“A conference for entrepreneurs, marketers, designers, coders, business people, freelancers or anyone who wants to be inspired by amazing business people.”
A few months ago I attended a one-day conference here in town called LessConf put on by a local company and I wrote a rather lengthy blog post about it and why I enjoyed it so much. They’ve scheduled LessConf2010 for May 21-22 in Atlanta (2 days this year) and I’ve already registered to go. The price is a little higher this year, but still a very reasonable $402 during early registration. The lineup is still under wraps, but if it’s anything like last year it will be stellar.
They only have 250 seats. Go register now. You’ll really enjoy it, and I’ll buy you a beer while we’re there.
Allan has been posting up the videos of the presentations from 2009 to the Less blog, on a schedule that appears to match Scott Adams’ schedule for sending out Dilbert newsletters, that being “approximately whenever he feels like it”. I think at this point the only ones missing are the Gary Vaynerchuk presentation and the discussion panel, and I’m not sure if those are going up or not, but I’ve copied in the links to the others are below, in case you need more convincing.
Des Traynor & Eoghan McCabe
Kevin Hale
Colin Devroe
David Hauser
Jason Fried
Mike McDerment
Derek Sivers
Keep an eye on the Less blog to see if the GaryVee video shows up, cause it was great (as was the panel).
A joke, courtesy of my mom…
A burglar broke into a house one night. He shined his flashlight around, looking for valuables when a voice in the dark said, ‘Jesus knows you’re here.’
He nearly jumped out of his skin, clicked his flashlight off, and froze. When he heard nothing more , after a bit, he shook his head and continued. Just as he pulled the stereo out so he could disconnect the wires, clear as a bell he heard ‘Jesus is watching you.’
Freaked out, he shined his light around frantically, looking for the source of the voice. Finally, in the corner of the room, his flashlight beam came to rest on a parrot.
Did you say that?’ he hissed at the parrot.
‘Yep’, the parrot confessed, then squawked, ‘I’m just trying to warn you that he is watching you.’
The burglar relaxed. ‘Warn me, huh? Who in the world are you?’
‘Moses,’ replied the bird.
‘Moses?’ the burglar laughed. ‘What kind of people would name a bird Moses?’
‘The same kind of people that would name a Rottweiler Jesus.’
I’m one of those people - the ones who write a Christmas newsletter each year. However, with understanding that many people find this sort of behavior irritating, I do my best to spice the normal who-did-what up with humor. So, this is what went out this year…
It’s been a pretty quiet year. Cheryl was concentrating on school, taking three courses in the spring. Cayce was concentrating on the business, still trying to make a go of it. The kids were… um… honey, where are the kids?
I kid, of course. The kids had a good year, Eoin played another couple seasons of soccer, Aine tried it, but returned to gymnastics. Both are doing well in school. But, really… as we go back over the year there’s just not a lot that stands out in the “I can make that funny” sense. We’re just not quite in the holiday spirit. We sort of go through a cycle, I guess: two years on and one year off. We have a tree this year, but whether due to laziness or just being busy, we have utterly failed to roll out any outside decorations. The usual list Cheryl makes of what went on in the past year that prompts me on what to write has yet to materialize and, well it’s the 15th and there’s a deadline. So, I’ve given it a lot of thought (and by “a lot” what I mean is “very little”), and I’m just gonna tell you this story of my evening last night, and hope that you find it funny (cause it is).
The first sign of trouble greeted me as I walked through the door. As the story goes, to what do my wondering eyes should appear… In this case, what appeared was my wife, Cheryl. At the sink. With a plunger.
“We have a problem.”
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Kids are honest. Unless they’re talking about something they want, or something they did (or didn’t do), you can rest reasonably assured that whatever a kid under 12 tells you is the truth. They have no filter. If a kid tells you you’re fat, you are. If a kid tells you you’re ugly, well face it - you’re ugly. And if a kid tells you you’re Billy-Joel-ugly, but without the talent or fame, go ahead and smack him for being a rude little shit. After you do that, though, you should also give up hope of ever dating anyone remotely resembling Christie Brinkley (unless you are talented and/or famous).
Realistically speaking, though, these are things you already know. Take me, for instance. I’m fat. I know it. At a soccer practice some kid’s 3-yr-old sister comes over and says to me, “you have a BIG belly”. The kid’s mom, mortified, grabbed her daughter and started to scold her. The kid wasn’t doing anything wrong, she was just being honest. I told her mom “it’s okay, it’s not a secret” and she chuckled and relaxed a little.
The point is to not let it get to you. You know you’re ugly, or fat, or an asshole. I’ve never actually been called an asshole by a little kid, but I’ve seen it in their eyes. They’re thinking it, and the only reason they don’t say it is because they know they’ll get in trouble. Regardless, it’s true - I am, at times, a complete asshole. Especially to little kids, who are easy targets because they can’t really fight back.
Don’t fight the truth. Just admit it to yourself, embrace it and move on. One final example… My son (10 yrs old) was explaining to me something they’d been doing in art class, where they drew a portrait without looking at the page or lifting the pencil. He asked me if he could draw me and I told him no. He asked why not, and I answered “because I’m pretty ugly”. His response… “No, daddy, this would just be your face.” You know what I took away from it? My son thinks I’m a pretty good-looking guy. From the neck up.
