talent will get you where you want to be. To mention some phenomenons (and links to some of their greatest moments): Tiger Woods (started playing golf at age 4), Roger federer (the first thing he touched after his birth was a tennis ball), Pieter van den Hoogenband (He has spend more hours in a pool than all people in Scheveningen together on a hot summer day), Teun de Nooijer (some people believe he’s married with his hockey stick).

But this doesn’t only work in sports. I truly believe dedication and passion can bring you your dream job, your dream company, your dream partner. Whatever you dream, it can be yours.

So what do you want to achieve? Who do you want to meet? With whom do you want to work? What is it that drives you?
These are the questions all books write about. The Secret, Love is the Killer App, 4-hour workweek, how to win friends and influence people, and I can can continue for a while….
I have been thinking about these questions a lot in the last year and I will continue doing so.

I answered this question earlier this year: What do you want to be when you grow up?

We are throwing a party on the 30st of August. The reason… Well to come up with one or two… or ten.
1. We’ll introduce a new version of Fleck around that time
2. we love our new office view and like to share that
3. The Next Web was a successful international conference
4. Wakoopa is doing good
5. Twones is coming up with some good stuff
6. Because Robert is finally leaving us alone (He’s going to Japan)
7. We love to share good times and their is always time for a nice party
8. Because we registered a great domain name for it :)
9. Because we’re working with some new people at the office you should meet
10. Because We love you

The leaflet is inspired by a real invitation for a party in 1876 (that explains the horse care fee).

See you there! Sign up at Feest.je

We’ve all experienced it, an awkward situation when the bill comes up after a dinner with a group. You know the drill… some people say they didn’t drink and some of them probably actually are telling the truth, but you’ve been having to much ‘fun’ to notice or to care about it. Others didn’t order a 8 euro starter and emphasize that but forget to say that they had that Irish Coffee… Well whatever it is, it is always a hassle.

So here are five ways how to settle the bill:

1. Go Dutch, as the Americans would say. This means that you divide the bill through all people.
2. The pricky way. This is hard and you need to have some calculating skills. Everybody is paying for what they ordered. What did you have? ok that’s 35 euro then. next…
3. Banking style. Everybody pays whatever they think they should pay and than there is one guy or girl who will cover ‘the rest’.
4. The Entrepreneurial way! One person pays for all of it and says: I’ve had a great dinner and time with you and as I just sold my company I’ll be more than happy to take care of the bill. You were my guests tonight.
5. Play for it! The Credit card game. (probably my favorite) This is fun! If everybody is wining about not splitting the bill equally (or nobody has sold their company lately) I suggest to put everybody their credit card into a hat and let the waitress pick one card who pays for all!
It is very exciting (as you probably can imagine).
But there is a way out, as not all people are risk seekers/entrepreneurs, every one can ‘buy’ oneself out for the average price of the bill plus a small “chicken out” premium of lets say 2 euros (hey I’m Dutch, we have euros).

The funny thing is that a lot of people finally will agree to put it the average price plus the premium although they didn’t agree with splitting the bill in the first place. Some people stay in the game for the fun and excitement of it, the others who chickened out are watching the ‘ceremony’ with the waitress picking one card and have fun as well.

This is a win-win-win situation. The people who chickened out feel winners because they paid their part, had a great evening and didn’t lose the game, the people who put in there credit card and won the game win for obvious reasons (they had a free dinner which made their evening) and the loser is a winner because he/she has a story to tell (its bloggable)!

Tara Hunt had her problem with the dinner bill as well :)

Any other ideas?

I forgot who said it but it sounds great:

The web came forth out of passion and turns out to be great business